"What took your fancy, Will dear, with Mr. Osborn's teaching more than anybody else's?"
Then he told her all that Mr. Osborn had said of the fatherly attributes of God, of the fact that men were veritably His children, and that for communion with God one must be as a child approaching a father.
"Yes, dear, I'm sure that's true. But Mr. Norton would say just the same."
"He never has said it, Mav. That is, I never heard him say it."
"Perhaps in those days you didn't note his words. I'm not arguing, dear. You must do whatever you judge right, and it will be right for me--if once you've done it. Only I do assure you what you repeated is altogether Church of England; and I feel certain Mr. Norton must have said it times and often."
"Then perhaps he hasn't said it quite in the same way."
When the evening arrived Mavis asked if she might come to the chapel, but he said "No." Her presence would distract his thoughts.
"Very well, dear, I'll stay here. I shall say a prayer for you. I may do that?"
"Yes, please do that."
Throughout the ceremony, and afterward, he was very grave and dignified, plainly taking the whole matter with the most profound seriousness. He was silent and solemn throughout the rest of the evening; but he slept extraordinarily well at night. There were no dreams, no disturbances of any kind. He lay motionless, sleeping as peacefully as a little child.
Tender thoughts filled the mind of his wife as she watched him. She thought of the ugly chapel, those stupid illiterate people, the dark water, the splashing and the noise; the clumsy absurdness of the whole rite; and yet, in spite of everything, she now felt the essential beauty of the idea itself. It seemed to her most beautiful when applied to this particular case--the strong brave man who in spirit and heart has made himself simple and guileless as a child, to be taken back to the Eternal Father of all children.