is brethren; he had dropped remarks which
favoured this explanation. Anyhow he lost not only the soil most fruitful
for propagation, but also the surest road to a reputation. Of the idea of
the Crusade he was particularly careful to talk to men only; women, he
felt sure, would tell him it was superb, and his wish was to be
confronted with its difficulties and its absurdities, to overcome this
initial opposition only with a struggle, and to enlist his antagonist as
a fellow-warrior; he had especial belief in the persuasiveness of
converts. Unluckily, however, as a rule only the first part of the
programme passed into fact; he got the absurdities and difficulties
pointed out freely enough, the conversions hung fire. Dick Benyon was
almost the sole instance of the triumphant carrying-out of the whole
scheme; but though Dick could believe and work, and could make Jimmy
believe and nearly make Jimmy work, he could not preach himself nor make
Jimmy preach in tones commanding enough to engage the respect and
attention of the world. Who could then? Dick had answered "Weston
Marchmont;" the Dean shook his head confidently but wistfully; he would
have liked but did not expect to find a convert there.

Weston Marchmont made, as might be expected, the Great Refusal, although
not in the impressive or striking manner which such a phrase may seem to
imply. Twisting his claret glass in his long thin fingers, he observed
with low-voiced suavity that in ecclesiastical matters, as doubtless in
most others, he was behind the times; he was a loyal Establishment man
and had every intention of remaining such, and for his own part he found
it possible to reconcile the ultimate postulates of faith with the
ultimate truths of science. As soon as ultimates came on the scene, the
Dean felt that the game was up; the Crusade depended on an appeal to
classes which must be reached, if they could be reached at all, by
something far short of ultimates. Ultimates were for the few; one reason,
among others, why Marchmont fondly affected them. Marchmont proceeded to
remark that in his doubtless out-of-date view the best thing was to
preserve the traditions and the traditional limits of Church work and
Church influence. He did not say in so many words that the Church was a
good servant but a bad master, yet Dick and the Dean gathered that this
was his opinion, and that he would look with apprehension on any movement
directed to bringing ecclesiastical pressu