Friend Carter warmed and deepened as he went on. "I feel moved to-
day," he said,--"moved, I know not why, but I hope for some wise
purpose,--to relate to you an instance of Divine and human kindness
which has come directly to my own knowledge. A young man of
delicate constitution, whose lungs were thought to be seriously
affected, was sent to the house of a Friend in the country, in
order to try the effect of air and exercise."
Asenath almost ceased to breathe, in the intensity with which she
gazed and listened. Clasping her hands tightly in her lap to
prevent them from trembling, and steadying herself against the back
of the seat, she heard the story of her love for Richard Hilton
told by the lips of a stranger!--not merely of his dismissal from
the house, but of that meeting in the street, at which only she and
her father were present! Nay, more, she heard her own words
repeated, she heard Richard's passionate outburst of remorse
described in language that brought his living face before her! She
gasped for breath--his face WAS before her! The features,
sharpened by despairing grief, which her memory recalled, had
almost anticipated the harder lines which fifteen years had made,
and which now, with a terrible shock and choking leap of the heart,
she recognized.
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