teach it to feel true contrition and repentance, and to fill it with
love for His divine will in all things, and for your fellow-creatures,
too--how little would I think of my own miserable difficulties! Father
of all mercy! if I could be sure that I had gained even but one soul to
heaven, I would say that I had not been born and lived in vain!"

"He'll never let me do it," thought Corbet, vexed, and still more
softened by the piety, the charity, and the complete forgetfulness of
self, which the priest's conduct manifested. Yet was this change not
brought about without difficulty, and those pitiful misgivings and
calculations which assail and re-assail a heart that has been for a long
time under the influence of the world and those base principles by which
it is actuated. In fact, this close, nervous, and penurious old man
felt, when about to perform this generous action, all that alarm and
hesitation which a virtuous man would feel when on the eve of committing
a crime. He was about to make an inroad upon his own system--going
to change the settled habits of his whole life, and, for a moment, he
entertained thoughts of altering his purpose. Then he began to
think that this visit of the priest might have been a merciful and
providential one; he next took a glimpse at futurity--reflected for a
moment on his unprepared state, and then decided to assist the priest
now, and consider the necessity for repentance as soon as he felt it
convenient to do so afterwards.

How strange and deceptive, and how full of the subtlest delusions, are
the workings of the human heart!

"And now, Anthony," proceeded the priest, "while I think of it, let me
speak to you on another affair."

"I see, sir," replied Corbet, somewhat querulously, "that you're
determined to prevent me from sarvin' you. If my mind changes, I won't
do it; so stick to your own business first. I know very well what you're
goin' to spake about. How much do you want, you say?"

"Fifty guineas. I'm responsible for three bills to that amount. The
bills are not for myself, but for three honest families that have been
brought low by two of the worst enemies that ever Ireland had--bad
landlords and bad times."

"Well, then, I'll give you the money."

"God bless you, Anthony!" exclaimed the good man, "God bless you! and
above all things may He enable you and all of us to prepare for the life
that is before us."

Anthony paused a moment, and looked with a face of deep