"God be thanked! she will be so happy!"
And this was his welcome! this the home he had been journeying to! Christina was lying in a small iron bed by the window, a vase of golden-lime blossoms on the table near her, and a prayer-book beside it. Her hands were clasped carelessly on her knees, and her head propped up very high with pillows. Egbert took her white, cold fingers in his, and knelt down by the bed. She only said his name—it was the first time she had ever done so.
"Christina," he said at length, "I came to tell you something. Your faith is mine now."
A faint cry, and a pale, momentary flush, and then a long look in silence.
"My God, I thank thee! My prayer is answered!" So she spoke after a few minutes.
"And I came to ask you something also," continued Egbert. "Do you love me as I always hoped you did?"
"Egbert," she answered solemnly, "I loved you from the first time I saw you; but, when I found you did not love and know the dear God, I offered my life to him for your conversion, and he has answered me."
Egbert told her briefly the circumstances that had occurred. A few days passed, and one evening, when the red sunset was firing the casement, and her father, her lover, and Charles Beran, were around her, she suddenly said, taking the two former by the hand:
"God is calling me—do not forget me. Your blessing, dearest father! O Egbert!"
And so died Egbert's first and only love.