"Well," he said, "you will be glad to hear that the india-rubber has been doing yeoman service."
Mona bowed without replying. She was annoyed with him for entering into conversation with her in this matter-of-course way. No doubt he thought that a shop-girl would be only too much flattered by his condescension.
But Dudley was thinking more of her face than of her silence. One did not often see a face like that. He had been watching it all through the sermon, and it tempted him to go on.
"Pathetic soul, that," he said.
"Mr Stuart?" asked Mona indifferently.
"Yes. He is quite a study to me when I come down here. He is struggling out of the mire of mediocrity, and he might as well save himself the trouble."
Mona smiled in spite of herself—a quick, appreciative smile—and Dudley hesitated no longer.
"After undergoing agonies of doubt, and profound study—of Joseph Cook—he has decided 'to accept evolution within limits,' as he phrases it. I believe he never enters the pulpit now without an agreeable and galling sense of how he might electrify his congregation if he only chose, and of how his scientific culture is thrown away on a handful of fisher-folk."
Dr Dudley was amused with himself for talking in this strain; but in his present mood he would have discussed the minister with his horse or his dog, had either of them been his sole companion; and besides, he was interested to see how Mona would take his character-sketch. Would she understand his nineteenth-century jargon?
Her answer was intelligent if non-committal.