nd it was with an
exquisite pang of delight that, after a moment of vague fear,

(Oh, mercy! to myself I said,
If Lucy should be dead!),

she saw her child's bright face of welcome as he threw open the door
every afternoon on her return home. For it was his silently-appointed
work to listen for her knock, and rush breathless to let her in.
If he were in the garden, or upstairs among the treasures of the
lumber-room, either Miss Benson, or her brother, or Sally, would
fetch him to his happy little task; no one so sacred as he to the
allotted duty. And the joyous meeting was not deadened by custom, to
either mother or child.

Ruth gave the Bradshaws the highest satisfaction, as Mr Bradshaw
often said both to her and to the Bensons; indeed, she rather winced
under his pompous approbation. But his favourite recreation was
patronising; and when Ruth saw how quietly and meekly Mr Benson
submitted to gifts and praise, when an honest word of affection, or
a tacit, implied acknowledgment of equality, would have been worth
everything said and done, she tried to be more meek in spirit, and
to recognise the good that undoubtedly existed in Mr Bradshaw. He
was richer and more prosperous than ever;--a keen, far-seeing man
of business, with an undisguised contempt for all who failed in the
success which he had achieved. But it was not alone those who were
less fortunate in obtaining wealth than himself that he visited with
severity of judgment; every moral error or delinquency came under his
unsparing comment. Stained by no vice himself, either in his own eyes
or in that of any human being who cared to judge him, having nicely
and wisely proportioned and adapted his means to his ends, he
could afford to speak and act with a severity which was almost
sanctimonious in its ostentation of thankfulness as to himself. Not a
misfortune or a sin was brought to light but Mr Bradshaw could trace
it to its cause in some former mode of action, which he had long ago
foretold would lead to shame. If another's son turned out wild or
bad, Mr Bradshaw had little sympathy; it might have been prevented
by a stricter rule, or more religious life at home; young Richard
Bradshaw was quiet and steady, and other fathers might have had
sons like him if they had taken the same pains to enforce obedience.
Richard was an only son, and yet Mr Bradshaw might venture to say, he
had never had his own way in his life. Mrs Bradshaw was, he confessed
(Mr