turned to me and said things which I could not possibly
repeat, which I pray that I may never hear again from the mouth of any
living being."

"Profanities, obscenities, er--swear-words," suggested Challis.

"Blasphemy, _blasphemy_," cried Crashaw. "Oh! I wonder that I did not
injure the child."

Challis moved over to the window again. For more than a minute there was
silence in that big, neglected-looking room. Then Crashaw's feelings
began to find vent in words, in a long stream of insistent
asseverations, pitched on a rising note that swelled into a diapason of
indignation. He spoke of the position and power of his Church, of its
influence for good among the uneducated, agricultural population among
which he worked. He enlarged on the profound necessity for a living
religion among the poorer classes; and on the revolutionary tendency
towards socialism, which would be encouraged if the great restraining
power of a creed that enforced subservience to temporal power was once
shaken. And, at last, he brought his arguments to a head by saying that
the example of a child of four years old, openly defying a minister of
the Church, and repudiating the very conception of the Deity, was an
example which might produce a profound effect upon the minds of a
slow-thinking people; that such an example might be the leaven which
would leaven the whole lump; and that for the welfare of the whole
neighbourhood it was an instant necessity that the child should be put
under restraint, his tongue bridled, and any opportunity to proclaim his
blasphemous doctrines forcibly denied to him. Long before he had
concluded, Crashaw was on his feet, pacing the room, declaiming, waving
his arms.

Challis stood, unanswering, by the window. He did not seem to hear; he
did not even shrug his shoulders. Not till Crashaw had brought his
argument to a culmination, and boomed into a dramatic silence, did
Challis turn and look at him.

"But you cannot confine a child in an asylum on those grounds," he said;
"the law does not permit it."

"The Church is above the law," replied Crashaw.

"Not in these days," said Challis; "it is by law established!"

Crashaw began to speak again, but Challis waved him down. "Quite, quite.
I see your point," he said, "but I must see this child myself. Believe
me, I will see what can be done. I will, at least, try to prevent his
spreading his opinions among the yokels." He smiled grimly. "I quite
agree with you that t