exclaiming, from time to time--"Oh! my Thomas!--my own dearest
Thomas! I shall never love man again. I am thine in life and in
death--in time and in eternity!" In vain did the poor bedrid woman try
to comfort her daughter. Nature had her way; and, in less than three
hours, Sarah Black was again in the streets, following, with a confused
but a cheerful look, her ordinary occupation. This grief of Sarah's, had
it been well nursed, might well have lasted a twelvemonth; but, luckily
for Sarah, and for the labouring classes in general, she had not time to
nurse her grief to keep it warm. "Give us this day our daily bread,"
said a poor helpless mother and three somewhat dependent sisters--and
Sarah's exertions were redoubled.

"Oh, what a feelingless woman!" said Mrs. Paterson to me, as Sarah
passed her door one day in my presence, absolutely singing--"Oh, what a
feelingless woman!--and her father dead, and her mother bedrid, and poor
Thomas Laing, whom she made such a fuss about, gone too--and there is
she, absolutely singing after all!"

Mrs. Paterson is now Mrs. Robson, having married her second husband just
six weeks after the death of the first, whom her improper conduct and
unhappy temper contributed first to render miserable here, and at last
to convey to the churchyard! Verily (added the worthy clergyman), the
heart is deceitful above all things. But what, after all, could poor
Sarah do, but marry Will M'Guffock, and thus amply provide, not only for
herself, but for her mother and sister? Had Thomas (and her heart heaved
at the thought) still been alive, she thought, she never would have
brought herself to think of it in earnest; but now that Thomas had long
ceased to think of her or of anything earthly, why should she not make a
man happy who seemed distractedly in love with her, and at the same time
honourably provide for her poor and dependent relatives? In the
meantime, the sacramental occasion came round, and I had a private
meeting previous to the first communion with Sarah Black. To me, in
secret, she laid open her whole heart as if in the presence of her God;
and I found her, though not a well-informed Christian by any means on
doctrinal points, yet well disposed and exceedingly humble; in short, I
had great pleasure in putting a token into her hand, at which she
continued to look for an instant, and then returned it to me. I
expressed surprise, at least by my looks. "I fear," said she, "that I am
_unworthy_