g folk, whose best interests
he professes to have at heart. I am assured (and the witness of my own
eyes in one instance warrants me in giving credit to the charge) that
he constantly enters public-houses, taverns, even low dram-shops, to
satisfy his thirst for strong liquor in the very face of day, before
the eyes of any one who may happen to be passing. This is simply
abominable If an honourable man has one duty--one social duty--more
incumbent upon him than another, it is to refrain from setting an
example of intemperance."

Serena had listened thus far with a look of growing irritation. At
length she could resist no longer the impulse to speak out.

"But surely, Mr. Vialls, you don't charge Mr. Quarrier with
intemperance?"

"I do, Miss Mumbray," replied the clergyman, sternly. "Intemperance
does not necessarily imply drunkenness. It is intemperate to enter
public-houses at all hours and in all places, even if the liquor
partaken of has no obvious effect upon the gait or speech of the
drinker. I maintain"----

"Mr. Quarrier does not go about as you would have us believe."

"Serena!" interfered her mother. "Do you contradict Mr. Vialls?"

"Yes, mother, I do, and every one ought to who _knows_ that he is
exaggerating. I have heard this calumny before, and I have been told
how it has arisen. Mr. Quarrier takes a glass of beer when he is having
a long country walk; and why he shouldn't quench his thirst I'm sure I
can't understand."

"Miss Mumbray," said the clergyman, glaring at her, yet affecting
forbearance, "you seem to forget that our cottagers are not so
inhospitable as to refuse a glass of water to the weary pedestrian who
knocks at their door."

"I don't forget it, Mr. Vialls," replied Serena, who was trembling at
her own boldness, but found a pleasure in persevering. "And I know very
well what sort of water one generally gets at cottages about here. I
remember the family at Rickstead that died one after another of their
temperance beverage."

"Forgive me! That is not at all to the point. Granting that the quality
of the water is suspicious, are there not pleasant little shops where
lemonade can be obtained? But no; it is _not_ merely to quench a
natural thirst that Mr. Quarrier has recourse to those pestilent
vendors of poison; the drinking of strong liquor has become a
tyrant-habit with him."

"I deny it, Mr. Vialls!" exclaimed the girl, almost angrily. (Mrs.
Mumbray in vain tried to interpose, an