change in herself. When the occasion offered, she no longer
hesitated to express a difference of opinion; at times she uttered her dissent
with a bluntness which recalled Buckland's manner in private.
    »Does the comparison seem to you unbecoming?« said Chilvers, with genial
condescension. »Or untrue?«
    »What do you mean by the soul?« she inquired, still gazing away from him.
    »The principle of conscious life in man - that which understands and
worships.«
    »The two faculties seem to me so different that« - She broke off. »But I
mustn't talk foolishly about such things.«
    »I feel sure you have thought of them to some purpose. I wonder whether you
ever read Francis Newman's book on The Soul?«
    »No, I never saw it.«
    »Allow me to recommend it to you. I believe you would find it deeply
interesting.«
    »Does the Church approve it?«
    »The Church?« He smiled. »Ah! what Church? Churchmen there are,
unfortunately, who detest the name of its author, but I hope you have never
classed me among them. The Church, rightly understood, comprehends every mind
and heart that is striving upwards. The age of intolerance will soon be as
remote from us as that of persecution. Can I be mistaken in thinking that this
broader view has your sympathy, Miss Warricombe?«
    »I can't sympathise with what I don't understand, Mr. Chilvers.«
    He looked at her with tender solicitude, bending slightly from his usual
square-shouldered attitude.
    »Do let me find an opportunity of talking over the whole matter with you -
by no means as an instructor. In my view, a clergyman may seek instruction from
the humblest of those who are called his flock. The thoughtful and high-minded
among them will often assist him materially in his endeavour at
self-development. To my flock,« he continued, playfully, »you don't belong; but
may I not count you one of that circle of friends to whom I look for the higher
kind of sympathy?«
    Sidwell glanced about her in the hope that some one might be approaching.
Her two friends were at a distance, talking and laughing together.
    »You shall tell me some day,« she replied, with more attention to courtesy,
»what the doctrines of the Broad Church really are. But the air grows too cool
to be pleasant; hadn't we better return to the drawing-room?«
    The