r. Perhaps Pryer was going to
break to him some bad news about his speculations.

CHAPTER LX

Ernest now went home and occupied himself till luncheon with studying
Dean Alford's notes upon the various Evangelistic records of the
Resurrection, doing as Mr Shaw had told him, and trying to find out not
that they were all accurate, but whether they were all accurate or no. He
did not care which result he should arrive at, but he was resolved that
he would reach one or the other. When he had finished Dean Alford's
notes he found them come to this, namely, that no one yet had succeeded
in bringing the four accounts into tolerable harmony with each other, and
that the Dean, seeing no chance of succeeding better than his
predecessors had done, recommended that the whole story should be taken
on trust--and this Ernest was not prepared to do.

He got his luncheon, went out for a long walk, and returned to dinner at
half past six. While Mrs Jupp was getting him his dinner--a steak and a
pint of stout--she told him that Miss Snow would be very happy to see him
in about an hour's time. This disconcerted him, for his mind was too
unsettled for him to wish to convert anyone just then. He reflected a
little, and found that, in spite of the sudden shock to his opinions, he
was being irresistibly drawn to pay the visit as though nothing had
happened. It would not look well for him not to go, for he was known to
be in the house. He ought not to be in too great a hurry to change his
opinions on such a matter as the evidence for Christ's Resurrection all
of a sudden--besides he need not talk to Miss Snow about this subject to-
day--there were other things he might talk about. What other things?
Ernest felt his heart beat fast and fiercely, and an inward monitor
warned him that he was thinking of anything rather than of Miss Snow's
soul.

What should he do? Fly, fly, fly--it was the only safety. But would
Christ have fled? Even though Christ had not died and risen from the
dead there could be no question that He was the model whose example we
were bound to follow. Christ would not have fled from Miss Snow; he was
sure of that, for He went about more especially with prostitutes and
disreputable people. Now, as then, it was the business of the true
Christian to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. It would
be inconvenient to him to change his lodgings, and he could not ask Mrs
Jupp to turn Miss Snow and