“I cannot enter into these matters with you—­” began Gherardi impatiently.

“No, you cannot, because you dare not!” said Aubrey boldly.  “Man, you are not a Christian!  Why pretend to be one?  Is it not time you left off feigning what you do not feel?  Is it not preposterous that you, at your years, should consent to make your life a lie in the face of Omnipresent Deity?”

Gherardi rose up pale and trembling.

“Mr. Leigh, if you have come here to insult me—­”

“Insult you!” echoed Aubrey, “Not I!  I would make a man of you if I could,—­but that is too late!  You are a witness of imposture and a supporter of it,—­and we are none of us worthy to be called men if we do either of these two things.  You know as well as I do, that there is no representative of the blameless Christ at the Vatican,—­ you know there is only a poor weak old man, whose mind is swayed by the crafty counsels of the self-seeking flatterers around him, and who passes his leisure hours in counting up money, and inventing new means of gaining it through forms of things that should be spiritual and divine.  If you believe Christ was God Incarnate, how dare you tamper with such a Supernal Mystery?”

Gherardi turned his head slowly and looked round at Aubrey,—­then recovering his composure, sat down and pretended to turn over some documents on the table, but Aubrey went on undeterred by his aspect of frigidity, “How dare you, I say?  The God in Man!  Do you realize the stupendous meaning of such a phrase?  Do you not see that it means A divine life palpitating through every atom of creation?  A Force so great, so pure and majestic, so absolute in Its working for good, and yet so deliberate in Its movements that It will give Its creature Man whole centuries of chance to find and save his own soul before utterly destroying him?  What has this sublime Power in common with the Pope, who shuts himself up in his palace, a voluntary prisoner, all forsooth because he is denied temporal power!  Temporal power!  What is temporal power compared to spiritual power!  If he were the true representative of Christ he would move the world by deeds of benevolence, goodness, and sanctity!  In such a case as that of the unhappy Dreyfus for instance, he would have issued a solemn warning and earnest reproach to the French nation for their misguided cruelty;—­he would have travelled himself to Rennes to use his personal influence in obtaining an innocent man’s release with honour!  That would have been Christian!  That would have been a magnificent example to the world!  But what did he do?  Shut comfortably up in his luxurious palace where no harm could touch him, where no crucifixion of the heart or soul could torture him, he announced to his myrmidons his opinion that the wretched martyr would be found guilty!  And who can tell but that his utterance thus unchristianly proclaimed did not help to sway the minds of the Rennes