“Oh, my Ladybird, it would have broken my heart if he had slipped away out of life just when--but there, there! I mustn’t stop to talk. And we mustn’t build too much on keeping him here. He’s been a terrible time in the water, and been fearfully dashed about. He’ll have a fight to pull through; but then he’s young and strong, and he’ll have the best sort of hope to help him. There, deary, there, there! I can’t linger longer. There’s a deal to be done, and the doctor has to go when he can spare a moment to look to that other poor fellow. I don’t know which is the worst of the two, but they are both of them alive at least.” “Saul too? Ah! I am glad!” cried Bride; and then the nurse hurried away, and she sat down after the long strain of those strange hours, and tried to collect her scattered thoughts. Eustace living--though by no means out of danger! Ah! but was it not enough just now to be assured that the life was still in him? Surely since God had given him back in answer to her prayers, He had spared him for some great purpose. He had brought him to the very gates of death, but had brought him back therefrom already. Was not that evidence that he was spared for some good purpose? Might she not look forward in faith and confidence to Him, Who had saved him from these terrible bodily perils, that He would also be with him in any other trial that might lie before him, bodily or spiritual? Need she be fearful or troubled any more after the wonderful experiences of the past night? Eustace had been given back to her prayers. What need she fear when that proof of Fatherly love was hers? Bride mechanically put the finishing touches to her toilet, and washed from her face the traces of her long vigil; then, unable to remain inactive any longer, she left her room and descended the staircase, the light broadening and strengthening in the sky as she did so, as the sun rose from behind banks of low-lying cloud, and looked forth upon the new day now begun. The great door at the far end of the hall stood wide open to the breezy morning, and even as Bride reached the foot of the staircase a tall figure darkened it for a moment, and Mr. Tremodart came in with an uncertain air, glancing about him here and there, as if in search of something or some one. Bride stepped forward and held out her hand. “You have heard?” she asked briefly. “Ah yes! it is a terrible thing, a terrible thing! Lady Bride, it makes me feel that I must send in my resignation to the Bishop, and ask him to appoint another pastor to this flock. Surely had I done my duty, they would not now be such savages and fiends! I have been down with them, poor miserable men! I have been hearing their confession. They have been led away by a spirit stronger than their own. The Lord forgive me! Perhaps had I been more to them and more with them, they would not have hearkened to such evil counsel!”