afraid of it. But in its hour
of adversity she took to it, and she and Regie spent many hours
consoling it for the arrival of the little chrysalis up-stairs.

Mrs. Gresley recovered slowly, and before she was down-stairs again
Regie sickened with one of those swift, sudden illnesses of childhood,
which make childless women thank God for denying them their prayers.

Mrs. Gresley was not well enough to be told, and for many days Mr.
Gresley and Hester and Doctor Brown held Regie forcibly back from the
valley of the shadow, where, since the first cradle was rocked, the soft
feet of children have cleft so sharp an entrance over the mother-hearts
that vainly barred the way.

Mr. Gresley's face grew as thin as Hester's as the days went by. On his
rounds--for he let nothing interfere with his work--heavy farmers in
dog-carts, who opposed him at vestry meetings, stopped to ask after
Regie. The most sullen of his parishioners touched their hats to him as
he passed, and mothers of families, who never could be induced to leave
their cooking to attend morning service, and were deeply offended at
being called "after-dinner Christians" in consequence, forgot the
opprobrious term, and brought little offerings of new-laid eggs and rosy
apples to tempt "the little master."

Mr. Gresley was touched, grateful.

"I don't think I have always done them justice," he actually said to
Hester one day. "They do seem to understand me a little better at last.
Walsh has never spoken to me since my sermon on Dissent, though I always
make a point of being friendly to him, but to-day he stopped, and said
he knew what trouble was, and how he had lost"--Mr. Gresley's voice
faltered, "it is a long time ago--but how, when he was about my age, he
lost his eldest boy, and how he always remembered Regie in his prayers,
and I must keep up a good heart. We shook hands," said Mr. Gresley. "I
sometimes think Walsh means well, and that he may be a good-hearted man,
after all."

Beneath the arrogance which a belief in Apostolic succession seems to
induce in natures like Mr. Gresley's, as mountain air induces asthma in
certain lungs, the shaft of agonized anxiety had pierced to a thin layer
of humility. Hester knew that that layer was only momentarily disturbed,
and that the old self would infallibly reassert itself; but the
momentary glimpse drew her heart towards her brother. He was conscious
of it, and love almost grew between them as they watched by Regie'