e eyes of God."

"Unless I am much mistaken," replied Charlotte, "your inclination is to
return to the school."

"Yes," Ottilie answered; "I do not deny it. I think it a happy
destination to train up others in the beaten way, after having been
trained in the strangest myself. And do we not see the same great fact
in history? some moral calamity drives men out into the wilderness; but
they are not allowed to remain as they had hoped in their concealment
there. They are summoned back into the world, to lead the wanderers into
the right way; and who are fitter for such a service, than those who
have been initiated into the labyrinths of life? They are commanded to
be the support of the unfortunate; and who can better fulfil that
command than those who have no more misfortunes to fear upon earth?"

"You are selecting an uncommon profession for yourself," replied
Charlotte. "I shall not oppose you, how ever. Let it be as you wish;
only I hope it will be but for a short time."

"Most warmly I thank you," said Ottilie, "for giving me leave at least
to try, to make the experiment. If I am not flattering myself too
highly, I am sure I shall succeed: wherever I am, I shall remember the
many trials which I went through myself, and how small, how infinitely
small they were compared to those which I afterward had to undergo. It
will be my happiness to watch the embarrassments of the little creatures
as they grow; to cheer them in their childish sorrows, and guide them
back with a light hand out of their little aberrations. The fortunate is
not the person to be of help to the unfortunate; it is in the nature of
man to require ever more and more of himself and others, the more he has
received. The unfortunate who has himself recovered, knows best how to
nourish, in himself and them, the feeling that every moderate good ought
to be enjoyed with rapture."

"I have but one objection to make to what you propose," said Charlotte,
after some thought, "although that one seems to me of great importance.
I am not thinking of you, but of another person: you are aware of the
feelings toward you of that good, right-minded, excellent Assistant. In
the way in which you desire to proceed, you will become every day more
valuable and more indispensable to him. Already he himself believes that
he can never live happily without you, and hereafter, when he has become
accustomed to have you to work with him, he will be unable to carry on
his business