Of life and death go stand
With guarded lips and reverent eyes
And pure of heart and hand.
The good physician liveth yet
Thy friend and guide to be,
The Healer by Gennesaret
Shall walk thy rounds with thee.'"

And as Olivia repeated the lines in a voice tremulous with deep
feeling, Dr. Luttrell's firm lips unbent with a moved expression.

"That is beautiful," he said. "I think those words ought to be
illuminated and hung up in every doctor's waiting-room."

"'The Healer by Gennesaret
Shall walk thy rounds with thee.'"

CHAPTER XVII.

PRODIGAL SONS.

"But by all thy nature's weakness,
Hidden faults and follies known,
Be thou in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thy own."--_Whittier_.

It was some few weeks before Mr. Gaythorne was allowed to see any one,
and then Olivia was his first visitor. To her great surprise he had
asked for her.

"I think I can trust you," Marcus said to her; but there was a trace of
anxiety in his manner that did not escape her. "You must talk to him,
of course; but you must be very careful not to agitate him; he wants
all his strength for to-morrow;" for on the following day father and
son were to meet again.

Olivia felt a little nervous. Marcus's professional gravity frightened
her.

"Do you not think it would be better for me to wait a day or two," she
asked. "It is very nice of him to want to see me, but it seems to me
that Mr. Alwyn ought to be his first visitor;" but although Marcus
agreed with her, he said that Mr. Gaythorne had expressed such a strong
wish to see her first, that he dared not refuse him.

"He was never fond of contradiction," he returned. "And we should only
excite him if we opposed his wish. Although he is quite himself,
little things irritate him; don't make yourself nervous beforehand; you
will say the right thing when the time comes for saying it;" and,
though Olivia could not be sure of this, she felt that it was sensible
advice.

But when the moment came and she saw how shrunken and aged the invalid
looked, and heard the slight hesitation in his speech as he held out
his hands to her with a pathetic smile, Olivia's warm womanly nature
was not at fault, for she bent over him and kissed his cheek as a
daughter might have done.

"Dear Mr. Gaythorne," she said, earnestly, "if you knew how thankful we
all are that you are better."

"Thank you, thank you," he said, with a faint flush of pleasure. "You
s