Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/85

Rh and reason, and every other requisite to a christian's character, if you choose to employ them; but all our talents increase in the using, and every faculty, both good and bad, strengthens by exercise; therefore, if you choose to use the bad—or those which tend to evil till they become your masters and neglect the good till they dwindle away, you have only yourself to blame. But you have talents, Arthur—natural endowments, both of heart and mind, and temper such as many a better christian would be glad to possess—if you would only employ them in God's service. I should never expect to see you a devotee, but it is quite possible to be a good christian without ceasing to be a happy, merry-hearted man."

"You speak like an oracle, Helen, and all you say is indisputably true; but listen here: I am hungry, and I see before me a good substantial dinner; I am told that, if I abstain from this to-day, I shall have a sumptuous feast to-morrow, consisting of all manner of dainties