be a good enough church for some
people; but such a preacher as this made more infidels than honest men.

The whole town soon got into a dispute as to whether the Reverend Warren
Holbrook was a wise and good man, or simply a mischief-making egotist.
The women took the side of Holbrook, and stuck to it, like true women.
He preached the right sort of religion, they said, and was a wise and
good man, or he could not preach as he did. The men did not believe a
word of it, but seeing that their wives were inclined to have it all
their own way, and would not hear a word against the new preacher,
quietly submitted, as men generally do. That is to say, they surrendered
their authority.

Chapman was delighted at the nice little turn his preacher had made in
the affairs of the town. Nothing pleased him better than to have a dozen
disputes on hand at a time. If only well nursed they could be all made
profitable. Woman was the great pillar of Chapman's hopes. He had always
regarded her as the great foundation of any church. She could make it
popular if she pleased, and she could make it profitable, too. This, in
a measure, accounted for the unlimited admiration Mrs. Chapman had for
this great progressive clergyman. His great progressive religion was
just exactly the thing needed in Nyack. He must next attack the
Dominie, and drive him out of his pulpit, for it would not do to have
men preaching in an unknown tongue at this enlightened day.

In less than two months from the time this teacher of great progressive
ideas landed at Nyack, he had not only got the town by the ears, but so
divided his flock that it was now composed almost exclusively of women.
The men stayed at home and nursed their wrath. And it was good for them
that they did, for the women had things all their own way generally, and
Warren Holbrook, ill-favored and formed, was their idol. The pew rents
ran up, however, and the contributions of a Sunday increased nearly
double. Indeed, the Chapmans felt that they were now on the road to
fortune, and Mrs. Chapman's ambition increased accordingly.

All great enterprises, however, are liable to sudden checks, and
misfortune too often comes when one least expects it. And so it was with
the Reverend Warren Holbrook, the man of the great progressive ideas. He
was discovered paying what ladies of strict propriety regard as more
than ordinary attentions to a fair young damsel, the daughter of one of
the most active members o