The officer was restrained.  Mr. Wesley resumed his talk.  And her mother went on to tell that, years after, when the Rector was in London attending Convocation, a gentleman stopped him one day as he crossed St. James’s Park.  “Do you know me, Mr. Wesley?” “Sir, I have not that pleasure.”  “Will you know me, then, if I remind you that once, in Smith’s Coffee House, you taught me a lesson?  Since that time, sir, I thank God I have feared an oath and everything that is offensive to the Divine Majesty.  I rejoiced, just now, to catch sight of you, and could not refrain from expressing my gratitude.”

And John inherited this gift of mastery.  He could not understand women, nor could she ever understand him:  but she felt that the arm she held was one of steel.  To what end she and her sisters and her mother had been sacrificed she could not yet divine:  but the encounter by the bridge had reawakened the Wesley pride in her, and she walked acquiescent in a fate beyond her ken.  She knew, too, that he had dismissed the squabble from his mind and was thinking of her confession and her soul’s danger.  But here she would not help him.

“You have heard,” she asked, “that we are leaving Lincoln?”

This was news to him.

“Yes; my husband thinks of opening a business in London:  but first he must sell the shop and effects and pension off his father into lodgings at Louth.  That is the old man’s native home, and he wishes to end his days there.  He is loth to leave the business; but truly he has brought it low, and we must move if William is to make his fortune.”

“Moving to London will be a risk, and a heavy expense.”

“Uncle Matthew is helping us, and it is settled that we move in the autumn.  We go into lodgings at first, and shall live in the humblest way while we look about us for a good workshop and premises.”

“Do you and your husband’s father agree?”

“I at least try to please him.  You would not call him a pleasant old man:  and of course he charges this new adventure down to my influence, whereas it is entirely William’s notion.  I have had nothing to do with it beyond enlisting Uncle Matthew’s help.”

John glanced at her as though to read her face in the darkness.  “Was that also William’s notion?” he asked.

But here again he betrayed his ignorance.  True woman, though she may have ceased to love her husband, or may never have loved him, will cover his weakness.  “We have our ambitions, Jack, although to you they seem petty enough.  You must make William’s acquaintance.  He has a great opinion of you.  I believe, indeed, he thinks more of you than of me.  And if he wishes to leave Lincoln for London, it is partly for my sake, that I may be happier in a great city where my fault is not known.”

“If, as it seems, he thinks of your earthly comfort but neglects your soul’s health, I shall not easily be friends with him.”