me pull through, and I
am going to pray myself by and by, but I don't want you to talk to me
about that now. I want to ask you something. Grandpa never joined the
church, and at the funeral you said he was good, that he was safe; did
you mean it?"

Grey's eyes were fixed earnestly upon the rector, who answered,
unhesitatingly:

"I wish I were as sure of heaven as he. I know he is safe."

"You _are_ sure?" Grey rejoined, flushing a little, for now he was
nearing the real object of his interview with the rector, "You are sure,
and Aunt Hannah is sure. She ought to know. You believe her a good
woman?"

Mr. Sanford could not understand the breathless eagerness with which
Grey awaited his reply, which came quickly, decidedly:

"Your Aunt Hannah! Yes, she is the best, the truest, the purest woman
who ever lived. She is a martyr, a saint, an angel. I never knew one
like her."

"Thank you," Grey said, with a look of intense relief in his eyes. "You
have made me very happy. I wanted to feel sure, about grandpa; and now,
please go. I am very tired; some time I will see you again."

So the rector left him, feeling a little disappointed with the result of
his interview. He had hoped that Grey wished to speak with him of
himself, and of his new resolves for the future, when, in fact, it was
only a wish to be reassured of his grandfather's safety, which the boy
possibly doubted a little because he had never united himself with the
church. That Hannah had anything to do with it the rector never
suspected and did not dream of the great gladness in Grey's heart as he
kept repeating to himself:

"She is good, even if she did know. She is a saint, a martyr, an angel;
and I distrusted her; but all my life hereafter I will devote to her by
way of atonement."

It was late in the afternoon when Hannah returned to Grey's Park, and
went up to see her nephew, of whose improved condition she had heard.

"Oh, auntie," he cried, when he saw her. "I am so glad to have you
back;" and Hannah did not guess that the boy had her back in more ways
than one, but she kissed him, and cried over him, and told him how her
heart had ached when she feared she might lose him, and how desolate the
world would be without him, while he told her how much he loved her, and
how he meant to care for her when he was a man, and take her to Europe,
and everywhere.

"And you will grow young again," he said. "You have never had any
youth, I guess. How old are