“One word,” gasped Margaret; “is he alive?”
“Surely I hope so. No one has seen him dead.”
“Then they must have seen him alive.”
“No, girl; neither dead nor alive hath he been seen this many months in Rome. My daughter Kate thinks he is gone to some other city. She bade me tell you her thought.”
“Ay, like enough,” said Margaret gloomily; “like enough. My poor babe!”
The old man in a faintish voice asked her for a morsel to eat: he had come fasting.
The poor thing pitied him with the surface of her agitated mind, and cooked a meal for him, trembling, and scarce knowing what she was about.
Ere he went he laid his hand upon her head, and said, “Be he alive, or be he dead, I look on thee as my daughter. Can I do nought for thee this day? bethink thee now?”
“Ay, old man. Pray for him; and for me!”
Eli sighed, and went sadly and heavily down the stairs.