Together they led the unsteady feet of the little ones down the crisp snow path which Harold's industrious shovel had made.
Trenholme spoke briefly of the work he was trying to do in his school.
A clergyman has social licence to be serious which is not accorded to other men.

Wherefore he spoke as a clergyman might speak to a friend, saying, in general terms, how steep is the ascent when, among mundane affairs, human beings try to tread only where the angels of the higher life may lead.
Sophia assented, feeling a little sharp because it seemed to her that he was taking up the thread of his acquaintance with her just where it had formerly parted when she had thrown before him the gauntlet of such high resolves and heavenly aims as young girls can easily talk about when they know as yet nothing of their fulfilment.

Whether or not Sophia knew more of their fulfilment since then, she had, at least, learned a more humble reverence for the very thought of such struggles, and she was quite ready to believe that the man to whom she had once called to come onward had by this time far outstripped her in the race.

She was _ready_ for this belief; but she had not accepted it, because, as yet confused and excited by all that was new, she had formed no conclusion whatever with regard to Trenholme.

It had puzzled her somewhat from the outset to find him such a model of elegance in the matter of clothes and manners.
She had, somehow, fancied that he would have a long beard and wear an old coat.