“After while–and one intends
To be gentler to his friends–
To walk with them in the hush
Of still evenings, o’er the plush
Of home leading fields, and stand
Long at parting, hand in hand:
One, in time, will joy to take
New resolves for some one’s sake,
And wear them the look that lies
Clear and pure in other eyes–
He will soothe and reconcile
His own conscience–after while.”
Just after the death of Queen Victoria this beautiful story was told: She was visiting the wounded soldiers who had been brought back from South Africa. She was specially distressed by the suffering of one man who had been terribly hurt.
“Is there nothing that I can do for you?” asked the Queen.
The soldier replied, “Nothing, Your Majesty, unless you would thank my nurse for her great kindness to me.”
The Queen turned to the nurse, and said, with tears in her eyes, “I do thank you with all my heart for your kindness to this poor wounded son of mine.”
There was something exquisitely beautiful in the soldier’s unselfish thought of the nurse who had been such a comfort to him in his sufferings. His gratitude was so great that he sought even the Queen’s honouring rather for her than for himself.
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