"I dare say you do,-in fact I know you do; but you've no business to. I maintain that, even according to Moses, king David deserved a felon's death. Murder and adultery were crimes every bit as heinous then as they are now. Yet David, this most human of heroes, was the man after God's own heart. Solve me the problem." "Practically," said Lillyston; "I believe one follows a genuine instinct in determining not to look at the spots, however wide or dark they are, upon the sun." "And in accepting theoretically old Strabo's grand dictum, ουχ οἷον τε ἀγαθόν γενέσθαι ποιητην μὴ πρότερον γενηθέντα ἄνδρα ἀγαθόν. Eh ?” "As Coleridge was so fond of doing," said Julian. "Ay, he needed the theory," said Suton. "Hush!" said Julian, "I can't stand any such Philadelphus hints about Coleridge. By the bye, Owen, you might have quoted a still more apt illustration from Seneca, who criticises Livy for saying, 'Vir ingenii magni magis quam boni' with the remark, 'Non potest illud separari; aut et bonum erit aut nec magnum.' 66 Mr. Admer, who was one of the circle, chuckled inwardly at the discussion. I was once," he said "at a party where a lady sang one of Byron's Hebrew melodies. At the close of it a young clergyman sighed deeply, and with an air of intense self-satisfaction, observed, Ah! I was wondering where poor Byron is now!' What should you have all said to that?” "Detesting Byron's personal character, I should have 66 GOD, NOT MAN, IS THE JUDGE." 193 said that the very wonder was a piece of idle and meddling presumption," said Owen. “And I should have answered that the Judge will do right," said Suton reverently. "Or if he wanted a text, 'Who art thou that judgest another?" said Lillyston contemptuously. "And I," said Julian, "should have said, 'Let feeble hands iniquitously just, Rake up the relics of the sinful dust, Let Ignorance mock the pang it cannot heal, And Malice brand what Mercy would conceal; It matters not!'" 'And I," said Kennedy, "should have been vehemently inclined to tweak the man's nose." "But what did you say, Mr. Admer?" asked Lilly ston. "I answered a fool according to his folly. I threw up my eyes and said, 'Ah where ! indeed! what a good thing it is that you and I, sir, are not as that publican.' "I should think he skewered you with a glance, didn't he?" said Kennedy. "No, he was going to bore me with an argument, which I declined." "But you've all cut the question: tell me now, supposing you had known king David, should you have thought worse of him, should you have been cool to him—in a word, should you have cut him after his fall?" "I think not-I mean, I shouldn't have cut him," said Owen. N 194 TOUCHED WITH INFIRMITY. "And yet you would have treated so any ordinary friend." "Not necessarily. But remember that the two best things happened to David which could possibly happen to a man who has committed a crime." "Namely?" "Speedy detection," said Lillyston. "And prompt punishment," added Julian; "but for these there's no knowing what would have become of him." Unsatisfactory as the discussion had been, yet those words ran hauntingly in Kennedy's ears s; he could not forget them. During all those first days of happy travel they were with him; with him as they strolled down the gay and lighted Boulevards of Paris; with him beside the quaint fountains of Berne, and the green rushing of the Rhine at Basle; with him amid the scent of pine-cones, and under the dark green umbrage of forest boughs; with him when he caught his first glimpse of the everlasting mountains, and plunged into the clear brightness of the sapphire lake— the thought of speedy detection and prompt punishment. It was no small pleasure to partake in Violet's happiness, and mark the ever fresh delight that lent such a bright look to Cyril's face; but before Kennedy in the midst of enjoyment, the memory of a dishonourable act started like a spectre, and threw a sudden shadow on his brow. He felt its presence when he saw the sun rise from Rigi; it stood by him amid the wreathing mists of Pilatus; it even checked his enthu 195 66 CONSCIENCE DOTH MAKE COWARDS." siasm as they gazed together on the unequalled glories spread beneath the green summit of Monterone, and as their graceful boat made ripples on the moonlight waves of Orta and Lugano. In a word, the conviction of weakness was the only alloying influence to the pleasure of his tour, the one absinth-drop that lent bitterness to the honeyed wine. It was not only the consciousness of the wrong act and its possible results, but horror at the instability of moral principle which it shewed, and a deep fear lest the same weakness should prove a snare and a ruin to him in the course of future life. CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH. A DAY OF WONDER. "Flowers are lovely, Love is flowerlike, When I was young."-COLERIDGE. "TO-MORROW, then, we are all to ascend the Schilthorn,” said Mr. Kennedy, as he bade good-night to the merry party assembled in the salle-à-manger of the châlet inn at Mürrem. "Or as high as we ladies can get," said Mrs. Dudley. "O we'll get you up, aunt," said Kennedy; "if Julian and my father and I can't get you and Miss Home and Eva up, we're not worth much." "To say nothing of me!" said Cyril, putting his arms akimbo, with a look of immense importance. "Breakfast then, at five to-morrow morning, young people," said Mr. Kennedy, retiring; and full of happy anticipations they went off to bed. Punctually at five they were all seated round the |