"A journey?" echoed Miss Basset in amazement, for her brother had not been a night away from home for years. "A journey?" she repeated. "Why, where are you going?"
"To Boulogne," he answered briefly.
"To Boulogne? Why, you'll have to cross the Channel! Have you forgotten the mines? And you don't talk French! Oh, John, you can't go! You'll have to get a passport, too, and—"
"My dear Ann," interposed Mr. Basset, "will you please come and pack my portmanteau? I am not accustomed to travelling, I admit; nevertheless, God willing, I'm going to Boulogne."
[CHAPTER X]
JOY AND SORROW
"I WONDER if I shall find that they have heard I from Mr. Basset," thought Margaret Cummings, as she entered the grounds of the Glen one fine June morning, some few days after the master of the house had set out on his journey to Boulogne; "I hope so I am sure—whatever news he may have had to send. Anything is better than suspense. Poor Josephine! She's very brave, but the sight of her white, set face shows what she's enduring. Ah, there she is beneath the porch, on the look out for me! Then there's news! Now, what is it?"
From under the porch a slim figure, clad in a blue cotton dress, darted forth into the brilliant June sunshine to meet her, with a radiant countenance eloquent of happiness and joy. Gone were the white, set features of the previous day! The governess paused, a feeling of intense relief filling her heart, and cried—
"Oh, my dear, you have had good news then?"
"Yes!" Josephine replied, "the best of news! Father is going to recover! The doctors say so! His life is out of danger! And before long he will be brought back to a hospital in England, and—and, oh, hasn't God been merciful to me?"