to poor little Anna?"

"No, not even to her. Mother, please do not misunderstand me, or think
me ungrateful, but there are some things of which a man does not find
it easy to speak." Then Mrs. Herrick said no more; she must bide her
time, and until then she could only pray for him.

And up in her pretty room Anna was praying her guileless, innocent
prayers, and watering every petition with her tears.

"How could she--how could she?" she cried more than once; "how could
any woman refuse my dear Malcolm?"

Can such prayers help? Yea--a thousand times yea! Only He who reads
human hearts knows the value of such prayers! When the son--the
brother--the lover--has gone into the battle of life, when his strength
is failing and the Philistines are upon him, it may be that the pure
petition of some loving heart may be as an invisible shield to
withstand the darts of the evil one, or haply that "arrow drawn at a
venture" which else had pierced between the joints of his armour. "I
said little, but I prayed much for you, my son," Mrs. Herrick once said
to Malcolm in after-years when they understood each other better, and
he knew that she spoke the truth.

CHAPTER XXVI

"I SEE LIGHT NOW"

Every man's task is his life-preserver.
--EMERSON.

Life is an opportunity for service.
--DR. WESTCOTT.

It is in the silence that follows the storm, and not in
the silence before it, that we should search for the
budding flower.
--Hindu Proverb.

One gray October afternoon, a fortnight later, Malcolm was walking down
Victoria Street, when he came face to face with Colonel Godfrey. The
Colonel, who was full of business as usual, seemed unfeignedly pleased
at the meeting.

"This is a stroke of good luck!" he exclaimed in his hearty way. "You
are just the man I want, Herrick. I was rather in a fix, and was going
to Victoria for one of those boy messengers; but you will do my
business for me, like a good fellow? Have you anything particular to
do?"

"Nothing special. I was only going to the Army and Navy Stores for some
stationery." Then the Colonel looked still more delighted.

"There, I was sure of it! My wife is in the tea-room at this very
minute expecting me to join her. I should have been punctual to the
minute, only I came across Erskine of ours; he wants my advice about a
mare he is thinking of buying, and he was so pre