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.
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