, my dear Peak? - Permit me this familiarity; we are
old fellow-collegians. - The average church-goer 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 grateful for it, - but that loss, my dear Peak, counterbalances much
happiness. In moments of repose,