When, however, Dorothy came to concern herself about the will of God, in trying to help her father to do the best with their money, she began to reap a little genuine comfort, for then she found things begin to explain themselves a little.  The more a man occupies himself in doing the works of the Father—­the sort of thing the Father does, the easier will he find it to believe that such a Father is at work in the world.

In the curate Mr. Drake had found not only a man he could trust, but one to whom, young as he was, he could look up; and it was a trait in the minister nothing short of noble, that he did look up to the curate—­perhaps without knowing it.  He had by this time all but lost sight of the fact, once so monstrous, so unchristian in his eyes, that he was the paid agent of a government-church; the sight of the man’s own house, built on a rock in which was a well of the water of life, had made him nearly forget it.  In his turn he could give the curate much; the latter soon discovered that he knew a great deal more about Old Testament criticism, church-history, and theology—­understanding by the last the records of what men had believed and argued about God—­than he did.  They often disagreed and not seldom disputed; but while each held the will and law of Christ as the very foundation of the world, and obedience to Him as the way to possess it after its idea, how could they fail to know that they were brothers?  They were gentle with each other for the love of Him whom in eager obedience they called Lord.

The moment his property was his availably, the minister betook himself to the curate.

“Now,” he said—­he too had the gift of going pretty straight, though not quite so straight as the curate—­“Now, Mr. Wingfold, tell me plainly what you think the first thing I ought to do with this money toward making it a true gift of God.  I mean, what can I do with it for somebody else—­some person or persons to whom money in my hands, not in theirs, may become a small saviour?”

“You want, in respect of your money,” rejoined the curate, “to be in the world as Christ was in the world, setting right what is wrong in ways possible to you, and not counteracting His?  You want to do the gospel as well as preach it?”

“That is what I mean—­or rather what I wish to mean.  You have said it.—­What do you count the first thing I should try to set right?”

“I should say injustice.  My very soul revolts against the talk about kindness to the poor, when such a great part of their misery comes from the injustice and greed of the rich.”

“I well understand,” returned Mr. Drake, “that a man’s first business is to be just to his neighbor, but I do not so clearly see when he is to interfere to make others just.  Our Lord would not settle the division of the inheritance between the two brothers.”