Was he really doing everything that could be expected of him? It was all
very well to say that he was doing as much as other young clergymen did;
that was not the kind of answer which Jesus Christ was likely to accept;
why, the Pharisees themselves in all probability did as much as the other
Pharisees did. What he should do was to go into the highways and byways,
and compel people to come in. Was he doing this? Or were not they
rather compelling him to keep out--outside their doors at any rate? He
began to have an uneasy feeling as though ere long, unless he kept a
sharp look out, he should drift into being a sham.
True, all would be changed as soon as he could endow the College for
Spiritual Pathology; matters, however, had not gone too well with "the
things that people bought in the place that was called the Stock
Exchange." In order to get on faster, it had been arranged that Ernest
should buy more of these things than he could pay for, with the idea that
in a few weeks, or even days, they would be much higher in value, and he
could sell them at a tremendous profit; but, unfortunately, instead of
getting higher, they had fallen immediately after Ernest had bought, and
obstinately refused to get up again; so, after a few settlements, he had
got frightened, for he read an article in some newspaper, which said they
would go ever so much lower, and, contrary to Pryer's advice, he insisted
on selling--at a loss of something like 500 pounds.
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