"So peaceful, so sweet and so dear is our little home, that I am almost content with it." "I am, likewise." For two or three days no evil effects were perceivable from their journey save a weariness on the part of Blanche, which John flattered himself would pass away.

He sat with her and talked more than had been his custom.

She seemed to grow better in his eyes, for he had seen how uncomplaining she was, and how she nobly struggled to make his burden lighter.

She spoke encouraging words of Virginia, told him of his wife and children, who had been described so often to her that she had a faithful picture of them in her mind.

She would say: "Your little Rebecca is now sixteen years of age, quite a young lady.
She is beautiful, too.