r later digestion."

Obediently Brenton sat down; or, to speak more accurately, was borne
down by the weight of the doctor's energetic denunciation. It was the
first time that he had found the doctor in such a mood as that.
Mercifully, Brenton had no inkling that he had brought it on himself by
his prelude to the talk. It would have shocked him unspeakably, had it
dawned upon him that Doctor Keltridge, within himself, was applying
profane adjectives to the spiritual doubtings of his rector. It would
have astounded him beyond all words, had he known how trivial to the
doctor's seasoned mind had seemed his own juggling touch upon the rival
claims of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Had Brenton held within himself
one tenth of Reed Opdyke's staying power, all would have come out right
in the end. The pieces of the puzzle would have fallen into their true
places. Instead, Scott Brenton, in his impatience, was apparently
determined to chop the pieces into smaller bits, and then to deface
their surfaces almost past recognition. Therefore it had seemed to
Doctor Keltridge the one way of escape from the whole pother had been
opened by his words, which he now repeated with a fresh emphasis that
he hoped would finally impress them upon Scott Brenton's ear.

"Yes; and so, with all this complication on his hands, the professor is
hunting for a new assistant."

This time, Brenton looked at him keenly.

"Are you telling that fact to me, for any especial reason, doctor?" he
demanded.

"Yes, to my shame, I am. By good rights, Brenton, I ought to order you
into a sanatorium, until you get over the desire to make an idiot of
yourself. I doubt, though, if it would do any good. I fancy that your
case is chronic, that you won't be happy till you've muddled your
intellectual salvation according to your own notions. If that's the
fact, the sooner you go about it, the better. Your hanging on at Saint
Peter's is only so much wear and tear upon your nerves. Ours, too, when
it comes to that. One doesn't get much sanctification out of a sermon
couched in glittering generalities and delivered by a rector with a
crumpled brow. Therefore the trustee of the college has told tales to
the doctor, and the doctor is hinting the gist of those tales to his
patient."

"Do you think I'd fill the place?" Brenton's voice surprised himself by
its unwonted quivering of eagerness.

"Depends on whether you get the chance," the doctor parried. "Moreover,
your get