use that
they might be ready and on hand for any emergency. It is in the hour of
trouble that friendship receives its strongest test. Mary's friends, when
it came, were not found wanting.

"Nothing," Godwin says, "could exceed the equanimity, the patience, and
affectionateness of the poor sufferer. I entreated her to recover; I
dwelt with trembling fondness on every favorable circumstance; and, as
far as it was possible in so dreadful a situation, she, by her smiles and
kind speeches, rewarded my affection." After the first night of her
illness she told him that she would have died during its agony had she
not been determined not to leave him. Throughout her sickness she was
considerate of those around her. Her ruling passion was strong in death.
When her attendants recommended her to sleep, she tried to obey, though
her disease made this almost impossible. She was gentle even in her
complaints. Expostulation and contradiction were peculiarly irritating to
her in her then nervous condition, but one night when a servant
heedlessly expostulated with her, all she said was, "Pray, pray do not
let her reason with me!" Religion was not once, to use Godwin's
expression, a torment to her. Her religious views had modified since the
days long past when she had sermonized so earnestly to George Blood. She
had never, however, despite Godwin's atheism, lost her belief in God nor
her reliance upon Him. But, at no time an adherent to mere form, she was
not disturbed in her last moments by a desire to conform to church
ceremonies. Religion was at this crisis, as it had always been, a source
of comfort and not of worry. She had invariably preferred virtue to vice,
and she was not now afraid of reaping the reward of her actions. The
probability of her approaching death did not occur to her until the last
two days, and then she was so enfeebled that she was not harassed by the
thought as she had been at first. On Saturday, the 9th, Godwin, who had
been warned by Mr. Carlisle that her hours were numbered, and who wished
to ascertain if she had any directions to leave, consulted her about the
future of the two children. The physician had particularly charged him
not to startle her, for she was too weak to bear any excitement. He
therefore spoke as if he wished to arrange for the time of her illness
and convalescence. But she understood his real motive. "I know what you
are thinking of," she told him. But she added that she had nothing to
co