CHAPTER X.

MISS CHANCE REAPPEARS.

A week had passed, since the Minister's wife had left me,
when I received a letter from the Minister himself.

After surprising me, as he innocently supposed, by announcing
the birth of his child, he mentioned some circumstances connected
with that event, which I now heard for the first time.

"Within an easy journey of the populous scene of my present
labors," he wrote, "there is a secluded country village called
Low Lanes. The rector of the place is my wife's brother. Before
the birth of our infant, he had asked his sister to stay for
a while at his house; and the doctor thought she might safely
be allowed to accept the invitation. Through some error in
the customary calculations, as I suppose, the child was born
unexpectedly at the rectory; and the ceremony of baptism was
performed at the church, under circumstances which I am not able
to relate within the limits of a letter: Let me only say that
I allude to this incident without any sectarian bitterness of
feeling--for I am no enemy to the Church of England. You have no
idea what treasures of virtue and treasures of beauty maternity
has revealed in my wife's sweet nature. Other mothers, in her
proud position, might find their love cooling toward the poor
child whom we have adopted. But my household is irradiated by the
presence of an angel, who gives an equal share in her affections