It was impossible that she could learn anything from them; and yet she would sit there thrice a day, suffering from cold in winter, from cough in spring, from heat in summer, and from rheumatism in autumn; and now that her doctor had forbidden her to go more than twice, recommending her to go only once, she really thought that she regarded the prohibition as a grievance.

Indeed, to such as her, that expectation of the jewelled causeway, and of the perfect pavement that shall never be worn, must be everything.

But if she was right,--right as to herself and others,--then why has the world been made so pleasant?
Why is the fruit of the earth so sweet; and the trees,--why are they so green; and the mountains so full of glory?
Why are women so lovely?
and why is it that the activity of man's mind is the only sure forerunner of man's progress?
In listening thrice a day to outpourings from the clergymen at Perivale, there certainly was no activity of mind.
Now, in these days, Mrs.Winterfield was near to her reward.

That she had ensured that I cannot doubt.

She had fed the poor, and filled the young full with religious teachings,--perhaps not wisely, and in her own way only too well, but yet as her judgment had directed her.