Mrs. Lindsay came back equipped for her journey, and Mr. Hargrove entered at the same moment, but neither spoke. At length, fully aware of their presence, the young missionary raised his head, and, placing his hand under Regina's chin, looked long at the spirituelle beautiful face, as if he wished to photograph every feature on his memory. Without removing his eyes, he said: "Uncle, take care of her always. She is very dear to me. Keep her just as she is, in soul 'unspotted from the world.'" Then his lips quivered, and in a tremulous voice he added: "God bless you, my darling! My pure lovely dove." He kissed her, rose instantly, and left the room. Mrs. Lindsay came to the lounge, and while the tears rolled over her cheeks she said tenderly: "My dear child, it seems unkind to desert you in your crippled condition, but I feel assured Peyton and Hannah will nurse you faithfully; and every moment that I can be with Douglass seems doubly precious now." "Do you think I would keep you even if I could from him? Oh! don't you wish we were going with him to India?" "Indeed I do, from the depths of my soul. What shall we do without our Bishop?" Bending over the girl the mother wept unrestrainedly, but Mr. Hargrove called from the threshold: "Come, Elise." As Mrs. Lindsay turned to leave the room, she beckoned to Hannah. "Carry her upstairs and undress her; and if she suffers much pain, don't fail to send for the doctor." A white image of hopeless misery, Regina lay listening till the sound of departing steps became inaudible, and when Hannah left the room the girl groaned aloud in the excess of her grief: "I did not even say good-bye. I did not once thank him for all he did for me in the storm! And now I know, I feel I shall never see him again! Oh, Douglass!" The glass door leading into the flower-garden stood open, and Mr. Lindsay who had been watching her from the cover of the clustering honeysuckle, stepped back into the room. With a cry of delight, she held out her arms. "Dear Mr. Lindsay, I shall thank you, and pray for you, and love you as long as I live!" He put a small packet in her hand, and whispered: "Here is something I wish you to keep until you are eighteen. Do not open it before that time, unless I give you permission, or unless you know that I am dead." He drew her tenderly to his heart, and his lips pressed her cheek. Then he said brokenly: "O God! be merciful in all things, to my darling!" A moment after she heard his rapid footsteps on the gravelled walk, followed by the clang of the gate; then a great loneliness as of death fell upon her.