He left her and went up to the minister's desk, the men shuffling their feet a little, and rattling a stick here and there as he did so.
The young minister took the chair and introduced the speaker.

He had a strong Yorkshire accent, and his speech was divided between the most vehement attacks, couched in the most Scriptural language, upon capital and privilege--that is to say, on landlords and the land system, on State churches and the "idle rich," interspersed with quavering returns upon himself, as though he were scared by his own invective.

"My brothers, let us be _calm_!" he would say after every burst of passion, with a long deep-voiced emphasis on the last word; "let us, above all things, be _calm_!"-- and then bit by bit voice and denunciation would begin to mount again towards a fresh climax of loud-voiced attack, only to sink again to the same lamb-like refrain.

Mrs.Boyce's thin lip twitched, and Marcella bore the good gentleman a grudge for providing her mother with so much unnecessary amusement.
As for Wharton, at the opening of his speech he spoke both awkwardly and flatly; and Marcella had a momentary shock.

He was, as he said, tired, and his wits were not at command.