`` I used to hate Methodists , '' said Miss Cornelia calmly , when her husband expressed surprise over her going , `` but I do n't hate them now . There is no sense in hating Methodists when there is a Kaiser or a Hindenburg in the world . '' So Miss Cornelia went . Norman Douglas and his wife went too . And Whiskers-on-the-moon strutted up the aisle to a front pew , as if he fully realized what a distinction he conferred upon the building . People were somewhat surprised that he should be there , since he usually avoided all assemblages connected in any way with the war . But Mr. Meredith had said that he hoped his session would be well represented , and Mr. Pryor had evidently taken the request to heart . He wore his best black suit and white tie , his thick , tight , iron-grey curls were neatly arranged , and his broad , red round face looked , as Susan most uncharitably thought , more `` sanctimonious '' than ever . `` The minute I saw that man coming into the Church , looking like that , I felt that mischief was brewing , Mrs. Dr. dear , '' she said afterwards . `` What form it would take I could not tell , but I knew from face of him that he had come there for no good . '' The prayer-meeting opened conventionally and continued quietly . Mr. Meredith spoke first with his usual eloquence and feeling . Mr. Arnold followed with an address which even Miss Cornelia had to confess was irreproachable in taste and subject-matter . And then Mr. Arnold asked Mr. Pryor to lead in prayer . Miss Cornelia had always averred that Mr. Arnold had no gumption . Miss Cornelia was not apt to err on the side of charity in her judgment of Methodist ministers , but in this case she did not greatly overshoot the mark . 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 XXXXX 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 .
as at in of over since than that to with