His magnificent head sank on his breast, and he gave up his own mental
problem in despair.
I was deeply touched. The case (if I may speak as a spiritual physician)
was now quite plain to me. It is no uncommon event, in the experience of
us all, to see the possessors of exalted ability occasionally humbled
to the level of the most poorly-gifted people about them. The object, no
doubt, in the wise economy of Providence, is to remind greatness that
it is mortal and that the power which has conferred it can also take
it away. It was now--to my mind--easy to discern one of these salutary
humiliations in the deplorable proceedings on dear Mr. Godfrey's part,
of which I had been the unseen witness. And it was equally easy to
recognise the welcome reappearance of his own finer nature in the horror
with which he recoiled from the idea of a marriage with Rachel, and in
the charming eagerness which he showed to return to his Ladies and his
Poor.
I put this view before him in a few simple and sisterly words. His joy
was beautiful to see. He compared himself, as I went on, to a lost man
emerging from the darkness into the light. When I answered for a loving
reception of him at the Mothers' Small-Clothes, the grateful heart of
our Christian Hero overflowed. He pressed my hands alternately to his
lips. Overwhelmed by the exquisite triumph of having got him back among
us, I let him do what he liked with my hands. I closed my eyes. I felt
my head, in an ecstasy of spiritual self-forgetfulness, sinking on his
shoulder. In a moment more I should certainly have swooned away in his
arms, but for an interruption from the outer world, which brought me to
myself again. A horrid rattling of knives and forks sounded outside the
door, and the footman came in to lay the table for luncheon.
Mr. Godfrey started up, and looked at the clock on the mantelpiece.
"How time flies with YOU!" he exclaimed. "I shall barely catch the
train."
I ventured on asking why he was in such a hurry to get back to town.
His answer reminded me of family difficulties that were still to be
reconciled, and of family disagreements that were yet to come.
"I have heard from my father," he said. "Business obliges him to leave
Frizinghall for London to-day, and he proposes coming on here, either
this evening or to-morrow. I must tell him what has happened between
Rachel and me. His heart is set on our marriage--there will be great
difficulty, I fear, in reconciling him to the breaking-off of the
engagement. I must stop him, for all our sakes, from coming here till he
IS reconciled. Best and dearest of friends, we shall meet again!"