discontents, and was at rest.
And Allison never knew what the old woman might have known or guessed
of her life before she came to the manse.

There were a good many others there to see the travellers away.
Marjorie was in the "gig" with her father and mother, who were to take
her to join Mrs Esselmont at Firhill, so her time for tears was not
come, nor was theirs. The child looked round on the faces of her
friends and smiled and nodded, and was sorry, and glad, at the same
time, but she was not, as she had told them, in the least afraid of what
might be before her.

The same might be said of her father and mother--with a difference.
They were glad, and they were sorry, and the mother was a little
fainthearted for them both at the thought of the long days, that lay
before them. But they were not afraid. They trusted their child in the
Good Hand which had "led them all their life long until now," and they
had confidence in Allison Bain.

Allison herself wondered a little at their perfect faith in her. The
night before, when worship was over, she had stayed behind the others to
hear a few last words which were yet to be spoken. When the father and
mother had said all they had to say and Allison was at the door to go
away, she paused a minute or two, then coming back again she said
gravely:

"I think if you had known me all my days,--if you had seen all my life
till now,--I think you would still be willing to trust me with your
Marjorie. But I cannot tell you. There is a reason--it is better to
say nothing. Some day, I hope, I may be able to tell you all."

"We can wait till then," said the minister heartily. The child's mother
said the same.

They had trusted her from the first, and any doubts which might have
arisen as to the wisdom of committing their child to the care of one of
whom they really knew very little, were put aside at the remembrance of
all that she had already done for her. The few words which Mrs
Esselmont said to them as to her interview with Allison encouraged them
also, and they, too, agreed with her in thinking that it was as well not
to seek to know more than Allison was willing to reveal.

Allison was glad, and more than glad, to get away. But still when the
travellers reached the last point where a glimpse could be caught of the
valley in which the little town lay, she told herself that thankful as
she was to leave it for a while, she was more thankful still that in her
time of