oing forward, I feel it. If only Philippus
were here!"

"But we are all safe and well, thank God!" observed Orion, and she
quickly replied:

"Yes indeed, the Lord be praised!" But she thought to herself:

"You think he is of no use but to heal the sick; but it is only when he
is here that everything goes right and happens for the best!"

Still, all felt that there was something unusual and ominous in the
air, and when the old man presently returned his face confirmed their
suspicions. He laid aside his hat and staff in speechless gravity; then
he put his arm affectionately round his wife and said:

"You will need all your courage and self-command once more, as you have
often done before, good wife; I have taken upon myself a serious duty."

Joanna had turned very pale, and while she clung to her husband and
begged him to speak and not to torture her with suspense, her frail
figure was trembling, and bitter tears ran down her cheeks. She could
guess that her husband was once more going away from her and their
child, in the service and for the benefit of others, and she knew full
well that she could not prevent it. If she could, she never would have
had the heart to interfere: for she always understood him, and felt with
him that something to take him out of the narrow circle of home-life was
indispensable to his happiness.

He read her thoughts, and they gave him pain; but he was not to be
diverted from his purpose. The man who would try to heal every suffering
brute was accustomed to see those whom he loved best grieve on his
account. Marriage, he would say, ought not to hinder a man in following
his soul's vocation; and he was fond of using this high-sounding name to
justify himself in his own and his wife's eyes, in doing things to which
he was prompted only by restlessness and unsatisfied energy. Without
this he would, no doubt, have done his best for the imperilled
sisterhood, but it added to his enjoyment of the grand and dangerous
rescue.

The wretched fate of the hapless nuns, and the thought of losing them
as near neighbors, grieved the women deeply, and the men saw many tears
flow; at the same time they had the satisfaction of finding them all
three firmly and equally determined to venture all, and to bid these
whom they loved venture all, to hinder the success of a deed which
filled them with horror and disgust.

Joanna spoke not a word of demur when Rufinus said that he intended to
accompany the fu