I believe some
day we'll go back again, though you have pulled the old house down to the
ground. I don't want to make God angry with _me_. But the Bible says He
seeth in secret, and He will reward us openly.'
The master shrank and turned pale before the keen, composed gaze of the
boy and his manly bearing; but Stephen's heart began to fail him, and,
with trembling limbs and eyes that could scarcely see, he made his way
out of the room, and out of the house, down to the end of the shrubbery.
There he could bear up no longer, and he sat down under the laurels,
shivering with a feeling of despair. The worst was come upon him now, and
he saw no helper.
'My poor boy,' said Miss Anne's gentle voice, and he felt her hand laid
softly on his shoulder. 'My poor Stephen, I have heard all, and I know
how bitterly hard it is to bear.'
Stephen answered her only with a low, half-suppressed groan; and then he
sat speechless and motionless, as if his despair had completely paralyzed
him.
'Listen, Stephen,' she continued, with energy: 'you told me once that the
clergyman at Danesford has some paper belonging to you, about the
cottage.
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