"Is it Christian Endeavor?" asked Elizabeth, with her eyes sparkling.
"Something like that, I believe. Good morning, Mrs. Schuyler. Lovely day,
isn't it? for December. No, I haven't been very well. No, I haven't been
out for several weeks. Charming service, wasn't it? The Doctor grows more
and more brilliant, I think. Mrs. Schuyler, this is my granddaughter,
Elizabeth. She has just come from the West to live with me and complete
her education. I want her to know your daughter."
Elizabeth passed through the introduction as a necessary interruption to
her train of thought. As soon as they were out upon the street again she
began.
"Grandmother, was God in that church?"
"Dear me, child! What strange questions you do ask! Why, yes, I suppose He
was, in a way. God is everywhere, they say. Elizabeth, you had better wait
until you can talk these things over with a person whose business it is. I
never understood much about such questions. You look very nice in that
shade of green, and your hat is most becoming."
So was the question closed for the time, but not put out of the girl's
thoughts.
The Christmas time had come and passed without much notice on the part of
Elizabeth, to whom it was an unfamiliar festival. Mrs. Bailey had
suggested that she select some gifts for her "relatives on her mother's
side," as she always spoke of the Bradys; and Elizabeth had done so with
alacrity, showing good sense and good taste in her choice of gifts, as
well as deference to the wishes of the one to whom they were to be given.
Lizzie, it is true, was a trifle disappointed that her present was not a
gold watch or a diamond ring; but on the whole she was pleased.
A new world opened before the feet of Elizabeth. School was filled with
wonder and delight. She absorbed knowledge like a sponge in the water, and
rushed eagerly from one study to another, showing marvellous aptitude, and
bringing to every task the enthusiasm of a pleasure-seeker.
Her growing intimacy with Jesus Christ through the influence of the pastor
who knew Him so well caused her joy in life to blossom into loveliness.
The Bible she studied with the zest of a novel-reader, for it was a novel
to her; and daily, as she took her rides in the park on Robin, now groomed
into self-respecting sleekness, and wearing a saddle of the latest
approved style, she marvelled over God's wonderful goodness to her, just a
maid of the wilderness.
So passed three beautiful years in peace and quietness. Every month
Elizabeth went to see her Grandmother Brady, and to take some charming
little gifts; and every summer she and her Grandmother Bailey spent at
some of the fashionable watering-places or in the Catskills, the girl
always dressed in most exquisite taste, and as sweetly indifferent to her
clothes as a bird of the air or a flower of the field.