Chapter 11 - Page 2

emotion; and very soon all
other expressions were lost in one of a satisfaction that was almost
triumph.

"I will keep them here until you return," he answered; "but let me tell
you, Ducie, you have been less quick to do right than I thought of you."

"The fell has been a hard walk for an old woman, the cart-road nearly
impassable until this rain washed away the drifts; but I did not
neglect my duty altogether, neither, parson. Moser was written to six
weeks since, and he has been at work. Maybe, after all, no time has been
lost. I'll away now, if you will call Stephen. Don't let Mrs. Sandal
'take on' more than you can help;" and, as Stephen lifted the reins,
"You think it best to bring all here?"

"Far away best. God speed you!" He watched them out of sight,--his snowy
hair and strong face and black garments making a vivid picture in the
misty, drippy doorway,--and then, returning to his study, he began his
daily walk up and down its carpeted length, with a singularly solemn
elation. Ere long, the thoughtful stride was accompanied by low, musical
mutterings, dropping from his lips in such majestic cadences that his
steps involuntarily fell to their music in a march-like rhythm.

"Daughter of Justice, wronged Nemesis,
Thou of the awful eyes,
Whose silent sentence judgeth mortal life,--
Thou with the curb of steel,
Which proudest jaws must feel,
Stayest the snort and champ of human strife.

Under thy wheel unresting, trackless, all
Our joys and griefs befall;
In thy full sight our secret things go on;
Step after step, thy wrath
Follows the caitiff's path,
And in his triumph breaks his vile neck bone.
To all alike, thou meetest out their due,
Cubit for cubit, inch for inch,--stern, true."

At the word "true" he paused a moment, and touched with his finger an
old black volume on one of the book-shelves. "'Stern, true,' whether
Euripides says 'cubit for cubit,' or Moses 'an eye for an eye,' or
Solomon that 'he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.'
Stern, true; for surely that which a man sows he shall also reap."

After a while he went up-stairs and talked with Mrs. Sandal and
Charlotte. They were much depressed and very anxious, and had what
Charlotte defined "a homeless feeling." "But you must be biddable,
Charlotte," said the rector; "you must remain here until Stephen
returns. Ducie had business that could not wait, and who but Stephen
should drive her? When he comes back, we will all look to it. You shall
not be very long out of your own home; and, in the mean time, how
welcome you are here!"

"It seems such a weary