ood-bye, my dear," said her mother. "Think of us prisoners in the
right way at Church, and not in the wrong one."

Strangely came the sound of the Church bell to their ears through the
window, half open to admit the breezy breath of spring; the cawing of
the rooks and the song of the blackbird came with it; the sky was clear
and blue, the buds were bursting into life.

"How very lovely it is!" added she.

Fred made a brief reply, but without turning his head to the window. His
eyes, his thoughts, his whole soul, were full of the contemplation of
what was to him a thousand times more lovely,--that frail wasted form,
namely, whose hand he held. The delicate pink colour which Henrietta had
described was on her cheek, contrasting with the ivory whiteness of the
rest of her face; the blue eyes shone with a sweet subdued brightness
under their long black lashes; the lips smiled, though languidly yet as
sunnily as ever; the dark hair lay in wavy lines along the sides of her
face; and but for the helplessness with which the figure rested in the
chair, there was less outward token of suffering than he had often seen
about her,--more appearance almost of youth and beauty. But it was not
an earthly beauty; there was something about it which filled him with
a kind of indescribable undefined awe, together with dread of a sorrow
towards which he shrank from looking. She thought him fatigued with the
exertion he had made, and allowed him to rest, while she contemplated
with pleasure even the slight advances which he had already made in
shaking off the traces of illness.

The silence was not broken till Aunt Geoffrey came in, just as the last
stroke of the Church-bell died away, bringing in her hand a fragrant
spray of the budding sweet-briar.

"The bees are coming out with you, Freddy," said she. "I have just been
round the garden watching them revelling in the crocuses."

"How delicious!" said Mrs. Frederick Langford, to whom she had offered
the sweet-briar. "Give it to him, poor fellow; he is quite knocked up
with his journey."

"O no, not in the least, mamma, thank you," said Fred, sitting up
vigorously; "you do not know how strong I am growing." And then turning
to the window, he made an effort, and began observing on her rook's
nest, as she called it, and her lilac buds. Then came a few more
cheerful questions and comments on the late notes, and then Mrs.
Frederick Langford proposed that the reading of the service should