osition. Gently yet
not luxuriously nurtured, and early trained in habits of self-denial and
consideration for the feelings of others, he had entered the ministry,
not only with a due sense of the solemnity of his responsibilities, and
under a conviction that he was truly called to his profession by the
inward voice of the Holy Spirit, but also with a loving self-
forgetfulness, while he sought earnestly the truest welfare of all
committed to his charge. And when he passed, after some years'
experience in the ministerial Work, to the important post of vicar of
Crossbourne, he had come to take a peculiar interest in the study of
individual character, and to delight in gathering around him workers of
various temperaments and habits of thought. Rugged enough were some of
these in their general bearing and their way of expressing themselves;
but he knew well, when he had broken through the outer surface, what a
firm-grained material he had to work upon in the hearts of such, and how
he would be sure to win from them, in due time, by force and consistency
of character, respect and affection as abiding as they were sincere.

It was his happiness also to be united to a wife like-minded with
himself in views and work. On one point alone they had differed, and
that was as to the mental training of their only child, a daughter.

Clara Maltby was now eighteen. She had been brought up by the united
teaching and example of both parents "in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord." Naturally thoughtful and retiring, and fond of learning, she
had mastered the lessons taught her in her earliest years with an ease
which awoke in her mother's heart an ambition that her child, when she
grew old enough, should gain some intellectual distinction. And as
Clara herself was never happier than when she had a book in her hand,
all that her parents had to do was to choose for her such branches of
study as she was best calculated to shine in. Nor did she disappoint
her teachers, but threw herself into her lessons with an energy and
interest which made it certain that she would rise to eminence among
competitors for the prizes of learning proposed to her own sex. And
thus it was that what might have been a rational thirst after knowledge,
and have led to the acquirement of stores of information which would
have made their possessor an ornament to her home and to the society in
which she moved, grew into an absorbing passion.

She came at