that the future might atone for the past, and that
Myrvin would remember the sacred post he held.
The unhappy young man heard him without reply; but
when the rector had departed, he strove to think soberly
on the charges brought against him, and look within
himself to know if he deserved them. Neglect
and carelessness—yes, he had given cause
for both. Other accusations of much graver import
he dismissed at once, satisfied that the very thought
of such vices had never even for one moment stained
his mind, and as secure in his own integrity and right
feeling, as he was aware of the prejudice against
him, he determined—as, alas! how many in
such cases do—not to alter his general conduct,
lest it should be said he tacitly admitted the truth
of every report against him. Had he only been
accused of neglect in parochial duties, he might perhaps,
if his troubled spirit had permitted him, have endeavoured
to attend more closely to them; but his pride prevented
him from striving to obtain the good-will of those
who seemed only alive to every circumstance tending
to his disadvantage. Would he endeavour to conciliate
those whom he well knew disliked him? no; the very
act of so doing would be brought against him, and
sternly he resolved that haughtiness and pride should
still characterise his deportment. What mattered
it what people thought or said, if it was untrue?
he cared not; the world was a wilderness to his excited
and irritated fancy, in which there bloomed but one
sweet flower, too pure, too beautiful for him to touch.
It was his doom he thought to grovel on the earth,
hers to shine like a star in the sphere above him.
Not long after Mr. Howard’s interview with his
curate, Mr. Hamilton’s family and his guests
arrived at Oakwood, and Herbert eagerly sought his
friend. He was shocked at the change he perceived
in his appearance, which, though marked, was yet quite
indescribable; that Arthur was unhappy, that his profession
was more than ever distasteful to him, he soon discovered;
but the real cause of these feelings he tried in vain
to probe. He saw, with the deepest regret, that
all his former exhortations on the subject, his earnest
entreaties that Arthur would persevere till he brought
a willing heart as an offering to his Maker, all had
been without effect; but yet his kind heart could not
cast away his friend, opposite as were their feelings
on a subject which to Herbert was of vital importance.
It was strange that a character such as Herbert Hamilton
should have selected Arthur Myrvin for his chosen
friend, yet so it was. It might have been pity,
sympathy, which had first excited this friendship.
The indignation he felt at the unjustifiable treatment
Arthur had received while a servitor at college had
excited an interest, which had at first completely
blinded him to his many faults; and when they were
discovered, the ardent desire and hope that he might
be of service in removing them from the otherwise
noble character of his friend still preserved and,