d that their child
had her own sorrows, that the lot of woman had found her out, that she
had come to places where their love could not help her. Yet the visit,
short and unsatisfactory as it was, made a great difference in
Penelles' cottage. It lifted much anxiety. It gave the father and
mother hopes which they took to God to perfect, excuses which they
pleaded with Him to accept. Their confidence in their child was
strengthened; they could pray for her now with a more sure hope, with
a more perfect faith.

When the gloaming came on thick with Cornish fog Joan kissed her
darling good-bye with passionate love and grief, and John walked with
his "little dear" through the dripping woods to the wayside station,
and lifted her into the carriage with a great sob. None of the three
could have borne such another day, but oh, how glad was each one that
they had dared, and enjoyed, and suffered through this one! It left a
mark on each soul that eternity would not efface.

CHAPTER XII.

A COWARDLY LOVE.

"Howso'er I stray or range,
Whate'er I do, thou dost not change;
I steadier step when I recall
That if I slip thou dost not fall."
--CLOUGH.

"Have you buried your happiness? Well, live bravely on. The plant
does not die though all its flowers be broken off. It remembers
that spring will surely come again."

Roland and Denasia were in Liverpool. They were full of hopes and of
prudent plans. Roland had again turned over a new leaf; he had
renounced his past self--the faults he could no longer commit; he had
renounced also his future faults. If he was a little extravagant in
every way for a day or two before making so eventful a voyage, he felt
that Denasia ought not to complain. Alas! it is not the renunciation
of our past and future selves that is difficult; it is the steady
denial of our present self which makes the disciple.

They spent two pleasant days in Liverpool, and on the eve of the
second went to the wonderful piers and saw the vast companies of
steamers smudging the blue sky with their lowering clouds of black
smoke. Denasia clung closely to Roland; she felt that she was going
into a new world, and she looked with a questioning love into his
eyes, as if she could read her fortune in them. Roland was unusually
gay and hopeful. He reminded his wife that the mind and the heart
could not be changed by place or time. He said that they had each
oth