CHAPTER II



Good words are silver, but good deeds are gold.
Cecil and Mary


'It has been a very good day, papa; he has enjoyed all his meals,
indeed was quite ravenous. He is asleep now, and looks as
comfortable as possible,' said Ethel, five weeks after Aubrey's
illness had begun.

'Thank God for that, and all His mercy to us, Ethel;' and the long
sigh, the kiss, and dewy eyes, would have told her that there had
been more to exhaust him than his twelve hours' toil, even had she
not partly known what weighed him down.

'Poor things!' she said.

'Both gone, Ethel, both! both!' and as he entered the drawing-room,
he threw himself back in his chair, and gasped with the long-
restrained feeling.

'Both!' she exclaimed. 'You don't mean that Leonard--'

'No, Ethel, his mother! Poor children, poor children!'