they
know they can trust me. I am fond of talking,' went on Audrey, in her
earnest way, 'but I have never betrayed a person's confidence; I have
never once repeated anything that my friends have told me--their
troubles are as sacred to me as my own would be.'

'I am bound to believe you,' returned Mr. O'Brien, looking thoughtfully
at the girlish face and steadfast eyes; 'Prissy says it always gives her
a comfortable feeling to talk out her troubles to you. It is a gift, I
am thinking; but you are young to have it. Did I ever tell you, Miss
Ross, what Susan said to me when she was dying?'

'No, I am sure you never told me that.'

'Well, Prissy had gone to lie down, and I was alone with Susan. It was
the room above us where she died. I was sitting by the fire, thinking
she was having a fine sleep, and would surely be better for it, when she
suddenly spoke my name: "Tom," she said, "I know just what you are
thinking about: you have got Mat in your mind." Well, I could not deny
that, and Susan was always so sharp in finding me out; and then she
begged me to sit by her a bit: "For you are very low about everything,
dear Tom," she went on; "you've got to lose me, and there's Prissy, poor
girl! with her bad husband; and when you have nothing better to do you
think about Mat. Sometimes I wish you were back in the shop, when I see
you looking at the fire in that way."

"I was only wondering whether I should ever see the poor lad again," I
returned, with a sigh; "that was all my thought, Susan."

"I am sure you will see him again," she replied very earnestly, with a
kind of solemnity in her voice; "I don't know why I think so, Tom, but
they say the dying are very clear-sighted, and it is strong upon me that
Mat will one day seek you out." Now, wasn't that strange, Miss Ross?'

'No,' replied Audrey, 'she may have spoken the truth; while there is
life there is hope. Do not be disheartened, my dear friend; you have had
great troubles, but God has helped you to bear them, and you are not
without your blessings.'

'That's true,' he returned, looking round him; 'I would sooner live in
this cottage than in a palace. I don't believe, as the Captain says,
there is a prettier place anywhere. I like to think Susan lies so near
me, in Brail Churchyard, and that by and by I'll lie beside her; and if
I could only see my girl more cheerful----'

'Oh, you must give her time to live down her worries. There! I hear the
carriage;' and Audr