"Some of them waited on me at the the school-house several days ago!"
"And you made them pledge themselves to support Mr.—Mr. Joyce?"
"No, Mrs. Creswell, I am a schoolmaster and a clergyman, not an electioneering agent. I explained to them to the best of my power the views taken by each party on the great question of the day, and, when asked a direct question as to how I should myself vote, I answered it—that was all."
"All, indeed! It is sufficient to show me that these unthinking people will follow you to the polling-booth like sheep! However, to return to what I was about to say when I thought of these farmers; is your belief in your attachment to these principles so strong as to allow them to influence your actions at what may be an important period of your life? I know the Helmingham school-salary, Mr. Benthall; I know the life—Heaven knows I ought, after all the years of its weariness and its drudgery which I witnessed. You are scarcely in your proper place, I think! I can picture you to myself in a pleasant rectory in a southern or western county, with a charming wife by your side!"
"A most delightful idea, Mrs. Creswell, but one impossible of realisation in my case, I am afraid!"
"By no means so impossible as you seem to imagine. I have only to say one word to my husband, and"
"My dear Mrs. Creswell," said Mr. Benthall, rising, and laying his hand lightly on her arm, "pray excuse my interrupting you; but I am sure you don't know what you are saying, or doing! Ladies have no idea of this kind of thing; they don't understand it, and we cannot explain. I can only say that if any man had—well, I should not have hesitated a moment in knocking him down!" And Mr. Benthall, whose manner was disturbed, whose voice trembled, and whose face was very much flushed, was making rapidly to the door, when Marian called him back.
"I am sorry," she said, very calmly, "that our last interview should have been so disagreeable. You will understand that, under present circumstances, your visits here, and your acquaintance with any of the inmates of this house, must cease."
Mr. Benthall looked as though about to speak, but he merely bowed and left the room. When the door closed behind him, Marian sank down into her chair, and burst into a flood of bitter tears. It was the second repulse she had met with that day, and she had not been accustomed to repulses, of late.
The Omnibus in London and in Paris.
Most persons who have sojourned in the capitals of England and France, and have availed themselves of the commercial comforts proper to either city, must have noted that the spacious and commodious vehicle, to which from its catholic capacities the name "omnibus" has been applied in both countries, plays a much more important part in Paris than in London. It is not too much to say that in the former you can go from anywhere to anywhere else, at a price which is not varied by the length of your journey, whereas, in the latter, there is not only a variation of charge, but there are many points which, from certain other points, cannot be reached by omnibus at all. In Paris all classes are alike accommodated; in London the most favoured class consists of the persons who have business in the city. On this account the Bank of England, as a city focus, can be reached from almost any district you could name, inhabited by business men, and on this account likewise the privileges of the Bank of England are exceptional.
The result of the London system, or rather want of system, is a great diversity in the small assemblies that travel at different hours by the same omnibuses. At the time when city men leave their residences at the West-end or in the suburbs, the vehicles which they use are crowded, and the same phenomenon is observed when the time for returning home has arrived. These city men comprise employers as well as clerks, and thus nine and ten a.m. and four and five p.m., or thereabouts, may be termed the aristocratic hours for those omnibuses that ply to and from the Bank of England, the morning hours being considered in reference to those who seek, and the afternoon hours to those who leave that important point. During the intermediate hours, and at those very hours when the course of the omnibus is contrary to the course of business, the travellers belong for the most part to a far humbler class, and are by no means numerous. And with the omnibuses that do not ply city-wards this is almost always the case. Indeed, with the exception of persons who for some important reason are impelled towards the centre of traffic, every one who is in the slightest degree opulent and luxurious makes a point of patronising the more expensive cab. The cab will at any rate take us to any point we may choose to name, whereas the choice for the travellers by the omnibus is limited. Of course, we leave out of the account the state of traffic on Sundays and holidays, when the omnibuses that ply to and from the city are almost empty, and those that convey the passengers to Richmond, and other places of pleasant resort, are full.
Now, in Paris the traveller by omnibus are
