Still Roger Williams did continue to dwell at New Plymouth; and still his visits to the house of Maitland became more and more frequent.[*]

[Footnote:  A few liberties are taken with the private life of this interesting character, in order to connect him more closely with the events of the narrative.  But all the incidents which can be regarded as important are strictly historical, although the date and order of them may be slightly altered.]

CHAPTER XIX.

My child, my child, thou leav’st me!—­I shall hear
The gentle voice no more that blest mine ear
With its first utterance I shall miss the sound
Of thy light step, amidst the flowers around;
And thy soft breathing hymn at twilight’s close;
And thy “good night,” at parting for repose!
——­Yet blessings with thee go! 
Love guard thee, gentlest! and the exile’s woe
From thy young heart be far!’ HEMANS.

At the period when Roger Williams was induced to seek a home among the Pilgrim Fathers of New Plymouth, Edith Maitland had attained to womanhood.  She was not beautiful, strictly speaking, but she was possessed of that ’something than beauty dearer,’—­that nameless and indescribable charm that is sometimes seen to surround a person whose form and features would not satisfy the critical eye of an artist.  It was Edith’s character which looked out from her clear hazel eye, and won the interest and the affection of all who knew her.  Gentle and affectionate in disposition, but at the same time, firm, enduring, and fall of energy, she combined the characteristic qualities of both her parents, and added to them an originality all her own.  Her education, in the common acceptation of the term, had necessarily been both desultory and imperfect; and yet, under its influence, the mind and character of Edith had strengthened and matured in no common degree.  The very circumstances by which she was surrounded had educated her; and sorrow—­deep, abiding sorrow, for the loss of both her much-loved brothers—­had taught her to look on life in a different point of view, and with different expectations from those with which it is usually regarded by the young.  Her mother had watched her opening mind and disposition with much care and anxiety:  but she had not sought to check its interesting peculiarity, or to control the wild exuberance of thought and feeling that were occasionally manifested by her intelligent and engaging child.  As she grew older, she became more and more the companion of Helen, who studied her character attentively:  and, if we be allowed such a figure of speech, wisely endeavored to train it in a right direction, rather than to prune it to any conventional form.  Thus a perfect confidence was established, and ever subsisted between the mother and daughter; and the natural thoughtfulness of spirit, and energy of purpose, that belonged to Edith, were unchecked, and she was allowed to possess an individuality of character that is, unhappily, too often repressed and destroyed in these present days of high civilization and uniformity of education.