"Wait till Tommy comes back, little woman, and then it will be time enough to see about his ring, though I quite agree with his mother that it would be most unfitting."
"You have had the picture I gave you taken away, uncle," said Milly presently, her quick eyes roving round the room. "Ah! you've had it hung up on the wall. That's nice there. You can see it from your bed. Don't you like looking at it? Doesn't it make you feel happy?"
"I can't say it does," replied Sir Edward, glancing at the picture in question. "Why ought it to make me feel happy?"
"Oh, it's so nice to think he is just getting home after being away so long. I wonder if he was a great time walking back. How long do you think it takes one of God's prodigal sons to get back to Him, uncle?"
"I should say a very long time, indeed," said Sir Edward, slowly.
"But how long? Two days, or six hours, or a week?"
"It would depend perhaps on how long they had been away from Him."
"It's rather hard to understand," said Milly, wrinkling her little brow perplexedly, "because God is everywhere, isn't He? and I should have thought He would have been close by them all the time. I was asking nurse about it, and she said that God was near them, only they wouldn't have anything to say to Him, and did bad things and shut the Lord Jesus out of their heart, and let Satan in, and then God had to leave them till they said they said they were sorry. I suppose directly they say: 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in Thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son,' then God just folds them in His arms and forgives them and takes them back again; isn't that it?"
"Look here, I think we have had enough of this subject. Talk about something else."
Sir Edward's tone was irritable. Milly's ready tongue obeyed.