Miss Maitland out of the house. Where was he
to draw the line? Who would be just good enough to live in the same
house with him, and who just not good enough?

Besides, where were these poor girls to go? Was he to drive them from
house to house till they had no place to lie in? It was absurd; his duty
was clear: he would go and see Miss Snow at once, and try if he could not
induce her to change her present mode of life; if he found temptation
becoming too strong for him he would fly then--so he went upstairs with
his Bible under his arm, and a consuming fire in his heart.

He found Miss Snow looking very pretty in a neatly, not to say demurely,
furnished room. I think she had bought an illuminated text or two, and
pinned it up over her fireplace that morning. Ernest was very much
pleased with her, and mechanically placed his Bible upon the table. He
had just opened a timid conversation and was deep in blushes, when a
hurried step came bounding up the stairs as though of one over whom the
force of gravity had little power, and a man burst into the room saying,
"I'm come before my time." It was Towneley.

His face dropped as he caught sight of Ernest. "What, you here,
Pontifex! Well, upon my word!"

I cannot describe the hurried explanations that passed quickly between
the three--enough that in less than a minute Ernest, blushing more
scarlet than ever, slunk off, Bible and all, deeply humiliated as he
contrasted himself and Towneley. Before he had reached the bottom of the
staircase leading to his own room he heard Towneley's hearty laugh
through Miss Snow's door, and cursed the hour that he was born.

Then it flashed upon him that if he could not see Miss Snow he could at
any rate see Miss Maitland. He knew well enough what he wanted now, and
as for the Bible, he pushed it from him to the other end of his table. It
fell over on to the floor, and he kicked it into a corner. It was the
Bible given him at his christening by his affectionate aunt, Elizabeth
Allaby. True, he knew very little of Miss Maitland, but ignorant young
fools in Ernest's state do not reflect or reason closely. Mrs Baxter had
said that Miss Maitland and Miss Snow were birds of a feather, and Mrs
Baxter probably knew better than that old liar, Mrs Jupp. Shakespeare
says:

O Opportunity, thy guilt is great
'Tis thou that execut'st the traitor's treason:
Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the