This was a matter of great solicitude to his wife and
daughter. The Baroness felt it to be a mistake on the part of
Senator Cheney, and even Judge Lawrence, who adored his son-in-law,
regretted the young man's indifference to things spiritual. But with
all Preston Cheney's worldly ambitions and weaknesses, there was a
vein of sincerity in his nature which forbade his feigning a faith he
did not feel; and the daily lives of the three feminine members of
his family were so in disaccord with his views of religion that he
felt no incentive to follow in their footsteps. Judge Lawrence he
knew to be an honest, loyal-hearted, God and humanity loving man. "A
true Christian by nature and education," he said of his father-in-
law, "but I am not born with his tendency to religious observance,
and I see less and less in the churches to lead me into the fold. It
seems to me that these religious institutions are getting to be vast
monopolistic corporations like the railroads and oil trusts, and the
like. I see very little of the spirit of Christ in orthodox people
to-day."
Meanwhile Senator Cheney's purse was always open to any demand the
church made; he believed in churches as benevolent if not soul-saving
institutions, and cheerfully aided their charitable work.
The rector of St Blank's, the fashionable edifice where the ladies of
the Cheney household obtained spiritual manna in New York, died when
Alice was sixteen years old.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69