Petrie, on the other hand, held the doctrine as absolutely fundamental
to Christianity, and preached it with power; while the soutar, who had
discarded it from his childhood, positively refused, jealous of strife, to
enter into any argument upon it with the disputatious little man.
As yet, then, James was reading Scotch metaphysics, and reconciling himself
to the concealment of his freer opinions, upon which concealment depended
the success of his probation, and his license. But the close of his studies
in divinity was now near at hand.
CHAPTER III
Upon a certain stormy day in the great northern city, preparing for what
he regarded as his career, James sat in the same large, shabbily furnished
room where his mother had once visited him--half-way up the hideously long
spiral stair of an ancient house, whose entrance was in a narrow close. The
great clock of a church in the neighbouring street had just begun to strike
five of a wintry afternoon, dark with snow, falling and yet to fall: how
often in after years was he not to hear the ghostly call of that clock, and
see that falling snow!--when a gentle tap came to his door, and the girl I
have already mentioned came in with a tray and the materials for his most
welcomed meal, coffee with bread and butter.
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