,
to find Jesus Christ."

Again the red stream stained his lips, and Dr. Danvers came swiftly
forward, but Lenox Hildreth was forever beyond all need of human care.

* * * * *

A week passed, and day after day Evadne sat by her window, speaking no
word. Outdoors the fountain still sparkled in the sunshine and the birds
sang, but for her the foundations of life had been shaken to their
center. Her friends tried in vain to break up her unnatural calm.

"If you would only have a good cry, Evadne," Geoffrey Chittenden said
at last, "you would feel better, dear. That is what all girls do, you
know."

She turned upon him a pair of solemn eyes, out of which the merry
sparkle had faded. "Will crying give me back my father?"

"Why, no, dear. Of course I didn't mean that. But these things are bound
to happen to us all, sooner or later, you know. It is the rule of life."

"'The law of progression,'" she said with a dreary laugh. "I wish the
world would stop for good!"

When the clergyman came she met him quietly, and he found himself not a
little disconcerted by the steady gaze of the mournful grey eyes. He was
not accustomed to dealing with such wordless grief, and he found his
favorite phrases sadly inadequate to the occasion. There was an awkward
pause.

"Dr. Danvers says your father told him some time ago that, in the event
of his death, he wished you to make your home with your uncle in
America?" he said at length.

Evadne bowed.

"Well, my dear young lady, you will find it in all respects a most
desirable home, I feel confident. Judge Hildreth holds a position of
great trust in the church, and is universally esteemed as a Christian
gentleman of sterling character."

The grey eyes were lifted to his face.

"Shall I find Jesus Christ there?"

"Jesus Christ?" The clergyman echoed her words with a start. "I beg your
pardon, my dear. The Lord sitteth upon his throne in the heavens. We
must approach him reverently, with humble fear."

"That seems a long way off," said Evadne in a disappointed tone. "There
must be some mistake. My father told me to make it the business of my
life to find him."

"Your father, my dear! Oh, ah, ahem!"

An indignant flash leaped into the grey eyes. Evadne rose and faced him.
"You must excuse me, sir," she said quietly. Then she left the room.

And the tears, which all the kindly sympathy had failed to bring her, at
the first breath of censure fell