ugh now, do not taunt me, I know well I deserve it; but I
have always thought of you, as I saw you last, and your sad reproachful
face has often stayed me from.... Last year, I thought I would go and
seek you, I got as far as Brook Street, and there I saw you talking to a
girl in a carriage, your back was turned to me, but I heard her say,
"Poor woman, how ill she looks!" and I dared not speak to you; death was
what I longed for, and I went to the river, but that girl's voice
haunted me. "Poor woman," aye indeed! I _was_ to be pitied; I had done
wrong, but I would try to atone--but why am I telling you all this, you
who ought to hate and despise me, I who have ruined your life. Oh! my
God! my God! have mercy--' And with a paroxysm of grief, she lays her
head on the little green mound.

A strange sight the old vicar sees as he passes through the long grass
on his way to the church; a tall man in flannels gazing down on the
figure of a woman, kneeling before him, divided only by a small grave,
and a little golden-haired child looking at them wonderingly; he has
spoken to the child before and now she leaves the other two and follows
him into the sacred edifice.

The bell begins to toll for even-song, but neither Paul nor Clotilde
move, so close they are together, only the past lies between them. A
small cross marks the grave of their child, whereon his name, and age
(but a few months) is inscribed.

Paul reads the inscription though he knows it only too well, and then he
once more rests his gaze on the woman before him; the woman he once
loved! nay, does still love, for a great desire to comfort her comes
over him.

'Clotilde,' he says at length, 'let us forget the past. Come.'

He takes her by the hand and he leads her gently to the church, up the
aisle they go, and side by side they kneel; and the old clergyman is not
surprised to see them, and the little golden-haired child watches them
from another pew.

CHAPTER XII

'I were but little happy, if I could say how much.'

SHAKESPEARE.

Twenty-four hours have come and gone and have left everyone a day older,
they are all in the garden, except Paul; a little golden haired girl is
playing with Teddy, and Mabel watches them from a distance with a
beaming smile. For a great happiness has come to her, the empty place in
her heart has been refilled, for a strange and wonderful thing has
happened; for only the evening before, her brother knocked at her