
    At the death of his younger boy, Maurice, he suffered a blow which had
results more abiding than the melancholy wherewith for a year or two his genial
nature was overshadowed. From that day onwards he was never wholly at ease among
the pursuits which had been wont to afford him an unfailing resource against
whatever troubles. He could no longer accept and disregard, in a spirit of
cheerful faith, those difficulties science was perpetually throwing in his way.
The old smile of kindly tolerance had still its twofold meaning, but it was more
evidently a disguise of indecision, and not seldom touched with sadness.
Martin's life was still one of postponed debate, but he could not regard the day
when 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 weatherproof. 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
