'Nay,' he said, 'was not he ripe for better things? May not poor
Gilbert have been spared that longer life may train him to be like
his brother?'
'He never will be like him,' cried Mr. Kendal. 'No! no! The
difference is evident in the very countenance and features.'
'Was he like you?'
'They said so, but you could not gather an idea of him from me,' said
Mr. Kendal, smiling mournfully, as he met her gaze. 'It was the most
beautiful countenance I ever saw, full of life and joy; and there
were wonderful expressions in the eyes when he was thinking or
listening. He used to read the Greek Testament with me every
morning, and his questions and remarks rise up before me again. That
text--You have seen it in church.'
'Because I live, ye shall live also,' Albinia repeated.
'Yes. A little before his illness we came to that. He rested on it,
as he used to do on anything that struck him, and asked me, "whether
it meant the life hereafter, or the life that is hidden here?" We
went over it with such comments as I could find, but his mind was not
satisfied; and it must have gone on working on it, for one night,
when I had been thinking him delirious, he called me, and the light
shone out of those bright dark eyes of his as he said, joyfully, "It
is both, papa! It is hidden here, but it will shine out there," and
as I did not catch his meaning, he repeated the Greek words.'
'Dear boy! Some day we shall be glad that the full life and glory
came so soon.
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