surely as a deep wound in a man's flesh must leave its scar. It is of
no use for us to think to evade this law; neither is it a law wholly
of retribution. The scar on the flesh is token of nature's process of
healing: so is the scar of a perpetual sorrow, which is left on a soul
which has sinned and repented. Sally and Jim were leading healthful and
good lives now; and each day brought them joys and satisfactions: but
their souls were scarred; the fulness of joy which might have been
theirs they could never taste. And the loss fell where it could never
be overlooked for a moment,--on their joy in their child. In the very
holiest of holies, in the temple of the mother's heart, stood for ever a
veiled shape, making ceaseless sin-offering for the past.

As the winter set in, an anxiety fell on the family which had passed
so sunny a summer. With the first sharp cold winds, little Raby
developed a tendency to croup. Neither Sally nor Hetty had ever seen a
case of this terrible and alarming disease; and, in Raby's first attack
of it, they had both thought the child dying. Now was Doctor Eben
brought again into close and intimate relations with Hetty. During the
months of the summer, he had, in spite of all his efforts, in spite
of his frequent visits to her house, in spite of all Hetty's frank
cordiality of manner, felt himself slowly slipping away from the
vantage-ground he hoped he had gained with her. This was the result of
two things,--one which he knew, and one which he did not dream of: the
cause which he knew, was a very simple and evident one, Hetty's constant
preoccupation. Hetty was a very busy woman: what with Raby, the farm,
the house, her social relations with the whole village, she had never a
moment of leisure. Often when Dr. Eben came to the house, he found her
away; and often when he found her at home, she was called away before he
had talked with her half an hour. The other reason, which, if Dr. Eben
had only known it, would have more than comforted him for all he felt he