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Mr. FaneSmith; I consider that he has Noetian tendencies.
Erica's color rose and her eyes flashed.
I do not know whether he is what is called orthodox or not, she
said; but I do know that he is the most Christlike man I ever
met.
Mr. FaneSmith looked uncomfortable. He would name any number of
heresies and heretics, but, except at grace, it was against his
sense of etiquette to speak the name of Christ at table.. Even
Rose looked surprised, and Mrs. FaneSmith colored, and at once
made the move to go.
On the plea of fetching some work, Erica escaped to her own room,
and there tried to cool her cheeks and her temper; but the idea of
such a man as Mr. FaneSmith sitting in judgment on such men as Mr.
Farrant and Charles Osmond had thoroughly roused her, and she went
down still in a dangerous state a touch would make her anger blaze
up.
Are you fond of knitting? asked her aunt, making room for her on
the sofa, and much relieved to find that her niece was not of the
unfeminine blue order.
I don't really like any work, said Erica, but, of course, a
certain amount must be done, and I like to knit my father's socks.
Mr. FaneSmith, who had just joined them, took note of this answer,
and it seemed to surprise and displease him, though he made no
remark.
Did he think that atheists didn't wear socks? Or that their
daughters couldn't knit? thought Erica to herself, with a little
resentful inward laugh.
The fact was that Mr. FaneSmith saw more and more plainly that the
niece whom his wife was so anxious to adopt was by no means his
ideal of a convert. Of course he was really and honestly thankful
that she had adopted Christianity, but it chafed him sorely that
she had not exactly adopted his own views. He was a man absolutely
convinced that there is but one form of truth, and an exceedingly
narrow form he made it, for all mankind. He Mr. FaneSmith had
exactly grasped the whole truth, and whoever swerved to the right
or to the left, if only by a hair's breadth, was, he considered, in
a dangerous and lamentable condition. Ah! He thought to himself,
if only he had had from the beginning the opportunity of
influencing Erica, instead of that dangerously broad Charles
Osmond. It did not strike him that he HAD had the opportunity ever
since his return to England, but had entirely declined to admit an
atheist to his house. Other men had labored, and he had entered
into the fruit of their labors, and not finding it quite to his
taste, fancied that he could have managed much better.

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