“No-o!”
“Jason can! Are you able to read it in Hebrew and in Greek?”
“No-o-o!”
“Jason is! He’s got you when it comes to Biblical quotation and can fit a passage even to so common an act as eating a dish of creamed toast!”
“But I shan’t give in to him—that is, unless I really see the force of his arguments, Thropper.”
“Oh,” smiled Thropper, “he’ll give you forceful arguments enough, that’s the hang of the fellow. He knows so much! I tell you, Priddy, when you employ logic, biblical lore, and a fanatical sincerity in trying to persuade an innocent little greenhorn like you—to give up a watch-chain and a tie-pin, why, the greenhorn is bound to go under!”
“We’ll see!” I declared, as the conclusion of the subject.
The next day, Jason found me in a corner of the library busy with my Latin. Without a word he edged over to me, pulled a little black book from his pocket, opened it at a marked place, fixed it on the chair handle before me, indicated the marked passage with one of his long, white fingers and left me to myself. I put aside my Latin and investigated.
The book was the writing of John Wesley, and the place marked was a passage in a sermon on “The Wearing of Ornaments” or some such theme. In any case, that was the subject treated in the marked passage. It was a reiteration of the arguments Jason had advanced, but coming from so noted and often quoted an authority as the founder of the Methodists, it considerably sobered my impressionable senses. I had no sooner closed the book, than out of the unseen the Poet flitted to my side, and with a whispered, “Forceful, isn’t it?” Jason took up the book and returned to his study.
A day or two later he brought into the dining-hall a little green bound book, printed on cheap paper and entitled, “The Victory of Selina Bostwick—Evangelist.” As he handed it to me, Jason said,