Her desertion of him was undoubtedly a blow to him; but he thought that, after all, it was not unnatural that such as girl as she should be somewhat frightened at the boldness of the book which he had published.

He had seen the day, not so very long ago, when he would have been frightened at it himself.

At any rate he felt sure that Phyllis would be able to differentiate between the case of the author of "Revised Versions" and the case of the mediocre clergyman who defied his bishop on a question of--what was the question ?--something concerning the twirling of his thumbs from east to west, instead of from west to east; yes, or an equally trivial matter.

He trusted that she was too discriminating a girl to bracket him with that wretched, shallow-minded person who endeavored to pose as a martyr, because he would not be permitted to do whatever he tried to insist on doing.

Mr.Holland thought it had something to say to the twirling of his thumbs at a certain part of the service for the day, but if anyone had said that his memory was at fault--that the contumacious curate only wanted to make some gestures at the psychological, or, perhaps, the spiritual, moment, he would not have been surprised.