“What you call Pagan is to me proof of an eternal truth handed down by tradition and divine revelation,” he said at length.  “But the mere ceremonies need not stand in your way.  Surely you can disregard them and feel the truths behind.”

“Oh, yes!” answered Esther, plunging still deeper into the morass.  “The ceremonies are picturesque and I could get used to them, but the doctrines are more Pagan than the ceremonies.  Now I have hurt your feelings enough, and will say no more.  What I have said proves that I am not fit to be your wife.  Let me go in peace!”

Again Hazard thought a moment with a grave face.  Then he said:  “Every church is open to the same kind of attack you make on ours.  Do you mean to separate yourself from all communion?”

“If you will create a new one that shall be really spiritual, and not cry:  ‘flesh—­flesh—­flesh,’ at every corner, I will gladly join it, and give my whole life to you and it.”

Hazard shook his head:  “I can suggest nothing more spiritual than what came from the spirit itself, and has from all time satisfied the purest and most spiritual souls.”

“If I could make myself contented with what satisfied them, I would do it for your sake,” answered Esther.  “It must be that we are in a new world now, for I can see nothing spiritual about the church.  It is all personal and selfish.  What difference does it make to me whether I worship one person, or three persons, or three hundred, or three thousand.  I can’t understand how you worship any person at all.”

Hazard literally groaned, and his involuntary expression so irritated Esther that she ran on still more recklessly.

“Do you really believe in the resurrection of the body?” she asked.

“Of course I do!” replied Hazard stiffly.

“To me it seems a shocking idea.  I despise and loathe myself, and yet you thrust self at me from every corner of the church as though I loved and admired it.  All religion does nothing but pursue me with self even into the next world.”

Esther had become very animated in the course of her remarks, and not the less so because she saw Hazard frown and make gestures of impatience as she passed from one sacrilege to another.  At last he turned at bay, and broke out: 

“Do you think all this is new to me?  I know by heart all these criticisms of the church.  I have heard them in one form and another ever since I was a boy at school.  They are all equally poor and ignorant.  They touch no vital point, for they are made by men, like your cousin George Strong, from whom I suppose you got them, who know nothing of the church or its doctrines or its history.  I’ll not argue over them.  Let them go for whatever you may think they are worth.  I will only put to you one question and no more.  If you answer it against me, I will go away, and never annoy you again.  You say the idea of the resurrection is shocking to you.  Can you, without feeling still more shocked, think of a future existence where you will not meet once more father or mother, husband or children? surely the natural instincts of your sex must save you from such a creed!”