th naked
feet in Nazareth, and feel within his heart that he was resting on
holy ground.

Sir Lionel did not care a straw for Bethsaida or Chorazin--not a
straw even for Nazareth. For many reasons he wished to be well with
his son. In the first place, a man whose bill is paid for him always
makes some concession to the man who pays it. He should do so, at
any rate; and on this point Sir Lionel was willing to be just. And
then he had ulterior views, which made it very necessary that George
should like him. In this respect he had hitherto played his cards
well--well, with the exception of that Jerusalem bill. He had made
his society very pleasant to his son, had done much towards gaining
the young man's heart, and was well inclined to do more--anything,
indeed, short of putting himself to real personal inconvenience. We
may perhaps add, without doing too much violence to Sir Lionel's
established character, that he himself really liked his son.

All this for some days carried him hither and thither, if not with
patience, at any rate with perseverance. He went to spots which
he was told had a world-wide celebrity, of the names of which he
had but a bare distant remembrance, and which he found to be arid,
comfortless, and uninteresting. Gibeon he did endure, and Shiloh, and
Sichem; Gilgal, also, and Carmel. But there he broke down: he could
not, he said, justify it to himself to be absent longer from his
official duties. He found that he was near Beyrout: he could ride
thither in two days, avoiding Damascus altogether. The cookery at
Mount Carmel did not add to his love of the Holy Land. He found
himself to be not very well. He laughingly reminded George that
there was a difference between twenty-three and sixty; and ended by
declining altogether to go backwards towards the Sea of Galilee. If
George could only be induced to think that he had seen enough of
these regions, his father would be so delighted to have his company
direct from Beyrout to Constantinople!

George, however, was inexorable about Nazareth: and so they parted,
agreeing that they would meet again at Constantinople. We need
not closely follow either on his journey. Sir Lionel, having had
everything paid for him up to the moment of their separation,
arrived--let us hope with a full purse--at the Bosphorus. George,
when left to himself, travelled more slowly, and thought much of
these holy places--much also of his love. He could have found it in
his heart