ontented? You seem so,' he said, lingering at the
door a moment longer than he need have done.

'Oh yes; I have a great deal to be thankful for,' she answered. 'You
will come again to-morrow early, will you not?'

'Certainly. Good-morning. Take care of yourself. You do not look as if
your reserve of strength were very great either.'

'Oh, I am very strong, I assure you,' Gladys answered, with a smile; and
as she looked into his open, honest face, she could not help thinking
what a pleasant face it was.

Then she went back to keep her vigil by the sick-bed, and to exercise
her woman's prerogative to ease and minister to pain. There was so
little any one could do now, however, to help Abel Graham, the issue of
his case being in the hand of God. In obedience to the request of
Gladys, Walter went back to bed, and she sat on by the fire, thoroughly
awake, and watchful to be of the slightest use to her uncle. He did not
talk much, but he appeared to watch Gladys, and to be full of thoughts
concerning her.

'Do you remember that night I came, after your father died?' he asked
once.

'Yes,' she answered in a low voice. 'I remember it well.'

'You felt bitter and hard against me, did you not?'

'If I did, Uncle Abel, it has long passed,' she answered. 'There is no
good to be got recalling what is past.'

'Perhaps not; but, my girl, when a man comes to his dying bed it is the
past he harks back on, trying to get some comfort out of it for the
future he dreads, and failing always.'

'It is not your dying bed, Uncle Abel, I hope; you are not so old yet,'
she said cheerfully.

'No, I'm not old in years--not sixty--but old enough to regret my
youth,' he said. 'Are you still of the same mind about the spending of
money, if you should ever have it to spend?'

'Yes; but it is so unlikely, Uncle Abel, that I shall ever have any
money to spend. It is quite easy saying what we can do in imaginary
circumstances. Reality is always different, and more difficult to deal
with.'

'You are very wise for your years. How many are they?'

'Seventeen and three months.'

'Ay, well, you look your age and more. You'd pass for twenty, but no
wonder; and'--

'I wish you would not talk so much, uncle; it will excite and exhaust
you,' she said, in gentle remonstrance.

'I must talk, if my time is short. Suppose I'm taken, what will you do
with yourself, eh?'

'The way will open up for me, I do not doubt; there must be a corner for
m