"It was apparently very unwise to adopt such a rule," remarked Mr. Prymm, "if only to be rescinded or suspended whenever the curiosity of any of the members may desire it. We are adults instead of children, and cannot afford, for the sake of consistency, the abrogation of this rule, especially when every one present has unlimited informal and social opportunities for discussion, as, indeed, they have already been doing all week long." Mr. Prymm looked appealingly toward President Lottson, but that gentleman seemed in the depths of a gloomy reverie, and unwilling to be disturbed. For Mr. Lottson's convert had relapsed; he had, before the evening on which the examining committee met, dropped a note to Mr. Lottson, saying that the longer he meditated upon the matter the more he felt that the proposed action would be hypocritical; that if the church would not detect the hypocrisy, the rest of the world would, and he preferred to retain the respect of his friends. This note of Broker Whilcher's had not only inflicted disappointment upon President Lottson, but it had brought him some tormenting anxieties. If Whilcher, who was a shrewd observer of men, really meant what he said, was it not possible and probable that he, President Lottson, who believed all that he had asked the broker to believe, and very little more, might also be looked upon as a hypocrite? He knew that his reputation in his own church was not all that he could have wished it to be; but, looked at in sober earnest, his church, to his eyes, consisted of such of its members as were city business men, like himself; there was still another element in the church, however, and it was numerically the largest, which judged a man by his professions, and Mr. Lottson trusted that among these he still retained his respect. But then came a more annoying thought. Business was business, and business men would take no man's word any the more implicitly because he was a church member. Could it be possible that among these he passed not only for a business man of ordinary morality, but as a hypocrite too? Was he not really honest in his beliefs? He certainly was; he could lay his hand on his heart and swear honestly that every religious belief he possessed he had acquired by the exercise of his best logical faculties. Why, then, should he be considered hypocritical? Could it be possible that the world saw something more in the Bible than church members like himself did? Certainly not. How could the world do anything of the sort? It had never studied the Bible as he had done, and as fathers of the faith, with whom he had never for a moment dared to compare himself, had done. And then to have a prolonged consideration of the late lesson go on in his hearing while he felt as he did! It was unendurable. He would have departed silently and without explanation, and betaken himself to Dr. Humbletop's class, had he not previously informed Builder Stott that he