ad inherited his faculty and cultivated it by assiduous study at home
and abroad. Coming away from her, Enfield had reflected how any
ennobling pursuit broadens and deepens the whole character, as a
journey up the latitudes on any side of the world gives one the main
features of all, and makes the rest intelligible.

If Cora had had the guidance of some strong, wise hand to set her
right at the start, and lead her along the arduous beginning of some
such path, until her feet found their strength and the growing joy of
walking, and her eyes learned the delight of the ever-widening and
brightening prospect!--the thought of what might have been filled him
with strong regret and pity. She had only had the training of sordid
care and uncongenial tasks and associations. He was estranged from her
then, and had been thinking hardly of her; but when he heard of her in
trouble at her father's death, the pitiful yearning swept away all
unkindness, and brought him back to her side. And that night, after
she had appealed to him in such an abandoned humor, she seemed to him
quite the child still and fit to learn of one who understood her, and
had her confidence and the right to be with her a great deal. Who was
there that knew her or could help her but he? It was in no proud
spirit that he had answered. He wandered under the stars, and was
humble enough and lonely enough, God knew. He went back through the
years, and gathered all the forgotten tenderness and trust between
them. He felt again the purifying stimulus of his thought of her, and
perceived how it had fostered all of him that was brave and of good
report. Whether or not he had deceived himself; whether she were truly
the girl he had seen or not, the fact remained that he owed her, or
his thought of her, a great deal. What was truth? Are there not as
many worlds as eyes that see them? Are we sure there is any world
outside the eye? Does not truth consist in standing by what one's eyes
report? What better proof could there be of a thing's reality than
that it had held you long, shaped and lifted and led you? Cora
Brainard had been the most powerful modifying circumstance of his
life.

It seemed to him that night that God had set before him a solemn
trust, and that there was every reason why he should assume it. And
slowly and reverently he took it up.

And now that she was his wife, he was anxious to begin the course he
had determined to pursue. Cora had received the ordin