"Bless me!" interposed the doctor, with deceptive cheerfulness, "that is
not required of you at all. It is a strictly personal opinion, offered
merely as a contribution to the general sum of hypotheses."

"But," Theron went on, feeling his way, "of course, I gathered that
evening that you had prejudices in the matter; but these are rather
apart from the point I had in view. We were speaking, you will remember,
of the traditional attitude of women toward priests--wanting to curl
their hair and put flowers in it, you know, and that suggested to me
some individual illustrations, and it occurred to me to wonder just what
were the relations between Miss Madden and--and Father Forbes. She
said this morning, for instance--I happened to meet her, quite by
accident--that she was going to the church to practise a new piece, and
that she could have Father Forbes to herself all day. Now that would
be quite an impossible remark in our--that is, in any Protestant
circles--and purely as a matter of comparison, I was curious to ask you
just how much there was in it. I ask you, because going there so much
you have had exceptional opportunities for--"

A sharp exclamation from his companion interrupted the clergyman's
hesitating monologue. It began like a high-pitched, violent word, but
dwindled suddenly into a groan of pain. The doctor's face, too, which
had on the flash of Theron's turning seemed given over to unmixed anger,
took on an expression of bodily suffering instead.

"My shoulder has grown all at once excessively painful," he said
hastily. "I'm afraid I must ask you to excuse me, Mr. Ware."

Carrying the afflicted side with ostentatious caution, he led the way