until at last Ward burst into the intoxicating merriment of the Largo al Factotum. When it was over a faint but persistent knocking made itself heard upon the wall; and it was only then that the company remembered that the rooms next door were Dr. Pusey's.
The same entraînement which carried Ward away when he sat down to a piano possessed him whenever he embarked on a religious discussion. "The thing that was utterly abhorrent to him," said one of his friends, "was to stop short." Given the premises, he would follow out their implications with the mercilessness of a medieval monk, and when he had reached the last limits of argument be ready to maintain whatever propositions he might find there with his dying breath. He had the extreme innocence of a child and a mathematician. Captivated by the glittering eye of Newman, he swallowed whole the supernatural conception of the universe which Newman had evolved, accepted it as a fundamental premise, and began at once to deduce from it whatsoever there might be to be deduced. His very first deductions included irrefutable proofs of (1) God's particular providence for individuals; (2) the real efficacy of intercessory prayer; (3) the reality of our communion with the saints departed; (4) the constant presence and assistance of the angels of God. Later on he explained mathematically the importance of the Ember Days. "Who can tell," he added, "the degree of blessing lost to us in this land by neglecting, as we alone of Christian Churches do neglect, these holy days?" He then proceeded to convict the Reformers, not only of rebellion, but "—for my own part I see not how we can avoid adding—of perjury." Every day his arguments, became more extreme, more rigorously exact, and more distressing to his master. Newman was in the position of a cautious commander-in-chief being hurried into an engagement against his will by a dashing cavalry officer. Ward forced him forward step by step towards—no! he could not bear it; he shuddered and
