sad indeed! How was it he could
be so insensible to the blessings he gained from his Church, and had
enjoyed all his life? What could he need? _She_ had no need at all:
going to church was a pleasure to her. She liked to hear the Lessons and
the Collects, coming round year after year, and marking the seasons. The
historical books and prophets in summer; then the "stir-up" Collect just
before Advent; the beautiful Collects in Advent itself, with the Lessons
from Isaiah reaching on through Epiphany; they were quite music to the
ear. Then the Psalms, varying with every Sunday; they were a perpetual
solace to her, ever old yet ever new. The occasional additions, too--the
Athanasian Creed, the Benedictus, Deus misereatur, and Omnia opera,
which her father had been used to read at certain great feasts; and the
beautiful Litany. What could he want more? where could he find so much?
Well, it was a mystery to her; and she could only feel thankful that
_she_ was not exposed to the temptations, whatever they were, which had
acted on the powerful mind of her brother.

Then, she had anticipated how pleasant it would be when Charles was a
clergyman, and she should hear him preach; when there would be one whom
she would have a right to ask questions and to consult whenever she
wished. This prospect was at an end; she could no longer trust him: he
had given a shake to her confidence which it never could recover; it was
gone for ever. They were all of them women but he; he was their only
stay, now that her father had been taken away. What was now to become of
them? To be abandoned by her own brother! oh, how terrible!

And how was she to break it to her mother? for broken it must be sooner
or later. She could not deceive herself; she knew her brother well
enough to feel sure that, when he had really got hold of a thing, he
would not let it go again without convincing reasons; and what reasons
there could be for letting it go she could not conceive, if there could
be reasons for taking it up. The taking it up baffled all reason, all
calculation. Well, but how was her mother to be told of it? Was it
better to let her suspect it first, and so break it to her, or to wait
till the event happened? The problem was too difficult for the present,
and she must leave it.

This was her state for several days, till her fever of mind gradually
subsided into a state of which a dull anxiety was a latent but habitual
element, leaving her as usual at o