"It is rest to lay my head here," she whispered.
"But you must not stand;" and sitting down he drew her to the sofa, still
keeping his arm about her waist. "Bear up, dear wife," he said, "we will
hope our precious darling is not very ill."
She told him of the child's words, and the sad foreboding that had entered
her own heart.
"While there is life there is hope, dearest," he said, with assumed
cheerfulness. "Let us not borrow trouble. Does He not say to us, as to the
disciples of old, 'It is I, be not afraid'?"
"Yes; and she is His; only lent to us for a season; and we dare not rebel
should He see fit to recall His own," she answered, amid her tears. "Oh,
Edward, I am so glad we indulged her this morning in her wish to play with
my jewels!"
"Yes; she is the most precious of them all," he said with emotion.
Aunt Chloe, drawing near, respectfully suggested that it might be well to
separate the children, in case the little girl's illness should prove to
be contagious.
"That is a wise thought, mammy," said Elsie. "Is it not, Edward?"
"Yes, wife; shall we take our little daughter to our own bedroom, and
leave Eddie in possession of the nursery?"
"Yes, I will never leave her while she is ill."
Weeks of anxious solicitude, of tenderest, most careful nursing, followed;
for the little one was very ill, and for some time grew worse hour by
hour.
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