they should not be considered with frankness. He had heard opinions and
ideas which from the standpoint of the religious ascetic were not only
heretical but little short of blasphemous, yet they were evidently the
ordinary current thought of the time. It was impossible that these
things should not affect him; and to-day as he sat in lecture he found
himself trying all that was said by a new standard and involuntarily
taking the position of an objector. He was able to see nothing but
flaws in the logic, faults in the deduction, breaks in the argument.

"I am come to that state of mind when I should see a seam in the
seamless robe," he groaned in spirit.

Father Frontford lectured that afternoon on church history. Sometimes
in the long hour Maurice studied the priest, wondering at him, trying
to comprehend the working of his mind. Sometimes he would ask himself
whether it were possible that this man were wholly sincere, whether it
were possible that an intellect so acute could really believe the
things which were the foundation of the teaching of the day; but he
came back always to faith in the complete conviction of the Father.
Maurice, indeed, said to himself that Frontford was quite capable of
taking his spiritual self by the throat and compelling it to believe;
and then the young doubter asked himself if this were the secret of the
faith which showed in every word and look of the speaker. He told
himself that Father Frontford was his Superior, and as such to be
followed, not criticised; he resolved not to think, but endeavored to
give his whole attention to the lecture. Here however he did little
better. The glories of the church upon which the speaker dwelt seemed
to Wynne in his present mood poor and paltry triumphs of dogmatism,--or
even, why not of superstition indeed? He was startled by the sin of his
questioning, yet it seemed impossible to silence the mocking inner