In his evening it was her morning, and he prayed that God's angels
should comfort and strengthen her and help her to carry the burden of
the day. It is only those who can do nothing who find nothing to do,
and Nan was no idler; she had come to her work as Christ came to his,
not to be ministered unto but to minister.
The months went by swiftly, and through hard work and much study, and
many sights of pain and sorrow, this young student of the business of
healing made her way to the day when some of her companions announced
with melancholy truth that they had finished their studies. They were
pretty sure to be accused of having had no right to begin them, or to
take such trusts and responsibilities into their hands. But Nan and
many of her friends had gladly climbed the hill so far, and with every
year's ascent had been thankful for the wider horizon which was spread
for their eyes to see.
Dr. Leslie in his quiet study almost wished that he were beginning
life again, and sometimes in the twilight, or in long and lonely
country drives, believed himself ready to go back twenty years so that
he could follow Nan into the future and watch her successes. But he
always smiled afterward at such a thought. Twenty years would carry
him back to the time when his ward was a little child, not long before
she came to live with him. It was best as God had planned it. Nobody
had watched the child's development as he had done, or her growth of
character, of which all the performances of her later years would be
to him only the unnecessary proofs and evidences.
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