as I believe thy repentance is deep."

And gradually the old man ceased to resist her gentle persuasions, and,
sitting down beside her, the bees humming round them, and the sun
rising higher and higher in the sky, they conversed together in that
perfect communion of soul which sometimes gilds the friendship of old
age. Together they had experienced the joys of youth, in middle age
both had tasted the bitterness of sorrow, and now in old age the calm
and peace of evening was beginning to shine upon one as it had long
shone upon the other.

"I have never thanked thee," he said at last, "for all thy
loving-kindness to me; never in words, Sara, but I have felt it; and I
thank God that thou art living here so near me, where I can come
sometimes for refreshment of spirit, as my journey draws towards the
end, for I am a weak man, as thou knowest, and often stumble in my
path. Ever since that first mistake of my life I have suffered the
punishment of it, Sara, and thou hast reaped the golden blessing."

"Yes," said Sara, looking dreamily over the garden hedge, "I have had
more than compensation, my cup is full and running over. No one can
understand how bright life is to me," and over her face there spread a
light and rapture which Ebben Owens gazed at with a kind of wondering
reverence.


"There's no doubt thou hast something within thee that few others
have," he said, with a shake of his head.

Here Morva arrived from the milking, and finding them still sitting in