remained there frozen with horror for some minutes after his grandmother
had ceased. This, then, was the reason why she would never speak about
his father! She kept all her thoughts about him for the silence of the
night, and loneliness with the God who never sleeps, but watches the
wicked all through the dark. And his father was one of the wicked! And
God was against him! And when he died he would go to hell! But he was
not dead yet: Robert was sure of that. And when he grew a man, he would
go and seek him, and beg him on his knees to repent and come back to
God, who would forgive him then, and take him to heaven when he died.
And there he would be good, and good people would love him.

Something like this passed through the boy's mind ere he moved to creep
from the room, for his was one of those natures which are active in the
generation of hope. He had almost forgotten what he came there for; and
had it not been that he had promised Shargar, he would have crept back
to his bed and left him to bear his hunger as best he could. But now,
first his right hand, then his left knee, like any other quadruped, he
crawled to the door, rose only to his knees to open it, took almost a
minute to the operation, then dropped and crawled again, till he had
passed out, turned, and drawn the door to, leaving it slightly ajar.
Then it struck him awfully that the same terrible passage must be gone
through again. But he rose to his feet, for he had no shoes on, and
there was little danger of making any noise, although it was pitch
dark--he knew the house so well. With gathering courage, he felt his way
to the kitchen, and there groped about; but he could find nothing beyond
a few quarters of oat-cake, which, with a mug of water, he proceeded to
carry up to Shargar in the garret.

When he reached the kitchen door, he was struck with amazement and for
a moment with fresh fear. A light was shining into the transe from the
stair which went up at right angles from the end of it. He knew it could
not be grannie, and he heard Betty snoring in her own den, which opened
from the kitchen. He thought it must be Shargar who had grown impatient;
but how he had got hold of a light he could not think. As soon as he
turned the corner, however, the doubt was changed into mystery. At the
top of the broad low stair stood a woman-form with a candle in her hand,
gazing about her as if wondering which way to go. The light fell full
upon her face, the beauty