answer me at once; when she did it was to
say:

"It will be better. It will be better by and by. Have you seen"--

She stopped and hesitated.

"Have you seen the Lord?" she asked, in a low voice. She was wont, I
remember, to use this word in a way peculiarly her own; as if she were
referring to some personal acquaintance, near to her heart. I shook my
head, looking drearily upon her.

"Don't you _want_ to see Him?"

"I want to see my wife!"

"Oh, I am sorry for you," she said, with forbearing gentleness. "It is
pretty hard. But I wish you _wanted_ Him."

"I want to see my wife! I want to see my wife!" I interrupted
bitterly. And with this I turned away from her and hid my face, for I
could speak no more. When I lifted my eyes, she had gone from me, and
I was again alone. When it was thus too late, it occurred to me that I
had lost an opportunity which might not easily return to me, and I
sought far and wide for Mrs. Faith. I did not find her, though I
aroused myself to the point of accosting some of the inhabitants of the
country, and making definite inquiries for her. I was answered with
great courtesy and uncommon warmth of manner, as if it were the custom
of this place to take a genuine interest in the affairs of strangers;
but I was not able, by any effort on my part, to bring myself in
proximity to her. This trifling disappointment added to my sense of
helplessness in the new life on which I had entered; and I was still as
incredulous of helplessness and as galled by it as I should have been
by the very world of woe which had formed so irritating a dogma to me
in the theology of my day on earth, and which I had regarded as I did
the nightmares of a dyspeptic patient.

In this state of feeling, it was the greatest comfort to me when, at
some period of time which I have no means of defining, but which could
not have been long afterward, Mrs. Faith came suddenly again across my
path. She radiated happiness and health and beauty, and when she held
out both her hands to me in greeting they seemed to glitter, as if she
had stepped from a bath of delight.

"Oh," she said joyously, "have you seen Him _yet_?" It embarrassed me
to be forced to answer in the negative; it gave me a strange feeling,
as if I had been a convict in the country, and denied the passport of
honourable men. I therefore waived her question as well as I might,
and proceeded to make known to her the thought which had been occ