He was struggling hard to control his emotion, but presently said: "How wonderful that, when you were tending her and ministering to her wants like a sister, I was within a hundred feet of her, crying and praying God so to soften her heart that she might accept His forgiving love! How wonderful that my Father, in His wisdom, has withheld this," holding up the letters, "till by His grace He enabled me to say from the heart, 'Thy will be done'!"
"And gave me the privilege of restoring to you the last token of her affection."
As she spoke, Marion's tears flowed fast. "Will you thank Him for me?"
As they knelt, he poured from a full heart words of praise and thanksgiving. He consecrated his life and all its powers anew to the service of the Saviour. He asked that through these events, so mysterious, bringing to him, after the lapse of so many years, the knowledge of his sister's acceptance of Christ as her Saviour, they might both be more trustful, resting all their cares upon Him who had done all things well.
Again and again Mr. Angus asked for reminiscences of his sister. Again and again Marion related in detail the account of their first meeting,—Stella's despair when first told she could not live, her removal to the blessed Home, the sermon on forgiveness from the chaplain, the arrow of the Spirit which sent it home to her heart, the sweet and abiding peace which followed when she gave up her burden of sin and sorrow to Christ.
"Where is her grave?" he asked, concealing his face.
"In Greenwood. I will take you there in the morning, and you will want to see Dr. B- at the Home."
"In what words can I thank you, Miss Howard? You not only befriended a poor orphan while living, but provided a place for her in that lovely home for the dead."
"It was a precious privilege, Mr. Angus."
Seizing her hand for a moment, he dropped it suddenly and walked away to the window.