“Not any better, sir, I fear; she has had a very bad night, her cough has been so very troublesome.”  Saying this, she opened a door which led to an inner apartment, into which Mr. Montgomery entered, and approached the bed, followed by the afflicted daughter, who now tried to assume a composure of manner, very foreign to her feelings, as faintly smiling, she exclaimed, “Here, dear mamma, is our kind friend again.”  The poor sufferer looked anxiously at him.  Her attenuated frame and sharpened features told the sad tale, that consumption had done its work, and the hand of death was upon her.

“Well, my dear madam,” said the good pastor, “I will not ask if you are better; I will only hope the same spirit of resignation to the Divine Will fills your mind as when I left you, yesterday.  Remember in whom you trust, and for whom.  There are never-failing promises recorded there,” pointing to a Bible that lay on the bed, “and thrice happy are they who can rely on them in affliction’s hour.  I have read them to you, and your own eye, you tell me, has often rested on them; you have only, therefore, to ’commit your way unto the Lord, and he shall bring it to pass.’”

“Oh, yes,” replied the suffering woman, in a feeble tone, “I know it all; I know He is able and willing to take care of my hapless children.  I can and do trust them to Him; feeling sure He will more than supply the place of the only parent left them; but, oh, my dear sir, convinced, as I am, of all this, it is, nevertheless, hard to leave them; may He forgive my weakness; but human nature is such, that—­” here she paused from exhaustion.

“It is, my dear madam, meant that we should do so; and trial would lose the object for which it is sent, did we not feel its bitterness; but you must try, and rejoice that you are allowed to manifest both faith and hope, under so severe and trying a dispensation.  Let me entreat you to remember the many instances recorded in scripture, where answer has been given from on high to the prayers of those who can faithfully cling to them.”  But while the worthy man strove to lead the sufferer beyond this sublunary sphere, his heart bled for the poor children she was leaving.  The first blow she received, was the sudden news of her husband’s death in the Crimea, which came to her ears so abruptly, that her nerves received a shock, from which she did not rally for months.  This was followed by a letter, informing her that some property which had been left to her a few months previous to Captain Willoughby’s departure, had been claimed by a distant branch of the family, as heir at law, the testamentary document being found invalid.  These circumstances, joined to delicate health, following each other so quickly, proved too much for feeble nature, and she sunk under them.