Clergy -- Fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Religious fiction
The intelligent reader will not be surprised to hear that Mr. Cartwright
did not suffer himself to be long expected in vain on the following
morning. Fanny, however, was already in the garden when he arrived; and
as it so happened that he saw her as she was hovering near the shrubbery
gate, he turned from the carriage-road and approached her.
"How sweetly does youth, when blessed with such a cheek and eye as
yours, Miss Fanny, accord with the fresh morning of such a day as
this!--I feel," he added taking her hand and looking in her blushing
face, "that my soul never offers adoration more worthy of my Maker than
when inspired by intercourse with such a being as you!"
"Oh! Mr. Cartwright!" cried Fanny, avoiding his glance by fixing her
beautiful eyes upon the ground.
"My dearest child! fear not to look at me--fear not to meet the eye of a
friend, who would watch over you, Fanny, as the minister of Heaven
should watch over that which is best and fairest, to make and keep it
holy. Let me have that innocent heart in my keeping, my dearest child,
and all that is idle, light, and vain shall be banished thence, while
heavenward thoughts and holy musings shall take its place. Have you
essayed to hymn the praises of your God, Fanny, since we parted
yesterday?"
This question was accompanied by an encouraging pat upon her glowing
cheek; and Fanny, her heart beating with vanity, shyness, hope, fear,
and sundry other feelings, drew the MS. containing a fairly-written
transcript of her yesterday's labours from her bosom, and placed it in
his hand.
Mr. Cartwright pressed it with a sort of pious fervour to his lips, and
enclosing it for greater security in a letter which he drew from his
pocket, he laid it carefully within his waistcoat, on the left side of
his person, and as near, as possible to that part of it appropriated for
the residence of the heart.
"This must be examined in private, my beloved child," said he solemnly.
"The first attempt to raise such a spirit as yours in holy song has, to
my feelings, something as awful in it as the first glad movement of a
seraph's wing!... Where is your mother, Fanny?"
"She is in the library."
"Alone?"
"Oh yes!--at least I should think so, for I am sure she is expecting
you."
"Farewell, then, my dear young friend!--Pursue your solitary musing
walk; and remember, Fanny, that as by your talents you are marked and
set apart, as it were, from the great mass of human souls, so will you
be looked upon the more fixedly by the searching eye of God. It is from
him you received this talent--keep it sacred to his use, as David did,
and great shall be your reward!--Shall I startle your good mother,
Fanny, if I enter by the library window?"
"Oh no! Mr. Cartwright--I am sure mamma would be quite vexed if you
always went round that long way up to the door, especially in summer you
know, when the windows are always open."
"Once more, farewell, then!"
Fanny's hand was again tenderly pressed, and they parted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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