"Maybe no," she said. "But had ye never a minister to counsel ye or to help ye, in those parts?"
"Only when I was in Palestine; nowhere else."
"You must have wanted it sorely."
"Yes, but, Miss Cardigan, I had better teaching all the time. The mountains and the sun and the sky and the beauty, all seemed to repeat the Bible to me, all the time. I never saw the top of Mont Blanc rosy in the sunset, nor the other mountains, without thinking of those words, 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect;' - and, 'They shall walk with me in white.' -"
Miss Cardigan wiped away a tear or two.
"But you are looking very sober, my love," she said presently, examining me.
"I have reason," I said. And I went on to give her in detail the account of the past year's doings in my family, and of our present position and prospects. She listened with the greatest sympathy and the most absorbed attention. The story had taken a good while; it was growing late, and I rose to go. Not till then was her nephew alluded to.
"I'm thinking," then said Miss Cardigan slowly, "there's one person you have not asked after, who would ill like to be left out of our mouths."
I stood still and hesitated and I felt my face grow warm.
"I have not heard from him, Miss Cardigan, since -"