She repented, it is true, the moment she had said the words, from dread of her aunt; but they had been said, and were accepted.

Mary went, and the aunt difficulty had been got over.

The friendship of Godfrey also had now run into that of the girls, and Mary's visits were continued with pleasure to all, and certainly with no little profit to herself; for, where the higher nature can not communicate the greater benefit, it will reap it.

Her Sunday visit became to Mary the one foraging expedition of the week--that which going to church ought to be, and so seldom can be.
The beginning and main-stay of her spiritual life was, as we have seen, her father, in whom she believed absolutely.

From books and sermons she had got little good; for in neither kind had the best come nigh her.
She did very nearly her best to obey, but without much perceiving the splendor of the thing required, or much feeling its might upon her own eternal nature.