“Besides?”
“I don’t think Julius is a Christian.”
The startling announcement was made in so humble and mournful a voice as almost to disarm Jenny’s resentment; and before she had recovered enough for a reply, she was called to take leave of her parents.
Her brother was the professed object of her visit, and she was only at the Hall because there was no accommodation at his lodgings, so that she had no scruple in joining the early breakfast spread for the Rector and his wife, so as to have the morning free for him; but she found Julius alone, saying that his wife was tired after the party; and to Jenny’s offer to take her class, he replied, “Thank you, it will be a great kindness if you will teach; but Rose has no regular class. Teaching is not much in her line; and it is a pity she should have to do it, but we have to make the most of the single hour they allow us for godliness.”
“Don’t you utilize Mrs. Charnock? or is she not strong enough for early hours?”
“Poor Anne! The truth is, I am afraid of her. I fancy all her doctrine comes out of the Westminster Catechism.”
“Could Calvinism be put in at seven years old? Would not it be a pouring of stiff glue into a narrow-necked phial?”
“Result—nil.”
“A few pure drops might got in—and you could give her books.”
“It had struck me that it might be wholesome work for her; but the children’s good must stand first. And, timid and reserved as she seems, she insisted on preaching at the work-room, so that Cecil had to put a stop to it.”