Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/14

12 endeared him more and more, until through his very suffering he became sanctified in her eyes.

True, he was poor, but she had often heard him say that to every one of God's creatures as much or as little worldly wealth is allotted as can be of spiritual benefit. Much to those whom much would profit in some manner which the all-wise Giver alone comprehends, and little to those who would more rapidly gain spiritual riches through the scantiness of their worldly possessions. He had taught her that there were no such words as accident and chance with God, and that all things were ever working together for the good of those who love the Lord. How then could Ethan's poverty be regarded as an evil?

Let friends say what they might, Ethan and Amy felt that they were not unsuited. The happiness of marriage lies more in the fitness of one being for companionship with another, than in the actual qualities with which either one is endowed. The bond between Ethan and Amy sprang from this mental adaptedness, and caused a transfusion of mind which could not be otherwise than productive of felicity. One nature seemed the complement of the other; each was incomplete without that perfecting counterpart.

Mr. Mildmay's parsonage was a tiny cottage, so greenly veiled by a network of vines, so closely belted by overshadowing elms, that it looked like a bird's nest peeping out from its leafy canopy.