The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment; and the house that is built on the sand must needs fall to ruin at last.
Mr. Skinner received the box with his accustomed composure, though he turned deadly pale. It was an _extra_ordinary coincidence that the box was found in the sandy ground. How it came there he was at a loss to conjecture.
"The less said about it the better," George Paterson remarked, "and you owe this boy a full apology."
"Well, it _is_ possible there is a mistake somewhere. However, we will give the youngster the benefit of the doubt, and send him home to his mother."
"Doubt!" Maggie exclaimed vehemently; "_doubt_! You stole the box, Joe, and hid it in the garden behind your house. You were _seen_ to bury it; you had better make a clean breast of it."
"Oh, spare him, Maggie Chanter!" poor infatuated Mrs. Skinner said. "Joe! Joe!"
Then, with a white face and an expression on it none who saw it will ever forget, Mr. Skinner, with a wave of his long thin hand, left the house.
Nothing more was ever heard of him. The crooked paths of deceit and dishonesty can have but one end, unless by God's grace those paths are forsaken, and the strait and narrow way chosen in their place. Poor Aunt Amelia had indeed reason to rue the day when she had listened to the flattering words of the wily man. He left her with an empty purse, a ruined custom, and a sore heart. But she was now delivered from one who in her folly she had trusted, and there were many who, hearing her story, pitied her, and gave back the custom they had withdrawn.
Another year passed away, and it brought more peaceful times.
Perhaps Patience Paterson's life could not be called sunny or bright; but it is calm and peaceful, and she is the happy wife of a good and noble-hearted man, who had loved her faithfully for many years.
George Paterson was conscious that the deep respect he now felt for his wife would scarcely have been the same had she yielded to his wishes, and, taking it for granted that her husband was dead, had married him while his end was undecided. Patience may well set an example to others in this matter, and her evening-tide light will be clouded by no misgivings and no self reproaches.
She had asked for some token, and it was given. Through the trial of her boy's absence came the blessing of the long-looked-for tidings; and in this, as in many another step of her pilgrimage, she could feel the truth of the words, "To the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."