self-control entirely and weep bitterly. Ephraim shrank under her words
as if they had been the strokes of a whip striking him. When she had
ended he went on heavily up the dark stair.

Both the men were in riding-dress. The elder man, when he had comforted
his wife as best he might, laid aside his boots and whip determinedly,
believing that the use for them, as far as concerned the search for his
niece, was at an end. Upstairs, sitting between the three windows that
looked east and north and south, Ephraim sat as long as exhaustion made
rest necessary. He was still equipped for the road, thinking only which
way it behoved him to travel, and when.




CHAPTER X.


The next day, toward afternoon, Joseph Smith stood by the bedside of
Angel Halsey. Susannah, wan and weary with a long night's nursing, was
sitting beside the pillow. Smith looked upon them both benevolently. It
was some minutes before he spoke. Susannah was too much in awe of him to
say much, but his presence was welcome. Since Halsey's rational self had
been lost in his delirium, loneliness like darkness that could be felt
had pressed upon her.

"Our brother will be healed," said Smith at length. "It is given to me
to know that he will be healed." He then spread his hands over the sick
man and made a short prayer. There was much fervour in his words and his
voice was loud.