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 moment. I have no doubt it is ridiculous on my part to try to bring you to reason. I know what you are when you have got a thing into your head. But all the same, I will ask you seriously to consider, what may be the consequences of such a step, both to you and to us, Mr Hansted. When you know—and you do know—how this weaver and his imitators have behaved to my father, one would have thought it would be superfluous to point out to you how peculiar—to put it mildly, and not to say downright improper—any approach to these people must appear, and in fact is."

Without giving him time to answer, she turned and left the room.

These words, and the tone in which they were spoken, caused the last scales to fall from Emanuel's eyes. He had by no means been blind to what the consequences might be in the Parsonage, and he was quite prepared for his days there as the Provst's curate, being numbered. But he had thought that people would at any rate respect his serious convictions—nay, he had even entertained a faint hope that the storm might end in mutual reconciliation. He now saw that every attempt to come to an understanding would be fruitless; that hereafter, not only at the Parsonage, but among all "right thinking" people, both here and everywhere else, he would be looked upon as a traitor, to whom no mercy would be shewn.