"Martha," said he, "what! about luncheon?
You'll take luncheon with us, Mr.Woodward ?" Woodward bowed, and Mrs.Goodwin was about to leave the room, when he said: "Perhaps, Mrs.Goodwin, you'd be good enough to remain for a few minutes." Mrs.Goodwin sat down, and he proceeded: "I trust that my arrival home will, under Providence, be the means of reconciling and reuniting two families who never should have been at variance.

Not but that I admit, my dear friends,--if you will allow me to call you so,--that the melancholy event of my poor uncle's death, and the unexpected disposition of so large a property, were calculated to try the patience of worldly-minded people--and who is not so in a more or less I degree ?" "I don't think any of your family is," replied Goodwin, bluntly, "with one exception." "O! yes, my mother," replied Woodward, "and I grant it; at least she was so, and acted upon worldly principles; but I think you will admit, at least as Christians you must, that the hour of change and regret may come to every human heart when its errors, and its selfishness, if you will, have been clearly and mildly pointed out.

I do not attribute the change that has happily taken place in my dear mother to myself, but to a higher power; although I must admit, as I do with all humility, that I wrought earnestly, in season and out of season, since my return, to bring it about; and, thank heaven, I have succeeded.

I come this day as a messenger of peace, to state that she is willing that the families should be reconciled, and a happier and more lasting union effected between them." "I am delighted to hear it, Mr.Woodward," said Goodwin, much moved; "God knows I am.

Blessed be the peace-maker, and you are he; an easy conscience and a light heart must be your reward." "They must," added his wife, wiping her eyes; "they must and they will." "Alas!" proceeded Woodward, "how far from Gospel purity is every human motive when it comes to be tried by the Word! I will not conceal from you the state of my heart, nor deny that in accomplishing this thing it was influenced by a certain selfish feeling on my part; in one sense a disinterested selfishness I admit, but in another a selfishness that involves my own happiness.