-morning to you, with the sense that I
have not been able at present to contribute to your satisfaction as I had
wished.«
    »Speak not of it in the way of apology, sir,« said Mr Lyon, in a tone of
depression. »I doubt not that you yourself have acted in good faith. Nor will I
open any door of egress to constructions such as anger often deems ingenious,
but which the disclosure of the simple truth may expose as erroneous and
uncharitable fabrications. I wish you good-morning, sir.«
    When the room was cleared of the church people, Mr Lyon wished to soothe his
own spirit and that of his flock by a few reflections introductory to a parting
prayer. But there was a general resistance to this effect. The men mustered
round the minister, and declared their opinion that the whole thing was
disgraceful to the church. Some said the curate's absence had been contrived
from the first. Others more than hinted that it had been a folly in Mr Lyon to
set on foot any procedure in common with Tories and clergymen, who, if they ever
aped civility to Dissenters, would never do anything but laugh at them in their
sleeves. Brother Kemp urged in his heavy bass that Mr Lyon should lose no time
in sending an account of the affair to the Patriot; and Brother Hawkins, in his
high tenor, observed that it was an occasion on which some stinging things might
be said with all the extra effect of an apropos.
    The position of receiving a many-voiced lecture from the members of his
church was familiar to Mr Lyon; but now he felt weary, frustrated, and doubtful
of his own temper. Felix, who stood by and saw that this man of sensitive fibre
was suffering from talkers whose noisy superficiality cost them nothing, got
exasperated. »It seems to me, sirs,« he burst in, with his predominant voice,
»that Mr Lyon has hitherto had the hard part of the business, while you of his
congregation have had the easy one. Punish the church clergy, if you like - they
can take care of themselves. But don't punish your own minister. It's no
business of mine, perhaps, except so far as fair-play is everybody's business;
but it seems to me the time to ask Mr Lyon to take a little rest, instead of
setting on him like so many wasps.«
    By this speech Felix raised a displeasure which fell on the minister as well
as on himself; but he gained his immediate end. The talkers dropped