nd let it be Thy heavenly will.'

Arthur's face was hidden; she only saw his fingers holding up the
covering with a quivering grasp. Johnnie rose up quite simply, and
letting him continue in the belief that his father slept, she allowed
him to go noiselessly away, after she had held him fast in her arms,
able to feel, even now, the comfort and blessing of her child.

Some little time had passed before Arthur looked up; then gazing round,
as if seeking something, he said, 'Where is he?'

'Johnnie? He is gone, he did not know you were awake. Shall I send for
him?'

'For all.'

They came; but he was made to feel that he had disregarded them too
long. They had never been familiarized with him; seldom saw him, and
were kept under restraint in his presence; and there was no intimacy to
counteract the fright inspired by his present appearance. Ghastly pale,
with a hectic spot on each cheek, with eyes unnaturally bright and
dilated, and a quantity of black hair and whiskers, he was indeed a
formidable object to the little girls; and Violet was more grieved than
surprised when Annie screamed with affright, and had to be carried away
instantly; and Helen backed, with her hands behind her, resisting all
entreaties and remonstrance, and unheeding his outstretched hand. The
child was of so determined and wilful a nature, that Violet dreaded
an outbreak if she were too much pressed, and was forced to let her
go--though much grieved, both for the distress that it gave Arthur, and
for the thought of how his daughter might remember it by and by.

They supposed that Johnnie had gone with his sisters, but at the end of
half an hour became aware that he had ever since been standing, almost
hidden by the curtain, satisfied with merely being in the room. The fair
face, so delicately tinted, the dark shady eyes, lovingly and pensively
fixed on his father, and the expression, half mournful, half awe-struck,
were a touching sight in so young a child, and Arthur seemed so to feel
it. He signed to him to come near; and with a flush, between joy and
fear, the little boy was instantly at his side. One hot hand enfolded
the small soft cool one, the other pressed fondly on the light silken
waves of hair. After thus holding him for some moments, he tried to
speak, in whispering breathless gasps of a word at a time.

'You'll comfort her!' and he looked towards his mother, 'You'll take
care of the others--will you?'

'If I can. God takes care o