saints
and virgins taken out of his worship, to rank little higher than the
divinities of Olympus, his belief became acquiescence rather than ardor;
and he made his mind up to assume the cassock and bands, as another
man does to wear a breastplate and jack-boots, or to mount a merchant's
desk, for a livelihood, and from obedience and necessity, rather than
from choice. There were scores of such men in Mr. Esmond's time at the
universities, who were going to the church with no better calling than
his.

When Thomas Tusher was gone, a feeling of no small depression and
disquiet fell upon young Esmond, of which, though he did not complain,
his kind mistress must have divined the cause: for soon after she showed
not only that she understood the reason of Harry's melancholy, but could
provide a remedy for it. Her habit was thus to watch, unobservedly,
those to whom duty or affection bound her, and to prevent their
designs, or to fulfil them, when she had the power. It was this lady's
disposition to think kindnesses, and devise silent bounties and to
scheme benevolence, for those about her. We take such goodness, for the
most part, as if it was our due; the Marys who bring ointment for our
feet get but little thanks. Some of us never feel this devotion at all,
or are moved by it to gratitude or acknowledgment; others only recall it
years after, when the days are past in which those sweet kindnesses were
spent on us, and we offer back our return for the debt by a poor tardy
payment of tears. Then forgotten tones of love recur to us, and kind
glances shine out of the past--oh so bright and clear!--oh so longed
after!--because they are out of reach; as holiday music from withinside
a prison wall--or sunshine seen through the bars; more prized because
unattainable--more bright because of the contrast of present darkness
and solitude, whence there is no escape.

All the notice, then, which Lady Castlewood seemed to take of Harry
Esmond's melancholy, upon Tom Tusher's departure, was, by a gayety
unusual to her, to attempt to dispel his gloom. She made his three
scholars (herself being the chief one) more cheerful than ever they had
been before, and more docile, too, all of them learning and reading
much more than they had been accustomed to do. "For who knows," said
the lady, "what may happen, and whether we may be able to keep such a
learned tutor long?"

Frank Esmond said he for his part did not want to learn any more, and
cou