CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 24
When Dr. Bruce and the bishop entered the Sterling mansion, everything in the usually well-appointed household was in the greatest confusion and terror. The great rooms downstairs were empty, but overhead they heard hurried footsteps and confused noises. One of the servants ran down the grand staircase with a look of horror on her face just as the bishop and Dr. Bruce started to go up.
“Miss Felicia is with Mrs. Sterling,” the servant stammered in answer to a question, and then burst into a hysterical cry and ran through the drawing room and out of doors.
At the top of the staircase, Felicia met the two men. She walked up to Dr. Bruce at once and put both hands in his. The bishop then laid his hand on her head, and the three stood there a moment in perfect silence. The bishop had known Felicia since she was a little child. He was the first to break the silence.
“The God of all mercy be with you, Felicia, in this dark hour. Your mother—” The Bishop hesitated.
Answering the bishop’s unfinished query, Felicia turned and went back into her mother’s room. But both men were struck with her wonderful calm as they followed her.
Rose lay with her arms outstretched upon the bed. Clara, the nurse, sat with her head covered, sobbing in spasms of terror. And Mrs. Sterling lay there so still that the bishop was deceived at first. Then, as the great truth broke upon him, he staggered.
The next moment the house below was in a tumult. Almost at the same time, the doctor came in together with a police officer, both summoned by frightened servants. Four or five newspaper correspondents and several neighbors came in with them. Dr. Bruce and the bishop met this miscellaneous crowd at the head of the stairs and succeeded in excluding all except those whose presence was necessary. With these the two friends learned all the facts ever known about the “Sterling tragedy,” as the papers in their sensational accounts the next day called it.
Mr. Sterling had gone into his room that evening about nine o’clock, and that was the last seen of him until, a half hour later, a shot was heard in the room. A servant who was in the hall ran into the room and found him dead on the floor, killed by his own hand. Felicia at the time was sitting by her mother. Rose was reading in the library. She ran upstairs, saw her father as the servants lifted him to the couch, and then ran screaming into her mother’s room, where she flung herself down at the foot of the bed in a swoon. Mrs. Sterling at first fainted at the shock, then rallied with a wonderful swiftness and sent for Dr. Bruce. She then insisted on seeing her husband. In spite of Felicia’s efforts, she compelled Clara to support her while she crossed the hall and entered the room where her husband lay. She looked upon him with a tearless face, went back to her own room, was laid on her bed, and as Dr. Bruce and the bishop entered the house, she died, with Felicia bending over her and Rose still lying senseless at her feet.
When the facts regarding Mr. Sterling’s business affairs were disclosed, they learned that for some time he had been facing financial ruin owing to certain speculations that swept his supposed wealth into complete destruction. Sunday afternoon, he received news that proved to him beyond a doubt the fact of his utter ruin. The very house that he called his, the chairs in which he sat, his carriage, the dishes from which he ate, all rested on a tissue of deceit and speculation that had no foundation in real values. As soon as the truth that he was practically a beggar had dawned upon him, he saw no escape from suicide. Mrs. Sterling’s death was the result of the shock. She had not been taken into her husband’s confidence for years, but she knew that the source of his wealth was precarious. When she was carried into the room where her husband lay, her feeble tenement could not hold the spirit, and it gave up the ghost, torn and weakened by long years of suffering and disappointment.
The horror of events stupefied Rose for weeks. She lay unmoved by sympathy or any effort to rally. Even when she was told that she and Felicia must leave the house and be dependent on relatives and friends, she didn’t seem to understand what it meant.
Felicia, however, was fully conscious of the facts. Mrs. Winslow and Rachel left Raymond and came to Chicago as soon as the terrible news had reached them, and they now planned for Rose and Felicia’s future.
So in a few weeks Rose and Felicia found themselves a part of the Winslow family in Raymond. It was a bitter experience for Rose, but there was nothing else for her to do, and she accepted the inevitable, brooding over the great change in her life and in many ways adding to Felicia’s and Rachel’s burden.
Felicia at once found herself in an atmosphere of discipleship that was like heaven to her in its revelation of companionship. In the spirit of her new life, she insisted upon helping in the housework at her aunt’s, and in a short time demonstrated her ability as a cook so clearly that Virginia suggested that she take charge of the cooking at the Rectangle.
Felicia entered upon this work with the keenest pleasure. For the first time in her life, she had the delight of doing something of value for the happiness of others. Her resolve to do everything after asking, “What would Jesus do?” touched her deepest nature. She developed and strengthened wonderfully.
Even Mrs. Winslow was obliged to acknowledge the great usefulness and beauty of Felicia’s character. The aunt looked with astonishment upon her niece, this city-bred girl, reared in the greatest luxury, the daughter of a millionaire, now walking around in her kitchen, her arms covered with flour and occasionally a streak of it on her nose, for Felicia at first had a habit of rubbing her nose forgetfully when she was trying to remember some recipe, mixing various dishes with the greatest interest in their results, washing up pans and kettles, and doing the ordinary work of a servant in the Winslow kitchen and at the rooms at the Rectangle Settlement.
Felicia grew into the affections of Raymond people and the Rectangle folks, among whom she was known as the “angel cook.” Underneath the structure of the beautiful character she was growing, always rested her promise made in Nazareth Avenue Church. “What would Jesus do?”