d gentleman, dressed in clerical
attire, entered. He had a broad, bearded face, a dull eye, and an
indescribably average aspect.

"The devil! Mr John Duggs himself," thought Mr Bunker, hastily adopting a
more conventional attitude and feeling for his button-holes.

"Ah--er--Mr Butler, I believe?" said the stranger, with an apologetic air.

"The same," replied Mr Bunker, smiling affably.

"I," continued his visitor, advancing with more confidence, "am Mr Duggs.
I am dwelling at present in the apartment immediately above you, and
hearing of the arrival of a fellow-clergyman, through my worthy friend Mrs
Gabbon, I have taken the liberty of calling. She gave me to understand
that you were not undesirous of making my acquaintance, Mr Butler."

"The deuce, she did!" thought Mr Butler. Aloud he answered most politely,
"I am honoured, Mr Duggs. Won't you sit down?"

First casting a wary eye upon a chair, Mr Duggs seated himself carefully
on the edge of it.

"It is quite evident," thought Mr Bunker, "that he has spotted something
wrong. I believe a bobby would have been safer after all."

He assumed the longest face he could draw, and remarked sententiously,
"The weather has been unpleasantly cold of late, Mr Duggs."

He flattered himself that his guest seemed instantly more at his ease.
Certainly he replied with as much cordiality as a man with such a dull eye
could be supposed to display.

"It has, Mr Butler; in fact I have suffered from a chill for some weeks.
Ahem!"

"Have something to drink," suggested Mr Bunker, sympathetically. "I'm
trying a little whisky myself, as a cure for cold."

"I--ah--I am sorry. I do not touch spirits."

"I, on the contrary, am glad to hear it. Too few of our clergymen nowadays
support the cause of temperance by example."

Mr Bunker felt a little natural pride in this happily expressed sentiment,
but his visitor merely turned his cold eye on the whisky bottle, and
breathed heavily.

"Confound him!" he thought; "I'll give him something to snort at if he is
going to conduct himself like this."

"Have a cigar?" he asked aloud.

Mr Duggs seemed to regard the cigar-box a little less unkindly than the
whisky bottle; but after a careful look at it he replied, "I am afraid
they seem a little too strong for me. I am a light smoker, Mr Butler."

"Really," smiled Mr Bunker; "so many virtues in one room reminds me of the
virgins of Gomorrah."

"I beg your pardon? The what?" asked Mr Du