The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian, by Hall Caine

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Title: The Christian
A Story

Author: Hall Caine

Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8407]
Posting Date: July 16, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTIAN ***

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Berger and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE CHRISTIAN

_A STORY_

By Hall Caine

_Author of The Manxman_

* * * * *

_The period of the story is the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
No particular years are intended. The time occupied by the incidents of
the first Book is about six months, of the Second Book about six months,
of the Third Book about six months; then there is an interval of half a
year, and the time occupied by the incidents of the Fourth Book is about
six weeks. An Author's Note will be found at the end._

* * * * *

THE CHRISTIAN.

FIRST BOOK. _THE OUTER WORLD_.

I.

On the morning of the 9th of May, 18--, three persons important to this
story stood among the passengers on the deck of the Isle of Man steamship
_Tynwald_ as she lay by the pier at Douglas getting up steam for the
passage to Liverpool. One of these was an old clergyman of seventy, with
a sweet, mellow, childlike face; another was a young man of thirty, also
a clergyman; the third was a girl of twenty. The older clergyman wore a
white neckcloth about his throat, and was dressed in rather threadbare
black of a cut that had been more common twenty years before; the younger
clergyman wore a Roman collar, a long clerical coat, and a stiff,
broad-brimmed hat with a cord and tassel. They stood amidships, and the
captain, coming out of his room to mount the bridge, saluted them as he
passed.

"Good morning, Mr. Storm."

The young clergyman returned the salutation with a slight bow and the
lifting of his hat.

"Morning to you, Parson Quayle."

The old clergyman answered cheerily, "Oh, good morning, captain; good
morning."

There was the usual inquiry about the weather outside, and drawing up to
a