Singelsby was
that the other's words seemed to find a sort of echo in his own mind.

At last he proposed a walk, and the other, taking his hat and stick,
accompanied him for a little distance upon the way. The talk still clung
much to the same stem to which it had adhered all along.

"It is a very strange thing," said the reverend gentleman, "but a great
many people who have come to this town since I came hither have left it
again to ascend, as I have been told, to a higher state. I think there
must have been some mistake, for I cannot see how it is possible--and in
fact our teachings distinctly tell us that it is impossible--for one to
ascend to a higher state without having accepted the new truths of the
new order of things."

Colonel Singelsby did not make answer. He was not only growing tired of
the subject itself, but of his old friend as well.

They were at that moment crossing an angle of a small park shaded by
thin, spindly trees. As the Colonel looked up he saw three men and a
woman approaching along the same path and under the flickering shadows.
Two of the men walked a little in advance, the other walked with the
woman. There was something familiar about two of the group, and Colonel
Singelsby pointed at them with his finger.

"Who are they?" said he. "I am sure there is somebody I know."

The other adjusted his glasses and looked. "I do not know," said he,
"except that one of the men is a new-comer. We somehow grow to know who
are new-comers by the time we have lived here a little while."

"Dear me!" cried Colonel Singelsby, stopping abruptly, "I know that man.
I did not know that he had come here too. I wonder where they are
going?"

"I think," said the reverend gentleman, dryly--"I think that this is
one of those cases of which I just spoke to you. I judge from the
general appearance of the party that they are about to ascend, as they
call it here, to a higher state."

"That is impossible!" said Colonel Singelsby. "That man is a poor
wretched creature whom I have helped with charity again and again, it
cannot be that he is to go to a higher state, for he is not fit for it.
If he is to be taken anywhere, it must be to punishment."

The other shrugged his shoulders and said nothing, he had seen such
cases too often during his sojourn to be deceived.

The little party had now come close to the two, and Colonel Singelsby
stepped forward with all his old-time frank kindness of manner. "Why,
Sandy,"