important than these is whether you
deliberately avoided the probable consequences of your sin--I mean in
regard to children?"

"If we sin we must needs avoid the consequences of our sin. I know that
it is forbidden--but my profession--I had to think of others--my
father--"

"Your answer, my dear child, does not surprise me. It shows me into what
depths you have fallen. That you should think like this is part of the
teaching of the man whose object was to undermine your faith; it is part
of the teaching of Darwin and Huxley and Spencer. You were persuaded
that to live with a man to whom you were not married differed in no wise
from living with your husband. The result has proved how false is such
teaching. The sacrament of marriage was instituted to save the weak from
the danger of temptation, and human nature is essentially weak, and
without the protection of the Church it falls. The doctrine of the
Church is our only safeguard. But that you should have proved unfaithful
to this man--this second sin which shocked you so much, and which I am
thankful awakened in you a sense of sin, is not more important than to
thwart the design of Nature. It is important that you should understand
this, for an understanding on this point will show you how false, how
contradictory, is the teaching of the naturalistic philosophy in which
you placed your trust. These men put aside revealed religion and refer
everything to Nature, but they do not hesitate to oppose the designs of
Nature when it suits their purpose. The doctrine of the Church has
always been one wife, one husband. Polygamy and polyandry are relatively
sterile. It is the acknowledged wife and the acknowledged husband that
are fruitful; it is the husband and wife who furnish the world with men
and heaven with souls, whereas the lover and the mistress fulfil no
purpose, they merely encumber the world with their vice, they are
useless to Nature, and are hateful in God's sight; the nations that do
not cast them out soon become decrepid. If we go to the root of things,
we find that the law of the Church coincides very closely with the law
of Nature, and that the so-called natural sciences are but a nineteenth
century figment. I hope all this is quite clear to you?"

Evelyn acquiesced. Her natural instinct forbade her the original
sin--what happened after did not appeal to her; she could feel no
interest in the question he had raised. But she was determined to avoid
all falseho