and
each other to meet them. They agreed upon this, and in a mood of faith
and resolution fell asleep.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

MEDIATION.

Mr Hope's case turned out more favourably than any of his attendants
and friends had ventured to anticipate. For some days the symptoms
continued as alarming as at first; but from the hour that he began to
amend, his progress towards recovery was without drawback, and unusually
rapid. Within a month, the news circulated through the village, that he
had been safely brought home to his own lodgings; and the day after, the
ladies at Mr Grey's were startled by seeing him alight from a gig at
the door, and walk up the steps feebly, but without assistance. He
could not stay away any longer, he declared. He had been above a month
shut up in a dim room, without seeing any faces but of doctor, nurse,
and Mrs Grey, and debarred from books; now he was well enough to
prescribe for himself; and he was sure that a little society, and a
gradual return to his usual habits of life, would do him more good than
anything.

Mrs Grey kept all her own children out of sight during this first
visit, that Mr Hope might not see too many faces at once. She admitted
only Hester and Margaret, and Alice, who brought him some refreshment.
The girl made him a low curtsey, and looked at him with an expression of
awe and pleasure, which brought tears into the eyes of even her
mistress. Mr Hope had been a benefactor to this girl. He had brought
her through a fever. She had of late little expected ever to see him
again. Mr Hope replied to her mute looks:

"Thank you, Alice, I am much better. I hope to be quite well soon. Did
not you make some of the good things Mrs Grey has been kind enough to
bring me?--I thought so. Well, I'm much obliged to you; and to
everybody who has been taking pains to make me well. I do not know how
it is," he continued, when Alice had left the room, "but things do not
appear as they used to do. Perhaps my eyes are dim still; but the room
does not seem bright, and none of you look well and merry."

Mrs Grey observed that she had drawn the blinds down, thinking he would
find it a relief after the sunshine. Margaret said ingenuously--

"We are all well, I assure you; but you should not wonder if you find us
rather grave. Much has happened since we met. We have been thinking of
you with great anxiety for so long, that we cannot on a sudden talk as
lightly as when you used