Roderick, therefore, being suspected, was now placed under a vigorous taboo--boycotted we would have called it thirty-five years later, but boycotted under a wisely modified form. Ebenezer Prittie or Peter Malloch would still have been happy to sell him all they had in their shops,--at a proper advance on cost--seeing that the coin of an excommunicate is no worse than other people's, and money, however come by, is 'all right,' as Vespasian found out long ago. There was no fear, therefore, of his being starved out so long as he continued able to buy. But intercourse with his parishioners had come to an end. Some few were veritably unwilling to have dealings with iniquity, but the majority dared not offend public opinion by appearing to hold communication with him; and these secretly knowing the shakiness of their own principles were the loudest in denouncing any one who should venture to approach the Browns, thereby contributing much of the strength of that public opinion which tyrannized over themselves. The only exceptions were Roderick's pensioners. These, defying the censorious, presented themselves in shy and deprecatory fashion (deprecatory alike to the offended righteous without, and to the indignant and maligned within), each as his pay-day came round. The money had become an established item in their income, which those who disapproved would assuredly not make good; wherefore, they felt constrained to revisit the flesh pots. After all, even if the worst were true, what was it but a spoiling of the Egyptians? A perfectly allowable, perhaps a praiseworthy act, which Moses himself had suggested, and even recommended to the chosen people of old. They took the money, therefore, in defiance of such as shook their heads, and, finding it retained its old purchasing power, were none the worse.