y profession!"

"Why, what on earth have you to do but to abhor and flee me?" asked
he, with a laugh, though by no means a merry one.

"Would your having a headache be a reason for the medical man's
running away from you, or coming to visit you?"

"Ah, but this, you know, is my 'fault,' and my 'crime,' and my
'sin.' Eh?" and he laughed again.

"Would the doctor visit you the less, because it was your own fault
that your head ached?"

"Ah, but suppose I professed openly no faith in his powers of
curing, and had a great hankering after unaccredited Homoeopathies,
like Mr. Windrush's; would not that be a fair cause for interdiction
from fire and water, sacraments and Christian burial?"

"Come, come, Templeton," I said; "you shall not thus jest away
serious thoughts with an old friend. I know you are ill at ease.
Why not talk over the matter with me fairly and soberly? How do you
know till you have tried, whether I can help you or not?"

"Because I know that your arguments will have no force with me; they
will demand of me or assume in me, certain faculties, sentiments,
notions, experiences-call them what you like; I am beginning to
suspect sometimes with Cabanis that they are 'a product of the small
intestines'-which I never have had, and never could make myself
have, and now don't care whether I have them or not."

"On my honour, I will address you only as what you are, and know
yourself to be. But what are these faculties, so strangely beyond
my friend Templeton's reach? He used to be distinguished at college
for a very clear head, and a very kind heart, and the nicest sense
of honour which I ever saw in living man; and I have not heard that
they have failed him since he became Templeton of Templeton. And as
for his Churchmanship, were not the county papers ringing last month
with the accounts of the beautiful new church which he had built,
and the stained glass which he brought from Belgium, and the marble
font which he brought from Italy; and how he had even given for an
altar-piece his own pet Luini, the gem of Templeton House?"

"Effeminate picture!" he said. "It was part and parcel of the idea-
"

Before I could ask him what he meant, he looked up suddenly at me,
with deep sadness on his usually nonchalant face.

"Well, my dear fellow, I suppose I must tell you all, as I have told
you so much without your shaking the dust off your feet against me,
and consulting Bradshaw for the earliest train t