of little memories. In this place he
remembered being set on a horse by his father, who held him very
lovingly and safely while he led the great beast about; he remembered
how proud he had been, and how he had fancied himself a mighty warrior.
On this little pond, with all its reeds and waterlilies, he had sailed a
boat on a summer day, his mother sitting near under a tree to see that
he had no danger; and thus it was everywhere; till, as he walked in the
silent afternoon, he could almost have believed that there were others
that walked with him unseen, to left and right; for at every place some
little memory roused itself, as the flies that rise buzzing from the
leaves when you walk in an alley, until he felt like a child again, with
all the years before him.

Then he came to the house again, and did the same for every room. He
left one room for the last, a room where dwelt an old and simple woman
that had nursed him; she was very frail and aged now, and went not much
abroad, but sate and did little businesses; and it was ever a delight to
her if he asked her to do some small task for him. He found her sitting,
smiling for pleasure that he should come to her thus; and he kissed
her, and sate beside her for awhile, and they talked a little of the
childish days, for he was still ever a child to her. Then he rose to
leave her, and she asked him, as was her wont, if there was anything
that she could do for him, for it shamed her, she said, to sit and idle,
when she had been so busy once, and when there was still so much to do.
And he said, "No, dear nurse, there is nothing at this time." And he
hesitated for an instant, and then said, "There is indeed one thing; I
have a business to do to-night, that is hard and difficult; and I do not
know what the end will be; will you say a prayer for your boy to-night,
that he may be strong?" She looked at him quickly and was silent; and
then she said, "Yes, dear child, but I ever do that--and I have no skill
to make new prayers--but I will say my prayer over and over if that will
avail." And he said, smiling at her, though the tears were in his eyes,
"Yes, it will avail," and so he kissed her and went away, while she
fell to her prayers.

Now the day had all this while grown stiller and hotter, till there was
not a breath stirring; and now out to the eastwards there came on an
angry blackness in the sky, with a pale redness beneath it, where the
thunder dwelt. Sir Henry sate down, fo