“He looks quite ordinary,” mused Monsignor aloud.  “It’s . . . it’s like the face of a business man.”

“Oh yes, he’s ordinary.  He’s an extremely good man and quite intelligent.  He’s never had any very great crisis to face, you know.  They say he’s a good financier. . . .  You look disappointed.”

“I hadn’t expected him to look like that,” said the prelate, musing.

“Why not?”

“Well, he seems to have an extraordinary position in the world.  I should have expected more of a——­”

“More of a great man?  Monsignor, don’t you think that the Average Man makes the best ruler?”

“But that’s rank Democracy!”

“Not at all.  Democracy doesn’t give the Average Man any real power at all.  It swamps him among his fellows—­that is to say, it kills his individuality; and his individuality is the one thing he has which is worth anything.”

Monsignor sat down again, sighing.

“Well, I think it’s got into me at last,” he repeated.  “I mean, I think I really realize what the world’s like now.  But I want to see a great deal more, you know.”

“What sort of things?”

“Well, I don’t quite know. . . .  You might call it the waterline between Faith and Science.  I see the Faith side.  I understand that the life of the world moves on Catholicism now; but I don’t quite realize yet how all that joins on to Science.  In my day——­” (he broke off) “I mean I had a kind of idea that there was a gap between Faith and Science—­if not actual contradictions.  How do they join on to one another?  What’s the average scientific attitude towards religion?  Do people on both sides just say that each must pursue its own line, even if they never meet?”

Father Jervis looked puzzled.

“I don’t quite understand.  There’s no conflict between Faith and Science.  A large proportion of the scientists are ecclesiastics.”

“But what’s the meeting-point?  That’s what I don’t see.”

The priest shook his head, smiling.

“I simply don’t know what you mean, Monsignor.  Give me an example.”

“Well . . . er . . . what about Faith-healing?  The dispute used to be, I think, as to the explanation of certain cures. (Mr. Manners spoke of it, you know.) Psychologists used to say that the cures happened by suggestion; and Catholics used to say that they were supernatural.  How have they become reconciled?”

Father Jervis considered a moment.

“I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it like that,” he said.  “I think I should say—­” (he hesitated) “I think I should say that everybody believes now that the power of God does everything; and that in some cases He works through suggestion, and in some through supernatural forces about which we don’t know very much.  But I don’t think it matters much (does it?), if you believe in God.”

“That doesn’t explain what I mean.”

The door opened abruptly and a servant came in.  He bowed.