His magnificent head sank on his breast, and he gave up his own mental

problem in despair.

I was deeply touched. The case (if I may speak as a spiritual physician)

was now quite plain to me. It is no uncommon event, in the experience of

us all, to see the possessors of exalted ability occasionally humbled

to the level of the most poorly-gifted people about them. The object, no

doubt, in the wise economy of Providence, is to remind greatness that

it is mortal and that the power which has conferred it can also take

it away. It was now--to my mind--easy to discern one of these salutary

humiliations in the deplorable proceedings on dear Mr. Godfrey's part,

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of which I had been the unseen witness. And it was equally easy to

recognise the welcome reappearance of his own finer nature in the horror

with which he recoiled from the idea of a marriage with Rachel, and in

the charming eagerness which he showed to return to his Ladies and his

Poor.

I put this view before him in a few simple and sisterly words. His joy

was beautiful to see. He compared himself, as I went on, to a lost man

emerging from the darkness into the light. When I answered for a loving

reception of him at the Mothers' Small-Clothes, the grateful heart of

our Christian Hero overflowed. He pressed my hands alternately to his

lips. Overwhelmed by the exquisite triumph of having got him back among

us, I let him do what he liked with my hands. I closed my eyes. I felt

my head, in an ecstasy of spiritual self-forgetfulness, sinking on his

shoulder. In a moment more I should certainly have swooned away in his

arms, but for an interruption from the outer world, which brought me to

myself again. A horrid rattling of knives and forks sounded outside the

door, and the footman came in to lay the table for luncheon.

Mr. Godfrey started up, and looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.

"How time flies with YOU!" he exclaimed. "I shall barely catch the

train."

I ventured on asking why he was in such a hurry to get back to town.

His answer reminded me of family difficulties that were still to be

reconciled, and of family disagreements that were yet to come.

"I have heard from my father," he said. "Business obliges him to leave

Frizinghall for London to-day, and he proposes coming on here, either

this evening or to-morrow. I must tell him what has happened between

Rachel and me. His heart is set on our marriage--there will be great

difficulty, I fear, in reconciling him to the breaking-off of the

engagement. I must stop him, for all our sakes, from coming here till he

IS reconciled. Best and dearest of friends, we shall meet again!"




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