"
During the sermon the Major was much excited. Apart altogether from
the effect of the actual words spoken, Mr: Bradshaw had a singular
and contagious power over men. The three, Mrs. Coleman, the Major,
and Zachariah, came out together. Mrs. Zachariah stayed behind in
the lobby for some female friend to whom she wished to speak about a
Sunday-school tea-meeting which was to take place that week. The
other two stood aside, ill at ease, amongst the crowd pressing out
into the street. Presently Mrs. Coleman found her friend, whom she
at once informed that Major Maitland and her husband were waiting for
her, and that therefore she had not a moment to spare. That little
triumph accomplished, she had nothing of importance to say about the
tea-meeting, and rejoined her party with great good-humour. She
walked between the Major and Zachariah, and at once asked the Major
how he "enjoyed the service." The phrase was very unpleasant to
Zachariah, but he was silent.
"Well, ma'am," said the Major, "Mr. Bradshaw is a very remarkable
man. It is a long time since any speaker stirred me as he did. He
is a born orator, if ever there was one."
"I could have wished," said Zachariah, "as you are not often in
chapel, that his sermon had been founded on some passage in the New
Testament which would have given him the opportunity of more simply
expounding the gospel of Christ.
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