l I also deny before My Father which is
in Heaven.' Verily, it were awful matter, to draw down on a man's head
this public denying of Jesu Christ."

"Dear heart!" said Agnes, at once sympathetically and deprecatingly.

"Ah!" he replied, with a sigh of self-distrust: "hope is one matter, and
belief another."

"Dost fear some ill work, trow?" she asked doubtfully.

John Laurence did not answer at once. He spoke after a minute,
dreamily, as if to himself; a habit to which Agnes was now quite
accustomed.

"`Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more
that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him,
which after that He hath killed hath power to cast into Hell.'"

The Friar walked on for a few seconds with his usual rapidity, and then
suddenly stopped again.

"Men think lightly of these things, dear heart," said he. "Most men
have a far greater care lest they break a limb, or lose an handful of
gold, than lest they be cast into Hell. Yet see thou how Christ took
the same. And He knew,--as we cannot know,--what is Hell."

"The good Lord keep us!" ejaculated Agnes fervently.

"Amen!" responded the Black Friar. "`He shall keep the feet of His
saints.' It is not we that keep ourselves. 'Tis not we that hold Him,
no more than the babe holdeth himself in his mother's arms. And the
mother were more like to leave the babe fall into the fire or the water,
than He to loose hold upon His trustful child."

He was trying to prepare her for what might come. But she was not
prepared.

Cold though it was, they had a pleasant walk that afternoon. The time
of release was drawing so near, that Agnes felt almost as bright and
glad as if it were already come. At Cow Cross, her betrothed bade her
farewell, saying with his grave smile that he would not come further,
lest it should cost her an extra taunt from Mistress Dorothy.

Agnes was quite satisfied to be saved the small torment in question.
She did not realise how soon the time might come when it would seem to
her a lighter thing to endure Dorothy's ridicule for a calendar year,
than to miss one glimpse of that face.

We recognise such facts as these--when they come.

The next day passed over uneventfully. The Tuesday morning rose,
bright, clear, and frosty. Agnes was in spirits perfectly marvellous,
considering what she had to endure. She was making melody in her heart
as she carried her pails to the pump, think