that would."

"Well, it hasn't killed me, child," said Mrs Dorothy, calmly; "but
then, you see, I chose it. That makes a difference."

"But you didn't choose to be poor, Mrs Dolly?"

"Well, yes, in one sense, I did," answered the old lady, a little tinge
of colour rising in her pale cheek.

"How so?" demanded Rhoda, who was not deterred from gaining information
by any delicacy in asking questions.

"There was a time once, my dear, that I might have married a gentleman
of title, with a rent-roll of six thousand a year."

"Mrs Dolly! you don't mean that?" cried Rhoda. "And why on earth
didn't you?"

"Well, my dear, I had two reasons," answered Mrs Dorothy. "One was"--
with a little laugh--"that as you see, I preferred to be one of these
same ill-conditioned, lonely, disappointed old maids. And the other
was"--and Mrs Dorothy's voice sank to a softer and graver tone--"I
could not have taken my Master with me into that house. I saw no track
of His footsteps along that road. And His sheep follow Him."

"But God means us to be happy, Mrs Dolly?"

"Surely, my dear. But He knows better than we how empty and fleeting is
all happiness other than is found in Him. 'Tis only because the Lord is
our Shepherd that we shall not want."

"Mrs Dolly, that is what good people say; but it always sounds so
gloomy and melancholy."

"What sounds melancholy, my dear?" inquired Mrs Dorothy, with slight
surprise in her tone.

"Why, that one must find all one's happiness in reading sermons, and
chanting Psalms, and thinking how soon one is going to die," said Rhoda,
with an uncomfortable shrug.

"My dear!" exclaimed Mrs Dorothy, "when did you ever hear me say
anything of the kind?"

"Why, that was what you meant, wasn't it," answered Rhoda, "when you
talked about finding happiness in piety?"

"And when did I do that?"

"Just now, this minute back," said Rhoda in surprise.

"My dear child, you strangely misapprehend me. I never spoke a word of
finding happiness in piety; I spoke of finding it in God. And God is
not sermons, nor chanting, nor death. He is life, and light, and love.
I never think how soon I shall die. I often think how soon the Lord may
come; but there is a vast difference between looking for the coming of a
thing that you dread, and looking for the coming of a person whom you
long to see."

"But you will die, Mrs Dolly?"

"Perhaps, my dear. The Lord may come first; I hope so."

"Oh dear!" said