Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie;
Truth is the speech of inward purity.
THE LIGHT OF ASIA.


In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a
comparatively weak and harmless little slander, with merely that
taint of original sin which was to be expected in one of such
parentage. But I developed with great rapidity; and I believe men
of science will tell you that this is always the case with low
organisms. That, for instance, while it takes years to develop the
man from the baby, and months to develop the dog from the puppy, the
baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour.

Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O'Reilly's
pleasant drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested
me, and I wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked
about. But I received orders to attend evensong at the parish
church, and to haunt the mind of Lena Houghton.

As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and clear,
and they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort that I had
felt when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and soon entered
the church. It was a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon
sunshine seemed to flood the whole place; even the white stones in
the aisle were glorified here and there with gorgeous patches of
colour from the stained glass windows. But the strange stillness
and quiet oppressed me, I did not feel nearly so much at home as in
Mrs. O'Reilly's drawing-room--to use a terrestrial simile, I felt
like a fish out of water.