unsightly as himself. And it was like him to talk
about teaching the Bible when everybody knew that there were lots of
things that weren't true. The spectacle of this mean little intelligence
refusing to take cognisance of the truths that men like Darwin and
Huxley had worked all their lives to discover, and faced the common
hatred to proclaim, seemed to her cruel ingratitude to the great and
wanton contemning of the power of thought, which was the only tool man
had been given to help him break this prison of disordered society. She
leaned across the table and demanded in a heckling tone: "But you must
know pairfectly well that these Labour Colonies are only tackling the
fringe of the problem. There's no way of settling the question of
unemployment until the capitalist system's overturned."

He looked at her with wide eyes and assumed an air of being engaged in
desperate conflict. It was evident that his egotism was transforming
this conversation into a monstrous wrestling with Apollyon. "Ah! You're
a Socialist. They only think of giving people money. But it isn't money
people need. Oh, no. 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?' It's Jesus they need. Give them the Bible
and all their wants will be satisfied," he cried in a shrill peewit cry.

"But the Bible isn't final. There's lots of things we know more about
than the people who wrote it. Look at all yon nonsense they put in about
Adam and Eve because they didn't know about evolution. That alone shows
it's absurd to rely solely on the Bible...."

She looked round for signs of the others' approval. She knew that
Richard agreed with her, for among his Christmas presents to her had
been Huxley's Essays, and when he had talked to her of science she had
seen that research after that truth was to him a shining mystic way
which he would have declared led to God had he not been more reverent
than Church men are, and feared to use that name lest it were not sacred
enough for the ultimate sacredness. But to her amazement he kept his
eyes on the crumbs which he was picking up from the tablecloth, and
through his parted lips there sounded the faintest click of
exasperation. She looked in wonder at Marion, and found her eyes also
downcast and her forefinger tapping on her chin as if she were seeking
for some expedient to stop this dangerous chatter. Ellen despised them
both. They had been terribly exercised at the thought that Roger was
g