sultation.

"Can you come out to the meeting, Hardy?" asked his friend.

Mr. Hardy thought a minute and replied, "Yes; I think I can." Already
an idea had taken shape in his mind which he could not help feeling was
inspired by God.

"It might be a good thing if you could come prepared to make some
remarks. I find there is a disposition on the part of the public to
charge the road with carelessness and mismanagement."

"I'll say a word or two," replied Mr. Hardy; and after a brief talk on
business matters his friend went out.

Robert immediately sat down to his desk, and for an hour, interrupted
only by an occasional item of business brought to him by his secretary,
he jotted down copious notes. The thought which had come to him when
his friend suggested the meeting was this: he would go and utter a
message that burned within him, a message which the events of the past
few days made imperative should be uttered. He went home absorbed in
the great idea. He had once in his younger days been famous for his
skill in debate, so he had no fear of his power to deliver a message of
life at the present crisis in his own. He at once spoke of the meeting
to his wife.

"Mary, what do you say? I know every minute is precious. I owe to you
and these dear ones at home a very sacred duty; but no less, it seems
to me, is my duty to the society where I have lived all these years,
doing literally nothing for its uplift toward God who gave us all life
and power. I feel that He will put a message into my mouth that may
prove a blessing to this community. It seems to me this special
opportunity is providential."

"Robert," replied his wife, smiling at him through happy tears, "it is
the will of God. Do your duty as He makes it clear to you."

It had been an agitating week to the wife. She anticipated its close
with a feeling akin to terror. What would the end be? She was
compelled to say to herself that her husband was not insane; but the
thought that he was really to be called out of the world in some
mysterious manner at the end of the rapidly approaching Sunday, had
several times come over her with a power that threatened her own
reason. Nevertheless the week, so far, in spite of its terror and
agitation, had a sweet joy for her. Her husband had come back to her,
the lover as he once had been, only with the added tenderness of all
the years of their companionship. She thanked the Father for it, and
when the hour