There had been
many conversations in the little sitting-room between the brother
and sister and their protegee, which had consisted of questions
betraying a thoughtful wondering kind of ignorance on the part of
Ruth, and answers more suggestive than explanatory from Mr.
Benson; while Miss Benson kept up a kind of running commentary,
always simple and often quaint, but with that intuition into the
very heart of all things truly religious which is often the gift
of those who seem, at first sight, to be only affectionate and
sensible. When Mr. Benson had explained his own views of what a
christening ought to be considered, and, by calling out Ruth's
latent feelings into pious earnestness, brought her into a right
frame of mind, he felt that he had done what he could to make the
ceremony more than a mere form, and to invest it, quiet, humble,
and obscure as it must necessarily be in outward shape--mournful
and anxious as many of its antecedents had rendered it--with the
severe grandeur of an act done in faith and truth. It was not far
to carry the little one, for, as I said, the chapel almost
adjoined the minister's house. The whole procession was to have
consisted of Mr. and Miss Benson, Ruth carrying her babe, and
Sally, who felt herself, as a Church-of-England woman, to be
condescending and kind in requesting leave to attend a baptism
among "them Dissenters" but unless she had asked permission, she
would not have been desired to attend, so careful was the habit
of her master and mistress that she should be allowed that
freedom which they claimed for themselves.
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