I hang back a little from signing on that account, as Prendergast might not take the protest well if Deb Traunter went with you.' Mr.Budd was a small, sleek-headed bachelor of five-and-forty, whose scandalous life had long furnished his more moral neighbours with an after-dinner joke.

He had no other striking characteristic, except that he was a currier of choleric temperament, so that you might wonder why he had been chosen as clergyman's churchwarden, if I did not tell you that he had recently been elected through Mr.Dempster's exertions, in order that his zeal against the threatened evening lecture might be backed by the dignity of office.
'Come, come, Pilgrim,' said Mr.Tomlinson, covering Mr.Budd's retreat, 'you know you like to wear the crier's coat,' green o' one side and red o' the other.

You've been to hear Tryan preach at Paddiford Common--you know you have.' 'To be sure I have; and a capital sermon too.

It's a pity you were not there.

It was addressed to those "void of understanding."' 'No, no, you'll never catch me there,' returned Mr.Tomlinson, not in the least stung: 'he preaches without book, they say, just like a Dissenter.
It must be a rambling sort of a concern.' 'That's not the worst,' said Mr.Dempster; 'he preaches against good works; says good works are not necessary to salvation--a sectarian, antinomian, anabaptist doctrine.