"I am well--for me. You must see that yourself, dear. I don't expect ever to be very strong. I don't think I was ever one of the strong women; and the strain of nursing and anxiety told more on me than it would on some women. But if I take care of myself now, I shall have strength to do a great deal; and now that Mrs Stone is here, to take the housekeeping when you are away, I shall have leisure for reading and other pleasant things. And I have my Sunday-school class, and I can visit my friends, and, though I can never do much at nursing again, I can go to see sick and sorrowful people, and help and comfort them a little perhaps. And I can always speak a word for my Lord and Master. My darling, I can see such a happy, restful life before me!" "Oh, my Eunice--my Eunice!" Fidelia's face was hidden again. "A happy life before her!" repeated she; and the thought of her own impatience and discontent, her envyings and her small ambitions, made her ashamed. "Oh, I am not a good girl! I am all wrong, all wrong!" All thoughts of her "bad dream" had passed out of her mind till Eunice spoke again. "Have I nothing else to tell? Nothing, I think, which you have not guessed already. And it may not come so soon as they think. But I think it need not trouble you. The thought of it does not trouble me any more except for your sake. And even to you the sorrow will only be for a little while, and the gladness will come after." Fidelia raised her head, and looked with beseeching eyes into the face of her sister. "Eunice, tell me!" Eunice stooped and kissed her with a smile on her lips, though they trembled a little. "Dear, do you remember our father, and how he died? Well, it may be that the end will come to me as it came to him. That is what Dr Everett thinks, and Dr Justin. They cannot tell me when. I may live for years--but, there, I may not. Is it cruel to tell you? But afterwards you would grieve not to have known. And you are a woman now, my darling, and you know that our life is not given just to take our pleasure in, but that the world is meant to be a place of discipline and of work for our fellow-creatures and for the Lord." Eunice paused a moment. "I hoped to work too, and at first I murmured, but I am quite content now, as you will be by-and-by. And you will never forget me, in the happy life which I hope--which I believe lies before you." Fidelia put up her hands with a cry. "Hush!" she cried. "I cannot bear it; I cannot believe it. Oh, Eunice, how can you say it, smiling like that, when you know that I have no one in the world but you?" "Does it seem so to you, dear? You have no other sister; but so many love you--and--you have our Lord and Saviour, whom you love, and whom you seek to serve; and you will not forget me. I shall be something in your life always, and to your children; and, dear, we will not speak any more--I am very tired."