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    A STRANGE CHANCE. 325

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    V _ Chapter I. On A Cloudless Morning 1 ...

    especial and beaut charge y of . its To hair accep , seemed t it as to such mark would it out be to distinctl lay an y offering as his

    , before the one sincere and unchanging passion of his life . In the innermost chamber of his heart dwelt the image of a woman who

    had once crossed his path , like a spirit from heaven , radiant with the promise of a full realization of his highest human ideal . It

    was into the presence of this sacred image , the authorizer and sanetifier of his work , that his thoughts conducted the child . As to

    the nature of the connexion that was to exist between them , he was too absolute in his own requirementsand far too wise to have

    idle dreams . He knew that all those , hallowed relations , which , consciously or unconsciously , are the paramount desire and only

    true _rej ) ose of the soul ; those relations which carry within them the life-breath of eternity , are slowly proved , and must be purchased

    with—ourselves . That they are not formed by any exercise of the will > but of by the that iritual which element is within s with and yet which above -we us have —the been unbidden gifted .

    process sp That their price is ever the warmest blood of our hearts , our bitterest tearsthe noblest aspirations our souls can conceive ; a

    constancy unequivocal mail acceptation , -proof to g the iven assaults at last of after selfishness a survey , and of a thoug whole ht

    which has traversed not only all known conditions of this present existence , but all predictions given by it of a future . So he only

    meditated upon the service he was able and willing to give the child , and indirectly through it to the pure religion of his love . As

    for its affections , they must develop according to their nature ; and as for his right to assume the protection of its life to , he felt assured it

    no better guardian than himself would be likely approach . While the arraying of the children was going forward , George Gilbert sat waiting in the single low room of the good woman's

    little dwelling . The three other children , who had been left at home whilst she was gone to , market , gazed for a few moments in silent

    awe upon the visitor , and then crept mysteriously up-stairs after their mother and the two other little ones .

    When the dressing was at last accomplished , after numerous stoppages and disastersowing to the good woman ' s excitement , but

    , which she altogether imputed to that natural contrariety common to things as well as persons , of always being out of the way when

    they are wanted , and the stubborn determination of divers hooks and buttons to be stupid , the boys were placed under the charge of

    the " gentleman . " Their good-will had been previously propitiated by the purchase of certain cakes and barley-sugar , and their hopes

    for the future excited by the promise of a ride in a carriage , which being was to good take , p in lace excellent in the afternoon humor they ; so , allowed after many themselves injunctions to be about led

    away . As soon as George Gilbert was fairly in the street , holding a

    child by either hand , a sense of the Quixotism of his position rushed

    A Strange Chance. 325

    A STRANGE CHANCE . 325

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/37/