that you would not have fulfilled to the letter--even down
to the regulations that keep little boys off the grass. It is only the
laws of the Great King which you do not think should be strictly kept."

She was grave enough now, and Mr. Carlisle swallowed the reproof as
best he might.

"Eleanor, you are going to turn preacher too, as well as reformer?
Well, I will come to you, dear, and put myself under your influences.
You shall do what you please with me."

Too much of a promise, and more of a responsibility than Eleanor chose
to take. She went into the house with a sober sense that she had a
difficult part to play; that between Mr. Carlisle and her mother, she
must walk very warily or she would yet find herself entangled before
she was aware. And Mr. Carlisle too had a sober sense that Eleanor's
religious character was not of a kind to exhale, like a volatile oil,
under the sun of prosperity or the breezes of flattery. Nevertheless,
the more hard to reach the prize, the more of a treasure when reached.
He never wanted her more than now; and Mr. Carlisle had always, by
skill and power, obtained what he wanted. He made no doubt he would
find this instance like the others.

For the present, the thing was to bring a bill into parliament "for the
reformation of juvenile offenders"--and upon its various provisions Mr.
Carlisle came daily to consult Eleanor, and take advice and receive
information. Doubtless there was a great deal to be considered about
the bill, to make it just what it should be; to secure enough and not
insist upon too much; its bearings would be very important, and every
point merited well the deepest care and most circumspect management. It
enlisted Eleanor's heart and mind thoroughly; how should it not? She
spent hours and hours with Mr. Carlisle over it; wrote for him, read
for him, or rather for those the bill wrought for; talked and discussed
and argued, for and against various points which she felt would make
for or against its best success. Capital for M. Carlisle. All this
brought him into constant close intercourse with her, and gave him
opportunities of recommending himself. And not in vain. Eleanor saw and
appreciated the cool, clear business head; the calm executive talent,
which seeing its ends in the distance, made no hurry but took the steps
and the measures surest to attain them, with patient foresight. She
admired it, and sometimes also could almost have trembled when she
thought of