Weather Vane

"Then, what is to be done?" said he. "These reports are abroad, --am I to do nothing to contradict them? Am I to go about smiling and content with all this talk about you, passing from one idle gossip to another?"

"I'm afraid so. I'm very sorry, for I never meant you to have know anything about it, and I can see now how it must distress you. But surely when nothing more happens, and nothing comes of what has happened, the wonder and the gossip must die away? I know you believe every word I have said, and that you trust me, papa. Please , for my sake, be patient with all this gossip and cackle."

"It will try me hard, Molly," said he.

"For my sake, papa!"

"I don't see what else I can do," replied he moodily, "unless I get hold of Preston."

"That would be the worst of all. That would make a talk...."

"That is true. A quarrel...which drags a woman's name into notice is to be avoided at any cost....Then, I suppose, I must yield to your wishes and let this scandal wear itself out without any notice from me?"

"What else can you do under the circumstances?"

"Ay; what else indeed? How shall you bear it?"

For an instant the quick hot tears sprang to her eyes; to have everybody--all her world thinking evil of her, did seem hard to a girl who had never thought or said an unkind thing to them. But she smiled as she made answer,--

"It's like tooth-drawing, it will be over some time. It would be much worse if I had really been doing wrong."

~Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskil

These words came to my mind this morning. They resemble the two sides of my soul, and Molly's sweet submission is an amazing and inspiring thing. I find myself wanting to charge in and set to right things that have been thrown askew, just like Molly's father did. Those words, "how will you endure it" ring through my mind so often. I struggle between wild and frantic explanations and passive, almost pathetic, denial, hoping that by ignoring it (but not quite in the graceful way Molly did) it will all fade, and I can forget.

But Molly had a better way. "It's like tooth-drawing, it will be over some time." While she knew it would be horribly painful, the fact was, eventually that pain would be no more, and the empty place would serve as a reminder of things past, and perhaps teach a lesson.

And what Molly subsequently went through, I think, was worse than any physical pain.

But she stood firm, knowing that what she was doing was right. And while she did no wrong, and stood in place for another who had, she endured the unjust punishment so patiently. And why did she? Because she loved the one to blame so deeply and so well that she couldn't bear the thought of causing them pain.

Through the winds of oppression, Molly stood firm. Despite the unjust scorn and incivility on all sides, nothing stopped her from mingling with those she regarded as friends, and treating them as she always had. Her weather vane did not indicate the direction of the wind, but the direction of her heart, and it never wavered.

To be so steadfast is a virtue worthy of obtaining, and I hope to say some day that my weather vane has ceased to be spun around by every slight breeze that chances by.