"Have you seen them?" and Dick's eager question was uttered almost unconsciously.
"No, not with my natural eyes. Why? I wonder. But I have felt them near me. I know they are watching over me. You see, they did not cease to love us when God took them away for some higher service. Naturally, too, they watch over Beatrice. They could not help it."
He spoke quietly, and in an almost matter-of-fact way, yet with a suggestion of reverence in his tones.
"Who knows who is watching over us now?" continued the old man. "Ah, if we could only see! 'Are they not all ministering spirits sent to minister to those who are heirs of Salvation?'"
Dick felt a shiver pass through him. He reflected that on that very spot, only a few hours before, he had seen something, something—a luminous figure, a pale, sad face—sad almost to agony!
"Mr. Faversham," asked Hugh Stanmore suddenly, "who is Count Romanoff?"
"I don't know much about him," replied Dick. "He was a fellow-passenger on board the boat on which I was bound for Australia some time ago. Why do you ask?"
"You know nothing else? Excuse me."
"Only that he saved my life."
"Ah!"