God's Counterpoint

God's Counterpoint is the story of a Puritan who hated all things sexual and tried to banish them from his life, with baneful consequences. Philip Maning spent his boyhood under the yoke of a stern Victorian father whose favorite word was Don't. Philip goes to Dulwich College, where his career was entirely uneventful save that he sometimes had queer sensations in passing through the tunnel under Herne Hill station, and once had an eerie experience in the fields near Croxted Road, his first contact with the beastly. Not being clever enough to win a scholarship at the 'Varsity, he goes into the business of a publisher named Wing, whose specialty is Purity. Maning hates all women, or as it is discovered later, he loves women too much, and is afraid. However at Wing's he is brought into contact with Evelyn Lang, the business-like daughter of a Dean whom he had once met in odd circumstances, and becomes engaged to her. The physical side of marriage is repulsive to him, but he marries Evelyn and has a son.