.

"I come," said George, "to ask you one of the greatest favours a man can
confer upon another; it will take some little time to explain. Are you
at leisure?"

Darrell's brow relaxed.

"Seat yourself in comfort, my dear George. If it be in my power to serve
or to gratify Alban Morley's nephew, it is I who receive a favour."
Darrell thought to himself--"The young man is ambitious--I may aid in
his path towards a See!"

GEORGE MORLEY.--"First let me say that I would consult your intellect
on a matter which habitually attracts and engages mine--that old vexed
question of the origin and uses of Evil, not only in the physical, but
the moral world; it involves problems over which I would ponder for
hours as a boy--on which I wrote essays as a schoolman--on which I
perpetually collect illustrations to fortify my views as a theologian."

"He is writing a book," thought Darrell, enviously; "and a book on such
a subject will last him all his life. Happy man!"

GEORGE MORLEY.--"The Pastor, you know, is frequently consulted by the
suffering and oppressed; frequently called upon to answer that question
in which the scepticism of the humble and the ignorant ordinarily
begins: 'Why am I suffering? Why am I oppressed? Is this the justice of
Providence? Has the Great Father that benign pity, that watchful care
for His children, which you preachers tell us?' Ever intent on deducing
examples from the lives to which the clue has become apparent, must
be the Priest who has to reason with Affliction caused by no apparent
fault; and where, judged by the Canons of Human justice, cloud and
darkness obscure the Divine--still to 'vindicate the ways of God to
man.'"

DARRELL.--"A philosophy that preceded, and will outlive, all other
schools. It is twin-born with the world itself. Go on; though the theme
be inexhaustible, its interest never flags."

GEORGE MORLEY.--"Has it struck you, Mr. Darrell, that few lives have
ever passed under your survey; in which the inexpressible tenderness of
the Omniscient has been more visibly clear than in that of your guest,
William Losely?"

DARRELL (surprised).--"Clear? To me, I confess that if ever there were
an instance in which the Divine tenderness, the Divine justice, which I
can never presume to doubt, was yet undiscernible to my bounded vision,
it is in the instance of the very life you refer to. I see a man of
admirable virtues--of a childlike simplicity of character, which makes
him almost un