They couldn't talk about it any more, but they watched the old
grandmother as she clutched at the shadows that the waving foliage made
upon her white gown as she sat in the outer door, and they wondered why
it could not be that she should go first, and the lad be spared them. It
wasn't any good that she could do upon the earth, it wasn't any joy that
she could ever again give! Truly, God's ways are not as our ways, nor
His thoughts as our thoughts! Patrick and Molly could trust Him, even
though the dark cloud was spreading itself over their way, and the
sunshine was soon to be wholly removed from their dwelling.

CHAPTER XV.

The little room was darkened, and the still form was freed from all its
pains--no more fear of the ridicule of an unfeeling world--no more
struggling upward toward a tottering eminence--no more sighings after a
higher sympathy than a narrow sphere can insure--no more tremblings and
palpitations lest the desired good vanish from the sight--no more
sinning nor sorrowing; but the quiet figure lay peaceful and still
beneath the pure covering, with the bright flowers above and loving
hearts around. There are no outbursts of anguish in the presence of the
hallowed dead, but a calmness that speaks of the hope of a resurrection.
The mother and her daughter are alone with the departed, and, as they
look upon his placid features, Kittie recalls the time when she met him,
years ago, in the scorching noontide heat, and contrasted his forlorn
and pitiable condition with the pampered and luxurious state of her
cousin Willie, and, as her mother's words recur to her, "Perhaps not a
pity that he has not Willie's blessings, dear Kittie." She echoes in her
own heart, "not a pity, not not a pity!"

Oh! no; the pity now is all for the high-born lad, whose privileges are
all wasted and perverted, and could she choose for herself one of these
two lives, she would not hesitate to take the lowly cottage on the
plain, with all its sad inconveniences and distasteful accompaniments,
with the exalted Christian mind, rather than the glory, and beauty, and
ease of the great house, with the weakened intellect and the brutish
soul.

There is a small trunk in Archie's chamber, with a card nailed upon the
top, and the inscription, "Miss Kitty Fay;" and Patrick lifts it
reverently, with no vain curiosity, and carries it to the "great house."
He knows that it contains many a manuscript that helped to dry up the
fount of