DEATH OF MR. AND MRS. AUSTIN 223 



pain in store for these wayfarers,' he wrote, ' and 

 we have hope more than hope, trust.' 



On May 19, 1884, Mr. Austin was taken. He Death of 

 was- seventy-eight years of age, suffered sharply Mrs. 

 with all his old firmness, and died happy in the 

 knowledge that he had left his wife well cared 

 for. This had always been a bosom concern ; 

 for the Barrens were long-lived and he believed 

 that she would long survive him. But their 

 union had been so full and quiet that Mrs. Austin 

 languished under the separation. In their last 

 years, they would sit all evening in their own 

 drawing-room hand in hand : two old people 

 who, for all their fundamental differences, had 

 yet grown together and become all the world 

 in each other's eyes and hearts ; and it was felt 

 to be a kind release, when eight months after, 

 on January 14, 1885, Eliza Barren followed Alfred 

 Austin. ' I wish I could save you from all pain,' 

 wrote Fleeming six days later to his sorrowing 

 wife, ' I would if I could but my way is not 

 God's way ; and of this be assured, God's way 

 is best.' 



In the end of the same month, Captain Jenkin illness and 



death of 



caught cold and was confined to bed. He was the Cap- 

 so unchanged in spirit that at first there seemed 

 no ground of fear ; but his great age began to 

 tell, and presently it was plain he had a summons. 

 The charm of his sailor's cheerfulness and ancient 



