busy, to seek each other's society with the perseverance required to do
away with the social distinction of rank that prevented their frequent
meetings. But each was thoroughly pleased to come into contact with the
other. Each could rely on the other's respect and sympathy with a
security unknown to many who call themselves friends; and this was a
source of happiness to both; to Mr. Gibson the most so, of course; for
his range of intelligent and cultivated society was the smaller.
Indeed, there was no one equal to himself among the men with whom he
associated, and this he had felt as a depressing influence, although he
had never recognized the cause of his depression. There was Mr Ashton,
the vicar, who had succeeded Mr. Browning, a thoroughly good and kind-
hearted man, but one without an original thought in him; whose habitual
courtesy and indolent mind led him to agree to every opinion, not
palpably heterodox, and to utter platitudes in the most gentlemanly
manner. Mr. Gibson had once or twice amused himself, by leading the
vicar on in his agreeable admissions of arguments 'as perfectly
convincing,' and of statements as 'curious but undoubted,' till he had
planted the poor clergyman in a bog of heretical bewilderment. But then
Mr. Ashton's pain and suffering at suddenly finding out into what a
theological predicament he had been brought, his real self-reproach at
his previous admissions, were so great that Mr. Gibson lost all sense
of fun, and hastened back to the Thirty-nine Articles with all the
good-will in life, as the only means of soothing the vicar's
conscience. On any other subject, except that of orthodoxy, Mr. Gibson
could lead him any lengths; but then his ignorance on most of them
prevented bland acquiescence from arriving at any results which could
startle him. He had some private fortune, and was not married, and
lived the life of an indolent and refined bachelor; but though he
himself was no very active visitor among his poorer parishioners, he
was always willing to relieve their wants in the most liberal, and,