Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/258

 twice over, before candlelight. Why I would not have spared it till Sunday morning, suppose I had been asked, there might be several good reasons. I was to take coach for Worcester by five a clock on Monday morning, and I could have no leisure on Sunday to put the book into the Library; for at that time I lived with the Right Reverend the Bishop of Worcester, at a good distance from the Library. The key, too, of the outward door, was then in custody of another, who perhaps might not be met with upon Sunday. Besides that there was time enough and to spare before Saturday evening: and what obligation had I to neglect my own business to humour others in their laziness?

But (he says) I gave him not the least hopes that if he applied to me upon my return out of the country, he should have leave to get the collation perfected. That I gave him not any hopes of it by an express promise, I verily believe. For how could I do that, when I was fully persuaded they would finish the collation before I went into the country? But what he saw in me that forbade him to hope it, if there should be occasion, I cannot imagine. He knew