And why should I wish to do so?
You all take too much trouble about me; why do you want to keep me here ?" "We are loth to lose you; and besides, while you can be kept here, it is a sign that you ought to be here." "So Grace tells me.

Yes, I will be patient, and wait till He has done His work.

I am more patient now; am I not, Grace ?" And she fondled Grace's hand, and looked up in her face.
"Yes," said Grace, who was standing near, with downcast face, trying to avoid Tom's eye.

"Yes, you are very good; but you must not talk:" but the girl went on, with kindling eye,-- "Ah--I was very fretful at first, because I could not go to heaven at once: but Grace showed me how it was good to be here, as well as there, as long as He thought that I might be made perfect by sufferings.

And since then, my pain has become quite pleasant to me, and I am ready to wait and bear--wait and bear." "You must not talk,--see, you are beginning to cough," said Tom, who wished somehow to stop a form of thought which so utterly puzzled him.
Not that he had not heard it before; commonplace enough indeed it is, thank God: but that day the words came home to him with spirit and power, all the more solemnly from their contrast with the scene around--without, all sunshine, joy, and glory: all which could tempt a human being to linger here: and within, that young girl longing to leave it all, and yet content to stay and suffer.