ough that district, had those eyes. Some
of them needed "reviving" themselves, in quite another sense, before they
got clear out of it. I am speaking now of more than thirty years ago.

"Ah! so us have--so us have," came the response.

"And you carn't get rid of him," continued the speaker.

"Not of oursel's," ejaculated a fervent voice at the end of the room,
"but the Lord will help us."

The old preacher turned on him almost fiercely:--

"But th' Lord woan't," he shouted; "doan't 'ee reckon on that, lad. Ye've
got him an' ye've got ta keep him. Ye carn't get rid of him. Th' Lord
doan't mean 'ee to."

Here there broke forth murmurs of angry disapproval, but the old fellow
went on, unheeding:--

"It arn't good for 'ee to get rid of him. Ye've just got to hug him
tight. Doan't let him go. Hold him fast, and--LAM INTO HIM. I tell 'ee
it's good, healthy Christian exercise."

We had been discussing the subject with reference to our hero. It had
been suggested by Brown as an unhackneyed idea, and one lending itself,
therefore, to comparative freshness of treatment, that our hero should be
a thorough-paced scamp.

Jephson seconded the proposal, for the reason that it would the better
enable us to accomplish artistic work. He was of opinion that we should
be more sure of our ground in drawing a villain than in attempting to
portray a good man.

MacShaughnassy thirded (if I may coin what has often appeared to me to be
a much-needed word) the motion with ardour. He was tired, he said, of
the crystal-hearted, noble-thinking young man of fiction. Besides, it
made bad reading for the "young person." It gave her false ideas, and
made her dissatisfied with mankind as he really is.

And, thereupon, he launched forth and sketched us his idea of a hero,
with reference to whom I can only say that I should not like to meet him
on a dark night.

Brown, our one earnest member, begged us to be reasonable, and reminded
us, not for the first time, and not, perhaps, altogether unnecessarily,
that these meetings were for the purpose of discussing business, not of
talking nonsense.

Thus adjured, we attacked the subject conscientiously.

Brown's idea was that the man should be an out-and-out blackguard, until
about the middle of the book, when some event should transpire that would
have the effect of completely reforming him. This naturally brought the
discussion down to the question with which I have commenced thi