where--getting out the boats, quieting the passengers--doing
it all, the man says, as steadily as if he had been in his own house on
shore, instead of in a burning ship. If there was any one likely to have
saved his own life and the lives of others, the sailors think it must be
that young man."

"When did they see him last?"

"Not five minutes before the ship went down. He was in a boat with
several more. They think it was he because of his light hair. He was
leaning over towards a floating spar, helping in a woman and child."

"Ah, then it was he! It was my husband!" cried Agatha, clasping her
hands, while her countenance glowed like that of some Roman wife, who,
dearer even than his life, esteemed her husband's honour.

"I believe," she said, as that rapture faded, and the natural pang
returned--"I firmly believe that he has been saved. God would not let
him perish. He must have got safe off from the wreck in that boat. Don't
you think he has?"

Duke could not meet those eager eyes; he fidgeted in his seat, looked
down on his hands, and told them over, finger by finger. At last
he said, with that peculiar upward look which, amidst all his
eccentricities, showed the beautiful serenity of a righteous man--a man
who "walked with God:"

"Child, we can none of us be certain either way. We can only do all that
lies in human power, and leave the event in the hand of One who is wiser
and more loving than us all."

Agatha bowed her head, and her heart with it, almost to the dust. She
remembered Anne Valery's saying--how much those who loved have need to
trust in God. Poor Anne! Never until this minute had any one thought of
Anne at home at Thornhurst. Shocked at the selfishness that often comes
with great misery, Agatha cried eagerly:

"Did you hear anything about Uncle Brian?"

"No--nothing." The quick, husky tone, as Marmaduke turned and walked
away, betrayed how keenly the good man suffered, though he never spoke
of any sufferings but Agatha's. She was deeply touched.

"Take hope," she said earnestly. "He will be saved. My husband would
never forsake Uncle Brian."

"I know that; but then Nathanael is young, and has something to live
for, while Brian is getting on in years--older than I am.--I should like
to have seen him again, and have shown him little Brian; but--well
it's a strange world! Heaven's mercy is sure to give us a life to come,
perhaps many lives--if only to make clear the hard mysteries of this. I