He began several sentences with the phrase: "No thinking man at the present day ..." In fact, Mr.Mackintosh was, so soon as he had recovered from the first shock, extraordinarily sensible and reasonable.

He said all the proper things, all the sensible and reasonable and common-sense things, and he said them, not offensively or contemptuously, but tactfully and persuasively.

And he put into it the whole of his personality, such as it was.

He even quoted St.Paul.
He perspired a little, gently, towards the end: so he took off his glasses and wiped them, looking, still with a smile, through kind, short-sighted eyes, at this young man who sat so still.

For Frank was so quiet that the Dean thought him already half persuaded.