There was a quiet dignity about him that prevented all intrusive sympathy, a mild, steady lustre in his dark grey eye, which so clearly said conscience was at peace, that Herbert instinctively felt the bonds of friendship stronger than they had ever been before; he was no longer anxious, for he felt assured the errors of Arthur's former life were conquered, and he wrote to his father concerning his friend with all his native eloquence.
Emmeline made no observation; her young soul was absorbed in an intense feeling of thanksgiving, that her prayers had been heard.

Strength had been granted him, and he had done his duty; he was esteemed, beloved; his character was pure and bright; and if the gulf between them remained impassable, should she murmur, when _all_ for which she had prayed had been vouchsafed her?
But a sterner call of obedience appeared about to hover over her, from which her young spirit shrunk back appalled.
Herbert's anxious wishes were accomplished; there was no longer any barrier to his earnest prayers to become a servant of his God, and of service to his fellow-creatures.

The six years in which he had laboured unceasingly, untiringly, to prepare himself for the life which from his boyhood he had chosen, now appeared but as a passing dream, and as he knelt before the venerable bishop, his feelings became almost overpowering.

Tears rose in his eyes, and he drooped his head upon his hands to conceal them.

He felt this was no common life on which he entered, no mere profession, in which he would be at liberty to think and act as he pleased.