sense of relief.  A month ago I was pressing her rapturously to my bosom.  An hour ago, the happiness of knowing that I shall never press her again, intoxicates me like strong liquor.  The thing seems impossible—­the thing can’t be.  And yet there are the facts, as I had the honour of stating them when we first sat down together in these two chairs.  I have lost a beautiful girl, an excellent social position, and a handsome income; and I have submitted to it without a struggle.  Can you account for it, dear friend?  It’s quite beyond me.”

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, 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!”