So Ralph went to work in the city for his cousin, the businessman. His days were spent adding up numbers and keeping accounts for his cousin's business. To save as much money as possible, he rented a very simple and small room in a boardinghouse. The other boarders were uneducated and unsavory characters, all of whom were in some kind of trouble, whether financial or social or moral.
At first Ralph didn't like to talk to his new neighbors, but after awhile he began to get to know them as people. He began to understand what their lives were like, and what kinds of things they thought about and wished for. He began to see himself in them too, himself if he had been born in their circumstances.
He went to church and found comfort and relief there for his mind and spirit, but he began to see that his neighbors would not be able to take comfort in the way he did. He began to see what kind of words his neighbors needed to hear, and he began to want to get up into the pulpit and speak the words to them.
All this time he was making progress toward paying the debt, but there were years of frugal living and hard work to go. He longed to see Lizzie again, but wondered when they would ever be able to afford to get married. One day while traveling across town he found himself sitting beside Lizzie! It turned out, she had been in town secretly all the time, working as a seamstress to help pay the debt faster.
With Lizzie nearby, Ralph was encouraged in his work and together they eventually paid the whole debt. When the debt was paid, Ralph went to the church and told the Vicar there his whole story, asking to be readmitted as a clergyman. The Vicar received him back and Ralph and Lizzie were married. So that is the story of how Ralph became a clergyman.
John thanks the clergyman for his story, and leaves him to finish preparing his sermon for the next day, which is Sunday.
