"You think I do not understand; but I do.

You are giving up everything for us.

Even if you live through it, this House, which has been your charge for many years, will be dissolved; your sheep will be scattered to starve in their toothless age; the fold that has sheltered them for four hundred years will become a home of wolves.

I understand full well, and she"-- pointing to the sleeping Cicely--"will understand also." "Say nothing to her," murmured Mother Matilda; "I may fail." "You may fail, or you may succeed.

If you fail and we burn, God shall reward you.