The Rev. Mr. Arnold certainly did not have much of that desirable , indefinable quality known as gumption , or he would never have asked Whiskers-on-the-moon to lead in prayer at a khaki prayer-meeting . He thought he was returning the compliment to Mr. Meredith , who , at the conclusion of his address , had asked a Methodist deacon to lead . Some people expected Mr. Pryor to refuse grumpily -- and that would have made enough scandal . But Mr. Pryor bounded briskly to his feet , unctuously said , `` Let us pray , '' and forthwith prayed . In a sonorous voice which penetrated to every corner of the crowded building Mr. Pryor poured forth a flood of fluent words , and was well on in his prayer before his dazed and horrified audience awakened to the fact that they were listening to a pacifist appeal of the rankest sort . Mr. Pryor had at least the courage of his convictions ; or perhaps , as people afterwards said , he thought he was safe in a church and that it was an excellent chance to air certain opinions he dared not voice elsewhere , for fear of being mobbed . He prayed that the unholy war might cease -- that the deluded armies being driven to slaughter on the Western front might have their eyes opened to their iniquity and repent while yet there was time -- that the poor young men present in khaki , who had been hounded into a path of murder and militarism , should yet be rescued -- Mr. Pryor had got this far without let or hindrance ; and so paralysed were his hearers , and so deeply imbued with their born-and-bred conviction that no disturbance must ever be made in a church , no matter what the provocation , that it seemed likely that he would continue unchecked to the end . But one man at least in that audience was not hampered by inherited or acquired reverence for the sacred edifice . Norman Douglas was , as Susan had often vowed crisply , nothing more or less than a `` pagan . '' But he was a rampantly patriotic pagan , and when the significance of what Mr. Pryor was saying fully dawned on him , Norman Douglas suddenly went berserk . With a positive roar he bounded to his feet in his side pew , facing the audience , and shouted in tones of thunder : `` Stop -- stop -- STOP that abominable prayer ! What an abominable prayer ! '' Every head in the church flew up . A boy in khaki at the back gave a faint cheer . Mr. Meredith raised a deprecating hand , but Norman was past caring for anything like that . Eluding his wife 's restraining grasp , he gave one mad spring over the front of the pew and caught the unfortunate Whiskers-on-the-moon by his coat collar . Mr. Pryor had not `` stopped '' when so bidden , but he stopped now , perforce , for Norman , his long red beard literally bristling with fury , was shaking him until his bones fairly rattled , and punctuating his shakes with a lurid assortment of abusive epithets . `` You blatant beast ! '' -- shake -- `` You malignant carrion '' -- shake -- `` You pig-headed varmint ! '' -- shake -- `` you putrid pup '' -- shake -- `` you pestilential parasite '' -- shake -- `` you -- Hunnish scum '' -- shake -- `` you indecent reptile -- you -- you -- '' Norman choked for a moment .
Everybody believed that the next thing he would say , church or no church , would be something that would have XXXXX be spelt with asterisks ; but at that moment Norman encountered his wife 's eye and he fell back with a thud on Holy Writ .
In at by for of than that to until with