Mattie explained, and ran up-stairs. Mr. Gray pushed aside the stone upon which he had been writing, turned up his coat-cuffs, and buttoned his black coat to the chin. He knew the story in which that cousin had played his part perfectly well; had he forgotten it, his remembrance of old faces would not have betrayed him in this instance. Here was the man to whom he had administered a fugitive lecture in the dead of night at Ashford railway station, once more before him; here was a chance of touching the heart of a most incorrigible sinner--a sinner worthy of _his_ powers of conversion. He would tackle him at once; he would warn him of the errors of his ways, and of the infallible results of them, if he did not listen to the warning voice. He was just in the mood for delivering a sermon, and there was no time like the present. Now for it! Mr. Gray turned the handle of the parlour door and skipped into the shop. CHAPTER II. MAURICE RECEIVES PLENTY OF ADVICE. Maurice Hinchford had been told by Mattie to wait in the shop until she returned; and, obedient to her mandate, he had taken his seat on a very tall, uncomfortable stool, on which he could have remained perched more at his ease had a balance-pole been provided. Here he had remained, looking round the shop, and taking stock of its manifold contents--glancing askance now and then at Ann Packet, whose curiosity was not entirely satiated until Mr. Gray intruded on the scene. At the first click of the door-handle, Maurice looked round expecting to see his cousin, but was disappointed by the presence of a small and agile man in black, who leaped on to a second chair beside him, and commenced nodding his head vigorously. "Good evening, sir," said Maurice. "Mr. Gray, I presume?" "We have met before, sir--my name is Gray." "Really!--I do not remember----" "Possibly not, sir; there are many unpleasant reminiscences we are always glad to escape from," said Mr. Gray. "I am connected with one. You and I met on the platform of the Ashford railway station, one winter's night, when Miss Wesden claimed my protection from a snare that had been laid for her." "Oh!" Maurice had dropped into a hornet's nest. Whom next was he to confront before his cousin Sidney came upon the scene?--from whom else was he to hear a sharp criticism on those actions of the past, which no one regretted more than he. Luck was against him that night. "You remember me?" said Mr. Gray. "Before the train departed I gave you a little counsel for your future course in life--a warning as to whither a persistence in your evil habits would lead you--you remember?" "Oh! yes--I remember."