MADELINE CLARE. CHAPTER I. FEMININE TAC T. AND Mabel had done well. Churchil, prepared for tears and reproaches, was not prepared for the accents, full of tender and loving wisdom, in which Mabel, while she acknowledged his errors, sought to show him that they flowed, not so much from a preference for evil, as from ignorance of good. "Well, well," he answered, in reply to her VOL. III. B entreaties that he would not again yield to the suggestions of his lower nature-"I have, I think, somewhat amended my own life; while, I thank God, Mabel, I have tried to shield you from harm-you have been a bless ing to me, Mabel-you His voice grew thick and choked. Mabel gladly seized on these indications of gentler feelings, to speak to him of duty and religion. "I would I could feel their influence," he said, at length; "for life, without faith or hope in anything, is a sad and dreary thing; but I cannot believe in those tenets, and that teaching, which show no mercy for the erring, no desire to reclaim the sinful, or make allowance for their temptations. I was never benefitted, Mabel, by the preaching at Langly Park." 66 "Perhaps," said Mabel, you would find the style of preaching changed since then; for I have not been taught to believe in almost any of the tenets you complain of." "Then, I would be glad to hear your creed, Mabel." "Listen, then, patiently, and you shall;" and, after a few moments' pause, Mabel fixed her clear, steady eyes on her father's face, and said "I have learned to believe that God is allwise and good, and that He foreknew and foreordained all things; and I have drawn from this, the only conclusion consistent with such belief-that, when he created man, he foresaw, that from all sorrow, and all sin, and all suffering, would finally be worked out a state of virtue and happiness, purer and higher than any possible for man, without the instrumentality of these. I believe that in man's |