He bit off the rest of the fig and flung away the butt.
―I suffer little children to come unto me, Glynn said amiably.
―A bloody ape, Cranly repeated with emphasis, and a blasphemous bloody ape!
Temple stood up and, pushing past Cranly, addressed Glynn:
―That phrase you said now, he said, is from the new testament about suffer the children to come to me.
―Go to sleep again, Temple, said O’Keeffe.
―Very well, then, Temple continued, still addressing Glynn, and if Jesus suffered the children to come why does the church send them all to hell if they die unbaptised? Why is that?
―Were you baptised yourself, Temple? the consumptive student asked.
―But why are they sent to hell if Jesus said they were all to come? Temple said, his eyes searching Glynn’s eyes.
Glynn coughed and said gently, holding back with difficulty the nervous titter in his voice and moving his umbrella at every word:
―And, as you remark, if it is thus, I ask emphatically whence comes this thusness.
―Because the church is cruel like all old sinners, Temple said.
―Are you quite orthodox on that point, Temple? Dixon said suavely.
―Saint Augustine says that about unbaptised children going to hell, Temple answered, because he was a cruel old sinner too.