(4)
And so, on that last day, Paul and Edith wandered off in the early morning by the road that leads along the lake, and exchanged impressions. It was a cold summer that year in the North, and there was a drifting mist over the water which the sun had not yet dispersed. High above it, the great hills lifted themselves, and there was a sound of tinkling water on the air, for it had rained heavily the night before and the little rills were full. The sky, too, was alive with soft lights of grey and white and blue. Where the road bends out of sight of the last houses, Paul took the hand that swung by the girl's side, and, remote and virginal, they walked together hand in hand.
"Well, Paul dear," she said, "tell me everything." And Paul tried to tell her....
"And Keswick," he said at last, "only sums it all up. You can't escape from it, Edith. People believe all sorts of different things even here. 'All one in Christ'—but they aren't. And how can they be, unless there is some voice to interpret Him to us?"
"But it can't be the Church of Rome, Paul!" she cried, in real distress.
"You say that," said Paul, "but why? Because you've a distorted notion of the Church of Rome. Look here, Edith, we won't go into it now, but I tell you that everything I was told about Rome, turns out to be wrong. The more I see, the more I hear, the more I think, the more reasonable it is."
"But you can't, can't, can't, give up all you've believed and taught about Jesus."
"Dear, one isn't asked to give up anything. Father Vassall believes in Him just as much as you or I or my father. Indeed, he believes more, Edith. I feel that in this place. These people say they believe in Him, but they don't think out what they mean. He is God, Edith, truly, really, altogether God. And if the Baby in the cradle could be God, why shouldn't the Sacrament be Jesus? Why shouldn't he choose that veil as He chose the other? And see what it would mean! There He would be, for our worship, our service, really, bodily, spiritually too. As He was in Bethlehem, He would be the same there for ever. And there is His Church speaking for Him, guarding Him."
"How can it speak for Him?"
Paul made a characteristic gesture. "'He that heareth you, heareth Me,'" he quoted. "And the first Council—'It seems good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.' Think of the arrogance of that! And St. Paul—'The Church, the Pillar (that is the Upholder), and the Ground (that is the Basis) of the Faith.' The Church, not the Bible. And: 'We have the Spirit of God.'"