A lump rose in Michael's throat as he watched the girl's look, and heard her words. No one had ever loved him like that.
"Frank," he said slowly, "folks reckon me a well-to-do man; but you're richer than I am. I've no one to love me, or to care whether I live or die."
His brother turned his eyes on him and understood.
"She'll love you, Michael; she'll love you too, if you're good to her. She is a good girl, is Kate, though she has had a rough bringing up. I called her Katharine, you know, after our mother. I've tried to tell her what our mother was, that she might be like her. But I've been a poor father to her. Mine has been a wasted, ill-spent life, and now I can but give it back into the hands of God, trusting in His mercy through Jesus Christ."
He lay back exhausted by the effort he had made in saying so much. His life was ebbing fast. He said little more save in feeble, broken utterances. The end came peacefully about midnight, and the life which, with its errors and failures, God alone could truly judge, was sealed by the hand of death.
Michael took the weeping girl to his own home, and did his best to comfort her. Mrs. Wiggins predicted that Kate would not long live with her uncle. It seemed to her impossible that so ill-assorted a pair could get on together, or a girl accustomed to a free, independent life, put up with an old man's fidgets. But the result proved her prediction false. Kate was of a warm, affectionate nature, and pity constrained her to be patient with the poor, lonely old man, whilst he was disposed to cling at any cost to the only being who belonged to him.
Their common interest in Mrs. Lavers and sweet little Margery was a lasting bond of sympathy. Mrs. Lavers still showed herself a true friend to Kate. She encouraged the girl to come often to her house, and sometimes of an evening, she and her children would "drop in" to pay a visit to old Michael and his niece. The little ones loved to explore the marvels of Mr. Betts' shop, and never ceased to wonder at "the heaps and heaps of books." Mrs. Lavers was able to give Kate many a useful hint which helped her to adapt herself to her new position.
By-and-by, Kate came to take an intelligent interest in the book trade, and developed quite a talent for mending and covering dilapidated volumes. Customers were surprised to find now in the shop a bright, quick, dark-eyed damsel, who passed lightly to and fro, fetching and carrying books as her uncle directed her. She learned his ways more quickly than any youth would have done, and was careful to observe them. She found her new work infinitely preferable to making matches, and had a sense of responsibility in connection with it, which heightened her self-respect, and made life seem well worth living.
As for Michael, he was only now conscious of living a life that is life indeed. Released from the prison house of a hard, unloving, selfish heart, he had entered on a new existence. The touch of affection had awakened new faculties within his soul. In finding another to love and care for, he had truly found himself. New hopes and aspirations were springing within him, which soared beyond this mortal life, and would have their fruition in eternity. For only he who loves has a hope which reaches beyond the life of earth. The man who has no love for his brother man cannot love his Father in heaven, nor can he, who has no sense of sin in himself, experience the peace which comes from knowing the love of God in Christ Jesus.
THE END.