They have
accepted me; and I am going this evening."
"Oh, Ruth! I feared this; I saw your look this morning as we
spoke of this terrible illness."
"Why do you say 'fear', Mr. Benson? You yourself have been with
John Harrison, and old Betty, and many others, I dare say, of
whom we have not heard."
"But this is so different! in such poisoned air! among such
malignant cases! Have you thought and weighed it enough, Ruth?"
She was quite still for a moment, but her eyes grew full of
tears. At last she said, very softly, with a kind of still
solemnity--
"Yes! I have thought, and I have weighed. But through the very
midst of all my fears and thoughts I have felt that I must go."
The remembrance of Leonard was present in both their minds; but
for a few moments longer they neither of them spoke. Then Ruth
said--
"I believe I have no fear. That is a great preservative, they
say. At any rate, if I have a little natural shrinking, it is
quite gone when I remember that I am in God's hands! Oh, Mr.
Benson," continued she, breaking out into the irrepressible
tears--"Leonard, Leonard!"
And now it was his turn to speak out the brave words of faith.
"Poor, poor mother!" said he. "But be of good heart. He, too, is
in God's hands. Think what a flash of time only will separate you
from him, if you should die in this work!"
"But he--but he--it will belong to him, Mr. Benson! He will be
alone!"
"No, Ruth, he will not.
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