“Oh, Helen, if he lives,” he said at length.
“Ah, yes, dear father, or if he dies. Even if he dies, dear.”
She took his hands, holding them tightly.
“Oh, help me to remember that,” she whispered; “I shall need all the help you can give me. We shall want—we shall want all the help we can get—both of us. We will give it each other. And Stella——“
“You telegraphed to her?”
“Yes; she cannot get here till to-morrow!”
Then the girl gave way.
“To-morrow,” she said; “and it is only just to-day. Father, father, I can’t bear it. I can’t.”
But the strength she had given him so often during this last week was ready again to help her.
“Yes, dear Helen,” he said, speaking quite calmly again. “We can both bear whatever is to be. God does not send us anything that we are not capable of bearing, and of bearing without bitterness and without complaint. And whether it is life or death with our dear Martin, it is all life. We believe that, do we not? Let us hold on to that, for it sustains the sorrows of all the world. There is nothing so sure as that. It is the Rock of Ages, Helen.”