{"product_id":"2940013745551","title":"Gathered In","description":"\"You've come owre late to see Isabel in life, Mr. McDiarmid,\" said\u003cbr\u003eold Marion Oswald; \"It's of no avail to seek to see the dead.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I have lost no time--I started immediately on receiving the news of\u003cbr\u003eher dangerous state. I did not even know of her illness till\u003cbr\u003eyesterday,\" said Norman McDiarmid, a tall distinguished-looking man,\u003cbr\u003ein the very prime of life, who seemed strongly agitated, and spoke\u003cbr\u003ewith difficulty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There's been little passing between you and her in the way of\u003cbr\u003eletters, and now it is all at an end. Isabel passed away at midnight.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Was there any message for me beyond this?\" and he held in his hand\u003cbr\u003ea letter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She died at peace wi' a' men, an' nae doubt wi' you, and I hope and\u003cbr\u003etrust at peace wi' her God.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But was there no particular message for me, Mrs. Oswald?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What for should there be? She forgave you, as she forgave a' that\u003cbr\u003ehad dune her ill, as free as she hoped to be forgi'en hersel' for all\u003cbr\u003ethat lay on her conscience.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There was no trouble, there, Mrs. Oswald? Kenneth saw no trouble?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Only about leavin' him; and that was sair. But, no; she ne'er said\u003cbr\u003eword to him that I could come at that her soul was in deep waters. The\u003cbr\u003eminister saw her as often as three times in the week, and he was\u003cbr\u003esatisfied; aye, on the whole he was satisfied. She had a vision of the\u003cbr\u003eglory that was to follow, and rested on her Redeemer with full trust\u003cbr\u003efor hersel'; but her soul was grieving about the laddie. God is the\u003cbr\u003efather of the fatherless, the minister kept saying, but woe me! she\u003cbr\u003esaid she kent that weel, but how was he to be mother to the\u003cbr\u003emotherless?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The boy was much with her, I hope?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"All but schule time; he was maistly at the bedside, and I maun say,\u003cbr\u003every handy for a laddie. A' that the minister dooted about Isabel's\u003cbr\u003eframe of mind in the face o' the great change, was that she had na\u003cbr\u003efaith to leave the bairn in God's hands, and that she had na just the\u003cbr\u003efull sense of sin that such worms o' the dust as we are suld have,\u003cbr\u003eespecially with the reproach on her that she had.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then her mind was at peace in itself,\" said Mr. McDiarmid.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She said she was sure her sins were forgiven, and lost in the ocean\u003cbr\u003eo' Divine Love, and said she could na just be troubled with bringing\u003cbr\u003eup old stories, and wi' the laddie hanging owre her, little could be\u003cbr\u003esaid. Isabel was never the lass to put blame off hersel' on to ony\u003cbr\u003eother body, or she might have made her case clearer to the minister\u003cbr\u003eand to me; but Kenneth will never be told by me, good or bad, on the\u003cbr\u003ematter.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I must see Isabel, Mrs. Oswald.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's the good? What's the use? Ten years have never looked near\u003cbr\u003eher living, and now you would fain lay a balm to your conscience by\u003cbr\u003elooking on her face, which is now as the face of an angel in heaven,\u003cbr\u003eand you will think that she hadna sae muckle to dree or she wan there.\u003cbr\u003eIt will be harder for you, I'm thinking.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You speak truly, Mrs. Oswald, but Isabel wrote to me that, living or\u003cbr\u003edead, I was to see her, and alone. It is the last wish of one very\u003cbr\u003edear to you. You must respect it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe old woman reluctantly rose from the chair, where, with her open\u003cbr\u003eBible beside her, and her knitting in her hands, she had kept her\u003cbr\u003eplace during the stranger's visit. There was no trace of tears on the\u003cbr\u003eresolute face; all the emotion had been repressed, but the feelings\u003cbr\u003ewere probably the deeper for that. She opened a door which led out of\u003cbr\u003ethe living-room of the cottage, so low that Norman McDiarmid had to\u003cbr\u003estoop to enter, admitted him, and closed the door again softly, and\u003cbr\u003esat down to her knitting, taking every stitch as if it caught at her\u003cbr\u003eheart.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181400178928,"sku":"2940013745551","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013745551_p0.jpg?v=1763598278","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013745551","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}