came that Mary met with no interruption to her watching
and ministering. Mewks kept coming and going--watching her, and
awaiting his opportunity. Mr. Redmain scarcely heeded him, only once
and again saying in sudden anger, "What can that idiot be about? He
might know by this time I'm not likely to want _him_ so long as _you_
are in the room!"

And said Mary to herself: "Who knows what good the mere presence of one
who trusts may be to him, even if he shouldn't seem to take much of
what she says! Perhaps he may think of some of it after he is dead--who
knows?" Patiently she sat and waited, full of help that would have
flowed in a torrent, but which she felt only trickle from her heart
like a stream that is lost on the face of the rock down which it flows.

All at once she bethought herself, and looked at her watch: Joseph had
been waiting for her more than an hour, and would not, she knew, if he
stopped all night, go away without her! And for her, she could not
forsake the poor man her presence seemed to comfort! He was now lying
very still: she would slip out and send Joseph away, and be back before
the patient or any one else should miss her!

She went softly from the room, and glided down the stairs, and out of
the house, seeing no one--but not unseen: hardly was she from the room,
when the door of it was closed and locked behind her, and hardly from
the house, when the house-door also was closed and locked behind her.
But she heard nothing, and ran, without the least foreboding of mishap,
to the corner where Joseph was to meet her.

There he was, waiting as patiently as if the hour had not yet come.

"I can't leave him, Joseph. My heart won't let me," she said. "I can
not go back before the morning. I will look in upon you as I pass."

So saying, and without giving him time to answer, she bade him good
night, and ran back to the house, hoping to get in as before without
being seen. But to her dismay she found the door already fast, and
concluded the hour had arrived when the house was shut up for the
night. She rang the bell, but there was no answer--for there was Mewks
himself standing close behind the door, grinning like his master an
evil grin. As she knocked and rang in vain, the fact flashed upon her
that she was intentionally excluded. She turned away, overwhelmed with
a momentary despair. What was she to do? There stood Joseph! She ran
back to him, and told him they had shut her out.

"It makes me miser