"
"Yes, I know that," Mrs. Waldo replied with her low, sweet laugh.
"Faith is often more useful in helping us to live than in preparing
us to die. It saved my life, too, I'm sure, after my husband died. I
had no right to die then, for Vincent and, far more, my daughters,
still needed me."
For a time they sat on the piazza steps in silence, the old lady
keeping her arm caressingly about the girl, whose head drooped on
the motherly bosom overflowing with sympathy. Only the semi-tropical
sounds of night broke the stillness. The darkness was relieved by
occasional flashes along the horizon from a distant thunder-shower.
Miss Lou thought, "Have I ever known a peace so deep and sweet as
this?"
There was a hasty, yet stealthy step along the hall to the door, yet
the girl had no presentiment of evil. The warm, brooding, fragrant
darkness of the night was not more undisturbed than her mind.
"Miss Lou," said Zany in a loud whisper.
What a shock came with that brief utterance! A flash of lightning
direct from the sky could not have produced such sudden dread and
presentiment of trouble.
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