“There, dear, it’s all right, and you’ll feel kind about me always when you remember me?”
“Don’t,—don’t talk so.”
“If that beating would only stay out of my brain—the thing is crawling behind me again! Oh, no, not yet—not yet! Say this with me, dear:—
“‘The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
“‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.’”
She said the psalm with him, and he grew quiet again.
“You will go away with your husband, and go at once—” He sat up suddenly from where he had been lying, the light of a new design in his eyes.
“Come,—you will need protection now—I must marry you at once. Surely that will be an office acceptable in the sight of God. And you will remember me better for it—and kinder. Come, Prudence; come, Ruel!”
“But, father, you are sick, and so weak—let us wait.”
“It will give me such joy to do it—and this is the last.”