Diana said seriously. Mrs. Starling lifted up her head and gave a
curious searching look into her daughter's face. What was she trying to
find?

"That's one turtle dove," she said. "And are you another, and always
bob your head when he bobs his'n?"

Diana wondered at this speech; it seemed to her, her mother was losing
ground even in the matter of language. No thought of irritation crossed
her; she was beyond trifles now. She made no answer; she merely bade
her mother good-bye, and hurried out. And for a long while the drive
was again in silence. Then, when the grey horse was walking up a hill,
Diana spoke in a meditative sort of way.

"Basil--you said enjoyment was not the end of life"--

"Did I?" he answered gravely.

"If you didn't, it was Mother Bartlett. You _do_ say so, I suppose?"

"Yes. It is not the end of life."

"What is, then?"

"To do the will of God. And by and by, if not sooner, enjoyment comes
that way too, Diana. And when it comes that way, it stays, and lasts."

"How long?"

"For ever and ever!"

Diana waited a few minutes and then spoke again.

"Basil--I want to consult you."

"Well, do it."

"Ought I to leave my mother to live alone, as she is? She is not young
now."

"What would you do?"

"If I knew, Basil, I would like it to do what I _ought_ to do."

"Would you take her to live with you?"

"If you would?--and she would."

Basil put his arm round his wife and bent down and kissed her. He would
not have done it if he could have guessed how she shrank.

"If you will take life on those terms," he said, "then it will be true
for you, that 'sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning.'"

It will be the morning of the resurrection, then, thought Diana; but
she only replied,

"What 'terms,' Basil, do you mean?"

"Doing the Lord's will. His will is always good, Diana, and brings
sweet fruit; only you must wait till the fruit is ripe, my child."

"Then what about mother?"

"I do not believe she would come to us."

"Nor I. Suppose she would let us come to her?"

"Then I would go,--if you wished it."

"I don't wish it, Basil. I was thinking, if I could bear it? But the
thought will not out of my head, that she ought not to be alone."

"Then do what is in thine heart," the minister said cheerfully.

CHAPTER XXXI.

A JUNE DAY.

Mrs. Starling hesitated, when Diana proposed her plan; she would think
of it, she said. But when she began to th