to
it. On the mantelpiece were a rosary, a thuribulum, and other tokens of
Catholicism, of which Charles did not know the uses; a missal, ritual,
and some Catholic tracts, lay on the table; and, as he happened to come
on Willis unexpectedly, he found him sitting in a vestment more like a
cassock than a reading-gown, and engaged upon some portion of the
Breviary. Virgil and Sophocles, Herodotus and Cicero seemed, as impure
pagans, to have hid themselves in corners, or flitted away, before the
awful presence of the Ancient Church. Charles had taken upon himself to
protest against some of these singularities, but without success.

On the evening before his departure for the country he had occasion to
go towards Folly Bridge to pay a bill, when he was startled, as he
passed what he had ever taken for a dissenting chapel, to see Willis
come out of it. He hardly could believe he saw correctly; he knew,
indeed, that Willis had been detained in Oxford, as he had been himself;
but what had compelled him to a visit so extraordinary as that which he
had just made, Charles had no means of determining.

"Willis!" he cried, as he stopped.

Willis coloured, and tried to look easy.

"Do come a few paces with me," said Charles. "What in the world has
taken you there? Is it not a dissenting meeting?"

"Dissenting meeting!" cried Willis, surprised and offended in his turn:
"what on earth could make you think I would go to a dissenting meeting?"

"Well, I beg your pardon," said Charles; "I recollect now: it's the
exhibition room. However, _once_ it _was_ a chapel: that's my mistake.
Isn't it what is called 'the Old Methodist Chapel?' I never was there;
they showed there the _Dio-astro-doxon_, so I think they called it."
Charles talked on, to cover his own mistake, for he was ashamed of the
charge he had made.

Willis did not know whether he was in jest or earnest. "Reding," he
said, "don't go on; you offend me."

"Well, what is it?" said Charles.

"You know well enough," answered Willis, "though you wish to annoy me."

"I don't indeed."

"It's the Catholic church," said Willis.

Reding was silent a moment; then he said, "Well, I don't think you have
mended the matter; it _is_ a dissenting meeting, call it what you will,
though not the kind of one I meant."

"What can you mean?" asked Willis.

"Rather, what mean _you_ by going to such places?" retorted Charles;
"why, it is against your oath."

"My oath! what oath?"

"Th