tted than mine have been for such work. I
have always known my own unfitness, by reason of the worldly cares
with which I have been laden. Poverty makes the spirit poor, and the
hands weak, and the heart sore,--and too often makes the conscience
dull. May the latter never be the case with any of you." Then he
uttered another short prayer, and, stepping down from the pulpit,
walked out of the church, with his weeping wife hanging on his arm,
and his daughter following them, almost dissolved in tears. He never
again entered that church as the pastor of the congregation.

There was an old lame man from Hoggle End leaning on his stick near
the door as Mr. Crawley went out, and with him was his old lame wife.
"He'll pull through yet," said the old man to his wife; "you'll see
else. He'll pull through because he's so dogged. It's dogged as does
it."

On that night the position of the members of Mr. Crawley's household
seemed to have changed. There was something almost of elation in his
mode of speaking, and he said soft loving words, striving to comfort
his wife. She, on the other hand, could say nothing to comfort him.
She had been averse to the step he was taking, but had been unable to
press her objection in opposition to his great argument as to duty.
Since he had spoken to her in that strain which he had used with
Robarts, she also had felt that she must be silent. But she could not
even feign to feel the pride which comes from the performance of a
duty. "What will he do when he comes out?" she said to her daughter.
The coming out spoken of by her was the coming out of prison. It was
natural enough that she should feel no elation.

The breakfast on Sunday morning was to her, perhaps, the saddest
scene of her life. They sat down, the three together, at the usual
hour,--nine o'clock,--but the morning had not been passed as was
customary on Sundays. It had been Mr. Crawley's practice to go into
the school from eight to nine; but on this Sunday he felt, as he
told his wife, that his presence would be an intrusion there. But
he requested Jane to go and perform her usual task. "If Mr. Thumble
should come," he said to her, "be submissive to him in all things."
Then he stood at his door, watching to see at what hour Mr. Thumble
would reach the school. But Mr. Thumble did not attend the school on
that morning. "And yet he was very express to me in his desire that
I would not myself meddle with the duties," said Mr. Crawley to