me strain as the _Zeit Geist_ article, without
first consulting with the bishop. George Holland had pulled the bell at
the palace gates with the hand of a Luther; but he had left the presence
of the bishop with the step of a Francis of Assisi. He felt that anyone
who would voluntarily give pain to so gentle a man as the bishop could
only be a brute. He even felt that the bishop had shown himself to be
his, George Holland's superior in judgment and in the methods which he
employed. The bishop was not an overrated man.

For a full hour in the silence and solitude of the reading room of his
club he reflected upon the excellence of the bishop, and it was with a
sign of regret that he rose to keep his other appointment. He would have
liked to continue for another hour or two doing justice to that good man
out of whose presence he had come.

Mr. Linton's office was not quite in the City. Twenty minutes drive
brought George Holland into the private room of Ella Linton's husband.

"It is very good of you to come to me, Mr. Holland," said Stephen.
"There seems to be a general idea that a clergyman should be at the
beck and call of everyone who has a whim to--what do they call it in
Ireland--to make his soul? That has never been my opinion; I have never
given any trouble to a clergyman since I was at school."

"It is the privilege of a minister to be a servant," said the Rev.
George Holland.

"We were taught that at school--in connection with the Latin verb
_ministro_," said Mr. Linton. "Well, Mr. Holland, I am glad that you
take such a view of your calling, for I am anxious that you should do me
a great service."

He paused.

George Holland bent his head. He wondered if Mr. Linton wished to
intrust him with the duty of observing his wife.

"The fact is, Mr. Holland," resumed Stephen Linton, "I have read your
book and your paper in that review. The way you deal with a difficult
question has filled me with admiration. You will, I need scarcely say,
be outside the Church before long."

"I cannot allow you to assume that, Mr. Linton," said George gravely. "I
should be sorry to leave the Church. I cannot see that my leaving it is
the logical sequence of anything that I have yet written. My aim is, as
doubtless you have perceived, to bring about such reasonable and, after
all, not radical changes in the Church system as shall make her in
the future a more potent agency for good than she has ever yet been,
splendid though he