"Yes," she mentally thought, bursting into tears. "What, but for that
shelter, would become of us in our bitter hours of trial?"





CHAPTER XI.


THE CLOISTER KEYS.

It was the twenty-second day of the month, and nearly a week after the
date of the last chapter. Arthur Channing sat in his place at the
cathedral organ, playing the psalm for the morning; for the hour was
that of divine service.

"O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious: and His mercy
endureth for ever!"

The boy's whole heart went up with the words. _He_ gave thanks: mercies
had come upon him--upon his; and that great dread--which was turning
his days to gall, his nights to sleeplessness--the arrest of Hamish,
had not as yet been attempted. He felt it all as he sat there; and, in
a softer voice, he echoed the sweet song of the choristers below, verse
after verse as each verse rose on the air, filling the aisles of the
old cathedral: how that God delivers those who cry unto Him--those who
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; those whose hearts fail
through heaviness, who fall down and there is none to help them--He
brings them out of the darkness, and breaks their bonds in sunder. They