as it could only have been by noble and generous hearts in whom the spirit of god dwelt for three years continued his fruitful in blessed and helped by his sweet wife then he was called to a different sphere after his uncle s death he saw the it was for a of to be also minister in and the injustice it did to some man still looking for his life work so he laid his of office down but only god knew what the sacrifice cost him for he was a bom preacher and happier in his calling than most but what is life � the higher life at least � made up of after all but sacrifice which is the crown of every noble effort of course there did not lack the evil minded and the who attributed other motives to him and his yet what need we care even if the finger of scorn points at us if we be at peace with the god who the reins and the hearts of the children of men mercy not judgment mercy not judgment i have had occasion more than once to mention which was the great house in the was a comparatively small place and the had never been but simple kindly folk making no boast of their though they might have done so without reproach the were cast in a different mould certainly their family was old and part of the mansion house dated from the twelfth century the estate had passed in direct descent from father to son without a break all through these centuries which had witnessed the rise and fall of many a great house it almost seemed as if were from the ordinary of life there had never been nor a ne er do in the family but they were not a race only one or two children at a time were seen in the great house which had sore need of something i � the c the to br it it open to visitors as a place at certain times of the year but never i a long space for like all who have been bred the the lo ed their home and wi not happy away from it the had never ma themselves or homely among fo though those who had dealings with them well of them as just kind but distant seeming to forget that between the ai ordinary folks there was a great gulf fixed tht never had been a title in the family though mai a one had been offered plain mr of inn hall each head of the house had lived and died when i was a wild of adam school playing sometimes with a other kindred spirits pursuing fearful joys in t shape of and in the woods i was in mortal terror of meeting i the young who had no for the evil and looked as if it were not pi that he could ever have been a he was an only child and grew up t kind mothers of many pitied the poor lit lad at who by reason of his rank a estate was shut off from the homely pleasures mercy not judgment life and i know that some prayed for him i have heard my mother say that my grandmother never forgot in her prayers though i suppose his proud father would have resented such a liberty on the part of his tenant s wife little grew up and became a shy reserved man fond of his books and content apparently among the seclusion of his own woods taking a keen interest in the management of his estate hut not seeking to be or or to take his proper place in the county the seldom married young and was forty years of age before he brought a wife to well do i remember the excitement in the first sabbath he appeared in the in the parish church and how the free was that day almost deserted in the anxiety to behold the new lady of the she was a sweet gentle creature looking sadly young and girlish to have the burden of a great estate upon her and many wondered afterwards how she had ever fancied such a grave solemn forbidding looking husband as we soon heard the ins and of the story for gossip travels far and quickly especially when it concerns folk that the land o the the world calls great she was the an english connected with some of best english families and had come from a lu home where there was a merry band of and sisters it was also told that she had b given no voice in the matter but had been take the rich and well born lover who came her yet if it were true she did not t miserable just at first i remember well how sat that day between her father in law and husband their stem faces seeming to her gentle the old man looked at much and often and it was my fancy to thi that an unwonted tenderness softened his cut haughty features and that the piercing e under the shaggy white brows gleamed less han than usual as for himself he did i look like a newly married husband sitting his fair young wife he had married to pie his father so that there might be an heir to inn hall and had chosen one young and gentle that she might not be a trouble to him but wo do his bidding in all things so they shut sweet young creature up in the great house the of their lonely woods and mercy not judgment went on as before sometimes during the first few months she might have been seen riding about the roads near never strangely enough in the company of her own husband who might have been proud to ride by the side of one so 