answered in that tone. We have been trained in the same school, and have
thought alike. Dick was here a while ago and said things--you know what
Dick would say. You know how you and I have been sorry for the lad--been
indulgent to him--with his keen, broad mind and that inspired
self-forgetfulness of his--how we've been sorry to have such qualities
wasted on a parson, a religion machine. We've thought he'd come around
in time, that he was too large a personality to be tied to a treadmill.
We've thought that all along, haven't we? Well, Dick was here, and out
of the hell where I was I thought that again. When he talked I thought
in a way--for I couldn't think much--that after a consistent voyage of
agnosticism, I wouldn't be whipped into snivelling belief at the end, by
shipwreck. I would at least go down without surrendering. In a dim way I
thought that. And all that I thought then, and have thought through my
life, is nothing. Reasoning doesn't weigh against experience. Dick is
right."

The other man sat before him, bent forward, his hands on his knees,
listening, dazed. There was a quality in the speaker's tone which made
it necessary to take his words seriously. Yet--the other sighed and
relaxed a bit as he waited, watched. The calm voice went on.

"The largest event of my life has happened in the last hour, in this
room. It was this way. When Dick went out I--went utterly to pieces.
It was the farthest depth. Out of it I called on God, not knowing what
I did. And he answered. That's what happened. As if--as if a bandage
had been lifted from my eyes, I was--I was in the presence of
things--indescribable. There was no change, only that where I was blind
before I now saw. I don't mean vision. I haven't words to explain what
I mean. But a world was about me as real as this; it had perhaps always
been there; in that moment I was first aware of it. I knew, as if a door