Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/71

1868.] wicked one. I did not see him again. That afternoon, I went home with David."

After a little while I said: "Did you never see him again, Auntie?"

"Once, my dear, a good many years afterward. Ruth's husband had business in London, and he took us over with him. And there, at a great dinner-party, I met Captain and Mrs. Chalonier. She had grown very stout, and was ruddy and handsome. She did not look as if she had ever seen any trouble. Captain Chalonier was greatly altered. He looked old, and thin, and haggard. But he was in public life, and was a very busy man. We only exchanged a word or two in the crowd, and then the sea of silence flowed between us again."

Aunt Fen ended, drearily, and fell into reverie. But I must know one thing more.

"What became of David Warren?"

She roused up with difficulty.

"David? He married Patty Parsons. I stood up at their wedding. They have been dead nigh upon forty years. I thought I was an old woman when Patty died. A hundred years, Janet! The way has been a long one, and at times very hard, because of its loneliness. But there have been few places where I could not sing hymns. And now Heaven is close at hand. I think Richard is waiting for me there. Sometimes, as I sit here alone, all these lonely years fall out of my life, and he is with me again, and we have never been divided. And that I humbly trust is the way it will be. But, Janet, I was thinking this afternoon, while I was listening to you and Paul, that if Richard Chalonier had been given to me here I should have been willing to put up with a great deal. The love of God is infinitely precious, but I doubt if he meant it ever to quite make up for the lack of human love."

The beautiful old face was pale and sorrowful; the voice was low and weak. But the immortal love is close upon its fruition. Soon God will give rest to His beloved.