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 »If he come not, the play is marred.« -
                                                         Midsummer Night's Dream
 
Rufus Lyon was very happy on that mild November morning appointed for the great
conference in the larger room at the Free School, between himself and the Rev.
Theodore Sherlock, B. A. The disappointment of not contending with the rector in
person, which had at first been bitter, had been gradually lost sight of in the
positive enjoyment of an opportunity for debating on any terms. Mr Lyon had two
grand elements of pleasure on such occasions: confidence in the strength of his
case, and confidence in his own power of advocacy. Not - to use his own phrase -
not that he glorified himself herein; for speech and exposition were so easy to
him, that if he argued forcibly, he believed it to be simply because the truth
was forcible. He was not proud of moving easily in his native medium. A panting
man thinks of himself as a clever swimmer; but a fish swims much better, and
takes his performance as a matter of course.
    Whether Mr Sherlock were that panting, self-gratulating man, remained a
secret. Philip Debarry, much occupied with his electioneering affairs, had only
once had an opportunity of asking his uncle how Sherlock got on, and the rector
had said, curtly, »I think he'll do. I've supplied him well with references. I
advise him to read only, and decline everything else as out of order. Lyon will
speak to a point, and then Sherlock will read: it will be all the more telling.
It will give variety.« But on this particular morning peremptory business
connected with the magistracy called the rector away.
    Due notice had been given, and the feminine world of Treby Magna was much
more agitated by the prospect than by that of any candidate's speech. Mrs
Pendrell at the Bank, Mrs Tiliot, and the church ladies generally, felt bound to
hear the curate, who was known, apparently by an intuition concerning the nature
of curates, to be a very clever young man; and he would show them what learning
had to say on the right side. One or two Dissenting ladies were not without
emotion at the thought that, seated on the front benches, they should be brought
near to old Church friends, and have a longer greeting than had taken place
since the Catholic Emancipation. Mrs Muscat, who had been a beauty, and was as
nice in her millinery as any Trebian lady belonging to the establishment,
reflected that she should put on her best large embroidered collar
