This professor--and Gabriella: they alone, though from different
motives, had been drawn to him by what had repelled all others. It
was his new relation to her beyond anything else that filled David
this day with his deep desire for peace with his past. She had such
peace in herself, such charity of feeling, such simple steadfast
faith: she cast the music of these upon the chords of his own soul.
To the influence of her religion she was now adding the influence
of her love; it filled him, subdued, overwhelmed him. And this
morning, also out of his own happiness he remembered with most
poignant suffering the unhappiness of his father. His own life was
unfolding into fulness of affection and knowledge and strength; his
father's was closing amid the weakness and troubles that had
gathered about him; and he, David, had contributed his share to
these. To be reconciled to his father this day--that was his sole
thought.

It was about four o'clock. The house held that quiet which reigns
of a Sunday afternoon when the servants have left the kitchen for
the cabin, when all work is done, and the feeling of Sunday rest
takes possession of our minds. The winter sunshine on the fields
seems full of rest; the brutes rest--even those that are not beasts
of burden. The birds appear to know the day, and to make note of it
in quieter twitter and slower flight.

David rose resolutely and started downstairs. As he entered his
father's room, his mother was passing out She looked at her son
with apprehension, as she closed the door. His father was sitting
by a window, reading, as was his Sunday wont, the Bible. He had
once written to David that his had always been a religious people;