how the same peculiarities of manner?'

He tried to put the question without insistency, in a tone quite
compatible with friendliness. Her answer, given with a look of
amusement, satisfied him that there was no fear of her taking Mr
Chilvers too seriously.

'Yes. I think he speaks in much the same way.'

'Have you read any of his publications?'

'One or two. We have his lecture on _Altruism_.'

'I happen to know it. There are good things in it, I think. But I
dislike his modern interpretation of old principles.'

'You think it dangerous?'

He no longer regarded her frankly, and in the consciousness of her look
upon him he knit his brows.

'I think it both dangerous and offensive. Not a few clergymen nowadays,
who imagine themselves free from the letter and wholly devoted to
spirit, are doing their best in the cause of materialism. They
surrender the very points at issue between religion and worldliness.
They are so blinded by a vague humanitarian impulse as to make the New
Testament an oracle of popular Radicalism.'

Sidwell looked up.

'I never quite understood, Mr. Peak, how you regard Radicalism. You
think it opposed to all true progress?'

'Utterly, as concerns any reasonable limit of time.'

'Buckland, as you know, maintains that spiritual progress is only
possible by this way.'

'I can't venture to contradict him,' said Godwin; 'for it may be that
advance is destined only to come after long retrogression and anarchy.
Perhaps the way _does_ lie through such miseries. But we can't foresee
that with certainty, and those of us who hate the present tendency of
things must needs assert their hatred as strongly as possible, seeing
that we _may_ have a more hopeful part to play than seems likely.'

'I like that view,' replied Sidwell, in an undertone.

'My belief,' pursued Godwin, with an earnestness very agreeable to
himself, for he had reached the subject on which he could speak
honestly, 'is that an instructed man can only hold views such as your
brother's--hopeful views of the immediate future--if he has never been
brought into close contact with the lower classes. Buckland doesn't
know the people for whom he pleads.'

'You think them so degraded?'

'It is impossible, without seeming inhumanly scornful, to give a just
account of their ignorance and baseness. The two things, speaking
generally, go together. Of the ignorant, there are very few indeed who
can think purely or aspiringly. You, of cour