‘Yes,’ said Mr. Tryan, ’I quite understand your feeling; I don’t wonder at your strong regard for her.’

’Well, but now I want her other friends to second me.  There she is, with three rooms to let, ready furnished, everything in order; and I know some one, who thinks as well of her as I do, and who would be doing good all round—­to every one that knows him, as well as to Mrs. Pettifer, if he would go to live with her.  He would leave some uncomfortable lodgings, which another person is already coveting and would take immediately; and he would go to breathe pure air at Holly Mount, and gladden Mrs. Pettifer’s heart by letting her wait on him; and comfort all his friends, who are quite miserable about him.’

Mr. Tryan saw it all in a moment—­he saw that it had all been done for his sake.  He could not be sorry; he could not say no; he could not resist the sense that life had a new sweetness for him, and that he should like it to be prolonged a little—­only a little, for the sake of feeling a stronger security about Janet.  When she had finished speaking, she looked at him with a doubtful, inquiring glance.  He was not looking at her; his eyes were cast downwards; but the expression of his face encouraged her, and she said, in a half-playful tone of entreaty,—­’You will go and live with her?  I know you will.  You will come back with me now and see the house.’

He looked at her then, and smiled.  There is an unspeakable blending of sadness and sweetness in the smile of a face sharpened and paled by slow consumption.  That smile of Mr. Tryan’s pierced poor Janet’s heart:  she felt in it at once the assurance of grateful affection and the prophecy of coming death.  Her tears rose; they turned round without speaking, and went back again along the lane.

Chapter 27

In less than a week Mr. Tryan was settled at Holly Mount, and there was not one of his many attached hearers who did not sincerely rejoice at the event.

The autumn that year was bright and warm, and at the beginning of October, Mr. Walsh, the new curate, came.  The mild weather, the relaxation from excessive work, and perhaps another benignant influence, had for a few weeks a visibly favourable effect on Mr. Tryan.  At least he began to feel new hopes, which sometimes took the guise of new strength.  He thought of the cases in which consumption patients remain nearly stationary for years, without suffering so as to make their life burdensome to themselves or to others; and he began to struggle with a longing that it might be so with him.  He struggled with it, because he felt it to be an indication that earthly affection was beginning to have too strong a hold on him, and he prayed earnestly for more perfect submission, and for a more absorbing delight in the Divine Presence as the chief good.  He was conscious that he did not wish for prolonged life solely that he might reclaim