“Do you not believe what you have been taught?”
“Professor,” said Bayard, smiling, “do you?”
It being well known that the now conservative Professor of Theology had been the liberal and the progressive of his first youth, this reply created a slight smile. But the Professor did not smile. The crisis was too serious.
“The candidate does not deny the doctrine,” he urged. “He will undoubtedly grow into it as other men have done before him.”
“Whether men are eternally damned”—began Bayard.
“Job,” whispered the Italian back by the door, “he swear at ’em!”
“No, he ain’t,” said the sober fellow. “It’s the way they talk in churches.”
“What tongue is it they do speak?” persisted the Italian.
“Blamed if I know,” whispered Job Slip with unusual decorum. “I think it’s High Dutch.”
“No, it ain’t; it’s Latin,” corrected the sober fellow. “I can make out a word now and then. They translate parts as they go along. It’s darn queer gibberish, ain’t it? I guess the natives used to talk like that in Bible times.”