The reverend gentleman proceeded cautiously. “I should hardly care to go so far as that—to make the rule absolute; a very strong man might escape contamination, perhaps.”
Mrs. Porter sighed audibly. The minister was weakening most lamentably, giving her husband a loophole to escape.
“I hardly think racing quite so bad as it is generally supposed to be,” interposed Crane, feeling that Porter was being pilloried somewhat. He received a reproachful look from Mrs. Porter for his pains.
“I've never seen any good come of it,” retorted Dolman. “A Christian man must feel that he is encouraging gambling if he countenances racing, for they contend that without betting racing is impossible.”
“Everything in life is pretty much of a gamble,” Porter drawled, lazily; “there aren't any such things. The ships that go to sea, the farmer's crop—everything is more or less a matter of chance. If a man goes straight he has a fairly easy time with his conscience, no matter what he's at; but if he doesn't, well, he'd better go hungry.”
“A great many very honorable men are racing today,” added Crane; “men who have built up large fortunes through honest dealing, and wouldn't be racing if they felt that it was either unchristian or dishonorable.”
“They can't be Christians if they countenance gambling,” asserted the minister, doggedly.
It occurred to Mortimer that whenever the discussion took broader lines, Dolman drew it back into the narrow cell of his own convictions.
Porter scratched his head perplexedly. They had been discussing the moral influence of racing; this seemed more like theology. “It is certainly unchristian,” commented Mrs. Porter, severely. “I haven't seen much Christian spirit in any business,” said Porter, quietly; “they all seem more a matter of written agreements. In fact there's more done on honor in racing than in any of the business gambles. A man that's crooked in racing is sure to come to grief in the long run.”
Crane shifted in his chair, and Dolman coughed deprecatingly. “For my part,” continued Porter, “I've never found it necessary to do anything I'm ashamed of in racing.”