you, Mrs. Belmont," cried Sadie.
"Oh, you must come to the States, and we'll give you just a lovely
time."

Mrs. Belmont laughed, in her pleasant, mellow fashion.

"We have our duty to do in Ireland, and we have been too long away from
it already. My husband has his business, and I have my home, and they
are both going to rack and ruin. Besides," she added, slyly, "it is just
possible that if we did come to the States we might not find you there."

"We must all meet again," said Belmont, "if only to talk our adventures
over once more. It will be easier in a year or two. We are still too
near them."

"And yet how far away and dream-like it all seems!" remarked his wife.
"Providence is very good in softening disagreeable remembrances in
our minds. All this feels to me as if it had happened in some previous
existence."

Fardet held up his wrist with a cotton bandage still round it.

"The body does not forget as quickly as the mind. This does not look
very dreamlike or far away, Mrs. Belmont."

"How hard it is that some should be spared, and some not! If only Mr.
Brown and Mr. Headingly were with us, then I should not have one care in
the world," cried Sadie. "Why should they have been taken, and we left?"

Mr. Stuart had limped on to the deck with an open book in his hand, a
thick stick supporting his injured leg.

"Why is the ripe fruit picked, and the unripe left?" said he in answer
to the young girl's exclamation. "We know nothing of the spiritual state
of these poor dear young fellows, but the great Master Gardener plucks
His fruit according to His own knowledge. I brought you up a passage to
read to you."

There was a lantern upon the table, and he sat down beside it. The
yellow light shone upon his heavy cheek and the red edges of his book.
The strong, steady voice rose above the wash of the water.

"'Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed and delivered from
the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the
east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They went
astray in the wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. So they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led
them forth by the right way, that they might go to the city where they
dwelt. Oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and
declare the wonders that He doeth for the child