But I knew I was right, and held my own. I am too old to
work, Arthur: and better here whilst I am to stay, than elsewhere. Look!
all this furniture came from H. House--and that wardrobe is full of
linen, which she sent me. She has been twice to see me, and every officer
in this hospital is as courteous to me as if I had my fine house."
I thought of the psalm we had heard on the previous evening, and turned
to it in the opened Bible, and pointed to the verse, "Though he fall, he
shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him." Thomas
Newcome seeing my occupation, laid a kind, trembling hand on my shoulder;
and then, putting on his glasses, with a smile bent over the volume. And
who that saw him then, and knew him and loved him as I did--who would not
have humbled his own heart, and breathed his inward prayer, confessing
and adoring the Divine Will, which ordains these trials, these triumphs,
these humiliations, these blest griefs, this crowning Love?
I had the happiness of bringing Clive and his little boy to Thomas
Newcome that evening; and heard the child's cry of recognition and
surprise, and the old man calling the boy's name, as I closed the door
upon that meeting; and by the night's mail I went down to Newcome, to the
friends with whom my own family was already staying.
Pages:
1748
1749
1750
1751
1752
1753
1754
1755
1756
1757
1758
1759
1760
1761
1762
1763
1764
1765
1766
1767
1768
1769
1770
1771
1772