and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.'

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.'

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like

grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.'

666

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Incline your ear,

...

and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.'"

He repeated that last phrase again and again, so that she must overhear: "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.'

*

*

*

*

*

"Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord.'"

And surely it was to lend her courage on her entrance into the dark valley, that his voice now became even more solemn and

strenuous:

"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.""

Here there was a longer pause, and Agnes opened her eyes

and looked languidly around, as if seeking some one. Alison instantly bent down towards her.

"What is it, dear?”

Her eyes were still looking wearily for what she could not find. "Where-is-he?" she asked.

"Do you mean Ludovick?" Alison said—and her sister's eyes plainly answered yes.

She went hastily down-stairs and brought Ludovick up and into the room. When he came to the bedside, he instinctively took the dying girl's hand in his, for she was too weak to raise it. And then she seemed to try to say something-but was unable.

"I know," said he, stooping over her, "I know what you wish to say to me. It is what you said last night. And you want me to make a promise? Well, then, I do: you need not be afraid!" Her last look was directed towards his eyes; and it was a look of gratitude and kindness, of assurance and peace. He was still holding her hand when the change came; and the gentle, loving spirit passed quite quietly away, almost without a struggle.

It was the strong, resonant voice of the Minister that broke the hushed silence.

"Let us give praise to the Most High that He has seen fit to take another lamb into His fold."

And when he knelt down, and as the others knelt down-the two servants having come unbidden into the room-if the women were sobbing and crying, no tremor of emotion broke the clear tones of this old man's declaration of his acquiescence in the Divine will. What to him were the sorrows of this transitory life but as snow-flakes beating against the impregnable armor of his faith in the heavenly wisdom and mercy? Nay, this was no supplication, but rather a strenuous resignation. She who had been taken from them had been spared the trials and temptations and afflictions of years, and had entered early into the joy of her Lord. Why should we mourn, he said (almost as if addressing those grief-stricken relatives and friends) that she had won to her eternal rest a little while before others who had still to toil and fret in these earthly bonds, until the happy moment of their release should come? Death had been conquered; their young kinswoman had been raised to everlasting life; to God be all the praise! It was a devout and sincere thanksgiving that the Minister poured forth, in measured, earnest, impressive sentences;

but perhaps they had not all attained to his lofty and resolute disregard of the sufferings and tribulations of this brief moment of human existence; indeed, when the news got bruited abroad that night, there was more than one sad heart in the town, for the gentle, affectionate, frail-constitutioned girl had made many friends, even in this austere Kirk o' Shields.

CHAPTER XXIV.

HOMEWARD.

Of course Ludovick and Alison had to wait for the funeral; but he did not choose that she should remain in Kirk o' Shields; he took her through to Edinburgh, under pretence of getting proper mourning for her; and there she was most kindly received by the Balwhinnans, who did what they could to assuage her allabsorbing grief. There also Ludovick had abundant opportunity of talking over his present circumstances with his old friend.

"I shall be glad when I get her finally and forever away from that place," he said. "It is not the right atmosphere for her; it never could have been. Naturally she is a most blithe and good-humored girl, alert and merry, quite contented with everything, nothing making her so happy as seeing those round about her in full enjoyment. She is far too quick-witted, she has too much common-sense, to believe in the gospel of useless renunciation to believe in the efficacy of perpetual little martyrdoms— to measure your chance of heaven by the number of groans and sighs you can crowd into an afternoon-"

"My good friend," remonstrated Balwhinnan, smiling and shaking his head, "you will never understand those people."

"I understand them as far as I have seen them," the younger man said, confidently. "And what I have observed in them is plenty of faith, and plenty of hope, but not the fifteenth part of a grain of charity. Oh, I can tell you they let me know pretty clearly that I was a leper, and to be shunned; and what's more, Alison saw it too-though she didn't say anything; if it had not been for this great trouble occupying her entirely, I fancy she might have given a certain Mr. Cowan a bit of her mind. Not that it mattered to me; it amused me in a way. But the check

of some people! Of course they have all the religion, and all the conscience, that exist among the sons of men; and the fashion in which they have secured a monopoly of the good things in the next world is just beautiful to behold. It seems to me, Balwhinnan, you want a modern apostle to go preaching through some of your South of Scotland smaller towns; and I could furnish him with a text for his sermons-Beware of spiritual pride."

"At all events," the advocate said, "you are better satisfied now that you did not go to law in order to find out where the young lady was."

"We did not appeal to the law; we broke it," Ludovick said, simply. "If that rascal of a lad had not made a most outrageous, violent, and unprovoked attack on an unoffending divinity student, I don't see how we ever could have found out where she was." "But it will be all the easier for you now to make friends with the old Minister before you go back home-that is what your wife seems chiefly anxious about at present."

"I know," said the younger man, rather gloomily. “And I don't see much chance of it. When I first heard of that poor girl's illness, I thought it might offer a way towards some kind of reconciliation; but I am not so sure now. And I know Alison will be fretting over her father's loneliness. His loneliness! His loneliness seems to me merely the isolation of pride. Of course I admit that there is something fine in the contempt or indifference he seems to have for anything that may happen to him in this world; there is something fine in that; it is worthy of Epictetus, though I suppose he would call it ordinary Christian fortitude. I can see what is fine in that; even if it leads him to disregard the claims of natural affection, even if he refuses to his only daughter the trifle of sympathy and consideration she is. begging and praying for in her heart. Well, I will do what I can towards making matters smooth. I will go to him and offer him my hand; I will ask him for the briefest message of kindness that I may take to Alison-"

"Don't you think," his friend said, gently, "that it might be better for her to go herself?"

"She shall not do anything of the sort!" Ludovick said, with a flash in his eyes. "She has suffered enough already; she shall suffer no more, in that quarter. Do you think I want a jury of elders and elders' wives to come together to consider her conduct?

Do

you think she is to go as a suppliant to them? Not while I can prevent it!"

"It was only a suggestion of mine," the lawyer said, goodnaturedly. "You see, you are not the most diplomatic person in the world, Macdonell; and you might go with some prejudice in your mind, some resentment, perhaps, over what happened formerly; and that might make things different. Then, again, you must remember the natural relation between father and daughter." "What did he do before?" the younger man demanded. "He handed her over to the custody of Mrs. Cowan. I suppose she was not deemed worthy to be in his sight. She was sent away to be purified of her iniquities and transgressions; and then she was to come back a contrite penitent. And you see she is not a contrite penitent yet. If she went all by herself to that house, she might have her sins and enormities flaunted before her again. She might have the sermon that was preached at her from the pulpit repeated for her benefit. She might have that sickening hypocrite of a woman whining over her as a brand not yet plucked from the burning. Well, then, I say 'No, thank you,' to all that. She is not going to encounter anything of the kind. I will make it my business to see she shall not."

The advocate scratched his head.

"Well, I don't see what the mischief is to come of it all," he said, with a perplexed air. "I wish both of you were back in Lochaber, leaving time to smooth away these differences. But if you go to this old man with such an antagonism of feeling-"

Ludovick Macdonell-who was really a most good - humored and generous-spirited kind of person, when he was not harassed by these bitter memories-suddenly looked up, and said with a frank smile,

"You need not be afraid of that, Balwhinnan. I give you my word that when I go to see the old Minister I will abase myself down to the ground-for Alison's sake."

The day of the funeral was dark and grim. Over the thick smoke-laden atmosphere of Kirk o' Shields hung leaden skies; and a continuous rain poured into the melancholy streets. The funeral service, as is customary in Scotland, took place in the house, the friends and relatives assembling in the parlor, while the coffin lay in the room above. The Minister, worn of face and sad-eyed, but still with the same air of lofty resignation and