When he had finished his letter he prepared to go out again.  His landlady brought him some luncheon, but he could not touch it.  He went first to his ragged school, and there the sight of those children of crime and infamy recalled his little niece to his mind, and made his heart sink still lower with the fear of what she might become.  Never had he spoken with such feeling to the motley throng that stood about him as he did that day.  Then he had to thread some of the haunts whence those children came to seek out the miserable parents to whom they had been a sort of introduction, and never before had he experienced so forcibly that he was their brother, even theirs, as now that he knew that his sister’s husband was ‘a thief and a forger;’ he could almost fancy that they already pointed to him as belonging, at least, to one as degraded as themselves.

That evening he read prayers and lectured in one of the churches.  He lectured extempore, and it was noted by all his congregation that more than once his feelings nearly overcame him.  They thought and talked of the fact, when, at a later period, they heard of his family sorrow.  But they all said that his ‘word was with power,’ and there was many a moist eye amongst them as he warned them, in language made even more forcible than usual by the events of the day, against the pleasures and vices of the world.

After the service many of the school teachers and Scripture-readers met him in the vestry to have their work allotted, and their word of advice and encouragement.  Again he pressed upon them the subject brought home to his heart, that of resisting in youth the ’temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.’

His youthful regiment of soldiers talked to one another afterwards of the earnestness and piety of Him who led them on in their battle against evil, and prayed to become more like one who was so devoted to ’fighting that good fight,’ which they had enlisted to join in.

Tired and exhausted, Rowland returned to his lodging.  He tried to review the events of the day, but in doing so, fairly broke down.  He had been striving to keep his mind in subjection by beating down his monster enemy, pride, for the last six years; but he found that he was still rampant within him.  It was not simply the grief for a sister’s distress and a brother-in-law’s sin that he felt, but strong personal mortification.  How could he think of self, of the Perrys, of his rector, of his family, of his parishioners and their opinion, above all, how could he think of Miss Gwynne, who disdained him,—­at a time when every personal feeling ought to be merged into sympathy with others?  He prayed and struggled against the tempter; prayed for his sister; above all, for Howel; in words too fervent and holy for these pages; and went to bed and slept from mere exhaustion of mind and body.  Little did Netta imagine, when she made that disobedient step into the dark future, what misery it would bring upon all who loved her!