"No wonder you wouldn't recognise me," Douglas smilingly replied. "It is a splendid disguise at times. Even Dr. Rannage didn't know me when he came to Rixton."
"What, were you at that meeting?" Garton asked.
"So you heard of it, then?"
"Sure. Why, Dr. Rannage was furious when he came home, and at a recent session of the Board of Missions he expressed his opinion in no uncertain manner, so I understand."
"And he is not over it yet," Mrs. Garton remarked. "I was talking to him for a while to-night, and he told me about his terrible experience up there. He said that it was not a fit place to send any man, and that the people were most ignorant and uncouth."
"They were too much for Dr. Rannage, though," Douglas replied. He then told them in detail about the meeting that night at the Corner. "Dr. Rannage made a fool of himself," he said in conclusion. "He was not the proper person to send there."
"Won't you tell me something about Rixton?" Mrs. Garton asked, "and what you have been doing since you left the city?"
"Tell her about your wrestling bout with Jake Jukes," Garton suggested, "and the widow and her news-bag of a son, and also about the old shoemaker and his wayward daughter. Yes, and about the old professor and his daughters."
"You have given me a big contract," Douglas laughingly replied.
"I know I have, but Kit must hear it."