t is pure Calvinistic election, my dear sir, and, by your leave, a
very heretical position for a churchman to support," replied the Count.
"Nor can I see how it removes the difficulty. I was not consulted as to
my character; I might have chosen to be Lelio; I might have chosen to be
yourself; I might even have preferred to figure in a different romance,
or not to enter into the world of literature at all. And am I to be
blamed or hated, because some one else wilfully and inhumanely made me
what I am, and has continued ever since to encourage me in what are
called my vices? You may say what you please, my dear sir, but if that
is the case, I had rather be a telegram from the seat of war than a
reasonable and conscious character in a romance; nay, and I have a
perfect right to repudiate, loathe, curse, and utterly condemn the
ruffian who calls himself the author."

"You have, as you say, a perfect right," replied the Jesuit; "and I am
convinced that it will not affect him in the least."

"He shall have one slave the fewer for me," added the Count. "I discard
my allegiance once for all."

"As you please," concluded the other; "but at least be ready, for I
perceive we are about to enter on the scene."

And, indeed, just at that moment, Chapter XXXIV. being completed,
Chapter XXXV., "The Count's Chastisement," began to appear in the
columns of the newspaper.

IV. SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY.--(1) A little society is needful to show a man
his failings; for if he lives entirely by himself, he has no occasion to
fall, and like a soldier in time of peace, becomes both weak and vain.
But a little solitude must be used, or we grow content with current
virtues and forget the ideal. In society we lose scrupulous brightness
of honour; in solitude we lose the courage necessary to face our own
imperfections. (2) As a question of pleasure, after a man has reached a
certain age, I can hardly perceive much room to choose between them:
each is in a way delightful, and each will please best after an
experience of the other. (3) But solitude for its own sake should surely
never be preferred. We are bound by the strongest obligations to busy
ourselves amid the world of men, if it be only to crack jokes. The
finest trait in the character of St. Paul was his readiness to be damned
for the salvation of anybody else. And surely we should all endure a
little weariness to make one face look brighter or one hour go more
pleasantly in this mixed worl