may be called, as it was called by the older writers, the Hand of
God.

Sydney's great and overweening fault was that form of "moral stupidity"
which we term selfishness. Something of it may have come with the
faculties which he had inherited--in tendencies and inclinations
mysteriously associated with his physical conformation; much had been
added thereto by the indulgence of his parents, by the pride of his
university triumphs, and by the misfortune of his association in London
with men who aggravated instead of modifying the faults of his natural
disposition. The death of his father had produced a good effect for the
time, and made him permanently more considerate of his mother's and
sister's welfare. But a greater and still more permanent effect seemed
likely to be produced on him now, for he had opened his heart to the
influences of a pure and elevating affection; and for almost the first
time there entered into his mind a gradually increasing feeling of
contrition and remorse for certain past phases of his life which he knew
to be both unworthy in themselves and disloyal (if persisted in) to the
woman whom he hoped to make his wife. By a determined effort of will, he
cut one knot which he could not untie, but, his thoughts being still
centred upon himself, he considered his own rights and needs almost
entirely in the matter, and did not trouble himself much about the
rights or needs of the other person concerned. He had broken free, and
was disposed to congratulate himself upon his freedom; vowing,
meanwhile, that he would never put himself into any bonds again except
the safe and honorable bonds of marriage.

Thus freed, he went down with Dalton to Angleford for the Easter recess,
which fell late that year. He seemed particularly cheery and confident,
although Dalton noticed a slight shade of gloom or anxiety upon his brow
from time to time, and put it down to his uncertainty as to the
Pynsents' acceptance of his attentions to Miss Anna Pynsent, which were
already noticed and talked about in society. Sydney was a rising man,
but it was thought that Sir John might look higher for his beautiful
young sister.

The Parliamentary success of the new member for Vanebury had been as
great as his most reasonable friends anticipated for him, if not quite
as meteoric as one or two flatterers had predicted. Meteoric success in
the House of Commons is not, indeed, so rare as it was twenty years ago,
for the studied rhetor