pathetically to put the little squares one by one into his mouth.




CHAPTER V


That incident in itself is sufficient. There is no need to lead a
way down the steps that brought the Rev. Samuel Bishop to his final
degradation and ultimate death. The generous offer of the chaplaincy
of a small union, the withdrawal of his son from Oxford, the dismissal
of the tutelary services of the lady who had charge of his daughter's
education, the replacing of a better man in the rectory at
Cailsham--all these stages of the little tragedy have no intimate
importance in themselves, except that they formed the first
evolutionary periods of the development of Sally's life. These were
the press-gang of circumstances that forced her into the service of
her sex; these, the shrilling calls of the bugle that bid her strap
the haversack to her slender shoulders and march out to war against
the sea of trouble.

In a living and moving institution such as the Christian Church, you
cannot afford to be lenient to incompetency. And the Rev. Samuel was
incompetent. There is no doubt about that.

In such circumstances as these, assuming them up to the point where
the obliging chauffeur had found the door closed in his face, a
competent man would have lifted reason above his faith. Calmly, he
would have told himself, as did the chauffeur, "This is the juice