h to know my will and
have it."

Mrs. Hodges was startled at the speech. She felt vaguely that there was
a new element in the boy's character since morning. He was on the
instant a man. It was as if clay had suddenly hardened in the potter's
hands. She could no longer mould or ply him. In that moment she
recognised the fact.

The dinner was all that could be expected, and her visitors enjoyed it,
in spite of the absence of the guest of honour, but for the hostess it
was a dismal failure. After wielding the sceptre for years, it had been
suddenly snatched from her hand; and she felt lost and helpless,
deprived of her power.

CHAPTER XIII

As Brent thought of the long struggle before him, he began to wish that
there might be something organically wrong with him which the shock
would irritate into fatal illness. But even while he thought this he
sneered at himself for the weakness. A weakness self-confessed holds the
possibility of strength. So in a few days he rallied and took up the
burden of his life again. As before he had found relief in study, now he
stilled his pains and misgivings by a strict attention to the work which
his place involved.

His was not an easy position for a young man. He had to go through the
ordeal of pastoral visits. He had to condole with old ladies who thought
a preacher had nothing else to do than to listen to the recital of their
ailments. He had to pray with poor and stricken families whose
conditions reminded him strongly of what his own must have been. He had
to speak words of serious admonition to girls nearly his own age, who
thought it great fun and giggled in his face. All this must he do, nor
must he slight a single convention. No rules of conduct are so rigid as
are those of a provincial town. He who ministers to the people must
learn their prejudices and be adroit enough not to offend them or strong
enough to break them down. It was a great load to lay on the shoulders
of so young a man. But habit is everything, and he soon fell into the
ways of his office. Writing to Taylor, he said, "I am fairly harnessed
now, and at work, and, although the pulling is somewhat hard, I know my
way. It is wonderful how soon a man falls into the cant of his position
and learns to dole out the cut-and-dried phrases of ministerial talk
like a sort of spiritual phonograph. I must confess, though, that I am
rather good friends with the children who come to my Sunday-school. My
own experie