Ivors

t at any moment, the present member having openly announced his intention of retiring on account of ill health, and it would be necessary to make arrangements for canvassing immediately. It was very unpleasant to him, extremely contrary to his taste, and all the old objections presented themselves again. But he was not as some men are, so fully alive to the difficulties of the path on either side, that they stand still in the middle and take neither. One of the many lessons taught him by the Admiral had been that of making a choice in all things. Men sin, not because they choose, but because they don't choose, was the old man's frequent axiom : and Claude's experience had fully taught him its truth. The actions which, in looking back upon his life he saw the most reason to deplore, were those in which, instead of manfully facing the conflicting claims of duty and inclination, he had suffered himself to pause in indecision, thinking he was standing still, whilst in fact the current of evil, so much stronger always than that of good, was bearing him on to the point from whence there was no retreat. The present question was not one which involved what the world would call right or wrong; but in Claude Egerton's eyes public duty was to be regarded in the same light as private, to be decided according to the same rules, and carried out according to the same principles. He thought over the subject again, as a Christian only can think; trusting neither to the honesty ...