I could not help smiling. This rustic
clergyman, fetched out of some outlying
district to this doubtful duty, lecturing me
and others! It was, of course, in his duty,
and he meant well; but I think it was
rather free and easy to a mere stranger.

"I am quite capable of taking care of
myself, Mr. Lewis," I said. "I have my
own reasons for associating with that gentleman.
What if I succeeded in influencing
him in changing his life and heart; does
that at all enter into your philosophy?"

"Oh, well and good," he said, smiling.
"God forbid I should interfere. But we
must judge these things by the ordinary
rule of the world. Have you any reason to
lead you to hope?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well, then, you ought to go and look
after him now; for I was passing from the
news-room just now, and saw him playing
frantically. Come with me, and I will
show him to you."

"I never go into that place," I said,
coldly, and meaning a rebuke.

"Into the news-room?" he said. " Why
not? Ah, you haven't patience to wait for
the papers. It's a very good school for
patience."

"As you ask me the reason, I do not
wish to be indebted to men who fatten on
human misery. I make no merit of it, but
I think it better not."

"This sounds strange," he said. " Let
me ask, do you know the Bishop of Grravesend?
He goes there every day. Do you
know the good Lord Calborough, who
takes the chair at his meetings? I have
seen him looking over shoulders at the
roulette. Ah, I see you distrust yourself.
Well, there is no disgrace in flying from
the danger."

I have always resented this sort of
superior knowledge of you which some
clergymen affect, much as a doctor says,
"Ah, I know—feel a pain here—exactly—
a sense of fluttering after meals—exactly
so." This rather nettled me. I had heard,
too, he was rather sarcastic, and was said
to know the world. Then he didn't know
me. Afraid to trust myself! I might have
been afraid to trust him, but not myself.

He went away. I was hardly inclined
to accept what he said about the Bishop of
Gravesend or the apostolic Lord Calborough.
Still he spoke with authority and
with an air of circumstance. What was
that pattering on the glass overhead? Rain,
rain coming down in pailfuls. There is a
general sauve qui peut from the gardens.
They come rushing up the steps, eager,
laughing, chattering like monkeys—creatures
which, in other respects, some of the
men resemble. All, of course, ascend and go
pouring into the cave. The bountiful rain,
here, is unconsciously one of the faithful
friends and servants of the administration.
They should put him in their gew-gaw
livery—green, gold, and scarlet—in which
they dress up their disguised " bullies," who
prowl about the room, ready to rush up on
the slightest signal of a disturbance. I am
almost alone on the terrace—a place of
which I am getting tired. "Afraid to trust
myself." I can't put that self-sufficient
clergyman's speech out of my head. Thus
it is with some natures: when they leap to
a conclusion, it is always sure to be the
meanest one that can present itself.

After all, I have made no vow, and am
bound by no promise; nor do I, more than
the Bishop of Gravesend or my Lord Calborough,
think it any harm to go through,
those rooms, or even to linger there for
some good object, provided your behaviour
is not to be construed into an endorsement
or approbation of the proceedings. I am
no casuist, and there is a good broad band
of common sense, I flatter myself, running
through my composition. I would not be
tied down, as a weaker mind, by an abstract
adherence to the mere letter of a resolution;
I would look entirely to the spirit; and
therefore, to assert this principle, I rise
from my solitude on the terrace and walk
into the cave. I wish to find Grainger.

Now ready,
THE COMPLETE SET
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TWENTY VOLUMES,

With GENERAL INDEX to the entire work from its
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