nd she asked no question about the matter.

"Did you think I had forgotten you, Nanna?"

"Well, then, yes."

"Forgotten you and Vala?"

"It looked most like it. I thought you were either feared for
yourself or the law."

"No wonder men think ill of God, whom they do not know, when they
are so ready to think ill of men, whom they do know."

"O David! how could you desert me? Can you think of all that I have
suffered alone? God nor man has helped me."

"Poor, poor Nanna!"

"If you had been ill to death, neither the words of men nor the power
of the law could have kept me from your sick-bed. No, indeed! I
would have risked everything to help you. Where were you at all,
David?"

"I was on the _Sea Rover_."

"The _Sea Rover_! That is Nicol's ship. What did he do to you? What
were you there for?"

"I was on the _Sea Rover_ nursing your husband."

"My God!"

"That is the truth, Nanna. I have just finished my task."

"Who sent you?"

"The minister came to me with the order, and I could not win by it
and face God and man again."

"What said he? O David! David!"

"He said, 'David Borson, there are four men ill with typhus this
morning on the _Sea Rover_. The one man yet unstricken is quite
broken down with fright and fatigue. The doctor says some one ought
to go there. What do you think?' And I said, 'Minister, do you mean
me?' And he smiled a bit and answered, 'I thought you would know
your duty, David.'"

"But why _your_ duty, David? Surely Vala was dearer and nearer."

"The minister said, 'You are a lone man, David, and you fear God;
so, then, you need not fear the fever.'"

"And he knew that you hated Sinclair! Knew that Sinclair had come
to my house with the fever on him--knew that he had lifted my poor
bairn, only that he might give her the death-kiss!"

"No, no! How could any father, any man, be as bad as that, Nanna?"

"You know not how bad the devil can make a man when he enters into
him. And how could the minister send you such a hard road?"

"It was made easy to me; it was indeed, Nanna. The sensible presence
of God, and the shining of his face on me, though only for a moment,
made me willing to give up all my anger and all my revenge, and wait
on my enemy, and do what I could for him to the last moment."

"And Vala? How could you forget her?"

"I did not forget her. I was feared for the child, though I would
not say that to you. Barbara told me she had fret all night, and when
I said