Dodd was out.
This was the time he stayed the two hours. A Mrs. James invited Jane and
him to tea and exposition. There he met Julia and Edward, who had just
returned. Edward was taken with Jane Hardie's face and dovelike eyes;
eyes that dwelt with a soft and chastened admiration on his masculine
face and his model form, and their owner felt she had received "a call"
to watch over his spiritual weal. So they paired off.
Julia's fluctuating spirits settled now into a calm, demure, complacency.
Her mother, finding this strange remedial virtue in youthful society,
gave young parties, inviting Jane and Alfred in their turn. Jane
hesitated, but, as she could no longer keep Julia from knowing her
worldly brother, and hoped a way might be opened for her to rescue
Edward, she relaxed her general rule, which was to go into no company
unless some religious service formed part of the entertainment. Yet her
conscience was ill at ease; and, to set them an example, she took care,
when she asked the Dodds in return, to have a clergyman there of her own
party, who could pray and expound with unction.
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