ky as he spoke, and
breathed into the serene air a wistful lingering sigh. If it was
certainty that echoed in that breath of unsatisfied nature, the sound
was sadly out of concord with the sentiment. His soul, notwithstanding
that expression of serenity, was still as wistful as the night.

"Have you the interpretation?" said his brother; and Frank, too,
looked up into the pure sky above, with its stars which stretched over
them serene and silent, arching over the town that lay behind, and of
which nobody knew better than he the human mysteries and wonderful
unanswerable questions. The heart of the Curate ached to think how
many problems lay in the darkness, over which that sky stretched
silent, making no sign. There were the sorrowful of the earth,
enduring their afflictions, lifting up pitiful hands, demanding of God
in their bereavements and in their miseries the reason why. There were
all the inequalities of life, side by side, evermore echoing dumbly
the same awful question; and over all shone the calm sky which gave no
answer. "Have you the interpretation?" he said. "Perhaps you can
reconcile freewill and predestination--the need of a universal
atonement and the existence of individual virtue? But these are not to
me the most difficult questions. Can your Church explain why one man
is happy and another miserable?--why one has everything and abounds,
and the other loses all that is most precious in life? My sister Mary,
for example," said the Curate, "she seems to bear the cross for our
family. Her children die and yours live. Can you explain to her why? I
have heard her cry out to God to know the reason, and He made no
answer. Tell me, have you the interpretation?" cried the young man, on
whom the hardness of his own position was pressing at the moment. They
went on together in silence for a few minutes, without any attempt on
Gerald's part to answer. "You accept the explanation of the Church in
respect to doctrines," said the Curate, after that pause, "and consent
that her authority is sufficient, and that your perplexity is
over--that is well enough, so far as it goes: but outside lies a world
in which every event is an enigma, where nothing that comes offers any
explanation of itself; where God does not show Himself always kind,
but by times awful, terrible--a God who smites and does not spare. It
is easy to make a harmonious balance of doctrine; but where is the
interpretation of life?" The young priest looked