"

"I think it is difficult," the child repeated.

"You find it so?"

"I think, sometimes, Mr. Richmond, I don't hear them at all."

"It is not necessary to be always thinking about them."

"No, I know that; but sometimes I seem to get out of the sound of them."

"How comes that?"

"I don't know. I think it must be because I am hearing other voices so
much."

"You are right." Mr. Richmond began his pacing up and down again.
Matilda stood with a cup in her hands which she had been washing, the
water dripping from her fingers and it into the tub.

"How can I help it, Mr. Richmond?"

Mr. Richmond was thinking perhaps of Fenelon's words: "O how rare is
it, to find a soul still enough to hear God speak!"--but he did not
quote them to the child. He stood still again.

"Tilly, when one gets out of hearing of those voices, the enemy has a
good chance to whisper to us; and he never loses a chance. That was
what happened to Eve in the garden of Eden."

"How can I do, Mr. Richmond?"

"I should say, dear, don't get out of hearing of them."

"But, sometimes"--Matilda paused in difficulty. "Sometimes I am
thinking of so many other things, and my head gets full; and then I do
not know where I am."

Mr. Richmond smiled. "You could not have given a better description of
the case," he said. "But Matilda, when you find that you do not know
where you are, run away, shut yourself up, and find out. It isn't safe
to get out of hearing of the Lord's voice."

"O Mr. Richmond!" said the child. "I want to be where I can hear it all
the time."

"There is one way. Don't you know it?"

"No, sir; I don't think I do."

"My dear child, it is very simple. Only obey his voice when you hear
it, and it will always be with you. Obedience is the little key that
unlocks the whole mystery,--the whole mystery," said Mr. Richmond,
beginning to walk up and down again. "When you hear ever so soft a
whisper in your heart, saying, '_This_ is the way,' follow there; and
so the Lord will lead you always."

Mr. Richmond went off to his study, but paused again to say, "Study the
twenty third verse of the fourteenth chapter of John, Matilda; and take
that for your rule."

Matilda went about softly, putting the china in the pantry, making the
table clean, hanging up her towel and putting away her tub. Just as she
had finished, Mr. Richmond opened the door. He had his hat and great
coat on.

"Tilly, look after my fire, will you?" he said. "I s