"No, thank you. Please tell Maria if Mr. Bradley calls again I should like to see him."
When Mr. Bradley called next day he found Mr. Harding hovering between life and death. He knelt by the sick man's bedside and prayed for him. A look of peace came to the wan face of the sufferer as he listened; and after the clergyman had left, Mrs. Dawson and the nurse noticed that his lips moved as though he was praying too.
All that night there was no alteration in the patient's condition; but when the doctor paid his morning visit he found Mr. Harding had rallied a little.
Mousey alternately sickened with a sense of despair, and allowed herself to hope as time wore on. She had not been to school for days, so she was not surprised when Maria ushered Mrs. Downing into the parlour.
"I have come to inquire for Mr. Harding," the visitor explained, her tone full of real concern as she kissed Mousey tenderly. "How is he now, my dear?"
"He is still very ill," the little girl replied mournfully.
"God grant he may recover," Mrs. Downing said earnestly. "Your cousin has been very good and generous to me," she added, with a tremulous note in her usually serene voice.
Mousey saw her eyes were full of unshed tears, and though she did not understand the cause of her emotion, she felt comforted by her evident sympathy.
The following morning the doctor pronounced Mr. Harding slightly stronger. Before many days had passed, after the first change for the better, the old man's life was out of danger, and though weak and helpless as a baby, he was slowly but surely progressing towards recovery.
"I thank God that He has spared me a little longer," he said to Mrs. Dawson. "With His help I hope to spend my future very differently from the way in which I have lived in the past. Ah, Cousin Eliza, it is a terrible thing to have no share in the kingdom of heaven—no treasure beyond the grave!"