"Perhaps it is, Henry; yet I rarely feel prejudice.""Call it rather an intuition," said the clergyman."What your antipathetic attitude means is that you already unconsciously know this man is not going to avail, and that his assumption of superiority in the matter of knowledge - his opinions and lack of faith - will defeat him if nothing else does.He approaches his problem in an infidel spirit, and consequently the problem will evade his skill; because such skill is not merely futile in this matter, but actually destructive."Mary left them, and they discussed the probable chances of the detective without convincing each other.Henry, who had been much impressed by Hardcastle, argued in his favor; but Septimus May was obdurate, and Sir Walter evidently inclined to agree with him.
"The young men think the old men fools, and the old men know the young ones are," said Sir Walter.
"But he is not young, uncle; he's forty.He told me so.""I thought him ten years less, and he spoke with the dogmatism of youth.""Only on that subject."
"Which happens to be the one subject of all others on which we have a right to demand an open and reverent mind," said the clergyman.