"Yes; when he was nearly two years old; such a darling! The nurse—not this one—put him on the table against my often-repeated injunctions, and as she turned round to reach his hat, the child leant after her and fell. He has never sat up since."
"How sad!"
"Very, very sad! But one day my boy will, I trust, know what it is to be all right again, and have no aches and weariness. Here they come back, and I think he looks as if he were tired. Simmons, we will return home, and leave the others to their digging. How happy they all look!"
She turned to the stranger to say good morning. "Do you stay long?" she asked.
"I live here at present."
"Then we shall meet again, I doubt not."
"My name is Christina Arbuthnot."
"And mine is Mrs. Arundel."
"Thank you so much; it will be very pleasant to meet."
With a word to Nellie and the nurse, who both seemed inclined to finish the morning on the beach, Mrs. Arundel turned homewards, her little son's anxious face giving her such a heart-sinking that she felt as if she could hardly walk along. But by-and-by, she lifted her eyes to the blue sky and took courage. She remembered in whose hand she was, and that nothing could happen to her boy but by His permission.