e? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was
rolled away (for it was a very great one)."

So read the minister and closed the book; and _Our Father_ began.

In the evening, when all was over, and the prayers said and the
expounding and catechising finished, in a kind of despair she slipped
away alone, and walked a little by herself in the deepening twilight
beside the river; and again she made effort after effort to catch some
consciousness of grace from this Sacrament Sunday, so rare and so
precious; but an oppression seemed to dwell in the very air. The low
rain-clouds hung over the city, leaden and chill, the path where she
walked was rank with the smell of dead leaves, and the trees and grass
dripped with lifeless moisture. As she goaded and allured alternately her
own fainting soul, it writhed and struggled but could not rise; there was
no pungency of bitterness in her self-reproach, no thrill of joy in her
aspiration; for the hand of Calvin's God lay heavy on the delicate
languid thing.

She walked back at last in despair over the wet cobblestones of the empty
market square; but as she came near the house, she saw that the square
was not quite empty. A horse stood blowing and steaming before Dr.
Carrington's door, and her own maid and Kate were standing hatless in the
doorway looking up and down the street. Isabel's heart began to beat, and
she walked quicker. In a moment Kate saw her, and began to beckon and
call; and the maid ran to meet her.

"Mistress Isabel, Mistress Isabel," she cried, "make haste."

"What is it?" asked the girl, in sick foreboding.

"There is a man come from Great Keynes," began the maid, but Kate stopped
her.

"Come in, Mistress Isabel," she said, "my father is waiting for you."

Dr. Carrington met her at the dining-room door; and his face was tender
and full of emotion.

"What is it?" whispered the girl sharply. "Anthony?"

"Dear child," he said, "come in, and be brave."

There was a man standing in the room with cap and whip in hand, spurred
and splashed from head to foot; Isabel recognised one of the grooms from
the Hall.

"What is it?" she said again with a piteous sharpness.

Dr. Carrington laid his hands gently on her shoulders, and looked into
her eyes.

"It is news of your father," he said, "from Lady Maxwell."

He paused, and the steady gleam of his eyes strengthened and quieted her,
then he went on deliberately, "The Lord hath given and the Lord hath
ta