"Just as the men who had troubled me were changed into angels, so my fear has changed to rest. The angels are about the bed still, Karl; I know they are; waiting for me. The same lovely light shone on them that is shining yonder; and they told me without words that they were come to bear me up to God. I read it in their tender faces--so full of pitying love for me. It won't be so very long, Karl: you'll come later."
Karl's tears were falling on the up-turned face.
"I should like to have seen your wife, Karl; just once. Tell her so, with my love. Ask her to forgive me the worry I know I have caused her."
"I will, I will."
"Oh, Karl, it has been a dreadful life for me; you know it has. I began to think that God had forgotten me--how foolish I was! He was full of mercy all the while, and kept me here in safety, and has now changed it all into peace. Listen, Karl! there's a sound of sweet music."
Karl could hear nothing but the wind.
"It is the angels singing," whispered Adam, a smile of ineffable beauty on his face. "They sing on the journey, you know. Goodbye, Karl, goodbye!"
Karl bent his face, his tears streaming, his heart aching. These partings are too bitter to be told of. This was most essentially so.
"Where's Rose, Karl?"
She was already by Karl's side. He yielded his place to her, and went down to Ann; and there sobbed over the kitchen fire as a woman might have done.