"You know you can, Peter."
He braced himself for confession.
"I have met a woman," said Peter.
Somehow Ferlie had thought as much.
"Slightly older than myself," he went on. "She is a hospital nurse and, naturally, we have discovered much common ground to explore in discussion. The nurse, I always maintain, can form a more accurate estimate of the patient than can the doctor. Phyllis agrees with me that, in most cases, mental control should be established first, and hypnotic influence be given a more important place than medicine. The theory should be practised, not talked about. The advertisement earned by Coué and Hickman and their friends, becoming mingled with ridicule, injures their cause. Jesus of Nazareth avoided advertisement. He wisely foresaw the harm it did; and he never pretended to be doing anything that a disciple could not also do who sufficiently developed his will-power and self-confidence."
"You—you won't talk like this to Martha and Mary? At present, you see, Peter, they think you are so nice."
He waved a lofty hand at the mention of these shorn lambs of his generation.
"I have told you I believe in tempering the wind."
Nevertheless, although it was splendid to be considered fully protected against the searching elements of Truth, Ferlie felt that her wool might have been thicker after his final announcement.
"Phyllis and I, likewise, see eye to eye on this pioneering question. We are convinced we have a mission. It shall be carried out, not by word of mouth, but by example. We suit one another. We are healthy and, from a medical point of view, know all there is to be known about contraception. At present we meet in secret. I feel I owe it to the Old Folk to put my views squarely to them before coming fearlessly out into the open to state that, in the eyes of the God we serve, we consider ourselves married without the intervention of a priest or State official. Phyllis has no parents—thank goodness!—to bring pressure to bear upon her in the form of hysterical tears. We shall live together without cheapening our private relationship by becoming parties to a ceremony which, in our case, is tantamount to a farce. We shall remain faithful to one another without the urge of a public vow, loyal without the necessity of bonds to keep us so. Should we, eventually, decide to have children, they will be brought up on like principles and taught the utter unimportance of sex except for purposes of healthy propagation, and it will be a point of honour for each parent to do his, or her, utmost to fulfil the responsibility entailed at their birth, uncoerced by any Court of Law. Since the whole union will be based on reason, not sentiment, everything is bound to run smoothly. It is all very simple, really."