“Sit with me, darling, for a little while, if you are not too tired. Your grandmother seems near me to-night, and so does Alice, your mother. Maybe I’ll be with them before another day. I hope I may, if God is willing, and there’s much I would say to you.” He was very pale, and the great sweat-drops stood on his forehead and under his white hair, but Maddy wiped them away, and listened with a breaking heart while the aged disciple, almost home, told her of the peace, the joy, that shone around his pathway to the tomb, and of the everlasting arm bearing him so gently over Jordan. Then he talked of herself, blessing her for all she had been to him, telling her how happy she had made his life since she came home to stay, and how for a time he ached so with fear lest she should choose to go back and leave him to a stranger. “But my darling staid with her old grandpa. She’ll never be sorry for it. I’ve tried you sometimes, I know, for old folks ain’t like young; but I’m sorry, Maddy, and you’ll forget it when I’m gone, darling Maddy, precious child!” and the trembling hand rested caressingly on her bowed head as grandpa went on to speak of his little property, which was hers after the mortgage to Mr. Guy was paid. “I’ve kept up the interest,” he said, “but I could never get him to take any of the principal. I don’t know why he is so good to me. Tell him, Maddy, how I thanked and blessed him just before I died; tell him how I used to pray for him every day that he might choose the better part. And he will—I’m sure he will, some day. He hasn’t been here of late, and though my old eyes are dim, I can see that your step has got slow, and your face whiter by many shades, since he staid away. Maddy, child, the dead tell no secrets, and I shall soon be dead. Tell me, then, what it is between you two. Does my girl love Mr. Guy?” “Oh, grandpa, grandpa!” Maddy moaned, laying her head beside his own on the pillow. It would be a relief to talk with some one of that terrible pain, which grew worse every day; of that intense longing just for one sight of the beloved one; of Guy, still absent from Aikenside, wandering nobody knew where; and so Maddy told the whole story, while the dying man listened to her, and smoothing her silken hair, tried to comfort her. “The worst is not over yet,” he said. “Guy will offer to make you his wife, sacrificing Lucy for you; and if he does, what will my darling do?” Maddy’s heart leaped into her throat, and for a moment prevented her from answering, for the thought of Guy’s really offering to make her his wife, to shield her from evil, to enfold her in his tender love, made her giddy with joy. But it could not be, and she answered through her tears: “I shall tell him No.”