The Awakening of Helena Richie
Page 213"Yes?"
She tried to smile; then spread her handkerchief on her knee, and
folded it over and over with elaborate self-control. "Dr. King
thinks--I ought not to have him. He says," she stopped; the effort to
repeat William King's exact words drove the color out of her face. "He
says he made a mistake in advising you to give David to me. He
thinks--"
she caught her breath with a gasp;--"I am not to be trusted to--to
bring him up." She trembled with relief; the worst was over. She had
kept her promise, to the letter. Now she would begin to fight for her
child: "You will let me have him? You will!--Please say you will, Dr.
"Why does Dr. King think you are not to be trusted?" said Dr.
Lavendar.
"Because," she said, gathering up all her courage, "he thinks that I--
that David ought to be brought up by some one more--more religious, I
suppose, than I am. I know I'm not very religious. Not as good as
everybody in Old Chester; but I will bring him up just as you want me
to! Any way at all you want me to. I will go to church regularly;
truly I will, Dr. Lavendar; truly!"
Dr. Lavendar was silent. The lump of coal in the grate suddenly split
and fell apart; there was a crackling leap of flames, and from between
out into the room.
"You will let me have him, won't you? You said you would! If you take
him away from me--"
"Well?"
She looked at him dumbly; her chin shook.
"The care of a child is sometimes a great burden; have you considered
that?"
"Nothing would be a burden if I did it for David!"
"It might involve much sacrifice."
"I have sacrificed everything for him!" she burst out.
"There was something," she said evasively, "that I wanted to do very
much; something that would have made me--happier. But I couldn't if I
kept David; so I gave it up."
Dr. Lavendar ruminated. "You wanted David the most?"
"Yes?" she said passionately.
"Then it was a choice, not a sacrifice, wasn't it, my dear? No doubt
you would make sacrifices for him, only in this matter you chose what
you wanted most, And your choice was for your own happiness I take
it,--not his?"