ER XXIV.

In the first place the minority in the church held a meeting and voted
to ask Philip to remain, pledging him their hearty support in all his
plans and methods. The evening paper, in its report of this meeting,
made the most of the personal remarks that were made, and served up the
whole affair in sensational items that were eagerly read by every one in
Milton.

But the most important gathering of Philip's friends was that of the
mill-men. They met in the hall where he had so often spoken, and being
crowded out of that by the great numbers, they finally secured the use
of the court house. This was crowded with an excited assembly, and in
the course of very many short speeches in which the action of the church
was severely condemned, a resolution was offered and adopted asking Mr.
Strong to remain in Milton and organize an association or something of a
similar order for the purpose of sociological study and agitation,
pledging whatever financial support could be obtained from the
working-people. This also was caught up and magnified in the paper, and
the town was still roused to excitement by all these reports when Philip
returned home late Saturday afternoon, almost reeling with exhaustion,
and his heart torn with the separation from his old chum.

However, he tried to conceal his weariness from Sarah, and partly
succeeded. After supper he went up to his study to prepare for the
Sunday. He had fully made up his mind what he would do, and he wanted to
do it in a manner that would cast no reproach on his ministry, which he
respected with sensitive reverence.

He shut the door and began his preparation by walking up and down, as
his custom was, thinking out the details of the service, his sermon, the
exact wording of certain phrases he wished to make.

He had been walking thus back and forth half a dozen times when he felt
the same acute pain in his side that had seized him when he fainted in
church at the evening service. It passed away and he resumed his work,
thinking it was only a passing disorder. But before he could turn again
in his walk he felt a dizziness that whirled everything in the room
about him. He clutched at a chair and was conscious of having missed it,
and then he fell forward in such a way that he lay partly on the couch
and on the floor, and was unconscious.

How long he had been in this condition he did not know when he came to
himself. He was thankful, when he did recover sufficientl