loved. The thought came to him at once:

"She cannot live."

He found it difficult to repress a rising sob, but he did so for his
mother's sake. He thought that it might affect her injuriously if he
should display emotion.

His mother smiled faintly as he approached the bed.

"Mother," said Frank, kneeling by the bedside, "are you very weak?"

"Yes, Frank," she answered, almost in a whisper. "I think I am going to
leave you."

"Oh, don't say that, mother!" burst forth in anguish from Frank's lips.
"Try to live for my sake."

"I should like to live, my dear boy," whispered his mother; "but if it
is God's will that I should die, I must be reconciled. I leave you in
his care."

Here Mr. Manning entered the room.

"You will be kind to my boy?" said the dying mother.

"Can you doubt it, my dear?" replied her husband, in the soft tones
Frank so much disliked. "I will care for him as if he were my own."

"Thank you. Then I shall die easy."