sm. Both classes seek
to avoid ridicule, and to adapt themselves to a standard of
respectability. If Chilvers goes in for the newest apologetics, he is
bound to be enormously successful. The man has brains, and really there
are so few such men who still care to go into the Church.'

There was a murmur of laughing approval. The speaker had worked himself
into eloquent nervousness; he leaned forward with his hands straining
together, and the muscles of his face quivering.

'And isn't it surprising,' said Marcella, 'in how short a time this
apologetic attitude has become necessary?'

Peak flashed a triumphant look at her.

'I often rejoice to think of it!' he cried. 'How magnificent it is that
so many of the solemn jackasses who brayed against Darwin from ten to
twenty years ago should live to be regarded as beneath contempt! I say
it earnestly: this thought is one of the things that make life
tolerable to me!'

'You have need of charity, friend Peak,' interposed Earwaker. 'This is
the spirit of the persecutor.'

'Nothing of the kind! It is the spirit of justified reason. You may say
that those people were honestly mistaken;--such honesty is the brand of
a brainless obstructive. _They_ would have persecuted, but too gladly!
There were, and are, men who would have committed Darwin to penal
servitude, if they had had the power. Men like Lyell, who were able to
develop a new convolution in their brains, I respect heartily. I only
speak of the squalling mass, the obscene herd of idiot mockers.'

'Who assuredly,' remarked Earwaker, 'feel no shame whatever in the
retrospect of their idiocy. To convert a _mind_ is a subject for high
rejoicing; to confute a _temper_ isn't worth the doing.'

'That is philosophy,' said Marcella, 'but I suspect you of often
feeling as Mr. Peak does. I am sure _I_ do.'

Peak, meeting an amused glance from the journalist, left his seat and
took up a volume that lay on one of the tables. It was easy to see that
his hands shook, and that there was perspiration on his forehead. With
pleasant tact, Moxey struck into a new subject, and for the next
quarter of an hour Peak sat apart in the same attitude as before his
outburst of satire and invective. Then he advanced to Miss Moxey again,
for the purpose of taking leave. This was the signal for Earwaker's
rising, and in a few minutes both men had left the house.

'I'll go by train with you,' said Earwaker, as they walked away.
'Farringdon Street w