CHAPTER XXV.
EVASION.
The next day he could find him nowhere, and in the evening went to see the Comins.

It was pretty dark, but the moon would be up by and by.
When he reached the cobbler's house, he found him working as usual, only in-doors now that the weather was colder, and the light sooner gone.

He looked innocent, bright, and contented as usual.

"If God be at peace," he would say to himself, "why should not I ?" Once he said this aloud, almost unconsciously, and was overheard: it strengthened the regard with which worldly church-goers regarded him: he was to them an irreverent yea, blasphemous man! They did not know God enough to understand the cobbler's words, and all the interpretation they could give them was after their kind.

Their long Sunday faces indicated their reward; the cobbler's cheery, expectant look indicated his.
The two were just wondering a little when he entered, that young Eppy had not made her appearance; but then, as her grandmother said, she had often, especially during the last few weeks, been later still! As she spoke, however, they heard her light, hurried foot on the stair.
"Here she comes at last!" said her grandmother, and she entered.
She said she could not get away so easily now.