"
By this time Dr. Bathurst had descended, more cautiously, and Walter
went to greet him, and repeat his news. Together they proceeded to
meet the rest; and who can tell the tearful happiness when Rose and
her mother were once more pressed in each other's arms!
"My noble girl! under Providence you have saved him!" whispered Lady
Woodley.
The next evening, in secrecy, with the shutters shut, and the light
screened, the true pastor of Forest Lea gathered the faithful ones of
his flock for a service in the old hall. There knelt many a humble,
loyal, trustful peasant; there was the widowed Dame Ewins, trying to
be comforted, as they told her she ought; there was the lady herself,
at once sorrowful and yet earnestly thankful; there was Sylvester
Enderby, hearing and following the prayers he had been used to in his
early childhood, with a growing feeling that here lay the right and
the truth; there was Deborah, weeping, grieving over her own fault,
and almost heart-broken at the failure of him on whom she had set her
warm affections, yet perhaps in a way made wiser, and taught to trust
no longer to a broken reed, but to look for better things; there were
Walter and Lucy, both humbled and subdued, repenting in earnest of
the misbehaviour each of them had been guilty of. Walter did not
show his contrition much in manner, but it was real, and he proved it
by many a struggle with his self-willed overbearing temper.
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