"
"But the straighteners," said my father, "could not co-exist with
Sunchildism, and it is hard to see how the claims of the Banks can be
reasonably gainsaid."
"Perhaps; and after all the Banks are our main bulwark against the evils
that I fear will follow from the repeal of the laws against machinery.
This has already led to the development of a materialism which minimizes
the miraculous element in the Sunchild's ascent, as our own people
minimize the material means that were the necessary prologue to the
miraculous."
Thus did they converse; but I will not pursue their conversation further.
It will be enough to say that in further floods of talk Mr. Balmy
confirmed what George had said about the Banks having lost their hold
upon the masses. That hold was weak even in the time of my father's
first visit; but when the people saw the hostility of the Banks to a
movement which far the greater number of them accepted, it seemed as
though both Bridgeford and the Banks were doomed, for Bridgeford was
heart and soul with the Banks. Hanky, it appeared, though under thirty,
and not yet a Professor, grasped the situation, and saw that Bridgeford
must either move with the times, or go. He consulted some of the most
sagacious Heads of Houses and Professors, with the result that a
committee of enquiry was appointed, which in due course reported that the
evidence for the Sunchild's having been the only child of the sun was
conclusive.
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