`` It 's just -- he takes strange moods sometimes . Then he seems to hate us all -- even me -- and he is like that for days . He seems to suspect and dread everybody as if they were plotting against him . You -- perhaps you think he has been drinking ? No , that is not the trouble . These terrible moods come on without any cause that we know of . Even Mother could not do anything with him when he was like that . You must go away now -- and do not come back until his dark mood has passed . He will be just as glad to see you as ever then , and this will not make any difference with him . Do n't come back for a week at least . '' `` I do not like to leave you in such trouble , Miss Oliver . '' `` Oh , it does n't matter about me -- I have Emily . And there is nothing you could do . Please go at once . Father knows I am talking to you and that will vex him still more . '' Alan , realizing that he could not help her and that his presence only made matters worse , went away perplexedly . The following week was a miserable one for him . His duties were distasteful to him and meeting his people a positive torture . Sometimes Mrs. Danby looked dubiously at him and seemed on the point of saying something -- but never said it . Isabel King watched him when they met , with bold probing eyes .
In his abstraction he did not notice this any more than he noticed a certain subtle change which had come over the members XXXXX his congregation -- as if a breath of suspicion had blown across them and troubled their confidence and trust .
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