d the number of the
_Nineteenth Century_ which contained his papers. Nor had he the heart to
ask her to read them.

Murray Edwardes had received Elsmere, on his first appearance in R----,
with a cordiality and a helpfulness of the most self-effacing kind.
Robert had begun with assuring his new friend that he saw no chance, at
any rate for the present, of his formally joining the Unitarians.

'I have not the heart to pledge myself again just yet! And I own I look
rather for a combination from many sides than for the development of any
now existing sect. But supposing,' he added, smiling, 'supposing I do in
time set up a congregation and a service of my own, is there really room
for you and me? Should I not be infringing on a work I respect a great
deal too much for anything of the sort?'

Edwardes laughed the notion to scorn.

The parish, as a whole, contained 20,000 persons. The existing churches,
which, with the exception of St. Wilfrid's, were miserably attended,
provided accommodation at the outside for 3000. His own chapel held 400,
and was about half full.

'You and I may drop our lives here,' he said, his pleasant friendliness
darkened for a moment by the look of melancholy which London work seems
to develop even in the most buoyant of men, 'and only a few hundred
persons, at the most, be ever the wiser. Begin with us--then make your
own circle.'

And he forthwith carried off his visitor to the point from which, as it
seemed to him, Elsmere's work might start, viz. a lecture-room half a
mile from his own chapel, where two helpers of his had just established
an independent venture.

Murray Edwardes had at the time an interesting and miscellaneous staff
of lay-curates. He asked no questions as to religious opinions, but in
general the men who volunteered under him--civil servants, a young
doctor, a briefless barrister or two--were men who had drifted from
received beliefs, and found a pleasure and freedom in working for and
with him they could hardly have found elsewhere. The two who had planted
their outpost in what seemed to them a particularly promising corner of
the district were men of whom Edwardes knew personally little. 'I have
really not much concern with what they do,' he explained to Elsmere,
'except that they get a small share of our funds. But I know they want
help, and if they will take you in, I think you will make something of
it.'

After a tramp through the muddy winter streets, they came