t. The curtain fell again--she disappeared--nothing was before
me, nothing was round me, but the darkness and the night.

V.

IN two years from that time, I had redeemed the promise given to my
mother on her deathbed. I had entered the Church.

My father's interest made my first step in my new profession an easy
one. After serving my preliminary apprenticeship as a curate, I was
appointed, before I was thirty years of age, to a living in the West of
England.

My new benefice offered me every advantage that I could possibly
desire--with the one exception of a sufficient income. Although my
wants were few, and although I was still an unmarried man, I found
it desirable, on many accounts, to add to my resources. Following
the example of other young clergymen in my position, I det ermined to
receive pupils who might stand in need of preparation for a career at
the Universities. My relatives exerted themselves; and my good fortune
still befriended me. I obtained two pupils to start with. A third would
complete the number which I was at present prepared to receive.
In course of time, this third pupil made his appearance, under
circumstances sufficiently remarkable to merit being mentioned in
detail.

It was the summer vacation; and my two pupils had gone home. Thanks to a
neighboring clergyman, who kindly undertook to perform my duties for me,
I too obtained a fortnight's holiday, which I spent at my father's house
in London.

During my sojourn in the metropolis, I was offered an opportunity
of preaching in a church, made famous by the eloquence of one of the
popular pulpit-orators of our time. In accepting the proposal, I
felt naturally anxious to do my best, before the unusually large and
unusually intelligent congregation which would be assembled to hear me.

At the period of which I am now speaking, all England had been startled
by the discovery of a terrible crime, perpetrated under circumstances
of extreme provocation. I chose this crime as the main subject of my
sermon. Admitting that the best among us were frail mortal creatures,
subject to evil promptings and provocations like the worst among us, my
object was to show how a Christian man may find his certain refuge from
temptation in the safeguards of his religion. I dwelt minutely on
the hardship of the Christian's first struggle to resist the evil
influence--on the help which his Christianity inexhaustibly held out to
him in the worst relapses of the weake