their homes or their
friends in the country. It was assumed in the city that the domestics
had been discharged upon a sudden discovery of general and unpardonable
peculation; for, almost everybody being guilty of it himself, petty
dishonesty was the crime most easily credited and least easily passed
over in Gwyntystorm.

Now that same day was Religion day, and not a few of the clergy, always
glad to seize on any passing event to give interest to the dull and
monotonic grind of their intellectual machines, made this remarkable
one the ground of discourse to their congregations. More especially
than the rest, the first priest of the great temple where was the royal
pew, judged himself, from his relation to the palace, called upon to
'improve the occasion', for they talked ever about improvement at
Gwyntystorm, all the time they were going down hill with a rush.

The book which had, of late years, come to be considered the most
sacred, was called The Book of Nations, and consisted of proverbs, and
history traced through custom: from it the first priest chose his text;
and his text was, 'Honesty Is the Best Policy.' He was considered a
very eloquent man, but I can offer only a few of the larger bones of
his sermon.

The main proof of the verity of their religion, he said, was that
things always went well with those who profess it; and its first
fundamental principle, grounded in inborn invariable instinct, was,
that every One should take care of that One. This was the first duty
of Man. If every one would but obey this law, number one, then would
every one be perfectly cared for--one being always equal to one. But
the faculty of care was in excess of need, and all that overflowed, and
would otherwise run to waste, ought to be gently turned in the
direction of one's neighbour, seeing that this also wrought for the
fulfilling of the law, inasmuch as the reaction of excess so directed
was upon the director of the same, to the comfort, that is, and
well-being of the original self. To be just and friendly was to build
the warmest and safest of all nests, and to be kind and loving was to
line it with the softest of all furs and feathers, for the one
precious, comfort-loving self there to lie, revelling in downiest
bliss. One of the laws therefore most binding upon men because of its
relation to the first and greatest of all duties, was embodied in the
Proverb he had just read; and what stronger proof of its wisdom and