y!'

'You imagine,' said Godwin, with a calm air, 'that the mind of the
average church-goer is seriously disturbed on questions of faith?'

'How can you ignore it, my dear Peak?--Permit me this familiarity; we
are old fellow-collegians.--The average churchgoer is the average
citizen of our English commonwealth,--a man necessarily aware of the
great Radical movement, and all that it involves. Forgive me. There has
been far too much blinking of actualities by zealous Christians whose
faith is rooted in knowledge. We gain nothing by it; we lose immensely.
Let us recognise that our churches are filled with sceptics,
endeavouring to believe in spite of themselves.'

'Your experience is much larger than mine,' remarked the listener,
submissively.

'Indeed I have widely studied the subject.'

Chilvers smiled with ineffable self-content, his head twisted like that
of a sagacious parrot.

'Granting your average citizen,' said the other, 'what about the
average citizeness? The female church-goers are not insignificant in
number.'

'Ha! There we reach the core of the matter! Woman! woman! Precisely
_there_ is the most hopeful outlook. I trust you are strong for female
emancipation?'

'Oh, perfectly sound on that question!'

'To be sure! Then it must be obvious to you that women are destined to
play the leading part in our Christian renascence, precisely as they
did in the original spreading of the faith. What else is the meaning of
the vast activity in female education? Let them be taught, and
forthwith they will rally to our Broad Church. A man may be content to
remain a nullifidian; women cannot rest at that stage. They demand the
spiritual significance of everything.--I grieve to tell you, Peak, that
for three years I have been a widower. My wife died with shocking
suddenness, leaving me her two little children. Ah, but leaving me also
the memory of a singularly pure and noble being. I may say, with all
humility, that I have studied the female mind in its noblest modern
type. I _know_ what can be expected of woman, in our day and in the
future.'

'Mrs. Chilvers was in full sympathy with your views?'

'Three years ago I had not yet reached my present standpoint. In
several directions I was still narrow. But her prime characteristic was
the tendency to spiritual growth. She would have accompanied me step by
step. In very many respects I must regard myself as a man favoured by
fortune,--I know it, and I trust I am g