He added point-blank, "Pray, what was it ?" "Why, what it would not be if I told you," said the parson, with a forced laugh,--"a secret!" "Well, I guess we're in a land of liberty.

Do as you like.

Now, I dare say you think me a very odd fellow to come out of my shell to you in this off-hand way; but I liked the look of you, even when we were at the inn together.

And just now I was uncommonly pleased to find that, though you are a parson, you don't want to keep a man's nose down to a shopboard, if he has anything in him.

You're not one of the aristocrats--" "Indeed," said the parson, with imprudent warmth, "it is not the character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down.