A GRAPE FROM A THORN.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A DOUBLE GAME.

It is the custom of the clergy to divide their congregations into the Evil and the Good, which is very convenient, and simplifies a somewhat abstruse matter exceedingly; but, unhappily, the Good-that is, the folks without evil in them (except that little modicum of original sin, which, in view of the immense amount of peccadilloes imported by mankind since that first cargo, may be disregarded)— are so very few that it is hardly worth while to address them from the pulpit at all, and more especially as they stand in no need of such exhortation. In the case of the vast

majority even of church-goers, if the evil in them were represented by a black framework, as in a mourning envelope, we should see them, I am afraid, with a pretty broad border; only you and I, and half a dozen others of this congregation, perhaps, would be represented by what stationers call the mitigated grief size 'perhaps a quarter of an inch. I suspect some people would exhibit scarcely enough of white envelope to write their direction upon. To this last class the moralist, if not the divine, would undoubtedly have relegated the Hon. George Emilius Josceline, and especially if he Icould have looked into his mind after that morning's interview with Mr. Felspar, which had seemed to touch him to the very core, whereas what was uppermost in his thoughts, as he toiled up the hill towards his hotel, was the reflection that he had gained his end, and, to a certain extent, even outwitted his late companion. The artist had given his word not to put any finishing touches to Ella's drawing; and without them,' reflected this unnatural father, 'I should think even this two