'
'Yes, because remembrance of such glory connects with hope of future
glory.'
'And it is a rest from human frets and passions. She has taken to
botany, too, and I am glad, for I think those studies that draw one
off from men's works and thoughts, do most good to the weary,
self-occupied brain. And the children are a delight to her!'
'Sophy is your greatest work.'
'Not mine!' cried Albinia. 'The noblest by nature, the dearest, the
most generous.'
'Great qualities; but they would have been only wretched self-preying
torments, but for the softening of your affection,' said Maurice.
'Dear, dear friend and sister and child in one,' cried Albinia. And
then meeting her brother's eyes, she said, 'Yes, you know to the full
how noble she is, and how--'
'I can guess how imprudent a young step-mother can be,' said Maurice,
smiling.
'It is very strange. I don't, know how to be thankful enough for it;
but really her spirits have been more equal, her temper more even
than ever it had been, and that just when I thought my folly had been
most ruinous.'
'Yes, Albinia. After all, it is more than man can hope or expect to
make no blunders; but I do verily believe that while an earnest will
saves us, by God's grace, from wilful sins, the effects of the
inadvertences that teach us our secret faults will not be fatal, and
while we are indeed honestly and faithfully doing our best, though we
are truly unprofitable servants, that our lapses through infirmity
will be compensated, both in the training of our own character and
the results upon others.
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