She hesitated a moment, and then said very low, "I thought you knew—or I never thought about it—Nellie, I was to have been married. This August I should have been married a year. Oh, Nellie, when I think of it, of what might have been, I can hardly bear it! He died just two months before the day fixed."
"Dear Christina," said Nellie, with full eyes, "I had no idea. I would not have said that for the world had I known."
"I am sure of that," she answered, "and I am glad for you to know."
They were silent for a moment. Nellie was trying to command herself to face the bitter disappointment which was sweeping over her like a deluge of cold water, and Christina was filled with thoughts of the past which were sweeping over her.
Nellie dared not think of Walter. She shuddered at the bare idea of his return. But she remembered his words, and with one instant's prayer for help, she again touched Christina's hand.
"I am so dreadfully sorry for you," she said in a broken voice.
Christina clasped her hand warmly, and roused herself.
"He died away from me," she said softly. "I will tell you all now, and then we need not refer to it again till I can speak of it more calmly. It was small-pox—on the Continent. There was a delay in the letters; and before my parents and I reached the place, he was gone, and all that remained to me was a new-made grave. Dear Nellie, don't cry so.
"We had a very simple stone put, on which our favourite words were engraved in three languages, that all might know that he who rested there was among the multitude that no man can number. The words were:
"'I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.'