means that
all is pardoned, and that they have entered into peace."

"Peace," she said. "I was afraid you were going to say rest; and he who
had never laboured wanted no rest. Peace,--where the wicked cease from
troubling, is that what you mean? He had no time to repent."

"My dear--oh, I am not clear, I can't tell you; but who can tell what
was in his mind between the time he saw his danger and the blow that
stunned him? If my boy had done everything against me, and all in a
moment turned and called to me, would I refuse him? And is not God,"
cried one mother to the other, taking her hands, "better than we?"

It was she who had come to be the comforter who wept, tears streaming
down her cheeks. The other held her hands, and looked in her face
with dry feverish eyes. "Your boy," she said slowly, "he is good and
kind,--he is good and kind. Will my boy be like him? Or do you think
there is an inheritance in that as in other things?"

CHAPTER IX.

The post town for the Warren was Highcombe, which was about four miles
off. To drive there had always been considered a dissipation, not to say
a temptation, for the Warrenders; at least for the feminine portion of
the family. There were at Highcombe what the ladies called "quite good
shops,"--shops where you could get everything, really as good as town,
and if not cheaper, yet still quite as cheap, if you added on the
railway fare and all the necessary expenses you were inevitably put to,
if you went to town on purpose to shop. Accordingly, it was considered
prudent to go to Highcombe as seldom as possible; only when there was
actually something wanted, or important letters to post, or such a
necessity as balanced the probable inducement to buy things that were
not needed, or spend money that might have been spared. The natural
consequence of this prudential regulation was that the little shop in
the village which lay close to their gates had been encouraged to keep
sundry kinds of goods not usually found in a little village shop, and
that Minnie and Chatty very often passed that way in their daily walks.
Old Mrs. Bagley had a good selection of shaded Berlin wools and a few
silks, and even, when the fashion came in for that, crewels. She had a
few Berlin patterns, and pieces of muslin stamped for that other curious
kind of ornamentation which consisted in cutting holes and sewing them
round. And she had beads of different sizes and colours, and in short
quite a lit