ss. You might know in a moment. Nothing kills like
that. His poor father died of it, thirty years agone. And the better
people are, the more they get it."

CHAPTER XXIX

AT THE PUMP

This blow was so sharp and heavy that I lost for the moment all power to
go on. The sense of ill fortune fell upon me, as it falls upon stronger
people, when a sudden gleam of hope, breaking through long troubles,
mysteriously fades away.

Even the pleasure of indulging in the gloom of evil luck was a thing
to be ashamed of now, when I thought of that good man's family thus,
without a moment's warning, robbed of love and hope and happiness. But
Mrs. Strouss, who often brooded on predestination, imbittered all my
thoughts by saying, or rather conveying without words, that my poor
fathers taint of some Divine ill-will had re-appeared, and even killed
his banker.

Betsy held most Low-Church views, by nature being a Dissenter. She
called herself a Baptist, and in some strange way had stopped me thus
from ever having been baptized. I do not understand these things, and
the battles fought about them; but knowing that my father was a member
of the English Church, I resolved to be the same, and told Betsy that
she ought not to set up against her master's doctrine. Then she herself
became ashamed of trying to convert me, not only because of my ignorance
(which made argument like shooting into the sea), but chiefly because
she could mention no one of title with such theology.

This settled the question at once; and remembering (to my shame) what
opinions I had held even of Suan Isco, while being in the very same
predicament myself, reflecting also what Uncle Sam and Firm would have
thought of me, had they known it, I anticipated the Major and his dinner
party by going to a quiet ancient clergyman, who examined me, and being
satisfied with little, took me to an old City church of deep and damp
retirement. And here, with a great din of traffic outside, and a mildewy
depth of repose within, I was presented by certain sponsors (the clerk
and his wife and his wife's sister), and heard good words, and hope to
keep the impression, both outward and inward, gently made upon me.

I need not say that I kept, and now received with authority, my old
name; though the clerk prefixed an aspirate to it, and indulged in two
syllables only. But the ancient parson knew its meaning, and looked at
me with curiosity; yet, being a gentleman of the old school,