d to be. The best of it is, it's a surprise
visit I'm paying them. They none of them know I'm coming. I simply
said I might be turning up one of these days--before very long."

"They won't be sorry to have you back again, I imagine."

"Sorry?"

He smiled sweetly and was silent for some minutes, evidently
picturing the joy, the ecstasy, of that return. Then, feeling no
doubt that the ice was broken, he launched out into continuous
narrative.

"Going out's all very well," he said, "but it isn't a patch on
coming home. Not but what you can overdo the thing. I knew a man who
was always coming home--seemed as if he couldn't stop away. I don't
know that _his_ people were particularly glad to see him."

"How was that?"

"A bit tired of it, I suppose. You see, they'd given him about nine
distinct starts in life. They were always shipping him off to
foreign parts, with his passage paid and a nice little bit of
capital waiting for him on the other side. And, if you'll believe
me, every blessed time he turned up again, if not by the next
steamer, by the next after that."

"What became of the capital?"

"Oh, _that_ he liquidated. Drank it--see? We've all got our own
particular little foibles, and my friend's was drink."

"I don't wish to appear prejudiced, but I think I should be inclined
myself to call it a sin."

"You may _call_ it a sin. It was the only one he'd got, of any
considerable size. I suppose you'd distinguish between a sin and its
consequences?"

"Most certainly," replied the clergyman unguardedly.

"Well. Then--there were the women----"

"Steady, my friend, that makes two sins."

"No. You can't count it as two. You see, he never spoke to a girl
till he was so blind drunk he couldn't tell whether she was pretty
or ugly. Women were a consequence."

"That only made his sin the greater, sir."

"Ye--es. I reckon it did swell it up some. I said it was a big one.
Still, it's not fair to him to count it as more than one. But then,
what with gambling and putting a bit on here, and backing a friend's
bill there, he managed to make it do duty for half a dozen. He
seemed to turn everything naturally to drink. You may say he drank
his widowed mother's savings, and his father's life insurance; and,
when that was done, he pegged away at his eldest sister's marriage
portion and the money that should have gone for his younger sister's
education. Altogether he reduced 'em pretty considerably. Besides
all that, h