me a great infliction; but he
was most kind, and showed me everything. I consider that establishment a
great fact.'

Phoebe showed her gratification.

'I heard him preach,' continued Miss Fennimore. 'His was a careful and
able composition, but it was his sermon in brick and stone that most
impressed me. Such actions only arise out of strong conviction. Now,
the work of a conviction may be only a proof of the force of the will
that held it; and thus the effect should not establish the cause. But
when I see a young man, brought up as your brother has been, throwing
himself with such energy, self-denial, and courage into a task so
laborious and obscure, I must own that, such is the construction of the
human mind, I am led to reconsider the train of reasoning that has led to
such results.'

And Miss Fennimore's sincere admiration of Robert was Phoebe's one item
of comfort.

Gladly she shared it with Miss Charlecote, who, on her side, knew more
than she told Phoebe of the persecution that Robert was undergoing from a
vestry notoriously under the influence of the Fulmort firm, whose
interest it was to promote the vice that he came to withstand. Even the
lads employed in the distillery knew that they gratified their employer
by outrages on the clergy and their adherents, and there had been moments
when Robert had been exposed to absolute personal danger, by mobs
stimulated in the gin-shops; their violence against his attacks on their
vicious practices being veiled by a furious party outcry against his
religious opinions. He meanwhile set his face like a rock, and strong,
resolute, and brave, went his own way, so unmoved as apparently almost to
prefer his own antagonistic attitude, and bidding fair to weary out his
enemies by his coolness, or to disarm them by the charities of which St.
Matthew's was the centre.

As Phoebe never read the papers, and was secluded from the world's
gossip, it was needless to distress her with the knowledge of the
malignity of the one brother, or the trials of the other; so Honor obeyed
Robert by absolute silence on this head. She herself gave her influence,
her counsel, her encouragement, and, above all, her prayers, to uphold
the youth who was realizing the dreams of her girlhood.

It might be that the impress of those very dreams had formed the
character she was admiring. Many a weak and fragile substance, moulded
in its softness to a noble shape, has given a clear and lasting im