bell. Mrs. Bruce had gone to the door and was talking
with some one in the hall. There was a loud exclamation and then, as
the Bishop rose and Bruce was stepping toward the curtain that hung
before the entrance to the parlor, Mrs. Bruce pushed it aside. Her
face was white and she was trembling.

"O Calvin! Such terrible news! Mr. Sterling--oh, I cannot tell it!
What a blow to those girls!" "What is it?" Mr. Bruce advanced with
the Bishop into the hall and confronted the messenger, a servant
from the Sterlings. The man was without his hat and had evidently
run over with the news, as Dr. Bruce lived nearest of any intimate
friends of the family.

"Mr. Sterling shot himself, sir, a few minutes ago. He killed
himself in his bed-room. Mrs. Sterling--"

"I will go right over, Edward. Will you go with me? The Sterlings
are old friends of yours."'

The Bishop was very pale, but calm as always. He looked his friend
in the face and answered: "Aye, Calvin, I will go with you not only
to this house of death, but also the whole way of human sin and
sorrow, please God."

Chapter Twenty-four

These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

WHEN Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the Sterling mansion
everything in the usually well appointed household was in the
greatest confusion and terror. The great rooms downstairs were
empty, but overhead were hurried footsteps and confused noises. One
of the servants ran down the grand staircase with a look of horror
on her face just as the Bishop and Dr. Bruce were starting to go up.

"Miss Felicia is with Mrs. Sterling," the servant stammered in
answer to a question, and then burst into a hysterical cry and ran
through the drawing-room and out of doors.

At the top of the staircase the two men were met by Felicia. She
walked up to Dr. Bruce at once and put both hands in his. The Bishop
then laid his hand on her head and the three stood there a moment in
perfect silence. The Bishop had known Felicia since she was a little
child. He was the first to break the silence.

"The God of all mercy be with you, Felicia, in this dark hour. Your
mother--"

The Bishop hesitated. Out of the buried past he had, during his
hurried passage from his friend's to this house of death,
irresistibly drawn the one tender romance of his young manhood. Not
even Bruce knew that. But there had been a time when the Bishop had
offered the incense of a singularly undivided affection upon