A great wave of joy swept over her bewildered face.  “So God has sent me the fulfilment of my dream!” she said softly.  And John Randolph understood.

That evening she wrote to Mrs. Everidge.

“Dear Aunt Marthe,—­The King’s work is waiting for you in Marlborough.  The work that we used to long for—­the joy of lifting the shadows from the hearts of the heavy laden—­God has given to you and me!”

* * * * *

“Why should you not come to ’The Willows’?”

John Randolph put the question one afternoon, as they were enjoying Miss Diana’s hospitality in the fragrant porch.  Evadne had just finished a merry recital of their woes.

“We have looked at houses until we are fairly distracted, Aunt Marthe and I. One had a cellar kitchen, and I am not going to have my good Dyce buried in a cellar kitchen; and one had no bathroom, and another was all stairs; and they are all nothing but brick and mortar with a scrap of sky between.  I want trees and water and fields.  The poor souls have enough of masonry in their daily lives.”

“I believe it is decreed that you should come here,” he continued, after the first exclamations of surprise were over.  “It is just the work our lady delights in, and she cannot be left alone.  Dick goes to College next month and I must live in town.  The house is beautiful for situation, and a threefold cord of love and faith cannot easily be broken.”

He looked round upon them, this man who found his joy in helping others, and waited for their answer.

“It would be beautiful, beautiful!” cried Evadne, “if Miss Chillingworth were willing.  But the house is not large enough, Doctor Randolph, we shall need three or four guest chambers, you know.”

“Nothing easier than to build an addition,” said John, with the quiet reserve of power which always made his patients believe in the impossible.

Evadne laid her hand upon Miss Chillingworth’s—­“Dear Miss Diana,” she said gently, “you do not say ‘No’ to us; do you think you could ever find it in your heart to say ‘Yes’?  I know it must seem a terrible innovation, but we could never have imagined anything half so delightful, Aunt Marthe and I. The atmosphere—­outdoors and in—­is perfection!”

Miss Diana looked at the sparkling face and then at Mrs. Everidge with her gentle smile.  “I find myself very glad,” she said, “since I have to lose my boys, but do you think we had better make any definite plans, dear, until we have talked it over with the Lord?”

And John Randolph said to Evadne with eyes that were suspiciously bright; “It is impossible for anyone to get very far from the Kingdom, when they live with our Lady Di.”

The talk had wandered then to different subjects, and John Randolph listened to the soft play of Evadne’s fancy and watched the light in her wonderful eyes.  Her nature, so long repressed in an uncongenial environment, in this new soil of love and sympathy was blossoming richly and he found her very fair.  He had rarely seen her resting.  Now the shapely hands were folded together in a beautiful stillness—­and then the breeze had waved aside a flower, and a sunbeam, darting through the trellis, fell upon the stone in her ring and made it sparkle with a baleful fire!