Mrs Macmichel's eyes were turned uneasily upon the door at which the servant had suddenly appeared. "Mrs Pyman is afraid she can't wait any longer now, ma'am. She wouldn't keep you more'n a minute, if you could speak to her, she says." Mrs Macmichel put out a hand and gripped the arm of her hostess as she rose from her seat--"Don't--" she said imploringly, "don't go! We are so--so comfortable." She could not but be flattered, although she could not help being surprised. "Tell Anne Pyman, I am sorry," Mrs Jones said to the maid, who, however, stood her ground. "And cook say, the butcher have been, and can she speak to you for a minute, ma'am?" she asked. The butcher! He who had brought the terrible news. In her eagerness Mrs Macmichel turned to the servant standing at the door. "No," she said, "certainly not! Your mistress cannot come." The miserable, not to be repressed chuckle of laughter took her again as the girl withdrew. "You must think me strange," she said to the lady, gazing at her with astonished eyes. "But I _am_ strange. We are getting on so well. I don't like to be interrupted. Go on. You were saying----?" "About the bond of sympathy: our only children. I'm afraid the bread-and-butter is too substantial; will you try a bun instead?" "It is delicious!" Flora Macmichel said, and put the slice again to her lips, and again placed it unbitten in the saucer. "There is," said the clergyman's wife in a lowered tone, "something awful--I mean in the sense of being full of awe--in being entrusted by God with only one child. Don't you think that much more will be required of us, and of them--our dear children?" Mrs Macmichel had not thought of it in that light. "You see, we have no others to share our devotion, to distract our attention. Our only one should be, as near as a mother can make him so, perfect." "Wouldn't that make him a little--well--uninteresting?" Mrs Jones's eyes blazed reproof as she answered: "Freddy is not uninteresting," she said. Presently her voice dropped to a hushed whisper. "Then, there is the thought"--she said--"the haunting thought--should he die--should it please God to take him from us, we lose our all. All!" she repeated; and the word, spoken in that tone of heavy solemnity, dropped like lead upon Flora Macmichel's heart. If she lost Connell there was still, in her case, her husband; but she thought of the husband of Mrs Jones, and was silent.