ed to hear the blast of trumpets, the rapt singing of the angels
attending her, and he was completely lost in his vision when he was
suddenly roused by his father's entrance. He looked strangely untidy
and wretched, his little boy thought. Bobby was peculiarly susceptible
to outside appearances. His father was dressed in his ordinary tweed
suit, but his eyes were haggard, his hair rough, his white collar
crumpled, and his face heated and tear-stained.

He came in impulsively and threw himself on his knees by his child's
bed.

'Oh, Bobby, little chap, she has gone, she has left me, and I've
promised to meet her again! We must help each other. May God Himself
teach me, for I'm not fit to teach you. I don't know how I shall get
through life without her. I always felt that since her accident she
has been too good to live. She never made one murmur.'

Bobby opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, and tears crowded into
his eyes.

'Is she really gone, father? Oh, how could God take her so quick? I
did want to say a proper good-bye. Look, father, dear, at my picsher.
Is she inside by this time, do you think? How long does it take to go
to heaven?'

Mr. Allonby took up his little son's picture and gazed at it with keen
interest, then he put it down with a heavy sigh.

'Yes, she's there right enough, sonny. I don't doubt that. Shall we
say a little prayer together--you and I--for I feel quite unable for
what is before me.'

So the grown-up man knelt by the small bed, and Bobby jumped up and
knelt by his side, and in very broken, faltering accents he prayed:

'Merciful God, have pity on me and my children; be with us now she has
left us. Help me to do my duty; forgive my selfish life. I want to be
different; change me; set me right; make me what she wanted me to be.
Bless this boy here, make him a better man than his father. And the
little motherless girl--how can I take care of her? Have pity and help
us all for Christ's sake. Amen.'

It was a prayer that Bobby never forgot all his life, and he never
spoke of it to anyone. Childlike, he kept it wrapped up in his heart.
He was puzzled at his father's distress; he thought no grown-up person
ever cried; but his whole being quivered afresh with loving devotion to
the father who now had only himself and True to comfort him.

Chapter X.

'WE'RE GOING TO FIND A GOVERNESS!'

Those were strange sad days to Bobby and True. But one engrossing
tho