s
itself with hypocrisy. The task of the modern civiliser is to sweep
away sham idealisms.'

'I agree with you,' Godwin replied.

With sudden change of mood, Buckland began to speak of an indifferent
topic of the day, and in a few minutes they sat down to dinner.

Not till the welcome tobacco blended its aroma with that of coffee did
a frankly personal note sound in their conversation.

'So at Christmas you are free,' said Warricombe. 'You still think of
leaving London?'

'I have decided to go down into Devonshire.'

'The seaside?'

'I shall stay first of all in Exeter,' Godwin replied, with
deliberation; 'one can get hold of books there.'

'Yes, especially of the ecclesiastical colour.'

'You are still unable to regard my position with anything but
contempt?' Peak asked, looking steadily at the critical face.

'Come now; what does it all mean? Of course I quite understand how
tolerant the Church is becoming: I know what latitude it permits in its
servants. But what do you propose to yourself?'

'Precisely what you call the work of the civiliser--to attack sham
ideals.'

'As for instance--?'

'The authority of the mob,' answered Peak, suavely.

'Your clericalism is political, then?'

'To a great extent.'

'I discern a vague sort of consistency in this. You regard the Church
formulas as merely symbolical--useful for the purposes of the day?'

'Rather for the purposes of eternity.'

'In the human sense.'

'In every sense.'

Warricombe perceived that no directness of questioning would elicit
literal response, and on the whole this relieved him. To hear Godwin
Peak using the language of a fervent curate would have excited in him
something more than disgust. It did not seem impossible that a nature
like Peak's--intellectually arrogant, vehemently anti-popular--should
have been attracted by the traditions, the social prestige, of the
Anglican Church; nor at all unlikely that a mind so constituted should
justify a seeming acceptance of dogmas, which in the strict sense it
despised. But he was made uneasy by his ignorance of Peak's private
life during the years since their parting at College. He did not like
to think of the possible establishment of intimacy between this man of
low origin, uncertain career, boundless ambition, and the household of
Martin Warricombe. There could be no doubt that Peak had decided to go
to Exeter because of the social prospects recently opened to him. In
the vulgar phra