Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill Mr. Pettibone gazed at Miss Philura in puzzled silence for the space of a minute. The under shepherd of the Innisfield Presbyterian church, as Mrs. Van Duser had once called him, was not blessed with a very keen sense of humour. He strove unsuccessfully to imagine the theological concept of deity to which he had been taught to pray in carefully constructed sentences, as interested in the black and purple brocade. He shook his head. Then he took Miss Philura’s toil-worn hand is his own and patted it gently.
Do I think ? God ? is interested in;? clothes ?
he repeated.
Why ? er ? really ?
1 Somehow or other a certain pregnant saying concerning a mill-stone and the deep sea flashed across his troubled mind.
Our Lord in his various discourses certainly mentioned garments ? ah ? more than once, he went on presently. Miss Philura’s blue eyes sparkled.
I knew you’d say so!
she murmured happily.
The wedding garment in the parable, pursued the minister, referring to his mental concordance of Scripture texts.
The ? ah ? robe of state which was brought forth for the returned prodigal, and?

The lilies of the field, suggested Miss Philura timidly.
Jesus said that ‘ even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.’
She glanced sidewise at the chrysanthemums which glistened in their bridal snows beneath the yellow light of the lamp.
True, said the minister. He gazed thoughtfully at the rather shabby clothes he was wearing. They were his
preaching clothes of three years before last. Mr. Pettibone always wore
preaching clothes
of different degrees of shabbiness, for the very good reason that he could afford no others. He even wore a very ancient and disreputable long-tailed frock-coat and black trousers…