"The horrid man!" she said to herself. "I suppose God sees something in him to love, at least that's what Mrs. Waring would say, so I suppose I must search for it till I find it. But for that he should go out of this house this very day, that he should! Wouldn't Jim be riled if he knew what he said about Mrs. Waring! I'd better not tell him." Late one evening Phebe paid a visit to Jim Coates to explain to him her garden scheme and to secure his help for it. What a change there was in that home from what it was on her first visit! The whole family this evening was in a state of great excitement over the arrival of a new couch, and each member had been taking turns to lie down on it. Jim had also got a special and personal bit of news which considerably added to the excitement; he had just seen Mr. Black, who had offered him a good position as foreman on some fresh works quite near, and when Mrs. Waring added her news there was a state of matters in that little home difficult to describe. Jim clapped his hands and shouted: "If this isn't like being in Heaven afore the time! It beats everything I ever knowed!" "Don't make quite so much noise, then," put in Mrs. Coates. "You see," turning to Mrs. Waring, "we've got a lodger in bed upstairs, and he's that bad, poor fellow, I don't know what will become of him." "Bless you! he can't hear us," exclaimed Jim; "and if he did, it 'ud do him good. It does you good to laugh, and it does you good to hear a laugh, too." "Ah, but Mr. Wood is a good deal too bad for that." "Poor fellow!" said their visitor, "if I can help him in any way please let me know." "Look here, Mrs. Waring," put in Jim. "I wish you'd do us the honour of having a bit of supper with us. I'm of the same mind as your Mrs. Colston, when you're extra happy it seems like as if you ought to eat together. On the strength of my new job I've bought a tin of coffee and some new-laid eggs." Mrs. Waring felt it would be very ungracious if she did not accept the invitation, though just then time was very precious. "Don't you think I'm a lucky man, Mrs. Waring?" exclaimed Jim, as he stood with his watch in his hand, counting the minutes while the eggs were boiling, "and it's all come through you." "No, through God," was her correction. "Well, God used you, anyhow. And what a change there is in Mr. Black, too----" "Who is that!" suddenly exclaimed Phebe, springing to her feet. Mrs. Coates had just gone upstairs, leaving two doors open behind her. It was the lodger's cough she had heard. "It's only Mr. Wood coughing," explained Jim, and Phebe took her seat again feeling strangely tired. Again the cough was heard. It had a strange little moan at the end of it, almost like a suppressed cry. "Oh!" exclaimed Phebe, this time feeling powerless to rise, but stretching out her hands to Jim Coates, "_that is my husband coughing_!" Jim almost dashed his watch on the table and rushed towards her, taking hold of both of her hands.