omplimented her,
treated her as a much younger and more irresponsible being than he was.
As he spoke he took up the hand which lay in her lap and held it for a
moment clasped in his. "And I can say you have been all that I could
have wished as a wife and mother, you have never once failed me during
the whole of our married life."

"Oh! thank you, thank you, Jonathan." She acknowledged his praise with a
momentary choke in her voice, and a bend of her head which was not
without a docile dignity.

"We are all in the same boat," resumed the Doctor in the deep tones
which somehow sounded like bass recitative; "the Rector, Colonel
Russell, and I--not to say Carey himself. We all wished to increase our
incomes with as little trouble and risk as possible--so it seemed then,
but if the bank comes to smash, all the old Redcross gentle-folks, as we
were pleased to call ourselves, will go with it."

"Don't mention such a thing, don't think of it," cried Mrs. Millar in
her dismay.

He went on without noticing her. "The Bishop won't let the Rector come
down, and Russell is twenty years younger than I. He is no older than
you are, though a foreign climate has told a good deal on him; still, he
is patched up, and with care ought to have lasted as long as the rest of
us. He may exert his interest, and get a post in India again, though I
should be afraid it would finish him in six months."

The poor middle-aged lady who sat listening with dry lips apart, and
pleasant hazel eyes distended with fright and distress, though she was
no older than the unfortunate colonel, had not been exposed to a foreign
climate, and had hardly suffered from a serious illness in her life, did
not look much like such an arduous undertaking as going out to India to
redeem a wrecked fortune. She pulled herself together, however, and set
herself to the good woman's business of comforting and encouraging her
husband. "I am certain it is right to go on hoping. You often say that
in your profession you have no such helpful allies as hope and courage;
you must practice what you've preached, Doctor," and the faithful soul
actually contrived to impart a playful ring to her unsteady voice. "The
Rector has not preached the duty more strenuously than you have; and
you are not going to be the first to break down, especially when there
is no real occasion. Depend upon it, Carey's Bank will pull through like
some of your most doubtful patients, with time and care."

"