it occasionally happens that a woman whose early life has been directed by native silliness and social bias, will submit to a tardy education at the hands of her own children. thus was it with mrs warricombe.
she came of a race long established in squirearchic dignity amid heaths and woodlands. her breeding was pure through many generations of the paternal and maternal lines, representative of a physical type, fortified in the males by much companionship with horse and hound, and by the corresponding country pursuits of dowered daughters. at the time of her marriage she had no charms of person more remarkable than rosy comeliness and the symmetry of supple limb. as for the nurture of her mind, it had been intrusted to home-governesses of respectable incapacity. martin warricombe married her because she was one of a little circle of girls, much alike as to birth and fortune, with whom he had grown up in familiar communication. timidity imposed restraints upon him which made his choice almost a matter of accident. as befalls often enough, the betrothal became an accomplished fact whilst he was still doubting whether he desired it or not. when the fervour of early wedlock was outlived, he had no difficulty in accepting as a matter of course that his life’s companion should be hopelessly illogical and at heart indifferent to everything but the small graces and substantial comforts of provincial existence. one of the advantages of wealth is that it allows husband and wife to keep a great deal apart without any show of mutual unkindness, a condition essential to happiness in marriage. time fostered in them a calm attachment, independent of spiritual sympathy, satisfied with a common regard for domestic honour.
not that mrs. warricombe remained in complete ignorance of her husband’s pursuits; social forms would scarcely have allowed this, seeing that she was in constant intercourse, as hostess or guest, with martin’s scientific friends. of fossils she necessarily knew something. up to a certain point they amused her; she could talk of ammonites, of brachiopods, and would point a friend’s attention to the calceola sandalina which martin prized so much. the significance of palaeontology she dimly apprehended, for in the early days of their union her husband had felt it desirable to explain to her what was meant by geologic time and how he reconciled his views on that subject with the demands of religious faith. among the books which he induced her to read were buckland’s bridgewater treatise and the works of hugh miller. the intellectual result was chaotic, and mrs. warricombe settled at last into a comfortable private opinion, that though the record of geology might be trustworthy that of the bible was more so. she would admit that there was no impiety in accepting the evidence of nature, but held to a secret conviction that it was safer to believe in genesis. for anything beyond a quasi-permissible variance from biblical authority as to the age of the world she was quite unprepared, and martin, in his discretion, imparted to her nothing of the graver doubts which were wont to trouble him.
but as her children grew up, mrs. warricombe’s mind and temper were insensibly modified by influences which operated through her maternal affections, influences no doubt aided by the progressive spirit of the time. the three boys—buckland, maurice, and louis—were distinctly of a new generation. it needed some ingenuity to discover their points of kindred with paternal and maternal grandparents; nor even with father and mother had they much in common which observation could readily detect. sidwell, up to at least her fifteenth year, seemed to present far less change of type. in her mrs. warricombe recognised a daughter, and not without solace. but fanny again was a problematical nature, almost from the cradle. latest born, she appeared to revive many characteristics of the youthful buckland, so far as a girl could resemble her brother. it was a strange brood to cluster around mrs. warricombe. for many years the mother was kept in alternation between hopes and fears, pride and disapproval, the old hereditary habits of mind, and a new order of ideas which could only be admitted with the utmost slowness. buckland’s radicalism deeply offended her; she marvelled how such depravity could display itself in a child of hers. yet in the end her ancestral prejudices so far yielded as to allow of her smiling at sentiments which she once heard with horror. maurice, whom she loved more tenderly, all but taught her to see the cogency of a syllogism—amiably set forth. and louis, with his indolent good-nature, laughed her into a tolerance of many things which had moved her indignation. but it was to sidwell that in the end she owed most. beneath the surface of ordinary and rather backward girlhood, which discouraged her father’s hopes, sidwell was quietly developing a personality distinguished by the refinement of its ethical motives. her orthodoxy seemed as unimpeachable as mrs warricombe could desire, yet as she grew into womanhood, a curiosity, which in no way disturbed the tenor of her quietly contented life, led her to examine various forms of religion, ancient and modern, and even systems of philosophy which professed to establish a moral code, independent of supernatural faith. she was not of studious disposition—that is to say, she had never cared as a schoolgirl to do more mental work than was required of her, and even now it was seldom that she read for more than an hour or two in the day. her habit was to dip into books, and meditate long on the first points which arrested her thoughts. of continuous application she seemed incapable. she could read french, but did not attempt to pursue the other languages of which her teachers had given her a smattering. it pleased her best when she could learn from conversation. in this way she obtained some insight into her father’s favourite sciences, occasionally making suggestions or inquiries which revealed a subtle if not an acute intelligence.
little by little mrs. warricombe found herself changing places with the daughter whom she had regarded as wholly subject to her direction. sidwell began to exercise an indeterminate control, the proofs of which were at length manifest in details of her mother’s speech and demeanour. an exquisite social tact, an unfailing insensibly as the qualities of pure air: these were the points of sincerity of moral judgment, a gentle force which operated as character to which mrs. warricombe owed the humanisation observable when one compared her in 1885 with what she was, say, in 1874, when the sight of professor walsh moved her to acrimony, and when she conceived a pique against professor gale because the letter p has alphabetical precedence of w. her limitations were of course the same as ever, and from her sons she had only learnt to be ashamed of announcing them too vehemently. sidwell it was who had led her to that degree of genuine humility, which is not satisfied with hiding a fault but strives to amend it.
martin warricombe himself was not unaffected by the growth about him of young men and maidens who looked upon the world with new eyes, whose world, indeed, was another than that in which he had spent the better part of his life. in his case contact with the young generation tended to unsettlement, to a troublesome persistency of speculations which he would have preferred to dismiss altogether. at the time of his marriage, and for some years after, he was content to make a broad distinction between those intellectual pursuits which afforded him rather a liberal amusement than the pleasures of earnest study and the questions of metaphysical faith which concerned his heart and conscience. his native prejudices were almost as strong, and much the same, as those of his wife; but with the vagueness of emotional logic natural to his constitution, he satisfied himself that, by conceding a few inessential points, he left himself at liberty to follow the scientific movements of the day without damage to his religious convictions. the tolerant smile so frequently on his countenance was directed as often in the one quarter as in the other. now it signified a gentle reproof of those men of science who, like professor walsh, ‘went too far’, whose zeal for knowledge led them ‘to forget the source of all true enlightenment’; now it expressed a forbearing sympathy with such as erred in the opposite direction, who were ‘too literal in their interpretation of the sacred volume’. amiable as the smile was, it betrayed weakness, and at moments martin became unpleasantly conscious of indisposition to examine his own mind on certain points. his life, indeed, was one of debate postponed. as the realm of science extended, as his intercourse with men who frankly avowed their ‘infidelity’ grew more frequent, he ever and again said to himself that, one of these days, he must sit down and ‘have it out’ in a solemn self-searching. but for the most part he got on very well amid his inconsistencies. religious faith has rarely any connection with reasoning. martin believed because he believed, and avoided the impact of disagreeable arguments because he wished to do so.
the bent of his mind was anything but polemical; he cared not to spend time even over those authors whose attacks on the outposts of science, or whose elaborate reconcilements of old and new, might have afforded him some support. on the other hand, he altogether lacked that breadth of intellect which seeks to comprehend all the results of speculation, to discern their tendency, to derive from them a consistent theory of the nature of things. though a man be well versed in a science such as palaeontology it does not follow that he will view it in its philosophical relations. martin had kept himself informed of all the facts appertaining to his study which the age brought forth, but without developing the new modes of mental life requisite for the recognition of all that such facts involved. the theories of evolution he did not venture openly to resist, but his acceptance of them was so half-hearted that practically he made no use of their teaching. he was no man of science, but an idler among the wonders which science uses for her own purposes.
he regarded with surprise and anxiety the tendencies early manifested in his son buckland. could he have had his way the lad would have grown up with an impossible combination of qualities, blending the enthusiasm of modern research with a spirit of expansive teleology. whilst buckland was still of boyish years, the father treated with bantering good-humour such outbreaks of irreverence as came immediately under his notice, weakly abstaining from any attempt at direct argument or influence. but, at a later time, there took place serious and painful discussions, and only when the young man had rubbed off his edges in the world’s highways could martin forget that stage of most unwelcome conflict.
at the death of his younger boy, maurice, he suffered a blow which had results more abiding than the melancholy wherewith for a year or two his genial nature was overshadowed. from that day onwards he was never wholly at ease among the pursuits which had been wont to afford him an unfailing resource against whatever troubles. he could no longer accept and disregard, in a spirit of cheerful faith, those difficulties science was perpetually throwing in his way. the old smile of kindly tolerance had still its twofold meaning, but it was more evidently a disguise of indecision, and not seldom touched with sadness. martin’s life was still one of postponed debate, but he could not regard the day when conclusions would be demanded of him as indefinitely remote. desiring to dwell in the familiar temporary abode, his structure of incongruities and facile reconcilements, he found it no longer weather-proof. the times were shaking his position with earthquake after earthquake. his sons (for he suspected that louis was hardly less emancipated than buckland) stood far aloof from him, and must in private feel contemptuous of his old-fashioned beliefs. in sidwell, however, he had a companion more and more indispensable, and he could not imagine that her faith would ever give way before the invading spirit of agnosticism. happily she was no mere pietist. though he did not quite understand her attitude towards christianity, he felt assured that sidwell had thought deeply and earnestly of religion in all its aspects, and it was a solace to know that she found no difficulty in recognising the large claims of science. for all this, he could not deliberately seek her confidence, or invite her to a discussion of religious subjects. some day, no doubt, a talk of that kind would begin naturally between them, and so strong was his instinctive faith in sidwell that he looked forward to this future communing as to a certain hope of peace.
that a figure such as godwin peak, a young man of vigorous intellect, preparing to devote his life to the old religion, should excite mr. warricombe’s interest was of course to be anticipated; and it seemed probable enough that peak, exerting all the force of his character and aided by circumstances, might before long convert this advantage to a means of ascendency over the less self-reliant nature. but here was no instance of a dotard becoming the easy prey of a scientific tartufe. martin’s intellect had suffered no decay. his hale features and dignified bearing expressed the mind which was ripened by sixty years of pleasurable activity, and which was learning to regard with steadier view the problems it had hitherto shirked. he could not change the direction nature had given to his thoughts, and prepossession would in some degree obscure his judgment where the merits and trustworthiness of a man in peak’s circumstances called for scrutiny; but self-respect guarded him against vulgar artifices, and a fine sensibility made it improbable that he would become the victim of any man in whom base motives predominated.
left to his own impulses, he would still have proceeded with all caution in his offers of friendly services to peak. a letter of carefully-worded admonition, which he received from his son, apprising him of peak’s resolve to transfer himself to exeter, scarcely affected his behaviour when the young man appeared. it was but natural—he argued—that buckland should look askance on a case of ‘conversion’; for his own part, he understood that such a step might be prompted by interest, but he found it difficult to believe that to a man in peak’s position, the church would offer temptation thus coercive. nor could he discern in the candidate for a curacy any mark of dishonourable purpose. faults, no doubt, were observable, among them a tendency to spiritual pride—which seemed (martin could admit) an argument for, rather than against, his sincerity. the progress of acquaintance decidedly confirmed his favourable impressions; they were supported by the remarks of those among his friends to whom peak presently became known.
it was not until whitsuntide of the next year, when the student had been living nearly five months at exeter, that buckland again came down to visit his relatives. on the evening of his arrival, chancing to be alone with sidwell, he asked her if peak had been to the house lately.
‘not many days ago,’ replied his sister, ‘he lunched with us, and then sat with father for some time.’
‘does he come often?’
‘not very often. he is translating a german book which interests father very much.’
‘oh, what book?’
‘i don’t know. father has only mentioned it in that way.’
they were in a little room sacred to the two girls, very daintily furnished and fragrant of sweet-brier, which sidwell loved so much that, when the season allowed it, she often wore a little spray of it at her girdle. buckland opened a book on the table, and, on seeing the title, exclaimed with a disparaging laugh:
‘i can’t get out of the way of this fellow m’naughten! wherever i go, there he lies about on the tables and chairs. i should have thought he was thoroughly smashed by an article that came out in the critical last year.’
sidwell smiled, evidently in no way offended.
‘that article could “smash” nobody,’ she made answer. ‘it was too violent; it overshot the mark.’
‘not a bit of it!—so you read it, eh? you’re beginning to read, are you?’
‘in my humble way, buckland.’
‘m’naughten, among other things. humble enough, that, i admit.’
‘i am not a great admirer of m’naughten,’ returned his sister, with a look of amusement.
‘no? i congratulate you.—i wonder what peak thinks of the book?’
‘i really don’t know.’
‘then let me ask another question. what do you think of peak?’
sidwell regarded him with quiet reflectiveness.
‘i feel,’ she said, ‘that i don’t know him very well yet. he is certainly interesting.’
‘yes, he is. does he impress you as the kind of man likely to make a good clergyman?’
‘i don’t see any reason why he should not.’
her brother mused, with wrinkles of dissatisfaction on his brow.
‘father gets to like him, you say?’
‘yes, i think father likes him.’
‘well, i suppose it’s all right.’
‘all right?’
‘it’s the most astounding thing that ever came under my observation,’ exclaimed buckland, walking away and then returning.
‘that mr. peak should be studying for the church?’
‘yes.’
‘but do reflect more modestly!’ urged sidwell, with something that was not quite archness, though as near it as her habits of tone and feature would allow. ‘why should you refuse to admit an error in your own way of looking at things? wouldn’t it be better to take this as a proof that intellect isn’t necessarily at war with christianity?’
‘i never stated it so broadly as that,’ returned her brother, with impatience. ‘but i should certainly have maintained that peak’s intellect was necessarily in that position.’
‘and you see how wrong you would have been,’ remarked the girl, softly.
‘well—i don’t know.’
‘you don’t know?’
‘i mean that i can’t acknowledge what i can’t understand.’
‘then do try to understand, buckland!—have you ever put aside your prejudice for a moment to inquire what our religion really means? not once, i think—at all events, not since you reached years of discretion.’
‘allow me to inform you that i studied the question thoroughly at cambridge.’
‘yes, yes; but that was in your boyhood.’
‘and when does manhood begin?’
‘at different times in different persons. in your case it was late.’
buckland laughed. he was considering a rejoinder, when they were interrupted by the appearance of fanny, who asked at once:
‘shall you go to see mr. peak this evening, buckland?’
‘i’m in no hurry,’ was the abrupt reply.
the girl hesitated.
‘let us all have a drive together—with mr. peak, i mean—like when you were here last.’
‘we’ll see about it.’
buckland went slowly from the room.
late the same evening he sat with his father in the study. mr warricombe knew not the solace of tobacco, and his son, though never quite at ease without pipe or cigar, denied himself in this room, with the result that he shifted frequently upon his chair and fell into many awkward postures.
‘and how does peak impress you?’ he inquired, when the subject he most wished to converse upon had been postponed to many others. it was clear that martin would not himself broach it.
‘not disagreeably,’ was the reply, with a look of frankness, perhaps over-emphasised.
‘what is he doing? i have only heard from him once since he came down, and he had very little to say about himself.’
‘i understand that he proposes to take the london b.a.’
‘oh, then, he never did that? has he unbosomed himself to you about his affairs of old time?’
‘no. such confidences are hardly called for.’
‘speaking plainly, father, you don’t feel any uneasiness?’
martin deliberated, fingering the while an engraved stone which hung upon his watch-guard. he was at a disadvantage in this conversation. aware that buckland regarded the circumstances of peak’s sojourn in the neighbourhood with feelings allied to contempt, he could neither adopt the tone of easy confidence natural to him on other occasions of difference in opinion, nor express himself with the coldness which would have obliged his son to quit the subject.
‘perhaps you had better tell me,’ he replied, ‘whether you are really uneasy.’
it was impossible for buckland to answer as his mind prompted. he could not without offence declare that no young man of brains now adopted a clerical career with pure intentions, yet such was his sincere belief. made tolerant in many directions by the cultivation of his shrewdness, he was hopelessly biassed in judgment as soon as his anti-religious prejudice came into play—a point of strong resemblance between him and peak. after fidgeting for a moment, he exclaimed:
‘yes, i am; but i can’t be sure that there’s any cause for it.’
‘let us come to matters of fact,’ said mr. warricombe, showing that he was not sorry to discuss this side of the affair. ‘i suppose there is no doubt that peak had a position till lately at the place he speaks of?’
‘no doubt whatever. i have taken pains to ascertain that. his account of himself, so far, is strictly true.’
martin smiled, with satisfaction he did not care to disguise.
‘have you met some acquaintance of his?’
‘well,’ answered buckland, changing his position, ‘i went to work in rather an underhand way, perhaps—but the results are satisfactory. no, i haven’t come across any of his friends, but i happened to hear not long ago that he was on intimate terms with some journalists.’
his father laughed.
‘anything compromising in that association, buckland?’
‘i don’t say that—though the fellows i speak of are hot radicals.’
‘though?’
‘i mean,’ replied the young man, with his shrewder smile, ‘that they are not exactly the companions a theological student would select.’
‘i understand. possibly he has journalised a little himself?’
‘that i can’t say, though i should have thought it likely enough. i might, of course, find out much more about him, but it seemed to me that to have assurance of his truthfulness in that one respect was enough for the present.’
‘do you mean, buckland,’ asked his father, gravely, ‘that you have been setting secret police at work?’
‘well, yes. i thought it the least objectionable way of getting information.’
martin compressed his lips and looked disapproval.
‘i really can’t see that such extreme measures were demanded. come, come; what is all this about? do you suspect him of planning burglaries? that was an ill-judged step, buckland; decidedly ill-judged. i said just now that peak impressed me by no means disagreeably. now i will add that i am convinced of his good faith—as sure of it as i am of his remarkable talents and aptitude for the profession he aims at. in spite of your extraordinary distrust, i can’t feel a moment’s doubt of his honour. why, i could have told you myself that he has known radical journalists. he mentioned it the other day, and explained how far his sympathy went with that kind of thing. no, no; that was hardly permissible, buckland.’
the young man had no difficulty in bowing to his father’s reproof when the point at issue was one of gentlemanly behaviour.
‘i admit it,’ he replied. ‘i wish i had gone to rotherhithe and made simple inquiries in my own name. that, all things considered, i might have allowed myself; at all events, i shouldn’t have been at ease without getting that assurance. if peak had heard, and had said to me, “what the deuce do you mean?” i should have told him plainly, what i have strongly hinted to him already, that i don’t understand what he is doing in this galley.’
‘and have placed yourself in a position not easy to define.’
‘no doubt.’
‘all this arises, my boy,’ resumed martin, in a tone of grave kindness, ‘from your strange inability to grant that on certain matters you may be wholly misled.’
‘it does.’
‘well, well; that is forbidden ground. but do try to be less narrow. are you unable then to meet peak in a friendly way?’
‘oh, by no means! it seems more than likely that i have wronged him.’
‘well said! keep your mind open. i marvel at the dogmatism of men who are set on overthrowing dogma. such a position is so strangely unphilosophic that i don’t know how a fellow of your brains can hold it for a moment. if i were not afraid of angering you,’ martin added, in his pleasantest tone, ‘i would quote the master of trinity.’
‘a capital epigram, but it is repeated too often.’
mr. warricombe shook his head, and with a laugh rose to say good-night.
‘it’s a great pity,’ he remarked next day to sidwell, who had been saying that her brother seemed less vivacious than usual, ‘that buckland is defective on the side of humour. for a man who claims to be philosophical he takes things with a rather obtuse seriousness. i know nothing better than humour as a protection against the kind of mistake he is always committing.’
the application of this was not clear to sidwell.
‘has something happened to depress him?’ she asked.
‘not that i know of. i spoke only of his general tendency to intemperate zeal. that is enough to account for intervals of reaction. and how much sounder his judgment of men would be if he could only see through a medium of humour now and then! you know he is going over to budleigh salterton this afternoon?’
sidwell smiled, and said quietly:
‘i thought it likely he would.’
at budleigh salterton, a nook on the coast some fifteen miles away, sylvia moorhouse was now dwelling. her mother, a widow of substantial means, had recently established herself there, in the proximity of friends, and the mathematical brother made his home with them. that buckland took every opportunity of enjoying sylvia’s conversation was no secret; whether the predilection was mutual, none of his relatives could say, for in a matter such as this buckland was by nature disposed to reticence. sidwell’s intimacy with miss moorhouse put her in no better position than the others for forming an opinion; she could only suspect that the irony which flavoured sylvia’s talk with and concerning the radical, intimated a lurking kindness. buckland’s preference was easily understood, and its growth for five or six years seemed to promise stability.
immediately after luncheon the young man set forth, and did not reappear until the evening of the next day. his spirits had not benefited by the excursion; at dinner he was noticeably silent, and instead of going to the drawing-room afterwards he betook himself to the studio up on the roof, and smoked in solitude. there, towards ten o’clock, sidwell sought him. heavy rain was beating upon the glass, and a high wind blended its bluster with the cheerless sound.
‘don’t you find it rather cold here?’ she asked, after observing her brother’s countenance of gloom.
‘yes; i’m coming down.—why don’t you keep up your painting?’
‘i have lost interest in it, i’m afraid.’
‘that’s very weak, you know. it seems to me that nothing interests you permanently.’
sidwell thought it better to make no reply.
‘the characteristic of women,’ buckland pursued, with some asperity, throwing away the stump of his cigar. ‘it comes, i suppose, of their ridiculous education—their minds are never trained to fixity of purpose. they never understand themselves, and scarcely ever make an effort to understand any one else. their life is a succession of inconsistencies.’
‘this generalising is so easy,’ said sidwell, with a laugh, ‘and so worthless. i wonder you should be so far behind the times.’
‘what light have the times thrown on the subject?’
‘there’s no longer such a thing as woman in the abstract. we are individuals.’
‘don’t imagine it! that may come to pass three or four generations hence, but as yet the best of you can only vary the type in unimportant particulars. by the way, what is peak’s address?’
‘longbrook street; but i don’t know the number. father can give it you, i think.’
‘i shall have to drop him a note. i must get back to town early in the morning.’
‘really? we hoped to have you for a week.’
‘longer next time.’
they descended together. now that louis no longer abode here (he had decided at length for medicine, and was at work in london), the family as a rule spent very quiet evenings. by ten o’clock mrs warricombe and fanny had retired, and sidwell was left either to talk with her father, or to pursue the calm meditations which seemed to make her independent of companionship as often as she chose.
‘are they all gone?’ buckland asked, finding a vacant room.
‘father is no doubt in the study.’
‘it occurs to me—. do you feel satisfied with this dead-alive existence?’
‘satisfied? no life could suit me better.’
‘you really think of living here indefinitely?’
‘as far as i am concerned, i hope nothing may ever disturb us.’
‘and to the end of your life you will scent yourself with sweetbrier? do try a bit of mint for a change.’
‘certainly, if it will please you.’
‘seriously, i think you might all come to town for next winter. you are rusting, all of you. father was never so dull, and mother doesn’t seem to know how to pass the days. it wouldn’t be bad for louis to be living with you instead of in lodgings. do just think of it. it’s ages since you heard a concert, or saw a picture.’
sidwell mused, and her brother watched her askance.
‘i don’t know whether the others would care for it,’ she said, ‘but i am not tempted by a winter of fog.’
‘fog? pooh! well, there is an occasional fog, just now and then, but it’s much exaggerated. who ever thinks of the weather in england? fanny might have a time at bedford college or some such place-she learns nothing here. think it over. father would be delighted to get among the societies, and so on.’
he repeated his arguments in many forms, and sidwell listened patiently, until they were joined by mr. warricombe, whereupon the subject dropped; to be resumed, however, in correspondence, with a persistency which buckland seldom exhibited in anything which affected the interests of his relatives. as the summer drew on, mrs warricombe began to lend serious ear to this suggestion of change, and martin was at all events moved to discuss the pros and cons of half a year in london. sidwell preserved neutrality, seldom making an allusion to the project; but fanny supported her brother’s proposal with sprightly zeal, declaring on one occasion that she began distinctly to feel the need of ‘a higher culture’, such as london only could supply.
in the meantime there had been occasional interchange of visits between the family and their friends at budleigh salterton. one evening, when mrs. moorhouse and sylvia were at the warricombes’, three or four exeter people came to dine, and among the guests was godwin peak—his invitation being due in this instance to sylvia’s express wish to meet him again.
‘i am studying men,’ she had said to sidwell not long before, when the latter was at the seaside with her. ‘in our day this is the proper study of womankind. hitherto we have given serious attention only to one another. mr. peak remains in my memory as a type worth observing; let me have a chance of talking to him when i come next.’
she did not neglect her opportunity, and mrs. moorhouse, who also conversed with the theologian and found him interesting, was so good as to hope that he would call upon her if ever his steps turned towards budleigh salterton.
after breakfast next morning, sidwell found her friend sitting with a book beneath one of the great trees of the garden. at that moment sylvia was overcome with laughter, evidently occasioned by her reading.
‘oh,’ she exclaimed, ‘if this man isn’t a great humorist! i don’t think i ever read anything more irresistible.’
the book was hugh miller’s testimony of the rocks, a richly bound copy belonging to mrs. warricombe.
‘i daresay you know it very well; it’s the chapter in which he discusses, with perfect gravity, whether it would have been possible for noah to collect examples of all living creatures in the ark. he decides that it wouldn’t—that the deluge must have spared a portion of the earth; but the details of his argument are delicious, especially this place where he says that all the insects could have been brought together only “at enormous expense of miracle”! i suspected a secret smile; but no—that’s out of the question. “at enormous expense of miracle”!’
sylvia’s eyes winked as she laughed, a peculiarity which enhanced the charm of her frank mirth. her dark, pure complexion, strongly-marked eyebrows, subtle lips, were shadowed beneath a great garden hat, and a loose white gown, with no oppressive moulding at the waist, made her a refreshing picture in the glare of mid-summer.
‘the phrase is ridiculous enough,’ assented sidwell. ‘miracle can be but miracle, however great or small its extent.’
‘isn’t it strange, reading a book of this kind nowadays? what a leap we have made! i should think there’s hardly a country curate who would be capable of bringing this argument into a sermon.’
‘i don’t know,’ returned sidwell, smiling. ‘one still hears remarkable sermons.’
‘what will mr. peak’s be like?’
they exchanged glances. sylvia wore a look of reflective curiosity, and her friend answered with some hesitation, as if the thought were new to her:
‘they won’t deal with noah, we may take that for granted.’
‘most likely not with miracles, however little expensive.’
‘perhaps not. i suppose he will deal chiefly with the moral teaching of christianity.’
‘do you think him strong as a moralist?’ inquired sylvia.
‘he has very decided opinions about the present state of our civilisation.’
‘so i find. but is there any distinctly moral force in him?’
‘father thinks so,’ sidwell replied, ‘and so do our friends the lilywhites.’
miss moorhouse pondered awhile.
‘he is a great problem to me,’ she declared at length, knitting her brows with a hint of humorous exaggeration. ‘i wonder whether he believes in the dogmas of christianity.’
sidwell was startled.
‘would he think of becoming a clergyman?’
‘oh, why not? don’t they recognise nowadays that the spirit is enough?’
there was silence. sidwell let her eyes wander over the sunny grass to the red-flowering creeper on the nearest side of the house.
‘that would involve a great deal of dissimulation,’ she said at length. ‘i can’t reconcile it with what i know of mr. peak.’
‘and i can’t reconcile anything else,’ rejoined the other.
‘he impresses you as a rationalist?’
‘you not?’
‘i confess i have taken his belief for granted. oh, think! he couldn’t keep up such a pretence. however you justify it, it implies conscious deception. it would be dishonourable. i am sure he would think it so.’
‘how does your brother regard him?’ sylvia asked, smiling very slightly, but with direct eyes.
‘buckland can’t credit anyone with sincerity except an aggressive agnostic.’
‘but i think he allows honest credulity.’
sidwell had no answer to this. after musing a little, she put a question which indicated how her thoughts had travelled.
‘have you met many women who declared themselves agnostics?’
‘several.’
sylvia removed her hat, and began to fan herself gently with the brim. here, in the shade, bees were humming; from the house came faint notes of a piano—fanny practising a mazurka of chopin.
‘but never, i suppose, one who found a pleasure in attacking christianity?’
‘a girl who was at school with me in london,’ sylvia replied, with an air of amused reminiscence. ‘marcella moxey. didn’t i ever speak to you of her?’
‘i think not.’
‘she was bitter against religion of every kind.’
‘because her mother made her learn collects, i dare say?’ suggested sidwell, in a tone of gentle satire.
‘no, no. marcella was about eighteen then, and had neither father nor mother.—(how fanny’s touch improves!)—she was a born atheist, in the fullest sense of the word.’
‘and detestable?’
‘not to me—i rather liked her. she was remarkably honest, and i have sometimes thought that in morals, on the whole, she stood far above most women. she hated falsehood—hated it with all her heart, and a story of injustice maddened her. when i think of marcella it helps me to picture the russian girls who propagate nihilism.’
‘you have lost sight of her?’
‘she went abroad, i think. i should like to have known her fate. i rather think there will have to be many like her before women are civilised.’
‘how i should like to ask her,’ said sidwell, ‘on what she supported her morality?’
‘put the problem to mr. peak,’ suggested the other, gaily. ‘i fancy he wouldn’t find it insoluble.’
mrs. warricombe and mrs. moorhouse appeared in the distance, walking hither under parasols. the girls rose to meet them, and were presently engaged in less interesting colloquy.
