d be for some weeks separated
from her friend Mrs. Willoughby, who was not to return to Harcourt Manor
for some weeks.

Ah! truly has it been said, "Man proposes, but God disposes." The very
day that Mrs. Gower started for her home, Mrs. Willoughby received a
telegram telling her that Mr. Willoughby was very ill at the Manor, and
that the doctor begged she would come at once; and so it turned out
that, unknown to each other, the friends were again near neighbours, and
Mrs. Willoughby in her turn was to receive help and comfort from her
friend Mrs. Gower.

Long hours of suspense and anxiety followed the gentle lady's arrival at
her country home. It soon became evident that Mr. Willoughby's hours
were numbered, but his intellect remained clear. His eyes often rested
with great sadness on his wife, and as he thought of leaving her alone
and desolate, his prayer was that he might hear something definite
regarding the child ere he died. Could he but have obtained that boon,
he would have felt that that knowledge had been granted to him as a
pledge of God's forgiveness.

Not always does our all-wise God grant us signs even as an answer to our
prayers. Still, He is a God who not only forgives as a king, royally,
but also blesses us richly and fully to show the greatness of His
forgiving power. And such a God He was to prove Himself in the case of
Mr. Willoughby.

* * * * *

Whilst he lay on that bed of death, watched over and tended by loving
friends, Reginald Gower was tossing on a stormy sea, a fair emblem of
the conflict between good and evil, right and wrong, that was still
raging within his breast. But that night, when the waves of the Atlantic
were wellnigh overwhelming the vessel in which he sailed, when fear
dwelt in every heart, when the captain trod the deck with an anxious
gravity on his face, light broke on Reginald's heart. So his mother's
prayers were answered at last. The Holy Spirit worked on his heart, and
showed him as it were in a moment of time his selfishness and his sin;
and from the lips of the self-indulgent young man arose the cry never
uttered in vain, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And when the morning
light dawned, and it was seen they were nearing in safety the harbour
whither they were bound, Reginald Gower looked out on the sea, which was
fast quieting down, and gave thanks that the conflict in his soul was
ended, and that clear above the noise of the water