"
"True, Edward. All that has passed through my mind over and over
again."
"What had we better do?"
"Ah!" sighed Edith, "if we only knew that."
"Shall I send the order, as usual?"
Edith shook her head, saying--
"I'm afraid."
"And I hesitate with the same fear."
"And yet, Edith," said Claire, who, as the provider for the family,
pondered more anxiously the question of ways and means, "what are we
to do? Our income, with Fanny's board added, is but just sufficient.
Take away three hundred dollars a year, and where will we stand? The
thought presses like a leaden weight on my feelings. Debt, or severe
privation, is inevitable. If, with eight hundred dollars, we only
come out even at the end of each year, what will be the result if our
income is suddenly reduced to five hundred?"
"Let us do what is right, Edward," said his wife, laying her hand upon
his arm, and looking into his face in her earnest, peculiar way. Her
voice, though it slightly trembled, had in it a tone of confidence,
which, with the words she had spoken, gave to the wavering heart of
Claire an instant feeling of strength.
"But what is right, Edith?" he asked.
"We know not now," was her reply, "but, if we earnestly desire to do
right, true perceptions will be given."
"A beautiful faith; but oh, how hard to realize!"
"No, Edward, not so very hard.
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