he had not yet taken advantage of Viner's letters of
introduction to these dignitaries. He had indeed heard Pallant preach at
the church of the Cowley Fathers, but he had thought him too much
inclined to sacrifice on the altar of empirical science.

"I hate compromise," said Michael.

"I don't think Pallant compromises, but I think he does get hold of men
by offering them Catholic doctrine in terms of the present."

Michael shrugged his shoulders.

"This visit to Spain seems to have made you very bigoted," Viner
observed, smiling.

"I haven't made up my mind one way or the other about Christianity,"
Michael said. "But when I do I won't try to include everybody, to say to
every talkative young Pragmatist with Schiller's last book in his
pocket, 'come inside, you're really one of us.' I shan't invite every
callow biologist to hear Mass just because a Cowley Dad sees nothing in
the last article on spontaneous generation that need dismay the
faithful. I'm getting rather fed up with toleration, really; the only
people with any fanaticism now are the rationalists. It's quite
exhilarating sometimes to see the fire of disbelief glowing in the eyes
of a passionate agnostic."

"Our Lord Himself was very tolerant," said Viner.

"Yes, tolerant to the weaknesses of the flesh, tolerant to the woman
taken in adultery, tolerant to the people without wine at Cana, but he
hadn't much use for people who didn't believe just as He believed."

"Isn't it rather risky to slam the door in the face of the modern man?"

"But, Mr. Viner," Michael protested, "you can't betray the myriads of
the past because the individual of to-day finds his faith too weak to
sustain him in their company, because the modern man wants to re-edit
spiritual truths just as he has been able to re-edit a few physical facts
that apparently stand the test of practical experiment. While men have
been rolling along intoxicated by the theory of physical evolution, they
may have retrograded spiritually."

"Of course, of course," the priest agreed. "By the way, your faith seems
to be resisting the batterings of external progress very stoutly. I'm
glad, old chap."

"I'm not sure that I have much faith, but I certainly haven't given up
hope," Michael said gravely. "I think, you know, that hope, which is
after all a theological virtue, has never had justice at the hands of
the theologians. Oh, lord, I wish earnest young believers weren't so
smug and timid. Or else I w