Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/303

 the "People's News" of the district in his hand; and without noticing that the water from his soaking clothes was making a little sea round him on the floor, he read the following notice three times over:—

"According to reliable information, Provst Tönnesen, Rector of Veilby and Skibberup, has been appointed director of the newly-founded State Seminary at Söborg, near Copenhagen. The official announcement may be expected any day."

the removal of the Provst was to be regarded as advancement—and he was far from giving any other view of it, rather speaking of his appointment with a certain complacency—yet the people of Skibberup looked upon it as a victory for their party. The weaver had kept his word—in a few weeks the Provst would be out of the Parsonage.

To tell the truth, the bishop had had to use all his diplomatic powers to carry out his wishes with regard to the Provst, who saw perfectly the real drift of the Pharisaic manœuvre. But he saw equally, that, both for his own sake and his daughter's, he could not decline an offer which released them, apparently with honour, from a