Brooding. 153

 

feeling of disappointment that he took it all so
very quietly.

“That is not the worst yet, sir,” I said, when I
had finished the story. “What really troubles me
most is, that it is all in away my fault. I was
judging father all the while, and speaking gruffly
to him to shew that I did not approve of his con-
duct ; and of course that drove him more and more
to seek other company, and he said himself my
mother would not have behaved so ; and—and—oh,
sir, if I had behaved better, all this would not have
happened !”

I cannot write down all that my dear master said
in reply. He spoke quietly still, and sympathis-
ingly. He did not for a moment deny that I was
in fault, but, the thing being done and over, he
tried to bring me to see what was now the best
course of action. I could not indeed now obtain
my earthly father’s pardon—I could not at least
know that I had obtained it; but my heavenly
Father’s I might : had I sought that ?

“T hardly dare,” I said; “I feel so utterly ashamed
of myself; and when I remember how sct up I was
in my own opinion and my own judgment all the
while I broke down, and could not finish.
“Tf any man sin, we have an Advocate with the

 

Father,” repeated my master, as if to himself. Pre-