“Oh, I am so glad to hear you say that!”
“My dear Nell, annihilation is absurd.”
“Now, isn’t it?” she cried triumphantly.
“It is refuted, on the face of it, by the doctrine of the conservation of force. Life is eternal, in one shape or another; no force can be destroyed, be sure of that!”
“I wish Mr. Santley could hear you! He wouldn’t call you an atheist then!”
Haldane’s face darkened angrily.
“What? Does the man actually——”
“Don’t misunderstand,” cried Ellen, flushing scarlet. “I do not mean that he really calls you an atheist, but he is so sorry, so deeply sorry, that you do not believe. He does not know you, dear, and takes all my bear’s satirical growling for solemn earnest. Now, when I tell him——”
“You will tell him nothing,” exclaimed Haldane, with sudden sternness. “I will have no priest coming between my wife and me!”
“Mr. Santley would never do that,” she returned, now trembling violently.