e."

"O God, I thank Thee for that!" cried Mr. Hardy.

Often during the most remarkable week he ever lived Mr. Hardy reposed
in that implicit belief of his wife in his sanity.

There was a pause. Then Mr. Hardy asked George to bring the Bible. He
read from John's Gospel that matchless prayer of Christ in the
seventeenth chapter; then kneeling down, he prayed as he had never
prayed before, that in the week allotted him to live he might know how
to bless the world and serve his Master best. And when he arose and
looked about upon his wife and children, it was with the look of one
who has been into the very presence chamber of the only living God. At
the same moment, so fast had the time gone in the excitement, the clock
upon the mantel struck the hour of midnight--and the first of Robert
Hardy's seven days had begun!

MONDAY--THE FIRST DAY.

When Mr. Hardy woke on the morning of the first of the seven days left
him to live, he was on the point of getting ready for his day's
business, as usual, when the memory of his dream flashed upon him, and
he was appalled to decide what he should do first. Breakfast was
generally a hurried and silent meal with him. The children usually
came straggling down at irregular intervals, and it was very seldom
that the family all sat down together. This morning Mr. Hardy waited
until all had appeared, and while they were eating he held a family
council.

His wife was evidently in great excitement and anxiety, and yet the
love and tenderness she felt coming back to her from her husband gave
her face a look of beauty that had been a stranger to it for years.

The children were affected in various ways by their father's remarkable
change. George was sullen and silent. Will looked thoughtful and
troubled. Alice, a girl of very strong and decided opinions and
character, greeted her father with a kiss and seemed to understand the
new relations he now sustained to them all. Clara appeared terrified,
as if death had already come into the house, and several times she
broke down crying at the table, and finally went away into the sitting
room. Bess sat next to her father, as she always did, and was the most
cheerful of all, taking a very calm and philosophical view of the
situation, so that Mr. Hardy smiled once or twice as she gave her
advice.

Mr. Hardy was pale but calm. The impression of the night before was
evidently deepening with him. It would have been absurd to ca