which we are not served ourselves_, served spiritually, therefore
_actually_, and in the highest sense; and not merely in his new
appreciation of the land of his birth, but in numerous other ways,
Ronald was the unconscious gainer by the helpful influence he exerted
over his friend. The youthful Mentor confirmed himself in grand and
vital truths while imparting them to Maurice; his own noble resolves
were quickened into activity while he sought to infuse them into the
mind of another; his own spirit acquired strength while he was
endeavoring to render his companion strong of soul. Ronald's character
was perhaps more affluent and expansive, had more force and fixedness of
purpose, than that of Maurice, yet it derived fresh vigor from the less
hopeful, less confident nature upon which it acted.

Though Maurice owed much to the young art-student, he soon owed more to
that gentle but potent hand by which Ronald had been moulded, refined,
and spiritualized. Ronald's mother opened wide her large heart and her
loving arms to take in the motherless youth thrown by an apparent
accident within her sphere.

Mrs. Walton was one of those beings to whom life is a poem, read it in
sorrow or gladness, read it whatever way you will, because all things to
her mind had a divine significance; she knew that nothing had either its
_end_ or _origin_ here, and felt that the very day-dreams and
aspirations of impulsive youth descended by influx from those supernal
regions in which all _causes_ exist, though we darkly behold them
through _effects_ ultimated upon our earthly plane. Her eyes were never
bent upon the ground, to search out stumbling-blocks of doubt, but
looked up Godward until the heavens grew less distant, and earth's
perplexing mysteries were solved; and daily joys and daily pains only
acquired importance through their bearing upon the joys and pains of
eternity; and celestial light, flowing through her pure thoughts,
reflected its mellow glory upon her humblest surroundings, and tinged
them with ineffable beauty.

Maurice, who had been so deeply impressed by Ronald's attributes and
aims, quickly recognized the fountain-head from whence flowed the living
waters he had drank, and, humbly bending to quaff at the same stream,
became conscious that his whole being was vitalized and renewed. The
great ends of existence, for the first time, became apparent to him; and
as he learned to look upon the present and temporal as only of mome