"I took the scrap, so pitifully small, Smoothed out the crumpled edges, and began. And as I wrote--oh, marvel unforeseen!-- A hand invisible, divine, joined on Another scrap, and smoothed the seam, and made It ready for my pen. "And thus, as days Go on, the page still grows. 'Tis not the one I fain would have; 'tis seamed and tempest-stained And blurred with many tears. 'Tis not the one I planned; but as I look at it I know It is the one my Father meant for me, And so--because He bids me--still I write." Richard De Jarnette laid the picture down gently and went outside. He felt bewildered. It was a moonless, starless night. For an hour or more a glowing spark moved back and forth, back and forth, in the rose garden his mother had planted. CHAPTER XXVI FACE TO FACE It was weeks before Margaret emerged from the shadow of death that fell upon her that day in the court-room. When she did she looked like one of the shades. The fever had wrought sad ravages. "It's too bad!" whispered Maria Van Dorn to Bess the first time she saw her. "A woman has lost all when she's lost her beauty." And she glanced with a degree of satisfaction at her own fair reflection. The contrast was striking. Maria had never been in better flesh or color. "I hadn't thought of that," said Bess. "I'm so glad to see her alive." But if Margaret's cheeks were hollow and the rose tint gone, the light that shone above them was undimmed. From their deep setting her great eyes glowed like smouldering coals. They kept her at the hospital as long as they could, delaying the home-coming upon every possible pretext. When at last she came the house was swept and garnished but very empty. She went from room to room. They had removed every trace of a child's presence as people do when the dead are laid away. "I want every thing put back in its place," she said,--"his bed, his chair, his playthings. They must be ready for him when he comes." Then, as Mrs. Pennybacker looked up with quick apprehension, she said with a smile, "No, it is not fever; it is faith. I thought it all out while I was at the hospital. God will never let me lose my child."