( 48 ) 



DEI^E A NAIL WHEEE IT WILL GO. 



William Morgan's father was a solicitor's clerk, and his 

 mother had once been a nursery governess ; but at the 

 time when Jabez Morgan courted her, Lizzie Holland 

 dispensed ribbons and lace from the counter of Messrs. 

 Smith and Holland's drapery establishment in the market 

 place of the little countr}^ to^vn of Market Blyton. Now, 

 Jabez Morgan was a deeply religious man, according to his 

 own lights ; these were, that if a man were a regular attendant 

 at the chapel which Jabez honoured by attending ; if he 

 eschewed even the most harmless pleasures of life and took 

 no recreation save that provided by an occasional lecture and 

 the daily walk, the latter taken more for health than 

 pleasure — in fact, if he worked hard all the week, walked 

 out for a prescribed distance every evening when the weather 

 allowed, and spent every Sunday either in chapel or reading 

 religious books at home — he stood a very good chance of 

 getting to Heaven. If a man adopted any other method, 

 Jabez could not see what chance the poor fellow had. He 

 would try to point out the error of the unfortunate's ways, 

 and to guide him into the right path ; but when his efforts 

 failed, Jabez sighed, metaphorically washed his hands of him, 

 and gave him up as hopelessly lost. Lizzie Holland at the 

 time when she first encountered Jabez, which happened 

 when the latter had once so far " let himself go " as to 

 drink tea at the house of a local preacher, was a fairly 

 regular attendant at the Sunday evening services at the 

 parish church, though the objects in view were generally — 



