ardian.

"You are going to this entertainment which Mr. and Mrs. Toyner are
giving?" The cordiality of his common-place remark had a certain
restraint in it.

"You are going also?"

"No; it is not a house at which I visit. I have lived here for
twenty-five years, and of course I have known Mr. Toyner more or less
all that time. I do not know how I shall be able to work on the same
Council with him; but we shall see. We, who believe in the truth of
religion, must hold our own if we can."

I was to be the master of the new schools. I pleased him with my assent.

"I am rather sorry," he continued, "to tell the truth, that you should
begin your social life in Fentown by visiting Mr. Toyner; but of course
this afternoon it is merely a public reception, and after a time you
will be able to judge for yourself. I do not hesitate to say that I
consider his influence, especially with the young people, of a most
dangerous kind. For a long time, you know, he and his wife were quite
ostracised--not so much because of their low origin as because of their
religious opinions. But of late years even good Christians appear
disposed to be friendly with them. Money, you know--money carries all
things before it."

"Yes, that is too often the case."

"Well, I don't say that Toyner doesn't hold up a certain standard of
morality among the young men of the place, but it's a pretty low one;
and he has them all under his influence. There isn't a young fellow that
walks these streets, whether the son of clergyman or beggar, who is not
free to go to that man's house every evening and have the run of his
rooms and his books. And Toyner and his wife will sit down and play
cards with them; or they'll get in a lot of girls, and have a dance, or
theatricals,--the thin end of the wedge, you know, the thin end of the
wedge! And all the young men go to his house, except a few that we've
got in our Christian Association."

The speaker was stricter in his views than I saw cause to be; but then,
I knew something of his life; he was giving it day by day to save the
men of whom he was talking. He had a better right than I to know what
was best for them.

"When you have a thorough-going man of the world," he said, "every one
knows what that means, and there's not so much harm done. But this Mr.
Toyner is always talking about God, and using his influence to make
people pray to God. Such men are not ready to pray until they are
prepared to give up the