“Jane,” he said slowly, “I did not receive much assistance from you in my endeavours to bring our friends to a knowledge of the truth. I thought that, as you desired the attempt, you would have helped me a little.” “There is a reason for everything; and, what is more, I do not consider it right to take upon myself what belongs to a minister. It may do more harm than good.” “Take upon yourself what belongs to a minister! My dear Jane, is nobody but a minister to bear witness for the Master?” “Of course I did not mean to say that; you know I did not. Why do you catch at my words? Perhaps, if you had not been quite so forward, Mr. Caillaud and his daughter might have gone to chapel.” After supper, and when he was alone, Zachariah sat for some time without moving. He presently rose and opened the Bible again, which lay on the table—the Bible which belonged to his father—and turned to the fly-leaf on which was written the family history. There was the record of his father’s marriage, dated on the day of the event. There was the record of his own birth. There was the record of his mother’s death, still in his father’s writing, but in an altered hand, the letters not so distinct, and the strokes crooked and formed with difficulty. There was the record of Zachariah’s own marriage. A cloud of shapeless, inarticulate sentiment obscured the man’s eyes and brain. He could not define what he felt, but he did feel. He could not bear it, and he shut the book, opening it again at the twenty-second Psalm—the one which the disciples of Jesus called to mind on the night of the crucifixion. It was one which Mr. Bradshaw often read, and Zachariah had noted in it a few corrections made in the translation: “_My God_, _my God_, _why hast Thou forsaken me_? _Our fathers trusted in Thee_; _they trusted_, _and Thou didst deliver them_. . . . _Be not far from me_; _for trouble is near_; _for there is none to help_. . . . _Be Thou not far from me_, _O Lord_: _O my strength_, _haste Thee to help me_. . . . _Save me from the lion’s mouth_: _and from the horns of the wild oxen Thou hast answered me_.”