[THE SECOND DISCIPLE]
They lay that night at the house of a certain curate, who stopped the Stranger, saying:
'You are he of whom I have heard?'
Mr. Treadman said:
'It is the Lord--the Lord Christ! He has come again!'
The Stranger rebuked Mr. Treadman.
'Peace! Why do you trouble Me with your babbling tongue?' To the curate He said: 'What do you want of Me?'
'Nothing but to offer you shelter for the night. I cannot give you much, for I am poor, and have a small house and a large family, but such as I have is at your service. Not that I wish you to understand that my action marks my approval of your proceedings, of which, as I say, I have heard. For I am an ordained priest of the Church of England, and have sufficient trouble with dissent and such-like fads already. But I am a Christian, and, I trust, a gentleman, and in that dual capacity would not wish one of whom I have heard such remarkable things to remain in need of shelter when near my house.'
So they went with the curate. But the family was found to be so large, and the house so small, that there was not room within its walls for three unexpected guests. So it was arranged that they would sleep in the loft over the stable where hay was kept. Thither, after supper, the Stranger and the lame man repaired. But Mr. Treadman remained talking to the host.
They stood outside the house in the moonlight, looking towards the loft in which the Stranger sought slumber.