were fixed
expectantly and longingly on that day; and in connection with it, it
would be wrong to say that he was without ambition, for he had a very
earnest and burning desire, not only for rank but for kingship by and
by: he wanted to be crowned with the crown of righteousness.

Angus Home knew well that to wear that crown in all its lustre in the
future, it must begin to fit his head down here; and he also knew that
those who put on such crowns on earth, find them, as their great and
blessed Master did before them, made of thorns.

It is no wonder then that the man with so simple a faith, so Christ-like
a spirit, should not be greatly concerned by his wife's story of the
night before. He did not absolutely forget it, for he pondered over it
as he wended his way to the attic where the orphan Swifts lived. He felt
sorry for Lottie as he thought of it, and he hoped she would soon cease
to have such uncharitable ideas of her half-brothers; he himself could
not even entertain the notion that any fraud had been committed; he felt
rather shocked that his Lottie should dwell on so base a thing.

There is no doubt that this saint-like man could be a tiny bit
provoking; and so his wife felt when he left her without again alluding
to their last night's talk. After all it is wives and mothers who feel
the sharpest stings of poverty. Charlotte had known what to be poor
meant all her life, as a child, as a young girl, as a wife, as a mother,
but she had been brave enough about it, indifferent enough to it, until
the children came; but from the day her mother's story was told her, and
she knew how close the wings of earthly comfort had swept her by,
discontent came into her heart. Discontent came in and grew with the
birth of each fresh little one. She might have made her children so
comfortable, she could do so little with them; they were pretty children
too. It went to her heart to see their beauty disfigured in ugly
clothes; she used to look the other way with a great jealous pang, when
she saw children not nearly so beautiful as hers, yet looked at and
admired because of their bright fresh colors and dainty little
surroundings. But poverty brought worse stings than these. The small
house in Kentish Town was hot and stifling in the months of July and
August; the children grew pale and pined for the fresh country air which
could not be given to them; Lottie herself grew weak and languid, and
her husband's pale face seemed to gr