CHAPTER III.


CONSTANCE CHANNING.

How true is the old proverb--"Man proposes but God disposes!" God's
ways are not as our ways. His dealings with us are often mysterious.
Happy those, who can detect His hand in all the varied chances and
changes of the world.

I am not sure that we can quite picture to ourselves the life that had
been Mr. Channing's. Of gentle birth, and reared to no profession, the
inheritance which ought to have come to him was looked upon as a
sufficient independence. That it would come to him, had never been
doubted by himself or by others; and it was only at the very moment
when he thought he was going to take possession of it, that some enemy
set up a claim and threw it into Chancery. You may object to the word
"enemy," but it could certainly not be looked upon as the act of a
friend. By every right, in all justice, it belonged to James Channing;
but he who put in his claim, taking advantage of a quibble of law, was
a rich man and a mighty one. I should not like to take possession of
another's money in such a manner. The good, old-fashioned, wholesome
fear would be upon me, that it would bring no good either to me or
mine.

James Channing never supposed but that the money would be his some
time. Meanwhile he sought and obtained employment to occupy his days;
to bring "grist to the mill," until the patrimony should come.
Hoping, hoping, hoping on; hope and disappointment, hope and
disappointment--there was nothing else for years and years; and you