"Oh! Mr. Cartwright! If I could be useful in such a way as that, I should be very thankful;--only--I have a doubt." Here the bright countenance of Fanny became suddenly overclouded; she even trembled, and turned pale. "What is it, my dear child, that affects you thus?" said the vicar with real surprise; "tell me, my sweet Fanny, what I have said to alarm you?" "If I do this," said Fanny, her voice faltering with timidity, "shall I not seem to be trusting to works?" "Do you mean, because the writings of authors are called their works?" said Mr. Cartwright very gravely. "No! Mr. Cartwright!" she replied, colouring from the feeling, that if so good and holy a man could quiz, she should imagine that he was now quizzing her,--"No! Mr. Cartwright!--but if I do this, and trust to get saving grace as a reward for the good I may do, will not this be trusting to works?" "My dear child," he said; gently kissing her forehead, "such tenderness of conscience is the best assurance that what you will do will be done in a right spirit. Then fear not, dear Fanny, that those things which prove a snare to the unbeliever should, in like manner, prove a snare to the elect." Again Fanny Mowbray trembled. "Alas! then I may still risk the danger of eternal fire by this thing,--for am I of the elect?" The vicar knew that Mrs. Mowbray was waiting for him, and fearing that this long delay might have a strange appearance, he hastily concluded the conversation by exclaiming with as much vehemence as brevity, "You are! You are!" CHAPTER XIII. MRS. SIMPSON'S CHARITABLE VISIT.--CHARLES'S TROUBLES CONTINUE. From this time most of Fanny Mowbray's hours were spent in writing tracts; which, as soon as completed, were delivered to Mr. Cartwright. He received them ever with expressions of mingled admiration and gratitude, constantly assuring her, the next time they met, that nothing could be more admirably calculated to answer the effect intended, and that the last was incomparably superior to all which had preceded it. This occupation of writing tracts, first hit upon for the convenient occupation of Fanny Mowbray, was soon converted, by the ready wit of Mr. Cartwright, into an occupation, in one way or another, for all the professing Christians in his parish who happened to have nothing to do.