threw himself at
length by the outcast's side; and, with the noble tenderness of a nature
as chivalrously Christian as Heaven ever gave to priest, he rested his
folded hands upon Waife's shoulder, and looking him full and close in
the face, said thus, slowly, deliberately, not a stammer, "You do not
guess what you have done for me; you have secured to me a home and a
career; the wife of whom I must otherwise have despaired; the Divine
Vocation on which all my earthly hopes were set, and which I was on
the eve of renouncing: do not think these are obligations which can
be lightly shaken off. If there are circumstances which forbid me to
disabuse others of impressions which wrong you, imagine not that their
false notions will affect my own gratitude,--my own respect for you!"

"Nay, sir! they ought; they must. Perhaps not your exaggerated gratitude
for a service which you should not, however, measure by its effects
on yourself, but by the slightness of the trouble it gave to me; not
perhaps your gratitude, but your respect, yes."

"I tell you no! Do you fancy that I cannot judge of a man's nature
without calling on him to trust me with all the secrets--all the errors,
if you will--of his past life? Will not the calling to which I may now
hold myself destined give me power and commandment to absolve all those
who truly repent and unfeignedly believe? Oh, Mr. Waife! if in earlier
days you have sinned, do you not repent? and how often, in many a lovely
gentle sentence dropped unawares from your lips, have I had cause
to know that you unfeignedly believe! Were I now clothed with sacred
authority, could I not absolve you as a priest? Think you that, in the
meanwhile, I dare judge you as a man? I,--Life's new recruit, guarded
hitherto from temptation by careful parents and favouring fortune,--I
presume to judge, and judge harshly, the gray-haired veteran, wearied by
the march, wounded in the battle!"

"You are a noble-hearted human being," said Waife, greatly affected.
"And, mark my words, a mantle of charity so large you will live to
wear as a robe of honour. But hear me, sir! Mr. Hartopp also is a
man infinitely charitable, benevolent, kindly, and, through all his
simplicity, acutely shrewd; Mr. Hartopp, on hearing what was said
against me, deemed me unfit to retain my grandchild, resigned the trust
I had confided to him, and would have given me alms, no doubt, had I
asked them, but not his hand. Take your hands, sir, from