-
humouredly telling Herbert not to think he knew anything about his
own symptoms, did not conceal from Julius that enough harm had been
done in these few days to give the fine Bowater constitution a hard
struggle.

"Grown careless," he said. "Regular throwing away of his life."

Careless Herbert might have been, but Julius wondered whether this
might not be losing of the life to find it.

Cranstoun or Cranky arrived, a charming old nurse, much gratified in
the midst of her grief, and inclination to scold. She summarily
sent off Mungo and Tartar by the conveyance that brought her, and
would have sent Rollo away, but that Herbert protested against it,
and no power short of an order from him would have taken the dog
from his bedside.

And Mr. Bindon returned from Wil'sbro' in unspeakable surprise.
"The heroes of the occasion," he said, "were Bowater and Mrs.
Duncombe! Every sick person I visited, and there were fourteen in
all stages, had something to say of one or other. Poor things, how
their faces fell when they saw me instead of his bright, honest
face! 'Cheering the very heart of one!' as a poor woman said;
'That's what I calls a true shepherd,' said an old man. You don't
really mean he was rejected at the Ordination?'"

"Yes, and it will make him the still truer shepherd, if he is only
spared!"

"The Sisters can't say enough of him. They thought him very ill
yesterday, and implored him to take care of himself; but he declared
he could not leave these two funerals to you. But, after all, he is
less amazing to me than Mrs. Duncombe. She has actually been living
at the hospital with the Sisters. I should not have known her."

"Great revolutions have happened in your absence. Much that has
drawn out her sterling worth, poor woman."

"I shall never speak harshly again, I hope. It seems to be a
judgment on me that I should have been idling on the mountains,
while those two were thus devoting themselves to my Master in His
poor."

"We are thankful enough to have you coming in fresh, instead of
breaking down now. Have you a sermon? You will have to take
Wil'sbro' to-morrow. Driver won't come. He wrote to the
churchwardens that he had a cold, and that his agreement was with
poor Fuller."

"And you undertook the Sunday?"

"Yes. They would naturally have no Celebration, and I thought
Herbert's preaching in the midst of his work would be good for them.
You never heard such an apology and confes