He drew for them the famous High Church preacher of the moment, described the great spectacle of his Bampton Lectures, by which Oxford had been recently thrilled, and gave a dramatic account of a sermon on evolution preached by the hermit-veteran Pusey, as though by another Elias returning to the world to deliver a last warning message to men.

Catherine listened absorbed, her deep eyes fixed upon him.

And though all he said was pitched in a vivacious narrative key and addressed as much to the others as to her, inwardly it seemed to him that his one object all through was to touch and keep her attention.
Then, in answer to inquiries about himself, he fell to describing St.
Anselm's with enthusiasm,--its growth its Provost, its effectiveness as a great educational machine, the impression it had made on Oxford and the country.

This led him naturally to talk of Mr.Grey, then, next to the Provost, the most prominent figure in the college; and once embarked on this theme be became more eloquent and interesting than ever.

The circle of women listened to him as to a voice from the large world.
He made them feel the beat of the great currents of English life and thought; he seemed to bring the stir and rush of our central English society into the deep quiet of their valley.