r a cope without
offense to the Evangelicals,--his whiskers saving him from the charge of
extreme views. Under his rule, largely perhaps because of those
whiskers, peace had settled upon the Church; and in consequence it now
presented an almost united front to its political opponents.

All his life he had been accustomed to command. Even in the nursery, as
the eldest child and only son of his parents, he had ruled his five
sisters with that prescriptive mastery which sex and primogeniture
confer. At school he had pursued his career of disciplinarian first as
"dowl-master," then as captain of teams, then as prefect with powers of
the rod over senior boys his superiors in weight. Continuing at the
University to excel in games, he became at twenty-four a class-master in
Jingalo's most famous public school. Marrying at thirty a lady of title,
he acquired the social touch necessary for his completion, and five
years later was appointed Head. Left a disconsolate widower at the age
of forty-seven, he drew dignity from his domestic affliction, received a
belated call to the ministry, took orders, and became Master of
Pentecost, only on the distinct understanding that a bishopric of
peculiar importance as a stepping-stone to higher things should be his
at the next vacancy. The vacancy occurred without any undue delay; and
from that bishopric, after three years of successful practice, he passed
at the age of fifty-five to the crowning grace of his present position.
Thence he was able to look back over a long vista of things successfully
done and heads deferentially bowed to his sway--deans, canons, priests,
sisters--a pattern training for a humble servant of that Master whose
Cross, as by law established, he was now helping to bear. Even the Prime
Minister, facing him with all his parliamentary majority at his back,
knew him for a redoubtable opponent. This fight had long ago been
foreseen by the Church party, and it was for the fighting policy he now
embodied that Dr. Chantry had received nine years previously his "call"
from collegiate to sacerdotal office. A large jeweled cross gleamed upon
his breast, and a violet waistcoat that buttoned out of sight betokened
the impenetrable resolution of his priestly character.

"And now, sir, I am at your disposal," said he; and sat immovable while
the Prime Minister spoke.

II

The Prime Minister's argument ran upon material and mathematical lines;
he imported no passion into the d