"Doth Master Clere go now to mass, Bessy?"

"Oh, ay, as regular as any man in the town, and the mistress belike.
The net's drawing closer, Rose. The time will soon come when even you
and I, low down as we are, shall have to make choice, with death at the
end of one way."

"Ay, I'm afeard so," said Rose gravely. "Bessy, think you that you can
stand firm?"

"Firm as a rock, if God hold me up; weak and shifting as water, if He
hold me not."

"Ay, thou hast there the right. But we are only weak, ignorant maidens,
Bessy."

"Then is He the more likely to hold us up, since He shall see we need it
rather. If thou be high up on the rock, out of reach of the waves, what
matter whether thou be a stone weight or a crystal vessel? The waters
beat upon the rock, not on thee."

"But one sees them coming, Bess."

"Well, what if thou dost? They'll not touch thee."

"Eh, Bess, the fire 'll touch us, be sure!"

"It'll touch our flesh--the outward case of us--that which can drop off
and turn to dust. It can never meddle with Rose Allen and Elizabeth
Foulkes."

"Bessy, I wish I had thy good courage."

"Why, Rose, art feared of death?"

"Not of what comes after, thank God! But I'm feared of pain, Bessy, and
of dying. It seems so shocking, when one looks forward to it."

"Best not look forward. Maybe 'tis more shocking to think of than to
feel. That's the way with many things."

"O Bessy! I can't look on it calm, like that. It isn't nature."

"Nay, dear heart, 'tis grace, not nature."

"And thou seest, in one way, 'tis worser for me than for thee. Thou art
thyself alone; but there's Father and Mother with me. How could I bear
to see them suffer?"

"The Lord will never call thee to anything, Rose, which He will not give
thee grace to bear. Be sure of that. Well, I've no father--he's in
Heaven, long years ago. But I've a good mother at Stoke Nayland, and
I'd sooner hurt my own head than her little finger, any day I live.
Dear maid, neither thou nor I know to what the Lord will call us. We do
but know that on whatever journey He sendeth us, Himself shall pay the
charges. Thou goest not a warfare at thine own cost. How many times in
God's Word is it said, `Fear not?' Would the Lord have so oft repeated
it, without He had known that we were very apt to fear?"

"Ah!" said Rose, sighing, "and the `fearful' be among such as are left
without the gate. O Bessy, if that fear should overcome me that I draw