"I tried as long as I dared to get
the bottom open, and I couldn't, so I decided that it wasn't any of my
business. Only when I put the poker through there seemed to be papers
there."
Maurice could endure no more. He started toward her so fiercely that
she recoiled, a sudden pallor blanching her rosy loveliness. Then he
turned abruptly away again, and got out of the house.
XXXII
NOW HE IS FOR THE NUMBERS
Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.
Interest in the question who would be bishop increased as Lent waned
and the time for the meeting of the convention approached. The general
public could not be expected to be greatly concerned about a matter so
purely ecclesiastical, but the wide popularity of Mr. Strathmore gave
to the election a character of its own. The question was generally held
to be that of the prevalence of liberal views. Many who cared nothing
about the church were interested in seeing whether new or old ideas
would prevail. The age is one in which there is a keen curiosity to see
what course the church will take. It is partly due, undoubtedly, to the
inherited habit of being concerned in theology; it is perhaps more
largely the result of unconscious desire for a liberalism so great that
it shall justify those who have been so liberal as to lay aside all
religion whatever.
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