'I am very sorry, mother, very sorry,' he said, after a long pause. 'Very sorry for what, George?' 'For what I cannot say.' 'You are changed, my child, greatly changed. London has altered you more in a few days than all the years before. I pray it may be a wholesome change.' 'Mother, you used, when we were little children, before my father died, to come into the room we slept in, and pray in a loud whisper, so that you should not wake us, but that God might know you were in great earnest.' 'Yes, my child; you were a little fellow then, not up to my elbow.' 'Do you, now that we are grown up, pray for us, mother?' 'Daily, my child, daily, day and night, and often when I am alone in the daytime, and always when I hear of evil or danger. What have I to do now, my child, but pray for my children while I am on earth, and ask God to show me grace and lead me to Him and to the presence of your good father by-and-by?' 'I have told you I do not care to speak of my own affairs just now. I ask you, mother, to pray for me. I am in sore trouble.' 'In sore trouble, and will not tell me! In sore trouble about your marriage? I hope not, my boy.' 'Yes and no. You must not press me, mother. I am troubled, and you must not press me. Pray for me. All may be right yet, but up to this all is not right.' 'My dear son, my dear George, you may count on my prayers. What can be the matter? I hope, George, you have not given away your affections to any unworthy person. You tell me nothing about her or your marriage, and now you ask me to pray for you. I hope it is not as I fear?' 'No, no, no, mother. It is I who am unworthy, and need the help of Heaven towards worthiness, not she. She is all that is good and amiable.' 'You unworthy, George! Why, no woman alive could be too good for you. What can have put such a notion in your head? I hope you are not going to marry anyone with new-fangled religious notions. I hope she is not one of those for whom the simple religion of the English Church and England's Queen is not satisfactory; who must set up some foolish superstition of their own.' 'She was brought up, mother, as you and I were--in the Church of England; and she now holds the same faith as you. Be not uneasy on that account; and, mother, as a great favour, let us talk no more of my affairs for the present. I have other matters on which the happiness of two people depends, to speak to you about.' He turned his face away from the window, and looked gravely into his mother's eyes. She simply bowed in token that he was to proceed.