‘“I have been informed that you are a writer for the newspapers. Let me hope that you are not one of the Sadducees against whom our Lord warned His disciples. Please read carefully the General Epistle of Jude. If I had the means I should like to see it hung up in all our newspaper offices. Possibly you have met with some of my little tracts. I am not proud of my literary talents. All boasting is unbecoming, and the true humble Christian feels that he is an unprofitable servant after all; but I am constrained to add that with the Lord’s blessing they have been made useful in bringing many who were in darkness and sitting in the valley of the shadow of death into His own marvellous light. Be assured that at the throne of grace this morning I particularly remembered the case of your poor _protégé_, who is much to be pitied. Oh, it grieves me to the heart to see how much we all make of wealth and rank! What is gold but dust and ashes? What are titles but less than the small dust of the balance in the eyes of the Lord?” ‘Well, did Sir Watkin ever hear the story?’ ‘I don’t know. The woman told me she left a note for him at the lodge, of which, however, he took no notice.’ ‘I should think not.’ ‘And once, she says, she tried to stop him; but he was angry and threatened her, and the police took her off. It was at the time of our last show, when Sir Watkin had, as you can remember, a grand party at the Hall. I never saw him in better spirits. It seemed as if he was going to marry a young lady with what he always wanted particularly—a lot of money.’ ‘That’s the case, I fear, with most of us.’ ‘Yes,’ said the other. ‘In this respect we are most of us on an equality. But I must say this for Sir Watkin, that he would not make money, as some people make it nowadays, by feathering his nest at the expense of the public. It is to his credit that he lent his name to no doubtful speculation, though he was often asked to do so. He never was a company promoter.’ ‘Well, but about this woman’s story?’ ‘I tell you as she told it me.’ ‘I know it all,’ said Wentworth, ‘and have known it long. The Colonel, who claims the entailed estate, is in London. Let us go and see him;’ and away they went to hunt him up at a swell military club of which he was a member. The new heir was barely civil. When he heard what they had to say, he replied: ‘I am sure the family are much obliged to you; but look here, Mr. Wentworth, I am not a lawyer, but I am, I trust, a humble Christian. My wife and I have made this subject a matter of prayer. I have taken it in my closet to the Lord. My conscience approves of the course I take. I am in the path of duty. I have the interests of my family to think of. I don’t talk to you as a man of the world. There was a time, I own, when I did belong to that class, but then I knew no better. But I ask you, as a Christian man, how can I act otherwise?’