gentle statement of the case.) "And papa is very much
vexed, and keeps out of doors the whole time and Alfred with him; and
Mr. Rhys is gone away, and I have got nobody. I shouldn't know what to
do, if Mr. Rhys had not taught me; but now I can pray. Dear Eleanor, do
you pray? I wish you were coming home again, but mamma says you are not
coming in a great while; and Mr. Rhys is never coming back. He said so."

Mrs. Powle's letter was in strict accordance with Julia's description
of matters; desperately angry and mortified. The only comfort was, that
in her mortification she desired Eleanor to keep away from home and out
of her sight; so Eleanor with a certain rest of heart in spite of all,
prepared herself for a long quiet sojourn with her aunt at the
cheese-farm of Plassy. Mrs. Caxton composedly assured her that all this
vexation would blow over; and Eleanor's own mind was soon fain to lay
off its care and content itself in a nest of peace. Mrs. Caxton's house
was that, to anybody worthy of enjoying it; and to Eleanor it had all
the joy not only of fitness but of novelty. But for a lingering care on
the subject of the other question that had occupied her, Eleanor would
in a little while have been happier than at any former time in her
life. How was it with that question, which had pressed so painfully
hard during weeks and months past? now that leisure and opportunity
were full and broad to take it up and attend to it. So they were; but
with the removal of difficulty came in some degree the relaxing of
effort; opportunity bred ease. It was so simple a thing to be good at
Plassy, that Eleanor's cry for it became less bitter. Mrs. Caxton's
presence, words, and prayers, kept the thought constant alive; yet with
more of soothing and hopeful than of exciting influence; and while
Eleanor constantly wished she were happy like her, she nevertheless did
not fail to be happy in her own way.

The aunt and niece were excellently suited to each other, and took
abundant delight in each other's company. Eleanor found that what had
been defective in her own education was in the way to be supplied and
made up to her singularly; here, of all places, on a cheese-farm! So it
was. To her accomplishments and materials of knowledge, she now found
suddenly superadded, the necessity and the practice of thinking. In
Mrs. Caxton's house it was impossible to help it. Judgment, conscience,
reason, and good sense, were constantly brought into play;