still? Why are they to be shut out from all that is beautiful, and
delicate, and winning, and stately?'

'Now perhaps,' said Lancelot, 'you begin to understand what I was
driving at on that night of the revel?'

'It has come home to me lately, sir, bitterly enough. If you knew
what had gone on in me this last fortnight, you would know that I
had cause to curse the state of things which brings a man up a
savage against his will, and cuts him off, as if he were an ape or a
monster, from those for whom the same Lord died, and on whom the
same Spirit rests. Is that God's will, sir? No, it is the devil's
will. "Those whom God hath joined, let no man put asunder."'

Lancelot coloured, for he remembered with how much less reason he
had been lately invoking in his own cause those very words. He was
at a loss for an answer; but seeing, to his relief, that Tregarva
had returned to his usual impassive calm, he forced him to sit down,
and began questioning him as to his own prospects and employment.

About them Tregarva seemed hopeful enough. He had found out a
Wesleyan minister in town who knew him, and had, by his means, after
assisting for a week or two in the London City Mission, got some
similar appointment in a large manufacturing town. Of the state of
things he spoke more sadly than ever. 'The rich cannot guess, sir,
how high ill-feeling is rising in these days. It's not only those
who are outwardly poorest who long for change; the middling people,
sir, the small town shopkeepers especially, are nearly past all
patience. One of the City Mission assured me that he has been
watching them these several years past, and that nothing could beat
their fortitude and industry, and their determination to stand
peaceably by law and order; but yet, this last year or two, things
are growing too bad to bear. Do what they will, they cannot get
their bread; and when a man cannot get that, sir--'

'But what do you think is the reason of it?'

'How should I tell, sir? But if I had to say, I should say this--
just what they say themselves--that there are too many of them. Go
where you will, in town or country, you'll find half-a-dozen shops
struggling for a custom that would only keep up one, and so they're
forced to undersell one another. And when they've got down prices
all they can by fair means, they're forced to get them down lower by
foul--to sand the sugar, and sloe-leave the tea, and