conclusions would be demanded of him as indefinitely remote.
Desiring to dwell in the familiar temporary abode, his structure of
incongruities and facile reconcilements, he found it no longer
weather-proof. The times were shaking his position with earthquake
after earthquake. His sons (for he suspected that Louis was hardly less
emancipated than Buckland) stood far aloof from him, and must in
private feel contemptuous of his old-fashioned beliefs. In Sidwell,
however, he had a companion more and more indispensable, and he could
not imagine that _her_ faith would ever give way before the invading
spirit of agnosticism. Happily she was no mere pietist. Though he did
not quite understand her attitude towards Christianity, he felt assured
that Sidwell had thought deeply and earnestly of religion in all its
aspects, and it was a solace to know that she found no difficulty in
recognising the large claims of science. For all this, he could not
deliberately seek her confidence, or invite her to a discussion of
religious subjects. Some day, no doubt, a talk of that kind would begin
naturally between them, and so strong was his instinctive faith in
Sidwell that he looked forward to this future communing as to a certain
hope of peace.

That a figure such as Godwin Peak, a young man of vigorous intellect,
preparing to devote his life to the old religion, should excite Mr.
Warricombe's interest was of course to be anticipated; and it seemed
probable enough that Peak, exerting all the force of his character and
aided by circumstances, might before long convert this advantage to a
means of ascendency over the less self-reliant nature. But here was no
instance of a dotard becoming the easy prey of a scientific Tartufe.
Martin's intellect had suffered no decay. His hale features and
dignified bearing expressed the mind which was ripened by sixty years
of pleasurable activity, and which was learning to regard with steadier
view the problems it had hitherto shirked. He could not change the
direction nature had given to his thoughts, and prepossession would in
some degree obscure his judgment where the merits and trustworthiness
of a man in Peak's circumstances called for scrutiny; but self-respect
guarded him against vulgar artifices, and a fine sensibility made it
improbable that he would become the victim of any man in whom base
motives predominated.

Left to his own impulses, he would still have proceeded with all
caution in his offe