CHAPTER I

ATHERLEY'S GOSPEL

'THERE is no revelation but that of science,' said Atherley.

It was after dinner in the drawing-room. From the cold of the early spring night, closed shutters and drawn curtains carefully protected us; shaded lamps and a wood fire diffused an exquisite twilight; we breathed a mild and even balmy atmosphere scented with hothouse flowers.

'And this revelation completely satisfies all reasonable desires,' he continued, surveying his small audience from the hearthrug where he stood; 'mind, I say all reasonable desires. you have a healthy appetite for bread, you

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will get it and plenty of it, but if you have a sickly craving for manna, why then you will come badly off, that is all. This is the gospel of fact, not of fancy: of things as they actually are, you know, instead of as A dreamt they were, or B decided they ought to be, or C would like to have them. So this gospel is apt to look a little dull beside the highly coloured romances the churches. have accustomed us to-as a modern plateglass window might, compared with a stainedglass oriel in a medieval cathedral. There is no doubt which is the prettier of the two. The question is, do you want pretty colour or do you want clear daylight?'

He paused, but neither of his listeners spoke. Lady Atherley was counting the stitches of her knitting; I was too tired; so he resumed 'For my part, I prefer the daylight and the glass, without any daubing. What does science discover in the universe? Precision, accuracy, reliability—any amount of it; but as to pity, mercy, love! The