I_
have prayed at her knee. Once, in my fits of passion and rage, she told
me of a king who like me had an evil spirit--Saul, yes, it must have
been Saul--and she prayed God that one of His angels might be sent to me
to drive it out. Two angels have come at last--_you_ and your
sister--and I shall never forget you. Kiss me on the forehead before
you go--a seal of forgiveness, of pardon.'

Bryda rose and did as he asked her, and then without another word left
the room.

* * * * *

Mr Barrett dropped her at the farm, where Betty received her, and,
flinging her arms round this gentle sister, she said,--

'Oh, Betty! dear Bet! take me upstairs. I can bear no more.'

No, she could bear no more--overwrought, and ill in mind and body, Bryda
lay down in her tent-bed in the upper chamber of Bishop's Farm; and Mrs
Lambert, to her intense surprise and vexation, was obliged to look for
someone else to supply Bryda's place, mend and clear starch her lace,
and prepare dainty dishes for Mr Lambert's friends, attend her to the
cathedral, and indulge all her whims.

It is never too late to mend, though, of all ugly weeds which grow
unchecked in the human heart, selfishness is the hardest to pluck up,
especially if for seventy years it has flourished unchecked.

* * * * *

Bryda lay in a state of feverish exhaustion on her bed for many weeks,
tended with loving care by Betty, who did her best to divert her mind
from sad thoughts.

Betty said very little about the time when the Squire lay in the parlour
below, and Bryda was too languid to ask many questions.

In the farm things seemed to have taken a turn for the better. Peter
Palmer, having been assured that he was delivered from debt, seemed to
take a new lease of life. The wheat harvest promised to be plentiful,
the berry crop had been good, and old Silas reported well of the sheep,
the last flock driven to Bristol market having fetched a fair price from
the dealers; and as to the poultry, Dorothy Burrow declared that, now
Goody Renton was dead, the later broods were all healthy, and that it
was her evil eye which had done to death so many in previous summers.

Mr Barrett was still in occasional attendance on the Squire, and never
failed to stop at Bishop's Farm when he passed, either going or coming.

He was always cheery and hopeful, and in advance of the general
practitioner of those days in many ways. He br