er soul, as she
thought, awake and free at last, conscious of her beauty and her
strength, ready to step out at last before the world, as a dominant and
imperious power.

Anthony Norris had been arrested, like so many others, by the vision of
this young country of his, his mother and mistress, who stood there,
waiting to be served. He had left Cambridge in '73, and for three years
had led a somewhat aimless life; for his guardian allowed him a generous
income out of his father's fortune. He had stayed with Hubert in the
north, had yawned and stretched himself at Great Keynes, had gone to and
fro among friends' houses, and had at last come to the conclusion, to
which he was aided by a chorus of advisers, that he was wasting his time.

He had begun then to look round him for some occupation, and in the final
choice of it his early religious training had formed a large element. It
had kept alive in him a certain sense of the supernatural, that his
exuberance of physical life might otherwise have crushed; and now as he
looked about to see how he could serve his country, he became aware that
her ecclesiastical character had a certain attraction for him; he had had
indeed an idea of taking Orders; but he had relinquished this by now,
though he still desired if he might to serve the National Church in some
other capacity. There was much in the Church of England to appeal to her
sons; if there was a lack of unity in her faith and policy, yet that was
largely out of sight, and her bearing was gallant and impressive. She had
great wealth, great power and great dignity. The ancient buildings and
revenues were hers; the civil power was at her disposal, and the Queen
was eager to further her influence, and to protect her bishops from the
encroaching power of Parliament, claiming only for the crown the right to
be the point of union for both the secular and ecclesiastical sections of
the nation, and to stamp by her royal approval or annul by her veto the
acts of Parliament and Convocation alike. It seemed then to Anthony's
eyes that the Church of England had a tremendous destiny before her, as
the religious voice of the nation that was beginning to make itself so
dominant in the council of the world, and that there was no limit to the
influence she might exercise by disciplining the exuberant strength of
England, and counteracting by her soberness and self-restraint the
passionate fanaticism of the Latin nations. So little by little