a long
story, and the affair happened abroad.--I ought to know something of the
English people,' he continued, after a moment's pause; 'I have been many
years amongst them, labouring in the cause of the Church.'

'Your See must have had great confidence in your powers when it selected
you to labour for it in these parts,' said I.

'They chose me,' said the man in black, 'principally because, being of
British extraction and education, I could speak the English language and
bear a glass of something strong. It is the opinion of my See that it
would hardly do to send a missionary into a country like this who is not
well versed in English--a country where, they think, so far from
understanding any language besides his own, scarcely one individual in
ten speaks his own intelligibly; or an ascetic person where, as they say,
high and low, male and female, are, at some period of their lives, fond
of a renovating glass, as it is styled--in other words, of tippling.'

'Your See appears to entertain a very strange opinion of the English,'
said I.

'Not altogether an unjust one,' said the man in black, lifting the glass
to his mouth.

[Picture: The man in black]

'Well,' said I, 'it is certainly very kind on its part to wish to bring
back such a set of beings beneath its wing.'

'Why, as to the kindness of my See,' said the man in black, 'I have not
much to say; my See has generally in what it does a tolerably good
motive; these heretics possess in plenty what my See has a great
hankering for, and can turn to a good account--money!'

'The Founder of the Christian religion cared nothing for money,' said I.

'What have we to do with what the Founder of the Christian religion cared
for?' said the man in black. 'How could our temples be built and our
priests supported without money? But you are unwise to reproach us with
a desire of obtaining money; you forget that your own Church, if the
Church of England be your own Church, as I suppose it is from the
willingness which you displayed in the public-house to fight for it, is
equally avaricious; look at your greedy Bishops and your corpulent
Rectors--do they imitate Christ in His disregard for money? You might as
well tell me that they imitate Christ in His meekness and humility.'

'Well,' said I, 'whatever their faults may be, you can't say that they go
to Rome for money.'

The man in black made no direct answer, but appeared by the motion of his