think so, indeed!" cried Mrs Jane. "Most thankless woman in
the world if she wasn't."

"Oh, don't say that! You know I could not have done anything else,
knowing what Madam intended, when things came to me."

"You did the right thing, dear child," said Mrs Dorothy, quietly, "as
God's children should. He knew when to put the power in your hands. If
Madam Derwent had come to White-Ladies ten years ago, she wouldn't have
made as good use of it as she will now. She was not ready for it. And
I'm mistaken if you are not happier, Phoebe, in the Maidens' Lodge, than
you ever would have been if you had kept White-Ladies."

"I am sure of that," said Phoebe. "Well, but she didn't need have come
down thus far!" reiterated Mrs Jane.

"She is the servant of One who came down very far, dear Jane," gently
answered Mrs Dorothy, "that we through His poverty might be rich."

"Well, it looks like it," replied Mrs Jane, with a little tell-tale
huskiness in her voice. "Mrs Phoebe, my dear, do you remember my
saying, when Madam died, to you and Mrs Rhoda, that I'd tell you ten
years after, which I was sorry for?" Phoebe smiled an affirmative.
"Well, I'm not over sorry for either of you; but, at any rate, not for
_you_."

"The light has come back to thine eyes; dear child, and the peace," said
old Mrs Dorothy. "Ah, folks don't always know what is the hardest to
give up."

And Phoebe, looking up with startled eyes, saw that Mrs Dorothy had
guessed her secret. She went to the fire for fresh water from the
kettle. Her face was as calm as usual when she returned. Softly she
said,--

"`Mon sort n'est pas a plaindre,
Il est a desirer;
Je n'ai plus rien a craindre,
Car Dieu est mon Berger.'"

THE END.

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