The man looked a little surprised, but remarked, without any change of tone--"So, you have heard of him, have you?" "Oh, yes." "As a very bad man?" "Yes, very well. Have you ever met him?" "No, and never wish to." "You've seen him, I presume?" "Never. Is he here?" The man glanced round the room, and then replied--"I don't see him." "He was here, I suppose?" "Oh, yes, and addressed the meeting several times." "In one of those sneering, ill-tempered answers to your remarks, no doubt." The man slightly inclined his head, as if acknowledging a compliment. "It's a pity," said I, "that such men as this John Mason often have wealth and some shrewdness of mind to give them power in the community." "Perhaps," said my auditor, "your prejudices against this man are too strong. He's not perfect, I know; but even the devil is often painted blacker than he is. If you knew him, I rather think you would estimate him a little differently." "I don't wish to know him. Opportunities have offered, but I have always avoided an introduction." "Who first gave you the character of this man?" asked the individual with whom I was conversing. "Mr. Laxton," I replied. "Do you know him?" "Oh, yes, very well. He speaks hard of Mason, does he?" "He has cause, I believe." "Did he ever explain to you what it was?" "Not very fully; but he gives him a general bad character, and says he has done more to injure the best interests of the village than any ten of its worst enemies that exist." "Indeed! That is a sweeping declaration. But I will frankly own that I cannot join in so broad a condemnation of the man, although he has his faults, and no one knows them, I think, better than I do." This made no impression upon me. The name of John Mason was associated in my mind with every thing that was bad, and I replied by saying that I was very well satisfied in regard to his character, and didn't mean to have any thing to do with him while I lived in Moorfield. Some one interrupted our conversation at this point, and I was separated from my very agreeable companion. I met him frequently afterwards, and he was always particularly polite to me, and once or twice asked me if I had fallen in with that John Mason yet; to which I always replied in the negative, and expressed myself as ever in regard to the personage mentioned. Careful as we may be to keep out of trouble, we are not always successful in our efforts. When I removed to Moorfield, I supposed my affairs to be in a very good way; but things proved to be otherwise. I was disappointed, not only in the amount I expected to receive from the business I followed in the village, but disappointed in the receipt of money I felt sure of getting by a certain time.