In either event, the republication
of the "Stop, Look, Listen!" article was an invitation to battle.
It was in no happy frame of mind that Harwood awaited the coming of
Ramsay.
CHAPTER XXXI
SYLVIA ASKS QUESTIONS
The Wares had asked Sylvia to dine with them on Friday evening a
fortnight later, and Harwood was to call for her at the minister's at
nine o'clock. Sylvia went directly to the Wares' from school, and on
reaching the house learned that Mrs. Ware had not come home and that the
minister was engaged with a caller in the parlor. Sylvia, who knew the
ways of the house well, left her wraps in the hall and made herself
comfortable in the study, that curious little room that was never free
from the odor of pipe smoke, and where an old cavalry sabre hung above
the desk upon which in old times many sermons had been written. A
saddle, a fishing-rod, and a fowling-piece dwelt together harmoniously
in one corner, and over the back of a chair hung a dilapidated corduroy
coat.
It had been whispered in orthodox circles that Ware had amused himself
one winter after his retirement by profanely feeding his theological
library into the furnace. However true this may be, few authors were
represented in his library, and these were as far as possible compressed
in one volume. Shakespeare, Milton, Emerson, Arnold, and Whittier were
always ready to his hand; and he kept a supply of slender volumes of
Sill's "Poems" in a cupboard in the hall and handed them out
discriminatingly to his callers.
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