and she took her hand and fondled it, "It is like the
old times to have you here taking care of me."

"Very unlike them in some ways," said Flora.

"It has been a great renewal of still older times," said Margaret, "to
have Aunt Flora here. I hope you will get to know her, Flora, it is
so like having mamma here," and she looked in her sister's face as she
spoke.

Flora did not reply, but she lay quite still, as if there were a charm
in the perfect rest of being alone with Margaret, making no effort, and
being able to be silent. Time passed on, how long they knew not, but,
suddenly, a thrill shot through Margaret's frame; she raised her hand
and lifted her head, with an eager "Hark!"

Flora could hear nothing.

"The bells--his bells!" said Margaret, all one radiant look of
listening, as Flora opened the window further, and the breeze wafted in
the chime, softened by distance. The carnation tinted those thin white
cheeks, eyes and smile beamed with joy, and uplifted finger and parted
lips seemed marking every note of the cadence.

It ceased. "Alan! Alan!" said she. "It is enough! I am ready!"

The somewhat alarmed look on Flora's face recalled her, and, smiling,
she held out her hands for the consecration books, saying, "Let us
follow the service. It will be best for us both."

Slowly, softly, and rather monotonously, Flora read on, till she had
come more than half through the first lesson. Her voice grew husky, and
she sometimes paused as if she could not easily proceed. Margaret begged
her to stop, but she would not cease, and went on reading, though almost
whispering, till she came to, "If they return to Thee with all their
heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither
they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which Thou
gavest unto their fathers, and toward the City which Thou hast chosen,
and toward the House which I have built for Thy Name; then hearing from
the Heavens, even from Thy dwelling-place--"

Flora could go no further; she strove, but one of her tearless sobs
cut her short. She turned her face aside, and, as Margaret began to say
something tender, she exclaimed, with low, hasty utterance, "Margaret!
Margaret! pray for me, for it is a hard captivity, and my heart is very,
very sore. Oh! pray for me, that it may all be forgiven me--and that I
may see my child again!"

"My Flora; my own poor, dear Flora! do I not pray? Oh! look up, look up.
Think how He