; go straight on. It is not much more than a mile from this place."

He did not turn to go when she had answered him, but gazed for a moment
earnestly into her face, and then said:

"Perhaps you can tell me--But no: I will not ask. I shall know the
worst soon enough."

The look of pain deepened in his face, and his very lips grew pale as he
spoke.

"You are ill!" exclaimed Lilias, eagerly offering him the water she held
in her hand. He drank a little, and, giving back the glass, thanked her
and went away. But before he had gone far he turned again, and, coming
to Lilias, said in a low, hoarse voice:

"Child, I see the look of heaven's peace on your face. Your wish must
bring good to one like me. Bid me God-speed."

"God speed you!" said Lilias, reverently, and wondering much. "And God
avert the evil that you dread!"

She watched while he continued in sight, forgetting, for the time, her
own troubles in pity for his.

"There are so many troubles in life," she thought; "and each one's own
seems worst to bear. When will it all end?"

Poor, drooping Lily! She had sat so long in the shadow of care that she
was in danger of forgetting that there were lightsome places on the
earth; and "When will it end?" came often to her lips now. Not that she
was growing impatient under it; but she felt herself so weak to do or to
endure.

"If I only were strong and well again! If God would only make me well
again, and show me what to do!"

Mrs Stirling's voice startled her at last.

"Come into the house, Lilias, my dear. There's a cold wind creeping
round the hill, and the ground is damp yet. You mustn't sit longer
there."

She placed a seat for her in the bright little kitchen.

"I won't put you into the parlour, for a fire's pleasant yet, May though
it be. Sit down here, and I'll be through with my baking in a few
minutes."

The kettle was already singing on the hearth, and fresh cakes were
toasting at the fire. After the usual Saturday tidying-up, the room was
"like a new pin;" and Lilias's eyes expressed her admiration as she
looked, about her. Nancy hastened her work and finished it, and, as she
seated herself on the other side of the hearth, she said:

"Well, my dear, what were you thinking to ask me?"

In a few words Lilias told her all her trouble: how, though the spring
had come, her aunt was by no means well yet, nor able to take charge of
the school again; how she sometimes felt she was grow