gone; immortality is assured us in the hearts that have touched ours.

Silence. A shadow falls, and Jules Levice's work is done; and the first
sunbeams crept about him, lay at his feet a moment, touched the quiet
hands, fell on the head like a benediction, and rested there.

Chapter XXVII

"I thought you would be quiet at this hour," said Rose Delano, seating
herself opposite her friend in the library, the Thursday evening after
the funeral. They looked so different even in the waning light,--Ruth
in soft black, her white face shining like a lily above her sombre gown,
Rose, like a bright firefly, perched on a cricket, her cheeks rosy, her
eyes sparkling from walking against the sharp, cold wind.

"We are always quiet now," she answered softly; "friends come and go,
but we are very quiet. It does me good to see you, Rosebud."

"Does it?" her sweet eyes smiled happily. "I was longing to drop in if
only to hold your hand for a minute; but I did not know exactly where to
find you."

"Why, where could I be but here?"

"I thought possibly you had removed to your husband's home."

For a second Ruth looked at her wonderingly; then the slow rich color
mounted, inch by inch, back to her little ears till her face was one
rosy cloud.

"No; I have stayed right on."

"I saw the doctor to-day," she chatted. "He looks pale; is he too busy?"

"I do not know,--that is, I suppose so. How are the lessons, Rose?"

"Everything is improving wonderfully; I am so happy, dear Mrs. Kemp, and
what I wished to say was that all happiness and all blessings should, I
pray, fall on you two who have been so much to me. Miss Gwynne told me
that to do good was your birthright. She said that the funeral, with its
vast gathering of friends, rich, poor, old, young, strong, and crippled
of all grades of society, was a revelation of his life even to those who
thought they knew him best. You should feel very proud with such sweet
memories."

"Yes," assented Ruth, her eyes quickly suffused with tears.

They sat quietly thus for some time, till Rose, rising from her cricket,
kissed her friend silently and departed.

The waning light fell softly through the lace curtains, printing quaint
arabesques on the walls and furniture and bathing the room in a rich
yellow light. A carriage rolled up in front of the house. Dr. Kemp
handed the reins to his man and alighted. He walked slowly up to the
door. It was very still about the house in the evenin