gs towards herself, Lady Annabel, indeed, did not
despair that his once self-sufficient soul might ultimately bow
to that blessed faith which to herself had ever proved so great a
support, and so exquisite a solace. It was, indeed, the inexpressible
hope that lingered at the bottom of her heart; and sometimes she even
indulged in the delightful fancy that his mild and penitent spirit
had, by the gracious mercy of Providence, been already touched by the
bright sunbeam of conviction. At all events, his subdued and chastened
temperament was no unworthy preparation for still greater blessings.
It was this hallowed anticipation which consoled, and alone consoled,
Lady Annabel for her own estrangement from the communion of her
national church. Of all the sacrifices which her devotion to Herbert
entailed upon her, this was the one which she felt most constantly
and most severely. Not a day elapsed but the chapel at Cherbury rose
before her; and when she remembered that neither herself nor her
daughter might again kneel round the altar of their God, she almost
trembled at the step which she had taken, and almost esteemed it
a sacrifice of heavenly to earthly duty, which no consideration,
perhaps, warranted. This apprehension, indeed, was the cloud in
her life, and one which Venetia, who felt all its validity, found
difficulty in combating.

Otherwise, when Venetia beheld her parents, she felt ethereal,
and seemed to move in air; for her life, in spite of its apparent
tranquillity, was to her all excitement. She never looked upon her
father, or heard his voice, without a thrill. His society was as
delightful as his heart was tender. It seemed to her that she could
listen to him for ever. Every word he spoke was different from
the language of other men; there was not a subject on which his
richly-cultivated mind could not pour forth instantaneously a flood of
fine fancies and deep intelligence. He seemed to have read every book
in every language, and to have mused over every line he had read. She
could not conceive how one, the tone of whose mind was so original
that it suggested on every topic some conclusion that struck instantly
by its racy novelty, could be so saturated with the learning and the
views of other men. Although they lived in unbroken solitude, and were
almost always together, not a day passed that she did not find herself
musing over some thought or expression of her father, and which broke
from his mind without