" said the girl with the vacant face and the back like a
grasshopper; "I be a reg'lar born Christian and my mother afore me, and
that's what few gals in the Yard can say. Thomas will take to it himself
when work is slack; and he believes now in our Lord and Saviour Pontius
Pilate who was crucified to save our sins; and in Moses, Goliath, and
the rest of the Apostles."

"Ah! me," thought Morley, "and could not they spare one Missionary from
Tahiti for their fellow countrymen at Wodgate!"

Book 3 Chapter 5

The summer twilight had faded into sweet night; the young and
star-attended moon glittered like a sickle in the deep purple sky; of
all the luminous host, Hesperus alone was visible; and a breeze, that
bore the last embrace of the flowers by the sun, moved languidly and
fitfully over the still and odorous earth.

The moonbeam fell upon the roof and garden of Gerard. It suffused the
cottage with its brilliant light, except where the dark depth of the
embowered porch defied its entry. All around the beds of flowers and
herbs spread sparkling and defined. You could trace the minutest walk;
almost distinguish every leaf. Now and then there came a breath, and
the sweet-peas murmured in their sleep; or the roses rustled, as if they
were afraid they were about to be roused from their lightsome dreams.
Farther on the fruit-trees caught the splendour of the night; and looked
like a troop of sultanas taking their gardened air, when the eye of man
could not profane them, and laden with jewels. There were apples that
rivalled rubies; pears of topaz tint: a whole paraphernalia of plums,
some purple as the amethyst, others blue and brilliant as the sapphire;
an emerald here, and now a golden drop that gleamed like the yellow
diamond of Gengis Khan.

Within--was the scene less fair? A single lamp shed over the chamber
a soft and sufficient light. The library of Stephen Morley had been
removed, but the place of his volumes had been partly supplied, for the
shelves were far from being empty. Their contents were of no ordinary
character: many volumes of devotion, some of church history, one or two
on ecclesiastical art, several works of our elder dramatists, some good
reprints of our chronicles, and many folios of church music, which
last indeed amounted to a remarkable collection. There was no musical
instrument however in the room of any kind, and the only change in its
furniture, since we last visited the room of Gerar