dents of fortune, brothers by the
stamp which makes genius a tie of family. To-morrow you shall hear of
one, the noblest-hearted man in all England, and yet whose daily toil
was the vulgar life of an exciseman. This great man's nature is known to
us, teaching men a higher lesson than all that his genius has bequeathed
us."

In the willingness with which they listened to her, Bella found fresh
support for her enthusiasm. If, therefore, there was this solace to the
irksome nature of her task, it rendered that task itself more and more
wearisome and distasteful. Her round of duty led her amongst many who
did not care for these things; some heard them with apathy, others with
even mockery. How often does it happen in life that feelings which if
freely expanded had spread themselves broadly over the objects of the
world, become by repression compressed into principles!

This was the case with her; the more opposition thwarted, the more
resolutely was she bent on carrying out her notions. All her reading
tended to this direction, all her speculation, all her thought.

"There must be men amongst us even now," said she, "to whom this great
prerogative of guidance is given; superior minds who feel the greatness
of their mission, and, perhaps, know how necessary it is to veil their
very ascendancy, that they may exercise it more safely and more widely.
What concession may they not be making to vulgar prejudice, what
submission to this or that ordinance of society? How many a devious
path must they tread to reach that goal that the world will not let them
strive for more directly; and, worse than all, through what a sea of
misrepresentation, and even calumny, must they wade? How must
they endure the odious imputations of selfishness, of pride, of
hard-heartedness, nay, perhaps, of even crime? And all this without the
recognition of as much as one who knows their purpose and acknowledges
their desert."

CHAPTER VII. AN ARRIVAL AT MIDNIGHT.

Night had just closed in over the Lake of Como; and if the character
of the scene in daylight had been such as to suggest ideas of dramatic
effect, still more was this the case as darkness wrapped the whole
landscape, leaving the great Alps barely traceable against the starry
sky, while faintly glimmering lights dotted the dark shores from villa
and palace, and soft sounds of music floated lazily on the night air,
only broken by the plashing stroke of some gondolier as he stole across