rew the poor little wife, who had always been
rather delicate, into bad health, rendering a warm climate necessary for
her at a time when they could not afford to travel. Moreover, little
Eva's education was entirely stopped at perhaps the most important
period of her life. That was a bad business, wasn't it?"

"That was a much worse business," asserted Otto.

"Well, when Mr Getall was at the lowest stage of despair, and had taken
more than one look over the parapet of London Bridge with a view to
suicide, he received a letter from a long-neglected brother, who had for
many years dwelt on the Continent, partly for economy and partly for a
son's health. The brother offered him a home in the south of France for
the winter, as it would do his wife good, he said, and he had room in
his house for them all, and wanted their company very much to keep him
from being dull in that land of warmth and sunshine! Getall was not the
man to refuse such an offer. He went. The brother was an earnest
Christian. His influence at that critical time of sore distress was the
means in the Holy Spirit's hands of rescuing the miser's soul, and
transferring his heart from gold to the Saviour. A joy which he had
never before dreamed of took possession of him, and he began, timidly at
first to commend Jesus to others. Joy, they say, is curative. The
effect of her husband's conversion did so much good to little Mrs
Getall's spirit that her body began steadily to mend, and in time she
was restored to better health than she had enjoyed in England. The
brother-in-law, who was a retired schoolmaster, undertook the education
of Eva, and, being a clever man as well as good, trained her probably
much better than she would have been trained had she remained at home.
At last they returned to England, and Mr Getall, with the assistance of
friends, started afresh in business. He never again became a rich man
in the worldly sense, but he became rich enough to pay off all his
creditors to the last farthing; rich enough to have something to spare
for a friend in distress; rich enough to lay past something for Eva's
dower, and rich enough to contribute liberally to the funds of those
whose business it is to `consider the poor.' All that, you see, being
the result of what you have admitted, my boy, was a bad business."

"True, but then," objected Otto, who was of an argumentative turn, "if
all that _hadn't_ resulted, it would have been a bad business