a religious man. He had yet
to learn the incomparable and vital value of the practice of Christian
faith. Hardcastle invited his own doom. He admitted--he even appeared to
pride himself upon a crude and pagan rationalism. It is not surprising
that such a man should be called away to learn the lessons of which he
stood so gravely in need."

"I know that our dear Tom was bidden to higher work--to labor in a
higher cause than here, to purer knowledge of those things that matter
most to the human soul," said Mary. "But that is not to say God chose
to take him by a miracle. For what you believe amounts to a miracle.
You know that I am bearing my loss in the same spirit as yourself, but,
granted it had to be at God's will, that is no reason why we should
suppose the means employed were outside nature."

"How can you pretend they are inside nature, as we know it?" asked her
father.

"We know nothing at all yet, and I implore Mr. May to wait until we are
at least assured that science cannot find a reason."

"Fear not for me, my child," answered Septimus May. "You forget certain
details that have assisted to decide me. Remember that Hardcastle had
openly denied and derided the possibility of supernatural peril. He had
challenged this potent thing not an hour before he was brought face
to face with it. Tom went to his death innocently; this man cannot
be absolved so easily. In my case, with my knowledge and faith, the
conditions are very different, and I oppose an impregnable barrier
between myself and the secret being. I am an old priest, and I go
knowing the nature of my task. My weapons are such that a good spirit
would applaud them and an evil spirit be powerless against them. Do you
not see that the Almighty could never permit one of His creatures--for
even the devils also are His--to defeat His own minister or trample on
the name of Christ? It would amount to that. So armed one might walk in
safety through the lowermost hell, for hell can only believe and tremble
before the truth."

Mary looked hopelessly at her father; but he offered her small comfort.
Sir Walter still found himself conforming to the fierce piety and
dogmatic assurance of the man of God. In this welter and upheaval his
modest intellect found only a foothold here, and his judgment now firmly
inclined to the confident assertions of religion. He was himself a
devout and conventional believer, and he turned to the support of faith,
and shared, with incre