Suddenly, as his eyes perused the strong humanity of the face beside him, Norham changed his manner. He sat up and put down the paper-knife he had been teasing. As he did so there was a little crash at his elbow and something rolled on the floor. "What's that?" "No harm done," said Meynell, stooping--"one of our host's Greek coins. What a beauty!" He picked up the little case and the coin which had rolled out of it--a gold coin of Velia, with a head of Athene--one of the great prizes of the collector. Norham took it with eagerness. He was a Cambridge man, and a fine scholar, and such things delighted him. "I didn't know Flaxman cared for these things." "He inherited them," said Meynell, pointing to the open cabinet on the table. "But he loves them too. Mrs. Flaxman always has them put out on great occasions. It seems to me they ought to have a watcher! They are quite priceless, I believe. Such things are soon lost." "Oh!--they are safe enough here," said Norham, returning the coin to its place, with another loving look at it. Then, with an effort, he pulled himself together, and with great rapidity began to question his companion as to the details and progress of the Movement. All the facts up to date, the number of Reformers enrolled since the foundation of the League, the League's finances, the astonishing growth of its petition to Parliament, the progress of the Movement in the Universities, among the ardent and intellectual youth of the day, its spread from week to week among the clergy: these things came out steadily and clearly in Meynell's replies. "The League was started in July--it is now October. We have fifty thousand enrolled members, all communicants in Modernist churches. Meetings and demonstrations are being arranged at this moment all over England; and in January or February there will be a formal inauguration of the new Liturgy in Dunchester Cathedral." "Heavens!" said Norham, dropping all signs of languor. "Dunchester will venture it?" Meynell made a sign of assent. "It is of course possible that the episcopal proceedings against the Bishop, which, as you see, have just begun, may have been brought to a close, and that the Cathedral may be no longer at our disposal, but--" "The Dean, surely, has power to close it!" "The Dean has come over to us, and the majority of the Canons." Norham threw back his head with a laugh of amazement. "The first time in history that a Dean has been of the same opinion as his Bishop! Upon my word, the government has been badly informed or I have not kept up. I had no idea--simply no idea--that things had gone so far. Markborough of course gives us very different accounts--he and the Bishops acting with him." "A great deal is going on which our Bishop here is quite unaware of." "You can substantiate what you have been saying?"