t throughout to Ave and to Ella,' said
Ethel, 'and well she may be to you still.'

'I have dreaded to ask,' said Leonard; 'but there was a line in one
letter I was shown that made me believe that climate was not the whole
cause.'

'No,' said Ethel; 'at least the force to resist it had been lost, as
far as we can see. It was a grievous error of your brother's to think
her a child who could forget. She pined to hear of you, and that one
constant effort of faith and love was too much, and wasted away the
little tender body. But oh, Leonard, how truly she can say that her
captivity is over, and that it has not hurt!'

'It has not hurt,' musingly repeated Leonard. 'No, she is beyond the
reach of distracting temptations and sorrows; it has only made her
brighter to have suffered what it breaks one's heart to think of. It
has not hurt.'

'Nothing from without does hurt!' said Ethel, 'unless one lets it.'

'Hurt what?' he asked.

'The soul,' returned Ethel. 'Mind and body may be hurt, and it is not
possible to know one's mind from one's soul while one is alive, but as
long as the will and faith are right, to think the soul can be hurt
seems to me like doubting our Protector.'

'But if the will have been astray?'

'Then while we repent, we must not doubt our Redeemer.'

Dickie ran in at the moment, calling for Aunt Ethel. She had dropped
her muff. Leonard picked it up, and as she took it, he wrung her hand
with an earnestness that showed his gratitude.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Tender as woman; manliness and meekness
In him were so allied,
That those who judged him by his strength or weakness,
Knew but a single side.--J. WHITTIER

It promised to be a brilliant Christmas at Stoneborough, though little
Dickie regarded the feast coming in winter as a perverse English
innovation, and was grand on the superiority of supple jack above
holly. Decorations had been gradually making their way into the
Minster, and had advanced from being just tolerated to being absolutely
delighted in; but Dr. Spencer, with his knack of doing everything, was
sorely missed as a head, and Mr. Wilmot insisted that the May forces
should come down and work the Minster, on the 23rd, leaving the Eve for
the adornment of Cocksmoor, after the return of its incumbent. Mary,
always highly efficient in that line, joined them; and Leonard's
handiness and dexterity in the arts relating to carpentry were as
quietly useful