"My child, call me your dear father, as you were wont; and let your soft lips press upon my hand as there were fondness in them. You said you would not curse me, Constance."
"Bless, bless you, my dear father!" She kissed his hand; and having lighted the chamber lamp, read one of the penitential psalms of the King of Israel, when sin, and the wretchedness that follows sin, became too heavy for him to bear.
"And now let us pray," said Constantia, conceiving that her father's mind was more composed; "let us offer up petitions to the source of all mercy and forgiveness."
"I cannot pray," he said; "my lips may move, but my heart is hardened."
"We will learn of Him who softened the stony rock, that the children of promise might taste of the living waters in a strange land."
And her earnest and beautiful prayer floated to the Almighty's throne, from that dull and heavy chamber, a record of the faithful and self-sacrificing spirit whose purest earthly temple is a woman's heart.
CHAPTER XIV.
Yet, spite of all that Nature did
To make his uncouth form forbid,
This creature dared to love.
* * * *
But virtue can itself advance
To what the favourite fools of chance
By fortune seem design'd.
Parnell.