CHAPTER XI.
"'Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die."
—Montgomery.
Mrs. Carrington obeyed with all speed the call to come to the aid of her unworthy nephew, and her arrival was not delayed many days after that of their kind entertainers.
She received a cordial welcome; but since that first day the ladies and children of the family had seen very little of her, for Boyd had taken to his bed, and she devoted herself to him.
The gentlemen frequently spent a little time in his room, induced thereto by motives of kindness, but the others never approached it.
Elsie looked upon him as the would-be murderer of her husband, and could scarcely think of him without a shudder.
She was willing, even anxious to give him every comfort that money could buy, and that every effort should be made by her father and others to lead him to repentance and faith in Christ to the saving of his soul; but she shrank from seeing him, though she made kind inquiries, sent messages, and offered many sincere and fervent prayers on his behalf.
Strolling about the grounds one afternoon with her little ones, she saw her father coming towards her.