As he reached his own door, he met the minister, and told him of the sorrow
that had befallen his parents, adding that it was plain they were in sore
need of his sympathy. James, although marvelling at their being so much
troubled by the death of merely a servant, was roused by the tale to the
duty of his profession; and although his heart had never yet drawn him
either to the house of mourning or the house of mirth, he judged it
becoming to pay another visit to Stonecross, thinking it, however, rather
hard that he should have to go again so soon. It pleased the soutar to see
him face about at once, however, and start for the farm with a quicker
stride than, since his return to Tiltowie as its minister, he had seen him
put forth.
James had not the slightest foreboding of whom he was about to see in the
arms of Death. But even had he had some feeling of what was awaiting him, I
dare not even conjecture the mood in which he would have approached the
house--whether one of compunction, or of relief.
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