a God that hid
Himself. His genial nature delighted in sympathy, and he sought it even
in that whose perfect operation, is the destruction of all sympathy. Who
does not know the pleasure of that moment of nascent communion, when
argument or expostulation has begun to tell, conviction begins to dawn,
and the first faint thrill of response is felt? But the joy may be
either of two very different kinds--delight in victory and the personal
success of persuasion, or the ecstasy of the shared vision of truth, in
which contact souls come nearer to each other than any closest
familiarity can effect. Such a nearness can be brought about by no
negation however genuine, or however evil may be the thing denied.

Sympathy, then, such as he desired, Faber was now bent on finding, or
bringing about in Juliet Meredith. He would fain get nearer to her.
Something pushed, something drew him toward the lovely phenomenon into
which had flowered invisible Nature's bud of shapeless protoplasm. He
would have her trust him, believe him, love him. If he succeeded, so
much the greater would be the value and the pleasure of the conquest,
that it had been gained in spite of all her prejudices of education and
conscience. And if in the process of finding truth a home in her bosom,
he should cause her pain even to agony, would not the tenderness born of
their lonely need for each other, be far more consoling than any mere
aspiration after a visionary comforter?

Juliet had been, so far as her father was concerned in her education,
religiously brought up. No doubt Captain Meredith was more fervid than
he was reasonable, but he was a true man, and in his regiment, on which
he brought all his influence to bear, had been regarded with respect,
even where not heartily loved. But her mother was one of those weakest
of women who can never forget the beauty they once possessed, or quite
believe they have lost it, remaining, even after the very traces of it
have vanished, as greedy as ever of admiration. Her maxims and
principles, if she could be said to have any of the latter, were not a
little opposed to her husband's; but she died when Juliet was only five
years old, and the child grew to be almost the companion of her father.
Hence it came that she heard much religious conversation, often
partaking not a little of the character of discussion and even of
dispute. She thus became familiar with the forms of a religious belief
as narrow as its partisans are