He had his reward in the success he sought.

But I must make haste, for the story of worldly success is always a mean tale.

In a few years, and for not a few after, he was a popular preacher in one of the suburbs of London--a good deal sought after, and greatly lauded.

He lived in comfort, indulged indeed in some amount of show; married a widow with a large life-annuity, which between them they spent entirely, and that not altogether in making friends with everlasting habitations; in a word, gazed out on the social landscape far oftener than lifted his eyes to the hills.
After some ten or twelve years, a change began.

They had three children; the two boys, healthy and beautiful, took scarlatina and died; the poor, sickly girl wailed on.