would
be staying with him, and would take the place of hostess to his guests.
And, indeed, sorry as Dr Prosser was that he should miss seeing his old
lady friends, he was satisfied that their place would be well supplied
by the vicar's sister.

Miss Maltby was considerably older than her brother, and had been almost
in the position of a parent to him when he had, in his early life, lost
his own mother. She was one of those invaluable single women, not
uncommon in the middle rank of society in England, whose sterling
excellences are more widely felt than openly appreciated. She was not
one of those active ladies who carry little bells on the skirts of their
good deeds, so as to make a loud tinkling in the ears of the world.
Hers was a quiet and unobtrusive work. Her views of usefulness and duty
were, in the eyes of some of her acquaintance, old-fashioned and behind
the age. Standing on one side, as it were, out of the whirl of _good_
excitement, she could mark the mistakes and shortcomings in the bringing
up of the professedly Christian families which came under her
observation, and of the grownup workers of her own sex. But the wisdom
she gathered from observation was stored up in a mind ever under the
control of a pure and loving heart. Sneer or sarcasm never passed her
lips. When called on to reprove the wrong or suggest the right, she
always did it with "meekness of wisdom," her object being, not to
glorify self by making others painfully conscious of their
inconsistencies or defects, but to guide the erring gently into the
paths of righteousness, sober-mindedness, and persuasive godliness.
Practical good sense, the fruit of a plain scriptural creed thought out,
prayed out, and lived out, in the midst of a thousand unrealities, and
half-realities, and distortions of the truth in belief and practice, was
the habitual utterance of her lips and guide of her daily life. She and
Thomas Bradly were special friends, inasmuch as they were thoroughly
kindred spirits, anything like sham or humbug being the abhorrence of
both, while the Word of God was to each the one only infallible court of
appeal in every question of faith and practice.

"You must see a good deal of the coarser-grained human material here in
Crossbourne," remarked Dr Prosser to the vicar, as they strolled
together in the garden in the evening after their meeting. "When I last
had the pleasure of visiting you, before you came to this living, your
p