Morning and night Jin watered that homely box of mould in vain. The dying plants no more revived for her care, than did her darling for all the tears she shed on his behalf. They wanted for nothing now that money could supply,--Kate Cremorne would have taken care of that; but Jin's friends, directly they found out her hiding-place, had rallied round her with kindly offers of sympathy and assistance. Mrs. Lascelles, indeed, wished to bring mother and child home to No. 40 at once, but the latter was too ill to be moved; and kind-hearted Rose, in spite of her present happiness, felt sadly vexed to think that the former could refuse persistently to see her now, denying herself to every human being except Miss Cremorne. With all her resolution it was more than Jin could endure to be reminded of the happiness she had once so nearly grasped, and in her dull, forlorn misery she told herself it was better to hide her weary head, and wait in hopeless apathy for the end. She had gone through those cruel changes that seem so hard to bear till the one fearful certainty teaches us they were merciful preparations for that which we should not otherwise have found strength to encounter. She had watched the doctor's face day by day, and hung on his grave, sympathising accents, believing now that the "shade better" meant recovery, now that the "trifle worse" was but the necessary ebb and flow of disease; anon, lifted to unreasonable happiness from darkest despair, because when her ignorance thought all was over, the man of science still found anchorage for a new ephemeral hope. Alas! that henceforth there must be no more vicissitude, no more uncertainty! The last strand of the cable was obviously parting--the little lamp was flickering with the gleam that so surely goes out in utter darkness--the simple flower, drooping and dying, was to bloom never more but in the gardens of God! Even Kate, who seldom failed to find a word of comfort at the worst, to discover seeds of encouragement in the most alarming symptoms, had turned from the boy's bed to-day with a quiver over all her bonny face, that showed how hard it was for her to keep back the tears. Jin caught her friend's hand, and pressed it to her breast. "God bless you, dear!" she gasped. "Whatever happens, you've been an angel from heaven to me!" The other dropped her veil till it covered brow and face. "My poor dear!" she answered, with a strange tremor in her voice, "the angels in heaven are like _him_, not _me_. If it _must_ be--if you _are_ to lose him--try and think of him as one of them--try and hope you and I may get to see him there at last, even if we have to sit waiting for ages on a stone outside the gate."