It was not that he comprehended any more clearly why this sorrow and trial had come to darken his happy home, but Oh, _what matters comprehension when there is faith!_ John did not make inquiries; he knew by experience that there are spiritual conditions as real as physical facts.

The shadows were all gone.

Nothing was different, -- yet this much he knew, His soul stirred in its chrysalis of clay, A strange peace filled him like a cup; he grew Better, wiser and gladder, on that day: This dusty, worn-out world seemed made anew, Because God's Way, had now become his way.
Then he fell into that sleep which God gives to his beloved, and when he awoke it was the dayshine.

The light streamed in through the eastern windows, there was a robin singing on his window sill, and there was no trouble in his heart but what he could face.
His business was now urging him to be diligent, and his business--being that of so many others, he durst not neglect it.

Jane he did not see.
Her maid said she had been ill all night and had fallen asleep at the dawning, and John left her a written message and went earlier to the mill than usual.