Gentleness, affection, humility, and refinement were in his nature.  Mrs. Frost had trained these qualities into the beauty of Christian graces; and Mrs. Ponsonby and her daughter had taught him to bring his high principles to supply that which was wanting.  Indolence of will, facility of disposition, unsteadiness of purpose, inconsiderate impulses without perseverance, had all betokened an inherent weakness, which the Earl’s cure, ambition, had been powerless to remedy; but duty had been effectual in drawing strength out of what had been feeble by nature.  It was religion that had made a man of Louis; and his father saw and owned it, no longer as merely the woman’s guide in life and the man’s resource chiefly in death, to be respected and moderately attended to, but never so as to interfere unreasonably with the world.  No; he had learnt that it was the only sure and sound moving-spring:  he knew it as his son’s strengthening, brightening thread of life; and began to perceive that his own course might have been less gloomy and less harsh, devoid of such dark strands, had he held the right clue.  The contrast brought back some lines which, without marking, he had heard Louis and his aunt reading together, and, albeit little wont to look into his son’s books, he was so much haunted by the rhythm that he rose and searched them out—­

Yea, mark him well, ye cold and proud,
Bewildered in a heartless crowd,
Starting and turning pale
At rumour’s angry din: 
No storm can now assail
The charm he bears within. 
Rejoicing still, and doing good,
And with the thought of God imbued,
No glare of high estate,
No gloom of woe or want,
The radiance may abate,
Where Heaven delights to haunt.

The description went to his heart, so well did it agree with Louis.  Yet there was a sad feeling, for the South American mail had been some days due, and he had not heard of his son since he was about to land at Callao.  Five months was a long absence; and as the chances of failure, disappointment, climate, disease, and shipwreck arose before him, he marvelled at himself for having consented to peril his sole treasure, and even fancied that a solitary, childless old age might be the penalty in store for having waited to be led heavenward by his son.

It was seldom that the Earl gave way, and, reproaching himself for his weakness, he roused himself and rang the bell for better light.  There was a movement in the house, and for some moments the bell was not answered; but presently the door was opened.

‘Bring the other lamp.’

‘Yes, my Lord.’

The slow, soft voice did not belong to Frampton.  He started up, and there stood Louis!

‘My dear father,’ he said; and Lord Ormersfield sprang up, grasped his son’s hand, and laid the other hand on his shoulder, but durst ask no questions, for the speedy return seemed to bespeak that he had failed.  He looked in Louis’s face, and saw it full of emotion, with dew on the eyelashes; but suddenly a sweet archness gleamed in the eyes, and he steadied his trembling lip to say with a smile,