PAGE 4
Her Own People
by
Constance picked up one and opened it at the yellowing title-page. She gave a little cry of surprise. The name written across the page in a fine, dainty script was “Jean Constance Irving,” her mother’s name!
For a moment Constance stood motionless. Then she turned impulsively and hurried downstairs again. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce were still in the sitting room talking to each other in the firelight.
“Oh,” cried Constance excitedly. “I must know, I must ask you. This is my mother’s name, Jean Constance Irving, can it be possible she was your little Jeannie?”
* * * * *
A fortnight later Miss Channing received a letter from Constance.
“I am so happy,” she wrote. “Oh, Miss Channing, I have found ‘mine own people,’ and Heartsease Farm is to be my own, own dear home for always.
“It was such a strange coincidence, no, Aunt Flora says it was Providence, and I believe it was, too. I came here one rainy night, and Aunty put me in my mother’s room, think of it! My own dear mother’s room, and I found her name in a book. And now the mystery is all cleared up, and we are so happy.
“Everything is dear and beautiful, and almost the dearest and most beautiful thing is that I am getting acquainted with my mother, the mother I never knew before. She no longer seems dead to me. I feel that she lives and loves me, and I am learning to know her better every day. I have her room and her books and all her little girlish possessions. When I read her books, with their passages underlined by her hand, I feel as if she were speaking to me. She was very good and sweet, in spite of her one foolish, bitter mistake, and I want to be as much like her as I can.
“I said that this was almost the dearest and most beautiful thing. The very dearest and most beautiful is this–God means something to me now. He means so much! I remember that you said to me that he meant nothing to me because I had no human love in my heart to translate the divine. But I have now, and it has led me to Him.
“I am not going back to Taunton. I have sent in my resignation. I am going to stay home with Aunty and Uncle. It is so sweet to say home and know what it means.
“Aunty says you must come and spend all your next vacation with us. You see, I have lots of vacation plans now, even for a year ahead. After all, there is no need of the blue pills!
“I feel like a new creature, made over from the heart and soul out. I look back with shame and contrition on the old Constance. I want you to forget her and only remember your grateful friend, the new Constance.”