, brought to hear
for the first time a burning and eloquent appeal to turn to God, should
very soon yield herself, heart and soul, to what was indeed to her a
_new_ religion!

She accepted the doctrine of her teacher without reservation, and the
offer made her in God's name of salvation--a salvation which drew a
circle round the recipient, into which no worldly thing must enter--a
circle narrower and ever narrower, which, as it closed like an iron band
at last, round many a true-hearted man and woman, had all unawares shut
in the very essence of that world they had in all good faith believed
they had renounced. For "the world's" chief idol is self, and there may
be worship and slavery to this idol in the closest conventual cloister,
and in the hardest and most ascetic life that was ever led in this, or
any other age.

But, as I said, no creed could make Mrs. Travers hard or austere. Her
sweet, pale face in its widow's cap, and straight black gown with the
long "weepers" and linen bands, gave her almost a saint-like appearance;
and the smile with which she greeted her boy was like sunshine over the
surface of a little tarn hidden in some mountain-side.

"Late--am I late, mother? I am sorry, ma'am; but I was detained at Mr.
Herschel's by--by a child begging for money at the door as we were
leaving. She spoke of starvation and deep distress. She had a lovely
face, and it sounded like truth."

"Poor little creature! Can we help, Leslie?"

"One of the singers at the Octagon Chapel will direct me to the
place--Crown Alley, a low street enough, by the Abbey churchyard."

"Ah!" and his mother sighed; "a low place, doubtless."

"The child's father is an actor--he was hired to play here--and has had
a fall, and is helpless."

"An actor!" Mrs. Travers' pale face flushed with crimson. "An actor! Ah,
my dear son, one engaged in the devil's work cannot claim charity from
Christians."

"I do not take your meaning, ma'am. An actor may suffer, and his child
starve as well as other folk, and need help."

"I grieve for suffering, dear son, as you know; but----"

"But you condemn all actors wholesale. Nay, my sweet mother"--and Leslie
changed his tone--"nay, my sweet mother, it is not you who steel your
heart; it is the doctrine taught you in the fashionable chapel yonder of
lords and ladies, who reserve for themselves the right to the kingdom of
heaven."

"My son, do not speak thus; nor scoff at what you cannot yet understa