Had he only been accused of neglect in parochial duties, he might perhaps, if his troubled spirit had permitted him, have endeavoured to attend more closely to them; but his pride prevented him from striving to obtain the good-will of those who seemed only alive to every circumstance tending to his disadvantage.

Would he endeavour to conciliate those whom he well knew disliked him?
no; the very act of so doing would be brought against him, and sternly he resolved that haughtiness and pride should still characterise his deportment.

What mattered it what people thought or said, if it was untrue?
he cared not; the world was a wilderness to his excited and irritated fancy, in which there bloomed but one sweet flower, too pure, too beautiful for him to touch.

It was his doom he thought to grovel on the earth, hers to shine like a star in the sphere above him.
Not long after Mr.Howard's interview with his curate, Mr.Hamilton's family and his guests arrived at Oakwood, and Herbert eagerly sought his friend.

He was shocked at the change he perceived in his appearance, which, though marked, was yet quite indescribable; that Arthur was unhappy, that his profession was more than ever distasteful to him, he soon discovered; but the real cause of these feelings he tried in vain to probe.