"Oh no."
"You never seem to be afraid of any thing."
"Not of much—I have gone through such a deal" said Christian, with a faint smile. "But, papa, indeed you must go to bed."
Nevertheless, they stood a little longer looking down upon Arthur, whose breathing grew softer into natural sleep. Then, with a mutual impulse given by the unity of a common grief the husband and wife turned and kissed one another.
"God bless you, my darling, my poor children's mother, the first they ever—"
He stopped, and never finished the sentence.
Chapter 6
"Love that asketh love again,
Finds the barter naught but pain;
Love that giveth in full store,
Aye receives as much, and more.
"Love, exacting nothing back,
Never knoweth any lack;
Love, compelling love to pay,
Sees him bankrupt every day."
LIFE in the sick-room—most of us know what that is; how the whole world narrows itself within four walls, and every fanciful grief and morbid imagining slips off, pressed down into nothingness by the weight of daily, hourly cares, and commonplace, yet all-engrossing realities.