528



The Channings



   Lady Augusta turned impulsively to Mrs. Chan-
 ning. " What good children God has given you !"
   Tears rushed into Mrs. Channing's eyes; she felt the
 remark in all its grateful truth. She was spared a
 reply; she did not like to contrast them with Lady
 Augusta's, ever so tacitly, and say they were indeed
 good; for Sarah entered, and said another visitor was
 waiting in the drawing-room.
   As Mr. Channing withdrew, Lady Augusta rose to
depart. She took Mrs. Channing's hand. " How
dreadful for vou to come home and find one of your
children gone !" she uttered. " How can you bear it
and be calm ! "
   Emotion rose then, and Mrs. Channing battled to
keep it down. " The same God who gave me my
children, has taught me how to bear," she presently
said. " For the moment, yesterday, I really was over-
whelmed; but it passed away after a few hours'
struggle. When I left home, I humbly committed my
child to God's good care, in implicit trust; and I feel,
that whether dead or alive, that care is still over him."
  " I wish to goodness one could learn to feel as you
do !" uttered Lady Augusta. " Troubles don't seem to
touch you and MNr. Channing; you rise superior to
them: but they turn me inside out. And now I must
go! And I wish Roland had never been born before
he had behaved so ! You must try to forgive him, Mrs.
Channing; you must promise to try and welcome him,
should he ever come back again !"
  " Oh, yes," Mrs. Channing answered, with a bright
smile. " The one will be as easy as the other has been.
He is already forgiven, Lady Augusta."
  " I have done what I could in it. I have been to the
college school, and told them all, and Tom is put into
his place as senior. It's true, indeed ! and I hope
every boy will be flogged for putting upon him-Gerald
and Tod amongst the rest. And now, good-bye."
  Sarah was holding the street door open for Lady
Augusta. Lady Augusta, who generally gave a word
of gossip to every one, even as Roland, had her head
turned towards the girl as she passed out of it, and
thereby nearly fell over a boy who at the moment was
seeking to enter, being led by a woman, as if he had no