'We'll have a merry gathering,' Mrs. Silver answers. 'There will be changes before the next comes round.'
'Yes; our little children are men and women now.'
'Good men and women, thank God!'
'Wife,' he says, 'I have thought many times of your words when I brought little Charley home twenty-three years ago. The child was lying in your lap, and you said, "Perhaps this is the reason why God has given us no children."'
She looks at him with a tender light in her eyes. Between these two love does not show itself in words, but in ministering to each other unselfishly.
'They have been a blessing to us, dear,' she says. 'Our household will be smaller presently. Charley and Ruth, I think, are fond of each other. He brings her home now every night.'
'What did Charley earn last week?
'Thirty-eight shillings.'
'Is that sufficient to marry on?'
'Quite sufficient, and to spare; and Charley has money put by to start with. They must live near us. Charley would like to, I know, and Ruth too; but it will be time enough to talk of these things by and by.'