r from a
surfeit--an apoplexy--of money. An eager, wakeful, nervous American
plutocrat, thinks nothing of giving a large fortune to endow a hospital
or an institute for some petty Western town. Are we meaner or more
griping than the Americans? Never. Our men only want to know. Here is a
work for you. I do not call our fishermen stainless; they are rude, they
are stormy in passions, they are lacking in self-control; but they are
worth helping. It is not fitting that these lost children of
civilization should draw their breath in pain. Help us to heal their
bodies, and maybe you will see a day when their strength will be your
succour, and when their rescued souls shall be made in a glory of good
deeds and manly righteousness." There was no mistake about the effect
of this simple speech. I cannot give the effect of the timbre of
Ferrier's voice, but his virility, his majestic seriousness, just
tinctured by acuteness, and his thrill of half-restrained passion, all
told heavily.

Slowly the party dispersed to the tents on the lawn, and many were the
languidly curious inquiries made about the strange young professor who
had turned missionary. The man himself was captured by Lady Glendower,
who explained her woe at the perfidious behaviour of Myung Yang, the
most interesting convert ever seen, who was now in penal servitude for
exercising his imitative skill on my lady's signature. "And I expended a
fortune, Mr. Ferrier, on those ungrateful people. Is it not enough to
make one misanthropic?"

"Your ladyship must begin again on a new line."

"After hearing you, and all about those charmingly horrid accidents, I
am almost tempted to take your advice."

Ferrier was invited to address at least a dozen more drawing-room
meetings, and Sir John Rooby grunted, "Young man! I'm ready to put a set
of engines in that boat of Cassall's, and you can have so much the more
money for her maintenance."

Before Ferrier went to Yarmouth he heard that Fullerton was astounded at
the number of financial sheep who had followed the plucky bell-wether.
Said he, "We shall never turn our backs now. There will be three
hospital cruisers on the stocks before the autumn, and your steamer will
serve to supply them when we have them at work. If I were not fixed on
God's firm ground, I should think I had passed away and was dreaming
blissfully."

Oh! the fury and hurry around that steamer! Men were toiling without
cessation during all night and all day