The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cecilia de Noel, by Lanoe Falconer

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Title: Cecilia de Noel

Author: Lanoe Falconer

Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15258]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "So we went down our stairs."--Chap. II.]

_Cecilia de Noel_

BY

LANOE FALCONER

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTINS ST., LONDON
1910

[Illustration: Title Page]

CECILIA DE NOEL

CHAPTER I

ATHERLEY'S GOSPEL

"There is no revelation but that of science," said Atherley.

It was after dinner in the drawing-room. From the cold of the early
spring night, closed shutters and drawn curtains carefully protected us;
shaded lamps and a wood fire diffused an exquisite twilight; we breathed
a mild and even balmy atmosphere scented with hothouse flowers.

"And this revelation completely satisfies all reasonable desires," he
continued, surveying his small audience from the hearthrug where he
stood; "mind, I say all reasonable desires. If you have a healthy
appetite for bread, you will get it and plenty of it, but if you have a
sickly craving for manna, why then you will come badly off, that is all.
This is the gospel of fact, not of fancy: of things as they actually
are, you know, instead of as A dreamt they were, or B decided they ought
to be, or C would like to have them. So this gospel is apt to look a
little dull beside the highly coloured romances the churches have
accustomed us to--as a modern plate-glass window might, compared with a
stained-glass oriel in a mediaeval cathedral. There is no doubt which is
the prettier of the two. The question is, do you want pretty colour or
do you want clear daylight?" He paused, but neither of his listeners
spoke. Lady Atherley was counting the stitches of her knitting; I was
too tired; so he resumed: "For my part, I prefer the daylight and the
glass, without any daubing. What does science discover in the universe?
Precision, accuracy, reliability--any amount of it; but as to pity,
mercy, love! The fact is, that