der the
black mustache.

"The circumstances are that you have brought or sent to my garden a
great many very expensive flower-plants and bushes and so on."

"And you object? I had not supposed that clergymen in general--and you
in particular--were so sensitive. Have donation parties, then, gone out
of date?"

"I understand your sneer well enough," retorted Theron, "but that
can pass. The main point is, that you did me the honor to send these
plants--or to smuggle them in--but never once deigned to hint to me that
you had done so. No one told me. Except by mere accident, I should not
have known to this day where they came from."

Mr. Gorringe twisted the cigar at another angle, with lines of grim
amusement about the corner of his mouth. "I should have thought," he
said with dry deliberation, "that possibly this fact might have raised
in your mind the conceivable hypothesis that the plants might not be
intended for you at all."

"That is precisely it, sir," said Theron. There were people passing, and
he was forced to keep his voice down. It would have been a relief, he
felt, to shout. "That is it--they were not intended for me."

"Well, then, what are you talking about?" The lawyer's speech had become
abrupt almost to incivility.

"I think my remarks have been perfectly clear," said the minister, with
dignity. It was a new experience to be addressed in that fashion.
It occurred to him to add, "Please remember that I am not in the
witness-box, to be bullied or insulted by a professional."

Gorringe studied Theron's face attentively with a cold, searching
scrutiny. "You may thank your stars you're not!" he said, with
significance.

What on earth could he mean? The words and the menacing tone greatly
impressed Theron. Indeed, upon reflection, he found that they frightened
him. The disposition to adopt a high tone with the lawyer was melting
away.

"I do not see," he began, and then deliberately allowed his voice to
take on an injured and plaintive inflection--"I do not see why you
should adopt this tone toward me--Brother Gorringe."

The lawyer scowled, and bit sharply into the cigar, but said nothing.

"If I have unconsciously offended you in any way," Theron went on, "I
beg you to tell me how. I liked you from the beginning of my pastorate
here, and the thought that latterly we seemed to be drifting apart has
given me much pain. But now it is still more distressing to find you
actually disposed to quarrel w