t he to do? What COULD he do? Apparently, nothing but wait.
He waited for a week--then for another week. The conclusion that the
initiative had been left to him began to take shape in his mind. From
this it seemed but a step to the passionate resolve to act at once.

Turning the situation over and over in his anxious thoughts, two things
stood out in special prominence. One was that Celia loved him. The other
was that the boy in Gorringe's law office, and possibly Gorringe, and
heaven only knew how many others besides, had reasons for suspecting
this to be true.

And what about Celia? Side by side with the moving rapture of thinking
about her as a woman, there rose the substantial satisfaction of
contemplating her as Miss Madden. She had kissed him, and she was very
rich. The things gradually linked themselves before his eyes. He tried
a thousand varying guesses at what she proposed to do, and each time
reined up his imagination by the reminder that she was confessedly a
creature of whims, who proposed to do nothing, but was capable of all
things.

And as to the boy. If he had blabbed what he saw, it was incredible that
somebody should not take the subject up, and impart a scandalous twist
to it, and send it rolling like a snowball to gather up exaggeration and
foul innuendo till it was big enough to overwhelm him. What would happen
to him if a formal charge were preferred against him? He looked it up
in the Discipline. Of course, if his accusers magnified their mean
suspicions and calumnious imaginings to the point of formulating a
charge, it would be one of immorality. They could prove nothing; there
was nothing to prove. At the worst, it was an indiscretion, which would
involve his being admonished by his Presiding Elder. Or if these narrow
bigots confused slanders with proofs, and showed that they intended to
convict him, then it would be open to him to withdraw from the ministry,
in advance of his condemnation. His relation to the church would be
the same as if he had been expelled, but to the outer world it would be
different. And supposing he did withdraw from the ministry?

Yes; this was the important point. What if he did abandon this mistaken
profession of his? On its mental side the relief would be prodigious,
unthinkable. But on the practical side, the bread-and-butter side? For
some days Theron paused with a shudder when he reached this question.
The thought of the plunge into unknown material responsibi