will be forgotten in three days. If you stir the mud yourself, it will
hang about you for months. It is just what they want you to do. They
cannot go on by themselves, and so the subject dies away from them; but if
you write rejoinders they have a contributor working for them for nothing,
and one whose writing will be much more acceptable to their readers than
any that comes from their own anonymous scribes. It is very disagreeable
to be worried like a rat by a dog; but why should you go into the kennel
and unnecessarily put yourself in the way of it?" The Doctor had said
this more than once to clerical friends who were burning with indignation
at something that had been written about them. But now he was burning
himself, and could hardly keep his fingers from pen and ink.

In this emergency he went to Mr. Puddicombe, not, as he said to himself,
for advice, but in order that he might hear what Mr. Puddicombe would have
to say about it. He did not like Mr. Puddicombe, but he believed in
him,--which was more than he quite did with the Bishop. Mr. Puddicombe
would tell him his true thoughts. Mr. Puddicombe would be unpleasant very
likely; but he would be sincere and friendly. So he went to Mr.
Puddicombe. "It seems to me," he said, "almost necessary that I should
answer such allegations as these for the sake of truth."

"You are not responsible for the truth of the 'Broughton Gazette,"' said
Mr. Puddicombe.

"But I am responsible to a certain degree that false reports shall not be
spread abroad as to what is done in my church."

"You can contradict nothing that the newspaper has said."

"It is implied," said the Doctor, "that I allowed Mr. Peacocke to preach
in my church after I knew his marriage was informal."

"There is no such statement in the paragraph," said Mr. Puddicombe, after
attentive reperusal of the article. "The writer has written in a hurry,
as such writers generally do, but has made no statement such as you
presume. Were you to answer him, you could only do so by an elaborate
statement of the exact facts of the case. It can hardly be worth your
while, in defending yourself against the 'Broughton Gazette,' to tell the
whole story in public of Mr. Peacocke's life and fortunes."

"You would pass it over altogether?"

"Certainly I would."

"And so acknowledge the truth of all that the newspaper says."

"I do not know that the paper says anything untrue," said Mr. Puddicombe,
not looking t