as the world might have in store.

When Reuben came presently to summon Adele to their evening engagement
at the Elderkins', the Doctor followed their retreating figures, as they
strolled out of the parsonage-gate, with a new and strange interest.
Most inscrutable and perplexing was the fact, that this outcast child,
whom scarce one in his parish would have been willing to admit to the
familiarities of home,--this daughter of infidel France, about whose
mind the traditions of the Babylonish harlot had so long lingered,--who
had never known motherly counsel or a father's reproof,--that she, with
the stain of heathenism upon her skirts, should have grown into the
possession of such a holy, placid, and joyous trust. And there was his
poor son beside her, the child of so many hopes, reared, as it were,
under the very droppings of the altar, still wandering befogged in the
mazes of error, if, indeed, he were not in his secret heart a scoffer.
Now that such a result was wholly impracticable and impossible, it did
occur to him that perhaps no helpmeet for Reuben could so surely guide
him in the way of truth. But of any perplexity of judgment on this
score he was now wholly relieved. If his own worldly pride had not stood
in the way, (and he was dimly conscious of a weakness of this kind,) the
wish of Maverick was authoritative and final. The good man had not the
slightest conception of how matters might really stand between the two
young parties; he had discovered the anxieties of Miss Eliza in regard
to them, and had often queried with himself if too large a taint of
worldliness were not coloring the manoeuvres of his good sister. For
himself he chose rather to leave the formation of all such ties in the
hands of Providence, and entertained singularly old-fashioned notions in
regard to the sacredness of the marriage-bond and the mystery of its
establishment.

In view, however, of possible eventualities, it was necessary that he
should come to a full understanding with the spinster in regard to the
state of affairs between Adele and Reuben, and that he should make
disclosure to her of the confessions of Maverick. For the second time in
his life the Doctor dreaded the necessity of taking his sister into full
confidence. The first was on that remarkable occasion--so long past
by--when he had declared his youthful love for Rachel, and feared the
opposition which would grow out of the spinster's family pride. Now, as
then, he ap