doubt in me that I was able to understand and appreciate the doubt in you.

_Mother._--But then you had at least begun to leave it behind before I knew
you, and so had grown able to help me. And Mr. Percivale does not seem, by
all I can make out, a bit nearer believing in any thing than poor Wynnie
herself.

_Father._--At least, he doesn't fancy he believes when he does not, as so
many do, and consider themselves superior persons in consequence. I don't
know that it would have done you any great harm, Miss Ethelwyn, to have
made my acquaintance when I was in the worst of my doubts concerning the
truth of things. Allow me to tell you that I was nearer making shipwreck of
my faith at a certain period than I ever was before or have been since.

_Mother._--What period was that?

_Father._--Just the little while when I had lost all hope of ever marrying
you,--unbeliever as you counted yourself.

_Mother._--You don't mean to say you would have ceased to believe in God,
if he hadn't given you your own way?

_Father._--No, my dear. I firmly believe, that, had I never married you, I
should have come in the end to say, "_Thy will be done_," and to believe
that it must be all right, however hard to bear. But, oh, what a terrible
thing it would have been, and what a frightful valley of the shadow of
death I should have had to go through first!

[I know my mother _said_ nothing more just then, but let my father have it
all his own way for a while.]