"Indeed I would, papa."
"Then we should be reduced to a present nothing. The Melbourne
property brings in very little, nothing, in fact, without a
master on the spot to manage it. I dare say some trifling rent
might be obtained for it; and the sale of Magnolia and its
corresponding estates would fetch something if the times
admitted of sale. You know it is impossible now. We should
have scarce anything to live upon, my child, to satisfy your
philanthropy."
"Papa, there was a poor woman once, who was reduced to a
handful of meal and a little oil as her whole household store.
Yet at the command of the prophet of the Lord, she took some
of it to make bread for him, before she fed herself and her
child - both of them starving. And the Lord never let her want
either meal or oil all the time the famine lasted."
"Miracles do not come for people's help, now-a-days, Daisy."
"Papa, yes! God's ways may change, His ways of doing the same
thing; but He does not change. He takes care of His people now
without miracles, all the same."
"All the same!" repeated papa. "That is an English
expression, that you have caught from your friends."
We were both silent for a while.
"Daisy, my child, your views of all these things will alter by
and by. You are young, and have slight experience of the
things of life. By and by, you will find it a much more
serious thing than you imagine to be without wealth. You would
find a great difference between the heiress and the penniless
girl; a difference you would not like."
"Papa," I said slowly, - "I hope you will not be displeased or
hurt, - but I want it to be known, and I wanted you should
know, that I never shall be an heiress. I never will be rich
in that way. I will take what God gives me."
"First throwing away what He has given you," said papa.
"I do not think He has given it, papa."
"What then? have we stolen it?"
"Not we; but those who have been before us, papa; they stole
it. All we are doing, is keeping that which is not ours."
"Enough too, I should think!" said papa. "You will alter your
mind, Daisy, about all this, if you wait a while. What do you
think your mother would say to it?"
"I know, papa," I said softly. "But I cannot help thinking of
what will be said somewhere else. I would like that you and I,
and she too, might have that 'Well done' - which the Lord
Jesus will give to some. And when they enter into the joy of
their Lord, will they care what His service has cost them?"