; as rivers of water in a dry place; as
the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land."

"Is that plainer?" he asked.

"It means the Saviour?" said Elizabeth.

"Certainly it does! To whom else should we go?"

"But Mr. Landholm," said Elizabeth after a minute's struggle,
"why do you shew me this, when you know I can do nothing with
it?"

"_Will_ you do nothing?" he said.

The words implied that she could; an implication she would not
deny; but her answer was another burst of tears. And with the
book in her hand he left her.

The words were well studied that day! by a heart feeling the
blast of the tempest and bitterly wanting to hide itself from
the wind. But the fact of her want and of a sure remedy, was
all she made clear; how to match the one with the other she
did not know. The book itself she turned over with the
curiosity and the interest of fresh insight into character. It
was well worn, and had been carefully handled; it lay open
easily anywhere, and in many places various marks of
pencilling shewed that not only the eyes but the mind of its
owner had been all over it. It was almost an awful book to
Elizabeth's handling. It seemed a thing too good to be in her
hold. It bore witness to its owner's truth of character, and
to her own consequent being far astray; it gave her an opening
such as she never had before to look into his mind and life
and guess at the secret spring and strength of them. Of many
of the marks of his pencil she could make nothing at all; she
could not divine why they had been made, nor what could
possibly be the notable thing in the passage pointed out; and
longing to get at more of his mind than she could in one
morning's hurried work, she found another bible in the house
and took off a number of his notes, for future and more
leisurely study.

It was a happy occupation for her that day. No other could
have so softened its exceeding weariness and sadness. The
doctor gave her no comfort. He said he could tell nothing _yet;_
and Elizabeth could not fancy that this delay of amendment
gave any encouragement to hope for it. She did not see
Winthrop at dinner. She spent the most of the day over his
bible. Sickness of heart sometimes made her throw it aside,
but so surely sickness of heart made her take it up again.

The thought of Winthrop himself getting sick, did once or
twice look in through the window of Elizabeth's mind; but her
mind could not take it in. She had so much alrea