And he fell back with
a trace of disappointment on his rosy face.

Kitty was by his side openly weeping. As I came down the path after it
was all over, I could not help giving her a special 'good-bye.' Her
sad little face flushed with pleasure as I did so, and she murmured, 'I
never shall forget you, teacher, you've taught me to love Jesus'; and
my own eyes filled with tears at her words.

As we drove away to the station on our way to the Continent for a month
or six weeks, and I felt I was on the threshold of a new life, I said
to Philip, 'I feel as if I could put to this chapter of my life, "Not
one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord God spake
concerning you!"'

CHAPTER XIX

OLD FRIENDS

'One in heart, in interest and design,
Gird up each other to the race divine.'--_Cowper._

'Hilda, I have an old friend coming to dine with us to-night. I came
across him in town to-day; you are sure to like him, he is a general
favourite wherever he goes.'

'What is his name?'

'Ratcliffe--Charles Ratcliffe. I have known him a long time, before he
cared for serious things. It was a meeting in town to which I took him
that was, in God's hands, the means of his conversion. That was many
years ago, when I was just beginning to understand these things; I was
quite a young fellow myself, and he is my senior by many years. I
shall like you to know him, and I want him to know my wife.'

We were at breakfast, and it was a cold morning in February. Philip
had taken a flat in South Kensington, and though in many ways we should
have preferred a house of our own, we were perfectly happy with this
arrangement. The only anxiety I had was Philip's health; his lung that
had been so affected still gave him trouble, and he was often confined
to the house for weeks at a time. All day long I kept repeating the
name of Charles Ratcliffe over to myself, and wondering where I had
heard it before, but it was not until our guest was actually in our
drawing-room, and shaking hands with me, that it flashed across me.
Miss Rayner had been engaged to a Mr. Ratcliffe. Could this be the
same, I wondered? And I determined presently to find out. He was a
tall, handsome man with an iron-grey moustache and clear blue eyes. I
could not keep my gaze off him. How often I had longed that somehow or
other I might be permitted to bring those two together again! It would
be strange if I were to discover that he was