Expectation Corner Emily Steele Elliott (1892)

CONFLICTING DUTIES
once “—a vivid reminiscence of her observation
to Dr. Elwin not an hour before
came to Mrs. Stanton’s mind—“and she
lets them feel she trusts them (and that is
what Mary is worthy of feeling), so that
they get to strive to please from knowing
and loving, both. I’d like Mary to get this
place. I told Mrs. Burnside about her
faults; and she said that, considering we
thought well of her character and her willingness
and truth, if you would recommend
her as what you really considered
suitable for the place, she would give her a
trial. She would want her to-morrow, her
own housemaid having been called away
suddenly to a dying mother. I said that I
felt sure you would do your best for her.”
“That I most certainly will,” was the
answer; and before the writing of the note
which was was to decide her fate, Mary
was summoned for a private interview
with Mrs. Stanton, who, after some kindly
counsel pressing home the matron’s advice,
closed with the words, “And now, Mary,
remember—let us both remember”—and,
if Mary had known the truth, a freshly
roused remembrance of her interview with
Dr. Elwin lay behind the inclusive clause
in Mrs. Stanton’s valediction, “that there is
often as much self-will in wanting to do
our earthly master’s work, as well as our
heavenly Master’s, in our own way, as in
wanting to choose our own way altogether.
It is not work for Him, if He has not put it
for us to do.”
And then, going to her own private
drawer, Mrs. Stanton took out a neat
illuminated card, with a bright ribbon suspender,
and with the inscription:
“Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”
As she gave it to the girl, whose eyes
moistened, partly at the kindly touch of the
hand on her shoulder, and partly with a
sense of the motherly sympathy with
which her prospects and character were regarded
by her friend, she added, “There,
dear child; put that up over your bedside,
and every morning ask God to let you see
His ordering for the day in the orders of
the master and mistress whom He has
placed over you. And ask Him to enable
you to do all—even the smallest things—
from the one motive of love to Him who
gave His life for you.”
* * * * * * *
“I wonder whether Mary in the least
suspected that, while my little sermon was
addressed to her, it was far more spoken to
myself?” thought Mrs. Stanton, as she
walked up the shady avenue of chestnuts
which brought her to her own door.
“It seems to me as if I had passed
through an education since I went out this
morning; as if a wholly new view of life
had come to me; as if I must get time to
sort my ideas of service in a perfectly
different light from that of three hours ago.
I should like to write down every word
spoken by Dr. Elwin of ‘life without worry,
work without friction.’ He does not speak
lightly, and he meant what he said. Much
as I generally miss them, I am glad the
schoolroom party are out for the day, so
that I may think it all over by myself.”
An unusual quiet reigned in the house.
The young people, with their governess,
were celebrating a birthday by a longpromised
expedition to a friend’s park at a
distance. The two nursery vassals, not yet
awakened from their before-dinner sleep,
demanded no attention; and, after a quiet
visit to the chamber in which they lay, Mrs.
Stanton descended to her morning room.
Everything was as she had left it. The papers
on her Davenport had not been disturbed,
and for several minutes after taking
her usual seat, she refrained from laying a
finger on them. By some only partially
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