They had scarcely gone when Eban Cowan appeared at the door.
“I have just heard what has happened, and I could not let the day pass without coming to tell you how sorry I am,” he said, as he entered.
Nelly thanked him warmly.
“Father has gone to heaven and is at rest,” she said, quietly.
“I should think that you would rather have had him with you down on earth,” observed Eban, who little comprehended her feelings.
“So I would, but it was God’s will to take him, and he taught me to say, ‘Thy will be done;’ and I can say that though I grieve for his loss,” answered Nelly. “But, O Eban, when you came I thought that you had brought some tidings of Michael.”
“No! Where is he? I did not know that he was not at home.”
Nelly then told Eban how Michael had gone away with the boat in the morning and had not returned. “I will go and search for him then,” he said. “He has run in somewhere, perhaps, along the coast. I wonder, when you spoke to Uncle Lanaherne, that he did not set off at once. But I will go. I’ll get father to send some men with me with ropes, and if he is alive and clinging to a rock, as he may be, we will bring him back.”
Nelly poured out her thanks to Eban, who, observing that there was no time to be lost, set off to carry out his proposal.
Dame Lanreath had said but little. She shook her head when he had gone, as Nelly continued praising him.