Dorothy, therefore, was sorely oppressed.  For a long time her life had seemed withering from her, and now that her father was fainting on the steep path, and she had no water to offer him, she was ready to cry aloud in bitterness of spirit.

She had never heard the curate preach—­had heard talk of his oddity on all sides, from men and women no more capable of judging him than the caterpillar of judging the butterfly—­which yet it must become.  The draper, who understood him, naturally shrunk from praising to her the teaching for which he not unfrequently deserted that of her father, and she never looked in the direction of him with any hope.  Yet now, the very first time she had heard him speak out of the abundance of his heart, he had left behind him a faint brown ray of hope in hers.  It was very peculiar of him to break out in prayer after such an abrupt fashion—­in the presence of an older minister than himself—­and praying for him too!  But there was such an appearance of reality about the man! such a simplicity in his look! such a directness in his petitions! such an active fervor of hope in his tone—­without an atom of what she had heard called unction!  His thought and speech appeared to arise from no separated sacred mood that might be assumed and laid aside, but from present faith and feeling, from the absolute point of life at that moment being lived by him.  It was an immediate appeal to a hearing, and understanding, and caring God, whose breath was the very air His creatures breathed, the element of their life; an utter acknowledgment of His will as the bliss of His sons and daughters!  Such was the shining of the curate’s light, and it awoke hope in Dorothy.

In the evening he came again as he had said, and brought Juliet.  Each in the other, Dorothy and she recognized suffering, and in a very few moments every thing was arranged between them.  Juliet was charmed with the simplicity and intentness of Dorothy; in Juliet’s manner and carriage, Dorothy at once recognized a breeding superior to her own, and at once laid hold of the excellence by acknowledging it.  In a moment she made Juliet understand how things were, and Juliet saw as quickly that she must assent to the arrangement proposed.  But she had not been with them two days, when Dorothy found the drawing-room as open to her as before she came, and far more pleasant.

While the girls were talking below, the two clergymen sat again in the study.

“I have taken the liberty,” said the curate, “of bringing an old book I should like you to look at, if you don’t mind—­chiefly for the sake of some verses that pleased me much when I read them first, and now please me more when I read them for the tenth time.  If you will allow me, I will read them to you.”

Mr. Drake liked good poetry, but did not much relish being called upon to admire, as he imagined he was now.  He assented, of course, graciously enough, and soon found his mistake.