"Why, the whole matter is so simple." Mrs. Landor was too much interested in her view of the question to notice at the moment what he said. "So very simple and plain. All these years God has chosen to give us money in plenty, to use for Him; and I do think we have tried to use it rightly. And now He has chosen to take it away. Hasn't He a perfect right to do as He will? It is His, not ours. I do think it would be so utterly ungrateful of us to grumble." "I am afraid if I had lost everything—" "Ah, everything!" she echoed with a quick breath. "But it is not that. Not everything! My husband is left to me still. And our health. It is not like Job." "If health broke down, or if the call came to me to go, you would say the same still, my dear," interposed the Rector. "I know you would, because it would still be His will." Mrs. Landor smiled again, though tears were in her eyes. "Few would feel as you do, in your position," said Colin. "Perhaps because they have been accustomed to look upon the money as strictly their own. I do not think we have ever done that." She spoke in a thoughtful tone, as if considering the question. "It is harder for her than for me," the old Rector said softly, looking towards Colin. "I was poor for years before I married, and she does not know what it is to be poor." "So every one tells me. But is not the unknown sometimes more alarming than what one does know? Well, we are to have a new experience together—you and I! It will be a new kind of life entirely. We shall have to make every single penny go as far as it possibly can, instead of never troubling one's head about the matter. I am bent on proving that, at least, luxury has not spoiled me, Mr. Mackenzie. Don't think I am putting on a cheerfulness which I do not really feel. Perhaps, as my husband says, I don't know what it all means as yet. But what I 'cannot' understand is the sense of doubt and terror in looking forward, which I seem to be expected to feel. Of course there is uncertainty. We have not the least idea how we are to manage. Expenses must be cut down to the utmost; and even then it is a mystery in what way we can get along. Only—we shall get along! We simply have to wait till the 'how' becomes clear." "I suppose something always turns up somehow," remarked Colin, in a reflection of his wife's favourite tone. "Is that enough for you? It would not be for me. 'Something turning up somehow' sounds dreary. With me it is the direct and positive care of a Father for His child; not a mere turning up of something, one hardly knows how. Of course, one is left in the dark now and then—if only to give one the opportunity of trusting Him!—and of course we have to do the very utmost that we can do towards helping ourselves. But when we can do no more, and still it is not sufficient, then comes the waiting, because it is just there that God steps in." "If everybody felt as sure."