not exhaust yourself
altogether. Mr. Emilius is to come to you this afternoon."

"Mr. Emilius!" said Greystock.

"Yes;--the clergyman. Don't you remember him at Portray? A dark man
with eyes close together! You used to be very wicked, and say that
he was once a Jew-boy in the streets." Lizzie, as she spoke of her
spiritual guide, was evidently not desirous of doing him much honour.

"I remember him well enough. He made sheep's eyes at Miss Macnulty,
and drank a great deal of wine at dinner."

"Poor Macnulty! I don't believe a word about the wine; and as for
Macnulty, I don't see why she should not be converted as well as
another. He is coming here to read to me. I hope you don't object."

"Not in the least;--if you like it."

"One does have solemn thoughts sometimes, Frank,--especially when one
is ill."

"Oh, yes. Well or ill, one does have solemn thoughts;--ghosts, as
it were, which will appear. But is Mr. Emilius good at laying such
apparitions?"

"He is a clergyman, Mr. Greystock," said Mrs. Carbuncle, with
something of rebuke in her voice.

"So they tell me. I was not present at his ordination, but I daresay
it was done according to rule. When one reflects what a deal of harm
a bishop may do, one wishes that there was some surer way of getting
bishops."

"Do you know anything against Mr. Emilius?" asked Lizzie.

"Nothing at all but his looks, and manners, and voice,--unless it be
that he preaches popular sermons, and drinks too much wine, and makes
sheep's eyes at Miss Macnulty. Look after your silver spoons, Mrs.
Carbuncle,--if the last thieves have left you any. You were asking
after the fate of your diamonds, Lizzie. Perhaps they will endow a
Protestant church in Mr. Emilius's native land."

Mr. Emilius did come and read to Lady Eustace that afternoon. A
clergyman is as privileged to enter the bedroom of a sick lady as is
a doctor or a cousin. There was another clean cap, and another laced
handkerchief, and on this occasion a little shawl over Lizzie's
shoulders. Mr. Emilius first said a prayer, kneeling at Lizzie's
bedside; then he read a chapter in the Bible;--and after that he read
the first half of the fourth canto of Childe Harold so well, that
Lizzie felt for the moment that after all, poetry was life and life
was poetry.

CHAPTER LIV

"I Suppose I May Say a Word"

The second robbery to which Lady Eustace had been subjected by no
means decreased the interest which was attached t