,
not been going on well lately, but she had confessed her faults, and
recovered her confidence that her Heavenly Father would guard her as
long as she resolutely did her duty. And her duty, as daughter and a
wife, if indeed she was one, was surely to return, where her heart was
drawing her. It might be very terrible, but still it was going nearer to
_him_, and it would save her father.

The door was still open; she wrote a few words of gratitude and
explanation to Dame Wheatfield, on a piece of a torn book, wrapped a
couple of guineas in it, and laid it in the basket, then kneeling again
to implore protection and safety, and if it might be, forgiveness and
reconciliation, she set forth. "Love is strong as death," said Mary
Sedhurst's tomb. She knew better what that meant than when her childish
eyes first fell upon it. A sense of Divine Love was wrapping her round
with a feeling of support and trust, while the human love drew her
onwards to confront all deadly possibilities in the hope of rejoining
her husband, or at least of averting misfortune from her father.

CHAPTER XXV. VANISHED.

Where there is no place
For the glow-worm to lie,
Where there is no space
For receipt of a fly,
Where the midge dares not venture
Lest herself fast she lay,
If Love come, he will enter
And find out the way.--OLD SONG.

Major Delavie and his eldest daughter were sitting down to supper in the
twilight, when a trampling of horses was heard in the lane a carriage
was seen at the gate, and up the pathway came a slender youthful figure,
in a scarlet coat, with an arm in a sling.

"It is!--yes, it is!" exclaimed Betty: "Sir Amyas himself!"

In spite of his lameness, the Major had opened the door before Palmer
could reach it; but his greeting and inquiry were cut short by the young
man's breathless question: "Is she here?"

"Who?"

"My wife--my love. Your daughter, sweet Aurelia! Ah! it was my one
hope."

"Come in, come in, sir," entreated Betty, seeing how fearfully pale he
grew. "What has befallen you, and where is my sister?"

"Would that I knew! I trusted to have found her here; but now, sir, you
will come with me and find her!"

"I do not understand you, sir," said the Major severely, "nor how you
are concerned in the matter. My daughter is the wife of your uncle, Mr.
Belamour, and if, as I fear, you bear the marks of a duel in consequence
of any levity towards her, I shall