For Gold or Soul? Part 44

Faith looked up eagerly, but she could not frame her question.

"She has been praying, she tells me," said Miss Fairbanks, continuing, "and she says it is her duty to give Jim up, for to live with him would be wicked when he does not love her."

Faith heard only the first words that Miss Fairbanks had spoken. Poor Maggie had been praying; then her heart was softened.

"She is out, you know, and free as air," continued Miss Fairbanks, "but she is not coming back to the store. Mr. Denton has made her an allowance."

"And you, Miss Fairbanks?" asked Faith, very softly. "Are you praying, too, or is it not yet the Lord's time? I am anxious for you to be happy in the 'light of His countenance.'"

Miss Fairbanks laid her hand upon the young girl's shoulder.

"Thank G.o.d," she said devoutly; "at last I am praying."

As Faith moved on toward her counter she saw Miss Jones waiting for her.

There was something in the girl's manner that struck Faith as unfamiliar.

"Miss Marvin," she said, the moment Faith stepped behind the counter, "I am a rude, treacherous person, and I have wronged you cruelly! Have you the grace in your heart to forgive a traitor?"

Faith grasped her hand, while the tears sprang to her eyes.

"There is nothing to forgive, dear Miss Jones," she said, gently. "We have been sisters from the first, only you did not understand it; but tell me, is it through Miss Fairbanks that you feel so differently?"

"Partly through her and partly through Mag Brady," was the honest answer. "Mag has told me how you talked to her, and she also told me what her husband said, that it was through your influence that he was now willing to own her."

"Did Mr. Denton say that?" asked Faith, speaking slowly.

"He did," said Miss Jones, promptly, "and Mag just blesses you for it."

If Faith had felt one misgiving over that particular action, it vanished now like a bit of vapor.

Mag "blessed" her for the words that had hurt her so to speak. Surely there was balm for all wounds, even those which burned the deepest.

Faith's morning was the happiest she had ever known in the store and at the luncheon hour, as she went to the cloak-room, she had but one wish in her heart, and that was for the conversion of wicked Lou Willis.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

LOU IS CAUGHT AT LAST.

As Faith pa.s.sed Mr. Denton's office on the way to the cloak-room she heard a woman's voice raised to a very high pitch, and immediately recognized it as belonging to Miss Willis.

She had hardly had time to wonder what had occurred, when the door flew open and she had a good look right straight into the office.

Ben Tyler, the detective, was standing with his hand on the door and a very ugly expression on his face, while a few feet further back stood Mr. Denton, apparently trying to reason with the infuriated woman.

One glance was enough to tell Faith what had happened. Lou had been stealing again, and the detective had caught her.

For a moment the young girl hardly knew what to do, and in that momentary hesitation she heard what Lou was saying.

"He's a sneak and a liar!" she screamed, pointing at the detective. "He can't prove that I stole anything! I defy him to do it!"

"But the goods were found in your pocket," said Mr. Denton, firmly.

"Oh, that doesn't prove anything," was the girl's quick answer. "It's very easy for any one to put stolen goods in my pocket; it's been done before, and both of you know it!"

"But I saw you take the watch," said the detective, angrily. "So what's the use of denying it any longer!"

Faith was hurrying away now as fast as she could go. She knew it was not her place to interfere in such matters.

"A month ago I might have done so," she whispered to herself, "but now that Mr. Denton is a Christian, he will deal mercifully with her."

When she reached the cloak-room the utmost excitement prevailed, and the first words that Faith heard distinctly were spoken by the "head of stock" in the jewelry department.

"I've suspected her for a long time," she said, a little viciously.

"She's a good-for-nothing, anyway, who isn't above stealing!"

"They say her father was a thief; so it runs in the family, I guess,"

said another voice; "and then, her mother was a bad character; so Lou comes by it honestly!"

"Oh, girls! don't!" cried Faith, who could endure it no longer. "Please don't say such cruel things! It is dreadful to bear them!"

"Well, they are true, so why shouldn't we say them?" asked one.

"She's been caught 'dead to rights,' so what's the use of mincing matters?" said another.

"But does it do any good to bring up all these things?" asked Faith. "If the poor girl 'comes honestly by them,' should we not be charitable even in speaking of her?"

"There is something in that," spoke up a woman that Faith did not know, "It's another case of the 'sins of the fathers being visited upon the children.' If there was nothing else in the world to keep me from believing in a G.o.d, that verse in the Bible would surely do it!"

"Well, I don't need that verse," said another voice, "for the misery and injustice on earth are enough to prove that no G.o.d of love or mercy could possibly have ordained it."

"But don't we make a great deal of the injustice and misery for ourselves?" asked Faith, very soberly; "for instance, hasn't Lou just made a lot of misery for herself? She knew she could not go on stealing forever without being punished."

"She probably couldn't help it," was the hesitating answer. "Perhaps she is a kleptomaniac--you know there are such people."

"Oh, but they are always rich people, who can afford to pay the judge for letting them off easy!" said one of the girls, laughing. "When a poor woman steals she's an out-and-out thief; but when a rich woman steals she's a kleptomaniac."

A laugh followed this explanation, but Faith could not join in it. Her thoughts were too full of the fate which had overtaken Lou, and which she knew was only a natural consequence.

Suddenly there was a scream from the direction of Mr. Denton's office, then another, and another, each more shrill and vibrating.

Without a moment's hesitation every girl in the cloak-room started for the stairs. When they got there they saw a sight that made them pale with horror.

Lou Willis was struggling like a maniac between two officers, who were trying to snap a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.

They were both powerful men, but the girl was resisting them fiercely.