The next day, Jack Mainwaring and Norman Forester again crossed the hill to visit the old man. But when they arrived at the cottage they found the door locked, and no sign of anyone about the place. Forester went to the window and looked in.
"Dead," he said shortly. "I thought he wouldn't be long, poor old chap."
The funeral in the old churchyard was Jack's first and only funeral while taking the duty at Hildick. The son stood by the grave, the only mourner. He had put on a black tie, but that was the only difference in his attire, and he was barely sober as he walked with unsteady footsteps after the coffin.
Forester stood at a little distance, hidden by a high tombstone, and listened while Jack committed the poor old body to the dust, "In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." He felt that he would meet the old man again, and he wondered what he would be like in that other life.
The first to notice the change in Norman Forester was Doris Somerville. Perhaps it was because she watched him most. It was not because he was suddenly merry and full of jokes, for he had always been that; but in his quieter moments when they were sitting on the shore and the cheerful talk had ceased for a time, she noticed a look of rest and peace and contentment on his face which had not been there before. It was later that the doctor shared the news with his friend Jack Mainwaring.
In the afternoon, when he and Doris Somerville were walking alone on the sand, he repeated the two lines of the hymn to her, "But with my God to guide my way, 'tis equal joy to go or stay."
He then explained that those last two lines were now as true for him as they were for Jack; that he had One to guide his way Who could alone give true heart content.