e to say, `Well, I've a good opinion of
him myself, and he's honest and all right, for anything that I know to
the contrary; but I should like you to know that John Styles don't think
him over honest, and Anthony Birks told me the other day as he wouldn't
trust him further than he could see him; and though Styles and Birks
aren't no friends of mine, still they're very respectable men, and
highly thought of by some. But, for all that, I hope you'll employ my
mate, for I've a very high opinion of him myself on the whole'? If I
were to give you such a character of my mate, would it dispose you to
engage him? I fancy not. But this is just how some of these gents
recommends the Scriptures in their lectures and their books. It's my
honest conviction, doctor, they're not loyal believers in God's truth
themselves, or they'd never defend it in this left-handed way."

"I'm afraid what you say is too true," said Dr Prosser; "and I shall
not forget our conversation on this subject.--What a lovely day!" he
continued, turning to Mr Maltby. "What a contrast to the day on which
I last passed through Crossbourne."

"When was that?" asked his friend; "I did not know that you had been in
this neighbourhood before."

"Oh, I was only passing through by rail on my way to town. Let me see;
I was coming from the north, and passed your station late at night on
the 23rd of last December."

"Ah, Thomas!" said the vicar, "that is a night _we_ cannot forget.--Poor
Joe Wright! His was a terrible end indeed."

"What! A man killed on the line that night near Crossbourne?" said the
doctor. "I remember having my attention drawn to it more particularly,
because it must have happened a few minutes after I passed over the very
same spot; so I gathered from the account of the accident in the
_Times_."

"You must have been going up to London then by the express," said his
friend.

"Yes. And I've special cause to remember the night--it was dismal,
rainy, and chilly. The train was very full, and I was a little anxious
about my luggage, as it contained some articles of considerable value.
There was no room for it in the luggage vans, which were full when I
joined the train, and I had to speak rather sharply to a porter who I
suspect was not over sober. He jerked up my things very roughly on to
the top of the first-class carriage into which I got, and was going to
leave one of the most important articles on the platform, if I had not
jumped