midnight
She felt ashamed of her children seeing them , lest they should learn to distrust all men 's truth and honor , and she would not suffer a word to be said about them in her own family . But Madame Sefton , in her failing old age , was always ready to sympathize with Felix , and to help to keep him steady to her own simple faith ; and Phebe was on the same side . These two women , with their quiet , unquestioning trust in God , and sweet charity toward their fellow-men , did more for Felix than all the opposing influences of college life could undo ; and when his grandmother 's peaceful and happy death set the last seal on her truthful life , Felix devoted himself with renewed earnestness to the career he had chosen . To enter the lists in the battle against darkness , and ignorance , and sin , wherever these foes were to be met in close quarters , was his ambition ; and the enthusiasm with which he followed it made Felicita smile , yet sigh with unutterable bitterness as she looked into the midnight gloom of her own soul . It became quite plain to Felicita as the years passed by that her son was no genius . At present there was a freshness and singleness of purpose about him , which , with the charm of his handsome young face and the genial simplicity of his manners , made him everywhere a favorite , and carried him into circles where a graver man and a deeper thinker could not find entrance ; but let twenty years pass by , and Felix , she said to herself , would be nothing but a commonplace country clergyman , looking after his glebe lands and riding lazily about his parish , talking with old women and consulting farmers about his crops and cattle . She felt disappointed in him ; and this disappointment removed him far away from her .