"In those days I was your pastor and friend simply. The difference is,
that I have acquired the right to love you--take care of you--and scold
you."

"It seems to me that last was a privilege you exercised occasionally in
those times," said Eleanor archly.

"Not at all! In those days I was a poor fellow that did not dare say a
word to you."

Eleanor's recollections were of sundry exceptions to this rule, so
marked and prominent in her memory that she could not help laughing.

"O Mr. Rhys, don't you remember--"

"What?" said he with the utmost gravity.

But Eleanor had stopped, and coloured now brilliantly.

"It seems that your recollections are of a questionable character," he
said. Eleanor did not deny it.

"What is it you wish me _not_ to remember?"

"It was a time when you said I was very wrong," said Eleanor meekly,
"so do not call it back."

He bent forward to kiss her, which did not steady Eleanor's thoughts at
all.

"Do you want preaching?" he said.

"Yes indeed! It will do me good."

"I will give you some words to think of, that I lived in all yesterday.
'Beloved of God.' They are wonderful words, that Paul says belong to
all the saints; and they were about me yesterday like a halo of glory,
from morning to night."

Now Eleanor was all right; now she recognized Mr. Rhys and herself, and
listened to every word with her old delight in them. Now she could use
her eyes and look at him, though she well saw that he was considering
her with that full, moved tenderness that she had felt in him all day;
even when he was talking and thinking of other things he did not cease
to remember _her_.

"Eleanor, what do you know about the meaning of those words?"

"Little!" she said. "And yet, a little."

"You know that _we_ were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb
idols--or after others in our own hearts--as helplessly as the poor
heathen around us. But we have got the benefit of that word,--'I will
call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which
was not beloved.'"

"Yes!"

"Then look at our privileges--'The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in
safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he
shall dwell between is shoulders.'--Heavenly security; unearthly joy; a
hiding-place where the troubles of earth cannot reach us."

Mr. Rhys left his position before Eleanor at this, and with a brow all
alight with its thoughts began to pace up and down in front of her;