d,
'Perhaps it would be as much to the purpose to ask, for what do you take
_me_?'

'For the representative of Messrs. Gray & Graham, the specialists in
matrimonial affairs,' answered the client; and Merton said that he would
be happy if Mr. Warren would enter into the details of his business.

'I am the ex-Mayor of Bulcester,' said Mr. Warren, 'and, as I told you, a
man of principle. My attachment to the Temperance cause'--and he
fingered his blue ribbon--'procured for me the honour of a defeat at the
last general election, but endeared me to the consciences of the
Nonconformist element in the constituency. Yet, sir, I am at this moment
the most unpopular man in Bulcester; but I shall fight it out--I shall
fight it to my latest breath.'

'Is Bulcester, then, such an intemperate constituency? I had understood
that the Nonconformist interest was strong there,' said Merton.

'So it is, sir, so it is; but the interest is now bound to the chariot
wheels of the truckling Toryism of our time--to the sycophants who basely
made vaccination permissive, and paltered with the Conscientious
Objector. These badges, sir'--the client pointed to his own crimson
decorations--'proclaim that I have been vaccinated on _both_ arms, as a
testimony to the immortal though, in Bulcester, maligned discovery of the
great Jenner. Sir, I am hooted in the public streets of my native town,
where Anti-vaccinationism is a frenzy. Mr. Rider Haggard, the author of
_Dr. Therne_, has been burned in effigy for his thrilling and manly
protest to which I owe my own conversion.'

'Then the conversion is relatively recent?' asked Merton.

'It dates since my reading of that powerful argument, sir; that appeal to
reason which overcame my prejudice, for I was a prominent A. V.'

'_Ave_?' asked Merton.

'A. V., sir--Anti-Vaccinationist. A. C. D. A. too, and always,' he added
proudly; but Merton did not think it prudent to ask for further
explanations.

'An A. V. I was, an A. V. I am no longer; and I defy popular clamour,
accompanied by brickbats, to shake my principles.'

'_Justum et tinacem propositi virum_,' murmured Merton, adding, 'All that
is very interesting, but, my dear sir, while I admire the tenacity of
your principles, will you permit me to ask, what has vaccination to do
with the special business of our firm?'

'Why, sir, I have a family, and my eldest son--'

'Does he decline to be vaccinated?' asked Merton, in a sympathetic voic