y has at any rate been told, and they who feel that on this account
all hope of interest is at an end had better put down the book.

Part II.

CHAPTER IV.

THE DOCTOR ASKS HIS QUESTION.

THE Doctor, instigated by the Bishop, had determined to ask some questions
of Mr. Peacocke as to his American life. The promise had been given at
the Palace, and the Doctor, as he returned home, repented himself in that
he had made it. His lordship was a gossip, as bad as an old woman, as bad
as Mrs. Stantiloup, and wanted to know things in which a man should feel
no interest. So said the Doctor to himself. What was it to him, the
Bishop, or to him, the Doctor, what Mr. Peacocke had been doing in
America? The man's scholarship was patent, his morals were unexceptional,
his capacity for preaching undoubted, his peculiar fitness for his place
at Bowick unquestionable. Who had a right to know more? That the man had
been properly educated at Oxford, and properly ordained on entering his
Fellowship, was doubted by no man. Even if there had been some temporary
backslidings in America,--which might be possible, for which of us have
not backslided at some time of our life?--why should they be raked up?
There was an uncharitableness in such a proceeding altogether opposed to
the Doctor's view of life. He hated severity. It may almost be said that
he hated that state of perfection which would require no pardon. He was
thoroughly human, quite content with his own present position,
anticipating no millennium for the future of the world, and probably, in
his heart, looking forward to heaven as simply the better alternative when
the happiness of this world should be at an end. He himself was in no
respect a wicked man, and yet a little wickedness was not distasteful to
him.

And he was angry with himself in that he had made such a promise. It had
been a rule of life with him never to take advice. The Bishop had his
powers, within which he, as Rector of Bowick, would certainly obey the
Bishop; but it had been his theory to oppose his Bishop, almost more
readily than any one else, should the Bishop attempt to exceed his power.
The Bishop had done so in giving this advice, and yet he had promised. He
was angry with himself, but did not on that account think that the promise
should be evaded. Oh no! Having said that he would do it, he would do
it. And having said that he would do it, the sooner that he did it the
better. When