Exeter Hall again! Nothing wanting to complete the parallel but the
audience, the cheers, and the glass of water.
Even her obdurate nature was touched. I saw her lean a little nearer to
him. I heard a new tone of interest in her next words.
"Are you really sure, Godfrey, that you are so fond of me as that?"
"Sure! You know what I was, Rachel. Let me tell you what I am. I have
lost every interest in life, but my interest in you. A transformation
has come over me which I can't account for, myself. Would you believe
it? My charitable business is an unendurable nuisance to me; and when I
see a Ladies' Committee now, I wish myself at the uttermost ends of the
earth!"
If the annals of apostasy offer anything comparable to such a
declaration as that, I can only say that the case in point is
not producible from the stores of my reading. I thought of the
Mothers'-Small-Clothes. I thought of the Sunday-Sweetheart-Supervision.
I thought of the other Societies, too numerous to mention, all built
up on this man as on a tower of strength. I thought of the struggling
Female Boards, who, so to speak, drew the breath of their business-life
through the nostrils of Mr.
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