"Did the wife attend your ministrations, too?" asked Maule.

"Not so regularly. Suddenly," continued the Vicar, after suppressing
his emotion, "without any apparent cause, the man became _a
Sabbath-breaker_, and absented himself from church."

This evidence rather puzzled me, for I could not understand its
purport. Maule in the meantime was watching it with the keenest
interest and no little curiosity. He was not a great believer in the
defence of insanity--except, occasionally, that of the solicitor
who set it up--and consequently watched the Vicar with scrutinizing
intensity.

"Have you finished with your witness, Mr. Woollet?" his lordship
inquired.

"Yes, my lord."

Maule then took him in hand, and after looking at him steadfastly for
about a minute, said,--

"You say, sir, that you have been Vicar of this parish for
_four-and-thirty years_?"

"Yes, my lord."

"And during that time I dare say you have regularly performed the
services of the Church?"