Part 18

The Drurys are still at Osmington, and Amethyst carries on the missionary working party begun so many years ago in the old playroom. Not one of the original members is still on the spot except her, but the younger sisters of some of those girls have taken their places, Joan Franklyn, who will soon be leaving school, being the oldest member. A very special interest is attached to the work this year, for it is all destined for the mission station in China, where Lily Howell has been working with an older missionary (none other than Hope Daverel herself!) for some few months. Little did any of the quartette dream, when two of them so reluctantly admitted her to their working-party, that she would become their "first-fruits." But it seems that Monica's disinterested action on Lily's behalf, and subsequent Christlike life, influenced the girl who was keenly criticising all her actions, with the result that she became an earnest Christian, while a great desire took root in her heart to go to the poor Chinese and tell them of the Saviour she had found. At first, her father was unwilling, and Lily felt she would have to give up her cherished desire; but eventually all hindrances were removed, and after training she went out as an honorary missionary to inland China.

But what of Monica? Well, Monica Beauchamp is Monica Herschel now, and so, at last, she has a sister of her own in Robina, whom she dearly loves. Life has not been all unclouded sunshine to Monica, for, soon after her engagement to Leslie Herschel, who was home on furlough, he became seriously ill with African fever, and for days his life hung in the balance. But God was with her through it all, and her faith, which never wavered, was eventually rewarded by the giving back to her of the one whom she had always enshrined in her heart, as her ideal, because it was he who had been the means of her salvation.

Leslie's serious illness put an end to their hopes of working side by side for Christ in the Soudan, for the time being, at any rate; but they still look forward to it, in the future, if God so wills it. Meanwhile, they are very happy in their work for Him at West Port, a large seafaring town, where Leslie is acting as curate-in-charge for an elderly and infirm vicar. The work is arduous, for the fisher-folk at West Port are hardly less heathen than the natives of Africa, but the seed is being faithfully sown there, and already a harvest of precious souls is being reaped.

"Parson's lady" is a great favourite among the women, to whom Monica devotes all her energies, and not a few among them will one day "rise up and call her blessed," for from her lips and life they have learnt the way into the Kingdom.

Perhaps the daily teaching, and oftentimes tending, of these poor ignorant fisherwomen, was not just the career that Colonel Beauchamp would have chosen for his handsome daughter; and when he gave his consent to her marriage with Leslie Herschel such a future for her was an undreamt-of thing.

But who could resist her pleading tones and soft caress, when, with cheeks like damask roses, she whispered, "Oh, dad, I love him! I think I always have, since the old Sandyshore days. There never _could_ be any one but Leslie for me, and he says just the same!" So her fond father, remembering the sadness of his own short married life, confessed that he was conquered.

"She might have married anybody, with her face and fortune," demurred Mrs. Beauchamp, who was very little altered, outwardly, despite her seventy-six years; "but she always would have her own way."

"Well, I must say I think the child has chosen well," said the colonel. "Leslie is a man in a thousand, and worthy even of our dearest Monica."

"Perhaps, as he was the means of my losing the troublesome part of my granddaughter seven years ago, he has the best right to have her altogether," murmured the old lady, more to herself than to her son, and she fell into a reverie, and lived over again the days that are no more.

THE END.

_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._