written by his own
feeble and shaking hand, reaching her, beseeching and demanding of her a
solemn promise to stay in England as long as he lived. Jean Merle said
nothing, even when she went down to visit them, urged by Canon Pascal to
set before Mr. Clifford the strong reasons there were for her to
accompany the party of emigrants; but Phebe knew that Jean Merle's life,
with its unshared memories and secrets, would be still more dreary if
she went away. After she had seen these two she wavered no more.

It was a larger party of emigrants than any one had foreseen; for it was
no sooner known that Canon Pascal was leaving England as a colonial
Bishop, than many men and women came forward anxious to go out and found
new homes under his auspices. He was a well-known advocate of
emigration, and it was rightly deemed a singular advantage to have him
as a leader as well as their spiritual chief. Canon Pascal threw himself
into the movement with ardor, and the five months elapsing before he set
sail were filled with incessant claims upon his time and thought, while
all about him were drawn into the strong current of his work. Phebe was
occupied from early morning till late at night, and a few hours of deep
sleep, which gave her no time for thinking of her own future, was all
the rest she could command. Even Felix, who had scarcely shaken off the
depression caused by his mother's sudden death, found a fresh
fountain-head of energy and gladness in sharing Canon Pascal's new
career, and in the immediate prospect of marrying Alice.

For in addition to all the other constant calls upon her, Phebe was
plunged into the preparations needed for this marriage, which was to
take place before they left England. There was no longer any reason to
defer it for lack of means, as Felix had inherited his share of his
mother's settlement. But Phebe drew largely on her own resources to send
out for them the complete furnishing of a home as full of comfort, and
as far as possible, as full of real beauty, as their Essex rectory had
been. She almost stripped her studio of the sketches and the finished
pictures which Felix and Hilda had admired, sighing sometimes, and
smiling sometimes, as they vanished from her sight into the packing
cases, for the times that were gone by, and for the pleasant surprise
that would greet them, in that far-off land, when their eyes fell upon
the old favorites from home.

Felix and Hilda spent a few days at Riversbor