Colonel Atherstone watched solemnly for the "dangerous doctrines," which he had resolved beforehand were sure to come; and Lady Lucas nodded sleepily in a conspicuous corner, content to have pitched upon a party catch-word, with the quoting of which she might thenceforward label him; and Miss Devereux endeavoured perplexedly to wade after thoughts beyond her depth, which were therefore "erroneous."
Others present, like-spirited, though not of St. John's, heard no less critically. Miss Moggridge found him "not Broad enough;" and somebody else found him "not High enough;" at the very moment that Miss Atherstone was settling her bonnet-strings, and privately dubbing him "a concealed Jesuit."
Few among the herd of critics had leisure to notice the childlike trust, the earnest purpose, the burning love to God and man, which swept along the preacher himself, and filled the Church with an overflow of the Spirit of Christ.
For all they wanted to know was: "Which party?" And this they could not find out.
Jem, while an ardent Churchman, was no party-man. He had the strength to accept Divine Truth wherever he found it, even in the face of its especial patronage by any party.
Naturally, this made his position not an easy one in a place cut up into cliques and parties, social and religious.
[CHAPTER VII.]
THE SOCIAL BOARD.
"Where men of judgment creep and feel their way,
The positive pronounce without dismay;
Their want of light and intellect supplied
By sparks absurdity strikes out of pride:
Without the means of knowing right from wrong,
They always are decisive, clear, and strong."
COWPER.
DINNER at The Brow was in full swing before anybody held a match to the combustible elements there gathered. Miss Devereux had made fretfully sure of an explosion. She held a ladylike belief that if a gun is present, it is sure to go off, forgetting that even a loaded gun will lie quiescent until somebody pulls the trigger.