In his improvisation he journeyed
through many themes of varying characters. He hymned the knight's
temptation no less than his triumph. But purity was in the hymn even
at the hour of temptation, and sang like a bird in every scene of the
life,--a purity classical, detached, so refined as to be almost
physically cold.
"I understand you," Julian whispered to the little doctor. "Yes, you
are right. He is a great reason why what you think may be true. And
yet"--here Julian lowered his voice to a breath, lest he might disturb
the player--"he is not religious, as--as--well, as you are. Forgive the
allusion--."
"Are the angels religious?" said Doctor Levillier. "Why should you
refrain, my dear boy? But you are right. There is a curious
unconsciousness about Cresswell--about Valentine--which seems to
exclude even definite religious belief as something in a way
self-conscious, and so impossible to him. There is an extraordinary
strain of the child in Cresswell, such as I conceive to be in unearthly
beings, who have never had the power to sin. And the best-behaved,
sweetest child in the world might catch flies or go to sleep during
the Litany or a sermon. This very absence of controversial or dogmatic
religion gives Valentine much of his power, seems positively to lift him
higher than religionists of any creed.
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