uld have had
little pleasure in my work, going against your wish and will."

"Well, take pleasure in it now. If I held back for a while, it was only
that I thought I saw a chance of a better kind of happiness for you.
The sort of work matters less than we think. If it is done well, that
is the chief thing. And you have been a good son to your mother."

"Thank you, mother. I hope you will never have to say less of me than
that. And now is it settled?"

"Now it's settled--as far as words can settle it, and may God bless you
and--keep you all your days."

She had almost said, "comfort you!" but she kept it back, and said it
only in her heart.

Though Mrs Beaton's preparations were well advanced, there was still
something to do. It could be done without John's help, however, and he
left as usual, early in the morning. It was a good while before he saw
Nethermuir again.

In a few days his mother was ready to follow him. The door was shut and
locked, and the key put into the responsible hand of cripple Sandy for
safe keeping. It must be owned that John's mother turned away from the
little house where her son had made a home for her, with a troubled
heart. Would it ever be her home again? she could not but ask herself.
It might be hers, and then it would also be his in a way--to come back
to for a day or a week now and then for his mother's sake. But it could
never more be as it had been.

It was nothing to grieve for, she told herself. The young must go forth
to their work in the world, and the old must stay at home to take their
rest, and to wait for the end. Such was God's will, and it should be
enough.

It was, in a sense, enough for this poor mother, who was happier in her
submission than many a mother who has seen her son go from her; but she
could not forget that--for a time at least--her son must carry a sad
heart with him wherever he went. And he was young, and open to the
temptations of youth, from which his love and care for his mother, and
the hard work which had fallen to his lot, had hitherto saved him. How
would it be with him now?

"God guide him! God keep him safe from sin," she prayed, as she went
down the street.

Mrs Hume stood at the door of the manse, waiting to welcome her, and
the sight of her kind face woke within the mother's heart a momentary
desire for the easement which comes with the telling of one's anxious or
troubled thoughts to a true friend. Loyalty to her son st