ver complained. The shadow was upon him, and he knew
it, but he met his fate with fortitude. Whatever his faults, they were
expiated in the estimation of all who saw him suffer now.

Mrs. Caldwell never realised how ill he was, but still she was uneasy,
and it was with intense relief that she welcomed a case of soups and
other nourishing delicacies calculated to tempt the appetite, which
arrived for him one day from one of his sisters in England.

"This is just what you want, Henry," she said, with a brighter look in
her face than he had seen there for months. "I shall soon have you
yourself again now."

Captain Caldwell's spirits also went up.

In the evening they were all together in the sitting-room. Mrs.
Caldwell was playing little songs for Mildred to sing, Baby Bernadine
was playing with her bricks upon the floor, and Beth as usual was
hanging about her father. He had shaken off his despondency, and was
quite lively for the moment, walking up and down the room, and making
merry remarks to his wife in Italian, at which she laughed a good
deal.

"Come, Beth, fetch 'Ingoldsby.' We shall just come to my favourite,
and finish the book before you go to bed," he said.

Beth brought the book, and then climbed up on his knee, and settled
there happily, with her head on his shoulder.

"As I laye a-thynkynge, the golden sun was sinking,
O merrie sang that Bird as it glitter'd on her breast,
With a thousand gorgeous dyes,
While soaring to the skies,
'Mid the stars she seem'd to rise,
As to her nest;

As I laye a-thynkynge, her meaning was exprest:--
'Follow, follow me away,
It boots not to delay,'--
'Twas so she seemed to saye,
'HERE IS REST!'"

After he had read those last lines, there was a moment's silence, and
then Beth burst into a tempest of tears. "O papa--papa! No, no, no!"
she sobbed. "I couldn't bear it."

"What _is_ the matter with the child?" Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed,
starting up.

"'The vision and the faculty divine,' I think," her father answered.
"Leave her to me."

* * * * *

Beth was awake when Anne entered the nursery next morning to call the
children.

"Get up, and be good," Anne said. "Your pa's ill."

Mrs. Caldwell came into the nursery immedi