I had much to tell, and they had much to hear, and the fortnight passed away all too quickly.
During the second week Maggie and I went for a two days' visit to the Parsonage at Acton. Miss Richards was very anxious to see us again, and wrote me a very touching letter, saying, that if we would not mind spending a quiet day or two with her she would feel it a real kindness, and it would be a great cheer and comfort to her. She did not think her time on earth would be very long, she said; the doctor had told her that she might linger for a few months, but that she was suffering from a complaint which must end in death.
"So he says, my dear," wrote the good old lady; "but I would rather say, it must end in life—life in His presence, where alone is fulness of joy."
We found Miss Richards very much altered, weak and ill, and fearfully thin; yet still able to go about a little, to look after her housekeeping, and to sit in her easy chair in the garden, with her work or her book.
We had many quiet, happy talks together, and I felt it a great privilege to be speaking to one who was, as it were, close on the threshold of heaven itself.
Mr. Ellis was very much aged, and looked careworn and depressed. He was exceedingly kind to us; but he seemed as if a heavy weight were resting on him, which he could not shake off.
Whilst we were at Acton, Maggie and I went and peeped through the gate of our old home. It looked just the same; it was not altered at all. The rabbits were nibbling the grass on the lawn, the stream was trickling peacefully along, and every bush, and tree, and flower-bed looked just as they had done on that memorable day when I had sat by my bedroom window with Claude's unanswered letter in my hand.
But the home was no longer ours, and even as we looked at it little children's faces appeared at the window of my old room and reminded me of this.
I thought of Miss Irvine's words as I turned away: "What a comfort that there is one home where there will be no parting, and no going away."
That evening, after Maggie was in bed, Miss Richards called me into her room, and spoke to me about Claude.