Strangers and Pilgrims

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 Excerpt: ...life which is the type and pattern of all human excellence. He spoke of the duties which belong to every relation of life; of children and of parents, of husbands and of wives. It was a sermon after the apostolic model; friendly counsel to his new friends, here among remote Scottish hills, away from the falsehoods and artificialities of crowded cities; a simple pastoral address to the people of this small Arcadia. "If I could only obey him " Elizabeth thought; at this moment a different creature from the brilliant mistress of the house with the many balconies--the presiding genius of crowded afternoon tea-drinkings, the connoisseur in ceramic ware, who would melt down a small fortune into a service of eggshell Sevres, or Vienna, or Carl Theodore cups and saucers, and cream-jugs and tea-canisters, for the mere amusement of an idle morning; a widely different being from her whose last ball had astonished the town by its reckless extravagance, whose milliner's bill would have been formidable for Miss Killmansegg. By nature a creature of impulse, carried away by every vain wind of doctrine, she was at least accessible to good influences as well as evil, and was for this one brief hour exalted, purified in spirit by the power of her old lover's pleading--pleading not as her lover, only as one who loved all weak and erring human creatures, and had compassion unawares for her. "Does he know?" she wondered; "does he know that I hear him? Surely he must have cast one of his penetrating glances this way." Nothing in his tone or manner indicated the surprise or emotion which might have accompanied such a recognition. If he had seen her the sight had not moved him, the memories which shook her soul to its centre had no power to touch him. ...