411 THE MAIDEN'S STORY. IMMEDIATELY after I had announced to Mr. Jordan the death of the widowed mother, I received a second letter from him, desiring me to send, without delay, the orphan and its nurse to his family; but as the weather was cold and inclement, I begged to defer its removal until I could accompany it myself early in the following spring. In the mean time both were placed in security and comfort in the house of our Christian Rector, where I saw the child daily, for I now became a constant inmate in the good man's family. It was about the middle of April that I set out with my charge for Nottinghamshire; and when I delivered the child into the hands of its relatives, no words can speak the satisfaction I derived from the interview. Mother, father, and daughter, each traced in the lineaments of the face something which brought the son and brother to their remembrance, and they received it with the most heart-felt gratification; and it was to me each succeeding day a source of increasing joy to observe that their love of the child became continually stronger and stronger as he grew in age, and won upon their affections. On The circumstance, which occasioned the necessity of this journey, brought me again into the society of Eloise, who received me with the same expressive tenderness as she had shown when I last parted from her: her spirits were now reviving, and there was a smiling cheerfulness on her countenance, which communicated itself imperceptibly to all around her. But her manner and the alteration of her mind in one particular struck me forcibly. the Sunday after my arrival, when the Jordans were preparing to go to their chapel, they intended, as usual, to leave Eloise to her own private devotions and pursuits; for upon no occasion had I, either in her mother's lifetime or afterwards, known her to frequent any public place of worship: before, however, we separated, Miss Jordan asked me how I meant to dispose of myself, I answered her, by saying that it was my intention to attend the parish church both morning and afternoon. "Then," said Eloise, "if such be your intention, perhaps you will permit me to put myself under your escort, and do the same." This surprised me no less than it gave me pleasure. We, therefore, both attended; but upon our returning from the afternoon-service, we found that the family of our kind host had gone from their chapel to call at the house of a friend in the neighbourhood, and we agreed to walk a short distance for the chance of falling in with them on their way home. After some time, however, we discovered that we advanced beyond the place where we had expected to meet them having been so engaged and absorbed in the earnest discussion of a very important subject, we had taken no notice of the distance. For, upon leaving the church, Eloise had enquired of me what I thought of the services and the manner in which they had that day been done. "Of the sermons," said I, "both were good, though different in their style, and different, also, in the manner of the delivery of them,―a variation caused by the difference of the two preachers we |