G K Chesterton

The Wisdom of Father Brown G K Chesterton

"I hardly understand you," replied the scientist, with a cold intensity of manner. "Ifear you have mistaken the chambers. I am Dr Hood, and my work is almost entirelyliterary and educational. It is true that I have sometimes been consulted by thepolice in cases of peculiar difficulty and importance, but-""Oh, this is of the greatest importance," broke in the little man called Brown."Why, her mother won't let them get engaged." And he leaned back in his chair inradiant rationality. The brows of Dr Hood were drawn down darkly, but the eyes under them werebright with something that might be anger or might be amusement. "And still," hesaid, "I do not quite understand.""You see, they want to get married," said the man with the clerical hat. "MaggieMacNab and young Todhunter want to get married. Now, what can be moreimportant than that?"The great Orion Hood's scientific triumphs had deprived him of many things-some said of his health, others of his God; but they had not wholly despoiled him ofhis sense of the absurd. At the last plea of the ingenuous priest a chuckle broke outof him from inside, and he threw himself into an arm-chair in an ironical attitude ofthe consulting physician.