Hodder, through Mr. Parr's intervention, had gone to one of
these, ably and breezily presided over by the versatile Mr. Plimpton.

Hodder felt not only curiosity and sympathy, but a vexing sense of the
fruitlessness of his visits to Park Street. Mr. Parr seemed to like to
have him there. And the very fact that the conversation rarely took any
vital turn oddly contributed to the increasing permanence of the lien.
To venture on any topic relating to the affairs of the day were merely
to summon forth the banker's dogmatism, and Hodder's own opinions on
such matters were now in a strange and unsettled state. Mr. Parr liked
best to talk of his treasures, and of the circumstances during his trips
abroad that had led to their acquirement. Once the banker had asked him
about parish house matters.

"I'm told you're working very hard--stirring up McCrae. He needs it."

"I'm only trying to study the situation," Hodder replied. "I don't think
you quite do justice to McCrae," he added; "he's very faithful, and
seems to understand those people thoroughly."

Mr. Parr smiled.

"And what conclusions have you come to? If you think the system should
be enlarged and reorganized I am willing at any time to go over it with
you, with a view to making an additional contribution. Personally, while
I have sympathy for the unfortunate, I'm not at all sure that much of
the energy and money put into the institutional work of churches isn't
wasted."

"I haven't come to any conclusions--yet," said the rector, with a touch
of sadness. "Perhaps I demand too much--expect too much."

The financier, deep in his leather chair under the shaded light,
the tips of his fingers pressed together, regarded the younger man
thoughtfully, but the smile lingered in his eyes.

"I told you you would meet problems," he said.

II

Hodder's cosmos might have been compared, indeed, to that set forth in
the Ptolemaic theory of the ancients. Like a cleverly carved Chinese
object of ivory in the banker's collection, it was a system of spheres,
touching, concentric, yet separate. In an outer space swung Mr. Parr;
then came the scarcely less rarefied atmosphere of the Constables and
Atterburys, Fergusons, Plimptons, Langmaids, Prestons, Larrabbees,
Greys, and Gores, and then a smaller sphere which claims but a passing
mention. There were, in the congregation of St. John's, a few people of
moderate means whose houses or apartments the rector visited; people to
w