power over him;" and
he still confronted Dr. Kitchens with it, while he kept it out of Dr.
Kitchens' reach.

"Take it away, Mr. Reding, I beseech you," cried Kitchens, still
retreating, while Charles still pressed on him; "take it away, it's too
much. Oh, oh! Spare me, spare me, Mr. Reding!--nehushtan--an idol!--oh,
you young antichrist, you devil!--'tis He, 'tis He--torment!--spare me,
Mr. Reding." And the miserable man began to dance about, still eyeing
the sacred sign, and motioning it from him.

Charles now had victory in his hands: there was, indeed, some difficulty
in steering Kitchens to the door from the place where he had been
sitting, but, that once effected, he opened it with violence, and,
throwing himself on the staircase, he began to jump down two or three
steps at a time, with such forgetfulness of everything but his own
terror, that he came plump upon two persons who, in rivalry of each
other, were in the act of rushing up: and, while he drove one against
the rail, he fairly rolled the other to the bottom.

CHAPTER IX.

Charles threw himself on his chair, burying the Crucifix in his bosom,
quite worn out with his long trial and the sudden exertion in which it
had just now been issuing. When a noise was heard at his door, and
knocks succeeded, he took no farther notice than to plant his feet on
the fender and bury his face in his hands. The summons at first was
apparently from one person only, but his delay in answering it gave time
for the arrival of another; and there was a brisk succession of
alternate knocks from the two, which Charles let take its course. At
length one of the rival candidates for admission, bolder than the other,
slowly opened the door; when the other, who had impetuously scrambled
upstairs after his fall, rushed in before him, crying out, "One word for
the New Jerusalem!" "In charity," said Reding, without changing his
attitude, "in charity, leave me alone. You mean it well, but I don't
want you, sir; I don't indeed. I've had Old Jerusalem here already, and
Jewish Apostles, and Gentile Apostles, and free inquiry, and fancy
religion, and Exeter Hall. What _have_ I done? why can't I die out in
peace? My dear sir, do go! I can't see you; I'm worn out." And he rose
up and advanced towards him. "Call again, dear sir, if you are bent on
talking with me; but, excuse me, I really have had enough of it for one
day. No fault of yours, my dear sir, that you have come the sixth or