the little house, though
so poor and shabby, seems very home-like. Angus, I am so tired after all
this! I will go to bed."

Long after his wife had left him, the husband remained up. He had gone
down on his knees, and he remained there for some hours. He had to thank
God for his Charlotte, but even while he thanked a weight was heavy on
his heart. Sin was very terrible to this man, and he feared that a very
grievous sin had been committed. Long, long, into the night he cried to
God for these sinners.

CHAPTER XXX.

SHE COULD NOT POSTPONE HER ENGAGEMENT.

Mr. Harman felt himself growing weaker and weaker. The disease which was
to lay him in his grave was making slow, but steady progress. It was
just possible that, had his mind been at rest, the weakness of body, the
pain of body, the slow decay might have been, not removed, but at least
arrested. Had Mr. Harman been a very happy man, he might have lived,
even with so fatal a malady, for many years. He had lived a life of
almost perfect physical health for over sixty years, and during all that
time he had been able to keep mental pains at bay; but in his present
weakness he found this impossible. His whole nervous system became
affected, and it was apparent even to his daughter's eyes, that he was a
very unhappy man. For her sake, however, he still did wonders. He
dragged himself up to breakfast morning after morning, when he would
have given worlds to remain in bed. He still went every day to his
office in the city, though, when there, he sat in his office chair dull
and unmindful of what was going on. Jasper did the work. Jasper was
here, there, and everywhere; but it had come to such a pass with John
Harman, that he now almost disliked gold. Still, for Charlotte's sake,
he went there. Charlotte on the verge of her marriage must suspect
nothing. In the evenings he sat with his daughter, he looked with
apparent interest at the many presents which came pouring in, he made
her show herself to him in each of the new dresses, and he even went
himself with her to choose her wedding wreath and veil. But all these
things had become such a weariness to the man that, dearly as he loved
this one precious daughter, he began to look forward with almost a sense
of relief to the one week of her absence. During that week he need
disguise nothing, he need not go to the office, he need not put on this
forced cheerfulness. He might stay in bed all day long if he pleased.

Th