piness in that
sweet communion which he had now solitary leisure to enjoy. His very
troubles carried him to a throne of grace; his desolate condition made
him feel that there was only One who never changed nor forsook His
people; only One who could understand and feel for the infirmities
and sorrows of a human creature; and though to the ungodly it is a
terror to know that there is "nothing that is not manifest in God's
sight," to the true child of God it is an unspeakable comfort to feel
that his thoughts and actions are "known long before" by his unwearied
Guardian.

The effects of Louis' lonely communings were soon visible in his daily
conduct, and after his term of punishment had expired, the meekness of
his bearing, and the gentle lowliness of his demeanor, often disarmed
the most severe and unpitying of his youthful judges. There was no
servility in his manner, for he neither courted nor shunned observation;
nor, though he was as willing as ever to do a kind action for any
one, did he allow himself to be persuaded to give up all his time to
his idler school-fellows. There seemed more firmness and decision in his
naturally yielding disposition, and those who knew not the power of
assisting grace, looked and wondered at the firmness the sweet but weak
boy could at times assume. He would have told them it was not his own.
He was very quiet, and spoke little, even to his brother, of what was
passing in his mind, and sometimes his thoughts were so quietly happy
that he did not like to be spoken to. To Ferrers, Louis was as gentle
and courteous as to the rest of his companions, and, indeed, he had now
little other feeling towards him than that of sorrow and pity.

There had been an unusual noise in the study one evening, while Louis
was absent, and when he entered it, he found the confusion attendant on
a grand uproar. Very little was doing, and tokens of the late skirmish
lay about the floor in torn and scattered books, and overthrown forms.
Among others, Ferrers was hunting for a missing book, but to discover
it in such a chaos was a difficult task, especially as no one would
now allow the candles to be used in the search.

With many expressions, so unfitted for refined ears that I do not choose
to present them to my reader, Ferrers continued his search, now and then
attempting to snatch a candle from the table, in which he was regularly
foiled by those sitting there.

"Well, at least have the civility to move and