The faces of Pryer
and his friends were not like this. Why had he felt tacitly rebuked as
soon as he had met Towneley? Was he not a Christian? Certainly; he
believed in the Church of England as a matter of course. Then how
could he be himself wrong in trying to act up to the faith that he and
Towneley held in common? He was trying to lead a quiet, unobtrusive
life of self-devotion, whereas Towneley was not, so far as he could
see, trying to do anything of the kind; he was only trying to get on
comfortably in the world, and to look and be as nice as possible.
And he was nice, and Ernest knew that such men as himself and Pryer
were not nice, and his old dejection came over him.
Then came an even worse reflection; how if he had fallen among
material thieves as well as spiritual ones? He knew very little of how
his money was going on; he had put it all now into Pryer's hands,
and though Pryer gave him cash to spend whenever he wanted it, he
seemed impatient of being questioned as to what was being done with
the principal. It was part of the understanding, he said, that was
to be left to him, and Ernest had better stick to this, or he,
Pryer, would throw up the College of Spiritual Pathology altogether;
and so Ernest was cowed into acquiescence, or cajoled, according to
the humour in which Pryer saw him to be.
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