en she broke her arm, I got her to come, and
she has been with her these two days."

"Has she never spoken of seeing a clergyman?"

"Why, to say the truth, Sir, I made so bold as to ask her on
it; it was yesterday when Mary Evans and I had been a-begging
of her to let us fetch the doctor. 'No, no,' says she, 'he can
do me no good;' and she fell to crying, which I had not seen
her do before. 'Well, Ma'am,' says I, 'if he can do you no
good, I know some one that would.' 'And who is that?' says
she, sitting up in her bed, and looking hard at me. 'Mr. Lacy,
Ma'am,' I said, 'the clergyman that read prayers last Sunday
afternoon.' She laid down again, disappointed like, and I went
on to say how you was quite a saint and a martyr, and a
luminary of the church, as Johnny's schoolmaster says..."

"Hush, hush, my good Mrs. Denley; take care how you apply, or
rather misapply, such names as those. But did Mrs. Rodney
decline seeing me, or any other clergyman?"

"She did, Sir, and begged me not to mention it again."

"This is, indeed, a sad case: a woman young, friendless--dying,
perhaps, and probably labouring under some mental affliction,
and yet refusing to have recourse to the consolations of
religion, and the ministry of the church," said Mr. Lacy,
speaking rather to himself than to Mrs. Denley. "Have you,"
added he, turning to her, "any reason to suppose that this
poor woman, notwithstanding her occasional attendance on the
cathedral service, is a dissenter?"

"No, Sir, I think not; she has a small prayer-book, which I
sometimes see lying on her table."

"Well, my dear Mrs. Denley," said Mr. Lacy, after a few
moments' reflection; "we must both pray that God, of his
infinite mercy, may dispose the heart of this young creature
to turn to Him, and to the means of grace, which He has
Himself appointed. To-morrow, when we kneel in the house of
God, rejoicing with joy unspeakable over the glory of the
church triumphant, and meditating on the blessedness of that
holy multitude

'Who climbed the steep ascent to Heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain,'

each in our place, we will bear in mind this suffering lamb of
the fold, and pray earnestly that to her, as well as to us,

"Grace may be given, to follow in their train.'"

"I will, Sir: I will," replied the good old woman, with tears
in her eyes. "But won't you try and see her?"

"I cannot force myself into her presence," answered Mr. Lacy;
"but every day I