probably hang a stone
round his neck and be at the bottom of some deep pool. He could not go
back; people would ask where his son was, and what could he say? He had
murdered him. He had thought to save him, and he was dead. He walked
and walked till he could walk no more, and a great horror came on him--a
horror of great darkness. The Eternal Arms were unclasped, and he felt
himself sinking--into what he knew not. He could not describe his terror
to himself. It was nameless, shapeless, awful, infinite; and all he
could do was to cry out in agony; the words of the Book, even in this his
most desperate moment, serving to voice the experience for him--"My God!
my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?" It became intolerable, and his brain
began to turn. He reflected though, even then, upon the disgrace of
suicide. For himself he did not care; for had not God abandoned him? and
what worse thing could befall him? But then his good name, and the brand
of infamy which would be affixed to Robert should he still live! Could
he not die so that it might be set down as an accident? He could swim;
and although he had not been often in the water of late years, it would
not be thought extraordinary if on a blazing morning he should bathe. He
took off his clothes, and in a moment was in the sea, striking out for
the river channel and the ebbing tide, which he knew would bear him away
to the ocean. He saw nothing, heard nothing, till just as he neared the
buoy and the fatal eddy was before him, when there escaped from him a
cry--a scream--a prayer of commitment to Him whom he believed he had so
loyally served--served with such damnable, such treasonable fidelity--the
God who had now turned away from him.

But the buoy was not reached. A hand was on him, firm but soft, grasping
him by the hair at the back of his neck, which he wore long in Puritanic
fashion, and the hand held him and he knew no more. Susan Shipton,
bathing that morning, had seen a human being in the water nearing the
point where she herself so nearly lost her life. Without a moment's
hesitation she made after him, and was fortunate enough to attract the
attention of two men in a punt, who followed her. She came up just in
time, and with their help Michael was saved. He was senseless, but after
a few hours he recovered, and asked his wife, who was standing by his
bedside, who rescued him.

"Why, it was Susan Shipton. She was in the water and came after you,