His was a mind in which there was no place for platonic friendship, and Susannah was obviously a most desirable piece of property to the struggling Church.

The Church had provided the paper for this letter, must needs provide the stamp; he was officially responsible to the Church.

The elder had been an honest man according to the average notions of honesty until within the last weeks, when stress of circumstance had made him reconsider, not for himself but for others, more than one rule of life, and obtain larger latitude.

The building up of the Church in her present sore strait was surely an end to override small scruples.

He acted now as an official, as a priest, when, after a good many painful qualms of conscience, he opened the letter.