Thus the winter at St.
Cradocke's had been very valuable to him personally, and he had been
willing to make return for the kindness for which he felt so
grateful, by letting the Vicar employ him in the night-schools,
lectures, and parish diversions-—all in short for which a genial and
sensible young layman is invaluable, when he can be caught.
And for their mother herself, she had been sheltered from agitation,
and had gathered strength and calmness, though with her habitual want
of self-consciousness she hardly knew it, and what she thanked her
old friend for was what he had done for her sons, especially Armine.
"He and I shall be grateful to you all the rest of our lives," she
said, with her bright eyes glistening.
David Ogilvie, in his deep, silent, life-long romance, felt that
precious guerdons sometimes are won at an age which the young suppose
to be past all feeling-—guerdons the more precious and pure because
unconnected with personal hopes or schemes. He still knew Caroline
to be as entirely Joseph Brownlow's own as when he had first
perceived it, ten years ago, but all that was regretful jealousy was
gone. His idealisation of her had raised and moulded his life, and
now that she had grown into the reality of that ideal, he was content
with the sunshine she had brought, and the joy of having done her a
real service, little as she guessed at the devoted homage that
prompted it.
Pages:
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706