Page:Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, vol. I, 1866.djvu/310

300 band. How could he lay himself and his sin before God if he wilfully declined to learn the truth?

"Nay, sir, I will not detain you unreasonably," he said, in a firmer tone than before. "How long have these articles been your property?"

"Oh, for more than twenty years," said Christian, carelessly. He was not altogether easy under the minister's persistence, but for that very reason he showed no more impatience.

"You have been in France and in Germany?"

"I have been in most countries on the Continent."

"Be so good as to write me your name," said Mr Lyon, dipping a pen in the ink, and holding it out with a piece of paper.

Christian was much surprised, but not now greatly alarmed. In his rapid conjectures as to the explanation of the minister's curiosity, he had alighted on one which might carry advantage rather than inconvenience. But he was not going to commit himself.

"Before I oblige you there, sir," he said, laying down the pen, and looking straight at Mr Lyon, "I must know exactly the reasons you have for putting these questions to me. You are a stranger to me—an excellent person, I daresay—but I have no con-