“Ah! True,” was his reply, “but hoping is one thing, and believing is another. Now, I’ve been half over the world, and have come back to my own country with the settled conviction that selfishness is the great crying sin of our day; and it seems to me to have increased tenfold in my own native land since I last left it. So I should very much like to meet with a specimen or two of genuine unselfish people; for I have some important work to do here, and I shall stand in need of truly unselfish helpers. Can you name me one or two?”
“Well, sir, if you mean by unselfish persons those who really work for God’s glory and not their own, I freely admit that they are, and I suppose always must be, comparatively rare.”
“That is exactly what I do mean, my dear young lady; can you help me to find a few such unselfish workers in your own rank of life, and of your own sex?”
His companion was silent for a few moments, then she said slowly and timidly, “I judge, dear sir, from the tone of your questions that you are a follower of that Saviour who has set us the only perfect example of unselfishness.”
“I trust so, my young friend,” was the other’s reply; “I wish at least to be so. Well, I see we have only a few more steps to bring us to your aunt’s lodge. We shall meet again, I have no doubt, before long; and perhaps when we do I shall have more to say to you on the same subject. Farewell, and thank you.” And with a courteous salutation he parted from her.
Chapter Two.
Settling Down.
Restoration and improvement went on vigorously at Riverton Park. The front of the house soon lost its careworn appearance; the walks laid aside their weeds, and shone with a lively surface of fresh gravel; the shutters ceased to exclude the daylight; while painters and paperers, masons and carpenters, decorators and upholsterers soon brought the interior of the dwelling into a becoming state of beauty, order, and comfort.