'I know he has not; but I ought to have opened my eyes to it long ago, and I thank you for helping me. There--will you take that manuscript, and keep it out of my way? It has been a great tempter to me. It is finished now, and it might bring in something. But I can have only one thought now--how to make James happier and more at ease.' 'Then, Isabel, I don't think your misfortunes will be misfortunes.' 'To suffer for right principles should give strength for anything,' said Isabel. 'Think what many better women than I have had to endure, when they have had to be ashamed of their husband, not proud of him! Now, I do hope and trust that God will help us, and carry us and the children through with it!' Louis felt that in this frame she was truly fit to cheer and sustain James. How she might endure the actual struggle with penury, he dared not imagine; at present he could only be carried along by her lofty composure. James still lay on his tossed, uncomfortable bed in the evening twilight. The long, lonely hours, when he imagined Louis to have taken him at his word and gone home, had given him a miserable sense of desertion, and as increasing sensations of illness took from him the hopes of moving on that day, he became distracted at the thought of the anxiety his silence would cause Isabel, and, after vainly attempting to write, had been lying with the door open, watching for some approaching step. There was the familiar sound of a soft, gliding step on the stairs, then a pause, and the sweet soft voice, 'My poor James, how sadly uncomfortable you are!' 'My dear!' he cried, hastily raising himself, 'who has been frightening you?' 'No one, Fitzjocelyn was so kind as to come for me.' 'Ah! I wished you to have been spared this unpleasant business.' 'Do you think I could bear to stay away! Oh, James! have I been too useless and helpless for you even to be glad to see me?' 'It was for your own sake,' he murmured, pressing her hand. 'Has Fitzjocelyn told you?' 'Yes,' said Isabel, looking up, as she sat beside him. 'Never mind, James. It is better to suffer wrong than to do it. I do not fear but that, if we strive to do our duty, God will help us, and make it turn out for the best for our children and ourselves.' He grasped her hand in intense emotion. 'I know you are anxious about me,' added Isabel. 'My ways have been too self-indulgent for you to think I can bear hardness. I made too many professions at first; I will make no more now, but only tell you that I trust to do my utmost, and not shrink from my duties. And now, not a word more about it till you are better.' CHAPTER XV. SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY. One furnace many times the good and bad will hold; But what consumes the chaff will only cleanse the gold. R. C. TRENCH.