m
those of the lady, and then he said, "Ah, madam! have I not wrestled
in prayer for my poor boy?"

"I am sure you have, sir. I know you have a deep fatherly love for
him, and therefore I sent to speak to you as a dying woman."

"And I will gladly hear you, for you have always been good to him,
and, as I confess, have done him more good--if good can be called
the apparent improvement in one unregenerate--than any other."

"Except his uncle," said Mrs. Woodford. "I fear it is vain to say
that I think the best hope of his becoming a good and valuable man,
a comfort and not a sorrow to yourself, would be to let him even now
rejoin Sir Peregrine."

"That cannot be, madam. My brother has not kept to the
understanding on which I entrusted the lad to him, but has carried
him into worldly and debauched company, such as has made the sober
and godly habits of his home distasteful to him, and has further
taken him into Popish lands, where he has become infected with their
abominations to a greater extent than I can yet fathom."

Mrs. Woodford sighed and felt hopeless. "I see your view of the
matter, sir. Yet may I suggest that it is hard for a young man to
find wholesome occupation such as may guard him from temptation on
an estate where the master is active and sufficient like yourself?"

"Protection from temptation must come from within, madam," replied
the Major; "but I so far agree with you that in due time, when he
has attained his twenty-first year, I trust he will be wedded to his
cousin, a virtuous and pious young maiden, and will have the
management of her property, which is larger than my own."

"But if--if--sir, the marriage were distasteful to him, could it be
for the happiness and welfare of either?"

"The boy has been complaining to you? Nay, madam, I blame you not.
You have ever been the boy's best friend according to knowledge; but
he ought to know that his honour and mine are engaged. It is true
that Mistress Martha is not a Court beauty, such as his eyes have
unhappily learnt to admire, but I am acting verily for his true
good. 'Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain.'"

"Most true, sir; but let me say one more word. I fear, I greatly
fear, that all young spirits brook not compulsion."

"That means, they will not bow their stiff necks to the yoke."

"Ah, sir! but on the other hand, 'Fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath.' Forgive me, sir; I spoke but out of true affection to
your so