unnecessary much future explanation. She had seen that he was
secretly laughing at the simple preacher, and that was a source
of sympathy between them. She was very much in the habit of doing
the same thing. He, on the other hand, was very well satisfied
that the daughter of such a mother must be perverse and vain; and
he was moralist enough to know that there is no heart so accessible to
the tempter as the proud and wilful heart. But few words had passed
between them, but those were expressive, and they both parted, with
the firm conviction that they must necessarily meet again.






CHAPTER IX.

HOW THE TOAD GRINS UPON THE ALTAR.





Shall we go the rounds with our pastor? Shall we look in upon him
at Mrs. Thackeray's, while, obeying the suggestion of the widow
Cooper, he purges her library of twenty volumes, casting out the
devils and setting up the true gods? It is scarcely necessary.
Enough to know that, under his expurgatorial finger, our beloved
and bosom friend, William Shakspere, was the first to suffer.
Plays! The one word was enough. Some lying histories were permitted