g me the cause of my late paroxysm. It is
hard to keep a secret from a wife, especially such a wife as mine, so I
told my wife the tale, as we sat one night--it was a mid-winter
night--over the dying brands of our hearth, after the family had retired
to rest, her hand locked in mine, even as it is now.

"I thought she would have shrunk from me with horror; but she did not;
her hand, it is true, trembled once or twice; but that was all. At last
she gave mine a gentle pressure; and, looking up in my face, she
said--what do you think my wife said, young man?"

"It is impossible for me to guess," said I.

"'Let us go to rest, my love; your fears are all groundless.'"

CHAPTER LXXVII

Getting Late--Seven Years Old--Chastening--Go Forth--London Bridge--Same
Eyes--Common Occurrence--Very Sleepy.

"And so I still say," said Winifred, sobbing. "Let us retire to rest,
dear husband; your fears are groundless. I had hoped long since that
your affliction would have passed away, and I still hope that it
eventually will; so take heart, Peter, and let us retire to rest, for it
is getting late."

"Rest!" said Peter; "there is no rest for the wicked!"

"We are all wicked," said Winifred; "but you are afraid of a shadow. How
often have I told you that the sin of your heart is not the sin against
the Holy Ghost: the sin of your heart is its natural pride, of which you
are scarcely aware, to keep down which God in His mercy permitted you to
be terrified with the idea of having committed a sin which you never
committed."

"Then you will still maintain," said Peter, "that I never committed the
sin against the Holy Spirit?"

"I will," said Winifred; "you never committed it. How should a child
seven years old commit a sin like that?"

"Have I not read my own condemnation?" said Peter. "Did not the first
words which I read in the Holy Scripture condemn me? 'He who committeth
the sin against the Holy Ghost shall never enter into the kingdom of
God.'"

"You never committed it," said Winifred.

"But the words! the words! the words!" said Peter.

"The words are true words," said Winifred, sobbing; "but they were not
meant for you, but for those who have broken their profession, who,
having embraced the cross, have receded from their Master."

"And what sayst thou to the effect which the words produced upon me?"
said Peter. "Did they not cause me to run wild through Wales for years,
like Merddin Wyllt of yore; thin