‘So he tells me, dear boy! But when I think what he was as a child, and what he has been as a youth, I cannot but charge it on myself.’
‘Then think what he is, and will be, I trust, as a man,’ said Robert. ‘Even at the worst, the higher, purer standard that had been impressed on him saved him from lower depths; and when “he came to himself,” it was not as if he had neither known his Father’s house nor the way to it. Oh, Miss Charlecote! you must not come to me to assure you that your training of him was in vain! I, who am always feeling the difference between trying to pull him and poor Mervyn upwards! There may be more excuse for Mervyn, but Owen knows where he is going, and springs towards it; while Mervyn wonders at himself at every stage, and always fancies the next some delusion of my strait-laced imagination.’
‘Ah! once I spurned, and afterwards grieved over, the saying that very religious little boys either die or belie their promise.’
‘There is some truth in it,’ said Robert. ‘Precocious piety is so beautiful that it is apt to be fostered so as to make it insensibly imitative and unreal, or depend upon some individual personal influence; and there is a certain reaction at one stage of growth against what has been overworked.’
‘Then what could you do with such a child as my Owen if
it were all to come over again? His aspirations were often so beautiful that I could not but reverence them greatly; and I cannot now believe that they were prompted by aught but innocence and baptismal grace!’
‘Looking back,’ said Robert, ‘I believe they were genuine, and came from his heart. No; such a devotional turn should be treated with deep reverence and tenderness; but the expression had better be almost repressed, and the test of conduct enforced, though without loading the conscience with details not of general application, and sometimes impracticable under other circumstances.’
‘It is the practicalness of dear Owen’s reformation that makes it so thoroughly satisfactory,’ said Honora; ‘though I must say that I dread the experiment. You will look after him, for this week, Robert; I fear he is overdoing himself in his delight at moving about and working again.’
‘I will see how he gets on. It will be a good essay for the future.’
‘I cannot think how he is ever to bear living with Mrs. Murrell.’