disclosed concerning
the kind friend who lay there, invested so with such new grace of
tenderness.

Was there a twilight, other than that of day, softening, also, around
her?

"Little Faith!" said Aunt Henderson. Her very voice had taken an
unwonted tone.

"Auntie! It is surely something very grave! Will you not tell me?"

"Yes, child. I mean to tell you. It may be grave. Most things are, if we
had the wisdom to see it. But it isn't very dreadful. It's what I've had
warning enough of, and had mostly made up my mind to. But I wasn't quite
sure. Now, I am. I suppose I've got to bear some pain, and go through a
risk that will be greater, at my years, than it would have been if I'd
been younger. And I may die. That's all."

The words, of old habit, were abrupt. The eye and voice were tender with
unspoken love.

Faith turned to Miss Sampson, who sat by.

"And then, again, she mayn't," said the nurse. "I shall stay and see her
through. There'll have to be an operation. At least, I think so. We'll
have the doctor over, to-morrow. And now, if there's one thing more
important than another, it's to keep her cheerful. So, if you've got
anything bright and lively to say, speak out! If not, _keep_ out! She'll
do well enough, I dare say."

Poor Faith! And, without this new trouble, there was so much that she,
herself, was needing comfort for!

"You're a wise woman, Nurse Sampson. But you don't know everything,"
said Aunt Faith. "The best thing to take people out of their own
worries, is to go to work and find out how other folks' worries are
getting on. He's been here, hasn't he, child?"

It was not so hard for Aunt Faith, who had borne secretly, so long, the
suspicion of what was coming, and had lived on, calmly, nevertheless, in
her daily round, to turn thus from the announcement of her own state and
possible danger, to thought and inquiry for the affairs of another, as
it was for that other, newly apprised, and but half apprised, even, of
what threatened, to leave the subject there, and answer. But she saw
that Miss Henderson spoke only truth in declaring it was the best way to
take her out of her worries; she read Nurse Sampson's look, and saw that
she, at any rate, was quite resolved her patient should not be let to
dwell longer on any painful or apprehensive thought, and she put off all
her own anxious questionings, till she should see the nurse alone, and
said, in a low tone--yes, Paul Rushleigh had been there.