As Mrs. Drury ended her sentence, she lowered her voice, until it was scarcely more than a whisper, but the silence which had fallen upon the little group was so intense that every word was distinctly audible. Amethyst looked up into her mother’s face, and said, with real earnestness: "I do want to pass _that_ examination, mumsie," and Mrs. Drury bent down and kissed the upturned face with clinging tenderness, for she knew that her little daughter’s real desire was to please her Saviour, although she very often failed to do so. But just at that moment her heart went out with a great longing towards that other mother’s girl, who seemed so unwilling to put first things _first_. Her eyes sought Olive’s, so that she might, if possible, read in them something of her thoughts, but Olive kept her head persistently turned away, and so she could not gauge what was passing in her mind. So, with a prayer in her heart (oft repeated as time passed) that God would show Olive her need of a Saviour, she bade the invalid a tender farewell, with a whispered word of hope, and after good-byes had been exchanged, Mrs. Drury and Amethyst took their departure. The little girl chattered volubly of all the incidents of the afternoon, as they walked home in the pleasant coolness which had succeeded the heat of that June day, but Mrs. Drury was a trifle abstracted. She was thinking of the friend she had left, who appeared to her to be losing, rather than gaining strength, of the sorrow that the indecision of some of her children, with regard to spiritual things, caused the patient invalid. For a moment, a subtle temptation presented itself: why did not a gracious Father answer His children’s prayers for their loved ones more speedily. But she thrust the thought from her, knowing well that God both could, and would, do all things well, in His own good time. "Father will be astonished when we tell him, won’t he?" piped Amethyst, in her childish treble, and Mrs. Drury’s eyes lost their far-away look as she smiled into the animated little face, which only reached to her shoulder. "Yes, very," she replied, "but you won’t see him to-night, dearie, for he has gone to a big meeting at Alwinton and he will not be home until quite late." "Oh!" Amethyst’s face fell somewhat; she rather liked telling her own news, and the events of that day had been quite exciting ones to her. "Well, you will have to tell him then, mumsie, I suppose. But couldn’t you only say just enough, and leave the rest for me to tell at breakfast?" And her mother promised she would. *CHAPTER XI.* *"A NICE ENOUGH LITTLE DOG, AS DOGS GO."* "Is there anything else you’re wanting, Miss Monica?"