'St. Wulstan's is better filled than formerly,' said Robert. 'The pew system is the chief enemy there; but even without that, it would not hold a tenth part of the Whittingtonian population, would they come to it, which they will not. The Church must come to them, and with special services at their own times. They need an absolute mission, on entirely different terms from the Woolstone quarter.' 'And are you about to head the mission?' 'To endeavour to take a share in it.' 'And who is to be at the cost of this?' pursued Sir Bevil. 'Have you a subscription list?' Robert coloured again as he answered, 'Why, no; we can do without that so far.' Phoebe understood, and her face must have revealed the truth to Sir Bevil, for laying his hand on Robert's arm, he said, 'My good fellow, you don't mean that you are answerable for all this?' 'You know I have something of my own.' 'You will not leave much of it at this rate. How about the endowment?' 'I shall live upon the endowment.' 'Have you considered? You will be tied to this place for ever.' 'That is one of my objects,' replied Robert, and in reply to a look of astonished interrogation, 'myself and all that is mine would be far too little to atone for a fraction of the evil that our house is every day perpetrating here.' 'I should hate the business myself,' said the baronet; 'but don't you see it in a strong light?' 'Every hour I spend here shows me that I do not see it strongly enough.' And there followed some appalling instances of the effects of the multiplicity of gin-palaces, things that it well-nigh broke Robert's heart to witness, absorbed as he was in the novelty of his work, fresh in feeling, and never able to divest himself of a sense of being a sharer in the guilt and ruin. Sir Bevil listened at first with interest, then tried to lead away from the subject; but it was Robert's single idea, and he kept them to it till their departure, when Phoebe's first words were, as they drove from the door, 'Oh, thank you, you do not know how much happier you have made me.' Her companion smiled, saying, 'I need not ask which is the favourite brother.' 'Mervyn is very kind to me,' quickly answered Phoebe. 'But Robert is the oracle! eh?' he said, kindly and merrily. 'Robert has been everything to us younger ones,' she answered. 'I am still more glad that you like him.' His grave face not responding as she expected, she feared that he had been bored, that he thought Robert righteous over much, or disapproved his opinions; but his answer was worth having when it came. 'I know nothing about his views; I never looked into the subject; but when I see a young man giving up a lucrative prospect for conscience sake, and devoting himself to work in that sink of iniquity, I see there must be something in him. I can't judge if he goes about it in a wrong-headed way, but I should be proud of such a fellow instead of discarding him.'