t the bishops say. Good for people to be poor,
strengthens the fibre and all that. And back they slope to their
palaces. But what I want to know is, why this beastly training? If
God was all-powerful, the thing could be done without it and we would
all be angels at once. After all, why should people die of cancer or
inherit filthy diseases?"

Martin didn't see why they should.

"And then there's the Atonement," Gregson continued. "There's a
childish story for you. First, it seems, God made men: then He was
angry because He hadn't made them good enough. Then, just to complete
the muddle, He found it necessary to kill His Son to pay for the sins
of the people whom He might have made perfect if He had wanted to.
That's not good enough, thank you."

It was just the type of sharp, bitter-phrased reasoning to complete the
extinction of Martin's spark of faith. At first Gregson's violent
attitude naturally drove Martin to a modified defence of religion, but
Gregson carried far too many guns when it came to a battle of argument.
He could make great play with his comparative religion, and Martin used
to leave Gregson's study with a wealth of new phrases ringing in his
ears: at last he could think of nothing but solar myths and gods of
dying vegetation. It seemed to him very strange that the world should
continue to pay any attention to the monstrous imposture which the
combined efforts of Blatchford and Gregson had shown Christianity to
be. But his discoveries did not make him unhappy: he had his secular
socialism and, as religion had never formed a vital element in his
life, its loss could involve no pain.

VIII

Martin derived from his study a rich and constant enjoyment. True that
it was a diminutive box of a place: true that in winter he had to
choose between freezing with an open window or enduring the atmosphere
that only hot-water pipes can create. There would be rows too outside,
in the passage, scuffling and ragging and the singing of all the latest
successes. But after the dusty turmoil of the workroom it was a
possession and, though Martin was not at that time the kind of person
to care intensely about his surroundings or little pieces of property,
he took a definite pride in his books and pictures. He was old enough
now to be above actresses: other and greater persons might bedeck their
walls with fair women, but Gregson and he had decided that such things
were only good for the army class.