ou asking for?"

"For power to do things I have not done for years. I want to walk--to
stand--to work. If under the stress of necessity I begin to do all
three, my doctors will say that mental exaltation and will power have
caused the change. It may be true, but mental exaltation and will power
are things of the soul not of the body. Anguish is actually forcing me
into a sort of practical belief. I am trying to 'have faith even as a
grain of mustard seed' so that I may say unto my mountain, 'Remove hence
to yonder place and it shall be removed.'"

"'The things which I do, ye shall do also and even greater things than
these shall ye do.'" Coombe repeated the words deliberately. "I heard an
earnest middle-aged dissenter preach a sermon on that text a few days
ago."

"What?"--his old friend leaned forward. "Are _you_ going to hear
sermons?"

"I am one of the children, I suppose. Though I do not shriek aloud,
probably something shrieks within me. I was passing a small chapel and
heard a singular voice. I don't know exactly why I went into the place,
but when I sat down inside I felt the tension of the atmosphere at once.
Every one looked anxious or terrified. There were pale faces and stony
or wild eyes. It did not seem to be an ordinary service and voices kept
breaking out with spasmodic appeals, 'Almighty God, look down on us!'
'Oh, Christ, have mercy!' 'Oh, God, save us!' One woman in black was
rocking backwards and forwards and sobbing over and over again, 'Oh,
Jesus! Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus!'"

"Part of her body and soul was lying done to death in some field--or by
some roadside," said the Duchess. "She could not pray--she could only
cry out. I can hear her, 'Oh, Lord Jesus!'"

Later came the morning when the changed George came to say good-bye. He
was wonderfully good-looking in his khaki and seemed taller and more
square of jaw. He made a few of the usual young jokes which were
intended to make things cheerful and to treat affectionate fears
lightly, but his good-natured blue eye held a certain deadly quiet in
its depths.

His mother and Kathryn were with him, and it was while they were
absorbed in anxious talk with the Duchess that he walked over to where
Robin sat and stood before her.

"Will you come into the library and let me say something to you? I don't
want to go away without saying it," he put it to her.

The library was the adjoining room and Robin rose and went with him
without any comment or que