The New Abelard: A Romance, Volume 2 (of 3)

CONTENTS


On a certain Monday in June, little more than a year after the last letter of the correspondence quoted in the preceding chapter, two young men of the period were seated in the smoking-room of the Traveller’s Club. One was young George Craik, the other was Cholmondeley, of the ‘Charing Cross Chronicle.’
‘I assure you, my dear fellow,’ the journalist was saying, ‘that if you are in want of a religion——’
‘Which I am not ,’ interjected George, sullenly.
‘If you are in want of a new sensation, then, you will find this new Church just the thing to suit you. It has now been opened nearly a month, and is rapidly becoming the fashion. At the service yesterday I saw, among other notabilities, both Tyndall and Huxley, Thomas Carlyle, Hermann Vezin the actor, John Mill the philosopher, Dottie Destrange of the Prince’s, Labouchere, and two colonial bishops. There is an article on Bradley in this morning’s “Telegraph,” and his picture is going into next week’s “Vanity Fair.”’
‘But the fellow is an atheist and a Radical!’
‘My dear Craik, so am I!’
‘Oh, you’re different!’ returned the other with a disagreeable laugh. ‘Nobody believes you in earnest when you talk or write that kind of nonsense.’