He had kept his office through three administrations, and to their several forms of legislation he had proved equally tractable.

His spirit of accommodation had not been quite so conspicuous in his dealings with those whom he conceived to be beneath him.

But in truth he had left his parishioners very largely to their own devices.

When he was moved to come among them, it was with the preoccupied air not so much of the student or visionary as of a man who was isolated from those about him by combined authority, influence, and perhaps superior blood.

He now took his seat at the head of the table with the bearing of one to whom it had never occurred to take a lower place.