he shreds and ravelled
edges of another and distinct life, which cannot be fairly interwoven
with the homespun one of the parsonage, nor yet be wholly brushed clear
of our story.

"I want," said Maverick in his letter, "that Adele, while having a
thorough womanly education, should grow up with simple tastes. I think I
see a little tendency In her to a good many idle coquetries of dress,
(which you will set down, I know, to her French blood,) which I trust
your good sister will see the prudence of correcting. My fortune is now
such that I may reasonably hope to put luxuries within her reach, if
they be desirable; but of this I should prefer that she remain ignorant.
I want to see established in her what you would call those moral and
religious bases of character that will sustain her under any possible
reverses or disappointments. You will smile, perhaps, at _my_ talking in
this strain; but if I have been afloat in these matters, at least you
will do me the credit that may belong to hoping better things for my
little Adele. It's not much, I know; but I do sincerely desire that she
may find some rallying-point of courage and of faith within herself
against any possible misfortune. Is it too much to hope, that, under
your guidance, and under the quiet religious atmosphere of your little
town, she may find such, and that she may possess herself of the
consolations of the faith you teach, without sacrificing altogether her
natural French vivacity?

"And now, my dear Johns, I come to refer to a certain allusion in your
letter with some embarrassment. You speak of the weight of a mother's
religious influence, and ask what it may have been. Since extreme
childhood, Adele has been almost entirely under the care of her
godmother, a quiet old lady, who, though a devotee of the Popish Church,
you must allow me to say, is a downright good Christian woman. I am
quite sure that she has not pressed upon the conscience of little Adele
any bigotries of the Church. My wish in this matter I am confident that
she has religiously regarded, and while giving the example of her own
faith by constant and daily devotions, I think, as I said in my previous
letter, that you will find the heart of my little girl as open as the
sky. Why it is that the mother's relations with the child have been so
broken you will spare me the pain of explaining.

"Would to God, I think at times, that I had married years ago one
nurtured in our old-fashioned faith