'Parson,' supplied Peak, drily.
'Yes, as a parson—I shall have to meditate much before I grasp the notion.'
'Perhaps you have dropped your philosophical studies?' said Godwin, with a smile of courteous interest.
'I don't know. Metaphysics have no great interest for me, but I philosophise in a way. I thought myself a student of human nature, at all events.'
'But you haven't kept up with philosophical speculation on the points involved in orthodox religion?'
'I confess my ignorance of everything of the kind—unless you include Bishop Blougram among the philosophers?'
Godwin bore the gaze which accompanied this significant inquiry. For a moment he smiled, but there followed an expression of gravity touched with pain.
'I hadn't thought of broaching this matter,' he said, with slow utterance, but still in a tone of perfect friendliness. 'Let us put it aside.'
Warricombe seemed to make an effort, and his next words had the accent of well-bred consideration which distinguished his ordinary talk.
'Pray forgive my bad joke. I merely meant that I have no right whatever to argue with anyone who has given serious attention to such things. They are altogether beyond my sphere. I was born an agnostic, and no subtlety of demonstration could incline me for a moment to theological views; my intellect refuses to admit a single preliminary of such arguments. You astonish me, and that's all I am justified in saying.'