‘Why, you might come and hear what the poor woman has got to say for herself,’ said the Presbyterian parson. ‘You might follow the clue she might give you. You might save yourself from what seems to me the commission of a cruel wrong. You might act fairly to a lad who I believe has a better title to the estate than you have. In short, you might do to others as you would have others do to you.’ ‘You can quote Scripture, then.’ ‘Yes, I can; but it seems to be of little use.’ ‘You are right, sir. We are told the devil can quote Scripture. To the carnal heart the Scripture is a sealed book. It is only as the Spirit opens the eyes of the believer that he can read aught.’ ‘I thought, on the contrary,’ said Wentworth, ‘Scripture was so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, could not err therein. But I did not come to discuss such questions. I have to ask you, sir, to pause before you take possession of the estate.’ ‘Well, sir,’ said the new heir, ‘you have come and you have asked me.’ ‘Yes, and you will pause?’ ‘Not for an instant. Why should I? By these distressing visitations of Providence, I have come into the possession of property and a title. It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in my eyes. I never sought this nor expected this.’ Wentworth looked at the speaker. There seemed no particular reason why the Lord should have interfered in this matter on his behalf, he thought; but then Wentworth was not of the elect, and knew little as to what the Lord was about. CHAPTER XXIX. THE COLONEL. Society was startled in the autumn of the year to which these events relate by the announcement that Colonel, otherwise Sir Robert Strahan had been shot in a duel on the Belgian frontier. The world wondered why he had to fight a duel. He had the reputation of being an austere and strait-laced man, a great stickler for the proprieties, a strict observer of conventional forms, regular in his attendances on Church ordinances, and very ready to judge harshly of the failings of others. In all the land there was none so proud and priggish, and his wife rejoiced greatly at the work of her hands in transforming a man of the world into a Christian of the regulation pattern. There were, it is true, many of his fellow-officers and former companions who wondered at rather than admired the change, who questioned its genuineness, and believed, in heart, the Colonel was still the same as when, in his younger days, he played somewhat notoriously the part of a man about town; but then the world is always uncharitable, and its men and women are of a sceptical turn of mind, and ready to doubt people who affect to be superior to their neighbours; and now their hour of triumph had arrived.