There was a sudden silence.
Margret shivered, as if some pain stung her.

Holding her father's bony hand in hers, she patted it on her knee.

The hand trembled a little.
Knowles's sharp eyes darted from one to the other; then, with a smothered growl, he shook himself, and rushed headlong into the old battle which he and the school-master had been waging now, off and on, some six years.

That was a fight, I can tell you! None of your shallow, polite clashing of modern theories,--no talk of your Jeffersonian Democracy, your high-bred Federalism! They took hold of the matter by the roots, clear at the beginning.
Mrs.Howth's breath fairly left her, they went into the soul of the matter in such a dangerous way.

What if Joel should hear?
No doubt he would report that his master was an infidel,--that would be the next thing they would hear.