“Ever since you went out.”
“What were you doing?” he persisted, fixing a strange look on her.
She blushed, hesitated, and then said simply, “I was praying for you, Marmaduke.”
He folded her in his arms, and whispered, “I was right to say it was an angel sent me.”
Then, taking a warm shawl that he saw hanging up, he wrapped her in it, and sat down beside her, and told the story as it had been told to him. When it was over, Nelly’s head was on his breast, and the brother’s tears of penitence were mingling with the sister’s tears of joy.
“Let us go down now and tell Stephen,” said Marmaduke, when he had finished.
“Will you tell him everything?” asked Nelly.
“Yes, everything.”
“Dear Marmy! I am so happy I could sing for joy,” she said, smiling through her tears. “Let us kneel down here and say one little prayer together; will you?”
And he did.