r--she is a very kind lady, though she passed for being very proud and
haughty in India--so wrongly are people judged. And Lord H. said, in
his rough way, 'that, by Jove, if Tom Newcome took a thing into his
obstinate old head no one could drive it out.' And so," said the
Colonel, with his sad smile, "I had my own way. Lady H. was good enough
to come and see me the very next day--and do you know, Pen, she invited
me to go and live with them for the rest of my life--made me the most
generous, the most delicate offers. But I knew I was right, and held my
own. I am too old to work, Arthur: and better here whilst I am to stay,
than elsewhere. Look! all this furniture came from H. House--and that
wardrobe is full of linen, which she sent me. She has been twice to see
me, and every officer in this hospital is as courteous to me as if I had
my fine house."

I thought of the psalm we had heard on the previous evening, and turned
to it in the opened Bible, and pointed to the verse, "Though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him."
Thomas Newcome seeing my occupation, laid a kind, trembling hand on my
shoulder; and then, putting on his glasses, with a smile bent over
the volume. And who that saw him then, and knew him and loved him as I
did--who would not have humbled his own heart, and breathed his inward
prayer, confessing and adoring the Divine Will, which ordains these
trials, these triumphs, these humiliations, these blest griefs, this
crowning Love?

I had the happiness of bringing Clive and his little boy to Thomas
Newcome that evening; and heard the child's cry of recognition and
surprise, and the old man calling the boy's name, as I closed the door
upon that meeting; and by the night's mail I went down to Newcome, to
the friends with whom my own family was already staying.

Of course, my conscience-keeper at Rosebury was anxious to know about
the school-dinner, and all the speeches made, and the guests assembled
there; but she soot ceased to inquire about these when I came to give
her the news of the discovery of our dear old friend in the habit of a
Poor Brother of Grey Friars. She was very glad to hear that Clive and
his little son had been reunited to the Colonel; and appeared to imagine
at first, that there was some wonderful merit upon my part in bringing
the three together.

"Well--no great merit, Pen, as you will put it," says the Confessor;
"but it was kindly thought, sir--and I