
he lies about on the tables and chairs. I should have thought he was thoroughly
smashed by an article that came out in the Critical last year.«
    Sidwell smiled, evidently in no way offended.
    »That article could smash nobody,« she made answer. »It was too violent; it
overshot the mark.«
    »Not a bit of it! - So you read it, eh? You're beginning to read, are you?«
    »In my humble way, Buckland.«
    »M'Naughten, among other things. Humble enough, that, I admit.«
    »I am not a great admirer of M'Naughten,« returned his sister, with a look
of amusement.
    »No? I congratulate you. - I wonder what Peak thinks of the book?«
    »I really don't know.«
    »Then let me ask another question. What do you think of Peak?«
    Sidwell regarded him with quiet reflectiveness.
    »I feel,« she said, »that I don't know him very well yet. He is certainly
interesting.«
    »Yes, he is. Does he impress you as the kind of man likely to make a good
clergyman?«
    »I don't see any reason why he should not.«
    Her brother mused, with wrinkles of dissatisfaction on his brow.
    »Father gets to like him, you say?«
    »Yes, I think father likes him.«
    »Well, I suppose it's all right.«
    »All right?«
    »It's the most astounding thing that ever came under my observation,«
exclaimed Buckland, walking away and then returning.
    »That Mr. Peak should be studying for the Church?«
    »Yes.«
    »But do reflect more modestly!« urged Sidwell, with something that was not
quite archness, though as near it as her habits of tone and feature would allow.
»Why should you refuse to admit an error in your own way of looking at things?
Wouldn't it be better to take this as a proof that intellect isn't necessarily
at war with Christianity?«
    »I never stated it so broadly as that,« returned her brother, with
impatience. »But I should certainly have maintained that Peak's intellect was
necessarily in that position.«
    »And you see how wrong you would have been,« remarked the girl, softly.
    »Well - I don't know.«
    »You don't know?«
    »I mean that I can't
