le sooner or later with you now."

"Av, I ken that well. It is vain to struggle with death."

"And you are not afraid?"

"Whiles--I am afraid. I deserve nothing at His hand, whom I have ay
neglected and often set at naught. But, you see, I have His own word
for it. Ready to forgive--waiting to be gracious--I am sorry for my
sins--for my lost life--and all the ill I have done in it. Do you think
I am over-bold just to take Him at His word? Well--I just do that.
What else can I do?"

What indeed! There was nothing else to be done--and nothing else was
needed.

"He will not fail you," said the doctor gently.

"And you'll speak to--my wife? for I am not sure--that she will wish to
go--home." And then he closed his eyes and lay still.

In the meantime Allison had taken her way to the sands, and as she went
she was saying to herself:

"I can but go as I am led. God guide me, for the way is dark."

It was a mild November day, still and grey on land and sea. The grey
sea had a gleam on it here and there, and the tide was creeping softly
in over the sands. Allison walked slowly and wearily, for her heart was
heavy. She was saying to herself that at last, that which she feared
was come upon her, and there was truly no escape.

"For how can I forsake him now? And yet--how can I go with him--to meet
all that may wait me there? Have I been wrong all the way through, from
the very first, and is this the way in which my punishment is to come?
And is it my own will I have been seeking all this time, while I have
been asking to be led?"

There was no wind to battle against to-day, but when she came to the
place where she had been once before at a time like this, she sat down
at the foot of the great rock, and went over it all again. To what
purpose!

There was only one way in which the struggle could end,--just as it had
often ended before.

"I will make no plan. I will live just _day_ by _day_. And if I am led
by Him--as the blind are led--what does it matter where?"

So she rose and went slowly home, and was "just as usual," as far as
Mrs Robb, or even the clearer-eyed Robert, could see. Robert was back
to his classes and his books again, and he took a great but silent
interest in Allison's comings and goings, gathering from chance words of
hers more than ever she dreamed of disclosing. And from her silence he
gathered something too.

A few more days passed, and though little difference could be s