Then he went to his own room, turned the key in his chamber door, and walked straight to the Bible lying open on its stand; and as he read, a glory seemed to shine over its pages and his face reflected the comfort and joy he found there.  And afterwards as he stood before the Book with lifted eyes and clasped hands, he was a visible incarnation of that beautiful manliness which is the outcome and result of nearly two thousand years of Christian thought and feeling.

[Illustration:  “Noiselessly he stepped to her side and ... stood in silent prayer.”]

He had not permitted himself to think of his wife.  His calculations had demanded his whole mind and intellect and he had purposely occupied himself with subjects that would not permit wandering thought.  For he was aware that he had once been jealous of Lord Thirsk and he knew that it was not pleasant for him to think of Jane brightening with her beauty Lord Thirsk’s mansion while he sat lonely in his own silent home.

But he soon put all such reveries vigorously, even a little angrily, under the positive stamp of his foot as he began to take his own share in the circumstance.  “I could have gone with Jane—­I did not want to go—­I don’t like Thirsk—­I do not want his hospitality.  How could I feast and dance when I know some of my men must be out of work and out of bread in a few weeks—­Jane does not feel as I do—­Mother does not either—­I cannot expect it—­but I know!—­I know!—­I took my own wish and way, and I have no right to complain—­I must be just and fair—­just and fair to all—­to all;” and with this decision, he slept well, courting sleep consciously, because he knew that the times were too full of anxiety to lose the rest so needful in unhappy and doubtful brooding.

In the morning a thing quite unlooked-for occurred.  When John went into the breakfast-room Jane was there to receive him.  “O John!” she cried, “I am delighted that I caught you napping.  I left Thirsk at seven o’clock.  Are you not glad to see me?”

“Glad!” He could not find words to express his gladness, but his silent kisses spoke for him and his beaming eyes and the warm clasp of his strong hand.  And his coffee was not coffee, it was some heavenly nectar, and his bread was more than the staff of life, it was the bread of love.  She brought her chair close to his side, she said that was the place of honor.  She fed his heart with soft, beaming glances, and she amused him with laughable descriptions of her partners.  “After you, John,” she said with a pretty seriousness, “after you, John, all other men look so small!” And what man wholly devoted to his wife, would not have been intoxicated with the rapture of a love so near and yet so far from understanding him?

CHAPTER XI

JANE RECEIVES A LESSON

“There are times in life when circumstances decide for us; it is then the part of wisdom to accept and make the best of what they offer.”