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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Missionary
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: August 21, 2009 [EBook #29743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSIONARY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Rose Acquavella and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  _The Missionary_
+
+  BY
+
+  George Griffith
+
+  AUTHOR OF
+
+  "_The Angel of the Revolution_,"
+  "_The Rose of Judah_,"
+  "_The Destined Maid_,"
+  "_The Justice of Revenge_,"
+  "_Brothers of the Chain_,"
+  "_Captain Ishmael_," _etc., etc._
+
+
+  _London_
+  F. V. WHITE & CO., LTD.
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+  1902
+
+  PRINTED BY KELLY'S DIRECTORIES LIMITED,
+  LONDON AND KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                  PAGE
+
+  PROLOGUE           1
+
+  CHAPTER I.         4
+
+  CHAPTER II.       22
+
+  CHAPTER III.      31
+
+  CHAPTER IV.       48
+
+  CHAPTER V.        67
+
+  CHAPTER VI.       86
+
+  CHAPTER VII.      96
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.    106
+
+  CHAPTER IX.      115
+
+  CHAPTER X.       125
+
+  CHAPTER XI.      134
+
+  CHAPTER XII.     144
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.    156
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.     167
+
+  CHAPTER XV.      177
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.     188
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.    202
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.   214
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.     222
+
+  CHAPTER XX.      230
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.     238
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.    249
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.   260
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.    276
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.     289
+
+  EPILOGUE.        302
+
+
+
+
+THE MISSIONARY.
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+"Oh--Eny!"
+
+"Well, you needn't be angry, Vane. I kissed _you_ this morning, you
+know."
+
+"That's no reason why you should kiss that chap, too! You're _my_
+sweetheart."
+
+"Is she? Well, she won't be much longer, because I'm going to have her."
+
+"Are you? Shut up, or I'll punch your head."
+
+"You can't--and, anyhow, you daren't."
+
+Smack!
+
+It was a good swinging blow with the open hand across the cheek, and it
+left a vivid flush behind it on the somewhat sallow skin.
+
+"Oh, if you're going to fight I shall go away, and I shan't be friends
+with either of you."
+
+But as the two lads closed, the blue-eyed, golden-haired little beauty
+only shrank back a little nearer to the after-wheelhouse of the homeward
+bound P. and O. liner whose deck was the scene of this first act of the
+tragedy of three lives. A bright flush came into her cheeks, and a new
+light began to dance in her eyes as the first look of fright died out of
+them. The breath came and went more quickly between the half-opened
+lips with a low sibilant sound. They were pretty, well-cut lips, the
+upper short and exquisitely curved, and the lower full with the promise
+of a sensuous maturity.
+
+She was only seven, but she was woman enough already to know that these
+two lads were fighting for _her_--for the favour of her smiles and the
+right to her kisses--and so she stayed.
+
+She had heard in India how the tigers fought for their mates, and, with
+the precocity of the Anglo-Indian child, she recognised now the likeness
+between tigers and men--and boys. She was being fought for. These two
+lads, albeit they had neither of them seen their eleventh birthday, were
+using all their strength against each other, hammering each other's
+faces with their fists, wrestling and writhing, now upstanding and now
+on the deck at her feet, were not unlike the tigers she had heard her
+father tell her mother about.
+
+She saw the hatred in their eyes, red and swollen by the impact of
+well-planted blows. She watched the gleam of their teeth between their
+cut and bleeding lips. They hated each other because they loved her--or,
+in their boyish way, most firmly believed they did. Their lips were cut
+and bleeding because she had kissed them.
+
+The fascination of the fight grew upon her. The hot young blood began to
+dance in her veins. She found herself encouraging now one and then the
+other--always the one who was getting the worst of it for the time
+being--and when at last the younger and slighter but more wiry and
+active of them, the one who had caught the other kissing her, took
+adroit advantage of a roll of the ship and pitched his antagonist
+backwards so heavily against the wheelhouse that he dropped
+half-stunned to the deck, she looked proudly at the panting, bleeding
+victor, and gasped:
+
+"Oh, Vane, I'm so glad you've won. You haven't quite killed him, have
+you? I suppose the captain would hang you if you did. I'm _so_ sorry it
+was all about me. I'll never let any one else but you kiss me again.
+Really I won't. You may kiss me now if you like. Take my handkerchief.
+Oh, I don't mind the cuts. You did it for me. There! It was brave of
+you, for he's bigger than you. Poor Reggie, let's help him up. I suppose
+you'll both have to go to the doctor."
+
+"We shall both get a jolly good licking more likely. Still, I don't care
+as long as you won't let him kiss you again."
+
+"No, Vane, indeed I won't, nor anyone else for ever and ever if you'll
+only forgive me this time."
+
+And then, for the first time since the fight began, her big bright blue
+eyes filled and grew dim with tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was the evening of Boat-race day, and as usual that province of
+Vanity Fair whose centre is Piccadilly Circus was more or less
+completely given over to joyously boisterous troops of undergraduates
+and 'Varsity men of all academic ranks whom the great event of the year
+had brought together from all parts of the kingdom, and even from lands
+beyond the sea.
+
+The mild saturnalia which London annually permits in honour of the
+historic struggle between the rival blues was at its height. The music
+halls were crowded to their utmost capacity, and lusty-voiced
+undergraduates joined enthusiastically, if not altogether tunefully, in
+the choruses of the songs; but the enthusiasm was perhaps highest and
+the crowd the greatest at the Palace, where start and race and the
+magnificent finish with which the struggle had ended were being shown by
+the American Biograph.
+
+As the series of pictures followed each other on the screen, the cries
+which a few hours before had been roaring along the two banks of the
+river from Putney to Mortlake burst out anew from pit and gallery,
+circles and stalls and boxes. Cambridge had won for once after a long
+series of defeats, but the Oxford boys and men were cheering just as
+lustily and yelling themselves just as hoarse as the others, for they
+were all Englishmen and therefore good sportsmen.
+
+The crush in the First Circle was terrific, but for the moment Vane
+Maxwell was conscious neither of the heat nor the crowding. His whole
+soul was in his eyes as he watched the weirdly silent and yet life-like
+phantoms flitting across the screen. It was only when the finish had
+faded into swift darkness and the thunders of applause had begun to die
+down that he became aware of the fact that someone was standing on one
+of his feet, and that just behind him someone else had got hold of his
+arm and was holding it with a convulsive sort of clutch.
+
+Just then there was a lull in the applause, and he caught a faintly
+murmured "Oh, dear" in a feminine voice. He wrenched his foot free, and
+turned round just in time to slip his arm round the waist of a fainting
+girl and save her from falling.
+
+The crush was loosening now, for the great attraction of the evening had
+passed, and a general move was being made towards the bars.
+
+"If you please there, this young lady's fainting. Give her as much room
+as you can, please," he said loudly enough to be heard for some little
+distance round.
+
+A number of undergraduates of both Universities managed to immediately
+clear a space about them, and one of his own college chums at Balliol
+who had come in with him said, "Take her to the bar, Maxwell, and give
+her a drop of brandy. Now, move up there, you fellows. Room for beauty
+in distress--come along!"
+
+A couple of the stalwart attendants had also arrived on the scene by
+this time, and so a lane was easily made to the nearest bar. The girl
+opened her eyes again, looked about her for a moment, and then
+murmured:
+
+"Oh, thank you so much, I think I can walk. I am getting all right now.
+It was the crowd and the heat. Please don't trouble. It's very good of
+you."
+
+"It's no trouble at all," said Maxwell. "Come and let me give you a drop
+of brandy. That'll put you all right."
+
+As they went into the bar they were followed by not a few curious
+glances. Men and lads looked at each other and smiled, and women looked
+at them and each other, also smiling, but with plainer meaning, and one
+or two expressed themselves openly as to the neatness with which the
+whole affair had been managed.
+
+Crowded as the bar was, Maxwell had no difficulty in getting a couple of
+brandies and a split soda for himself and his companion. Two men sitting
+at one of the tables had got up to let her sit down. One of them held
+out his hand to Maxwell and said:
+
+"Why, Vane, old man, is it you? In luck, as usual, I see." He said this
+with a glance towards the girl which brought the blood to Maxwell's
+cheeks. Still, he took the other's hand, and said good-humouredly:
+
+"Good evening, Garthorne. Up for the race, I suppose? Fine fight, wasn't
+it? I'm glad you won, it was getting a bit monotonous. Thanks for
+letting us have the table. This young lady is not very well, felt a bit
+faint in the crowd."
+
+"I see," said Garthorne, with another look at her which Maxwell did not
+altogether like. "Well, good night, old man. Be as good as you can."
+
+As the two moved away Maxwell's memory went back to a scene which had
+occurred behind the wheelhouse of a P. and O. liner about ten years
+before, and, without exactly knowing why, he felt as if it would give
+him a certain amount of satisfaction to repeat it. Then he turned to the
+girl and said:
+
+"I beg your pardon; I hope you haven't been waiting. You should have
+taken a drink at once."
+
+"Oh, thanks, that's all right. I'm a lot better now," she said, taking
+up the tumbler and smiling over it at him. "Well, here's luck! It was
+awfully good of you to get me out of that crowd. I believe I should have
+fallen down if it hadn't been for you."
+
+"Oh, please don't mention that," he said; "only too happy--I mean I was
+very glad I was there to do it. Here's to your complete recovery."
+
+As he drank their eyes met over the glasses. Until now he had not really
+looked at her; things had been happening rather too rapidly for that.
+But now, as he put his glass down and began to scrutinize the
+half-saucy, half-demure, and altogether charming face on the other side
+of the table, it suddenly dawned upon him that it was exceedingly like
+his own.
+
+The nut-brown hair was almost the same shade as his, but it had a gleam
+of gold in it which his lacked. The dark hazel eyes were bigger and
+softer, and were shaded by longer and darker lashes than his, but their
+colour and expression were very similar. The rest of the face, too, was
+very similar, only while his nose was almost perfectly straight, nearly
+pure Greek in fact, hers was just the merest trifle _retroussé_.
+
+The mouths and chins were almost identical save for the fact that
+firmness and strength in his were replaced by softness and sweetness in
+hers. Not that hers were lacking in firmness, for a skilled
+physiognomist would have put her down at the first glance as a young
+lady of very decided character; but the outlines were softer, the lips
+were more delicate and more mobile, and, young as he was, there was a
+gravity in his smile which was replaced in hers by a suspicion of
+defiant recklessness which was not without its mournful meaning for
+those who had eyes to see.
+
+"That's done me a lot of good," she said, as she finished her brandy and
+soda. "Now, I mustn't keep you from your friends any longer. I'm very
+much obliged to you indeed. Good night!"
+
+He rose as she did, and took the neatly-gloved little hand that she held
+out to him over the table.
+
+"I don't see why we should say good night just yet unless you
+particularly wish it," he said. "I only came here with a lot of our
+fellows to see the Biograph, and I shan't stop now that's over. I'm
+getting jolly hungry, too. If you have no other engagement suppose we
+were to go and have a bit of supper somewhere?"
+
+For some reason or other which she was quite unable to define, these
+words, although they were spoken with perfect politeness, and although
+she had heard them scores of times before without offence, now almost
+offended her. And yet there was no real reason why they should.
+
+She had been out to supper with pretty nearly all sorts and conditions
+of men. Why should she not go with this well-groomed, athletic-looking
+young fellow who had already done her a considerable service, who was
+obviously a gentleman, and whose face and expression had now begun to
+strike her as so curiously like her own?
+
+She really had no other engagement for the evening, and to refuse would
+be, to say the least of it, ungracious; so, after a moment's
+hesitation, she took her hand away and said with a quick upward glance
+of her eyes:
+
+"Very well, I was just beginning to think about supper myself when I
+turned up out there in that absurd way, so we may as well have it
+together. Where were you thinking of going? Suppose we were to try the
+grill-room at the Troc. Of course everywhere will be pretty crowded
+to-night, but we have as good a chance of getting a table there as
+anywhere else. Besides, I know one or two of the waiters. I often go
+there to lunch."
+
+"Very well," he said; "come along." And in a few minutes more they were
+rolling along in a hansom down Shaftesbury Avenue.
+
+Vane Maxwell was in very good humour that night with himself and all the
+world. He had taken a double first in Mods., in History and Classics,
+after crowning a brilliant career at Eton with a Balliol Scholarship. He
+was stroke of his college boat, and had worked her four places up the
+river. In another year he might be in the 'Varsity Eight itself, and
+help to avenge the defeat which the Dark Blues had just suffered. The
+sweetheart he had won in that Homeric little battle behind the
+wheelhouse had been faithful to him ever since. He had an abundance of
+pocket money and the prospect of a fair fortune, and altogether the
+world appeared to be a very pleasant place indeed to live in.
+
+When they got into the cab the girl half expected that he would slip his
+arm round her as others were wont to do when they had the chance, but he
+didn't, and she liked him all the better for it. He did, however, put
+his hand through her arm and draw her just a little closer to him. Then
+he leant back in the cab, and, as the light from a big gin palace lamp
+flashed on to her face, he said:
+
+"Well, this _is_ jolly. I'm so glad you came. I feel just in the humour
+for a good supper in pleasant society."
+
+"Thank you," she said, with a little toss of her head; "but how do you
+know my society is going to be pleasant?"
+
+"Oh, it couldn't be anything else," he laughed. "You are far too pretty
+not to be nice."
+
+"Thanks," she said gravely. "Are all the pretty girls you know nice?
+Don't you find some of them horribly conceited and dull? Lots of fellows
+I know say so."
+
+"Lots of fellows!" he echoed. "Then you have a pretty extensive
+acquaintance----"
+
+"Why, of course I have," she interrupted, cutting him short almost
+roughly. Then she went on with a swift change of tone, "Don't you see
+that a--a girl like me has _got_ to know plenty of fellows? It's--well,
+it's business, and that's the brutal truth of it."
+
+She turned her head away and looked out of the cab window as though she
+didn't want him to see the expression that came over her face as she
+said the last few words.
+
+But though he did not see the change in her face, the change in her
+voice struck him like a jarring note in a harmony that he was beginning
+to find very pleasant. He felt a sort of momentary resentment. He knew,
+of course, that it was the "brutal truth," but just then he disliked
+being reminded of it--especially by her. She seemed a great deal too
+nice for _that_ to be true of her. There was a little pause, rather an
+awkward one, during which he tried to think of the proper thing to say.
+Of course he didn't succeed, so he just blurted out:
+
+"Oh, never mind about brutal truths just now, little girl."
+
+There was another pause, during which she still kept her head turned
+away. Then he went on with a happy inconsequence:
+
+"By the way, has it struck you yet that we're rather like each other?"
+
+"Is that a compliment to me or to yourself?" she said, half gravely, and
+yet with a belying gleam of mischief in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, a likeness like that could only be a compliment to me, of course,"
+he replied, and before the conversation could proceed any farther the
+cab stopped at the entrance to the Trocadero.
+
+By great good luck they procured one of the little side tables in the
+inner room just as another couple were leaving it. One of the waiters
+had recognised her as she came in, and, with the astute alacrity of his
+kind, had taken possession of them and pre-empted the table before
+anyone else could get near it. There were, in fact, others waiting who
+had a prior right, but the gentleman in the plum coat and gold buttons
+made it impossible for the superintendent of the room to interfere by
+saying to Maxwell in his blandest tone:
+
+"Good evening, sir; it's all right, sir. This is the table you engaged."
+
+"He's a smart youth, that Fritz," said the girl as they sat down. "These
+fellows here know which side their bread's buttered on, and they look
+after their own customers."
+
+"Yes, he seems to know his business," said Maxwell, "and now I suppose
+the question is, what are we going to have?"
+
+Fritz had come back, and was swiftly and rapidly removing the débris
+left behind by their predecessors. The girl looked up at him with an air
+of familiarity which Maxwell didn't altogether like, and said:
+
+"What's good for supper, Fritz? I am hungry."
+
+"A few oysters, miss, grilled sole, and a nice little porterhouse steak
+between two. How's that, miss?"
+
+She looked across at Maxwell and nodded, and he said, "Yes, I think that
+will do very nicely. Let's have the oysters at once, and some brown
+bread and butter."
+
+"Yes, sir, certainly. Any wine, sir?"
+
+The list was presented, opened, of course, at the champagne page.
+
+"You'll have something fizzy, won't you?" he said, looking up from the
+list.
+
+"I suppose we may as well," she said, "only I don't want you to think me
+too extravagant."
+
+"Nonsense," he laughed, and then he told the waiter to bring a bottle of
+Kock Fils '89.
+
+When the man had gone on his errand Maxwell said somewhat diffidently:
+
+"By the way, we seem to be getting to know each other pretty well, but
+we've not exactly been introduced. I mean we don't know each other's
+names yet."
+
+"Oh, introductions are not much in fashion in the world that I live in,"
+she said with a little flush. "Of course you don't need telling which
+half of the world that is."
+
+For the moment he felt an unreasonable resentment, either at the words
+or the half defiant way in which she spoke them. He was quite old enough
+both in years and the ways of the world to know exactly what she meant,
+and he was perfectly well aware that she would not have accepted his
+invitation to supper any more than she would have been in the promenade
+of a music hall unescorted if she had been what is conventionally
+termed respectable. Yet somehow he wanted to forget the fact and treat
+her with the respect he would have paid to any ordinary acquaintance in
+his own social sphere.
+
+This feeling was probably due both to an innate chivalry and to the fact
+that one of his father's favourite precepts was, "My boy, whatever
+company you're in, never forget that you're a gentleman." Mingled with
+it there may also have been a dash of masculine vanity. The more he
+looked at the girl the more striking did her likeness to himself appear.
+Really, if he had had a sister she could not have been more like him,
+but he knew that he was an only child, and, besides, that thought was
+altogether unthinkable.
+
+After a little pause, during which their eyes met and their cheeks
+flushed in a somewhat boy-and-girlish fashion, he laughed a trifle
+awkwardly and said:
+
+"Well, then, we shall have to introduce ourselves, I suppose. My name is
+Maxwell--Vane Maxwell."
+
+"Vane!" she echoed, "how funny! My name is Vane too--Carol Vane. It's
+not a sham one either, such as a lot of girls like me take. It's my
+own--at least, I have always been called Carol, and Vane was my mother's
+name."
+
+"I see," said Maxwell, after another little pause, during which the
+oysters came and the waiter opened the wine. When he had filled the two
+glasses and vanished, Maxwell lifted his and said:
+
+"Well, Miss Carol, it is rather curious that we should both have the
+same names, and also, if I may say so without flattering myself too much,
+be so much like each other. At any rate I shall venture to hope that
+your little accident at the Palace has enabled me to make a very
+charming acquaintance."
+
+"That's very prettily put, Mr. Vane Maxwell," she said, nodding and
+smiling at him over her glass. "And now that we've been introduced in a
+sort of way, as we haven't got any more interesting subject to talk
+about, suppose we talk about ourselves. Which are you, Oxford or
+Cambridge?"
+
+The conversation thus started rattled merrily along for over an hour.
+Without thinking any disloyalty to his own Enid, who was now a fair and
+stately maiden of eighteen, he found it quite impossible to resist the
+strange charm of Miss Carol's manner. She was obviously a lady by
+instinct, and she had also been educated after a sort. She had read
+widely if not altogether wisely, and she seemed just as familiar with
+the literature, or, at any rate, with the fiction of France and Italy as
+she was with that of England.
+
+This she explained was due to the fact that until she was about twelve,
+that is to say some seven years ago, she had been constantly living and
+wandering about in these two countries with her mother and sometimes
+also with a gentleman who, as she put it, was pretty probably her
+father. She explained further that at the mature age of thirteen she had
+run away from a French school in which she had been placed by some
+unknown agency and joined a wandering English circus-troop with which
+she had travelled half over Europe, leading a more or less miserable
+existence for some five years. She had then terminated her connection
+with the Ring by going into housekeeping with an English art-student in
+Paris. Meanwhile she had lost all trace of her mother, and had come to
+the conclusion that she had by this time drunk herself to death.
+
+"I scarcely ever knew her to be quite sober," she said pathetically,
+and then she changed the subject.
+
+It was not a very cheerful story, as story, but Miss Carol told it with
+such a quaint humour and such a vivacity of expression and gesture that,
+despite the under-note of tragedy, Maxwell thought it the most
+interesting story he had ever heard in his life.
+
+As the courses disappeared and the empty bottle of wine was succeeded by
+a half bottle "just for the last," as Maxwell said, the conversation
+grew gayer and perhaps also a trifle freer, although Miss Carol never
+permitted herself any of those freedoms of expression with which too
+many of the so-called Daughters of Delight vulgarise themselves so
+hopelessly. When the half bottle was finished Maxwell wanted another,
+and to this Miss Carol promptly and firmly objected.
+
+"If you will excuse me saying so to a new acquaintance," she said, "I
+wouldn't if I were you. We have both of us had enough of this stuff,
+nice and all as it is--at least, I have, and I think I'm more used to it
+than you. A coffee and liqueur if you like. That won't hurt us--in fact,
+it'll do us good; but I can see something in your eyes that shouldn't be
+there."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Maxwell, a trifle offended. "Surely you're not
+going to accuse me of the unpardonable crime of getting drunk in the
+company of a lady."
+
+"Thank you!" she said simply, and yet with a decided dignity. "No, I
+don't mean that. It's a funny thing, you know," she went on, leaning her
+elbows on the table and staring straight into his eyes, "but there's a
+queer kind of light coming into your eyes, a sort of dancing, jumping
+yellow flame that makes them look almost red. Well, your eyes are
+almost exactly like mine, and mine are like my mother's, and whenever
+she'd got so far on with drink that she couldn't stop I used to see that
+light in her eyes. Of course I don't say that it means anything; still,
+there it is. I used to call it the danger signal, and keep away from her
+as much as I could till it was over, and I had to nurse her back to
+something like life."
+
+"That's rather approaching the creepy," said Maxwell, with an almost
+imperceptible shrug of his shoulders. He had no feeling of offence now.
+She looked so pretty and she spoke so earnestly that it was impossible
+to be offended with her. Moreover, although he was far from even getting
+drunk, he felt a dreamy sensation stealing over him which seemed to be
+sapping his self-restraint and making him utterly careless of what he
+did or what happened to him so long as it was only pleasant.
+
+"Really, it is decidedly curious," he went on. "I hope I haven't got the
+makings of a dipsomaniac in me. But I feel quite curiously happy, and I
+believe I could just go on drinking and getting happier and happier
+until I landed in Paradise with you standing just inside the gates to
+welcome me."
+
+"Don't!" she said almost sharply. "For goodness sake don't begin to talk
+like that. That's just how my mother used to feel, just how she used to
+talk, and she did go on--of course, there was no one to stop her. You
+should have seen her a couple of days after--a savage, an animal, a wild
+beast, only wild beasts don't get drunk. It's not a nice thing to say of
+your mother, even such a mother as mine was, but it's true, and I'm
+telling you because I like you, and it may do you some good."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Carol! After that I shall certainly take your advice,"
+he said, pouring his cognac into his coffee. "This is the last drink
+to-night, and that reminds me; it's getting rather late. How about going
+home?"
+
+"I think it's about time," she said. "They close at twelve to-night, you
+know. Which way do you go?"
+
+"Which way do _you_ go?" he said, as he beckoned to the waiter for the
+bill. "By the way, I was going to ask you--I hope you have never seen
+that light, that danger signal, in your own eyes?"
+
+She ignored his first question _in toto_, and replied:
+
+"Yes, I saw it once when I got home after a pretty wild supper. It
+frightened me so that I went 'T.T.' for nearly a month, and just now I
+wouldn't drink another glass of that champagne if you gave me a thousand
+pounds to drink it."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I shan't ask you after what you've said," he laughed, as
+he threw a couple of shillings on the plate which the waiter presented,
+and took up his bill. Then he got up and helped her on with her cloak,
+and as she shook her shapely shoulders into it he went on:
+
+"But you haven't answered my question yet."
+
+"Which question?" she said, turning sharply round.
+
+"Which way do you go--or do you intend to stop out a bit later?" he
+replied rather haltingly. "I thought perhaps I might have the
+pleasure----"
+
+"Of seeing me home?" she said, raising her eyes to his and flushing
+hotly. "I'm afraid that's impossible. But go and get your coat and hat,
+and let's go outside. It's horribly close in here."
+
+He paid his bill at the pay-box near the door, and when they got out
+into the street he took her by the arm and said, as they turned down
+towards the Circus:
+
+"And may I ask why it is impossible, Miss Carol. I thought just now you
+said that you liked me a bit."
+
+"So I do," she replied, with a little thrill in her voice; "and that's
+just why, or partly why--and besides, we're too much alike. Why, we
+might be brother and sister----"
+
+"That is quite out of the question," he interrupted quickly; "I never
+had a sister. I am an only child, and my mother died soon after I was
+born. She died in India nearly twenty years ago."
+
+"I can't help it," she said, almost passionately. "Of course we can't
+possibly be any relation, the idea's absurd; but still, it's no use--I
+couldn't, I daren't. Besides, have you forgotten what you were telling
+me about your fight on the steamer with that man we met at the Palace?
+Aren't you in love with the girl still? I quite understood you were
+engaged to her."
+
+"Yes," said Maxwell frankly, "I am, and perhaps I ought to be ashamed of
+myself. That is two lessons you've taught me to-night, Miss Carol, and I
+shan't forget either them or you. Still, I don't see why we shouldn't be
+friends. Honestly, I like you very much, and you've said you like
+me--why shouldn't we?"
+
+"Yes, that's true; I like you all right," she replied with almost
+embarrassing frankness; "but for all that it's something very different
+from love at first sight. It's funny, but do you know, Vane--I suppose
+if we're going to be friends I may call you Vane--although I think I
+could get to like you very much in one way, however different things
+were, I don't believe I could ever fall in love with you. But if you
+only mean friends, just real pals, as we say in my half of the world, I
+am there, always supposing that the friendship of such an entirely
+improper young person as I am doesn't do you any harm."
+
+"Harm, nonsense!" he said. "Why should it? Well, that's a bargain, and
+now perhaps you won't object to tell me where you live."
+
+"Oh, no, not now," she said. "I live at 15, Melville Gardens, Brook
+Green, with a very nice girl that you may also be friends with if you're
+good."
+
+"Brook Green! Why, that's off the Hammersmith Road. We, that is to say
+dad and myself, live in Warwick Gardens, a bit this side of Addison
+Bridge, so if you really mean to go home we may as well get a hansom,
+and you can drop me at Warwick Gardens and go on."
+
+"Of course I mean to go home, and I think that would be a very good
+arrangement."
+
+They had crossed over to the pavement in front of the Criterion as she
+said this. It was on the tip of Maxwell's tongue to ask her to come in
+and have another drink. He certainly felt a greater craving for alcohol
+than he had ever done in his life before, and if he had been alone he
+might have yielded to it; but he was ashamed to do so after what he had
+just said to her, so he hailed an empty cab that was just coming up to
+the kerb. As he was handing his companion in, the door of the buffet
+swung open, and Reginald Garthorne came out with two other Cambridge
+men. They were all a trifle fresh, and as Garthorne recognised him he
+called out:
+
+"By-by, Maxwell. Don't forget to say your prayers."
+
+Maxwell turned round angrily with his foot on the step. If he had had
+that other drink that he wanted there would have been a row, but, as it
+was, a word and a gesture from Miss Carol brought him into the cab.
+There was an angry flush on her cheeks and a wicked light in her eyes,
+but she said very quietly, "Do you know, I am glad you thrashed that
+fellow once. He ought to be ashamed of himself shouting a thing like
+that out here. I suppose he thinks himself a gentleman, too."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said Vane. "Garthorne's a bit screwed, that's
+all. Everyone is to-night. But he's not at all a bad fellow. His father
+was a soldier in India, and did some very good service. He has a staff
+appointment at home. He's a baronet too--one of the old ones. His mother
+comes of a good stock as well. We've been very good chums since that
+first row. Fellows who fight as boys generally are."
+
+"Oh, I daresay he's all right, but I didn't like it," said Miss Carol,
+leaning back in the cab. "And now suppose you tell me something more
+about yourself."
+
+When the cab pulled up at the corner of Warwick Gardens and he said
+good-night, he asked her for a kiss. She blushed like a
+fourteen-year-old school girl as she replied:
+
+"That's a great compliment, Vane, for I know how you mean it. But if you
+don't mind I really think I'd rather not, at least not just yet. You
+see, after all we've only known each other two or three hours. Wait
+until you know me at least a little better before you ask again, and
+then perhaps we'll see."
+
+"Well, I daresay you're right, Miss Modesty," he laughed, as he got out.
+"In fact, you always seem to be right. Good-night, Carol."
+
+"Good-night, Vane." As he stepped backwards from the cab she leant
+forward and smiled and waved her hand. A gentleman walking quickly from
+the direction of the bridge looked up and saw her pretty laughing face
+as the light of a lamp fell upon it. He stopped almost as suddenly as
+though he had run up against some invisible obstacle, and passed his
+hand across his eyes. Then the cab doors closed, the face vanished back
+into the shadow of the interior, and, to his utter amazement, Maxwell
+heard his father's voice say:
+
+"God bless my soul. What a marvellous likeness!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Well, Vane!"
+
+"Well, dad!"
+
+"May I ask who that young lady in the cab with you was?"
+
+Vane saw at once that he was in for it, and even if he had wished for
+any concealment, it was impossible under the circumstances. As a matter
+of fact, however, he had already made up his mind to tell his father the
+whole story of his little adventure, and so he said very gravely and
+deliberately:
+
+"That, dad, is a young lady whose acquaintance I made to-night at the
+Palace. She nearly fainted in the crush just after the Biograph was
+over. She happened to be close behind me, and so of course she held on
+to me. I took her into one of the bars and gave her a brandy and soda.
+Then we noticed mutually how curiously like each other we were, and
+then--well, then I asked her to supper and she came. We have just driven
+here from the Trocadero. She has gone on to where she lives in Melville
+Gardens, Brook Green. I can tell you a lot more about her afterwards, if
+you like."
+
+Sir Arthur Maxwell, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.S.I., looked keenly into his
+son's face while he was giving this rapid summary of his evening's
+adventure. There was and always had been the most absolute confidence
+between them. Ever since Vane had been old enough they had been
+companions and chums, rather than father and son, and so Sir Arthur had
+not the slightest doubt but that Vane was telling the absolute truth. He
+was only looking to see whether the telling of the truth embarrassed him
+or not, and he was well pleased to see that it did not.
+
+"Quite an interesting experience, I must say," he said, a little
+gruffly. "Well, I'm glad to see, at any rate, that you didn't accompany
+the young lady home. I presume you were invited."
+
+"On the contrary, dad," replied Vane, this time with a little hesitation
+in his tone, "to tell you the honest truth----"
+
+"That was a needless opening, Vane. My son could not tell anything else.
+Go on."
+
+"Well, the fact is, dad, it was the other way about. I suggested it, and
+she refused point blank. I'm afraid I'd had rather too much fizz on top
+of too many brandies and sodas before supper."
+
+"That will do, Vane," said his father, a little stiffly. "At any rate,
+thank God you are not drunk or anything like it. But this is hardly the
+sort of thing to discuss in the street. We'll go into the Den and have a
+chat and a smoke before we go to bed. You know I'm not squeamish about
+these things. I know that a lad of twenty is made of flesh and blood
+just as a man of thirty or forty is, and although I consider what is
+called sowing wild oats foolish as well as a most ungentlemanly pastime,
+still, I equally don't believe in the innocence of ignorance, at least
+not for a man."
+
+"You seem to forget, dad," replied Vane, answering him in something very
+like his own tone, "just as I'm sorry to say I forgot for a minute or
+two to-night that I am engaged to Enid."
+
+"Quite right, boy," said his father as they went in at the gate. "I
+didn't forget it though, and I'm glad you remembered it."
+
+"Only I ought to have said that it was the girl who reminded me of it,"
+said Vane, as he put his latch-key into the door.
+
+When they got into the Den, which was a sort of combination room, partly
+a library and partly study and smoking-room with a quaint suggestion of
+Oriental fantasy about it, Sir Arthur, according to his wont at that
+time of night, unlocked the spirit case, and mixed himself a whiskey and
+soda. As he did so, Vane found his eyes fixed on one of the bright
+cut-glass bottles which contained brandy. He would have given anything
+to be able to mix a brandy and soda for himself and drink it without
+believing, or at any rate fearing, that after all there might be
+something in Miss Carol's warning.
+
+As Sir Arthur lit his cigar, he said in a rather forced tone:
+
+"I suppose after what you've said it's no use asking you to have a
+nightcap, Vane?"
+
+There was a little pause, during which Vane looked hard at the
+spirit-case. Then, with the gesture of one under strong emotion, he got
+up from his chair and said in a voice whose tone made his father look
+quickly towards him:
+
+"I don't think I've ever knowingly disobeyed you in my life, dad, but if
+you were to order me to drink a drop of spirit to-night, I shouldn't do
+it."
+
+"Why not, Vane?"
+
+"Just look into my eyes, dad, and tell me if you see anything strange
+about them."
+
+"What on earth do you mean, boy--there's nothing the matter with your
+eyes, is there?" said Sir Arthur, looking up with a visible start, "what
+has put that idea into your head?"
+
+"I'll tell you afterwards, dad, meanwhile, just have a look," replied
+Vane, coming and standing under the light.
+
+He felt his father's hands tremble as he laid them on his shoulder, and
+as he looked into his eyes a tinge of greyness seemed to steal
+underneath the sun-bronze of his skin. In the clear depths of the lad's
+hazel eyes he saw a faint, nickering, wavering light, which gave a
+yellow tinge to them.
+
+A reflection from the flames of hell itself could not have had a more
+awful meaning for him than that faint little yellow glimmer, but Arthur
+Maxwell was a strong man, a man who had fought plague and famine, storm
+and flood, treachery and revolt in the service of his Queen, and after a
+moment or two he was able to say quite quietly:
+
+"Well, what's the matter, Vane? They look, perhaps, a little brighter
+than usual; but I don't suppose that's anything more than the excitement
+of the evening."
+
+"Don't you see something like a little yellow flame in them?"
+
+"Well, yes, I do," said Sir Arthur, looking away, "a reflection from the
+gaslight, probably. But come, Vane, what is all this about? Sit down and
+tell me. And, by the way, I want to hear the story of this new
+acquaintance of yours. Take a cigar; that won't hurt you."
+
+Vane took a cheroot and lit it and sat down in an easy chair opposite
+his father, his eyes still wandering as though of their own accord
+towards the spirit-case. Then he began somewhat inconsequentially:
+
+"Dad, what do you think that girl's name is?"
+
+"Naturally, I haven't the remotest notion," replied his father. "I only
+know that she is exceedingly good looking, and I must say that from the
+glimpse I had of her, she seems very like yourself."
+
+"Is that what you meant, dad, when you said, 'Bless my soul what a
+likeness,' or something like that when the cab stopped?"
+
+Sir Arthur did not reply at once. His eyes were gazing vacantly up at a
+wreath of blue smoke from his cigar, then he replied suddenly:
+
+"Eh? Oh, well, probably. You see, my boy, I was just a bit startled at
+seeing you get out, and when I saw your two faces in the lamplight, I
+confess that I was decidedly struck by the likeness."
+
+Vane did not find this reply entirely convincing, for he remembered that
+as he got out of the cab his back was towards his father, and that
+Carol's face was no longer visible when he turned round and faced him.
+Still, he was far too well bred to put his father through anything like
+a cross-examination, and so he went on.
+
+"Well, as I told you, I met this young lady--for although she is what
+respectable Society in its mercy call 'an unfortunate'--I am certain she
+_is_ a lady--at the Palace, and we went and had supper in the Grill Room
+at the Trocadero, and there, as we had no one to introduce us, we
+introduced ourselves."
+
+"The usual thing under such circumstances, I believe," said Sir Arthur,
+taking a sip at his whiskey. "Well?"
+
+"I told her that my name was Vane Maxwell, and she said, 'Now that's
+curious, my name's Vane, too.'"
+
+"What is that--her name!" said Sir Arthur with a start that nearly made
+him drop his glass. "Vane is not a girl's name."
+
+"No, that's her surname. Her whole name is Carol Vane. Pretty, isn't it?
+Vane, she says, was her mother's name, and a nice sort of person she
+seems to have been. Poor Carol herself must have had a terrible time of
+it. There was no possibility of doubting a word of her story, she told
+it all so simply and so naturally, and yet it was tragedy all through.
+
+"Well, we'd had a large bottle of fizz and a small one between us, and
+I'm afraid I was getting a bit on, for I wanted another. I wasn't drunk,
+you know, or anything like it. It didn't seem as though I could get
+drunk; only more and more gorgeously happy, and when I told Miss Carol,
+she put her elbows on the table and stared into my eyes and told me that
+they were just like her mother's, and that there was a light coming into
+them which she always used to see in hers when she was starting on one
+of her drinking bouts.
+
+"Then she told me point blank that I'd had enough and said that she
+wouldn't drink another glass of fizz for a thousand pounds. We wound up
+with a coffee and liqueur, and afterwards when we came out I felt an
+almost irresistible craving for a brandy and soda, but I also felt
+convinced that if I took one I should go on all night.
+
+"Still, somehow, what Miss Carol had been saying, although it hadn't
+exactly frightened me, certainly stopped me going into the Criterion and
+having one; besides, she was with me still, and I knew if I asked her
+she'd say 'No,' and somehow I daren't leave her and go in by myself. So
+as she lives out Brook Green way, we got into a cab and drove home.
+And, would you believe it, she wouldn't even give me a kiss when we said
+good-night. She is a most extraordinary girl, I can quite imagine any
+fellow falling really and honestly in love with her."
+
+While Vane was telling his story, his father had sat motionless, staring
+hard into the fireplace. He had apparently taken not the slightest
+interest in what he was saying. He had never once looked up, but as the
+story went on his face had grown greyer and greyer, and the lines in it
+harder and deeper, and every now and then the hand on which his cheek
+was leaning had trembled a little.
+
+When Vane stopped speaking he looked up with a start, like a man waking
+out of an evil dream, and said in a husky, unsteady voice, which was
+quite strange to Vane:
+
+"It is quite possible, my boy, that this girl, whatever else she may be,
+was really your guardian angel to-night. At your age, a craving for
+drink is a very terrible thing, and you must exert the whole strength of
+your nature to conquer it. You must fight against it and pray against it
+as you would against the worst of sins. You have a splendid career
+before you, but drink would ruin it and you. Still, we won't talk any
+more about this to-night. I am not feeling particularly well. I went
+round to dine with Raleigh, in Addison Gardens, to-night--by the way,
+Enid's coming back in a few days--and perhaps I caught a little chill
+walking home. I think I'd better turn in."
+
+As he said this he took up the whiskey and soda and drained it, and Vane
+heard his teeth clink against the edge of the glass.
+
+"And I think it's time I went, too," said Vane. "You certainly don't
+look very fit to-night, dad. Hope I haven't made you uncomfortable by
+what I've been saying. You needn't be afraid though. I don't think I
+shall forget the lesson I've had to-night."
+
+"No, no, I don't think you will, Vane. Well, good-night. Put the spirits
+and cigars away, will you?"
+
+"Good-night, dad! I hope you'll be all right in the morning."
+
+As the door closed behind his father, Vane went to the table on which
+the open spirit-stand stood. His father had forgotten to replace the
+stopper in the whiskey decanter, and the aroma of the ripe old spirit
+rose to his nostrils. Instantly a subtle fire seemed to spread through
+his veins and mount up to his brain. The mad craving that he had felt
+outside the Criterion came back upon him with tenfold force. He raised
+the decanter to his nostrils and inhaled a long breath of the subtle,
+vaporous poison. He looked around the room with burning eyes.
+
+He was alone. There was no guardian angel near him now. Moved by some
+impulse other than his own will, he took his father's glass and poured
+out half a tumblerful of whiskey, filled it with soda water from the
+syphon, and drank it down with quick feverish gulps. Then he set the
+glass on the table and went and looked at himself in an Indian mirror
+over the mantel-piece. The pupils of his eyes seemed twice their size,
+and in each a yellow flame was leaping and dancing.
+
+His face seemed transfigured. It was rather that of a handsome satyr
+than of an English lad of twenty. The lips were curled in a scornful
+sneer, the nostrils were dilated and the eyebrows arched. He laughed at
+himself--a laugh that startled him, even then. He went back to the
+table and poured out more whiskey, smelt it and drank it down raw.
+
+His blood was liquid flame by this time. He was no longer in the room.
+The walls and ceiling had vanished, and all round him vivid pictures
+were flitting, pictures of things that he had seen during the day,
+flickering and flashing like those of the Biograph; but Carol's face and
+soft brown eyes seemed somehow to be in the middle of all of them.
+
+He dropped into a chair and felt about half blindly for the decanter.
+When he got hold of it he emptied it partly into the glass and partly
+over the table-cloth. He lifted the glass to his lips with both hands,
+drained it half chokingly, and then the pictures stopped moving and grew
+dim. A black pall of darkness seemed to come down and crush him to the
+earth. He lurched out of the chair on to the hearth-rug, rolled on to
+his back, and lay there motionless with arms outstretched.
+
+An hour later the door opened and Sir Arthur came in in his dressing
+gown. A glance at the empty decanter and the prostrate figure on the
+hearth-rug, showed him the calamity that had fallen upon his house. He
+staggered forward and dropped on his knees beside Vane, crying in a
+weak, broken voice:
+
+"My boy, my boy! Good God! what have I done? Why didn't I tell him at
+once?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Vane was utterly insensible either to voice or touch. His father knelt
+over him and loosened his tie and collar, for his breath was coming hard
+and irregularly. Then he rose to his feet, looked down at him for a few
+moments, and went away to summon Koda Bux, his old Pathan bearer, to
+help him to take him up to bed. He knew that he could trust him not to
+gossip, and he would not for worlds have had it said about the house the
+next day that Master Vane had been carried to bed drunk.
+
+Koda Bux was awake the moment his master touched his shoulder. He rose
+at once and followed him. When they reached the library Sir Arthur
+pointed without a word to where Vane lay. He looked at him and then at
+the decanters, and said, without moving a feature save his lips:
+
+"Truly, Huzur, the young sahib is exceeding drunk, and he must sleep.
+To-morrow the fires of hell will be burning in his brain and in his
+blood. It is a thing that no others should know of. He shall sleep in
+his bed, and thy servant shall watch by him until he is well, and
+neither man nor woman shall come near him."
+
+"That is my wish, Koda," said Sir Arthur. "Now I will help you to take
+him upstairs."
+
+"There is no need that thou, O protector of the poor, shouldst trouble
+thyself. This is but one man's work."
+
+With that he stooped down, got his arms under Vane's knees and
+shoulders, and lifted him up as easily as if he had been a lad of ten.
+Sir Arthur took up the candle which he had brought down with him, and
+went in front to his son's room.
+
+Koda laid him on the bed, and at once went to work with the deft
+rapidity of a practised hand to remove his clothes. He saw that he could
+do no more good, so, after laying his hand for a moment on Vane's wet,
+cold brow, he turned away towards the door with a deep sigh, which was
+not lost on Koda.
+
+"Trust him to me and sleep in peace, Huzur," he said. "I know how to
+fight the devil that is in him and throw him out. To-morrow Vane Sahib
+shall be as well as ever."
+
+"Do your best for him, Koda. This is the first time, and I hope the
+last. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, friend of the friendless," replied the Pathan, standing up
+and stretching out his hands palms downwards. "Fear nothing. May your
+sleep be as the repose of Nirvana."
+
+But there was neither rest nor sleep for Sir Arthur Maxwell that night.
+That vision of the girl's face looking out of the cab had been to him a
+vision half of heaven and half of hell. It was the face of the girl he
+had wooed and worked for and won nearly thirty years before--a girl
+whose hands for a brief space had opened the gates of Paradise to him.
+But it was also the face of a woman who had brought into his life
+something worse than the bitterness of death.
+
+As he paced up and down his bedroom through the still, lonely hours of
+the night, he asked himself again and again what inscrutable fate had
+brought this girl, the fresh, bright, living image of the woman who was
+worse than dead, and his son Vane, the idol of his heart, and the hope
+of his life, together.
+
+Why had this girl, this outcast bearing the name which he both loved and
+hated, been the first to see in his son's eyes that fatal sign which he
+knew so well, a sign which he had himself seen in eyes into which he had
+once looked as a lad of twenty-four with anxious adoration to read his
+fate in them. For years that flickering, wavering light had been to him
+like the reflected glare from the flames of hell, and now this girl had
+seen it as he had seen it, mocking and devilish in the eyes of his only
+son.
+
+It would have been better--he saw that now--to have braced himself to
+the task of telling Vane the whole of the miserable, pitiful story at
+once, as soon, indeed, as Vane's own story had convinced him that he had
+not escaped the curse which some dead and gone ancestor of his mother's
+had transmitted to his unborn posterity.
+
+But it was a hard thing for a father to tell his son of his mother's
+shame. As hard, surely, as it had been for Jephtha to keep his rash vow
+and drive the steel into his daughter's breast. He had hoped that the
+resolves which Vane had taken, enforced by a serious and friendly talk
+the next day, would have been enough to avert the danger.
+
+He did not know, as he knew now, that the demon of inherited alcoholism
+laughs at such poor precautions as this. Measures infinitely more
+drastic would be needed, and they must be employed at no matter what
+cost either to himself or Vane.
+
+And yet it was an awful thing to do. Year after year he had shrunk from
+it, hoping that it would never be necessary; but now the necessity had
+come at last. There could be no doubt of that. He had left his son sane
+and strong, with brave, wise words on his lips. An hour after he had
+gone back and found him a senseless thing, human only in shape. There
+could be no hesitation after that. It must be done.
+
+Like many men of his kind, men whose lives have been passed in wrestling
+with the barbarisms, the ignorance and the superstitions of lower races,
+as well as with the blind forces of nature and the scourges of
+pestilence and famine in distant lands, Arthur Maxwell was a man of deep
+though mostly silent religious convictions, and if ever there was a time
+when such a man could find strength and guidance in prayer surely this
+was such a time, and yet he had walked up and down his room, which since
+he had entered it had been his Gethsemane, for hours before he knelt
+down by his bedside and lifted up his heart, if not his voice, in
+prayer.
+
+He rose from his knees with clearer sight and greater strength to see
+and face the terrible task which lay before him. It was quite plain to
+him now that the task must be faced and carried through, and he was more
+strongly determined than ever that before the next day was over Vane
+should know everything that he could tell him. Still, there was no rest
+for him yet, and for hours longer he walked up and down the room
+thinking of the past and the future; but most of the past.
+
+About seven sheer physical fatigue compelled him to lie down on his bed,
+and in a few minutes he fell off into an uneasy sleep. Just about this
+time Vane woke--his mouth parched, his brain burning and throbbing, and
+every nerve in his body tingling. As soon as he opened his eyes he saw
+Koda Bux standing by his bedside.
+
+"What on earth's the matter, Koda?" he said in a voice that was half a
+groan. "Great Scott, what a head I've got! Ah, I remember now. It was
+that infernal whiskey. What the devil made me drink it?"
+
+"You are right, Vane Sahib," said Koda sententiously; "it was the
+whiskey, which surely is distilled from fruits that grow only on the
+shores of the Sea of Sorrow. Now your head is wracked with the torments
+of hell, and your mouth is like a cave in the desert; but you shall be
+cured and sleep, and when you wake you shall be as though you had never
+tasted the drink that is both fire and water."
+
+He went away to the dressing-table, shook some pink powder out of a
+little bottle into a glass, and came back to the bedside with the glass
+in one hand and the water-bottle in the other. Then he poured the water
+on to the powder and said:
+
+"Drink, sahib, and sleep! When you wake you will be well."
+
+The water seemed to turn into something like pink champagne as the
+powder dissolved. Vane seized the glass eagerly, and took a long,
+delicious drink. He had scarcely time to hand the glass back to Koda and
+thank him before his burning brain grew cool, his nerves ceased to
+thrill, a delightful languor stole over him, and he sank back on the
+pillow and was asleep in a moment. The Pathan looked at him half sternly
+and half sorrowfully for a few moments, then he laid his brown hand upon
+his brow. It was already moist and cool.
+
+He turned away, and set to work to put the room in order and get out
+Vane's clothes and clean linen for the day. Then he went downstairs and
+brewed Sir Arthur's morning coffee as usual. This was always the first
+of his daily tasks. When he took it up he found Sir Arthur still fully
+dressed, lying on the bed, moving uneasily in his sleep.
+
+"The follies of the young are the sorrows of the old!" he murmured. "He
+has not slept all night; still, this is a sleep which rests not nor
+refreshes. His coffee will do him more good, and then he can bathe and
+rest."
+
+He laid his hand lightly on Sir Arthur's shoulder. He woke at once and
+drank his coffee. Then he asked how Vane was, and when he knew that he
+was sleeping again, and would not wake for some hours, he got up,
+undressed, and had a bath and dressed again.
+
+Then, after a not very successful attempt at breakfast, he went out and
+turned into the Hammersmith Road in the direction of Brook Green. He
+remembered the address that Miss Carol had given Vane just as he
+remembered every other word of the conversation. He had determined to
+call upon her, and to make as sure as possible that his dreadful
+suspicions were correct before he told Vane the truth.
+
+He found No. 15, Melville Gardens, one of a row of neat little detached
+houses; not much more than cottages, but cosy and comfortable-looking,
+each with a tiny little plot of ground in front and behind, and with a
+row of trees down each side of the road which seemed to stand in
+apologetic justification of the title of gardens.
+
+The door was opened by a neatly-dressed, motherly-looking woman of about
+forty instead of by the dishevelled, smutty-faced maid-of-all-work that
+he half expected to find.
+
+"Does Miss Carol Vane live here?" he asked, with a curious feeling of
+nervousness.
+
+"Yes, sir, she and Miss Murray are just finishing breakfast. Will you
+come in and sit down, sir? Miss Vane won't be long."
+
+"Thank you, yes," he said, going in. "I wish to see her rather
+particularly."
+
+"What name shall I say, sir?" said the woman, as she showed him into a
+prettily-furnished little sitting-room opening out into the back garden
+with French windows.
+
+"Sir Arthur Maxwell," he replied. "If you will give my compliments to
+Miss Vane, and tell her that she will do me a great service by giving me
+about half-an-hour's conversation, I shall be much obliged to you."
+
+The housekeeper made something like a little curtsey as she left the
+room. She was distinctly impressed by the stately presence and old-world
+courtesy of this bronzed, white-haired gentleman. He was so very
+different from the general run of visitors at No. 15; but she had half
+guessed his errand before she knocked at the door of the front room in
+which Miss Carol and her friend and house-mate, Dora Murray, were
+finishing their last cup of tea.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Ford," said Miss Carol, looking up from the letter she was
+reading, "who might that be? This is pretty early for a morning call."
+
+"The gentleman's name is Sir Arthur Maxwell, Miss."
+
+"What!" said Miss Carol, colouring up and rising quickly from her chair.
+"Sir Arthur Maxwell. What on earth does _he_ want?"
+
+"He said, miss, that he'd be very much obliged to you if you could give
+him the pleasure of half-an-hour's conversation."
+
+"Oh, dear, I suppose he was the gentleman who stopped at the corner last
+night just when my new acquaintance got out. His father, of course. I
+suppose he's come to row me about making friends with his son and heir
+last night."
+
+"One of the penalties of your fascinations, dear," said Dora, with a
+smile which parted a pair of eminently kissable lips and showed a very
+pretty set of teeth behind them.
+
+Dora was nearly a couple of inches taller than Miss Carol, and some
+three years older. She had soft, lightish-brown hair, brown eyebrows, a
+trifle browner, perhaps, than nature had painted them, and dark blue
+eyes, which made a very pretty contrast.
+
+"Well," she went on, "I suppose there's nothing for you but to go and
+interview the irate papa. But whatever did young hopeful want to go and
+tell him all about it for, and even give him your address!"
+
+"If you'll excuse me, Miss," said the housekeeper, "I don't think that's
+it. The gentleman isn't at all angry. He was as polite and nice to me as
+ever could be. Such a _nice_ gentleman."
+
+"Dear me, Mrs. Ford, you seem quite impressed," said Miss Carol,
+gathering up her correspondence. "Well, I'd better go and have it over,
+whatever it is. I don't suppose I shall be very long. Meanwhile, Dora,
+you may as well make yourself useful and dust the bikes. The old
+gentleman won't eat me, I suppose. In fact, if Master Vane told him
+everything, he ought to be very much obliged to me for my virtuous
+reserve."
+
+And then, with a saucy smile at her own reflection in the glass as she
+passed the mantelpiece, she walked towards the door.
+
+Carol, being a young lady of many and various experiences, did not often
+find herself in a situation, however awkward it might be, which gave her
+much cause for embarrassment. There were not many circumstances under
+which she did not feel capable of taking perfect care of herself. Still,
+she confessed to Dora afterwards that when she went into the little
+sitting-room and faced the stately old gentleman who was waiting for her
+she felt distinctly nervous--in short, "in something very like a
+tremble," as she put it later on.
+
+The moment she looked at his face she could see his likeness to Vane,
+and therefore in a measure to herself. She had, of course, nothing to be
+afraid of, and therefore there was no cause for fear, but for some
+reason or other she felt less at ease than she had done in many more
+difficult situations.
+
+The same was almost equally true of Sir Arthur. In fact, when the door
+opened and Miss Carol, looking exquisitely neat and pretty in a dainty,
+grey, tailor-made cycling costume, walked into the room, he was unable
+to restrain a very visible start. It was, indeed, as much as he could do
+to keep himself from uttering an exclamation of astonishment.
+
+As he looked at her, more than thirty years vanished in a second, and he
+saw himself a lad of twenty-four with his brand new Oxford degree, and
+his first place on the Indian Civil Service list only just published,
+walking down a country lane by the side of a girl, who, but for the
+difference in costume, might have been this very girl standing before
+him.
+
+"Good morning! Our housekeeper tells me that you wish to speak to me."
+
+Yes, the voice was the same, too, and so were the expression, the
+intonation, the attitude, everything. But the words brought him back to
+the present, and to the recollection of all that had happened since that
+walk in the country lane.
+
+"Yes, Miss Vane," he heard himself saying, "I have taken the liberty of
+calling to ask you if you would have any objection to a little
+conversation with me. I won't detain you more than half an hour."
+
+"With pleasure," she said; "but won't you sit down?" she went on,
+seating herself on the sofa. "I suppose I am right in thinking that you
+are Mr. Vane Maxwell's father, and I suppose, too, you are the gentleman
+who was at the corner of Warwick Gardens when he got out of the cab? I'm
+afraid you were a good bit shocked," she continued, smiling rather
+faintly.
+
+"I was not by any means so much shocked as astonished," Sir Arthur
+replied gravely, "and, to avoid any misunderstanding, I had better say
+at once that, though I was naturally a little bit startled, I was
+infinitely more astonished, by the marvellous likeness----"
+
+"What, to him!" said Miss Carol, interrupting him with a pretty little
+gesture of deprecation. "Yes, of course, I can quite understand that a
+gentleman like you would be a bit disgusted to find a likeness between
+your son and a girl like me, for I suppose he told you all about me? I
+mean, you know the sort of disreputable person that I am?"
+
+Miss Carol said this with a distinct note of defiance in her voice. A
+note which seemed to say, "I know what I am, and so do you, and if you
+don't want to talk to me any longer you needn't." But she was
+considerably astonished when Sir Arthur, leaning forward in his chair
+and speaking very gravely, said:
+
+"My dear child--you are younger than Vane, you know, and I may call you
+that without offence--I do know what you are, or perhaps it would be
+more just to say what circumstances have made you. I don't want you to
+think that I have come here to preach at you. That is no business of
+mine. Still, I am deeply grieved, though I daresay you have no notion
+why--I mean no notion of the real reason. I am afraid I am expressing
+myself very awkwardly, but just now I don't quite seem to be able to
+keep my thoughts in order."
+
+There was something in the gentle gravity of his tone and manner which
+inspired Miss Carol with an unaccountable desire to go away and cry. She
+didn't exactly know why, but she was certainly experiencing a very
+uncomfortable feeling which was more like apprehension than anything
+else. She couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment, and so
+she said simply:
+
+"I don't know why you should be grieved, I mean in particular about me.
+There are plenty of others like me, you know, a good many thousands in
+London alone, I believe, and I suppose you would feel sorry for any of
+them. There are lots worse off than I am, I can tell you. But why should
+you be sorry for me particularly?"
+
+As she said this she crossed her legs and folded her hands over her
+knee, leaning forward slightly and looking keenly at him.
+
+"Because," he replied, with a little quaver in his voice, but looking
+steadily into her eyes, "because you are the living image of the woman
+who was once my wife. A little over thirty years ago--by the way, may I
+ask how old you are?"
+
+"I was eighteen last September," she said, "that is to say, I am getting
+on for nineteen."
+
+"And your birthday?" he said. "You will forgive me asking you so many
+questions, I know, when I tell you why I ask them; but of course, you
+needn't answer them unless you choose."
+
+"There is no reason why I shouldn't," she said, "as far as I know. I was
+born on the twentieth of September. What were you going to say?"
+
+"I was going to say that if my wife, I mean I should rather say the
+woman who was my wife, could be put beside you now as she was thirty
+years ago, dressed as you are now, it would be almost impossible to tell
+the difference between you. You told my son, I think, that you take your
+name Vane from your mother."
+
+"Yes," replied Miss Carol, "she told me that that was her name. I don't
+know whether I was ever really christened or not, but an English
+musician in Dresden, one of my mother's friends, called me Carol when I
+was quite a little mite of a thing because I was always singing, and as
+that was as good a name as any other, I suppose it stuck to me."
+
+"Do you know whether your mother was ever married?"
+
+"She had been, because she used to talk about it and about all she had
+lost and all that sort of thing, you know, when she was drunk," replied
+Miss Carol with a simple directness which went straight to Sir Arthur's
+heart. "Of course, that was when I was quite a little thing, about eight
+or nine. Then I was sent to a sort of boarding-school, half a school and
+half a convent, and I didn't like that, so I ran away from it, as I told
+your son last night."
+
+"I went home and found the house shut up. The concierge told me that my
+mother had gone away in a carriage with two gentlemen--he said one
+looked like a police agent--nearly a month before. He didn't know where
+she'd gone to, and from that day to this I've never heard anything more
+of her. I told your son the rest of it and I daresay he has told you,
+so there's no need for me to go over it again."
+
+"Yes," said Sir Arthur, nodding slowly, "Vane told me, so if you please
+I will ask you one or two more questions, and then I won't detain you
+any longer."
+
+"I am in no hurry," she replied. "Please ask me any number you like."
+
+Her manner was now one of deep interest, for a suspicion was already
+forming in her mind that this bronzed, grave-faced man had once been her
+own mother's husband.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "I should like to ask you first whether you happen
+to have any photograph of your mother?"
+
+Miss Carol shook her head decisively, and said:
+
+"No. I had one once in a locket, but when I went home and found she'd
+gone away and left me all alone in Paris--that's where we were then--I
+was so angry that I took it out and tore it up. I daresay it was very
+wrong of me, but I couldn't help it, and to tell you the honest truth, I
+can't say that I ever was as fond of her as a daughter should have
+been."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," said Sir Arthur, with a sigh.
+
+Miss Carol looked up wonderingly as he said this, but he took no notice
+and said:
+
+"But I suppose you would recognise a photograph of her if you saw one?"
+
+"Yes, if it was taken anywhere about the time that I knew her."
+
+"Quite so," said Sir Arthur, taking a leather letter-case out of his
+pocket. "This was taken quite twenty years ago, a year or two after we
+were married, in short. It is, or was, my wife."
+
+As he took out the photograph he got up, crossed the room, and held it
+out to her. Miss Carol got up too, and as she took it she saw that his
+hand was trembling. She took the old-fashioned, faded photograph and
+looked at it. He saw that her face flushed as she did so. She gave it
+back to him and said simply:
+
+"Yes, that is my mother."
+
+As he took the photograph from her he looked at her with sad, grave eyes
+across the gulf of sin and shame in which the one great love of his life
+had been lost. She was the daughter of his wife, and yet she was not his
+daughter--and she was an outcast. The sting of the old shame came back
+very keenly. The old wound was already open and bleeding again. All the
+pride and hope and love of his life were centred now on his brilliant
+son. A few hours before he had learnt that his mother had transmitted to
+him the terrible, perhaps the fatal taint of inherited alcoholism; and
+now he had just proved beyond doubt that Vane's half-sister--for she was
+that in blood if not in law--was what she had just so frankly, so
+defiantly even, admitted herself to be.
+
+And yet, how sweet and dainty she looked as she stood there before him,
+a bright flush on her cheeks and a soft, regretful expression in those
+big hazel eyes which were so wonderfully like _hers_! No one seeing her
+and Vane together could possibly take them for anything but brother and
+sister--and but for this marvellous likeness; but for the subtle
+instinct of kindred blood which had spoken in this outcast's heart the
+night before, would not a still deeper depth have opened in the hell of
+that old infamy? There was at least that to be thankful for.
+
+"I suppose you don't know where she is now--and don't care, most
+likely?" Carol added, raising her eyes almost timidly to his.
+
+"I do," he replied, slowly, "To tell you the truth, I was one of the men
+who took her away from the house in the Rue St. Jean----"
+
+"You were!" she exclaimed, recoiling a little from him. "Then it was
+really you who turned me out homeless into the streets of Paris?"
+
+"Yes, it was, I regret to say," he replied, almost humbly, "but I need
+hardly tell you that I did it in complete ignorance. My ---- your mother
+was making my name, my son's name, a scandal throughout Europe. She was
+a hopeless dipsomaniac. I had, believe me, I had suffered for years all
+that an honourable man could endure rather than blast my son's prospects
+in life by taking proceedings for divorce, and so proclaiming to the
+world that he was the son of such a woman."
+
+"Yes," said Carol, quietly, with a little catch in her voice, "I
+understand--such a woman as I suppose I shall be some day. Of course, it
+was very hard on you and your son. And I don't suppose it made much
+difference to me after all. She'd have sold me to someone as soon as I
+was old enough; and instead of that I had to sell myself. When women
+take to drink like that they don't care about anything. What did you do
+with her?"
+
+"The man with me," replied Sir Arthur, "was an officer of the French
+Courts. He had a warrant authorising her detention in a home for chronic
+inebriates. She is there still, little better than an imbecile, I regret
+to say, and with no hope of recovery. The physicians I consulted told me
+that she must have had the germs of alcoholic insanity in her blood from
+her very birth. She told us that she had a daughter, and we traced you
+to the school, though she obstinately refused to tell us anything that
+would help us to find you. But we were too late; you had run away. We
+hunted all Paris over for you, but you were utterly lost."
+
+"Well," said Carol, gently, "I wish I'd stopped now, or that you'd found
+me. Things might have been different; but, of course, it can't be helped
+now."
+
+"It was a terrible pity," he began, "but still, even now perhaps,
+something may be done----"
+
+"We won't talk about that now, if you please, sir," she interrupted, so
+decisively that he saw at once that there was no discussion of the
+subject possible.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, quickly, "I fear I have annoyed you. Nothing, I
+assure you, could be farther from my intention. Now I have troubled you
+enough, and more than enough, and I am afraid I have recalled some very
+unpleasant memories----"
+
+"Not anything like as bad for me as for you, sir," she said, as he
+paused for a moment. "If I have been of any service to you, I'm very
+glad, though it's a miserable business altogether."
+
+"Yes, and worse than miserable," he replied, with a slow shake of his
+head. Then, glancing through the French windows he saw Dora rubbing one
+of two bicycles down with a cloth in the little back garden, and he went
+on: "But I see you are getting ready to go for a ride. I must not keep
+you any longer, I am deeply grateful to you, believe me, and I hope our
+acquaintance may not end here. And now, good-morning."
+
+He held out his hand with the same grave courtesy with which he would
+have offered it to the noblest dame of his acquaintance. She looked up
+sharply as though to say, "Do you really mean to shake hands with _me_?"
+Then her eyes dropped, and the next moment her hand was lying, trembling
+a little, in his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+When he left Melville Gardens, Sir Arthur did not go straight home. He
+knew that Vane would not be awake for two or three hours yet, and after
+a few moments' hesitation he decided to go and call on his old friend,
+Godfrey Raleigh, with whom he had been dining the night before, and, if
+he found him at home, put the whole case frankly before him and ask his
+advice.
+
+He had just retired with a well-earned K.C.S.I. from the Bench of the
+Supreme Court of Bengal, but he was one of those men on whom neither
+years nor climate seem to take any effect, and at sixty-five his body
+was as vigorous and his brain as active and clear as they had been at
+thirty-five. He had married rather late, and Enid, the Helen of that
+Iliad of the Wheelhouse, was his only child--and therefore naturally the
+very apple of his eye and the idol of his heart.
+
+Her engagement to Vane had seemed to both the fathers and to her mother
+the most natural and the most desirable arrangement that could have been
+made. Vane would take a brilliant degree, he would enter the Diplomatic
+Service under the best of auspices, and when Enid had completed her
+education with a couple of years on the Continent they were to be
+married on her twentieth birthday. That was the promise of these two
+bright young lives. What would the fulfilment be?
+
+Sir Godfrey was, as he believed, the only one of his acquaintance in
+England who knew the truth of the tragedy of his life. They had been
+chums at Eton and Oxford. They had gone out to India together, Sir
+Godfrey with a judicial appointment, and Sir Arthur as Political Agent
+to one of the minor Independent States, both of them juniors with many
+things to learn and many steps to climb before they took a really active
+and responsible part in the propulsion of that huge and complicated
+machine which is called the Indian Government.
+
+The Fates had thrown them a good deal together, and they had got to know
+each other well, not quickly, because men who are men need a great deal
+of knowing; but as the months had grown into years, and the years into a
+decade or more, they had really learnt to know each other. They had gone
+home together on the same ship to marry the girls who had been waiting
+for them since their troths had been plighted during their university
+days. They had come back with their brides on the same ship to India;
+Godfrey Raleigh had been godfather to his friend's first-born son. Three
+years later, after the shadow had fallen upon his own life, he had
+performed the same office for his friend's daughter, the successor of a
+baby girl who had died during the Rains.
+
+These two children were now the youth and maiden who, within the next
+two or three years were to be man and wife. But after the events of the
+last twelve hours or so, Sir Arthur felt that it would not be either
+loyal to his old friend, or just to him and his daughter not to go and
+tell him frankly what he had learnt, and to take, not only his opinion,
+but also his advice on the subject.
+
+He found Sir Godfrey at home, and the judge quickly saw that he had not
+called upon any ordinary concern, so he asked him to come and smoke a
+pipe in his den, and there Sir Arthur, taking up the thread where it had
+been dropped years before, told him in a few straight, short sentences
+the rest of the story to the end of his interview with Miss Carol.
+
+"Of course, you will understand, Raleigh," he said, when he had
+finished, "I have told you this because I thought it was only right to
+do so. My boy is engaged to marry your girl. It is quite plain, I am
+sorry to say, that this alcoholic taint is in him, and as I have told
+you this Miss Carol Vane, charming and all as I must confess her to be
+from what I have seen of her, is after all Vane's half-sister, and she
+is also what I told you she was."
+
+"Well, my dear Maxwell, I must confess that that is a very difficult
+problem indeed for us to decide. Very difficult indeed," Sir Godfrey had
+replied.
+
+"You see, to put it quite plainly, and, if as an old lawyer I may say
+so, from the judicial point of view, there are two courses open to us.
+First, we may or, I would rather say, we _might_ adopt the strictly
+scientific view of the matter and say that, since the unfortunate woman
+who was once your wife has apparently transmitted the taint of
+alcoholism to your son, it would therefore be improper for him to marry
+Enid for fear that he should further transmit this taint to his own
+offspring.
+
+"That, I suppose, is the way in which a coldblooded scientist would put
+it; but on the other hand I think the matter should also be considered
+from the purely human point of view, and here, I speak again as an old
+judge. When you married your wife you had no notion that she had
+inherited this taint of insanity, as we may well call it, from some
+unknown ancestor. Now the same thing might have happened with my wife,
+or in fact, with any other woman.
+
+"It is perfectly well known that this poison, as one is obliged to call
+it, may lie latent for generations; may, in fact, die out altogether. On
+the other hand, what might have been only a vice in the grandfather or
+the father may develop as insanity in the grandson or the son. It is not
+for us to decide these things, at least, that is my view.
+
+"You and I have more experience, more judgment; but I think that your
+son and my daughter will have more accurate instincts and keener
+intuitions. My own judgment I reserve entirely, and I advise you to do
+the same.
+
+"Go home and tell Vane everything. Don't spare yourself or him, for in a
+case like this truth, the whole truth, is, after all, the greatest
+mercy. I will tell my wife the whole story this afternoon, and she will
+tell Enid when she gets back from Paris. Then I think the best that we
+can do will be to leave them to find a solution of the problem between
+them. Depend upon it that, whatever solution they do arrive at, it will
+be more accurate and will stand the test of time better than any
+arbitrary action which you or I might take."
+
+And so ended the only false--utterly and hopelessly false--judgment
+which Sir Godfrey Raleigh had ever delivered.
+
+Sir Arthur took it as gospel, it all seemed so clear and so logical, so
+fair to everybody; just the sort of judgment, in fact, which might have
+been expected from a man of such vast and varied experience. Both of
+them had the best of intentions, for were not the happiness, the
+earthly fates of their two only children bound up in it?
+
+Under such circumstances, though the advice might be mistaken, it was
+absolutely impossible that it could be anything else but honest and
+sincere. It was not for them to see into the future, nor yet to solve
+those impossibly intricate problems of human passion, of human strength
+and weakness, which, in defiance of all laws human and divine, break
+through the traditions of ages, make a mockery of all commonplace laws,
+and finally solve themselves with an accuracy as pitiless as it is
+precise.
+
+Sir Arthur left his friend's house with the firm conviction that the
+only thing to be done under the circumstances was to follow his advice.
+When he got back to his house in Warwick Gardens, the door was opened by
+Koda Bux, and the first thing he said to him was:
+
+"Is Mr. Vane awake?"
+
+"Sahib, he is, and well. He is even as though he had never drunk of the
+liquor of fire. He is in the library awaiting your return."
+
+It was then getting on for one o'clock, the lunch-time of Sir Arthur's
+household, and the table was already laid in what was called the
+breakfast-room, that is to say a room looking out upon one of the long,
+back gardens which are attached to the houses in Warwick Gardens.
+
+Vane was sitting in the library waiting, something in shame and
+something in fear, for his father's return. He more than half-expected
+that his father would come in and begin at once to haul him over the
+coals on account of what had happened the night before. He did not feel
+altogether satisfied about his adventure with Miss Carol, and he was
+very much ashamed of himself, indeed, for what had happened afterwards.
+But as yet, he had no suspicion of the terrible secret which in the
+almost immediate future was to decide his destiny in life. The dreadful
+fact of inherited alcoholism was yet to be revealed to him. He thought
+that his father was simply going to rate him for having exceeded the
+bounds of prudence during his night out, for coming home in a cab with
+such a person as Miss Carol, and then, worse than all, to tell him that
+he had made a beast of himself by beginning to drink whiskey when he was
+alone after having refused to take anything while his father was in the
+room. It was that that he was really afraid of.
+
+He had no idea of what had happened since the time that he had fallen
+from his chair on to the hearth-rug, saving only the brief awakening in
+his bed with Koda Bux standing beside him, the drinking of the
+crimson-coloured effervescing liquid, and then the long, calm sleep
+which had spread itself like a gulf between the agony of the one
+awakening and the peace of the next.
+
+He was sitting in one of the big arm-chairs in the library when his
+father came in. He got up and stood before him, something as a criminal
+might do before his judge, expecting to hear something like a sentence
+from his lips. He was very much ashamed of himself, and being so was
+perfectly prepared to take his punishment which would probably come in
+the shape of a few cold words of reproof, and a hard look in his
+father's eyes which he had seen before. But, instead of that, when he
+got up out of the arm-chair, and began somewhat falteringly:
+
+"Dad, I'm awfully sorry----" his father stopped him, and said with a
+look at the clock on the mantel-piece: "I think it is about lunch time,
+isn't it? Yes, there is the gong. How's your appetite?"
+
+"Well, better than I thought it would be," said Vane, "better, in fact,
+than it deserves to be. That stuff that Koda gave me this morning has
+worked wonders----"
+
+"Very well, then," said Sir Arthur, cutting him short, "I think we may
+as well go and have some lunch."
+
+The meal was eaten in a somewhat awkward silence, broken by odds and
+ends of talk which were obviously spoken and replied to, not for the
+purpose of conversation, but to fill up time. Both father and son were
+as unhappy as men could very well be, and yet the ancient custom which
+forbids the Anglo-Saxon race to talk about unpleasant things at
+meal-times, prevented Sir Arthur from saying what he had to say, and
+Vane from asking what he wanted to ask.
+
+At last, when Koda came in and said that coffee was served in the Den
+they got up, both of them feeling a certain sense of relief, although
+both knew that the worst was yet to come.
+
+When they got into the Den, Sir Arthur said to Koda in Urdu:
+
+"The house is empty. There is no one here. The door is bolted. No one
+must enter, till I say so."
+
+He opened the door, spread the palms of his hands outwards, inclined his
+head, and said in the same language: "Thou art obeyed, Huzur. It is
+already done." Then he backed out of the door and shut it.
+
+Sir Arthur got up out of his chair, turned the key in the lock, and said
+to Vane in a tone whose calmness astonished him almost as much as the
+words did:
+
+"Vane, why did you drink that whiskey last night? You know I asked you
+to have some, and you said that although you had never disobeyed me
+before, if I had ordered you to have some you would not have done it.
+And yet, after I had left the room you emptied the decanter. Why was
+that?"
+
+Vane had expected anything but this, for his father had spoken as
+quietly as if he had been asking him about the most ordinary concern of
+their daily life. He remembered dimly those few dreadful minutes after
+the subtle aroma from the whiskey decanter had reached his nostrils, the
+swift intoxication, the brilliant series of visions which had passed
+before his eyes, and then the dead, black night which had fallen over
+his senses, and after that nothing more until he had awakened with
+parched mouth and burning brain, and Koda standing by his bedside.
+
+"I'm afraid, dad, I was very drunk last night, but why, I don't know. I
+was sober enough when I came in, you know that yourself. But somehow,
+just when you had gone out of the room and told me to put the spirit
+case away, I took up the whiskey decanter and smelt it. There seemed to
+be some infernal influence in it which made me simply long to drink. I
+did not want to in the ordinary way, and as I had been having brandy and
+soda and champagne before, of course, whiskey was the very worst thing I
+could possibly have drunk. Yet it seemed somehow to get hold of me. I
+felt as though I _had_ to drink. It didn't matter what it was so long as
+it was alcohol. It was the smell of it that intoxicated me first, and
+when I had once smelt it I went on, till I was dead drunk, and I suppose
+that is the way that you found me. That is all that I know about it. I
+am horribly ashamed of myself, and I can only promise you that, if I
+can help it, it will never occur again."
+
+"Sit down, Vane, and let us talk this over," said Sir Arthur, seating
+himself in the arm-chair on the other side of the fire-place. "I suppose
+you thought when I came back that I was going to give you the usual sort
+of lecture that a father would give his son under the circumstances.
+Well, I am not going to do that. I am sorry to say that it is a great
+deal more serious than that."
+
+"What do you mean, dad?" said Vane, getting up out of the arm-chair into
+which he had thrown himself, as though resigned to receive his sentence.
+"More serious than that? Surely it is bad enough for a fellow to come
+home as I did last night, and then get drunk on whiskey and have to be
+carried to bed. There can't be anything very much worse than that."
+
+"There might have been," said Sir Arthur, "if you had not stopped the
+cab where you did. What would you say if I told you that that girl--you
+remember what you said to me about her likeness to yourself--what would
+you say if I were to tell you that that girl is your sister?"
+
+"Good God! Dad, you don't mean that, do you? It can't be. I never had a
+sister. You have always told me that I am the only child. Mother died
+twenty years ago, didn't she? And that girl was only about nineteen. No,
+you can't mean it!"
+
+"Yes," said Sir Arthur, in a tone which seemed very strange to his son.
+"I do mean it. When I told you that your mother had died a few months
+after you were born, I did not tell you the truth. She died to me and to
+you, but that was all. She is alive still. That girl that you drove up
+in the cab with last night was her daughter, but not mine."
+
+No more terrible words than these could have Vane turned white to his
+lips as he heard them, and for a moment he looked into his father's grey
+stern face with a glance that had something of hate in it. His fists
+even clenched and his shoulders squared as though the impulse was on him
+to raise his hands against him. But there was such an infinite sadness
+in Sir Arthur's eyes and such an expression of unspeakable suffering on
+his hard-set features, that as he looked at him the anger died out of
+Vane's eyes and his hands fell limp and open by his side.
+
+It was some time before he was able to command his voice sufficiently to
+shape coherent words, but at length he managed to say in a hard,
+half-choking tone:
+
+"Of course it is impossible that you could tell me anything but the
+truth, dad. And so I am the son of a disgraced woman, am I? Poor Eny,
+what will she think of me now? Of course it will be all over between
+us?"
+
+His instinct had spoken, as Sir Godfrey Raleigh had said it would, and
+spoken truly. But Sir Arthur said quickly:
+
+"No; my boy. It is bad enough, God knows, but it may not be as bad as
+that. I have been to see Miss Vane this morning, and when I had
+satisfied myself of the relationship between you, I went on to Raleigh
+and told him the whole story, as I thought it was only right to do. He
+said, very properly I think, that it was a matter for you and Enid to
+decide between yourselves, for after all it is the happiness of your
+lives which is in question, and therefore the decision ought to rest
+with you."
+
+"I don't see how there can be any decision but one," said Vane, who had
+sat down again, and, with his elbows on his knees and his face between
+his hands, was staring with blank eyes down at the carpet. "And so I am
+the son of that girl's mother, am I? Well, it couldn't be very much
+worse than that, and yet, God help us, she is my mother after all."
+
+Then he threw himself back in his chair, let his hands fall limply over
+the arms and stared up at the ceiling.
+
+"You may as well tell me the whole of the story, now dad," he went on,
+in a broken, miserable voice. "You had better tell me, and then I shall
+know where I am."
+
+His father looked at him for a moment or two in silence, and then he
+said, with a note of reproof in his tone:
+
+"That is a hasty judgment, Vane, but a natural one, I admit. When I have
+told you the story you will see what I mean. The mother who bore you was
+as good and pure a woman as ever lived when she became your mother, and
+this girl, from what I have seen of her this morning, I am perfectly
+certain is thoroughly good and honest in herself. I am satisfied that it
+is her fate that has made her what she is; not her fault."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "I was wrong. After all I have no right to judge my
+mother. I remember nothing about her, and as for Carol, she is a good
+girl whatever else she may be. Can't something be done for her, dad? I
+mean something to get her out of that horrible life. It is too awful to
+think of, isn't it? We must do something."
+
+"That's just what I should have expected you to say, Vane," said his
+father, "and anything that I can do shall be done. But I'm afraid it
+won't be very easy. I did suggest something of the sort, of course, but
+she cut me short very quickly. She simply said that she could not
+discuss the subject then, and there was an end of it. I am quite certain
+that anything which had even a suggestion of charity about it would be
+quite out of the question."
+
+"Of course it would," said Vane, almost angrily. "After all, she is my
+sister. However, that can wait. Now tell me what you were going to tell
+me. How did all this begin? Do you know who the man was, because if so I
+want to go and see him?"
+
+"No, I don't, Vane," his father replied, slowly. "To tell you the truth,
+I never even attempted to find out. We were living at Simla at the time,
+and Simla is, as perhaps you know, not the most moral of places. You
+were nearly three years old, and for about a year your mother had shown
+signs of what doctors call now Alcoholic Insanity. I shall never forget
+the first time that I found her drunk----"
+
+"Never mind that, dad," Vane interrupted, with a sharp catch in his
+voice, "I don't want to hear about it, it's bad enough already. Was
+Carol right about that light which she used to see in her eyes and which
+I suppose you saw in mine last night?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly," replied Sir Arthur. "I used to think it beautiful
+once, before I knew what a dreadful meaning it had. When she had had a
+glass or so of champagne, her eyes--and they were just like yours and
+Carol's--used to light up marvellously. People used to speak of them as
+the most beautiful eyes in the East; but afterwards, that light in them
+began to burn brighter, and when at last she gave way completely, it
+became something horrible, although, somehow, it was still
+beautiful--damnably beautiful."
+
+"Well, one night," Sir Arthur went on, leaning back in his chair and
+staring into vacancy, "she went out to spend the evening, as she told
+me, with a friend; as a matter of fact it was Raleigh's sister. She had
+been drinking a little during the afternoon, but I felt that she would
+be safe there, for both Raleigh and his sister knew of this miserable
+failing of hers. Unfortunately, I had a lot of work to do that evening,
+and I was unable to go with her. I went about eleven o'clock to bring
+her home. I found she had not been there at all. I went back and sat up
+the whole night, I needn't tell you Vane what my thoughts were. She
+didn't come. She never came.
+
+"A month afterwards I got a letter from her written from Bombay. She
+confessed that for over a year she had been deceiving me; that another
+man had stolen her love from me; that she could never face me or look
+upon you again, and that was all. She gave no address, no sign that I
+could trace her by. If she had done I would have forgiven her and asked
+her to come back for your sake. But it was over ten years before I saw
+her again, and then it was in a house in a wretched street in Paris.
+
+"Then she was a drunkard, a hopeless drunkard, lost to all sense and
+shame. She had taken my name again and was making it infamous, and for
+your sake I was forced to take some decided steps. I took proceedings in
+the French Courts, and got authority to confine her in an asylum for
+inebriates, and she is there now, almost an imbecile."
+
+"And what about Carol?" said Vane, in a hard, strained voice, "doesn't
+she know who her father is, and couldn't you have got a divorce?"
+
+"Carol does not know for certain who her father is," said Sir Arthur.
+"There was someone who went about the Continent a good deal with her
+mother when she was very young, and she thinks that he was. It is quite
+possible that he may have been the scoundrel, whoever he was, who took
+her away from Simla. As for the divorce, of course I could have got one,
+but I had no desire to marry again, and I preferred to let the thing
+rest as it was, rather than drag our name through the cesspool of the
+Divorce Court and the newspapers. Everybody was very good to me, and in
+time I lived it down and it was forgotten. In fact, I suppose if it
+hadn't been for that chance meeting of yours last night, it might never
+have been heard of again."
+
+"Then that," said Vane, "is, I suppose, the secret of my drinking the
+whiskey last night, and the explanation of the light which Carol saw in
+my eyes when I had drunk too much champagne. My blood is poisoned, and
+so, when I've drunk a certain amount, the smell of alcohol is
+irresistible. There's one thing perfectly certain, I don't like whiskey
+and I never have liked it, and I'm quite sure I never wanted it less
+than I did last night; and yet when I smelt it, the smell somehow seemed
+to get up into my brain and force me to drink it.
+
+"I tried my best to resist it. Honestly I did, dad, but it was no use. I
+tasted it, and then I took a long drink of it, and then I took another.
+I didn't seem to get drunk, I went mad. I saw some magnificent visions,
+they seemed to be all round the room, nickering like the Biograph, then,
+all of a sudden, they vanished, and I don't remember anything more
+until I woke and found Koda standing beside me. Now was that the sort of
+thing that used to happen to my mother?"
+
+"It was," replied his father, "exactly, and when she came to her senses
+after one of her bouts, she used to implore me to keep the smell, even
+the sight, of liquor away from her. Of course I did. I gave up drinking
+myself, and what I had in the house for friends I kept constantly under
+lock and key. It seemed to be successful for a time, and then she began
+to get liquor from somewhere else. I never could find out how or where
+she did it. I had her watched, but it was no use. Weeks would pass and
+she would be perfectly sober. Then, without the slightest warning, she
+would go out for a walk or to pay some calls and come back, not drunk,
+but getting drunk.
+
+"We used to have some terrible scenes then, as you may believe. I
+dismissed four butlers because she had either bribed or frightened them
+into giving her the keys of the wine cellar. I had the best medical men
+in India for her, and at last I got her to consent to go into a
+Sanitorium. That, however, was merely a blind to keep my suspicions
+quiet. It was only a few days before she was to have gone there that she
+disappeared."
+
+"And you never had any suspicion about the scoundrel that she went away
+with? I expect if the truth was known, she got the liquor secretly
+through him after you had stopped it. I am beginning already to have a
+presentiment that I shall meet that man some day, and if I do, may God
+have mercy on him, for I won't!"
+
+"No, no, Vane, don't say that, my boy! Remember what is
+written--'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' Whoever he is his sin will
+find him out, if it has not done so already."
+
+Sir Arthur spoke with the absolute conviction of a deeply religious man.
+He believed his own words honestly; and yet, if he could have seen how
+his own prophecy was to be fulfilled, he would have given his right
+hand, nay, he would even have shaken hands with the man who had so
+deeply wronged him, rather than that they should have had so terrible a
+fulfilment.
+
+Indeed, even while he was speaking the wheels of Fate had already begun
+to revolve.
+
+When Carol and Dora returned from their ride Dora found a letter waiting
+for her. She opened it, glanced quickly over the page and then said:
+
+"Carol, how will this suit you for this evening? I think a night out
+would do you good after your little shake-up this morning. Listen--
+
+     "DEAR DORA,
+
+     "Yesterday I became a happy bachelor for a fortnight. Encumbrances
+     gone to Folkestone. If you have nothing better to do, meet me at
+     the 'West End' at 7.30 this evening, and, if possible, bring Miss
+     Vane, as I am bringing a friend, who, after my description of
+     her--don't be jealous!--is quite anxious to meet her. He is good
+     looking and very well off, and I think she will like him.
+
+     "Hoping you will both be able to come,
+
+     "Yours ever,
+     "BERNARD."
+
+"That sounds promising," said Miss Carol. "If he's that sort, and nice
+as well, and has plenty of the necessary, I shouldn't mind if he took me
+on as a sort of permanence. Somehow, after last night and this morning,
+I've got sick of this general knocking-about. Besides, it's no class.
+All right, I'll come. A bit of a kick-up will do me good, I think. That
+talk with the old gentleman this morning gave me quite a number 25 hump,
+though the ride has worked a good bit of it off. Now let's feed, I'm
+hungry enough to dine off cold boiled block ornaments."
+
+Mr. Bernard Falcon, the writer of the letter to Dora, was principal
+partner in the somewhat incongruously named firm of solicitors, Messrs.
+Falcon and Lambe, of Mansion House Chambers, E.C. The firm did all sorts
+of work, provided only that it paid; the highest class under their
+style, and the other sorts--the money-lending and "speculative
+business"--through their own "jackals," that is to say seedy and
+broken-down solicitors who had made a failure of their own business, but
+had managed to keep on the Rolls and were not above doing "commission
+work" for more prosperous firms.
+
+Mr. Lambe, away from his business, was a most excellent person; a good
+husband and father, a regular church-goer, and a generous supporter of
+all good works in and about Denmark Hill, where he lived. He was one of
+those strangely constituted men--of whom there are multitudes in the
+world--who will earn money by the most questionable, if not absolutely
+dishonest, methods, without a qualm of conscience, and give liberally of
+that same money without recognising for a moment that what they honestly
+believe they are giving to God, is a portion of the Wages of Sin--which,
+as good Christians, they ought never to have earned.
+
+Mr. Bernard Falcon, on the other hand, in his private life, aimed at
+nothing more than respectability in the worst sense of the word. His
+wife and his two little girls went to church. He himself went on Sunday
+mornings when he had no more pressing engagements. His name appeared
+regularly on the subscription lists published in connection with St.
+Michael's, Brondesbury, his parish church, and he also paid the rent of
+No. 15, Melville Gardens, Brook Green, in addition to one hundred and
+fifty pounds a year as what he would have called "a retainer" to Miss
+Dora Russell--to say nothing of certain milliner's and jeweller's bills
+which he liquidated, sometimes cheerfully and sometimes grudgingly,
+according to his humour and their amount.
+
+When Carol and Dora got out of their cab at the door of the "West End"
+and went into the little vestibule-bar to the left, they found two men
+in evening dress waiting for them. One of them--a man of about forty,
+bald on the temples, of medium height, well-fed and well-groomed, and
+not by any means bad-looking, though of an entirely mediocre type--Carol
+greeted with the easy familiarity of old acquaintance, for she had known
+him for nearly a year as Dora's 'particular friend.' The other, tall,
+well-built, handsome, and with that unmistakable stamp of breeding on
+him which Mr. Bernard Falcon totally lacked, she instantly recognised as
+Reginald Garthorne, her intended companion for the evening.
+
+The first thing he did when they had been introduced by Bernard Falcon,
+was to apologise for what he had said in front of the Criterion the
+night before. He did it with admirably calculated deference, and in such
+perfectly chosen words, that it was quite impossible for her not to
+accept his apology and "make friends."
+
+During the evening he became completely fascinated, not only by her
+beauty, but far more so by the extraordinary charm of her manner. He
+was a man who, apart from his physical qualities and good looks, could,
+when he chose, make himself very pleasing to women, and, without showing
+a trace of effort, he did his very best to please Miss Carol, and
+succeeded so completely, that when, a few days later, he made a proposal
+of a partly domestic nature to her, she, after a brief consultation with
+Dora, accepted it.
+
+At the end of the month the house in Melville Gardens was to let, and
+Carol and Dora were installed in a flat in Densmore Gardens, South
+Kensington, for the rent of which Reginald Garthorne and Mr. Bernard
+Falcon were jointly responsible--of course, under other names. The only
+condition that Carol had made with Garthorne, was that, whatever
+happened, he would not tell Vane of her change of address, and he, for
+very good reasons of his own, had promised unconditionally.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The next day Enid Raleigh came home.
+
+Almost the first thing she said to her mother, who had met her at the
+station with the carriage, was:
+
+"Well, and where is Master Vane, please? He is in town, isn't he? Why
+didn't he come to meet me? I shall have to make him do penance for
+this."
+
+The words were lightly spoken, spoken in utter unconsciousness of the
+deep meaning which Fate had put into them. So far as Enid herself was
+concerned, and as, in fact, she was just thinking at the moment, all
+they meant was that at their next meeting she would refuse Vane his
+long-accustomed lover's kiss, and then, after an explanation occupying
+some three or four minutes at most, surrender at discretion, after which
+would come the luxury of playing at being offended and standing on her
+dignity for a few minutes more, and then enjoying the further luxury of
+making it up.
+
+"Yes, dear," said her mother, "Vane is in town still. I think he doesn't
+go back to Oxford until the end of the week, but he hasn't been very
+well lately----"
+
+"Not well!" exclaimed Enid, sitting up out of the corner of the carriage
+into which she had leaned back with that easy abandon which comes so
+naturally to people accustomed to comfort all their lives. "Ill! Why,
+Vane's never been ill in his life. What's the matter? It isn't anything
+serious, is it? You don't mean that he's really ill, mother, do you?"
+
+There was no mistaking the reality of the anxiety in her tone. Her
+mother recognised it instantly, but she also saw that a brougham
+rattling over the streets of London was not exactly the place to enter
+upon such explanations as it was her destiny and her duty to make to
+this brilliant, beautiful, spoilt darling of a daughter who was sitting
+beside her.
+
+So far as she knew, every hope, every prospect of Enid's life, that
+bright young life which, in the fuller acceptation of the term, was only
+just going to begin, was connected more or less intimately with Vane
+Maxwell.
+
+Ever since they had come home together from Bombay on that memorable
+voyage, she and Vane had been sweethearts. They were very much in love
+with each other, and so far their love had been a striking exception to
+that old proverb which comes true only too often. Saving only those
+lovers' quarrels which don't count because they end so much more
+pleasantly than they begin, there had never been a cloud in that
+morning-sky of life towards which they had so far walked hand in hand.
+It seemed as though the Fates themselves had conspired to make
+everything pleasant and easy for them; and of course it had never struck
+either of them that when the Fates do this kind of thing, they always
+have a more or less heavy account on the other side--to be presented in
+due course.
+
+Lady Raleigh knew this, and her daughter did not. She knew that the
+terrible explanation had to come, but she very naturally shrank from
+the inevitable--and so, woman-like, she temporised.
+
+"Really, dear," she said, "I can't talk with all this jolting and
+rattle. When we get home I will tell you all about it. Vane himself is
+not ill at all. He is just as well as ever he was. It isn't that."
+
+"Then I suppose," said Miss Enid, looking round sharply, "my lord has
+been getting himself into some scrape or other--something that has to be
+explained or talked away before he likes to meet me. Is that it?"
+
+"No, Enid, that is not it," replied her mother gravely, "but really,
+dear, I must ask you to say nothing more about it just now. When we get
+home we'll have a cup of tea, and then I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Oh, very well," said Enid, a trifle petulantly. "I suppose there's some
+mystery about it. Of course there must be, or else he'd have come here
+himself, so we may as well change the subject. How do you like the new
+flat, and what's it like?"
+
+As she said this she threw herself back again into the corner and stared
+out of the opposite window of the brougham with a look in her eyes which
+seemed to say that for the time being she had no further interest in any
+earthly affairs.
+
+Lady Raleigh, glad of the relief even for the moment, at once began a
+voluble and minute description of the new flat in Addison Gardens into
+which they had moved during her daughter's last sojourn in Paris, and
+this, with certain interjections and questions from Enid, lasted until
+the brougham turned into the courtyard and drew up in front of the
+arched doorway out of which the tall, uniformed porter came with the
+fingers of his left hand raised to the peak of his cap, to open the
+carriage door.
+
+Sir Godfrey was out, and would not be back until dinner time; so, as
+soon as they had taken their things off, Lady Raleigh ordered tea in her
+own room, and there, as briefly as was consistent with the gravity of
+the news she had to tell, she told Enid everything that her husband had
+heard from Sir Arthur.
+
+Enid, although she flushed slightly at certain portions of the
+narrative, listened to the story with a calmness which somewhat
+surprised her mother.
+
+The little damsel for whose kisses those two boys had fought ten or
+eleven years ago, had now grown into a fair and stately maiden of
+eighteen, very dainty and desirable to look upon, and withal possessing
+a dignity which only comes by birth and breeding and that larger
+training and closer contact with the world which modern girls of her
+class enjoy. Young as she was, hers was not the innocence of ignorance.
+She had lived too late in the century, and had already been too far
+afield in the world for that.
+
+"It comes to this, then," she said quietly, almost hardly, "instead of
+being dead, as we have believed all along, Vane's mother is alive; an
+imbecile who has become so through drink, and who seems to have
+misbehaved herself very badly when Vane was a baby. She is in an asylum,
+and will probably remain there till she dies. No one but ourselves and
+this interesting young person, Miss Carol Vane, appears to know anything
+about it, and I really don't see why Vane is to be held responsible for
+his mother's insanity--for I suppose that's what it comes to.
+
+"And then there is Miss Carol herself. Of course she's not a
+particularly desirable family connection; but I don't suppose Vane would
+expect me to meet her, much less fall upon her neck and greet her as his
+long-lost sister. I suppose, too, that between us we could manage to do
+something for her, and put her in a more respectable way of living and
+induce her to hold her tongue.
+
+"As for Vane getting drunk that night, of course it's very improper and
+all that sort of thing from the Sunday School point of view; but I don't
+suppose he was the only undergraduate who took too much to drink that
+night. Probably several hundreds of them did, and I daresay a good many
+of them were either engaged or going to be. Would they consider that a
+reason why they should go and break off their engagements? I'm afraid
+there wouldn't be many marriages nowadays if engagements were broken off
+on that account.
+
+"Of course, mam, dear, what you've told me is not exactly pleasant to
+hear, but still, after all, I really can't see anything so very dreadful
+in it. Most families have a skeleton of some sort, I suppose, and this
+is ours, or will be when Vane and I are married. We must simply keep the
+cupboard door shut as closely as possible. It's only what lots of other
+people have to do."
+
+"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I must say I'm very glad to see you
+take it so reasonably. I'm afraid I could not have done so at your age,
+but then girls are so different now, and, besides, you always had more
+of your father's way of looking at things than mine. Then, I suppose,
+Vane may come and see you. I think it was very nice of him not to come
+until you had been told everything."
+
+"May come!" said Enid. "I should think so. If he doesn't I shall be
+distinctly offended. I shall expect him to come round and make his
+explanations in person before long, and when he does we will have a few
+minutes chat _ŕ deux_--and I don't think I shall have very much
+difficulty in convincing him of the error of his ways, or, at any rate,
+of his opinions."
+
+"What an extremely conceited speech to make, dear!" said her ladyship
+mildly, and yet with a glance of motherly pride at the beauty which went
+so far towards justifying it. "Well, perhaps you are right. Certainly,
+if anyone can, you can, and I sincerely hope you will. It would be
+dreadful if anything were to happen to break it off after all these
+years."
+
+The colour went out of Enid's cheeks in an instant, and she said in
+quite an altered voice:
+
+"Oh, for goodness sake, mamma, don't say anything about that! You know
+how fond I am of Vane. I simply couldn't give him up, whatever sort of a
+mother he had, and if he had a dozen half-sisters as disreputable as
+this Miss Carol Vane--the very idea of her having the impudence to use
+his name! No, I shan't think of that--I couldn't. If Vane did that it
+would just break my heart--it really would. It would be like taking half
+my life away, and it would simply kill me. I couldn't bear it."
+
+She honestly meant what she said, not knowing that she said it in utter
+ignorance of the self that said it.
+
+It was in Enid's mind, as it also was in her mother's, to send a note
+round to Warwick Gardens to ask both Vane and his father to come round
+to an informal dinner, and to discuss the matter there and then; but
+neither of them gave utterance to the thought. Lady Raleigh, knowing her
+daughter's proud and somewhat impetuous temperament, instinctively
+shrank from making a suggestion which she would have had very good
+grounds for rejecting, more especially as she had already given such a
+very decided opinion as to Vane's scruples.
+
+As for Enid herself, she honestly thought so little of these same
+scruples that she felt inclined to accuse Vane of a Quixotism which,
+from her point of view at least, was entirely unwarrantable. It was,
+therefore, quite impossible for her to first suggest that they should
+meet after a parting during which they might have unconsciously reached
+what was to be the crisis of both their lives.
+
+The result was that the thought remained unspoken, and Enid, after
+spending the evening in vexed and anxious uncertainty, went to bed; and
+then, as soon as she felt that she was absolutely safe in her solitude,
+discussed the whole matter over again with herself, and wound the
+discussion up with a good hearty cry, after which she fell into the
+dreamless slumber of the healthy and innocent.
+
+When she woke very early the next morning, or, rather, while she was on
+that borderland between sleeping and waking where the mind works with
+such strange rapidity, she reviewed the whole of the circumstances, and
+came to the conclusion that she was being very badly treated. Vane knew
+perfectly well that she was coming back yesterday afternoon, and
+therefore he had no right to let these absurd scruples of his prevent
+him from performing the duties of a lover and meeting her at the
+station. But, even granted that something else had made it impossible
+for him to do so, there was absolutely no excuse for his remaining away
+the whole afternoon and evening when he must have known how welcome a
+visit would have been.
+
+Meanwhile Vane had been doing the very last thing that she would have
+imagined him doing.
+
+After his fateful conversation with his father he had left the house in
+Warwick Gardens to wander he knew and cared not whither. His thoughts
+were more than sufficient companionship for him, and, heeding neither
+time nor distance, he walked as he might have walked in a dream, along
+the main road through Hammersmith and Turnham Green and Kew, and so
+through Richmond Hill till he had climbed the hill and stopped for a
+brief moment of desperate debate before the door of the saloon bar of
+the "Star and Garter." The better impulse conquered the worse, and he
+entered the park, and, seating himself on one of the chairs under the
+trees, he made an effort to calmly survey the question in all its
+bearings.
+
+It was the most momentous of all human tasks--the choosing of his own
+future life-path at the parting of the ways. One of them,
+flower-bordered and green with the new-grown grass of life's
+spring-time, and the other dry, rugged and rock-strewn--the paths of
+inclination and duty: the one leading up to the golden gates of the
+Paradise of wedded love, and the other slanting down to the wide
+wilderness which he must cross alone, until he passed alone into the
+shadows which lay beyond it.
+
+A few days before he had seen himself well on the way to everything that
+can make a man's life full and bright and worthy to be lived. He was,
+thanks to his father's industry, relieved from all care on the score of
+money, and, better still, he had that within him which made him
+independent of fortune, perfect health and great abilities, already
+well-proved, although he had yet to wait nearly a year for his
+twenty-first birthday.
+
+He had great ambitions and the high hopes which go with them. The path
+to honour and distinction, even to fame itself, had lain plainly open
+before him--and now everything was so different. The sun which he had
+thought was only rising was already setting. He knew now that the fruit
+which looked so sweet and luscious had the canker-worm feeding on the
+core; that the flesh which seemed so healthy was really tainted and
+leprous; and that, worse than all, the brightest and sweetest promise of
+his life, a promise infinitely sweeter and dearer than even the
+fulfilment of his highest material ambition, was now no longer a promise
+but a denial, a life-sacrifice demanded, not only by his honour as a
+man, but by his love as a lover.
+
+He sat thus thinking until the buzzing of a motor-car woke him from his
+day-dream. He looked at his watch, and found that he had about time to
+get across the park to Sheen Gate; but he fell to dreaming again on the
+way, and when he reached the gate it was closed.
+
+He turned back with the idea of asking a keeper to unlock the gate and
+let him out, but after a few strides he halted and sat down again on a
+seat. After all, were he to go home, he could not sleep, and it better
+suited his mood to keep vigil in the open air than within the four walls
+of his room.
+
+And so he passed the night, walking half awake, and then sitting, half
+asleep, dimly reviewing this sudden crisis of his fate again and again
+from all possible aspects. And again and again the determination to
+adhere to the decision which duty had marked out so clearly seemed to
+beat itself deeper and deeper into his brain.
+
+The taint of alcoholism was in his blood, and matrimony and parentage
+were not for him. In the morning he would go straight to Enid's father
+and admit that, although ties reaching back into her childhood and his
+had to be broken, yet it was impossible for the engagement between him
+and Enid to be continued.
+
+The night passed, and the park gates were again opened, but still Vane
+sat on, until, noticing the suspicious glances of some of the early
+pedestrians, he decided to get home, have a tub, and pay his fateful
+visit to Sir Godfrey Raleigh.
+
+As it happened, however, that visit was never to be paid. Enid had found
+her waking thoughts unpleasant, if not almost intolerable, and, being
+too perfectly healthy to indulge in anything of the nature of moping or
+sulks, she came to the conclusion that a good sharp spin on her bicycle
+would be the best mental tonic she could have; so she got a cup of
+coffee and a biscuit, took out her machine, and started away to work
+off, as she hoped, the presentiment of coming trouble which seemed to
+have fastened itself upon her.
+
+Thus it happened that she entered Richmond Park by Sheen Gate just as
+Vane, physically weary yet still mentally sleepless, was coming out of
+it.
+
+During his night's vigil he had nerved himself, as he thought, to meet
+every imaginable trial but this one--this vision of his well-beloved,
+not waiting for him, but coming to him fresh and radiant in her young
+beauty, delightful and desirable, tempting almost beyond the powers of
+human resistance, and his, too, his own sweetheart, pledged to him ever
+since that memorable afternoon when he had fought for her and won her
+behind the wheelhouse in the midst of the Indian Ocean.
+
+When her wonder had given way to complete recognition Enid dismounted
+and waited, naturally expecting that he would greet her; but he stood
+silent, looking at her as though he were trying to find some words of
+salutation.
+
+"Well, Vane," she said at last, "I suppose we may shake hands. I did not
+expect to see you here. Cannot you look a little more cheerful? What is
+the matter? You look as if you hadn't been home all night."
+
+He took her hand mechanically, and, as he held it and looked down into
+the sweet upturned face with a bright flush on the cheeks and the
+dawning of an angry light in the gentle eyes, he felt an almost
+irresistible desire to take her in his arms just as he had done at their
+last meeting and kiss into silence the tempting lips which had just
+shaped those almost scornfully spoken words.
+
+It dawned upon her in the same moment that he was looking as she had
+never seen him look before. His face was perfectly bloodless. The
+features were hard-set and deep-lined. There were furrows in his
+forehead and shadows under his eyes. When she had last seen his face it
+was that of a boy of twenty, full of health and strength, and without a
+care on his mind. Now it was the face of a man of thirty, a man who had
+lived and sinned and sorrowed.
+
+In that instant her mood and her voice changed, and she said:
+
+"Vane, dear, what is it? Why don't you speak to me? Are you ill?"
+
+He took her bicycle from her, and, turning, walked with her back into
+the park. After a few moments' silence he replied in a voice which
+seemed horribly strange to her:
+
+"Yes, Enid, I am. I am ill, and I am afraid there is no cure for the
+disease. I have not been home. In fact, I have been in the park all
+night. I was shut in by accident, and I remained from choice, trying to
+think out my duty to you."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" she replied. "I know what you mean. It's about you
+getting drunk the other night--and--and your unfortunate mother and this
+newly-found half-sister of yours. Well, of course, I suppose it was
+exceedingly wrong of you to get so very drunk. And the rest--I mean
+about your mother--that is very sad and terrible. But, bad as it is, I
+think you are taking it a great deal too seriously. I've talked it all
+over with mamma, and she thinks just as I do about it."
+
+When she had said this Enid felt that she had gone quite as far as her
+self-respect and maidenly pride would permit her to go. As she looked up
+at him she saw the pallor of his face change almost to grey. His hand
+was resting lightly on her arm, and she felt it tremble. Then he drew it
+gently away and said:
+
+"I know what you mean, Enid, and it is altogether too good and generous
+of you; but I don't think you quite understand--I mean, you don't seem
+to realise how serious it all is."
+
+"Really, Vane, I must say that you are acting very strangely. What is
+the good of going all over it again? You can't tell me anything more, I
+suppose, than I have heard already from mamma. Surely you don't mean
+that you intend that everything is to be over between us--that we are
+only to be friends, as they say, in future?"
+
+"I quite see what _you_ mean," he said, his lips perceptibly tightening;
+"and that, too, in a certain sense, is what I mean also."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed. "Do you really mean that I am not to be any more
+what I have been to you, and that if we meet again it must only be as
+ordinary acquaintances, just friends who have known each other a certain
+number of years? Surely, Vane, you don't mean that--dear?"
+
+The last word escaped her lips almost involuntarily. She tried to keep
+it back, but it got out in spite of herself. It was only the fact that
+they were walking on the public highway that prevented her from giving
+way altogether to the sense of despair that had come over her. As his
+face had changed a few moments before so did hers now, and as she
+looked at him he stopped momentarily in his walk.
+
+But the lessons which he had learnt during the last few days, and most
+of all during this last night of lonely wandering and desperate
+questioning with himself, had ground the moral into his soul so deeply
+that not even the sight of her so anxiously longing for just one word
+from him to bring them together again, and make them once more as they
+had always been--almost since either of them could remember
+anything--was strong enough to force him to speak it.
+
+He involuntarily wheeled the bicycle towards the middle of the road, as
+though he was afraid to trust himself too near her, and said, speaking
+as a man might speak when pronouncing his own death sentence:
+
+"Yes, Enid, that is what I do mean. I mean that there is a great deal
+more, something infinitely more serious in what has happened during the
+last few days, in what I have learnt and you have been told, than you
+seem to have any idea of."
+
+Enid made a gesture as though she would interrupt him, but he went on
+almost hotly:
+
+"Listen to me, Enid, and then judge me as you please--only listen to me.
+Four days ago, after I had seen the Boat Race, I did as a good many
+other fellows from the 'Varsity do--I went West. By sheer accident I met
+a girl so like myself that--well, I didn't know then that I had a
+sister. Yesterday I learnt, then, that I have one--not my father's
+daughter, only my mother's--and you know what that means. We had supper
+together at the Trocadero----"
+
+"Really, Vane, I do think you might spare me these little details," said
+Enid, with a sort of weary impatience. "I have heard of this
+half-sister of yours already. Suppose we leave her out for the present?"
+
+"Yes," he said, again stopping momentarily in his walk. "We _will_ leave
+her out for the present. In fact, as far as you are concerned, Enid, she
+may be left out for ever."
+
+"Why--what do you mean, Vane?" she exclaimed, stopping short.
+
+"I mean," he said, beginning quickly and then halting for a moment. "I
+mean that, considering everything that has happened during the last few
+days, I have no intention of asking you to become her half-sister--even
+in law."
+
+The real meaning of his utterance forced itself swiftly enough upon her
+now, and for a minute rendered her incapable of speech. She, however,
+like others of her blood and breed, had learned how to seem most
+careless when she cared most, and so she managed to reply not only
+steadily but even stiffly:
+
+"Of course, after that there is very little to be said, Mr. Maxwell. I'm
+afraid I have not properly understood what has happened. Perhaps,
+though, it would have been better for you to have seen my father and
+talked this over with him first."
+
+The "Mr. Maxwell" cut him to the quick. It was the first time he had
+ever heard it from her lips. Yet it did not affect the decision which
+was, as he had for the time being, at least, convinced himself,
+inevitable, and so miserable was he that even her scornful indignation
+was something like a help to him.
+
+He was even grateful that this interview, which he had looked forward to
+with dread, had taken place in the open air rather than in the
+drawing-room of Sir Godfrey Raleigh's house, for if she had simply sat
+down and cried, as, perhaps, nine out of ten girls in her position would
+have done, his task would have been infinitely more difficult, perhaps
+even impossible of accomplishment. Her present attitude, however, seemed
+to appeal to his masculine pride and stimulate it. He turned slightly
+towards her, and said, with a sudden change in his voice which she felt
+almost like a blow:
+
+"Yes, Miss Raleigh, you are quite right. I will spare you the details;
+at least, those which are not essential. But there are some which are.
+For instance," he went on, with a note of vehemence in his tone which
+made it impossible for her to interrupt him, "four nights ago I was
+lying on the floor of the Den at home, blind, dead drunk--drunk, mind
+you, after this sister of mine had seen in my eyes the sign of
+drunkenness which she had seen in her mother's--that was my mother, too,
+an imbecile dipsomaniac, remember--who had sunk to unspeakable
+degradation before she became what she is. I was as sober as I am now
+when I told my father this--I mean what Carol had told me. I noticed
+that there was something strange about him while I was telling him, but
+I thought that was just a matter of circumstances, you know----"
+
+"Yes, I think I know, or at any rate I can guess," said Miss Enid, with
+angry eyes and tightened lips.
+
+"Very well, then," he went on, "and after that--after my father had
+asked me to have a glass of whiskey with him--after I had refused and he
+had gone to bed and I was putting the spirit-case away without any idea
+of drinking again, one smell of the whiskey seemed to paralyse my whole
+mental force. It turned me from a sane man who had had a solemn warning
+into a madman who had only one feeling--the craving for alcohol in some
+shape. I smelt again, and the smell of it went like fire through my
+veins. I tasted it, and then I drank. I drank again and again, until, as
+I suppose your mother has told you, I fell on the rug, no longer a man,
+but simply a helpless, intoxicated beast. I was utterly insensible to
+everything about me, I didn't care whether I lived or died. When I woke
+and thought about it I would a thousand times rather have been dead.
+
+"It wasn't that I wanted the liquor. I didn't get drunk because I wanted
+to. I got drunk, Enid, because I _had_ to; because there was a lurking
+devil in my blood which forced me to drink that whiskey just because it
+was alcohol, because it was drink, because it was the element ready to
+respond to that craving which I have inherited from this unhappy mother
+of mine.
+
+"Do you know what that means, Enid? I don't think you do. It means that
+my blood has been poisoned from my very birth. Of course, you don't know
+this. Your parents don't know it, any more than they know that it is too
+late to redeem the ruin which has fallen upon me. That, at least, I can
+say with a clear conscience is no fault or sin of mine. Since then I
+have thrashed this miserable thing out in every way that I can think of.
+I have talked it over with my father, and he has talked it over with
+yours. I have been wandering about the park all night trying to find out
+what I ought to do--and I think I have found it."
+
+"From which I suppose I am to understand," she replied, in a voice which
+was nothing like as firm as she intended it to be, "you mean, Vane--or
+perhaps I ought to say Mr. Maxwell now--that henceforth--I mean that we
+are not going to be married after all."
+
+"What I mean is this, Enid," he replied, "that dearly as I love you, and
+just because I love you so dearly, because I would give all the world if
+I had it to have you for my wife, I would _not_ make you the wife of a
+man who could become the thing that was lying on the hearthrug of the
+Den four nights ago--a man drunk against his own will, a slave to one of
+the vilest of habits--no, something much worse than a habit, a disease
+inherited with tainted, poisoned blood!
+
+"What would you think of your parents and my father if they allowed you
+to marry a lunatic? Well, with that taint in my blood I am worse, a
+thousand times worse, than a lunatic, and I should be a criminal as well
+if I asked you or any other girl for whom I had the slightest feeling of
+love or respect to marry me.
+
+"Think what the punishment of such a crime might be!" he went on even
+more vehemently. "Every hour of our married life I should be haunted by
+this horrible fear. Tempted by a devil lurking in every glass of wine or
+spirits that I drank, or even looked at--the same devil which had me in
+its grip the other night. Enid, if you could have seen me then, I think
+you would have understood better; but if, which God forbid, you could
+have gone through what I went through after I swallowed that first drink
+of whiskey, you would as soon think of marrying a criminal out of jail
+or a madman out of a lunatic asylum as you would of marrying me. I
+daresay all this may seem unreasonable, perhaps even heartless, to you;
+but, dear, if you only knew what it costs to say it----"
+
+He broke off abruptly, for as he said this a note of tenderness stole
+for the first time into his voice, and found an instant echo in Enid's
+heart. So far she had borne herself bravely through a bitterly trying
+ordeal, but as she noticed a change in his tone a swift conviction came
+to her that if she remained many more minutes in his company she would
+certainly break down and there would be "a scene," which, under the
+circumstances, was not to be thought of. So she stopped him by holding
+out her hand and saying in a voice which cost her a terrible effort to
+keep steady:
+
+"No, Vane, we have talked quite enough. I see your mind is made up, and
+so there is, of course, nothing more to be said except 'good-bye.' I
+think we had better not meet again until we both have had more time to
+think about it all."
+
+This was as far as she could get. They had by this time reached Sheen
+Gate again, and Enid took her bicycle from him. She did not look at him,
+and, indeed, could not even trust herself to say "thank you." She
+mounted and rode through the comparatively lonely roads in a sort of
+dream until the traffic at Hammersmith Bridge and Broadway mercifully
+compelled her to give her whole attention to the steering of her
+machine.
+
+When she got home she gave her bicycle to the porter, went straight to
+her own room, took off her hat and gloves and jacket, and then dropped
+quietly on the bed and laid there, staring with tearless eyes up at the
+ceiling, wondering vaguely what it all meant, and if it was really true.
+
+Vane stood and watched her until she swept round a bend in the road, and
+then walked on with the one thought echoing and re-echoing in the
+emptiness of his soul--the thought of the course which he was bound to
+follow by the dictates of both love and duty. He had reached the Surrey
+end of Hammersmith Bridge when the strong smell of alcoholic liquor
+coming through the open door of a public-house caused him to stop for a
+moment. Would a drink do him any harm after what had happened? He had
+passed a sleepless night in the open air, and felt almost
+fainting--surely a drop of brandy would do him no harm under the
+circumstances? Then he remembered the hearthrug in the Den, and turned
+towards the bridge with something between a sneer and a curse on his
+lips.
+
+Was he always to be beset by temptation in this way--and would he always
+have strength to successfully combat the evil influence? If Fate had
+really marked him out for a dipsomaniac, was it any use his fighting
+against what must inevitably be his destiny? His thoughts were
+interrupted by the rumbling of a 'bus which was coming towards him, and,
+seeing that it was one which went through Kensington, he jumped on it
+and went home.
+
+He alighted at Warwick Gardens, and on reaching the house found that his
+father had just come in for lunch.
+
+"It's all right, dad," he said, anticipating his inevitable question. "I
+got shut in Richmond Park by accident, and did a night in the open. But
+I'll tell you all about it at lunch. I'm going to have a tub now."
+
+Lunch was ready by the time Vane came downstairs, re-clothed and
+refreshed, and when they were alone he repeated to his father almost
+verbatim the conversation he had had with Enid.
+
+"Well, my boy," he said when he had concluded. "I cannot but think that
+as far as you can see now you have acted rightly. It is terribly hard on
+you, but I will help you all I can. And perhaps, after all, the future
+may prove brighter than it looks now for all of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It was the end of Term, nearly two years after that interview in
+Richmond Park which, as both Vane and Enid had then believed, was for
+them the parting of the ways. Vane was sitting in a deep-seated, Russian
+wicker-chair in his cosy study, and opposite him, in a similar chair,
+was another man with whom he had been talking somewhat earnestly for
+about an hour.
+
+To-morrow would be Commemoration Day--"Commem," to use the
+undergraduate's abbreviation. There would be meetings from far and wide
+of people gathered together, not only from all over the kingdom, but
+from the ends of the earth as well; men and women glorying, for their
+own sakes and their sons', in the long traditions of the grand old
+University, the dearly-loved Alma Mater, nursing-mother of their fathers
+and fathers' fathers. Here a man who had been a tutor and then a Fellow,
+and was now one of His Majesty's judges; there another, who walked with
+sober mien in the leggings and tunic of a Bishop, and who, in his time,
+had dodged the Proctor and his bull-dogs as nimbly as the most
+irresponsible undergraduate of the moment--and so on through the whole
+hierarchy of the University.
+
+The Lists were just out. Vane had fulfilled the promise of his earlier
+career and had taken a brilliant double-first. He had read for Classics
+and History, but he had also taken up incidentally Mental Science and
+Moral Philosophy, and he had scored a first in all. If it had then been
+possible for him to have had a Treble-First, it would have been his. As
+it was he had won the most brilliant degree of his year--and there he
+was, sitting back in his chair, blowing cloud after cloud of smoke out
+of his mouth, and every now and then taking a sip out of a big cup of
+tea and looking with something more than admiration at the man opposite;
+a man who had only achieved a first, and who, if he had been some other
+kind of man, would have been very well contented with it.
+
+It would not, however, have needed a particularly keen student of human
+nature to discover that this was not the kind of man who could rest
+contented with anything like a formal success; and, after all, even a
+double-first, to say nothing of a single, although a great achievement
+as the final triumph of an educational course, is still only the end of
+the beginning. That done, the student, armed _cap-ŕ-pie_ in his
+intellectual armour, goes forth to face something infinitely sterner and
+more pitiless than tutors or proctors, ay, even than Masters and
+Chancellors themselves--the presiding genius of that infinitely greater
+University called the World, where taking your degree means anything
+that human fortune can give you, and where being plucked may mean
+anything from a clerkship in an office to selling matches in the gutter.
+
+"I _am_ sorry you missed your double, old man!" said Vane, continuing
+the conversation after a pause that had lasted for two or three minutes.
+"Still, at any rate, you've got your first, and, after all, a first in
+Classics and a second in History is not to be sneezed at, and I don't
+suppose it would have mattered a hang to you whether you had come out
+anywhere or not."
+
+As he said this there was a sudden contraction of his companion's jaw,
+which resulted in the clean biting through of the vulcanite mouthpiece
+of his pipe. He spat the pieces out into the fireplace, and said in a
+perfectly smooth voice:
+
+"I wonder what I did that for! I suppose that is one of the
+circumstances in which people say that it does a man good to swear."
+
+"I should certainly have sworn under the circumstances," said Vane, "or
+at least, I should have said something that one would not say in the
+presence of one's maiden aunt, but then, of course, you Ernshaw--you're
+above all that sort of thing. You have your feelings so well under
+control that you don't even need to swear to relieve them. However,
+that's not quite the subject. What am I to do? Am I to go back to her,
+repenting of the evil of my ways, ask her to pardon a passing madness,
+and lay my academic honours at her feet--as God knows I would be only
+too glad to do----"
+
+"Wait a moment, Maxwell. Don't say anything more just now, and let me
+think a bit. We have been over this subject a good many times already,
+but now we have come to the crisis, to the cross-ways, in fact. You have
+made me your confidant in this matter. The future of your life and hers
+depends upon what you decide to do now, and, not only that, but there is
+your father and her father and mother--the completion, that is to say,
+of three other lives. It is very, very serious. It is more than serious,
+it is solemn. Wait a moment, let me think."
+
+Vane leant back in his chair, dropped his pipe quietly on the floor, and
+waited. He knew that Mark Ernshaw, his chum at Eton and his friend at
+Balliol--this tall, sparely-built man, with dark hair, high, somewhat
+narrow forehead, and big, deep-set, brown eyes, delicate features, and
+the somewhat too finely-moulded chin which, taken together, showed him
+to the eye that sees to be the enthusiast as well as the man of
+intellect, perhaps of genius--was not thinking in the ordinary meaning
+of the word. He was praying, and when he saw that this was so he folded
+his hands over his eyes, and for nearly ten minutes there was absolute
+silence, Vane was thinking and his friend was praying. Perhaps, in
+another sense, Vane was praying too, for the strong religious bias which
+he had inherited from his father had, since the great crisis of his life
+had been passed, and during his close intimacy with Mark Ernshaw, grown
+stronger than ever.
+
+He had told him everything. They had gone over the whole of the dismal
+history again and again. They had thrashed out the problem in all its
+bearings, now arguing with and now against each other, and here was the
+last day. To-morrow in the Theatre they would receive the formal
+acknowledgment which would crown their academic careers. Vane's
+self-imposed probation would then be over, the crisis would be passed,
+and his life's course fixed for good and all.
+
+"Well, old man," said Vane, at length, "have you settled it? Upon my
+word I feel almost like a man under sentence of death waiting for a
+reprieve. But, after all, why should I? I haven't touched a drop of
+alcohol for over a year. I needn't say anything about the work I have
+done, for you know as much about that as I do myself. I am as sane and
+healthy as any man of my age need want to be. Of course, as I have told
+you, it was mutually agreed between us, or rather, between her parents
+and my father, that we should not meet or correspond until after I had
+taken my degree. I've kept the bargain both ways. I haven't written to
+her or had a word from her all the time. And now, what is the future to
+be? Shall I take up the threads of the old life and marry and live
+happily ever afterwards, as they say in the story-books--or shall I----?
+No, I don't think I could do that. Don't you think I've shown strength
+of mind enough to counteract the weakness of that one night? For the
+sake of all you've ever loved, old man, don't look so serious. You're
+not going to tell me that it really is all over, and that I shall have
+to give her up after all?"
+
+"Yes, you must," said Ernshaw. "If you have any faith worthy of the name
+in God or man, it is your duty, not only as a man but as a Christian, to
+say good-bye to her as man to woman. It is your duty, and you must."
+
+"No, by God, I can't!" cried Maxwell, springing to his feet and facing
+him with clenched teeth, set features, and hands gripped up into fists
+as though he were facing an enemy rather than a friend.
+
+Ernshaw rose slowly from his seat. His face seemed to Vane to be
+transfigured. He looked him straight in the eyes, and said, in a voice
+only a little above a whisper, and yet thrilling with an intense
+emotion:
+
+"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain! You have
+asked for my advice and my guidance, Maxwell. I have given them to you,
+but not before I have sought for advice and counsel from an infinitely
+higher Source. I believe I have had my answer. As I have had it so I
+have given it to you. I have spent a good many hours thinking over this
+problem of yours--and a harder problem few men have ever had to
+solve--but my fixed and settled conviction is that during this last
+conversation of yours with Miss Raleigh you bore yourself like a man;
+you did your duty; you put your hand to the plough. You are not going to
+look back now, are you?"
+
+Vane dropped back into his seat and folded his hands over his eyes
+again, and said with a note of weariness in his voice:
+
+"Well, yes, old man, I suppose you're right, and yet, Ernshaw, it's very
+hard, so hard that it seems almost impossible. They're coming up to
+'Commem' to-morrow--I was obliged to ask them, you know. I should only
+have to hold out my hand and feel hers in it and say that--well, that
+I'd thought better of it, and everything would be just as it was before.
+We could begin again just as if _that_ had never happened.
+
+"You know it's all I've thought about, all I've worked for, ever since
+we came back from India together. Honestly, old man, she really is--of
+course, with the exception of the Governor--everything there is in the
+world for me now. If I have to give her up, what else is there? You know
+what I was going to do. Now that I've got my degree I should have a
+splendid opening in the Foreign Office. The way would be absolutely
+clear before me--a mere matter of brains and interest--and I know I've
+got the interest--and I should be an Ambassador, perhaps a Prime
+Minister some day, and she would be my wife--and yet without her it
+wouldn't be worth anything to me. Ernshaw, isn't it a bit too much to
+ask a man on the threshold of his real life to give up all that for the
+sake of an idea--well, a scientific conviction if you like."
+
+"Strait is the Gate, and Narrow is the Way!" exclaimed Ernshaw. He
+seemed to tower above him as he stood over his chair; Vane looked up and
+saw that his eyes were glowing and his features set. His lips and voice
+trembled as he spoke. His whole being seemed irradiated by the light of
+an almost divine enthusiasm.
+
+"Maxwell, will you be one of the few that find it, or one of the many
+that miss it, and take the other way? As a good Christian, as the son of
+a Christian man, you know where _that_ one leads to.
+
+"After all, Maxwell," he continued, more quietly, "the trials of life
+are like lessons in school. You needed this experience or you would not
+have got it. In every fight you must win or lose. In this one you can
+and must be the victor. I think, nay, I know, that I am pointing out to
+you the way to victory, the way to final triumph over all the evils that
+have forced you to a choice between following your own most worthy
+inclinations, and what you now think an intolerable misery and an
+impossible sacrifice."
+
+He held out his hand as he spoke. Vane did not know it at the time, but
+in reality it was a hand held out to save a drowning man. It was a
+moment in which the fate of two lives was to be decided for right or
+wrong, for good or ill, and for all time--perhaps, even for more than
+Time. Vane gripped Ernshaw's hand, and, as the two grips closed, he
+looked straight into the deep-brown eyes, and said:
+
+"Ernshaw, that will do. By some means you have made me feel to-night
+just as I did that day when I was talking with her the last time. Yes,
+you are right. You have shewn me the right way, and, God helping me,
+I'll take it. I suppose if she doesn't marry me she'll marry Garthorne;
+but still, I see she mustn't marry me. They are coming down for 'Commem'
+to-morrow. I shall see her then, and I'll tell her that I have decided
+that there must be an end of everything except friendship between us.
+Yes, that is the only way after all--and, now, one other word, old man."
+
+"And that is?" said Ernshaw, smiling, almost laughing, in the sheer joy
+of his great triumph, as he so honestly believed it to be, over the
+Powers of Evil.
+
+"Well, it's this," said Vane, "my own life is settled now. I can't marry
+Enid and, of course, I'll marry no one else. I shall do as you have
+often advised me to do--take Orders and do the work that God puts
+nearest to my hand. I know that the governor will agree with me when I
+put it to him in that way. But then there's some one else."
+
+"Your sister, you mean," said Ernshaw.
+
+"My half----"
+
+"Your sister, I said," Ernshaw interrupted, quickly. "Well, what about
+her?"
+
+"It's this way," continued Vane, somewhat awkwardly, "you see--of
+course, as you say, she is my sister in a way, but she has absolutely
+refused everything that the governor and I have offered her. We even
+asked her to come and live with us, we offered, in short, to acknowledge
+her as one of the family."
+
+"And what did she say to that?"
+
+"She simply refused. She said that she had not made her life, but that
+she was ready to take it as it is. She said that she wasn't responsible
+for the world as it's made, she'd never owed anyone a shilling since
+she left her mother--and mine--and she never intended to. We tried
+everything with her, really we did, and, of course, the governor did a
+great deal more than I did, but it wasn't a bit of use. It's a horrible
+business altogether, isn't it?"
+
+"On the contrary, it is anything but that," replied Ernshaw, slowly and
+deliberately as though he were considering each word as he uttered it.
+"Maxwell, you have just decided to take Orders. I made up my mind to do
+that long ago. We are both of us fairly well off. I have eight or nine
+hundred a year of my own, and I daresay you have more, so we can go and
+do our work without troubling about the loaves and fishes."
+
+"Yes," replied Vane, "certainly, but that's not quite answering my
+question, old fellow:--I mean about Carol."
+
+"Quite so," he replied, "because I am going to ask you another. Do you
+think you know me and like me well enough to have me for a
+brother-in-law?"
+
+"Good Heavens, you don't mean _that_, Ernshaw, do you?"
+
+"I do," he said, "that is if she likes me well enough. Of course, I
+haven't seen her yet, and she might refuse me; but from all that you've
+told me about her, I'm half in love with her already, and--well, we
+needn't say anything more about that just now. Take me up to Town with
+you after Commem., introduce me to her and leave the rest to me and her.
+If ever a girl was made for the wife of such a man as I hope to be some
+day, that girl, Maxwell, is your sister."
+
+"But, Ernshaw, that is impossible. It may be only your good nature that
+prompted you to say this, or it may be that, without intention, I have
+somehow led you to look upon her as part of my destiny; but you forget,
+or perhaps, I have not told you that we have lost her utterly for the
+time being at least, she disappeared quite suddenly. My father and I
+have made every effort to trace her, but without the slightest success."
+
+"Then try again," replied Ernshaw, "and I will help in the search. At
+any rate, when we do find her, as I am sure we shall some day, if she
+will have me, I will ask her to be my wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+It was the morning of Commemoration Day and Vane was dressing for the
+great ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre, the conferring of honours and
+degrees, the placing of the Hall-mark of the University upon those who
+had passed its tests and proved themselves to be worthy metal. Over the
+end of the bed hung the brand-new bachelor's gown and silken hood,
+which, to-day, for the first time, he would be entitled to wear. They
+were the outward material symbols of the victory which he had won
+against all competitors.
+
+He was looking far back into his school-boy days and recalling the
+dreams he had dreamt of the time when, if the Fates were very kind to
+him, he would have taken his degree and would be able to walk about in
+all the glory of cap and gown and hood as the masters did on Sundays and
+Saints' days.
+
+And now it had come to pass. He had taken as good a degree as the best
+of them. In an hour or two he would appear capped and gowned and hooded
+on the closing scene of his University career. On one side of him would
+be the Chancellor and all the great dignitaries of the University; on
+the other the great audience--the undergraduates in the upper galleries;
+graduates, tutors and fellows, proud fathers and mothers, delighted
+sisters and other feminine relatives, including cousins and others,
+together with desperately envious younger brothers making the most
+earnest resolves to henceforth eschew all youthful dissipations, to
+foreswear idleness for ever, and to 'swat' day and night until they too
+had achieved this glorious consummation--vows, alas! to be broken ere
+the next school term was many days old, and yet, with not a few of them,
+to be renewed later on and honestly kept.
+
+He knew that, to use a not altogether inappropriate theatrical simile,
+he would be playing a principal part that day. The cheers and the
+plaudits which would burst out from the throats of his fellow-students,
+and, indeed, from the whole audience, when he came on to doff his cap
+and kneel before the Chancellor to take from his hands the honours he
+had won, would be given in recognition of the most brilliant degree of
+the year.
+
+And _she_, too, would be there with her father and mother, and his
+father, all sharing in his triumph, all glorying in his success, in this
+splendid fruition of the labours, which, for so many years, they had
+watched with such intensely sympathetic interest.
+
+Under any other circumstances this would have meant to him even more
+than the mere formal triumph; for though he had worked honestly and
+single-heartedly for the prizes of his academic career, he had also
+worked for them as an athlete might have striven for his laurels in the
+Olympian Games, or a knight of the Age of Chivalry might have fought for
+his laurels to lay them at the feet of his lady-love.
+
+Now he had won them--and after all what were they worth? This was not
+only to be a day of triumph for him. It was to be a day of hardest
+trial and most bitter sacrifice as well; a trial which, as he knew even
+now, would strain his moral fibre very nearly to the breaking point. It
+was a struggle for which he had been bracing himself ever since that
+last conversation which he had had with Enid. From that day to this he
+had never clasped her hand or looked into her eyes.
+
+That had been the agreement between them, and also between his father
+and her parents. They were not to meet again until he had finished his
+university career and taken his degree. That, as they thought, would
+give them both time enough to think--to remain faithful, or to think
+better of it, as the case might be--and, most important of all for Vane,
+to determine by the help of more deliberate thought and added
+experience, and by converse with minds older and more deeply versed in
+the laws of human nature than his own, whether or not that resolve,
+which he had taken when he first discovered that there was a taint of
+poison in his blood, should be kept or not.
+
+But now it was all over--although it ought only to have been just
+beginning. This day, which ought to have been the brightest of his life,
+was, in reality, to be the darkest. The golden gates of the Eden of Love
+lay open before him, but, instead of entering them, he must pass by with
+eyes averted, and enter instead the sombre portals of his life's
+Gethsemane; there to take up his cross and to bear it until the time
+came to lay it down by the side of the grave.
+
+He had thought it all out long and earnestly in solitary communion with
+his own soul, and during many long and closely-reasoned conversations
+with Ernshaw, and the one of the night before had decided him--or it
+might be more correct to say that it had completed the sum of the
+convictions which had been accumulating in his soul for the last two
+years.
+
+The path of duty--duty to her, to himself and to Humanity--lay straight
+and plain before him. He had nothing to do with the world now. He had
+come to look upon that taint in his blood as a taint akin to that of
+leprosy; an inherited curse which forbade him to mix with his kind as
+other men did. He must stand aloof, crying "unclean" in his soul if not
+with his voice. Henceforth he must be in the world and not of it--and
+this, as he thought, he had already proved by his resolve to renounce
+definitely and for ever the greatest treasure which the world could give
+him, a treasure which had been his so long, that giving it up was like
+tearing a part of his own being away with his own hands.
+
+Still, it was all very hard and very bitter. Despite his two years'
+preparation, the stress of that last struggle all through the long hours
+of the night which should have been filled with brightest dreams of the
+morrow, had left him, not only mentally worn out, but even physically
+sick. He felt as though the scene which would mark the culminating
+triumph of his academic career, the end of his youth and the beginning
+of his manhood, was really an ordeal too great, too agonising, to be
+faced.
+
+His scout had brought up an ample breakfast, with, of course, many
+congratulations on the coming honours of the day; but he had only drunk
+some of the coffee and left the food untouched. As he stood in front of
+the glass, putting on his collar, his face looked to him more like that
+of a man going to execution, than to take the public reward of many a
+silent hour of hard study. His hands trembled so that he could hardly
+get his necktie into decent shape.
+
+His coffee on the dressing-table. Would a teaspoonful of brandy in it do
+him any harm? For two years he had not tasted alcohol in any shape,
+though he had kept it in his rooms for his friends. He and Ernshaw, who
+was also a rigid teetotaler, had sat with them and seen them drink. He
+had smelt the fumes of it in the atmosphere of the room, first with
+temptation which he had fought against and overcome in the strength of
+the memory of that terrible night in Warwick Gardens. Then the subtle
+aroma had become merely a matter of interest to him, a thing to be
+studied as a physician might study the symptoms of a disease for which
+he has found the cure.
+
+He had seen his friends leave his rooms somewhat the worse for liquor,
+and he had reasoned with them afterwards, not priggishly or
+sanctimoniously, but just as a man who had had the same weakness and had
+overcome it because he thought it necessary to do so, and they had taken
+it all very good-humoredly and gone away and done the same thing again a
+few nights afterwards, seeming none the worst for it.
+
+But surely now he had conquered the deadly craving. Surely two years of
+hard mental study and healthy physical exercise--two years, during which
+not a drop of alcohol had passed his lips--must have worked the poison
+out of his blood. Henceforth he was entitled to look upon alcohol as a
+servant, as a minister to his wants, and not as a master of his
+weaknesses.
+
+His mental struggle had so exhausted him that his physical nature craved
+for a stimulant, cried out for some support, some new life, new energy,
+if even for an hour or so, so imperiously, that his enfeebled mental
+stamina had not strength enough left to say "no."
+
+He had got his collar on and his tie tied, and his hands and fingers
+were trembling as though he were just recovering from an attack of
+malarial fever.
+
+"It can't possibly do me any harm now," he said, as he moved away from
+the glass towards the door of his sitting-room. "I've conquered all
+that. I haven't the slightest desire for it as drink--I haven't had for
+over a year now--I only want it as medicine, as a patient has it from a
+doctor. I can't go on without it, I must have something or I shall faint
+in the Theatre or do something ridiculous of that sort, and as for
+meeting Enid--good heavens, how am I to do that at all! Yes, I think a
+couple of teaspoonsful in that coffee will do me far more good than
+harm."
+
+He went towards the sideboard on which stood his spirit-case. He
+unlocked it and took out the brandy decanter. As he did so the memory of
+that other night came back to him, and he smiled. He had conquered now,
+and he could afford to smile at those old fears. He took the stopper out
+of the decanter and deliberately raised it to his nostrils. No, it was
+powerless. The aroma had no more effect upon him than the scent of, say,
+_eau de Cologne_ would have had. That night in Warwick Gardens, it had
+been like the touch of some evil magician's wand. Then, in an instant,
+it had transformed his whole nature; but now his brain remained cool and
+calm, and his senses absolutely unmoved. Yes, he had conquered. He
+needed a stimulant, merely as an invalid might need a tonic, and he
+could take it with just as much safety.
+
+He took the decanter into his bedroom and poured a couple of
+teaspoonsful into his coffee, stirred it, lifted the cup, and, after one
+single priceless moment's hesitation, put it to his lips and drank it
+off.
+
+"Ah, that's better!" he said, as he put the cup down and felt the subtle
+glow run like lightning through his veins. "Hallo, who's that? Confound
+it, I hope it isn't Ernshaw. I don't want to begin the day with a
+lecture on backsliding."
+
+He put the stopper back, went into the sitting-room, and replaced the
+decanter in the stand before he said in answer to a knock at his door:
+
+"Come in! Is that you Ernshaw?"
+
+The door opened, and Reginald Garthorne came in.
+
+"No, it's me. That's not quite grammatical, I believe, but it's usual.
+Good-morning, Maxwell," he went on, holding out his hand. "I've come
+round early for two reasons. In the first place I want to be the first
+to congratulate you, and in the second place I want you to give me a
+brandy and soda. I got here rather late last night with one or two other
+Cambridge men, and one of them took us to a man's rooms in Brazenose,
+and we had a rather wet night of it. Not the proper thing, of course,
+but excusable just now."
+
+"As for the congratulations, old man," said Maxwell, "thanks for yours
+and accept mine for what you've done in the Tripos, and as for the
+brandy and soda, well, here you are. Open that cupboard, and you'll find
+some soda and glasses."
+
+As he said this, he unlocked the spirit case again, and put the brandy
+decanter on the table.
+
+"I've just been having a spoonful myself in my coffee," he went on, with
+just a little flash of wonder why he should have said this. "The fact
+is, I suppose, I've been overdoing it a bit lately, and that, and the
+anxiety of the thing, has rather knocked me up. I felt as nervous as a
+freshman going in for his first _viva voce_, when I got up this
+morning."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," said Garthorne, helping himself. "You must have
+been grinding infernally hard. So have I, for the matter of that,
+although, I didn't aspire to a double first. You really do look quite
+knocked up. By the way," he continued, looking at Vane with a smile
+whose significance he might have seen had it not been for those two
+spoonsful of brandy, "I suppose you've quite got over that--well, if
+you'll excuse me saying so--that foolishness about inherited alcoholism
+and that sort of stuff, and therefore you'll lay all your laurels at the
+feet of the fair Enid without a scruple? Of course, you remember that
+juvenile hiding you gave me on the "Orient"? Quite romantic, wasn't it?
+Well, I must admit that you proved yourself the better boy then, and as
+you've taken a double first and I have only got a single, you've proved
+yourself the better man as well. Here's to you, Maxwell, won't you join
+me? You know you have quite an ordeal to go through to-day, and just one
+won't hurt you--do you good, in fact. You look as if you wanted a
+bracer."
+
+Vane listened to the tempting words, so kindly and frankly spoken, as he
+might have listened to words heard in a dream. All the high resolves
+which had shaped themselves with such infinite labour during the past
+two years, seemed already to have been made by someone else--a someone
+else who was yet himself. He had made them and he was proud of them,
+and, of course, he meant to hold to them; but he had conquered that
+deadly fear which had held him in chains so long. He was a free man
+now, and could do as he liked with his destiny.
+
+His long probation was over, and he had come through it triumphant. He
+was to see Enid again that day for the first time for two years. He
+would hear her voice offering him the sweetest of all congratulations,
+and when it was all over, there would be a little family gathering in
+his rooms, just their fathers and themselves, and he would tell them
+everything frankly, and they should help him to choose--for after all,
+it was only their right, and she, surely, had the best right of all to
+be consulted. Meanwhile, now that he had fought and conquered that old
+craving for alcohol, there would be no harm, especially on such a
+morning as this, in joining Garthorne in just one brandy and soda.
+
+It never struck him how strangely inverted these thoughts were; what an
+utter negation of his waking thoughts, as they flashed through his mind
+while Garthorne was speaking. They seemed perfectly reasonable to him,
+and--so subtle was the miracle wrought by those two spoonsful of
+brandy--perfectly honest.
+
+"Well, really, I don't see why I shouldn't," he said, taking up the
+decanter and pulling one of the two glasses which Garthorne had put on
+the table towards him. "I think I have got over that little weakness
+now. At any rate, for the last two years I haven't touched a drop of
+anything stronger than coffee, and I've sat here and in other men's
+rooms with fellows drinking in an atmosphere, as one might say, full of
+drink and tobacco smoke; and except for the smoking--of course I haven't
+dropped that--I've never felt the slightest inclination to join them, at
+least, after the first month or so--so I think I'm pretty safe now."
+
+"Oh, of course you are!" said Garthorne. "As a matter of fact, you know,
+I never thought that there was anything serious in that idea of yours
+that you'd inherited the taint from some ancestor of yours. You got
+screwed one night for the first time in your life, and it gave you a
+fright. But the fact that you've been able to swear off absolutely for
+two years, is perfectly clear proof that the craving really existed only
+in your own imagination. If it had been real, you couldn't possibly have
+done it. Well, here's to us, old man, and to someone else who shall be
+nameless just now!"
+
+Vane, in the recklessness of his new confidence, had mixed himself a
+pretty stiff dose. As he raised his glass with Garthorne's, something
+seemed to drag upon his arm, and something in his soul rose in revolt;
+but the old lurking poison was already aflame in his blood. He nodded to
+Garthorne and said:
+
+"Thanks, old man. Here's to us and her!"
+
+A few minutes before the words would have seemed blasphemy to him, now
+they sounded like an ordinary commonplace. He put the glass to his lips
+and emptied it in quick, hungry gulps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"By Jove, that's good," he said, as he put the empty glass down and drew
+a long, deep breath. "You only really appreciate that sort of thing
+after a long abstinence like mine."
+
+"I should think so," laughed Garthorne, putting down his own empty
+glass; "although good and all as a brandy and soda is, especially after
+a rather hot night, I should hardly think it was worth while to be T.T.
+for two years just to get the full flavour of it. If you don't mind I'll
+have another."
+
+"Certainly, old fellow, help yourself," said Vane, pushing the decanter
+towards him. "That's made a new man of me. When I got up this morning I
+couldn't eat a scrap of breakfast, but that's made me absolutely hungry.
+The bacon's cold, of course, but there's a nice bit of tongue and some
+brawn, and there's some toast and brown bread and butter. Sit down and
+have a bite. The coffee's cold, but I can soon get up some hot if you'd
+like it."
+
+"Oh, never mind about that," said Garthorne. "I'm getting a bit peckish
+myself, and I'll have a bite with you with pleasure; but I'm afraid hot
+coffee on the top of brandy and soda at this time of the morning would
+produce something of a conflict in the lower regions. I think another B.
+and S. would go ever so much better with it."
+
+As he said this he helped himself and pushed the decanter back towards
+Vane, saying, "and if you'll take my advice you'll do the same. It can't
+hurt you, especially if you're eating."
+
+"Still, I think I'd better eat something first," said Vane, as he set
+out the breakfast things and began to carve. "The hot plates are cold,
+so there will be enough for both. By Jove, that stuff has given me an
+appetite!"
+
+"Yes, I thought it would do you good," said Garthorne. "Get something
+solid inside you and have another drink, and you'll be able to face your
+most reverend Chancellor with as much confidence as though you were his
+father-in-law. I'll mix you another if you'll allow me while you're
+carving. Give me about half and half, please."
+
+"But don't give _me_ half and half," said Vane, with a laugh that
+sounded rather strangely in his own ears, and then, without looking
+round, he went on carving.
+
+Garthorne poured a much more liberal quantity of brandy into Vane's
+glass than he had done into his own, and at once filled it up with
+soda-water from the syphon.
+
+"I think you'll find that about right," he said, putting it down beside
+him.
+
+"Thanks, old fellow," said Vane; "much obliged!" He put the knife and
+fork down, lifted the glass and took a sip. "Yes, that's about right, I
+think," he said, without even noticing the strength of the mixture. And
+then, with the unnatural appetite which the unaccustomed spirit had
+roused in him, he took up his knife and fork and began to eat
+ravenously, taking a gulp of the brandy and soda almost between each
+mouthful.
+
+They laughed and chatted merrily over the old days as they went on
+eating and drinking; and as glass succeeded glass Vane became more and
+more communicative and Garthorne more and more cordial. He quickly
+learnt the truth of many things which so far he had only suspected, and
+at last he managed to lead the conversation adroitly up to a point at
+which Vane said in a somewhat thick, unsteady voice:
+
+"By the way, Garthorne, yes, that reminds me. You remember that night at
+the Empire when we had a bit of a row, Boat-race night, you know--that
+girl that I got out of the crowd--pretty girl, wasn't she?"
+
+"Yes," replied Garthorne, repressing a desire to laugh out openly. "I
+remember her quite well; a very pretty girl, and, if I may say so
+without paying you a compliment, very like your noble self. In fact, if
+such a thing hadn't been utterly impossible, she might almost have
+been----"
+
+"My sister!" said Vane, as he drank off the remains of his fourth brandy
+and soda and put the glass down with a thump on the table. "Yes, that's
+it, my sister, or at least not quite my sister, but--at least--well,
+half-sister, you understand--my mother's daughter, but not my
+father's--see?"
+
+"I see, I see," said Garthorne, and then, before he could get any
+farther, there was a quick knock at the door. Vane looked dreamily
+round, and said:
+
+"Come in."
+
+The door opened, and Ernshaw entered, followed by Sir Arthur Maxwell.
+
+"Good heavens, Maxwell! what on earth does this mean?" exclaimed
+Ernshaw, with something like a gasp in his voice, as he saw Vane sitting
+at the table in his shirt-sleeves--the friend with whom he had sat in
+this same room the night before and had that long solemn talk--the
+friend who had given him such solemn pledges.
+
+The table was littered and disordered, the coffee pot had got knocked
+over; there was a cup lying on its side in the saucer; a dish of bacon
+containing a couple of rashers and two eggs congealed in fat, and scraps
+of meat and broken bits of bread and butter lay about on the cloth.
+
+This was like anything but one of the many orderly breakfasts which he
+had shared with Maxwell at the same table; but what startled Ernshaw
+more than anything else was the sight of the empty glass beside his
+friend's plate, the brandy decanter with less than a wine-glassful in
+it, and the two empty soda syphons on the table.
+
+"Good morning, Ernshaw! Morning, dad! Jolly glad to see you. Come in and
+sit down and have a drink--I mean, a bit of breakfast. The coffee's
+cold, but I can get you some more if you wouldn't rather have brandy and
+soda--plenty more brandy in the cupboard, soda too. Get it out and help
+yourselves. Dad, you know Garthorne, of course. Ernshaw, you don't; let
+me introduce you--very good fellow--old rival of mine in love--you know
+who with, the fellow I had a fight with on the steamer--both kids--first
+man to come and congratulate me this morning. Admits that I licked him
+then as a boy, and have licked him since as a man--took better degree
+than he did. Still, nice of him to come, wasn't it? Come on, Ernshaw;
+don't stand there staring. Come on and have a drink, too, and
+congratulate, you old stick. Never mind about last night, I've got that
+all under now; fought it for two years and beaten it. Can take a drink
+now without fear of consequences. Taken lots this morning, and look at
+me, sober as the Chancellor. Why, dad, what's the matter?"
+
+Sir Arthur Maxwell had come up to Oxford to see his own old academic
+triumphs repeated with added brilliance by his son. He had fully
+approved of all that Vane had done during the two years' probation which
+he had set himself, and he had firmly believed that the end of it all
+would be, as he had many a time said to Enid's father, that the hard
+study, the strenuous mental discipline, and the stress of healthy
+emulation, would utterly destroy the germs of that morbid feeling which,
+for a time at least, had poisoned the promise of his son's youth. He had
+only arrived from Town, bringing Enid and her father, that morning, as
+they had found it impossible to get rooms in Oxford over night. He had
+met Ernshaw in the High, and they had come together to Vane's rooms to
+find _this_!
+
+Like a flash that other scene in Warwick Gardens came back to him. While
+his son was speaking he had looked into his eyes and seen that mocking,
+dancing flame which he had now a doubly terrible reason to remember, and
+to see it there in his eyes now on the morning of the crowning day of
+his youth, shining like a bale-fire of ruin through the morning sky of
+his new life. It was like looking down into hell itself.
+
+As Vane came towards him he staggered back as though he hardly
+recognised him. Then, for the first time for nearly thirty years since a
+well-remembered night among the Indian Hills, the room swam round him
+and the light grew dark. He made a couple of staggering steps towards
+the sofa, tripped over the edge of a rug, and rolled over, half on and
+half off the sofa.
+
+The sight sobered Vane instantaneously, though only for an instant.
+
+"Dad, what's the matter?" he cried again. "My God, Ernshaw, what is it?
+Tell me, what is it--what have I done? Let me go and see what's wrong
+with him."
+
+Then with stumbling steps he tried to get round the table. The corner of
+it caught his thigh. He lurched sideways and dropped to the floor like a
+man shot through the brain.
+
+Garthorne was already kneeling by the sofa on to which he had lifted Sir
+Arthur's head and shoulders, and had loosened his tie and collar.
+
+"Poor Vane," he said, looking round. "I'm afraid the excitement of this
+morning has been a bit too much for him. If we're going to get them
+round in time, perhaps you'd better ring up his scout and send him for a
+doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw, looking up from where he was kneeling by Vane. "I
+suppose that's about the best thing to do, since the crime which you
+have committed is unfortunately not one which warrants me in sending for
+a policeman as well."
+
+"Crime, sir, what the devil do you mean?" cried Garthorne, springing to
+his feet.
+
+"I mean," said Ernshaw slowly and without moving, "exactly what I say. I
+feel perfectly certain from what I know of Maxwell that this could not
+possibly have occurred unless he had been deliberately tempted to drink.
+Your motives, of course, are best known to yourself and to Him who will
+judge them."
+
+"So that's it, is it?" said Garthorne, with a harsh laugh. "You think I
+made him drunk for some purpose of my own, a man that I've been friends
+with ever since we punched each other's heads as boys. Well, you've been
+a good chum to Maxwell, so for his sake I'll pass over that idiotic
+remark of yours, and tell you for your information that he had been
+drinking before I came into the room at all."
+
+"It's a lie!" exclaimed Ernshaw, springing to his feet and going towards
+the bell. "Nothing on earth could make me believe that." And then he
+rang the bell.
+
+"I'm not accustomed to being called a liar," said Garthorne very
+quietly, "without resenting it in practical form; but as you don't seem
+to be quite yourself, and as there is so much physical difference in my
+favour, I'll take the trouble to convince you that I am speaking the
+truth."
+
+He went into the bedroom and brought out Vane's coffee-cup.
+
+"Smell that," he said.
+
+Ernshaw took the cup and raised it to his nose. The strong smell of
+brandy rising from the dregs was unmistakable. Then there came a knock
+at the door, and Vane's servant came in.
+
+"Oh, good Lord, gentlemen, whatever is the matter?" he exclaimed,
+looking at Sir Arthur's prostrate form on the sofa and Vane's on the
+floor.
+
+"Never mind about that just now," said Garthorne curtly; "help us to
+carry Mr. Maxwell to his room. Then you'd better undress him and get him
+to bed. I suppose you can see what's the matter, and I hope also that
+you've learnt to hold your tongue."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the scout. "No man ever served a better master than Mr.
+Maxwell, and I hope I know my duty to him."
+
+Then the three of them picked up Vane's limp, loose-jointed form from
+the floor and carried him into his bedroom and laid him on the bed.
+
+"Now," Garthorne continued, "I want you to tell Mr. Ernshaw whether I
+came here after or before Mr. Maxwell had his coffee."
+
+"A good half-hour after, I should say, sir," said the scout, looking a
+little mystified. "You see, I brought it up about a quarter past eight,
+and he was up then and half dressed. He must have drunk it soon after,
+because he never will drink coffee unless it's hot. If it had got cold
+he'd have had some more up, and you came a bit before nine, sir. He must
+have drunk it before then."
+
+"Very well," said Garthorne. "Now, can you remember whether the
+decanters in the spirit-case were filled up last night?"
+
+"No, sir," said the scout. "I filled them up the first thing this
+morning myself, thinking that Mr. Maxwell would have some friends come
+to see him on a day like this."
+
+"Thank you," said Garthorne; "that'll do, I think. Now you'd better get
+Mr. Maxwell undressed."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw. "But what about Sir Arthur? Surely we ought to get
+a doctor for him as soon as possible."
+
+"I am going for a doctor at once," said Garthorne, "if you will tell me
+where I can find one. I have given him a spoonful of brandy, and I'm
+going to give him another. Just come in here for a moment, please. You
+can't do anything for Maxwell yet."
+
+Ernshaw followed him into the sitting-room, and as he took up the
+decanter Garthorne went on, holding up the brandy decanter, which had
+only a few spoonfuls left in it:
+
+"Look at that. You heard what his man said. Do you mean to tell me that
+I could have drunk even half of that since nine o'clock and be as sober
+as I certainly am? The idea is absurd."
+
+Then he poured out a little into a wine-glass, put his hand under Sir
+Arthur's head, and let a few drops trickle between his lips. Sir Arthur,
+who had been gradually regaining consciousness, drew a deep breath
+which ended in a cough. Then he opened his eyes and said:
+
+"What's the matter? Where am I? Where's Vane?"
+
+"You have had a great shock, Sir Arthur," said Garthorne, in a tone so
+gentle and kindly that Ernshaw started at it. "Vane has been taken ill,
+too, and we are putting him to bed. I'm just going for a doctor."
+
+Then he laid Sir Arthur's head back on the cushion and said, rising to
+his feet:
+
+"Now, Mr. Ernshaw, I think that's about all I can do for the present. If
+you will tell me where I can find Maxwell's doctor I'll go and send him,
+and then I'll go on and tell Sir Godfrey, not what has really taken
+place, but that something has happened which may prevent Maxwell leaving
+his rooms to-day."
+
+Ernshaw scribbled the name and address of the doctor on the back of an
+envelope and gave it to Garthorne, saying, rather hesitatingly:
+
+"There it is, Mr. Garthorne. I'm afraid I've been too hasty in what I
+said to you, and I must confess that you've taken it as very few men
+would have done. But if you only knew all that Vane has been to me
+during the last two years, and how awful this seems to me----"
+
+"My dear sir, don't say any more about it," Garthorne interrupted
+good-humouredly. "I know enough of poor Vane's story to see exactly what
+you mean. We'll consider it all unsaid, and now I must be off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Ernshaw's first care, after Garthorne had left the room, was to see to
+the comfort of Sir Arthur, who had now quite recovered consciousness,
+but was still feeling faint and ill. He told him as much of the truth
+about Vane as he knew, and while he was doing so, Jepson, the scout,
+came in from the bedroom, and said with an air of deferential
+confidence:
+
+"If you please, sir, I don't think there'll be any need for a doctor to
+Mr. Maxwell. He's come round a bit, and I think I know what his
+complaint is. Being excited, as he might well be on a morning like this,
+he's taken a drop too much on an empty stomach, and that led him to
+drink brandy and soda with his breakfast instead of sending for some
+more coffee. I've often seen this sort of thing before, sir, you see,
+and I've found the physic that will cure him on the mantelpiece. It's
+this."
+
+He held up a little stoppered bottle full of strong ammonia, which Vane
+had got for cleaning up the bindings of some old books.
+
+"Twenty drops of this," he went on, "in a wine-glassful of water, and
+he'll be as sober as ever he was in half an hour. Then I'll make him
+some strong coffee, and he'll be as right as a trivet. Only you mustn't
+let him take any more drink afterwards, or he'll just bring his boots
+up. I suppose I may try, sir? At any rate it won't do him any harm."
+
+"Certainly," said Ernshaw, "I've heard of it before. Do the best you can
+for him, Jepson."
+
+Jepson shut the door with a "Thank you, sir," and proceeded to treat his
+patient.
+
+Before the doctor arrived Sir Arthur had almost entirely recovered, and
+Vane was sitting up in bed, supported by the faithful Jepson's arm,
+gasping and coughing, but perfectly sober, and wondering dimly what had
+happened during the last hour or two--or was it weeks, or months, or
+what? He felt horribly sick and ill, and he was trembling in every limb,
+but the clouds of intoxication had cleared away from his mind; memory
+was returning to him, and he was asking Jepson disjointed questions as
+to what had happened.
+
+"Never you mind about that, sir," said Jepson. "Everything's all right
+now. Sir Arthur is coming round nicely, and now you've got that down,
+you just lay back and keep quiet, and I'll go and make your coffee, and
+before an hour's over you'll be ready and fit to go to the Sheldonian
+and face the Chancellor as though you hadn't tasted a drop."
+
+Vane, still wondering at his apparently miraculous recovery, did as he
+was told and lay back upon the pillows, and Jepson went off to brew him
+an "extra special" pot of coffee.
+
+"It's very unfortunate for Mr. Maxwell," he said, when he got into his
+own den, "very unfortunate, and on Degree Day too, but if I know
+anything about him and Sir Arthur, and I can get him to the Theatre
+dressed and _compos mentis_ and all that sort of thing--well, it's a
+fiver at least in my pocket, so it's an ill wind that blows nobody
+good."
+
+The doctor arrived while he was making the coffee. Ernshaw explained
+quickly what had happened. He went in and looked at Vane, felt his
+pulse, asked him in a kindly tone why he had made such a fool of himself
+on such a day, then he said that he couldn't improve on Jepson's
+treatment under the circumstances, and went in to look at Sir Arthur,
+who now, thanks to Ernshaw's care, was almost himself again.
+
+"Curious business this," he said, after he had felt Sir Arthur's pulse
+and found that he was practically all right. "Your son's case, I mean.
+I've known him nearly all the time that he's been up, and I've always
+considered that he was a teetotaller from principle. Of course it would
+be simply absurd to attempt to conceal from you what has been the matter
+with him this morning. He's been drunk, dead drunk, by about half-past
+nine in the morning. At the same time we must remember that when a man
+has been in hard training for a boat race, or anything of that sort, or
+if he has been reading hard on tea, which is almost as vicious a habit
+as alcoholism, he can get drunk on very little alcohol when the strain
+is taken off. In fact, I have known a man get drunk on a pint of bitter
+and a beef-steak; but there doesn't seem any reason of that sort for
+what happened this morning. Still, fortunately, that man of his knew
+what to do, and he's done it--a rather heroic remedy certainly, but one
+can risk that with a good constitution.
+
+"Still, I can't quite understand it, I must confess. If there was any
+taint of what we now call alcoholic insanity in his blood, it would, of
+course, be perfectly plain. However, we needn't go into that now. There
+can't be any idea of that, and I think when he's had his coffee, and
+you've had a mild brandy and soda, Sir Arthur, and kept quiet for half
+an hour or so, I think you will be able to go and see your son take the
+honours which he has won, and won very well, too. I suppose no idea of
+this has gone beyond these rooms?"
+
+"I'm afraid they have," said Ernshaw. "Garthorne, a Cambridge man, the
+man, you know, Sir Arthur, who was here with Vane when you came in, the
+same man who went for you, Doctor, said that he would go on and tell Sir
+Godfrey that Vane had been taken ill and wouldn't be able to come out of
+his rooms to-day. In short, that he would have to receive his degree by
+proxy."
+
+"The devil he did," said Sir Arthur, getting up from the sofa with the
+strength of a sudden access of anger and moving towards the bedroom
+door. "Look here, doctor, you have just said that Vane is getting round.
+Well, if he is, the old blood in him will tell, and he'll take his place
+and play his part with the rest of them. Mr. Ernshaw, I know your
+friendship for my son; I know what you have done for him, and how you
+have helped him. Now, will you do me another favour and take my
+compliments to Sir Godfrey Raleigh, and say that the matter is not
+anything like as serious as we thought it was, and that both Vane and
+myself will be ready to go through the day's programme as arranged. If
+you will be good enough to do that, the doctor and I will be able to
+arrange the rest, I think."
+
+"I shall be only too glad," said Ernshaw, taking up his hat. "I shall
+just have about time to do it, and then get to my rooms and dress. _Au
+revoir_, then, until after the ceremony," and with that, he opened the
+door just as Jepson knocked at it, bringing in the coffee.
+
+Ernshaw found Garthorne already at Sir Godfrey's rooms in close
+conversation with Enid. He had, of course, heard much about her from
+Vane, but this was the first time he had seen her. She had more than
+fulfilled the promise of two years before, and Ernshaw, ascetic as he
+was, had still too strong an artistic vein in his temperament to be
+insensible to her beauty. In fact, as she rose to greet the closest
+friend of the man who had been her lover, and who, as she fondly hoped,
+would be so once more after to-day, he started and coloured ever so
+slightly. He had never seen anything like her before as she stood there
+with outstretched hand, gently-smiling lips, and big, soft, deep eyes,
+in all the pride and glory of her dawning womanhood.
+
+It was this, then, that Vane had to give up. This was the priceless
+treasure which, if he kept his vow, he would have to surrender to
+another man. As the thought crossed his mind, he looked at Garthorne,
+and he saw the possibility that, after all, he might be the victor in
+that struggle which had begun years ago on the deck of the steamer.
+
+Certainly, as far as physical conditions went, there could hardly be a
+better match; but as he looked back to Enid, a darker thought stole into
+his mind. Garthorne had, superficially at least, rebutted the charges he
+had made against him in Vane's rooms; but though he had apologised for
+what he had said, the conviction that he had deliberately tempted Vane
+to drink came back to him, now that he saw how great a temptation
+Garthorne had to commit such an infamy.
+
+No doubt he knew perfectly well that Enid herself would overlook Vane's
+second lapse as she had done his first, and would be quite content to
+marry him on the strength of his promise that he would never get drunk
+again; but he also knew that, after what had happened that morning,
+Vane's determination to give her up would be tenfold strengthened, and
+that, when once he had definitely done so, the psychological moment
+would have arrived for him to begin his own suit--at first, of course,
+from a deferential distance, from which he might hope to approach her
+heart through the avenue of her injured pride.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Ernshaw!" she said, "I am glad to meet such an old
+and good friend of Vane's. I have heard a great deal about you, and, I
+need hardly say, nothing but good. I hope you have come to tell me that
+Vane is better and also that you will tell me what has really been the
+matter with him. Mr. Garthorne, here, has been very rude; he has
+absolutely refused to say anything about it, and I am quite offended
+with him. I really can't see why there should be any mystery about it.
+What is it?"
+
+Ralph Ernshaw was one of those men who can no more tell a direct lie, or
+even prevaricate, than they can get outside their own skins. He held
+even the white lies of conventionality to be unworthy of anyone who held
+the truth as sacred, and yet for the life of him he could not look this
+lovely girl in the face and tell her that the man whom she had loved
+ever since she knew what love was, had been lying drunk on the floor of
+his room less than an hour before, and that the sight of him had shocked
+his father into a fainting fit.
+
+"I think, Miss Raleigh," he said, after a little hesitation, "that Vane
+would rather tell you that himself. In fact, to be quite candid with
+you, it is not a subject upon which I should care to touch even at your
+request, simply because I think that it is a matter which could be very
+much better discussed and explained between Vane and yourself; and I
+think Mr. Garthorne will agree with me in that view."
+
+"Certainly I do," said Garthorne, "I think that is the most sensible way
+of putting it. Enid, if you'll take my advice you'll take Ernshaw's, and
+let Vane do his own explaining after Commem."
+
+"Really, I think it's very horrid of both of you," said Enid. "I
+certainly can't see why there should be all this mystery. If it's
+anything really serious, surely I have a right to know. However, I
+suppose I must control my feminine impatience, at any rate it can't be
+anything very bad if he'll be able to be at the Theatre and Sir Arthur
+can come with him. I suppose I shall hear all about it at dinner
+to-night."
+
+"I have no doubt that you will, Miss Raleigh," said Ernshaw, "and now,
+if you will excuse me, I must be off to my rooms to get ready for my own
+share of the proceedings. Good morning."
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Ernshaw," replied Enid, a trifle stiffly. "That
+reminds me how rude I have been, I've not congratulated you yet."
+
+"Oh, I haven't done anything," said Ernshaw, "at least, not in
+comparison with what Vane has done. You'll see the difference in the
+Theatre. Good morning again. Good morning, Mr. Garthorne."
+
+"Good morning--we shall see you later, I suppose?" replied Garthorne, as
+the door closed, and then he turned to Enid and went on: "He's a
+thundering good fellow that Ernshaw. Quite a character, I believe,
+enthusiast, and all that sort of thing, but everyone here seems to think
+he'll be a shining light some day."
+
+"Yes, he seems very nice," said Enid, "but, as a matter of fact, I can't
+say that I'm particularly fond of shining lights or people who are too
+good, and from what papa tells me, this Mr. Ernshaw has been making or
+trying to make Vane a great deal too good for me. I even hear that he
+has been trying to make Vane become a parson. Fancy Vane, with all his
+talents and prospects, a curate! The idea is absurd, even more absurd
+than this two years' probation idea."
+
+"I quite agree with you," said Garthorne, "but still, think of the test
+of constancy and the delight of knowing that you have both stood it so
+well."
+
+At this moment the door opened, and Sir Godfrey came in, not altogether
+to Garthorne's satisfaction, and so put an end to further developments
+of the conversation.
+
+A couple of hours later Enid was sitting with her father, a unit of the
+vast audience which filled the Sheldonian Theatre. After Ernshaw's
+visit, neither she nor her father had received any message either from
+Vane or Sir Arthur. She had expected that Vane, at least, would have
+come to her before the beginning of the ceremonies, or that, at least,
+Sir Arthur would have come and told her something about him, but no, not
+a word; and there she sat between Garthorne and her father, angry and
+yet expectant, waiting for the moment of his appearance.
+
+"Ah, here he is at last," whispered Garthorne, as his name and honours
+were called out in Latin.
+
+Enid held her breath as the familiar figure, clad in the unfamiliar
+academic garb, walked towards the Chancellor's throne. She could see
+that he was deadly pale, and that his eyes were shining with an
+unnatural brightness. He never even once looked towards her. The wild
+outburst of cheering which greeted his appearance seemed as utterly
+lost upon him as if he had been stone deaf and blind. He listened to the
+Chancellor's address with as little emotion as though it concerned some
+one else. Then he knelt down, the hood, the outward and visible sign of
+his intellectual triumph, was put over his shoulders; the Chancellor
+spoke the magic words without his hearing them. He never felt the three
+taps given with the New Testament on his head, and he rose from his
+knees and moved away from the scene of the crowning triumph of his youth
+as mechanically as though the proceedings had no more interest for him
+than if they had been taking place a thousand miles away.
+
+All through the afternoon Enid and her father waited for them to come,
+but there was no sign from either of them until just before tea-time
+Jepson presented himself with two letters, one addressed to Sir Godfrey
+and one to Enid. Both were very short. Sir Godfrey's was from Sir
+Arthur, and ran as follows:
+
+     "MY DEAR RALEIGH,
+
+     "I hope that you and your daughter will forgive the apparent
+     discourtesy of our absence from you this afternoon and evening. I
+     find it necessary to take Vane to London at once. His letter to
+     Enid will explain the reason.
+
+     "Faithfully yours,
+     "ARTHUR MAXWELL."
+
+"There is evidently something very serious the matter," said Sir
+Godfrey, as he handed the note to Enid. "Maxwell wouldn't write like
+that without good reason. That's from Vane, I suppose. What does he
+say?"
+
+"Say," exclaimed Enid, with a flash of anger through her fast gathering
+tears. "That's what he says. It's too bad, too cruel--and after leaving
+me alone for two years--it's miserable!" And with that, she made a swift
+escape out of the room and shut the door behind her with an emphatic
+bang.
+
+Sir Godfrey picked the note up from the table where she had flung it.
+There was no form of address. It simply began:
+
+
+"I was drunk this morning. Drunk without meaning to be so, after being
+two years without touching alcohol and without experiencing the
+slightest craving for it. Last night I had finally come to the
+conclusion that it would be a sin to ask you to keep your promise to me.
+Now I am convinced that it would be absolute infamy to do so. I dare not
+even face you to tell you this, so utterly unworthy and contemptible am
+I in my own sight. Whatever you hear to the contrary, remember that what
+has happened this morning is no fault of anyone but myself. If ever we
+meet again I hope I shall find you the wife of a man more worthy of you
+than I am now, or, with this accursed taint in my blood, ever could be.
+Perhaps in those days we may be friends again; but for the present we
+must be strangers.
+
+"Vane."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Yet another twelve months had passed since Vane had taken his degree;
+since Enid had seen him vanish like a spectre out of her life, and had
+waited vainly for his coming, only to receive instead that letter of
+farewell which, the instant she had read it, she knew to be final and
+irrevocable.
+
+In such a nature as hers the tenderest spot was her pride. She had been
+his sweetheart since they were boy and girl together, and when the time
+came they had become formally engaged. For nearly four years now she had
+considered herself as half married to him. Other men attracted by her
+physical beauty and her mental charm had approached her, as they had a
+perfect right to do, in open and honest rivalry of Vane, but she had
+given them one and all very clearly to understand that she had
+definitely plighted her troth, and had no intention of breaking it. In
+other words she had been absolutely faithful even in thought.
+
+She had never considered his feelings as to what he called his inherited
+alcoholism as anything else than the somewhat fine-drawn scruples of a
+highly-strung, and rather romantic nature. She had not troubled herself
+about the deadly scientific aspect of the matter. She knew perfectly
+well that men got drunk sometimes and still made excellent husbands,
+and, more than all, she firmly believed that, once Vane's wife, she
+would speedily acquire sufficient influence over him to make anything
+like a recurrence of what had happened quite impossible.
+
+Even after his second and worst breakdown on the morning of
+Commemoration Day she would still have received him as her lover and,
+after a little friendly lecture which would, of course, have ended in
+the usual way, she would have been perfect friends with him again on the
+old footing.
+
+But that letter had ended everything between them. Moreover, it had been
+followed by one from Sir Arthur to her father expressing great regret at
+the turn which matters had taken, but saying that, after repeated
+conversations with Vane, he had been forced to the conclusion that his
+resolve to enter the Church and devote himself to a life of celibacy and
+mission work at home was really fixed and unalterable.
+
+After that there was, of course, nothing more to be said or done. Enid,
+being a natural, simple-hearted, healthy English girl, who enjoyed life
+a great deal too well to worry about looking under the surface of
+things, therefore came to the conclusion that she had been jilted for
+the sake of a fine-drawn Quixotic idea. If she had been jilted for the
+sake of another woman it would have been quite a different matter. Then
+there would have been something tangible to hate bitterly for a season,
+and then to get revenged on by making a much more brilliant marriage, as
+she could easily have done. But it was infinitely worse, and more
+humiliating to be thrown over like this by the man whom she had looked
+upon as her future husband nearly all her life, whom she had played at
+housekeeping with while they were children, and whom she had never
+looked upon as anything else but a sweetheart or a lover--and yet it was
+true, miserably true, and now, for the sake of a mere idea, she found
+herself cast off, loverless and alone.
+
+Then, after a few weeks of secret, but exceeding bitterness, she did
+what nineteen out of every twenty girls would have done under the
+circumstances. The twentieth girl would probably have considered her
+life blighted for ever, and vowed the remainder of it to
+single-blessedness, charity and good works as a Sister of something or
+other. But Enid belonged to the practical majority, and so when the
+breaking off of the engagement became an actual social fact, and
+Reginald Garthorne came just at the psychological moment to tell her
+that never since he had earned that boyish licking on the steamer by
+kissing her, had he been able to look with love into the eyes of any
+other woman, she had told him with perfect frankness that, as it was
+quite impossible for her to marry Vane, and as she certainly liked him
+next best, and had not the slightest intention of remaining single, she
+was perfectly content to marry him. If he chose to take her on those
+terms he might go and talk the matter over with Sir Godfrey, and if he
+and her mother said "yes," she would say "yes," too.
+
+It was a somewhat prosaic wooing, perhaps, but Reginald Garthorne had
+been hungering for her in his heart for years. Outwardly he had been
+friends with Vane, but in his soul he had hated him consistently as boy
+and man ever since that scene behind the wheelhouse of the _Orient_. He
+was, therefore, perfectly content. He had longed for her, and he didn't
+care how he got her. The rest would come afterwards.
+
+He was rich, far richer than Vane ever would be. He had inherited a
+fortune of nearly two hundred thousand pounds from his mother's side of
+the family when he came of age. On his father's death he would succeed
+to the title and a fine old country house in the Midlands, with a
+rent-roll and mining royalties worth over thirty thousand a year. He
+would be able to make her life a continuous dream of pleasure, amidst
+which she would very soon forget the visionary who was throwing away his
+manhood and all the best years of his life just because he had learnt
+that he was the son of a drunken and abandoned woman, and had himself
+got drunk twice in his life.
+
+The interview with Sir Godfrey and Lady Raleigh had been entirely
+satisfactory. They both considered in their hearts that their daughter
+had been very badly treated. From every social point of view this was a
+match which left nothing to be desired, and so they said "yes," and
+Garthorne went back to Enid, and said, triumphantly, as he kissed her
+for the first time since that memorable kiss on the steamer:
+
+"And so, you see, darling, I've won, after all!"
+
+It was thus that it came about that, on the same day, as the Fates would
+have it, two ceremonies were being performed at the same hour, one in
+St. George's, Hanover Square, and one before the altar at Worcester
+Cathedral.
+
+The Bishop, in full canonicals, surrounded by his attendant clergy, sat
+inside the altar rails in front of the Communion Table, and on the
+topmost step before the rails knelt two young men wearing surplices and
+the hoods of Bachelors of Arts of Oxford.
+
+It was the Feast of St. James the Apostle, and in his exhortation the
+Archdeacon, who was preacher for the day, had taken for his text the
+collect:
+
+     "Grant, O merciful God, that, as Thine holy Apostle St. James,
+     leaving his father and all that he had without delay, was obedient
+     unto the call of Thy Son Jesus Christ and followed Him, so we,
+     forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready
+     to follow Thy holy commandments, through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
+
+One of the men kneeling at the altar rails was Mark Ernshaw, and the
+other was Vane Maxwell.
+
+Among the somewhat scanty congregation which had remained after the
+usual morning service, sat Sir Arthur Maxwell. A year ago he would have
+been inclined to laugh at the idea of his son sacrificing all his
+brilliant worldly prospects to enter the Church. He was, as has already
+been said, a deeply religious man himself, but still, he was a man of
+the world, a man who had made his own way through the world, and won by
+sheer hard work some of the prizes which it has to give, and, like many
+others of his class, he had come to look upon the clerical profession
+somewhat as the refuge of the intellectually destitute.
+
+But as the time had gone on since that scene in his son's rooms at
+Oxford, he had come to believe that with Vane it was not a mere
+question, as it is with too many other men, of taking Orders to secure a
+profession and a position. He was entering the Church as the men of more
+earnest and more faithful ages had done; because he believed that he had
+a duty to do, a mission to perform, a sacrifice to make, and, above all,
+an enemy to fight which was God's enemy as well as his own.
+
+Therefore the words "leaving his father and all that he had," awakened
+no bitter echoes in his soul. True it was a sacrifice for him as well as
+for Vane; but for Vane's sake he had made it willingly and cheerfully,
+and he was able now to look forward with perfect contentment to the
+triumphs which, in his father's pride, he could not help believing his
+son would win in that higher and holier sphere of life which he had
+chosen.
+
+The presentation being made and the questions as to "crime or
+impediment" being duly asked and answered, the Litany and Suffrages
+began, and every note and word of the solemn intonation, ringing through
+the silence of the great Cathedral, found an echo which rang true in
+three souls at least among the congregation:
+
+     "O God the Father of Heaven: have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon us,
+     miserable sinners.
+
+     "O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have
+     mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God:
+     have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our
+     forefathers: neither take thou vengeance on our sins: spare us,
+     good Lord, spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with Thy most
+     precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.
+
+     "From all evil and mischief: from sin, from the crafts and assaults
+     of the devil: from Thy wrath and from everlasting damnation.
+
+     "From all blindness of heart: from pride, vain-glory and
+     hypocrisy: from envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness.
+
+     "From fornication, and all other deadly sin: and from all the
+     deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil.
+
+     "Good Lord deliver us!"
+
+"Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers:
+neither take thou vengeance on our sins."
+
+These, of all the words which he heard spoken on that fateful day, the
+day which marked for him the passing of the line which divides the World
+of the Flesh from the World of the Spirit--the frontier of the kingdom
+of this world separating it from that other Kingdom which, though
+worldwide, yet owns but a single Lord--seemed to fall with greater
+weight into Vane's soul than any others of the service. As he heard them
+he raised his bent head, threw it back and, with wide open eyes, looked
+up over the Bishop's head and the reredos behind the altar to the
+central section of the great stained glass window containing the figure
+of the Godhead crucified in the flesh, with the two Marys, Mary the
+Mother and Mary Magdalene, kneeling at the foot of the Cross.
+
+Like a quiver of summer lightning across the horizon of an August sky,
+there came to him the thought of that mother of his whom he had never
+known, and of that girl who was almost his sister, long ago lost in the
+great wilderness of London. They were not likenesses, only the faintest
+of suggestions, and yet the mere recollection seemed to lend an added
+solemnity to the vows which he was about to take.
+
+     "I will do so, the Lord being my helper!"
+
+As he uttered the words there was not the faintest doubt in his soul
+that for the rest of his life he would be able to keep both the letter
+and the spirit of the oath unbroken to the end of his days. Many a man
+and woman has rashly wished that it were possible to look into the
+future. Such a thought had more than once crossed Vane Maxwell's mind,
+but could he, in that solemn moment, have looked into the future and
+seen what lay before him, he would have been well content with the high
+destiny to which his great renunciation was to lead him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now the scene changes from Gloucester Cathedral, to St. George's,
+Hanover Square.
+
+It was the smartest wedding of the year, and, apart from all its social
+brilliance, even the most rigid critics admitted that London had not
+seen a lovelier bride or a handsomer bridegroom than Enid Raleigh and
+Reginald Garthorne. The church was thronged by an audience made up of
+the friendly, the sympathetic, the sentimental, and the merely curious,
+as is usual on such occasions.
+
+Carol Vane and Dora Russel, who had come provided with tickets
+indirectly supplied by the bridegroom himself, occupied seats in the
+left-hand gallery at the front. In consequence of the crowd, they only
+got into their places just as the bridal procession was moving up the
+central aisle. There was the bride with her attendant bridesmaids, six
+little maidens dressed in pure white, the bridegroom with his pages, six
+counterparts dressed in the style of Charles I. Then Sir Godfrey and
+Lady Raleigh, and then a tall, grizzled, soldierly-looking man, and
+beside him a white-haired old lady, who might have stepped straight out
+of one of Gainsborough's pictures.
+
+As Carol caught sight of the man beside her, she leant half her body
+over the front of the gallery, and stared with straining eyes down at
+the slowly moving procession. Dora caught her by the arm and pulled her
+back, saying, in a whisper:
+
+"Don't do that; you might fall over."
+
+Carol turned a white face and a pair of blankly staring eyes upon her,
+caught her by the arm with one hand and pointing downwards with the
+other, said in a whisper that seemed to rattle in her throat:
+
+"See that man, there--that tall one with the old lady on his arm? That's
+the man who did all the ruin! That's my father--and my mother was Vane's
+mother, and that's his son, going to marry Vane's sweetheart. No, by
+God, he shan't! I'll tell the whole church full, first."
+
+She tore herself free from Dora's hold and struggled to her feet, her
+lips were opened to utter words which would have instantly turned the
+wedding into a tragedy; but the rush of thoughts which came surging into
+her brain was too much for her. The swift revelation of an almost
+unbelievable life-tragedy struck her like a lightning-stroke; she
+uttered a few incoherent sounds, and then dropped back fainting into
+Dora's arms.
+
+"Another of life's little tragedies, I suppose," whispered a
+well-dressed matron just behind her, to a companion at her side, "a
+_petite maitresse_, no doubt. It's a curious thing; they always come to
+see their lovers married."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The fainting of Carol in the gallery of the church and her being carried
+out just before the commencement of the ceremony, was looked upon by
+some of the more superstitious of the immediate spectators as a sign of
+evil omen to the happiness of those who, in the phrase which is so often
+only the echo of devils' laughter, were about "to be joined together in
+holy matrimony."
+
+Still, only a few had heard the broken words which the horror-stricken
+girl had uttered before she fell down insensible, and those only thought
+what the good lady behind her had said. To the rest of the congregation
+it was merely an incident, due to the crowd and the heat. The little
+flutter of excitement which it caused soon passed away, and the ceremony
+began and went on without any of the bridal party even knowing what had
+happened.
+
+She was carried to the gallery stairs, and there Dora sat her down,
+supporting her with her arm, while one sympathetic young lady held a
+bottle of salts to her nostrils, and an older lady emptied a
+scent-bottle on to her handkerchief and held it to her forehead.
+
+In a very few minutes she came round. She looked about her, and,
+recognising Dora, said:
+
+"Oh, dear, what's happened? Where am I? Yes, I remember--at a
+wedding--and he----"
+
+Then she checked herself, and Dora said:
+
+"Do you think you're well enough to come down and get into a cab, and
+then we'll get home? It was the heat and the crush that did it, I
+suppose."
+
+"Yes, I think I can," said Carol. "I'm all right now. Thank you very
+much for being so kind," she went on to the other two with a faint smile
+of gratitude.
+
+"Oh, don't mention it," they said almost together, and then the younger
+one put her hand under her arm and helped her up. "Let me help you
+down," she said. "I daresay you'll be all right when you get into the
+open air."
+
+Carol looked round at her and saw that, without being exactly pretty,
+she had a very sweet and sympathetic expression, and big, soft brown
+eyes which looked out very kindly under dark level brows. It was a face
+which women perhaps admire more than men; but her voice was one which
+would have gone just as quickly to a man's heart as to a woman's. At any
+rate, it went straight to Carol's, and when they had got into the cab
+and she leant back against the cushions she said to Dora:
+
+"I wonder who that girl was? Did you notice what a sweet face and what a
+lovely voice she had? I'm not very loving towards my own sex, but as
+soon as I got round I felt that I wanted to hug her--and I suppose if
+she knew the sort of person I am she wouldn't have touched me. What a
+difference clothes make, don't they? Now, if I'd been dressed as some of
+the girls are----"
+
+"I think you're quite wrong there, Carol," said Dora, interrupting her.
+"I don't believe she's that sort at all, she was much too nice, I'm
+certain. She had the face of a really good woman, and you know good
+women don't think that of us. It's only the goody-goody ones who do
+that, and there's a lot of difference between good and goody-goody."
+
+"Well, yes," said Miss Carol, "I daresay you're right, after all. She
+had a sweet face, hadn't she? But look here, Dora," she went on with a
+sudden change of tone, "did you ever know anything so awful? No--I can't
+talk about it yet. Tell him to pull up at the Monico, and we'll have a
+brandy and soda. I never wanted a drink so badly in my life."
+
+The cab had meanwhile been rolling down Regent Street, and had almost
+reached the Circus. Dora put her hand up through the trap and told the
+cabman--whose opinion of his fares underwent an instantaneous change. He
+nodded and said, "Yes, miss," and the next minute pulled up in front of
+the square entrance to the cafe. Dora got out first and helped Carol
+out; then she gave the cabman a shilling and they went in.
+
+"Goes to a wedding, does a faint, comes out, and stops 'ere when they
+ought to have been driven 'ome. Not much class there!" the cabman
+soliloquised as he flicked his whip over his horse's ears and turned
+across towards Piccadilly. He was, perhaps, naturally disgusted at the
+meagre results of a job for which he had expected three or four
+shillings at the very least.
+
+The big café was almost deserted, as it usually is in the morning, and
+the two girls found a secluded seat at one of the corner tables.
+
+"Dora, you must pay for these," said Carol when they had given their
+order, "and what's more you'll have to lend me some money to go on with,
+for if I was starving I wouldn't spend another shilling of that man's
+money."
+
+"But, my dear child, I don't suppose he knew it," said Dora. "Of course
+you can have anything I've got if you want it, and I quite understand
+how you feel. It's very dreadful, horrible, in fact, but you couldn't
+help it. You're not to blame, and I don't see that he is, after all's
+said and done."
+
+"No, I don't say that he is," said Carol, "and of course I couldn't
+know, for he isn't a bit like his father. He was dark once, so I suppose
+the--the other one takes after his mother. At least, he would do if she
+was a fair woman. But just fancy me having that feeling about Vane that
+night--feeling that I couldn't--and yet this one is just as near. God
+forgive me, Dora, isn't it awful?"
+
+"Well, never mind, dear," said Dora, as the waiter brought the drinks.
+"I don't see that that matters one way or the other now. What's done
+_is_ done, and there's an end of it. Well, here's fun, and better luck
+next time!"
+
+"Hope so!" said Carol somewhat bitterly, as she took a rather long pull
+at her brandy and soda. "Ah, that's better," she went on, as she put her
+glass down. "At any rate, it couldn't be much worse luck, could it?"
+
+"But are you perfectly certain," said Dora, "that he really was the man?
+You know, after all, you only saw him for quite a moment or so."
+
+"I'm as certain as I am that I'm sitting here," said Carol, "that that
+was the man who lived with my mother in Paris and Vienna and Nice and a
+lot of other places ever since I can remember. It isn't likely that I'm
+going to forget when I have such good reason as I have for remembering.
+He's the man, right enough, and if I was face to face with him for five
+minutes I'd prove it. The question is whether I ought to prove it or
+not."
+
+"That's a thing that wants thinking about," said Dora. "But how can you
+prove it?"
+
+"Easy enough," replied Carol, "if he'd just take his coat off and turn
+his shirt-sleeve up. He's got two marks just above his right elbow, two
+white marks, and the one on the front is bigger than the one behind.
+I've seen them many a time when he's been sculling or playing tennis. He
+told me he got them from a spear thrust when he was fighting in the Zulu
+war. The spear went right in in front and the point came out behind, and
+if I had a thousand pounds I'd bet it that that man has got those marks
+on his arm.
+
+"Besides, I know lots of other things about him. You know I'm not a bad
+mimic, for one thing, and I could imitate his voice and his way of
+talking before I heard him speak, and I know a photographer in Paris
+where I could get his photograph--one taken while he was with us. We
+went with him to have it taken; and, besides, I don't care whether that
+unfortunate mother of mine's mad or not, she'd recognise him. I'd bet
+any money he daren't go to the place where she is and face her. Well,
+now I'm better. Let's go home to lunch and think it over. It certainly
+isn't a thing to do anything hastily about."
+
+"That's just what I think, dear," said Dora, finishing her brandy and
+soda.
+
+"All right; we won't take another cab just yet. Let's walk along the
+'Dilly for a bit; it'll do me good, I think; and besides, I may as well
+get familiar with the old place again," said Carol, rising from her
+seat.
+
+"What nonsense!" said Dora. "The very idea of _you_ having to go in for
+that sort of thing, when there are half a dozen fellows a good deal more
+than ready to take this man Garthorne's place."
+
+"Well, well," said Carol, with a light laugh and a toss of her pretty
+head, "I don't suppose the change would be for the worse. But there's
+one thing certain, I shall have to snare the oof bird very shortly, for
+the first thing I'm going to do when we get to the flat is to send back
+every penny of the money that Reginald gave me when we said good-bye. Of
+course I didn't know anything about it, but it seems worse a good deal
+than if I had stolen it. Then to-night we'll go to the Empire, and you,
+being rather more married than I am, can chaperone me."
+
+"All right," said Dora. "I'll send a wire to Bernard, and perhaps he'll
+come too and escort us."
+
+Reginald Garthorne had behaved, as both the world and the half-world
+would have said, very honourably to Carol when they had said the usual
+good-bye before his marriage. He had paid his share of the rent of the
+flat for her for six months ahead, and had given her a couple of hundred
+pounds to go on with. Of this considerably over a hundred pounds
+remained. She changed the gold into notes, and even the silver into
+postal orders, and put the whole sum into a packet, which she registered
+and posted to his town address.
+
+She gave no explanation or reason for what she was doing. In the first
+place she could not bring herself to tell him the dreadful truth that
+she had discovered; and then, again, it would only after all be a piece
+of needless cruelty. During her connection with him he had always
+treated her with kindness and courtesy, and often with generosity. She
+had nothing whatever against him, so why should she wreck the happiness
+of his honeymoon, and perhaps of his whole married life, by disclosing
+the secret that had been so strangely revealed to her? So she simply
+wrote:
+
+     "DEAR MR. GARTHORNE,
+
+     "You have been very kind to me, and I thoroughly appreciate your
+     kindness. But something has happened to-day--I daresay you can
+     guess what it is--which makes it unnecessary to me, and, as you
+     know I have rather curious ideas about money matters, I hope you
+     will understand my reasons, and not be offended by my returning it
+     to you with many thanks.
+
+     "Yours very sincerely,
+     "CAROL VANE."
+
+Under the circumstances the white lie was one which the Recording Angel
+might well have blotted out. Probably he did. But, as the Fates would
+have it, the words proved prophetic.
+
+They went to the Empire that night under the escort of Mr. Bernard
+Falcon, and while they were having a stroll round the promenade during
+the interval he nodded and smiled a little awkwardly to a tall,
+good-looking young fellow in evening dress, whose bronzed skin, square
+shoulders and easy stride gave one the idea that he was a good deal more
+accustomed to the free and easy costume of the Bush or the Veld or the
+Mining Camp than to the swallow-tails and starched linen of after-dinner
+Civilisation.
+
+"What a splendid-looking fellow!" said Dora, turning her head slightly
+as he passed; "the sort of man, I should say, who really _is_ a man. Who
+is he, Bernard? You seem to know him!"
+
+"That man?" said Mr. Falcon. "Well, come down into the lower bar, and
+we'll have a drink, and I'll tell you."
+
+"That looks a little bit as if you didn't want to meet him again!" said
+Dora, a trifle maliciously. "Does he happen to be one of your clients,
+or someone who only knows you as a perfectly respectable person?"
+
+Mr. Falcon did not reply immediately, but he frowned a little, as if he
+didn't find the remark very palatable. But when they reached the
+seclusion of the bar and sat down at one of the tables he said:
+
+"Well, yes, it is something like that. The fact is we have done a little
+business for him, and we hope to do more. Lucky beggar, he's one of
+Fortune's darlings."
+
+"That sounds interesting," said Carol. "May I ask what the good lady has
+done for him?"
+
+"Well," said Mr. Falcon, folding his hands on the table and dropping his
+voice to a discreet monotone, "in the first place she made him the
+younger son of a very good family. Nothing much to begin with, of
+course, but then she also gave him a maiden aunt who left him five
+thousand pounds just after he left Cambridge in disgust after failing
+three times to get a pass degree. He had no special turn for anything in
+particular except riding and shooting and athletics of all sorts. So,
+like a sensible fellow, instead of stopping in England and fooling his
+money away, as too many younger sons do, he put four thousand pounds
+into my partner's hands--Lambe, I should tell you, was his aunt's
+solicitor--to be invested in good securities, put the other thousand
+into his pocket, and started out to seek his fortune.
+
+"That's a little over five years ago, which makes him about thirty now.
+Of course, I suppose he went everywhere and did everything, as such
+fellows do, but we heard very little of him, and he never drew a penny
+of the four thousand pounds, and he turned up in London a week or two
+ago something more than a millionaire. It seems that he was one of the
+first to hear of the West Australian goldfields--he was out there
+prospecting in the desert, and a few months later he was one of the
+pioneers of Kalgoorlie, and pegged out a lot of the most valuable
+claims. He put in nearly three years there, and now he's come back to
+enjoy himself. He's a very fine fellow, but I must say I'd rather not
+have met him here to-night."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," laughed Dora, "he'll understand. Being a man he knows
+perfectly well that scarcely any of you respectable married men are half
+as respectable as you'd like to be thought. However, why not compromise
+him too? Go and fetch him and introduce him."
+
+Mr. Falcon knew Dora well enough to take this request as something like
+an order. So he rose, saying:
+
+"Well, that's not a bad idea, after all, and I daresay he won't have the
+slightest objection to make the acquaintance of two such entirely
+charming young ladies."
+
+Mr. Falcon rather prided himself upon his way of turning a compliment,
+albeit his action, as they say in stable parlance, was a trifle heavy.
+When he had gone Dora nodded to Carol and said:
+
+"There, dear. If I'm not very much mistaken this is the reward of
+virtue."
+
+"Which is its own reward, and generally doesn't get it," laughed Carol,
+colouring slightly. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," said Dora, "that only to-day you made yourself penniless from
+the most laudable of motives, and here, this very night, comes Prince
+Charming from the Fortunate Isles, with all his pockets and both hands
+full of money, and a splendid-looking fellow as well. I think that's a
+bit mixed, but still it's somewhere about the fact. Ah, here they come."
+
+"Mr. Cecil Rayburn, Miss Dora Murray; Mr. Rayburn, Miss Carol Vane. Now
+we know each other," said Mr. Falcon. "Rayburn, what will you have?"
+
+Rayburn had a brandy and soda, and before it was finished the
+conversation was running easily and even merrily. With the quick
+perception of the travelled man he speedily discovered that Dora was
+Falconer's particular friend; she always addressed him as "Bernie,"
+while Carol always said "Mr. Falcon" or "Mr. F."
+
+When they got up, all thoroughly well pleased with each other, Falcon
+said:
+
+"Are you alone, Rayburn?"
+
+"Yes," he replied. "I hadn't anything particular to do to-night, and as
+I was sick of playing billiards and swopping lies with the other fellows
+at the Carlton, I just put on a hard-boiled shirt and the other things
+and came over here to seek my fortune."
+
+As he said this he looked straight at Carol, their eyes met for a
+moment, and then she coloured up swiftly and looked away.
+
+The four wound up the evening with a sumptuous supper at Prince's, at
+which Rayburn played host to perfection, and within a week Carol and he
+had left Charing Cross by the eleven o'clock boat-train on a trip which
+had no particular objective, but which, as a matter of fact, extended
+round the world before Carol again saw her beloved London. In addition
+to her other rings she wore a new thick wedding ring, a compromise with
+conventionality which the etiquette of hotels and steamer saloons had
+rendered imperative, and thus it came to pass that Miss Carol,
+travelling as Mrs. Charles Redfern, vanished utterly for more than a
+year, and this, too, was why all the efforts of Vane and Ernshaw and Sir
+Arthur to find her had proved for the present unavailing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Enid Garthorne came back from a somewhat extended honeymoon trip to the
+Riviera and thence on through Northern Italy to Venice, whence she
+returned viâ Vienna and Paris, a very different woman from the Enid
+Raleigh who had cried so bitterly over that farewell letter of Vane's in
+her bedroom at Oxford.
+
+She had already schooled herself to look upon her long love for Vane as,
+after all, only the sustained infatuation of a romantic school-girl, and
+upon him as a high-hearted, clean-souled but utterly impossible
+visionary who had sacrificed the substance for the shadow, and who,
+having chosen irrevocably, could only be left to work out his own
+destiny as he had shaped it.
+
+Garthorne, in the first flush of his gratified love and triumph, had
+proved an almost ideal combination of lover and husband, and of all the
+brides who were honeymooning in the most luxurious resorts of the
+Continent that Autumn and Winter, she, with her youth and beauty, her
+handsome, devoted husband, and splendid fortunes, was accounted the most
+to be envied. As week after week went by, and the intoxication of her
+new life grew upon her, she gradually came to believe this herself. At
+the same time, something very like true affection for this man, whose
+love was very real and who seemed to find his only happiness in making
+the world the most delightful of dreamlands for her, began to grow up in
+her heart.
+
+Of course, she often thought of Vane; that was inevitable. It was
+inevitable, too, that she should look back now and then to some of the
+many tender scenes that had passed between them; but as time went on,
+these memory-pictures grew more faint. The fast-succeeding events and
+the new experiences of her married life crowded swiftly and thickly upon
+her, until she began to look upon the past more as a dream than as a
+reality. Vane's figure receded rapidly into the background of her life,
+and, as it did so, it seemed in some way to become spiritualised, lifted
+above and beyond the world-sphere in which it was now her destiny to
+move.
+
+They got back to England a few weeks before the season began, and, after
+a day or two in London for some necessary shopping, they went down to
+Garthorne Abbey, one of the finest old seats in the Midland counties,
+standing on a wooded slope in the green border which fringes the Black
+Country, and facing the meadows and woodlands which stretch away down to
+the banks of the Severn, beyond which rise the broken, picturesque
+outlines of the Herefordshire Hills.
+
+Here Enid Garthorne spent an entirely delightful week exploring the
+stately home and the splendid domain of which she would one day be
+mistress. Day after day in the early clear Spring morning, she would go
+up alone on to a sort of terrace-walk which had been made round the roof
+behind the stone balustrade which ran all round the house, and look out
+over the green, well-wooded, softly undulating country, her heart filled
+with a delighted pride and the consciousness, or, at any rate, the
+belief, that after all the cloud which had come between her and Vane had
+had a silver, nay, a golden lining, and that, so far, at least,
+everything had been for the best.
+
+As she looked to the eastward, she could see stretched along the horizon
+a low, dun-coloured line which was not cloud. It was the smoke of the
+Black Country, and underneath it hundreds and hundreds of men, aye, and
+if she had known it, women, too, were toiling in forge and mine and
+factory, earning the thousands which made life so easy and so pleasant
+for her. To the westward were the low-lying meadows, the rolling
+corn-lands, and the dark strips and patches of wood and coppice which
+lay for miles on three sides of the Home Park, and beyond these she
+caught bright gleams of the silver Severn rippling away to the distant
+Bristol Channel; then, beyond this again, the rising uplands which
+culminated in the irregular terraces of the Abberley Hills.
+
+She knew nothing of it at the time, but far away, perched up in a leafy
+nook among them was a little cluster of old grey buildings; just a
+chapel, a guest-house, a refectory, and half a dozen cells forming a
+tiny quadrangle which was still called St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, but
+which in the old days when all the lands that Enid could see from her
+roof-walk had belonged to the ancient Abbey of Ganthony--of which her
+husband's name was perhaps a corruption--had been known as the House of
+Our Lady of Rest.
+
+Before the dissolution of the Monasteries it had been a place of rest
+and retreat for servants of the Church who had exhausted themselves in
+her service or had found reason to withdraw themselves a while from the
+world and its temptations; and such, though creeds have changed, it has
+practically remained until now.
+
+The little church was nominally St. Augustine's, the Parish Church of a
+little scattered hamlet which was sprinkled over the hillside beneath
+it. The living had been in the gift of the Garthorne family, but Sir
+Reginald's father had sold the advowson to one of the earliest pioneers
+of the High Church movement in England, and through this purchase it had
+passed into the keeping of a small Anglican Order calling itself the
+Fraternity of St. Augustine.
+
+This little Brotherhood had not only maintained the traditions of the
+ancient Order of St. Augustine, Preacher, Saint and Martyr, but had done
+all that was possible to revive them in their ancient purity. The little
+monastery among the hills, though it had passed under another
+ecclesiastical rule, was still a place where priests and deacons might
+come either to rest from the labours which they had endured in the
+service of their Master, or to separate themselves from the din and
+turmoil of the world, and, amidst the peace and silence of nature,
+wrestle with the doubts or temptations that had beset them. The Vicar of
+the parish and Father Superior of the Retreat was an aged priest who had
+welcomed three generations of his younger brothers in Christ as
+temporary sojourners in this little sanctuary, and had sent them away
+comforted and strengthened to take their place again in the ranks of the
+army which wages that battle which began when the first prophecy was
+uttered in Eden, and which will only end when the sound of the Last
+Trump marshalls the hosts of men before the bar of the Last Tribunal.
+
+Vane had been the occupant of one of the tiny little rooms, which had
+once been the monks' cells, for a little over three months when Enid
+came to her future home. The rooms were on the side of the quadrangle
+facing the valley, and from his little window he could distinctly see
+the great white house, with its broad terraces standing out against the
+dark background formed by the trees which crowned the ridge behind it.
+He, of course, knew perfectly well to whom it belonged and who would one
+day be mistress of it, and one day he saw from the _Times_, the only
+secular newspaper admitted into St. Augustine's, that Mr. and Mrs.
+Reginald Garthorne had returned from their wedding trip on the
+Continent, and, after a day or two in London, would proceed for a few
+weeks to Garthorne Abbey to recuperate before the fatigues of the
+season, of which it was generally expected Mrs. Garthorne would be one
+of the most brilliant ornaments.
+
+The sight of it, the knowledge of all the splendours that it contained,
+of all the worldly wealth of which it was the material sign, had not
+affected him in the least. He had already lifted himself beyond the
+possibility of envying anyone the possession of such things as these. He
+could see over and beyond them as a man on a mountain top might look
+over a little spot on the plain beneath, which to those who dwelt in it
+was a great and splendid city.
+
+Even the knowledge that Enid was coming to the Abbey as the wife of its
+future master only drew just a single quiet sigh from his lips, only
+caused him to give one swift look back into the world that he had left,
+for after all this was only what he had expected, what he knew to be
+almost inevitable when he had first made up his mind to sacrifice his
+love to what he believed to be his duty.
+
+She had passed out of his existence and he had passed out of hers.
+Henceforth their life-circles might touch, but they could never
+intersect each other. Of course, they would meet again in the world, but
+only as friends, with perhaps a warmer hand-clasp for the sake of the
+days that were past and gone for ever, but that was all. He had but one
+mistress now, the Church. He was hers body and soul to the end, for he
+had sworn an allegiance which could not be broken save at the risk of
+his own soul.
+
+One morning, about a week after he had read the paragraph in the
+_Times_, he was out on the hillside, going from cottage to cottage of
+the hundred or so sprinkled round the high road across the hills, for it
+was his day to carry out the parochial duties of the fraternity. Every
+day one of the Fathers, as the villagers called them, made his rounds,
+starting soon after sunrise and sometimes not getting back till after
+dark, for Father Philip had no belief in the efficacy of fasting and
+meditation and prayer unless they were supplemented by a literal
+obedience to the commands of Him who went about doing good. When priest
+or deacon entered the Retreat, no matter what he was, rich or poor,
+wedded or single, he had to take the vows of poverty, obedience and
+chastity. When he left to go back into the world he was absolved from
+them, and was free to do what seemed best to his own soul.
+
+Vane had just left a little farmhouse upon which a great shame and
+sorrow had fallen. As too often happens in this district, the only
+daughter of the house, discontented with the quiet monotony of the farm
+life, had gone away to Kidderminster to work in a carpet factory. That
+was nearly eighteen months ago, and the night before she had come back
+ragged, hungry, and penniless, with a nameless baby in her arms.
+
+As he was walking along the road which led from this farmhouse to the
+next hamlet thinking of that vanished sister of his and of the poor
+imbecile in the French asylum, he turned a bend and saw a figure such as
+was very seldom seen among the villages approaching him about two
+hundred yards away. He stopped, almost as though he had received a blow
+on the chest. It was impossible for his eyes to mistake it, and with a
+swift sense, half of anger and half of disgust, he felt his heart begin
+to beat harder and quicker. It was Enid, Enid in the flesh.
+
+He had read of her marriage, and of her return with her husband with
+hardly an emotion. Day after day he had looked upon her future home, the
+home in which she would live as the wife of another man and the mother
+of his children, without a single pang of envy or regret--and now, at
+the first sight of her, his heart was beating, his pulses throbbing, and
+his nerves thrilling.
+
+True, every heart-beat, every pulse-throb, was a sin now, for she was a
+wedded wife--and meanwhile she was still coming towards him. In a few
+minutes more, since it was impossible for him to pass her as a stranger,
+her hand would be clasped in his, and he would be once more looking into
+those eyes which had so often looked up into his, hearing words of
+greeting from those lips which he had so often kissed, and whose kisses
+were now vowed to another man.
+
+There was a little lane, turning off to the left a few yards away. She
+had never seen him in his clerical dress, so she could not have
+recognised him yet. She would only take him for one of the clergy at
+the Retreat, he had only to turn down the lane--
+
+But no, his old manhood rose in revolt at the idea. That would be a
+flight, a mean, unworthy flight, unworthy alike of himself and the high
+resolves that he had taken. It was hard, almost impossible even to think
+of _her_ as a temptation, as an enemy to his soul, and yet, even if she
+were, as the leaping blood in his veins told him she might be, was it
+for him, the young soldier of the Cross, just buckling on his armour, to
+turn his back upon the first foe he met, even though that foe had once
+been his best beloved? He set his teeth and clenched his hands, and
+walked on past the entrance to the lane.
+
+A minute or two later their eyes met. A look of astonished recognition
+instantly leapt into hers. She shifted the silver handled walking stick
+into her left hand, and held out the other, daintily gauntleted in tan.
+
+"Why Vane!" she exclaimed, in a voice which was still as sweet and soft
+as ever, but which seemed to him to have a strange and somewhat
+discordant note in it, "you don't mean to say that it's you. I suppose,
+as a matter of fact, I ought to say Mr. Maxwell now--I mean now that
+you're a clergyman--but after all, those little things don't matter
+between such very old friends as we are, and I'm sure Reggie won't mind,
+in fact, I shan't let him if he does. Just fancy meeting you here! I
+suppose you're one of the Fathers--is that it?--at the little monastery
+up there. I've only been home a week, and last night I heard about this
+place, so I drove over to see it. But you haven't told me how you are
+yet, and how you like your--your new life."
+
+As a matter of fact, she had rattled all this off so quickly that Vane
+had not had time to reply to her greeting. He had taken her hand and,
+somewhat tremblingly, returned the frank, firm pressure. While she was
+speaking, he looked into her face and saw that she had already assumed
+the invisible but impenetrable mask in which the society woman plays her
+part in the tragic comedy of Vanity Fair. It was the same face and yet
+not the same, the same voice and yet a different one, and the sight and
+sound acted upon him like a powerful tonic. This was not the Enid he had
+loved, after all, at least, so it seemed to him. He had forgotten, or
+had never known that every woman is a born actress, and that even the
+brief training which Enid had already had was quite enough to enable her
+to say one thing, while thinking and feeling something entirely
+different.
+
+He smiled for the first time as their hands parted, and said, in a voice
+whose calm frankness surprised himself:
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Garthorne!"--he absolutely couldn't trust himself to
+pronounce the word "Enid"--"Thanks, I'm very well, and, as you have
+guessed, I am located for the present up in the Retreat yonder. I
+confess I was a little startled to see you coming up the road, although
+I saw from the _Times_ the other day that you had come back from the
+Continent and were coming down here to the Abbey. Of course, you would
+hear of the Retreat sooner or later, and as it's a bit of a show place
+in its humble way, I had an idea that you would come over some time to
+see it."
+
+"Oh, but I suppose you don't allow anything so unholy as a woman to
+enter the sacred precincts, do you?"
+
+The artificial flippancy of her tone annoyed him perhaps even more than
+it shocked him. There was a sort of scoff in it which rightly or wrongly
+he took to himself. It seemed to say "You, of course, have done with
+women now and for ever; henceforth, you must only look upon us as
+temptations to sin, and so I can say what I like to you."
+
+"On the contrary," he replied, forcing a smile, "the Retreat is as open
+for visiting purposes to women as it is to men. It is nothing at all
+like a monastery, you know, although report says it is. It is simply a
+place where clergymen who have need of it can go and rest and think and
+pray in peace, and act as curates to the Superior who is also vicar of
+the parish. In fact, it has been known for mothers and sisters of the
+men to take rooms in the villages, and they are even invited to lunch."
+
+"Dear me," she said, "how very charming! Of course, you will come over
+to the Abbey and have dinner some evening, and sleep, and the next
+morning I shall expect you to let me drive you over here and invite me
+to lunch."
+
+"Of course, I shall be delighted," he said, purposely using the most
+conventional terms, "but I ought to tell you that there is a condition
+attached to our hospitality."
+
+"Oh, indeed, and what is that?" she said, glancing up at him with one of
+her old saucy looks. "I hope it isn't very stringent. Won't you turn and
+walk a little way with me and tell me all about it? There is my pony
+carriage coming up the hill after me. It will overtake us soon, and then
+I won't take up your time any longer, for I daresay you are going on
+some good work."
+
+Again the half-veiled flippancy of her tone jarred upon him and made him
+clench his teeth for an instant.
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," he replied, turning and walking with long,
+slow strides beside her. His blood was quite cool now, and a great
+weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
+
+"It is this way," he went on, speaking as calmly as though he were
+addressing an utter stranger. "You know, or perhaps you do not know yet,
+that, beautiful and almost arcadian as this place is, there is, I regret
+to say, a great deal of poverty and sorrow, and, I am afraid, sin too,
+and it is part of our duty at the Retreat to seek this out and do what
+we can to relieve it; but there is much of that kind of work which women
+can do infinitely better than men, and therefore, when a woman enters
+our gates as our guest, we ask her to do what she can to help us."
+
+"I see," she said, more softly and more naturally than she had spoken
+before. "It is a very just and a very good condition, and I shall do my
+best to fulfil it; indeed, as I suppose I shall some day be Lady of the
+Manor here, it will be my duty to do it."
+
+"I am very glad to hear you say so," he said, with a touch of warmth in
+his tone, "very glad. And if you like you can begin at once. You see
+that little farmhouse up the road yonder. Well, there is not only
+sorrow, but sin and shame as well in that house. The old people are most
+respectable, and they were once fairly comfortably off before the
+agricultural depression ruined them. They are wretchedly poor now, but
+they struggle on somehow. About eighteen months ago their daughter went
+off to Kidderminster to work in the mills. She said she would get good
+wages and send some of them home every week. For some months she did
+send them a few shillings, and then what is unfortunately only too
+common about here happened. For a long time they lost sight of her, and
+last night she came back, starving, with a baby and no husband."
+
+He said this in a perfectly passionless and impersonal tone, just as a
+doctor might describe the symptoms of a disease. "If you care to, you
+can do a great deal of good there," he went on. "I have just been there.
+If you like I will take you in and introduce you."
+
+She stopped and hesitated for a moment. It struck her as such an utter
+reversal of their former relationships, that it seemed almost to
+obliterate the line which lies between the sublime and the ridiculous.
+Then she moved forward again, saying, in her own old natural voice:
+
+"Thank you, Vane. I have often wondered since what sort of circumstances
+we should meet under again, but I never thought of anything like this.
+Yes, I will come, and if there is anything I can do I will do it."
+
+"I thought you would," he said quietly, as he strode along beside her
+towards the farmhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+After introducing Enid to the sorrow-stricken family, Vane took his
+leave of her to go about his work. He met the pony-cart coming up the
+hill, and told the footman to wait for his mistress outside the
+farmhouse. Then he went on to the other hamlet, doing his work just as
+well and conscientiously as ever, and yet all the while thinking many
+thoughts which had very little connection with it.
+
+He got back to the Retreat just in time for supper, and when the meal
+was over he asked Father Philip for the favour of half an hour's
+conversation. The request was, of course, immediately granted, and as
+soon as he was alone with the old man, who was wise alike in the things
+of the world and in those of the spirit, he told him, not as penitent to
+confessor, but rather as pupil to teacher, the whole story of his
+meeting and conversation with Enid, not omitting the slightest detail
+that his memory held, from the first thrill of emotion that he had
+experienced on seeing her to the last word he had spoken to her on
+leaving the farmhouse.
+
+Father Philip was silent for some time after he had finished his story,
+then, leaning back in his deep armchair, he looked at Vane, who was
+still walking slowly up and down the little room, and said in a quiet,
+matter-of-fact voice:
+
+"I'm very glad, Maxwell, that you've told me this. As I have told you
+before, I have listened to a good many life-histories in this room, but
+I must admit that yours is one of the strangest and most difficult of
+them. The fact of Miss Raleigh having married the son of the lord of the
+manor here, and having come down while you are here, naturally makes it
+more difficult still. But then, you know, my dear fellow, the greater
+the difficulty and the danger of the strife the greater the honour and
+the reward of victory.
+
+"For my own part I think that your meeting with her in the road down
+yonder, if not ordered by Providence, may, with all reverence, be called
+providential. Those emotions which you experienced on first seeing her,
+and for which you were inclined to reproach yourself, were after all
+perfectly human, and therefore natural and pardonable. I needn't tell
+you now that I entirely disagree with those who consider that a man
+should cease to be a man when he becomes a clergyman. You are young, and
+you are made of flesh and blood. You were once very much in love with
+this young lady"--there was a slight, almost imperceptible emphasis upon
+the "once" which somehow made Vane wince--"you might have married her,
+but you forewent that happiness in obedience to a conviction which would
+have done honour to the best of us. You would have been either more or
+less than human if your heart had not beaten a little harder and your
+blood had not flowed a little faster when you met her unexpectedly like
+that in a country road.
+
+"But," he went on, sitting up in his chair and speaking with a little
+more emphasis, "the very fact that you so quickly discovered such a
+decided change in her, and that that change, moreover, struck you as
+being one for the worse, is to my mind a distinct proof that your paths
+in life have already diverged very widely."
+
+"And yet, Father Philip," said Vane, as the old man paused and looked up
+at him, "you can hardly say, surely, that it was a good thing for me to
+discover that change. I can tell you honestly that it was a very sad one
+for me."
+
+"Possibly," said Father Philip, "and, without intending the slightest
+disrespect to Mrs. Garthorne, I still say that it was a good thing for
+you to discover it."
+
+"But why, Father Philip? How can it be a good thing for a man to
+discover a change for the worse in a woman whom he has grown up with
+from boy and girl, whom he has loved, and who has been to him the ideal
+of all that was good and lovable on earth?"
+
+"My dear Maxwell, what you have just said convinces me that you have
+learnt or are in course of learning one of the most valuable lessons
+that experience can teach you. Remember that a man can only see with his
+own eyes, that he can only judge from his own perceptions. I do not
+agree with you in thinking that the Mrs. Garthorne of the present
+differs so greatly from the Miss Raleigh of the past. Different in a
+certain degree, of course, she must be. She was a girl then, living
+under the protection of her father's roof. She is a wife now, with a
+home of her own, with new cares, new responsibilities, new prospects. In
+fact, the whole world has changed for her, and therefore it would be
+very strange if she had not changed too. But that was not the change you
+saw. I would rather believe that that was in yourself, that you are a
+different man, not that she is a different woman."
+
+"I think I see what you mean," said Vane, seating himself on the edge
+of an old oak table in the middle of the room. "You mean that while she
+has remained the same or nearly so my point of view has altered. I see
+her in a different perspective, and through a different atmosphere."
+
+"Exactly," replied Father Philip. "It is both more reasonable and more
+charitable to believe that you have changed for the better, and not she
+for the worse."
+
+"God grant that it may be so," said Vane, slipping off the table and
+beginning his walk again. "If it is so, then at least my work has not
+been without some result, and some of my prayers have been granted. But
+now, Father Philip, I want your advice. What shall I do? Shall I stay
+here and meet her just as an old friend? Shall I accept her invitation
+over to the Abbey? Shall I bring her here and introduce her to you, so
+that you may tell her what she can do for our people? Shall I trust
+myself to this sort of intercourse with her, or, as my time here is
+nearly up, shall I go away?"
+
+"As for trusting yourself, Maxwell," said Father Philip slowly, "that is
+a question I cannot answer. You must ask that of your own soul, and I
+will pray and you must pray that it shall answer you with an honest
+'Yes.' I don't believe that the answer will be anything else. But if it
+is, then by all means go, go to the first work that your hand finds to
+do. Go and join your friend Ernshaw in his mission under Southey. But if
+it is 'Yes,' as I hope and believe it will be, then stop until it is
+time for you to take your priest's orders. Visit the Abbey, bring Mrs.
+Garthorne here, interest her in the good work that you have already, I
+hope, made her begin by taking her to the Clellens. Prove to her and her
+husband, and, most important of all, to yourself, that you did not take
+that resolve of yours lightly or in vain, that, in short, you are one
+of those who can, as Tennyson says, 'rise on stepping-stones of their
+dead selves to higher things.'
+
+"That, Maxwell, is the best advice I can give you. When you go to your
+room you will, of course, ask for guidance from the Source which cannot
+err, and I will add my prayers to yours that it may be given you."
+
+The next day a mounted footman brought a note from Garthorne to Vane
+saying that his wife had told him of her meeting with him, and also
+expressing his pleasure at finding that he was in the neighbourhood, and
+asking him to come over to dine and sleep at the Abbey the next evening.
+If that evening would suit him he had only to tell the messenger, and a
+dog-cart would be sent for him, as the distance by road over the Bewdley
+Bridge was considerably over seven miles.
+
+He had been awake nearly all night. In fact, he had spent the greater
+part of it on his knees questioning his own soul and seeking that advice
+which Father Philip had advised him to seek, and when the early morning
+service in the little chapel was over he honestly believed that he had
+found it. He went back into his room, after telling the man to put his
+horse in the stable, and go to what was stilled called the buttery and
+get a glass of beer, and wrote a note thanking Garthorne for his
+invitation, and accepting it for the following night.
+
+If Vane had been told a couple of years before that he would visit Enid
+and her husband as an ordinary guest, that he would sit opposite to her
+at table and hear her address another man as "dear" in the commonplace
+of marital conversation, that he would see her exchange with another man
+those little half-endearments which are not the least of the charms of
+the first few married years, and that he would be able to look upon all
+this at least with grave eyes and unmoved features, he would simply have
+laughed at the idea as something too ridiculous ever to come within the
+bounds of possibility.
+
+Yet, to the outward view, that was exactly what happened during his stay
+at Garthorne Abbey. He seemed to see Enid through some impalpable and
+yet impenetrable medium. He could see her as he always had seen her; but
+to touch her, to put his hand upon her, even to dream of one of those
+caresses which such a short time ago had been as common as hand-shakes
+between them, was every whit as impossible as the present condition of
+things would have seemed to him then.
+
+There were a few other people to dinner. None of them knew anything of
+his previous relationship to Enid, and their presence naturally, and
+perhaps fortunately, kept the conversation away from the things of the
+past; but the Fates had put him in full view of Enid at the table, and,
+do what he would, he could not keep his eyes from straying back again
+and again to that perfect and once well-beloved face, any more than he
+could keep his ears from listening to that voice which had once been the
+sweetest of music for him, rather than to the general conversation in
+which it was his social duty to take a part.
+
+It was a sore trial to the fortitude and self-control of a man who had
+loved as long and as dearly as he had done, but the strength which his
+long vigils away among the hills had given him did not desert him, and
+he came through it outwardly calm and triumphant, however deeply the
+iron was entering into his soul the while. It was one of those occasions
+on which such a man as he would take refuge from spiritual torment in
+intellectual activity, and neither Enid nor her husband had ever heard
+him talk so brilliantly and withal so lightly and good-humouredly as he
+did that night.
+
+One of the guests was the vicar of Bedminster; and a Canon of Worcester,
+an old friend of Sir Reginald's, happened to be staying in the house.
+They were both High Churchmen, the Canon perhaps a trifle "higher" than
+the Vicar, and they were both delighted with him. The Canon remembered
+his ordination at Worcester, and during the conversation, which had now
+turned upon the relationship between the Church and the People, he said:
+
+"Well, Maxwell, I will say frankly if you can preach as well as you can
+talk, and if your doctrine is as sound as your opinion on things in
+general seems to be, the Church will be none the poorer when you are
+priested. I think I shall ask the Bishop to let you preach the Sunday
+after you take full orders. I suppose your Father Superior up there
+would let you come, wouldn't he?
+
+"A grand man, that Father Philip, by the way," he went on, looking round
+the table. "In his quiet, unostentatious way, in his little room up
+there in the old house of Our Lady of Rest, as they used to call it, he
+has done more real work for the Church than, I am afraid, a good many of
+us have done with all our preaching in churches and cathedrals."
+
+"That," said Enid, "would be altogether delightful. Of course, we should
+all come and hear your Reverence," she went on, with a half ironical nod
+towards Vane. "You know, Canon, Mr. Maxwell and I are quite old friends.
+In fact, we came home from India as children in the same ship, didn't
+we, Reggie?" she added, with another laughing nod, this time at her
+husband, "and I am sure your Reverence would have no more interested
+listener than I should be."
+
+"It is quite possible, Mrs. Garthorne," Vane replied in something like
+the same tone, "that you might be more interested than pleased."
+
+"Indeed," said Enid, "and may I ask why?"
+
+There was an immediate silence round the table, everybody wondering what
+his answer would be.
+
+"Because," he replied, with a change of tone so swift as to be almost
+startling, "as soon as I take full Orders, it is my purpose, with God's
+help and under Father Philip's advice, to become a missionary, not a
+missionary to the heathen, as we are pleased to call them, or to the
+infinitely more degraded heathen of our own country, but to such people
+as you, you who are really living in sin without knowing it. Has it ever
+struck you, Canon, how great a work the Church has left undone in what
+are called the upper ranks of Society? You know the vast majority of
+them really and honestly believe themselves to be good Christians, and
+yet, as far as practical obedience to the teaching of Christ goes, they
+are no more Christians than an unconverted Hottentot is."
+
+"Oh--er--ah--yes," replied the Canon rather awkwardly, and in the midst
+of a long silence. "Of course, I quite understand you and--er--by the
+way, do you intend to apply for any preferment?"
+
+"I shall get a curacy with Ernshaw if I can in the East End to begin
+with, or, perhaps, with Father Baldwin in Kensington," said Vane,
+unable, like Enid and her husband and one or two others, to repress a
+faint smile at the Canon's not very skilful change of subject. "But I
+shall not attempt to get a living or anything of that sort. You see, I
+have some private means, and so I shall be in the happy position of
+being able to do my work without pay. Besides, while there is such an
+amount of poverty in the lower ranks of the Church, I think it is little
+less than sinful for a man who can live without it to take a stipend
+which, at least, might be bread and butter to a man who has nothing."
+
+There was a rather awkward pause after this speech, as everyone at the
+table save Vane knew perfectly well that both the Vicar and the Canon
+had considerable private means in addition to the substantial stipends
+they drew from their clerical offices. At length Enid looked across at
+her husband with a wicked twinkle in her eye, and put an end to the
+situation by rising. As soon as the ladies were gone, Garthorne sent the
+wine round and adroitly turned the conversation back again to general
+subjects. When they went into the drawing-room, a discussion on the
+prospects of the season was in full swing, and from motives of prudence,
+this, varied with a little music and singing, was kept up till the
+ladies retired for the night.
+
+When Enid shook hands with Vane they happened to be out of earshot of
+the others, and as she returned his clasp with the same old frank
+pressure, she said in a low tone:
+
+"You were splendid to-night, Vane, and you will be more splendid still
+in the pulpit, only they'll never let you preach in the Cathedral after
+that. Well, good-night. After all, I was wrong and you were right. You
+have chosen the better part. God bless you and be with you, Vane.
+Good-night!"
+
+As their eyes met he fancied that he saw a faint mist in hers. Then her
+long lashes fell; she turned her head away and the next moment she was
+gone.
+
+When the good-nights had been said, Garthorne took his male guests into
+the smoking-room for whisky and soda and cigars. Vane laughingly
+declined, and asked permission to light a pipe.
+
+"No, thanks," he said, with perfect good temper, although the offer was
+not in the best of taste. "I've not forgotten the last brandy and soda I
+had with you at Oxford."
+
+When bed-time came, Garthorne took Vane up to his room. As his host said
+"good-night," Vane followed him to the door and watched him as he went
+along the panelled corridor and down the great staircase to next floor,
+on which the Bride-chamber of the Abbey was situated. Then he went in
+and locked his door.
+
+He sat down in an easy chair in the corner of the room and covered his
+face with his hands. After all, had he done the right thing in accepting
+Garthorne's invitation? Had he not over-estimated his strength? As he
+sat there, he felt that he had thrown himself unnecessarily into a life
+and death conflict. He encountered temptations every day of his life,
+although to the ordinary individual it might seem that the life which he
+and his companions led must be singularly devoid of temptation, yet here
+he was confronted with a trial which he could have avoided. Ought he to
+have avoided it?
+
+Then there came to his mind the remembrance of a passage in one of the
+sermons which Father Philip had once preached to the little community in
+the Retreat. The words seemed particularly appropriate to Vane at the
+time, and he made a note of them in a little memorandum book which he
+always carried with him for the purpose of writing down any sentences
+which he heard or read which might strengthen him in the life which he
+had chosen for himself. He took the book from his pocket and read:
+
+"The ideal life is never one of rigid asceticism any more than it is one
+of voluptuous self-indulgence; it is an equilibrium of forces, a vital
+harmony, a constant symphony, in the performance of which all
+capabilities in all phases of expression are called into vital but never
+into hysterical activity. The true peace is so heroic that it only
+follows crucifixion of all that was once regarded as essential to human
+happiness."
+
+He sat for a moment after he had read and re-read this passage. Then he
+went to the mirror over the mantel-piece, and drew back shocked and
+terrified at the sudden change which had come over his features. They
+reminded him strongly of the features he had seen in the glass that
+other night in Warwick Gardens. Then he turned away and threw himself on
+his knees by the bed and groaned aloud in the bitterness of his soul:
+
+"Oh, God! it is too heavy for me! Not by my strength but by Thine alone
+can I bear it."
+
+It was the only prayer he uttered. In fact, they were the only words he
+could speak; but when he rose from the bedside he felt relieved, so far
+relieved that he took from his pocket a well-worn copy of Thomas ŕ
+Kempis's "Imitation," and sat and read until almost daybreak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+It was the morning of Trinity Sunday, and Worcester Cathedral was
+crowded by a congregation which, if it had been an audience in an
+unconsecrated building, could have been justly described as brilliant.
+
+Trinity Sunday is usually what may, without irreverence, be called more
+or less of a show Sunday in all churches. To-day all the clerical light
+and learning of the diocese was gathered together in the grand old
+Cathedral. The various portions of the service were to be conducted by
+clergy of high rank and notable social position. No one under the rank
+of a Canon, at least, would take any part in the proceedings.
+
+The first lesson would be read by the Vicar of Bedminster, who was also
+a Canon of the Cathedral, and the second by Canon Thornton-Moore, whose
+acquaintance the reader has already made at Garthorne Abbey. Both of
+them were men of dignified presence, and both possessed good voices and
+a careful elocutionary training.
+
+The Epistle and Gospel would be read by the Archdeacon and the Dean.
+Organ and choir were tuned to a perfection of harmony. And finally the
+Bishop would preach. After that would come the administration of the
+Sacrament to those who had not received it at the early service, for
+Trinity Sunday is accredited one of those three days on which, at least,
+the faithful member of the Anglican Church shall communicate. Then, the
+communion over, the Bishop would hold an Ordination, in consideration of
+which he had thoughtfully and thankfully curtailed his eloquence in the
+pulpit.
+
+At this ordination Mark Ernshaw, who had already won fame both as an
+earnest and utterly self-sacrificing missionary, in the moral and
+spiritual wilds of East and South London, and also as a preacher who
+could fill any West End Church to suffocation, was to be admitted to
+full orders in company with his friend, Vane Maxwell, who was so far
+unknown to fame save for the fact that he was locally known as one of
+the dwellers in the Retreat among the hills, and, therefore, as one who
+had sat at the feet of the far-famed Father Philip, who himself had
+to-day made one of his rare appearances in the world, and was occupying
+one of the Canons' stalls in the chancel.
+
+All the Clergy at the Retreat were popularly supposed to have "a past"
+of some sort, and as Vane had come from there and was also credited with
+being young and exceedingly good-looking--some of the lady visitors to
+the Retreat had described him as possessing "an almost saintlike beauty,
+my dear"--he also was a focus of interest. Moreover, he was known to
+have taken a brilliant degree at Oxford, and to have had equally
+brilliant worldly prospects which he had suddenly and unaccountably
+relinquished to go into the Church.
+
+Thus it came to pass that a very different and much more numerous
+congregation witnessed this ceremonial than the one which had taken
+place at the same altar rails a little more than a twelvemonth before.
+
+Of course, all the party from the Abbey were present, including Sir
+Reginald, who had come down for a few days from town. Enid and her
+husband had communicated. It was their first communion since their
+marriage. Then they had gone back to their places to await the
+ordination.
+
+In one of the front rows of the transept seats there was a tall,
+well-dressed girl, very pretty, with dark, deep, serious eyes which, in
+the intervals of the service she had several times raised and turned on
+Enid and her husband, who were sitting on the same side towards the
+front, in the body of the Cathedral. She was the very last person in the
+world, saving only, perhaps, Carol herself, whom Garthorne would have
+wished to see just then and there, and as soon as he had made sure that
+Dora Murray really was sitting within a few yards of him he began to be
+haunted by ugly fears of blackmail and exposure--which showed how very
+little he had learnt of Dora's character during the time that Carol had
+shared the flat with her.
+
+But Dora's thoughts were very different, for they were all of fear,
+mingled with something like horror. She looked at the sweet-faced girl
+sitting beside Reginald Garthorne, and thought of the ruin and
+desolation that would fall upon her young life, with all its brilliant
+outward promise, if she only knew what she could have told her. She
+looked at her husband and wondered what all these good people--most of
+whom would have given almost anything for an invitation to his
+home--what these grave-faced, decorous clergy, too, would think if they
+could see him as she had seen him only a few months before. There was
+Sir Arthur Maxwell, too, sitting a little farther on, and beside him Sir
+Godfrey and Lady Raleigh, though, of course, she did not know them, but
+she guessed who they were, and close to Sir Arthur sat Sir Reginald, his
+host for the time being.
+
+The whole of the Abbey party had communicated together. What would
+happen if she were to go to Sir Arthur after the service, and tell him
+what Carol had told her, if he were to learn that he had been kneeling
+at the altar rails beside the betrayer of his wife and the dishonourer
+of his name?
+
+When she had seen Sir Reginald rise from his seat and go with the rest
+of the party across the centre transept to the chancel, she needed all
+her self-control to shut her teeth and clench her hands and prevent
+herself from leaving her seat and accusing him of his infamy before
+clergy and congregation. She thought thankfully how good a thing it was
+that Carol, with her fierce impetuosity and sense of bitter wrong, was
+not there too. There was no telling what disaster might have happened,
+how many lives might have been wrecked by the words which she might have
+flung out at him, red-hot from her angry heart.
+
+In her way Dora was a really religious girl, as many of her class are.
+So religious, indeed, that she would not have dared to have approached
+the altar herself; because she knew that for her, wedded as she was to
+the pleasant careless life she led, repentance and reform were quite out
+of the question.
+
+She saw no incongruity at all in this. She went to church regularly in
+London, offered up as simple and as earnest prayers as anyone; lifted up
+her beautiful voice in the hymns and psalms and responses in honest
+forgetfulness of the things of yesterday and to-morrow, and, for the
+time being at least, took the lessons of the sermon to heart with a
+simple faith which many of her respectable sisters in the congregation
+were far from feeling.
+
+In short, though the circumstances were different, she was very much in
+the position of the average respectable, well-to-do church-going
+Christian who will strive all the week, often by quite questionable
+methods, to lay up for himself and his wife and family treasures upon
+earth, and then on Sunday go to church and listen with the most perfect
+honesty and the most undisturbed equanimity to the reading of the Sermon
+on the Mount.
+
+But when she saw Sir Reginald go with his son and his daughter-in-law,
+with her parents and Vane's father up through the chancel where Vane was
+sitting, her heart turned sick in her breast. The sacrilege, the
+blasphemy of it all seemed horrible beyond belief. Again and again the
+words rose to her lips. Again and again an almost irresistible impulse
+impelled her to get up, and she was only saved from doing what all that
+was best in her nature urged her to do, by the knowledge that, after
+all, she might only be expelled from the Cathedral by the Vergers, and
+perhaps prosecuted afterwards for brawling. Then her real story would
+come out.
+
+She was visiting her parents who lived in Worcester, and who believed
+that she was conducting a little millinery business in London. She had
+great natural skill in designing head-gear--her own hat, for instance,
+had been gazed on by many an envious eye since the service began--and
+she would have bitten her tongue through, rather than say a word which
+would have undeceived them. And so for this reason as well she held her
+peace.
+
+Then she had heard the sonorous voice of the officiating priest rolling
+down the chancel:
+
+     "Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in
+     love and charity with your neighbours and intend to lead a new
+     life, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth
+     in His holy way, draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament
+     to your comfort."
+
+Then came the general confession, and as she followed it in her
+prayer-book she thought of that unconfessed, though, perhaps, not
+unrepented sin of which she alone, save Sir Reginald, in all that great
+congregation knew. How could this man kneel there and say these solemn
+words, before he had confessed his sin to the man he had wronged, to the
+husband from whom he had stolen a wife, to the son he had deprived of a
+mother? What horrible mockery and blasphemy it all was! Surely some day
+some terrible retribution must fall on him for this.
+
+After the Eucharist followed, as usual on such occasions, the Ordination
+Service. She had never seen Vane before, but when some of the
+congregation had left after the Communion Service, she left her seat and
+took a vacant one in front of the chancel, and then, even at some
+distance, she recognised him immediately by his likeness to Carol. It
+seemed to her that she had never seen anything so beautiful in human
+shape when he rose in his surplice and stole and hood to take his place
+before the Bishop at the altar-rail. And yet how different must her
+thoughts have been from Enid's, as they both looked upon the kneeling
+figure and listened to the words which were the actual fulfilment of the
+vow that he had taken to take up his cross and follow Him who said:
+"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot
+be my disciple."
+
+Then, in due course, came the fateful words, more full of fate, so far
+as they concerned Vane, than any who knew him in the congregation had
+any idea of.
+
+"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the
+Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands
+from God. Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins
+thou dost retain they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of
+the word of God and of his Holy Sacraments; in the name of the Father
+and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen!"
+
+"Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins thou
+dost retain, they are retained!"
+
+Saving only Vane himself, these words had a deeper meaning for Dora, the
+Magdalen, the sinner, and the outcast, than they had for anyone else in
+the congregation, and in one sense they meant even more to her than they
+could do to him. When he rose from his knees before the altar rails, he
+would rise invested, as she believed, by the authority of God through
+the Church, with a power infinitely greater than that of any earthly
+judge. It was his to forgive or retain, his to pardon or to damn. That,
+to her simple reasoning, was the absolute meaning of the words as the
+Bishop had spoken them.
+
+Some day it might happen that Carol would be confronted with the man
+whom she believed to be her father. What if she were to bring Vane face
+to face with him and he knew him for what he was, what would he do, not
+as man, but as priest--forgive or retain, absolve or damn?
+
+When the ordination service was over and the congregation was moving out
+of the Cathedral, Sir Arthur caught sight of Dora for the first time.
+They were only a few feet apart, and recognition was inevitable. She
+looked at him as though she had never seen him before, although she had
+been present at more than one interview between him and Carol at
+Melville Gardens, but Sir Arthur at once edged his way towards her,
+shook hands in that decorous fashion which is usual among departing
+congregations, and said, in an equally decorous whisper:
+
+"Good morning, Miss Murray! I hope you have not come here by accident,
+and that you will be able to give me some news of Carol. We have looked
+for you everywhere."
+
+"Except perhaps in the right place," she murmured, putting her hand into
+his, "and if you had found us I don't think it would have been of any
+use. Carol's mind was quite made up. My address is 15, Stonebridge
+Street, if you wish to write to me. Good morning."
+
+And then they parted, he to go his way and she to go hers, and each with
+an infinite pity for the other, and yet with what different reasons? It
+was only a chance meeting, the accidental crossing of two widely
+diverging life-paths; only one of those instances in which romance
+delights to mock the commonplace, and yet how much it meant--and how
+much might it mean when the future had become the present.
+
+Fortunately, Garthorne and Enid had been pressing on in front, and so he
+had not noticed the meeting between Sir Arthur and Dora, whereby the
+second possible catastrophe of the day was averted.
+
+Sir Arthur was one of the house-party at the Abbey, for he and Sir
+Reginald had been to a certain extent colleagues in India, and had kept
+up their acquaintance, and now that Sir Reginald's son had married the
+girl whom Sir Arthur had always looked upon as a prospective
+daughter-in-law, the intimacy had become somewhat closer. Sir Arthur had
+said frankly at the first that he thought Vane had done an exceedingly
+foolish thing; but since he had done it and meant to stick to it, there
+was an end of the matter, and if Vane couldn't or wouldn't marry Enid,
+he would, after all, rather see her the wife of his old friend's son
+than anybody else's. He had, therefore, willingly accepted Sir
+Reginald's invitation to spend a few days at the Abbey and witness his
+son's admission to the full orders of the priesthood.
+
+Vane and Ernshaw, after exchanging greetings and receiving
+congratulations, declined Sir Reginald's invitation to dine and sleep at
+the Abbey, and went straight back to the Retreat with Father Philip.
+
+It happened that, somewhat late that night after their guests had gone
+to bed, Reginald Garthorne had a couple of rather important letters to
+write, and sat up to get them finished. When he had sealed and stamped
+them, he took them to the post-box in the hall. The postman's lock-up
+bag was standing on the hall table, and, as he knew there wouldn't be
+any more letters that night, he thought he might as well put what there
+were there into the bag and lock it with his own key. He took them out
+in a handful, but before he could put them into the bag they slipped and
+scattered on to the table. He bent down to gather them up, and there,
+right under his eyes, was an envelope addressed in Sir Arthur Maxwell's
+handwriting to Miss Dora Murray, 15 Stonebridge Street, Worcester. He
+would have given a thousand pounds to know what that thin paper cover
+concealed. The thought half entered his mind to take it away and steam
+it, read the letter, and then put it back again; but he was not without
+his own notions of honour, and he dismissed the thought before it was
+fully formed. He contented himself with taking out his pencil and
+copying the address, and as he put the letters into the bag and locked
+it he said to himself:
+
+"Well, I was wondering at service what in the name of all that's unlucky
+brought that girl down here just now, and I suppose I shall have to find
+out. But what the deuce does the old man want writing to her? A nice
+thing if they were to discover the lost Miss Carol and present her to
+the world as Vane's half-sister, and then the rest of the story came
+out. What an almighty fool I was to do that. If I'd only known that Enid
+really would have me--but it's no use grizzling over that. I shall have
+to find out what that young woman wants down in this part of the world,
+and why Sir Arthur should be writing to her, that's quite certain."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Among Garthorne's letters the next morning there chanced to be one from
+his solicitor in Worcester, and so this made an excellent excuse for him
+to get away for the day. Enid was going to drive Sir Arthur and Sir
+Reginald over to the Retreat, so he ordered the dogcart to take him to
+Kidderminster, whence he took train for Worcester.
+
+He knew enough of Dora's circumstances with regard to her parents to
+recognise the imprudence of calling upon her without notice, and so he
+lunched at the Mitre Hotel, and sent a messenger with a note asking her
+to meet him at three o'clock on the River Walk. The messenger was
+instructed to wait for an answer if Miss Murray was in.
+
+Miss Murray was in, and when she read the note her first notion was that
+Garthorne had by some means got an inkling of the truth, or, at the
+least, had discovered that she was in communication with Sir Arthur
+Maxwell and wished to know the reason. She made up her mind at once to
+hold her tongue on both subjects, but at the same time, she felt that it
+would hardly be wise to refuse to meet him. It must also be admitted
+that she also was possessed by a pardonable, because feminine, curiosity
+as to what he wanted with her. She felt, however, that in such a place
+as Worcester it would be most imprudent for her to meet a man so well
+known in the County as Reginald Garthorne on one of the public
+thoroughfares, and so she wrote her answer as follows:--
+
+     "DEAR MR. GARTHORNE,
+
+     "I have no idea why you should wish to see me, and I do not think
+     that it would be prudent to meet you as you suggest. You know how I
+     am situated here, and so I think it would be best, if you really
+     must speak to me, as you say, for you to come and see me here, not
+     under your own name, of course, as that is much too well known. I
+     would therefore suggest that you should call yourself Mr. Johnson,
+     and I will say that you are a representative of one of the big
+     millinery houses in London, and that you have come to see me on
+     business. I shall wait in for you till three.
+
+     "Yours sincerely,
+     "DORA MURRAY."
+
+Garthorne saw the wisdom of this suggestion, and "Mr. Johnson" announced
+himself at half past two. Dora received him alone in a little back
+sitting-room, but his reception was not altogether encouraging, for when
+he held out his hand and said "Good afternoon, Dora!" she flushed a
+little, and affecting not to see his hand, she said:
+
+"Miss Murray, if you please, Mr. Garthorne, now and for the future. You
+seem to have forgotten that, for me, at least, Worcester is not London."
+
+He was so completely taken aback by this utterly unexpected speech, as
+well as by the unwonted tone in which it was spoken, that his
+outstretched hand dropped to his side somewhat limply, and he felt
+himself straightening up and staring at her in blank astonishment.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Murray," he said, in a tone which sounded a
+great deal more awkward than he meant it to do. "Of course, I was quite
+wrong; I ought not to have forgotten."
+
+"There is no necessity for an apology," she said, more distantly than
+before. "Will you sit down? You want to see me about something, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes," he said, sitting down and fingering the brim of his hat somewhat
+nervously. "Yes, that is what I have come over to Worcester for. In
+fact, I have been wanting to see you for some time. In the first place,
+I had a rather extraordinary letter from Carol some time ago, sending
+back some money which I, of course, can't accept, so I've brought it
+with me to ask you to take it and use it in any way that you think fit."
+
+"You mean, of course, in charity?" said Dora, looking him straight in
+the eyes. "You wouldn't insult me by meaning it in any other way."
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not," he said, more awkwardly than before, and
+wondering what on earth had produced this extraordinary change in her
+manner. "I hope you know me well enough to believe me quite incapable of
+such a thing."
+
+"If you only knew how well I know you!" thought Dora, "I wonder what
+you'd think?"
+
+But she said aloud, and rather more kindly than before:
+
+"You must forgive me, Mr. Garthorne, I spoke rather hastily then. I
+quite see what you mean. It's very good of you, and I'm sure that if
+Carol were here she would tell me to take the money and use it that
+way--so I will."
+
+"Thank you very much, Miss Murray," he replied, taking an envelope out
+of his pocket-book. "There are the notes and postal orders exactly as
+she sent them to me. And now, may I ask where she is?"
+
+"I can't answer that, Mr. Garthorne, because I don't know. The night
+that she sent you that money back she made the acquaintance of a very
+nice fellow who is something more than a millionaire, and since then
+they've been taking a sort of irregular honeymoon round the world. The
+last letter I had from her was from Sydney. She seems very jolly and
+enjoying herself immensely."
+
+"Glad to hear it," said Garthorne, speaking the thing which was not
+altogether true. "She's a jolly girl, and deserves the best of
+luck--which she seems to have got. And the millionaire----?"
+
+Dora shook her head, and said quietly but decisively.
+
+"No, Mr. Garthorne, I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about him. It
+would be a breach of confidence if I did, and so I'm sure you won't ask
+for it. Do you want to ask me about anything else?"
+
+"Yes," he said, hesitatingly, "I do." There was a little pause, during
+which they looked at each other, he enquiringly and she absolutely
+impassive. Then he went on: "Of course, you saw us in the Cathedral
+yesterday, and I think you know Sir Arthur Maxwell personally. You met
+him once or twice when he went to call on Carol at Melville Gardens."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then there was another pause, and, as Garthorne didn't seem able to find
+anything to say, Dora went on speaking very quietly, but with a curious
+note of restraint in her voice which puzzled him considerably.
+
+"I do know Sir Arthur, and I tried hard to persuade Carol to do what he
+wanted her to do, although, all the same, I think I should have done as
+she did if I had been her. I don't know whether you saw Sir Arthur speak
+to me in the Cathedral as we were coming out, but he did. I have had a
+letter from him this morning, and he is coming to see me."
+
+"Of course, you are not going to say anything----"
+
+"No, sir, I am not," said Dora, rising from her chair white to the lips
+and with an ominous glitter in her eyes. She took up the envelope which
+Garthorne had laid on the table, and tossed it at him. "You know me for
+what I am in London, and it seems that you only look upon me as an
+animal to be hired for the amusement of people like you, not as a woman
+who still has her notions of honour. That is an insult which I cannot
+pardon. You behaved well, as things go, to Carol, but you have now shown
+me that, whatever you are in name and family, you are in yourself an
+unspeakable cad. You came here thinking that I was going to blackmail
+you because I happened to know something about you which you would not
+like your wife to know. If you only knew what I could tell you----"
+
+And then she checked herself, and after a little pause, she pointed to
+the door and said:
+
+"You have got your money, Mr. Garthorne, and there is the door. You will
+oblige me by leaving the house as soon as possible."
+
+"But really, Miss Murray----" he began, as he rose, not a little
+bewildered, from his chair.
+
+"Stop!" she said. "In mercy to yourself and your wife, stop! There is
+the door; go, and remember that from now we are strangers, and if ever
+you meet Carol again--no, I won't say that. God grant that you never
+may see her again, for if you do----"
+
+"Well, and suppose I do, Miss Murray, what then?" he interrupted, with
+his hand on the handle of the door. He had never heard such words from
+the lips of either man or woman before, and that personal vanity which
+is a characteristic even of the worst of men was grievously outraged.
+
+"Never mind what I mean," she said, cutting him short again. "I have
+said all that I am going to say except this--if ever you meet Carol
+again, for her sake and yours, for your wife's and your children's when
+they come, _don't see her_. Now go!"
+
+There was a something in her voice and in her manner which said even
+more than her lips had done. Something which not only struck him dumb
+for the time being, but which also drove home into his soul a conviction
+that this girl, outcast and social pariah as she was, not only held his
+fate in her hands, but that she possessed some unknown power over his
+destiny, that she knew something which, if spoken, might blast the
+bright promise of his life and overwhelm him in irretrievable ruin.
+
+She had called him a cad, and as his thoughts flew back to that morning
+in Vane Maxwell's rooms at Oxford, a pang of self-conviction told him
+that she had spoken justly. He felt, too, that he was hopelessly in the
+wrong, that by his suggestion he had sorely insulted her, and that in
+exchange for his insult she had given him mercy. He would have given
+anything to know the real meaning of her words, and yet he dare not even
+ask her.
+
+He looked round at her once and saw her, standing rigid and impassive
+waiting to be relieved of his presence. His thoughts went back a few
+months to the times when those little dinners of four had been so
+pleasant, and when this girl, who was now looking at him like an
+accusing angel, had matched even Carol herself in the gaiety of her
+conversation and the careless use she made of her mother-wit, and he
+tried hard to say something which should in some way cover his retreat,
+but the words wouldn't come, and so he just opened the door and walked
+out.
+
+Dora heard the street door bang behind him, and then her tensely-strung
+nerves relaxed. She dropped into an easy chair, clasped her hands over
+her temples, and whispered:
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear, how is all this going to end, and what would happen
+if they only knew! And now I've got to see Sir Arthur. Shall I tell him
+everything or not? No, I daren't, I daren't. It's too awful. Was there
+ever anything like it in the world before?"
+
+And then her body swayed forward, her elbows dropped on to her knees,
+her hands clasped her temples tighter, and the next moment she had burst
+into a passion of tears.
+
+Tears are a torture to men and a relief to women, so in a few minutes
+she lifted her head again, the storm was over and she began to look the
+situation over calmly. The more she thought of it the more certain it
+seemed that she could do nothing but irretrievable mischief by even
+hinting to Sir Arthur anything of what she knew. At any rate she decided
+that until Carol came back she would keep her knowledge absolutely to
+herself.
+
+Then the train of her thoughts was suddenly broken by the postman's
+knock at the door. There was a London letter addressed to herself in the
+familiar handwriting of Mr. Bernard Falcon. As she opened it she
+experienced a singular mixture of relief and vexation, tinged by a
+suggestion of shame.
+
+The letter began with an inquiry as to when she was coming back to
+Town, and ended with an invitation to spend a week end in the round trip
+from London to Dover, Calais, Boulogne and Folkestone.
+
+She had been nearly a fortnight in Worcester, and, truth to tell, she
+was getting a little tired of it. Falcon's letter offered her a double
+relief. It would save her from the ordeal of meeting Sir Arthur, and,
+combined with the visit of "Mr. Johnson," it would give her a good
+excuse to her parents for going back to Town at once; so she sat down
+and wrote two letters, one to Falcon telling him that he could meet her
+at Paddington the next evening, and the other to Sir Arthur telling him
+all she knew about Carol, saving only the name of her companion, and
+regretting that she would not be able to meet him, as she was starting
+for the Continent that day. For obvious reasons she, of course, said
+nothing of Garthorne's visit to her.
+
+Sir Arthur was as much disappointed with his letter as Mr. Falcon was
+pleased by his. Dora left Worcester the day that he received it, and
+while she was dining with Mr. Falcon at the Globe Restaurant, Sir Arthur
+was telling Vane and Mark Ernshaw, who had come over to dine and sleep
+at the Abbey, all that he knew of Miss Carol's latest escapade.
+
+"I'm very, very sorry," said Ernshaw when he had finished. "We've never
+told you before, Sir Arthur, but I may as well tell you now that, if
+Miss Vane had not disappeared as mysteriously as she did, Vane was to
+have introduced me to her, and I was going to marry her if she would
+have me."
+
+Sir Arthur looked at him in silence for a few moments, and then he took
+his hand and said:
+
+"I know that is true, Ernshaw, because you have said it; though I would
+not have believed it from anyone else except Vane. I would willingly
+give everything that I possess and go back to work to make such a thing
+possible, but I'm afraid it isn't, and now, of course, it is more
+impossible than ever. Frankly, I don't believe she'd have you. It sounds
+a very curious thing to say, but from what I have seen of her, granted
+even that she fell in love with you, the more she loved you the more
+absolutely she would refuse to marry you. You know we offered her
+everything we could. Vane and I both agreed to acknowledge her and have
+her to live with us, but it was no use. She refused in such a way that
+she made me long all the more to take her for my own daughter before the
+world; but there was no mistaking the refusal, and the day after our
+last interview she clinched it by vanishing, I suppose with this young
+millionaire who is with her now. It's very terrible, of course, but
+there it is. It's done, and I'm afraid there's no mending it. Perhaps,
+after all, it is better for you that it should be so."
+
+"Yes, Ernshaw," said Vane. "It's not a nice thing to say under the
+circumstances, but I think the governor's right."
+
+"Possibly, but I don't agree with you," he replied. "You know I am what
+a good many people would call an enthusiast on the subject of this
+so-called social evil, for which, as I believe, Society itself is almost
+entirely to blame, and I am quite prepared to put my views into
+practice."
+
+"Then," said Sir Arthur, smiling gravely, "I think when we get back to
+Town I'd better introduce you to Miss Murray, who was living with Carol
+in Melville Gardens, where I first saw her. She was in the Cathedral on
+Sunday. Her parents live in Worcester, and they believe, poor people,
+that she has a little millinery business in London. She says she's
+going on the Continent, I suppose with this friend of hers. But she has
+given me an address in London where she can be found.
+
+"Now there, Ernshaw," he went on, "there I believe you would find a far
+better subject for your social experiment, if you are determined to make
+it, than poor Carol could ever be. I don't know her history, but she is
+evidently a lady born and educated. She is quite as good-looking as
+Carol, only an entirely different type, taller, darker, and with deep,
+mysterious brown eyes which evidently have a soul behind them. At any
+rate, I'm quite convinced that she would make a much better social
+missionary's wife than poor Carol would.
+
+"She, I sadly fear, is 'a daughter of delight,' as the French call them,
+pure and simple. She told me point blank that she preferred her present
+mode of life to respectability, and that she considered that taking even
+my money or Vane's, when she had no real claim upon us, was more
+degrading and would hurt her self-respect a great deal more than doing
+what she is doing. In other respects she's as good a girl as ever
+walked, and as honest as the daylight, but I'm afraid there is no hope
+of social regeneration for her."
+
+"Hope was once found for one a thousand times worse than she!" said
+Ernshaw quietly. "But as I have seen neither of them yet, no harm can be
+done by my making the acquaintance of Miss Murray to begin with."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Arthur, not at all sorry to change the subject.
+"And now, talking about social missionaries, Vane, have you quite made
+up your mind to carry out this scheme of yours, this crusade against
+money-making and the pomps and vanities of Society? Do you really mean
+to show that your own father has been living in sin all these years;
+that he is not, in fact, a Christian at all, because it is impossible
+for anyone to be decently well off and a Christian at the same time? A
+nice sort of thing that, Ernshaw, isn't it?"
+
+"If Vane honestly believes, as he does, that his is the only true
+definition of a Christian, it is not only his right but his duty to
+preach it," was the young priest's reply.
+
+"It is my belief," said Vane quietly, "and, God helping me, I will do
+what I believe to be my duty."
+
+The party at the Abbey broke up a few days after this, and in another
+week or so Enid and her husband were in the full swing of the great
+merry-go-round which is called the London season. She was unquestionably
+the most beautiful of the brides of the year, and she was the undisputed
+belle of the Drawing Room at which she was presented.
+
+Garthorne was, of course, very proud of her, and received plenty of that
+second-hand sort of admiration which is accorded alike to the owner of a
+distinguished race-horse, a prize bull-dog, or a pretty wife.
+
+Under the circumstances, therefore, it was perfectly natural that they
+should enjoy themselves very thoroughly, and though towards the end
+Garthorne began to get a little bored, and to think rather longingly of
+his yacht on the Solent and his grouse moor in Scotland, Enid, with her
+youth and beauty and perfect constitution, enjoyed every hour and every
+minute of her waking life. Society had no very distinguished lion to
+fall down and worship that season, and so, towards the end, things were
+getting a little slow, and people were thinking seriously of escaping
+from the heat and dust of London, when the world of wealth and fashion
+was suddenly thrilled into fresh life by an absolutely new sensation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+One Sunday morning, about the middle of June, the large and fashionable
+congregation which filled the church of St. Chrysostom, South
+Kensington, a church which will be recognised as one of the very
+"highest" in London, and which, to use a not altogether unsuitable term,
+"draws" all the year round by reason of the splendour of its ritual, as
+well as the simple earnest eloquence of its clergy, was startled by the
+preaching of such a sermon as no member of it had ever heard before.
+
+The preacher for the morning was announced to be the Rev. Father Vane, a
+name which meant nothing to more than about half a dozen members of the
+congregation, but which every man and woman in the church had some cause
+to remember by the time the service was over.
+
+Father Baldwin, as the vicar of St. Chrysostom's was familiarly known,
+was a very old friend of Father Philip's, and Vane's appearance as
+preacher that morning was the result of certain correspondence which had
+taken place between them, and of several long and earnest conversations
+which he had had with Vane himself.
+
+The moment that Vane appeared in the pulpit, that strange rustling sound
+which always betokens an access of sensation in a church, became
+distinctly audible from the side where the women sat. As he stood there
+in cassock, cotta and white, gold-embroidered stole, he looked, as many
+a maid, and matron too, said afterwards, almost too beautiful to be
+human. Both as boy and man he had always been strikingly handsome, but
+the long weeks and months of prayer and fasting, and the constant
+struggle of the soul against the flesh, had refined and spiritualised
+him. To speak of an everyday man of the world, however good-looking he
+may be, as beautiful is rather to ridicule him than otherwise, but when
+such a man as Vane passes through such an ordeal as his had been, the
+word beauty may be justly used in the sense in which the feminine
+portion of the congregation of St. Chrysostom's unanimously used it that
+morning.
+
+There was a hush of expectation as he opened a small Bible lying on the
+desk in front of him. Then he raised his right hand and made the sign of
+the Cross.
+
+     "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
+     Amen!"
+
+The words were not hastily and inaudibly muttered as they too often are
+by the clergy of the High Anglican persuasion. They rang out as clearly
+as the notes of a bell through the silence of the crowded church, and
+the congregation recognised instantly that he possessed, at least, the
+first qualification of a great preacher.
+
+Then he took up his Bible, and said in a quite ordinary conversational
+tone:
+
+"It will be well if those who wish to follow what I am about to say will
+take their Bibles and turn to the fifth chapter of the Gospel according
+to St. Matthew."
+
+The opening was as unpromising as it was unconventional, but more than
+half the congregation obeyed, and when the rustling of leaves had
+subsided, he began to read the Sermon on the Mount.
+
+When the first thrill of astonishment had passed, it was noticed that,
+after the first few verses, he ceased to look at the Bible. Every member
+of the congregation had heard the words over and over again, but they
+had never heard them as they heard them now. It was nothing like the
+formal reading of the lessons to which they had been accustomed, and as
+the clear, pure tones of his voice rang through the church, and, as his
+eyes and face lighted up with the radiance of an almost divine
+enthusiasm, there were some in his audience who began to think that he
+might well have been a re-incarnation of one of those disciples of the
+Master who heard the words as they came from His lips that day on the
+Judean hillside.
+
+He went on verse after verse, never missing a word, and unconsciously
+emphasising each passage with gestures, slight in themselves, but
+eloquent and forcible in their exact suitability to the words, and very
+soon every man and woman in the church was listening to him, not only
+with rapt attention, but with a growing feeling of uneasiness and
+apprehension as to what was to follow.
+
+At length he came to the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter:
+
+     "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from
+     me, ye that work iniquity."
+
+There was an emphasis upon the last few words which sent a thrill of
+emotion, and, in many cases, one of angry expectation, through the
+crowded congregation. It was one of the wealthiest, and most
+fashionable in London, but, saving a comparatively few really earnest
+souls, it was composed for the most part of idlers and loungers, who
+came to St. Chrysostom's partly because it was one of the most
+fashionable churches in the West End, partly because it was the proper
+thing to attend Church on Sunday, and partly because the music, and
+singing and preaching were all so good, and the elaborate ceremonial was
+so perfectly performed, that it afforded the means of spending a few
+hours on Sunday in a very pleasant way.
+
+The young preacher looked at the crowd of well-dressed men and women for
+a few moments in silence, as though he would give them time to realise
+the tremendous solemnity of the words they had just heard. There was
+dead, breathless silence at first, and then came a rustling sound,
+mingled with one of deep breathing. Then he began again in the same
+direct, conversational tone in which he had asked them to take their
+Bibles.
+
+"I am addressing," he said, in a low, clear tone which could be heard as
+distinctly at the church doors as it could by those immediately under
+the pulpit, "an audience which is composed of men and women who are,
+nominally, at least, Christians, and now I am going to ask you, every
+man and woman of you, to ask your own souls the simple question, whether
+you really are Christians, or not.
+
+"A good many of you, I daresay, will be a little startled, perhaps some
+of you may even be offended by the suggestion of such a question. With
+every regard for your feelings as brother men and sister women, I
+sincerely hope you will be. My reason for hoping that is very simple.
+The vast majority of people in Christian countries are Christians
+simply because they have been born of Christian parents, just as they
+are Protestants or Catholics because their parents were such before
+them, and their early training has strongly predisposed their minds to
+the acceptance--too often the blind acceptance--of a certain set of
+doctrines which, with all reverence, are by themselves of no more use
+for the purpose of saving a human soul from eternal damnation than the
+multiplication table would be. These doctrines, these creeds, are aids
+to salvation, most potent aids, but they are not essentials, since of
+themselves they cannot save.
+
+"It is far too often taken for granted that, because a man has been
+brought up in a Christian family, has been baptised into the Church of
+Christ, and has later on been admitted into the communion of that
+Church, that, therefore, he is justified in believing himself to be a
+Christian. He has, as we of the Church Catholic and Universal fervently
+believe, been placed in the path which leads to salvation. His vision
+has been cleared from the mists of error. The Church, in the fulfilment
+of her holy mission, has caused the white light of heaven to shine upon
+his eyes. His feet have been set in the strait gate and on the narrow
+way which leads to eternal life, but not all the priests from Abraham
+down to our own day, nor all the Churches that ever were founded can do
+any more. The way must be travelled by the man himself, his own eyes
+must see the light, his own feet must tread the way, no matter how steep
+or difficult it may be--or that man has no more right to call himself a
+Christian than any worshipper of any of the false gods whose reign has
+vanished from the earth.
+
+"It was for the purpose of bringing this most solemn truth, this most
+solemn and momentous of all truth home to you that I began by repeating
+the words which the Greatest of all Preachers pronounced for the
+guidance of those who should come after Him."
+
+He paused, and took up his Bible again. Meanwhile, a few people, both
+men and women, whose dress and appearance bore unmistakable signs of
+worldly wealth, got up and walked out of the church.
+
+Vane watched them go, and as he did so the rest saw a complete change of
+expression come over his countenance. His eyes grew sombre and
+sorrowful, his lips tightened, and something like a frown gathered upon
+his brow. He not only waited in the midst of an almost unnatural silence
+until they had gone, but he went on waiting for some moments longer as
+though he would give anyone else an opportunity of leaving the church if
+they desired to do so. No one stirred. The look which he turned upon
+them from the pulpit seemed like a spell which held them to their seats.
+Then his lips opened, and they heard his voice, tinged with an infinite
+sadness, saying:
+
+     "'The young man saith unto him: All these things have I kept from
+     my youth up. What lack I yet?
+
+     "'Jesus saith unto him: If thou wouldst be perfect go and sell that
+     thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
+     heaven, and come and follow me.
+
+     "'But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful,
+     for he had great possessions.
+
+     "'Then said Jesus unto his disciples: Verily I say unto you that a
+     rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.'"
+
+Then there came another pause, during which his listeners seemed almost
+afraid to breathe, so strong was the spell of apprehension and
+expectancy which he had laid upon them, and he went on:
+
+"You have, everyone of you, heard those words read and spoken scores and
+hundreds of times. Has it ever struck you that they are words which, if
+you are a Christian man or woman, you must believe to be the words of
+God himself, spoken by the lips of Infallible Wisdom, and inspired by
+that Omniscience which sees you sitting here in this London church as
+plainly as It saw that other congregation which was assembled that day
+on the slope of the Mount of Olives, and which reads your hearts at this
+moment as It read theirs then? If you do not believe that, then it
+follows that you do not believe in the mission or the teaching of
+Christ. You do not believe that He spoke the truth when He told the
+young man that it was not only necessary to keep the commandments, as he
+had done from his youth up; but that it was also necessary for him to
+cease to be a rich man, and to distribute his wealth in relieving the
+necessities of the poor.
+
+"If you believe that Christ is very God of very God, as you say every
+Sunday of your lives, you cannot escape the obligation which those words
+put upon you except at the peril of your immortal souls. Remember that
+it is not by your faiths and beliefs, or by the doctrines you have held
+that you will be judged when you stand before the Last Tribunal. These
+are but instruments to be used well or ill, but the final appeal will
+come to your works. The last question that will be asked of you will not
+be 'What creed have you believed?' or 'What Church have you belonged
+to?' but 'What have you done?' and on the answer to that, as recorded
+in the books of God, will depend your fate for all eternity.
+
+"Remember the words, 'Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall
+enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
+Father which is in Heaven.'
+
+"Remember, too, that when you join in the services of the Church, and
+when you partake of her Sacraments, you are simply saying 'Lord,
+Lord'--a very good and righteous thing to say; but of no more use or
+benefit to your souls than an echo from a blank wall, unless you also do
+the will of Him who is in Heaven.
+
+"I know that there are many specious sayings invented by those who have
+reasons of their own for trying to prove that when the Son of God spoke
+these words He didn't mean what He said; and those who have invented
+these things are amongst the worst enemies of God and His Church on
+earth, no matter whether they say these lying words in the drawing-room
+or from the pulpit. They seek to comfort their consciences and the
+consciences of such as you by saying that times have changed since these
+words were uttered; that it would be quite impossible to put a literal
+interpretation upon them now.
+
+"Now the man who tells his fellow men that, no matter what his position
+in the world, is a liar and a hypocrite, and, what is worse, he is a
+maker of hypocrites, for it is my duty to tell you that every man and
+woman who professes Christianity before the world on Sunday and during
+the week disobeys the command of Christ as set forth here in His own
+words, is, consciously or unconsciously, a liar and a hypocrite also.
+
+"Let us see what these sayings look like when tested by ordinary logic,
+by that faculty of distinguishing the right from the wrong, the true
+from the false, which is perhaps the greatest of all God's gifts to men.
+
+"'Times have changed since the Son of God delivered the Sermon on the
+Mount.' That is one of those half-truths which are infinitely worse than
+a lie. Times _have_ changed. That is to say mortal men and mortal
+manners have changed; but does that warrant us in believing that the
+mind and will of the Immutable God have changed too; that what Christ
+himself declared to be fatal to salvation two thousand years ago, is
+compatible with salvation now? That what was unlawful then is lawful
+now--in short, that the Omniscient God, in whose eyes a thousand years
+are as one day and one day as a thousand years, who read the minds of
+men then as He reads them now, has altered the decrees of Eternal
+Justice and changed Eternal Truth into a lie?
+
+"If you believe these people, then you must believe that too. That
+Christ himself foresaw, as He must have done, that such false teachers
+as these would arise both in His Church and outside it is clearly proved
+by His own words:
+
+"'Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
+Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many
+wonderful works?
+
+"'And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you, depart from me ye
+that work iniquity.'
+
+"Remember that in that day when these words will be spoken hypocrisy and
+self-deceit will have become impossibilities. It will not be possible
+then for you to persuade yourselves, as no doubt you do now, that you
+are good Christians, or that you are Christians at all, because you
+believe certain doctrines and carry out certain ecclesiastical
+observances. You will see your own souls naked then, and the eye of
+Eternal and Immutable Justice will see them too--and unless you have
+proved that you have obedience as well as faith; that you have not only
+believed but also obeyed, you will most assuredly hear those words 'I
+never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity!'
+
+"But," he went on again, after another little pause during which some of
+his audience began to look round at each other with something like fear
+in their eyes, "do not forget that there is another course open to you.
+It may be that the things of this world, the conventions of society, the
+fear of poverty and the love of wealth, have taken such a hold upon you,
+that, although you dare not even confess it to yourselves, you prefer
+these things to obedience to the Divine command and all that it may
+bring.
+
+"You have it in perfectly plain language and on the highest possible
+authority that you cannot serve God and Mammon. Those are no empty
+words, they are one of the most solemn pronouncements ever made, and
+they affect you here and to all eternity. So long as you go on striving
+to increase your wealth by those means which must nowadays be employed
+to make money, you are not and you cannot be Christians. Those are harsh
+words, and yet if they are not true, the words of Christ himself are
+false. There is no escape from this dilemma, and if you think that
+devoting one day a week to the nominal service of God and six to the
+real, practical service of Mammon, you earn the right to call yourselves
+Christians, that is to say, followers of Christ, you are merely
+practising a pitiful piece of self-deception which would be ludicrous
+were its consequences not so solemn.
+
+"But, as I have said, there is another course open to you, a course
+which, terrible as it is, is better than the one that you are now
+following, because it is more honest. Be honest with yourselves and each
+other, and, what is of more consequence, be honest with God too. A
+well-known agnostic lecturer once said that no god could afford to damn
+an honest man, and I am not sure that he was not right; but if the words
+of Christ were not the empty mouthings of a charlatan or a dreamer,
+there cannot be the slightest doubt about the fate of the hypocrite.
+Remember that on the only occasion on which the gentle nature of our
+Lord was roused to anger he denounced in the most terrible language that
+human ears have ever heard those whom He called hypocrites, and,
+therefore, I say to you, at whatever cost, either to your pockets or to
+your souls, for you can take your choice which, cease to be hypocrites.
+
+"Cease this pitiful pretence which, though it may deceive yourselves,
+certainly does not deceive Him from whom no secrets are hid. If you
+cannot forsake the service of Mammon, if you really are so tightly bound
+by his golden chains to the things of this world that you cannot or will
+not break loose from the entrancing bondage, then, in the name of
+honesty, say so, say to yourselves and to your fellow men: 'I cannot do
+this thing. If I must give up the service of Mammon before I can call
+myself the servant of God, then I cannot become the servant of God, and
+I will make a hypocrite and a liar of myself no longer.' Then at least
+you would be honest and truthful, honest with yourselves and with your
+brother men and with your sister women and with God. You would, as I
+believe, and as you are now trying to make yourselves believe, have made
+the wrong choice, a choice whose consequences must inevitably face you
+on the other side of the grave, but you would, at least, be able to face
+the tribunal of Eternal Justice without shame, and, with all reverence I
+say it, I, as a Christian man, believe that for this reason the infinite
+mercy of God would find a means of salvation for you.
+
+"Be honest. For God's sake and your own, be honest, even though in
+becoming so, you cease to be what is commonly called respectable. If you
+really cannot serve God with a whole soul and without reservation, give
+up the attempt to serve Him and say so before all men. It would be a
+terrible thing to do, and yet, awful as such a step would be, it might
+be the first one towards your ultimate salvation. The angels might weep,
+but I hardly think that the devils would laugh, for the worst enemy of
+the Father of Lies is an honest man or woman. The gentle heart of Jesus
+might bleed for you, but Eternal Justice would respect you and give you
+your due. Once more, speaking not only as a priest of God, but as your
+fellow man, let me as man implore you to be honest, and as priest, warn
+you that the penalty of hypocrisy is eternal damnation. You have no
+choice in the matter. One or the other you must be, and you cannot
+possibly be both. Wherefore I tell you that whether you elect to be the
+servant of God or the servant of Mammon, you must let all men know
+plainly which you are. If you are reasonable beings you cannot believe
+in yourselves or in each other, unless you do this. Remember that,
+however fondly you may be deceiving yourselves, you cannot blind the
+eyes of Omniscience. It is a hard thing to say, and yet it is only the
+plain truth given to us by the lips of Christ himself, that you cannot
+believe in God unless you do the things which He says. Living your
+present lives you do not do them, and therefore you are not only
+infidels and atheists living without God, but you are worse--you are
+hypocrites, and woe unto you!
+
+"I tell you, speaking as solemnly as a priest of God can do in His house
+and in His presence that I would rather see this and every church in
+Christendom attended by a score of people--of real Christians whose
+daily lives throughout the week were really guided and sanctified by
+obedience to the teachings of the Master, than I would see them crowded
+with throngs of men and women like you, whose acts from Monday morning
+to Saturday night consistently belie every word that your lips utter
+here in the house of God and in the presence of the Holy Trinity.
+
+"No doubt, there is already anger against me in many of your hearts on
+account of what I have believed it my duty to say to you. I would not
+willingly incur the hatred of any man or woman, and yet I shall not
+altogether regret that anger, because it will be proof that my words
+have reached, not only your ears, but your hearts. I have spoken plainly
+and without regard to the conventionalities either of the world or of
+the pulpit, and I have done so because I believe that conventionality is
+the foe of truth, and therefore the enemy of religion. This, remember,
+is a subject of such awful solemnity, laden as it is with the eternal
+fate of every human soul that is baptised into the Church of God, that I
+have found it my duty to make it plain to you at any cost.
+
+"When you leave this church, send your horses and your carriages away
+and walk home, for you are deliberately breaking the law of God by using
+them on the Sabbath, and, remember, that he who breaks one jot or
+tittle of the law, shall be guilty of the whole, and, instead of going
+to church parade in the park, you women, to excite the admiration of the
+men and the envy of other women by the beauty of your dress, or the
+splendour of your equipage, and you men, to begin the sordid work of
+to-morrow before you have finished the holy task of to-day, go home and
+take your bibles into the solitude of your own chamber. Spend the rest
+of God's day with God Himself. And that you may do this good thing well
+and truly, and find help to choose that way of life which leadeth to
+eternal salvation, May the peace of God which passeth all understanding
+be with you now henceforth and for ever, Amen."
+
+He raised his right hand in benediction, turned towards the altar and
+made the sign of the Cross, and as he came down the pulpit steps and
+walked up the chancel to his place, some of those who saw him, said
+afterwards, that there was a light on his face which they had never seen
+on a human face before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+There was no communion after that service, and so the choir and priests
+formed for the recessional hymn. Father Baldwin, as the procession
+formed behind him, came to the front of the chancel and said:
+
+"Instead of the hymn appointed, it will be better if we end the service
+with number 274."
+
+     "Through the night of doubt and sorrow."
+
+The organ pealed out, the congregation rose, and the hymn began. It so
+happened that as Vane was passing the chairs on which Enid and her
+husband were sitting with several friends, the last verse but one was
+reached.
+
+     "Onward therefore, pilgrim brothers,
+       Onward, with the Cross our aid!
+     Bear its shame, and fight its battle,
+       Till we rest beneath its shade."
+
+At the words "Bear its shame and fight its battle," she looked up. Her
+eyes met Vane's for a moment; but there was no look of recognition in
+them. A sudden dart of pain seemed to shoot into her heart. This man,
+this prophet-priest, as he seemed to her now, had once been hers, her
+promised husband. How far away from her, how far above her was he now!
+
+She had listened to the sermon with a double interest, interest in the
+man as well as in the wonderful words he had just spoken--words so
+simple in themselves, and yet spoken with such terrible force, a force
+so terrible that within the space of a few minutes it had shattered all
+her worldly ideals and destroyed the faith that she had been brought up
+in, changing her whole outlook upon the world.
+
+She had been educated on the ordinary lines of conventional
+Christianity, and, until now, she had, like thousands of others,
+honestly believed herself to be a good Christian woman, just as she
+believed her mother to be. But, as it happened, there was that within
+her soul which instantly responded to the truth which she had heard
+to-day for the first time; and she saw that Vane was right, hopelessly,
+piteously right.
+
+And then as the procession passed she looked at her husband. He had
+already sat down, and was getting his hat from under the seat. The
+procession streamed slowly out of sight into the vestry, and the
+congregation moved out into the aisles with much soft rustling and
+swishing of skirts and a subdued, buzzing hum of eager conversation.
+
+As the three streams of well-dressed men and women converged towards the
+great doorway which led out into the street many began to ask themselves
+and each other if any one would obey the preacher's exhortation and send
+their carriages away. The carriages were lined up in the street just as
+they would be outside a theatre. Some of their owners got in and drove
+away, making very pointed remarks on the impropriety of bringing such
+subjects as carriages and horses into sermons and the length that young
+curates would go now-a-days to obtain notoriety. Others dismissed
+theirs and went away trying to look unconcerned; while other people
+stared after them, some smiling and others looking serious.
+
+The Garthornes' victoria, drawn by a pair of beautiful light bays, drew
+up, and Garthorne put out his hand to help Enid in, but she drew back
+and said:
+
+"No, thanks, I think I'll walk."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Enid!" he said impatiently. "Time is getting on, and we
+must have our turn in the Park. Everybody will be there, and this is
+about the last Sunday in the season. We haven't over much time either."
+
+"I am not going into the Park, Reginald," she said decidedly. "I am
+going to walk straight home. You can go and do Church Parade if you
+like."
+
+"All right, Tomkins, you can go home," he said to the coachman. "Mrs.
+Garthorne prefers to walk."
+
+The coachman and footman touched their hats, and the victoria drove
+away.
+
+"Surely to goodness, Enid," said Garthorne almost angrily, as they
+walked away together, "you are not doing this because Maxwell said it
+was wrong to use carriages on a Sunday! Good heavens, if we were to
+translate sermons into everyday life it would be rather a funny world to
+live in."
+
+"Then what is the use of going to hear them, if they are not to be taken
+seriously?" she said, looking up quickly at him. "Why should they be
+preached, or why should we go to church at all?"
+
+"Because it is the proper thing to do, I suppose, and because Society,
+whose slaves we are, makes it one of the social functions of the week,"
+replied Garthorne, who had as much real religion in his composition as
+a South African Bushman. "We men go because you women do, and you women
+go to show others how nicely you can dress, and to see what they have
+got on."
+
+"My dear Reginald, that is about as true as it is original, and that is
+not saying very much for it. If we don't go to church for any other
+reasons than those it is merely mockery and wickedness to go at all. I
+was very glad to see that a great many people did send their carriages
+away. Next Sunday I hope they will have the decency to walk."
+
+"Especially if the British climate, as it probably will, ends up the
+season with a pouring wet Sunday!" laughed Garthorne. "No, dear, those
+godly precepts are all very well when you read them in Sunday School
+books or hear them from the pulpit, and I am sure Vane put them most
+admirably to-day, although I confess I was slightly surprised to hear a
+really clever fellow like him preaching such hopelessly impossible
+nonsense. Of course I don't mean any offence to him--far from it, but
+really, you know, if theories like those could be put into practice they
+would simply turn the world upside down."
+
+"I think you might have found a better word than nonsense," she replied
+a trifle sharply; "but the world of to-day certainly would have to be
+turned upside down or inside out to make it anything like Christian.
+That, at least, Vane--I mean Mr. Maxwell--taught us this morning."
+
+"Christian according to the Reverend Vane Maxwell," he said, with the
+suspicion of a sneer. "Fortunately the Churches have agreed that such a
+violent operation is not necessary. By the way, though, won't Maxwell
+get himself into a howling row with the ecclesiastical powers that be!
+Just imagine the bench of Bishops standing anything like that!"
+
+"Yes," she said quietly, "the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount in a
+fashionable London church! It does sound very terrible, doesn't it? And
+yet, after all, I suppose they can't take his orders away from him even
+for that. I wonder what would happen? It is sure to be in the papers
+to-morrow, and of course everybody will be talking about it."
+
+"Yes," said Garthorne; "but if Master Vane thinks he is going to play
+Savanarola to this generation he will find that he has taken on a pretty
+large order. Are you quite sure you won't take a turn in the Park, even
+on foot?"
+
+"No, I'd rather not, but don't let me keep you if you would like a
+stroll. I can get home all right."
+
+"Well, if you don't mind, Enid, I think I will. There are one or two
+fellows I want to see particularly about something, so bye-bye for the
+present."
+
+He raised his hat and turned back, and she went on towards the house in
+Queen's Gate with many strange thoughts in her heart.
+
+Enid and her husband were by no means the only members of the
+congregation of St. Chrysostom who discussed Vane's sermon on their way
+home. In fact, whether people walked or rode home, it was the universal
+topic. Some discussed it with timorous sympathy; others, perhaps with
+more worldly wisdom, talked of it quietly and cynically as the outburst
+of a half-fledged clerical enthusiast who would very soon find out that
+his superiors, on whom he depended for preferment, regarded the
+doctrines of Christianity as one thing and the practises of the Church
+as something entirely different.
+
+"He's a clever fellow, a very clever fellow and very earnest," said Lord
+Canore, who was a patron of several fat livings, to her ladyship and his
+two daughters as they drove home, "but he'll soon get those rough
+corners knocked off him. If they are wise they will give him a good
+living, and then make him a canon as soon as possible. There's nothing
+like preferment to sober a man down in the Church."
+
+"Yes," sighed Lady Caroline Rosse, the elder daughter, who was getting
+somewhat _passée_, and was deeply interested in Church work; "what a
+beautiful voice he has, and such a wonderful face! Really, he looked
+almost inspired at times. He would make quite an ideal bishop, and, you
+know, some quite young men are being made bishops now-a-days."
+
+"Yes," chuckled his lordship, as he lay back against the cushions, "that
+is the sort of thing I mean. You don't catch bishops preaching the
+Sermon on the Mount and sub-editing it as they go on."
+
+"My dear Canore," said her ladyship frigidly, "I think we had better
+change the subject; that last remark of yours was almost blasphemous."
+
+"Never heard such rubbish preached from a respectable pulpit in my
+life," said Mr. Horace Faustmann, a member of the Stock Exchange,
+director of several limited companies and a most liberal contributor to
+the offertories, and all Church effort in the parish of St. Chrysostom,
+to his wife as they rolled smoothly in their cee-spring, rubber-tyred
+victoria towards Hyde Park Corner.
+
+"Why, if you can't make plenty of money and still be a Christian, where
+are subscriptions coming from, and what price the Church endowments? It
+seems absolutely absurd to me. I wonder what on earth Baldwin was
+thinking about to let him preach a sermon like that in the smartest
+church in the West End. If he goes on in that style he will just ruin
+the show. Anyhow, he gets no more of my money if he is going to insult
+rich people in the pulpit. Any more of that sort of thing, my dear, and
+we'll go somewhere else, won't we?"
+
+"I should think so," said the beautiful Mrs. Faustmann. She was the
+daughter of a poor aristocrat, and had made a very good social and
+financial bargain. She was one of the smartest women and most successful
+entertainers in London. There was another man eating his heart out on
+her account in the Burmese jungle, and sometimes, in her tenderest
+moment, she gave him a thought and a little sigh--about as much thought
+and sigh as her engagements permitted.
+
+"Yes, Father Baldwin will really ruin the Church if he allows that sort
+of thing. Of course all the good people will give it up. In fact, you
+saw the Steinways, the Northwicks, the Athertons and several more leave
+the church before he was half way through his harangue, for really you
+could hardly call it a sermon. All the same, the church will be thronged
+to-night and next Sunday, because people will go there just for the
+sensation of the thing, and to see if anything else is going to happen;
+but poor Father Baldwin will simply be inundated with letters from the
+best of his people, and I don't think he'll find them very pleasant
+reading. I am going to write, and, although I respect the dear man very
+much, I shall tell him exactly what I think."
+
+"Quite right," said her husband, as they turned into the Park. "You give
+it to him straight. If you don't, I shall drop him a line myself and
+tell him that if he wants any more of my money, and he has had a good
+bit, he will have to keep his half-broken clerical colts a bit better in
+hand; I'm not going to support a church to be insulted in it."
+
+Many other similar conversations were going on just then in the Park, in
+fact, Vane and his sermon were already being discussed by half
+fashionable London, so fast does the news of so startling an event
+travel from lip to lip when a crowd of somewhat _blasé_ people, who have
+nothing in particular to talk about, get together. Most of the comments
+were quite similar to those just quoted, for Society felt generally by
+dinner time that night that it had been deliberately insulted, outraged,
+in fact, through its representatives in the congregation of St.
+Chrysostom.
+
+Nevertheless the church was packed to its utmost capacity at evening
+service. It was known that Father Baldwin was to preach, but it was
+hoped that Vane would take some part in the service, and of course
+everyone wanted to see him; still, the audience went away disappointed.
+Vane was far away, helping Ernshaw at his mission in Bethnal Green, and
+was telling his congregation truths just as uncompromising and perhaps
+as unpalatable as those he had told to his wealthy and aristocratic
+hearers in the morning.
+
+Father Baldwin preached, but his sermon was rather a homily on the
+duties of the rich towards the poor, especially at a time when the rich
+were about to migrate like gay-plumaged birds of passage to other lands
+and climes in search of pleasure, leaving behind the millions of their
+fellow mortals and fellow Christians, whose ceaseless life-struggle left
+no leisure for the delights which they had come to look upon as the
+commonplaces of their existence.
+
+He only made one brief allusion to Vane's sermon. He knew perfectly
+well that these thronging hundreds of people had not come to hear him.
+He felt, not without sorrow, that quite half of them had come to hear,
+or at least see, the man whose name was already the talk of fashionable
+London.
+
+"Some of you," he said, "who are present now heard this morning from
+this pulpit words which must have sunk deep into the heart of every man
+and woman who feels an earnest desire to follow in the footsteps of the
+Master as closely as imperfect human nature will permit you. It is not
+for me to tell you to what extent those words must be taken literally.
+They were spoken earnestly and from the inmost depths of the preacher's
+own soul--may they sink into the inmost depths of yours! They put the
+most vital interest of human life plainly, nay, uncompromisingly before
+you; how far you can or will follow them in your daily lives is a matter
+which rests between yourselves and your Redeemer."
+
+The next morning nearly all the papers contained more or less lengthy
+reports of a sermon of which half London was already talking. Ernest
+Reed, a smart young reporter with strong freethought tendencies, who
+made a Sunday speciality of reporting sermons of all sorts, especially
+the extreme ones, and who wrote caustically impartial comments on them
+in the rationalist papers, had instantly grasped the true significance
+of such a sermon being preached to such a congregation, and, moreover,
+he had himself been deeply affected by the solemn earnestness with which
+the momentous words had been spoken.
+
+"A Daniel come to judgment! A parson who believes in his own creed at
+last!" was his mental comment, as he closed his note-book. "That chap's
+worth following. I wonder where he is going to preach to-night. I'll
+find out."
+
+Of course he did find out and followed Vane to Bethnal Green, with the
+result that he made what is professionally termed "a scoop," since he
+was the only reporter who was able to give both sermons verbatim. The
+_Daily Chronicle_ was the only morning paper smart enough to print them
+word for word in parallel columns under the title:
+
+     WEIGHTY WORDS TO RICH AND POOR.
+     The Rev. Vane Maxwell
+     Asks Mayfair and Bethnal Green
+     If they are Christian?
+
+The consequence was, that all London and a very considerable part of
+England too, stared wonderingly over its breakfast table and asked
+itself whether there was really anything in these plain, almost homely,
+and yet terribly pregnant words. Certainly there was no getting away
+from the pitiless logic of them. If Vane Maxwell was right, England was
+_not_ a Christian country, save in name, and its citizens were
+Christians only because they had been baptized into one or other of the
+churches and so called themselves Christians by a sort of courtesy
+title. For the moment at least, Christianity assumed a shape as tangible
+and a meaning almost as serious as party politics. In other words Vane's
+sermon, even when read in cold print, put the question: Are you really a
+Christian? so plainly, so uncompromisingly, and so unavoidably to every
+man or woman calling himself or herself a Christian, that hundreds of
+thousands of people all over the country, to say nothing of a million
+or two in London, felt a sudden, and, as it seemed to them, somewhat
+unaccountable obligation to give an equally plain answer to it. What was
+the answer to be?
+
+"Yes or no?"
+
+It certainly was a very serious matter to millions who had never thought
+of asking the question for themselves, and whose pastors and spiritual
+masters had mostly contented themselves with lecturing and teaching in
+soul-soothing, instead of soul-searching, words.
+
+They, good folk, had really never troubled themselves very much about
+the matter. They had their business affairs to attend to, their wives
+and families to keep out of the workhouse or to maintain in comfort or
+luxury, as the case might be, and a good many of them had certain social
+duties to perform; and so they had got into the way of letting the
+churches and chapels, the bishops, priests, deacons and so forth, look
+after these things.
+
+They were paid to do so. That was rather an ugly thought. At least, it
+seemed to be so, after reading the words of Jesus Christ, and His
+servant Vane Maxwell; but still it _was_ a fact; and some of them were
+very highly paid. They were living in charming houses and had very
+comfortable investments in companies which made money anyhow, so long as
+they made it. Others were wretchedly paid, it was true, mostly
+half-starved and inevitably in debt; but still, neither of these facts
+affected the main question, which, of course, was the personal one: Are
+you--rich man or poor man--you who read these words, a Christian? Are
+you, as the preacher had asked in those five terrible words, honest
+before God and man?
+
+Then to the scores and hundreds of thousands of people who read this,
+came, in a whispering terror, the further question:
+
+"Do you think you can cheat God, even if you are cheating yourself and
+other people like you--the God Whom you have been taught to believe in
+as knowing all things, the God to whom all secrets are known?"
+
+It was a distinctly ugly question to answer, and more Bibles were
+searched throughout the United Kingdom than had been for many a long
+year past; but no searcher found any answer that satisfied his own soul,
+if he had one, save the one that was given from the Mount of Olives:
+
+"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
+
+As the young preacher had said, there was no compromise. There was
+certainly the alternative of being honest one way or the other; but that
+sort of honesty had a very appalling prospect to the respectable British
+citizen, especially those, who, in any way, resembled the young man who
+came to Christ and asked Him what he should do to be saved. It was, in
+short, a case of becoming comparative paupers, and only having the bare
+necessaries of life, or keeping what they had, and saying honestly to
+themselves, the world, and God:
+
+"I can't be a Christian at that price, and so, instead of remaining a
+Christian humbug, I will be an honest atheist."
+
+A very terrible dilemma, certainly, and yet, if the Gospels were true,
+and if the Son of God had really preached the Sermon on the Mount, it
+was one from which there was no escape but this. It was a plain matter
+of belief or disbelief, honesty or dishonesty, and, if they believed in
+God, dishonesty was impossible, save under the penalty of eternal
+damnation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+That day the clergy-house of St. Chrysostom was, of course, deluged with
+newspapers and cuttings, and the flood continued for two or three days,
+during which Vane, unconscious or careless of the fact that he was
+already the clerical lion of London, and, perhaps, the most discussed
+man for the time being in England and the sister kingdoms, was working
+hard helping his friend, Ernshaw, to organize an entirely unsectarian
+twentieth century crusade throughout the poorer districts of London. He
+seldom read newspapers, for he preferred the living fact to the written
+word, and, besides, such work as his left little time for reading. He
+had seen his name on the placards of the morning and evening papers, and
+he had bought some which he had not found time to do more than glance
+over.
+
+He was, of course, glad that his sermon had attracted so much attention,
+but he knew enough of newspapers and their readers not to hope for too
+much on this account, and so he was not a little surprised when Father
+Baldwin said to him on his return to the clergy-house on the Friday
+evening:
+
+"Well, Maxwell! glad to see you back, although you have brought a nice
+hornet's nest about our ears, and started something like a social and
+religious earthquake in Kensington and the adjacent lands of Mayfair and
+Belgravia, to say nothing of a distinct fluttering in what I may,
+perhaps, without irreverence call the upper and more spacious dove-cotes
+of the Church."
+
+"Have I really?" said Vane, quietly, "I didn't know I had, but if I have
+done so, I am very glad. It was exactly what I intended to do, though I
+confess I had little hope of doing so. What is the matter? I hope I
+haven't got _you_ into any unpleasantness, Father Baldwin."
+
+"It doesn't very much matter if you have," replied the older priest,
+leaning back in his chair and looking at him keenly from under his
+thick, iron-grey eyebrows. "You only said what has been in the hearts
+and souls of a good many of us for a long time, but it was given to you
+to say it and, let us hope, also the inspiration to say it in the proper
+way."
+
+"Please God!" said Vane. "And now what have I done; I mean as regards
+yourself and St. Chrysostom?"
+
+"To begin with," replied Father Baldwin, "about half the wealthiest
+members of the congregation, men and women, but mostly men, have written
+to say that if they are to be publicly insulted from the pulpit, and
+told that they are liars and hypocrites, and not Christians, save in
+name, they will leave the church and withdraw all their
+subscriptions--which, of course, from quite a worldly point of view,
+would be somewhat a serious matter for the church."
+
+"That simply proves that they are not Christians," said Vane, "and the
+church is better without their money. They practically confess that
+they never have been giving their money honestly for the service of God,
+but merely for self-advertisement or as a social obligation. It would be
+no loss to us, and little gain to anybody else they gave it to."
+
+"Yes, I believe you are right," replied Father Baldwin. "It seems rather
+a hard thing to say, but people who would leave a church because the
+Sermon on the Mount was preached from its pulpit, must be a strange sort
+of Christians."
+
+"They are not Christians at all!" exclaimed Vane, with a burst of
+righteous wrath, "they are the bane and curse of Christianity, and have
+been ever since Constantine made it official and fashionable. They are
+responsible for every corruption that has crept into the Church, for
+every blot that defiles the purity of the Creed. They are not
+Christians, and they never have been, for they cannot be what they are
+and followers of Christ at the same time. They and the wealthy clergy of
+all the churches are responsible for the unfaith, tacit and avowed, of
+what we are pleased to call the lower classes; the classes who compose
+the majority of Christ's Congregation; and they are responsible for all
+the cynicism of the open and active enemies of our faith. It is they who
+make it possible for the infidel and the atheist to point the finger of
+scorn at us and say, 'See how these Christians love to do the Will of
+their Master.'"
+
+"I fully appreciate everything you say, Maxwell," replied Father
+Baldwin, with some little hesitation in his tone; for, although he was
+as good a Christian as ever gave up everything to serve his Master, and
+as earnest a priest as ever stood before the altar, yet he was getting
+on in years and found it hard to break away from the traditions amidst
+which he had grown up, and which he had accepted as a young man with
+little or no inquiry. "At the same time, I must candidly admit that I
+was a trifle startled by your absolutely uncompromising rendering of our
+Lord's words. Did you really intend that they should be taken
+literally?"
+
+"It is not what I intended, Father Baldwin," replied Vane, rising from
+his seat and beginning to walk up and down the plainly furnished,
+book-lined common-room, "the question is what _He_ intended, and surely
+no Christian in his senses could believe for a moment that our Lord
+intended to quibble with words and to play with double meanings. If He
+did not mean what He said, and intend those who followed Him to do what
+He said, what becomes of our faith? If that is not so, surely there is
+nothing left for us but to give up the doctrine of the Trinity
+altogether, and go back to the old Hebrew creed--which certainly did not
+forbid the accumulation of riches."
+
+"May I come in?" said Sir Arthur Maxwell's voice through the open door,
+"they told me you were here, Vane. Good evening, Father Baldwin. Well,
+this is a nice sort of commotion that this son of mine has been kicking
+up. Do you know, Sir," he went on, turning to Vane, "that you have
+suddenly made yourself one of the most famous, or, perhaps, I should say
+notorious, persons in London by that sermon of yours? It was very fine I
+admit, and most desperately to the point, but I suppose you know that
+all the world and the newspapers are asking where does that point point
+to?"
+
+"That is just what I was asking your son, Sir Arthur," said Father
+Baldwin. "Granted that he is right in his contention that the Sermon on
+the Mount is to be taken literally, it means nothing short of a
+religious as well as a social revolution."
+
+"That is exactly what the papers and everybody are saying," said Sir
+Arthur. "In fact, people are beginning to look at one another and ask
+some very awkward questions. For instance, here am I, that boy's father,
+I am not a rich man, but I have worked hard and my old age is
+comfortably provided for, and when I die what I have would naturally go
+to Vane, who, on his own showing, couldn't have it; in fact, as you
+know, he has given up about a thousand a year as it is that he had from
+my brother Alfred."
+
+"You will not get much sympathy from Father Baldwin on that score,
+father," laughed Vane, "you know he gave up nearly twice as much."
+
+"There is nothing in that," said Father Baldwin, hastily, as though he
+would stop them saying any more, "that is a point on which I entirely
+agree with you. When a man has money of his own, and devotes himself to
+the service of the Church, he should devote his money to it also. As a
+Christian and a priest he can have no lawful use for it, save in the
+work of the Church."
+
+"Unless he happens to be married and have a family," said Sir Arthur.
+"What ought he to do then, Father Baldwin?"
+
+"In that case, Sir Arthur," he replied, "I think he would do better to
+keep out of the ministry and devote himself honestly to the affairs of
+his own household. You remember, of course, what the Apostle Paul tells
+us, that the man who neglects those is worse than an infidel. Of course,
+it is not a good translation, and it reads very badly now that infidel
+has come to mean one who does not believe in creeds. It should, of
+course, read unfaithful, I mean, unfaithful to the solemn
+responsibilities he has taken upon himself; and, although I may be
+wrong, I find it difficult to see how a man can faithfully discharge
+those obligations and those of a priest of the Church, but that opens a
+very wide question, and there is a very great deal to be said on both
+sides of it."
+
+"There I quite agree with you," said Sir Arthur, "you know, of course,
+better than I do, that there are hundreds of hard-worked parsons in this
+country--especially in poor parishes--who can't afford curates, who
+simply couldn't get on without their wives, and I know one or two myself
+who say that their wives are worth a couple of curates. I'm fairly
+certain that in most poor country parishes the parson's wife is the good
+angel of the place."
+
+"There is not the slightest doubt about it," replied Father Baldwin, "I
+have seen quite enough of church work to convince me of that, and this
+is, of course, the very strongest argument, and a very convincing one,
+too, in a certain degree, against the celibacy of the clergy. But,
+still, Sir Arthur," he went on, with a change of tone, "I suppose you
+didn't come here to discuss theology and church matters. Of course, you
+want to see your son. My study is quite at your service, if you want to
+have a talk."
+
+"Thanks, very much, Father," said Sir Arthur, "what I really came for
+was to ask Vane to come round and have a bit of dinner with me. I have a
+good many things to talk over with him, and I have a guest or two coming
+whom I am anxious for him to meet. What do you say, Vane, can you come?"
+
+"Of course I can, dad," replied Vane. "I am taking a holiday till
+Sunday, and I couldn't spend it much better than at the old place. On
+Sunday I am going to deliver two lectures at the Hall of Science, Old
+Street, the head-quarters of the National Secular Society."
+
+"The _what_, Maxwell?" exclaimed Father Baldwin, with a note of
+something more than astonishment in his voice, "the Hall of
+Science--why, that was Bradlaugh's place--the head-centre of London
+infidelity."
+
+"Excuse me, Father," said Vane, gravely, "do you not think that is a
+word we are accustomed to use too vaguely? Is it quite fair or logical
+to call these people infidels? Are they not rather faithful to their
+convictions, however wrong they may be? Surely we must, at least, give
+them the credit of believing in their disbelief. Last night I heard an
+informal confession--one of the strangest, perhaps, that a priest ever
+heard--from a young fellow, of about twenty-two, who reported my sermon
+here, and then followed me to Bethnal Green and sent in both accounts to
+the papers.
+
+"He is well educated, very clever, and the son of a clergyman. He is
+also what people call an infidel, and yet he made a confession of faith
+to me that would have melted the soul of a financier, if he had one.
+After that I shall never hear these people called infidels without a
+protest. And, besides, is it not a good thing that a priest of God
+should speak the truth that is in him in the temple of the unbelievers?
+How many of our churches would permit one of their lecturers to speak
+from the pulpit, or even from the platform of one of our schoolrooms."
+
+"You are quite right, Maxwell," said Father Baldwin, "I used the word
+unthinkingly, therefore conventionally. I am very glad you are going,
+but I am afraid if your friends advertise it at all, half Kensington
+and Mayfair will be off to Old Street, and crowd them out of their own
+place. As I tell you, they didn't like what you said, but for all that,
+they are dying to hear what you are going to say next."
+
+"Exactly," said Sir Arthur, "that is the worst of becoming suddenly
+notorious, Vane. You have made yourself, in a most righteous manner, the
+talk of London, and London will follow you now wherever you go. However,
+that can't be helped, it is one of the penalties of fame, and now if you
+have nothing more to say to Father Baldwin, you might put on your hat,
+and come, I have got a hansom at the door."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+On the way from the Clergy-House to Warwick Gardens Vane tried more than
+once to get his father to tell him something about the evening's
+entertainment which he had invited him for, but Sir Arthur only laughed,
+albeit somewhat seriously, and said:
+
+"My dear boy, I am not going to let you spoil a pleasant little
+surprise. I don't say that it will be altogether a pleasant one, yet I
+know that it will not be an entirely unpleasant one. To a certain
+extent, as you will find afterwards, it is one of the many results of
+that precious sermon of yours, and, as certain things had to be done, I
+thought they would be better done at home than elsewhere."
+
+And in reply to Vane's second attempt his father said simply:
+
+"No, Vane, this is a surprise party, as they say in the States, and I am
+not going to give the names of my guests away. You really must possess
+your soul in patience for the present. Meanwhile tell me what Father
+Baldwin thinks of the position you have taken up?"
+
+"You mean, of course, about this new heresy of mine?" replied Vane with
+a laugh--"a heresy, by the way, which is as old as Christianity. Well,
+dad, to tell you the truth I think the dear old Father is a little bit
+frightened, but he is too strong a man to go back from the position, and
+too good a Christian to want to do so. He sees that I am right, or, I
+should say of course, that this is after all the only possible doctrine
+and belief for a Christian. He gave me permission to preach that sermon
+from his pulpit, but I don't think he quite realised, as a matter of
+fact I didn't myself, what an effect it would have, and perhaps the
+consequences have worried him a little; but he is perfectly staunch, and
+so are Moran and Webley."
+
+"And so, I suppose," replied Sir Arthur, "St. Chrysostom's will not be a
+pleasant Sunday morning and evening resort for rich people any longer.
+That is, perhaps, a somewhat flippant way of putting it, but of course
+you know what I mean."
+
+"Yes, I quite see what you mean, dad," said Vane rather more seriously.
+"I don't think it will be, but I do think that before very long we shall
+have a better congregation of Christians than we have ever had before,
+people who, I mean, will have lost their delusions about fashionable
+Christianity--just as if there could be such a thing!--and who come to
+hear the Word of God as it is, and not as most people would like it to
+be. By the way, have you heard that the Canon, I mean Canon
+Thornton-Moore, of Worcester, a man that I met at dinner at the Abbey,
+has accepted the presentation of All Saints, Densmore Square? It is
+supposed to be a little higher even than St. Chrysostom, and if possible
+the congregation is even more disgustingly rich and fashionable and
+everything that is not Christian."
+
+"I must say, Vane, that you have all the uncompromising severity of the
+true enthusiast, and the way in which you include your old father with
+these hopeless sinners is really almost unfilial. I think I can tell
+you this much, that to-night you are going to meet a very much greater
+sinner than I am, a sinner to the extent of millions, and yet, from what
+I have learned of him on the best possible authority, as honest a man,
+as good-hearted a fellow, as ever fought the world single-handed and
+beat it."
+
+"Just as you did, dad," said Vane in a tone which reminded his father of
+the old days. "I suppose there is nothing to be said of the other two
+persons of the Infernal Trinity."
+
+"Not at present," said Sir Arthur, with a sudden change in his voice
+which made Vane look round at him. His face had changed with his tone.
+He was leaning with his arms on the door of the cab, staring up at the
+sky over the roofs of the houses. Vane noticed a little twitching of the
+lip under the long grey moustache, and thought it well to hold his
+peace.
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, for both, the cab at that moment swung round out
+of the main road into Warwick Gardens. Vane looked at the familiar
+corner at which he had stopped that other hansom cab on that memorable
+Boat Race night and got out, after Carol had denied him the kiss he
+asked for, to meet his father on the pavement. Sir Arthur remembered it
+too, and he had good reasons to, for he said as the cab swung round:
+
+"Vane, when my lease is up I am going to leave this place. I never can
+pass that corner without thinking of what no man ought to be obliged to
+think of."
+
+"I know what you mean, dad," cried Vane. "It was horrible enough, or at
+least it might have been and yet it wasn't, and because it wasn't----"
+
+"Well, at any rate," interrupted Sir Arthur as the cab pulled up, "let
+us thank God that it wasn't."
+
+As they got out another cab drove up just behind theirs, and somewhat to
+his astonishment Vane saw Ernshaw get out.
+
+"My dear Ernshaw," he said, as they shook hands, "isn't this great
+extravagance?"
+
+"Only a shilling's worth," laughed Ernshaw in reply, "and I think
+justifiable; a little kiddy was knocked down in Addison Road there by a
+butcher's cart, and I picked her up and took her to the hospital in
+Hammersmith Road, and this good fellow won't charge me more than a
+shilling for both journeys, although it is out of the radius."
+
+"Oh, he won't, won't he?" said Sir Arthur, putting his hand into his
+pocket and pulling out a couple of half-crowns.
+
+"You take that, my man, not for yourself if you won't have it, but for
+your wife and your children if you have got any; you can't say no for
+them."
+
+"No, sir, thankee, I won't say no to them," said the cabby, taking the
+half-crowns and touching his hat. "It's the best fare I've earned
+to-day. Good-night, sir, and thank you, sir. Come up, old girl."
+
+The whip flicked, and the old mare went round to begin another of those
+endless journeys through London streets which horses, if they reason at
+all, must find so utterly incomprehensible and aimless.
+
+"Is this the beginning of the surprises, dad?" said Vane, as the two
+cabs drove away. "This is certainly one of the last places in London
+that I should have expected to meet Ernshaw in, after seeing him up to
+his neck in work at Bethnal Green yesterday. It must have been a pretty
+strong attraction, Ernshaw, that got you as far west as this."
+
+"My dear Maxwell," said Ernshaw, "surely the worst of us are entitled to
+a holiday now and then. Why, even Father Philip goes to Norway for a
+fortnight every year, to say nothing of an occasional run up to Town
+now and then, and he confessed to me not very long ago that he enjoys no
+earthly pleasure better than a good 'Varsity match at Lord's."
+
+"There is nothing better," said Sir Arthur, "except a good Indian polo
+match. Well, come in. I have just got time for a wash and a change
+before our other guests arrive. You clerics don't want a change, so you
+can have a wash and a cigarette if you want one in the Den."
+
+As the door opened Koda Bux came along the hall and made his salaam; his
+grave, deep eyes made no sign as he recognised Vane in his clerical
+garb; he only salaamed again and welcomed Vane back to the house of his
+father and his mother. That was Koda Bux's way of putting it in his
+Indian fashion. He would have put it otherwise if he had known what such
+a welcome meant to him.
+
+"This is the place of the _debacle_," said Vane to Ernshaw when they met
+in the Den after they had had their wash; "there's the hearthrug--yes,
+and there's the same spirit-case. It is a curious thing, Ernshaw, but
+since then, or rather, since that other ghastly collapse at Oxford, I've
+lectured in club rooms reeking with alcohol; I've gone with you as you
+know where everyone was sodden with the gin and stank of it, and even
+into bars where you could smell nothing but liquor and unwashed
+humanity, and yet that intoxication has never come back to me."
+
+"Of course not," said Ernshaw; "you have prayed and fought since then,
+and as you have won your battles your prayers have been answered."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "I hope you are right; in fact, I am sure you are. I
+don't suppose a sniff at that whiskey decanter would affect me any more
+than a few drops of eau de cologne on my handkerchief."
+
+As he said this he went towards the spirit-case on the little old oak
+sideboard and took out the whiskey decanter.
+
+"Take care, Vane!" said Ernshaw. "I hope you are not forgetting the old
+doctrine of association. Remember what you were saying just now about
+this room. There is a sense, you know, in which places are really
+haunted."
+
+"My dear Ernshaw, I believe you are even more ideal than I am," laughed
+Vane, as he took the stopper out and raised the decanter to his
+nostrils. As he did so the front door bell tinkled, and the hand of a
+practised footman played a brief fantasia on the knocker. In the middle
+of an inhalation Vane stopped and put the bottle down; but even as he
+did so the mysterious force of association against which Ernshaw had
+warned him had begun to work upon his imagination. The familiar room,
+with its pictures and furniture and simple ornaments, the feel of the
+cut-glass decanter, which was the same one that he had held in his hand
+that fatal night, the smell of the whiskey--all these elements were
+rapidly combining in those few moments to produce an effect partly
+mental and partly physical which might have more than justified
+Ernshaw's sudden fear.
+
+"Ah, there are the mysterious guests, I suppose!" he said, putting the
+decanter back into the case. "I suppose you don't happen to know who
+they really are, Ernshaw?"
+
+"My dear fellow, if I did I shouldn't tell you," was the distinctly
+non-committal reply. "I think it will be very much more interesting for
+you to find out yourself."
+
+By this time Koda Bux, in his capacity of major-domo and general
+factotum to Sir Arthur, had opened the door, and at the same moment Sir
+Arthur himself came downstairs. Vane heard him say:
+
+"Good evening, ladies; I am sorry that I have no hostess to receive you,
+but Mrs. Saunders, who helps Koda Bux to take care of me, will take you
+upstairs."
+
+Then there was a low murmur of a woman's voice, a rustle of skirts up
+the stairs, and Sir Arthur went on:
+
+"Now, Mr. Rayburn, if you will come with me I will show you where to put
+your hat and coat and have a rinse if you like."
+
+"Thanks, Sir Arthur," replied a voice which was strange to Vane.
+
+"And who might Mr. Rayburn be?" he said to Ernshaw. "I didn't know the
+governor knew anyone of that name. Still, from the sound of his voice he
+is a gentleman, and, I should say, a man."
+
+"I think when you meet him you will find him both," said Ernshaw.
+
+"Ah," laughed Vane, "I think I caught you out there. So you are in this
+conspiracy of mystery, are you? Now, look here, Ernshaw, what is it all
+about?"
+
+"Guilty, but shan't tell," replied his friend. "Now here comes Sir
+Arthur; perhaps he will tell."
+
+"Vane," said Sir Arthur as the door opened, "this is Mr. Cecil Rayburn,
+and I want you to be very good friends; you will soon find out why."
+
+Vane looked up and saw a man apparently a year or two older than
+himself, about the same height and build, but harder and stronger, and
+possessing that peculiar erectness of carriage and alertness of movement
+that is owned only by those who have worked or fought, or done both, in
+the outlands of the earth. But a glance at his face confirmed Vane in
+the opinion he had formed when he heard his voice; he was undeniably
+both a gentleman and a man. He held out his hand and said:
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Rayburn. Of course a friend of my father's has to be
+my friend also."
+
+To his astonishment Cecil Rayburn made no movement to take his hand; on
+the contrary he drew back half a pace and said with a note of something
+like nervousness in his voice--a note which sounded strangely in the
+speech of a man who had never known what fear was:
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell; I hope we shall be friends, but I am afraid I
+can't shake hands with you yet--I mean, I shouldn't like you to regret
+it afterwards."
+
+Before Vane had found any words to shape a reply, Sir Arthur said:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, suppose we go into the drawing-room to receive the ladies,
+and leave these two to have it out. We shan't have dinner for half an
+hour, and I think they will manage to understand each other before
+then."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+"Well, Mr. Rayburn," said Vane, "this is a rather curious sort of
+introduction, but I see that you are--I mean that I am quite satisfied
+that you must have some very good reason for refusing to shake hands
+with me. You are the first man who has ever done so, and as you have
+come here as my father's guest, I may presume that it is not a personal
+objection."
+
+Vane could not help speaking formally; there was a strangeness about the
+situation which forced him to do so.
+
+"That would be impossible, Mr. Maxwell," replied the other, in a low,
+hesitating tone. "I knew that I should meet you here when I accepted Sir
+Arthur's invitation; in fact, we--I mean I came here on purpose to meet
+you, and, to shorten matters, the reason why your father has left us
+alone, is that I have a very serious and I am afraid a very difficult
+confession to make to you."
+
+"A confession!" said Vane, drawing himself up and looking Rayburn
+straight in the eyes. "Do you wish me to hear it as a man, or a priest,
+because if I am to hear it as a priest, it would be better kept for a
+more suitable time and place?"
+
+"I want you to hear it both as man and priest," replied Rayburn,
+returning his look with perfect steadiness, "and I want you to hear
+it--and, in fact, unless we are to go away at once, you must hear it
+now."
+
+"Very well," said Vane, a dim suspicion of the truth beginning to steal
+into his soul, "it is a little mysterious to me, but I daresay we shall
+soon understand each other."
+
+He paused for a moment, and then, with a visible effort which made
+Rayburn love and honour him from that moment forth, he went on:
+
+"And perhaps it would simplify matters for both of us if you began by
+telling me who _we_ are?"
+
+"Your sister, or rather your half-sister," Rayburn began falteringly,
+and then stopped.
+
+He saw Vane wince and heard his teeth come together with a snap, and he
+saw his hands clench up into fists and his face pale, already turned
+ashen grey white that denotes utter bloodlessness. It was the face of a
+corpse with living eyes that looked at him with an expression which
+could not be translated into human words. Rayburn had looked death in
+the face many a time and laughed at it, but he didn't laugh now. As he
+said afterwards, he would have given anything to be a couple of miles
+away from Vane just then. He didn't speak because he had nothing to say,
+his thoughts would not be translated into language, and so there was
+nothing for it but to wait for Vane to speak.
+
+For a few moments more the two men faced each other in silence, yet each
+reading the other's thoughts as accurately as though they had been
+talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke in a slow, hard, grating
+voice which none of the congregation of St. Chrysostom would have
+recognised as that of the eloquent preacher of the Sermon on the Mount,
+to which Rayburn, who had heard that sermon, listened with a shock,
+which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through him from head to
+foot.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more fully now. My sister
+Carol--she has come here with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in
+thinking that you were to some extent responsible, quite innocently no
+doubt, for her disappearance about a year ago. Is that so?"
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "that's so, and that's why I wouldn't shake hands
+with you. I did take her away. She has been round the world with me,
+travelling with me as my wife, and she isn't my wife, and--well, that is
+about all there is."
+
+"And why isn't she your wife?" exclaimed Vane, with an unreasoning burst
+of anger. Then, after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was
+almost humble.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rayburn, that was a foolish thing to say, as
+most things said in haste and anger are. You only did what any other man
+with no ties and plenty of money would have done under the
+circumstances. Forgive me! Only the hand of Providence itself saved me
+from committing, without knowledge, an infinitely greater sin than
+yours. I suppose Carol has told you how I met her and what happened,
+and, of course, my father has told you about my getting out of the cab
+that night at the top of the Gardens? No, no, I have nothing to forgive,
+nothing to say except, as Carol's brother, to ask you why you have
+brought her here? That, at least, I think I am entitled to ask."
+
+"Maxwell," replied Rayburn, pulling himself together as a man might do
+after being badly beaten in a fight, "I have been in a good many bad
+places in my lifetime, but this has been about the worst, and I'd a
+damned sight sooner--I beg your pardon, you know what I mean--I would
+very much rather been talking to a South American Dago with a pistol at
+my head, than having this talk with you, but it's got to be done.
+
+"You know, I suppose, or at any rate your father knows, how I met Carol
+and how we fixed it up to go away together. I admit, without any
+reserve, that I did take her just as any man like myself, who had had a
+pretty hard time for a few years and had come back with a ridiculous
+superfluity of money, would have taken such a girl under such
+circumstances; that is brutal, but at any rate, it is honest. Well, we
+went round the world together, and it was only a fortnight ago--we've
+been back three weeks now--that I found out who she was."
+
+"Not from her?" exclaimed Vane, with almost pitiful eagerness.
+
+"No," replied Rayburn, "she would have died first. Over and over again I
+tried to get her to tell me who and what she was, because of course it
+was perfectly easy to see--well, you know what I mean--but she wouldn't.
+It was the one confidence that she never gave me; in fact, when I was
+trying to insist upon it, she told me if I opened the subject again, she
+would leave me there and then, whatever happened to her."
+
+"Then how did you find out?" asked Vane, in the same dry, hard voice. "I
+more than believe you when you say she would never have told you."
+
+"Through the merest accident," replied Rayburn. "A day or two after we
+landed, we went to dinner at Verrey's, and we had hardly sat down before
+a friend of hers, Miss Russell, came in--well--with a friend, as they
+say. She came and spoke to Carol, and the four of us dined together.
+The next day Miss Russell came to see Carol, and you know, or perhaps
+you don't know, that it was Miss Russell's friend who introduced me to
+Carol. I got hold of Miss Russell afterwards--she's as clean-hearted a
+girl as ever the Fates--however, you won't agree with me there perhaps,
+you don't believe in Fate, I do. But that's neither here nor there. I
+told her what I am going to tell you, and she told me Carol's story, and
+that is why I am here to-night."
+
+There was a good deal of meaning in the words, but for Vane there was
+infinitely more in Rayburn's voice and the half-shamed manner in which
+he spoke. Vane felt that if this talk went on much longer, the strain
+would be too much for him to bear, for it was his sister, or at least
+the daughter of his own mother that this man was talking about. He put
+out his hand again and said:
+
+"I think I know now, Mr. Rayburn, what you were going to say, and if I
+am right, let me, her brother, say it for you and for her, you won't
+refuse my hand this time, will you?"
+
+"No," said Rayburn, "I won't, and for the matter of that," he went on as
+their hands met, "I don't think there is much more for either of us to
+say, except just for me to ask you one question."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "and what is that?"
+
+"You are her brother and a priest. Will you take me for your
+brother-in-law and marry us?"
+
+Their hands were still clasped; each was looking straight into the
+other's eyes, and the two faces, so different individually, and yet for
+the moment so strangely alike, fronted each other in silence. Then Vane
+dropped Rayburn's hand, put his hands on his shoulders, and said:
+
+"You cannot be lying, you haven't the mouth or the eyes of a man who
+tells lies. You have sinned, sinned deeply, for you have bought with
+your money what should have no other price than lawful love; but love
+has come to you, and love has made lawful and right what was sinful
+before. You told me at first that you wanted to confess to me both as
+man and priest. Very well, as man, as Carol's brother I forgive you, if
+you have done anything that I have to forgive, and as a priest of God I
+will marry you, and when you have taken the Sacrament of Matrimony from
+my hands, as a priest, I will absolve you from your sin. It is a
+miracle----"
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "it is. I am not altogether of your way of
+thinking, you know, but there, I am with you; it is a miracle in more
+ways than one. I know I am expressing myself horribly badly, but, to put
+it as shortly as I can, it is the sort of miracle that only a good,
+clean-souled, pure-hearted girl like Carol, could have worked upon a
+fellow like myself. I tell you, Maxwell, honestly, that if she wouldn't
+have me now, I'm damned if I know what I should do. She is everything
+that is good to me. I am worth nearly a couple of millions, and not a
+cent of it would be worth anything to me if I lost her. And so you
+really will marry us?"
+
+"I will," said Vane. "Thank God and you into whose heart He has put this
+saving thought of righteousness."
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "I see what you mean, but really, the credit isn't
+mine at all, it is all Carol's. Do you know, Maxwell, that I am going to
+have one of the most delightful wives man ever won? If I could only tell
+you just exactly how I fell in love with her--but of course a man could
+never tell another man that, and after all it doesn't matter. I've got
+the one girl in the world I want----"
+
+There was another little pause, and then Rayburn went on, speaking as
+shyly and hesitatingly as a schoolboy confessing a peccadillo:
+
+"There's one other thing I should like to say, Maxwell, but I hardly
+know how to say it."
+
+He stopped again, and Vane said, smiling for the first time during the
+interview:
+
+"Then say it, as one man would say it to another. I think we understand
+each other now. What is it?"
+
+"Well, it's this," replied Rayburn, flushing like a girl under the tan
+of his skin, "you know Carol and I met quite by chance, and I took her
+away just as what she seemed to be. Then, after a month or two--you'll
+hardly believe me, but it is the Lord's own truth--I began to fall in
+love with her, honestly I mean, and in quite a different way. One
+evening, it was in Japan, and we were coming back from a trip to Fuji. I
+couldn't stand it any longer, I felt such a hopeless sweep, and I told
+her. It was a queer sort of courtship, and it took me about six weeks to
+bring her round--and then at last--we were in the Rockies then--she gave
+in and confessed that she loved me in the same way that I loved her. I
+kissed her. I could never tell you how different that kiss was from all
+the others."
+
+"Of course it was," said Vane, gently. "It was a pure one, a holy one,
+and God was very near you, Rayburn, in that moment."
+
+"I believe He was," replied Rayburn, simply, "for from that moment, we
+were both absolutely changed. Since that kiss, Carol has been as sacred
+to me as my own sister would be if I had one. That is what I wanted to
+tell you."
+
+"And God bless you for telling me!" said Vane, solemnly. "If I had any
+doubts before, I have none now. After that, knowing all I do, I would
+give you the blessed Sacrament to-morrow."
+
+"On Sunday I hope you will give it to us both," replied Rayburn.
+
+At that moment the door opened, and Sir Arthur came in.
+
+"Dinner is nearly ready," he said. "Are you about ready for it? Ah, yes,
+I see, you understand each other, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Arthur," said Rayburn, swinging round with an almost military
+precision of movement. "I've made my confession, and I am to receive
+absolution when the happiest moment of my life comes, and you know when
+that will be."
+
+"I think I do," said Sir Arthur, with a look at Vane, who was staring
+vacantly down into the flower-filled fireplace. "Then you have settled
+it all between you, is that so, Vane?"
+
+"Yes, with God's help, we have," he replied, and then, with a swift
+change of tone and manner he went on: "and now as we have got our family
+affairs settled to a certain extent, I suppose we can go and join the
+ladies. I am longing to see Carol again."
+
+"And so am I," said Rayburn, "let us go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Rayburn went out first and Vane followed him, feeling, as he said to
+himself afterwards, as though he was walking across the boundary between
+one world and another. He knew that Carol and Dora were in the
+drawing-room. Dora he had never seen before. Carol he had not seen since
+the night of the University Boat Race. Ernshaw, with the memory of what
+he had said in Vane's room at Oxford fresh in his mind, caught him by
+the arm and said:
+
+"Maxwell, I believe I am going to meet my fate to-night as you met yours
+in another way. Was there ever such a complication in the life-affairs
+of little mortals like ourselves?"
+
+"I don't know," said Vane, "and I don't care," gripping his arm hard as
+they crossed the hall. "Wait, it may be the Providence that shapes our
+ends."
+
+"Rough-hew them as we will," said Rayburn, looking backward.
+
+"Ah, well, since we understand each other, as I think we do now, _Vogue
+la galčre!_ And, Mr. Ernshaw," he went on, "I have heard things and
+things. I am not giving any confidences away, but by the same token you
+and I will soon be sailing in the same boat or something very like
+it----"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ernshaw, "I see what you mean!" Then he gripped his arm
+a little harder before they went into the drawing-room. Vane went on
+with his father, and Ernshaw said:
+
+"Look here, Maxwell, you have passed your crisis, you and Rayburn, I'm
+only getting near mine. What am I to do, what can I do?"
+
+"That I can't tell you. You see, to put it into the twentieth-century
+language, the Eternal Feminine is here, and you have got to reckon with
+her just as Rayburn has done. Come now, if you've made your mind up, go
+and meet your fate."
+
+As he said this Vane pushed the door of the drawing-room open. Sir
+Arthur and Rayburn had gone in just before him.
+
+"Carol!"
+
+"Vane! and is it really you--you?"
+
+"Yes," he said, taking a few swift strides towards her and for the first
+time putting his arms round her. "Yes, dear, your brother."
+
+"Really brother, Vane? Do you truly mean it--will you really take me for
+your sister now that you know everything--I mean all about Cecil and
+myself?"
+
+"Yes, Carol, and because I do know, because he as a man has told me
+everything. I am going to marry you soon, and no man, no priest could
+marry his sister to his friend with more hope for happiness than I shall
+marry you and Rayburn."
+
+He took hold of her left hand, and stretched out his hand to Rayburn and
+said:
+
+"Come now, sister and brother, as you are going to be!"
+
+He took their two hands and joined them. Over the two hands he clasped
+his own, and looking swiftly from one to the other he said:
+
+"Afterwards I will say the words that I cannot speak here." And then,
+with a sudden change of tone and manner which came as a quick surprise
+to both Carol and Rayburn, he went on:
+
+"Rayburn, this is my sister. Carol, Rayburn tells me that he wants to
+marry you, and I suppose----"
+
+"You needn't suppose anything at all, Vane. I've said yes already. If
+you and Sir Arthur will only say yes too----"
+
+Vane drew back from her, and looked round toward Sir Arthur and Dora.
+Rayburn, having gone through the formalities of introduction which
+Vane's tact had made necessary, held out his hand and they shook hands.
+
+"It is rather unceremonious, Miss Maxwell," he said, addressing her for
+the first time by a name that was not her own, "but----"
+
+"But, my dear Carol, you are forgetting that you are hostess to-night,"
+said Sir Arthur, "and I think there are two of our guests who have not
+been, as one would say in Society, properly introduced."
+
+"Oh, of course; I'm so sorry," said Carol. "Dora, forgive me. I know you
+will. I was too happy just now to think of anything else. Mr. Ernshaw,
+this is Dora. Dora, this is Mr. Ernshaw. I hope you will be very good
+friends. That's a rather unconventional way of introduction, I must
+say."
+
+As the last words left her laughing lips, and she was looking
+exquisitely dainty and desirable in a quietly magnificent costume which
+had cost as much as many much advertised wedding dresses, Dora and
+Ernshaw faced each other for the first time. She had seen him with Vane
+at the ordination service in Worcester Cathedral, but they had never met
+before under the sanction of social acquaintance.
+
+She looked at him and he looked at her, and as their eyes met some
+impulse in the soul of both made them hold out their hands as people do
+not usually do when they are introduced in ordinary drawing-room style.
+Ernshaw's went out straight.
+
+"Miss Russell," he said, even while her hand was moving slowly towards
+his.
+
+"My dear Mr. Ernshaw, whatever you have to say, I'm afraid I will have
+to ask you to keep it just for a little," said Sir Arthur, as the door
+swung open. "Here is Koda Bux, and he does not allow me to be late for
+dinner; he has many virtues, but that is the best of them. Mr. Rayburn,
+you will take Carol in? Mr. Ernshaw, will you give your arm to Miss
+Russell, and Vane and I will bring up the rear."
+
+"Dad," said Vane, as he gripped his father's arm, "you have helped to do
+God's work to-night; look at them!"
+
+"You did more when you got out of the cab at the top of the gardens
+here," he whispered in reply.
+
+"I didn't do that, dad; she did. She knew, and I didn't. God bless her."
+
+"Amen," said his father. "And now we will return to earth and go and
+eat."
+
+There were not many more delightful dinners eaten in London that night
+than what Cecil Rayburn called his betrothal feast. He and Carol now
+understood each other thoroughly. Vane and his father also knew the
+circumstances so far as they were concerned, and a little more. Ernshaw
+and Dora, each knowing just a little more than the others did, began to
+make friends fast, and therefore rapidly, but Dora was still
+_declassée_. Carol had already been lifted beyond the confines of that
+half-sphere which is inhabited by so many thousands of women who are
+neither maiden, wife, nor widow. Dora was still a dweller in it, knowing
+all its infamy and shame, and knowing, too, that awful necessity which
+is so often at once the equivalent and the excuse for sin.
+
+Everyone took Sir Arthur's hint, and the conversation rattled on around
+the table as lightly as it might have around any other dinner table in
+London. Carol and Sir Arthur and Rayburn had it mostly to themselves at
+first, but after a little the conversation grew more general. Dora and
+Carol engaged in a really brilliant discussion on the subject of Mrs.
+Lynn Linton's last book, with the result that Carol said that she
+wouldn't live for ever at any price, to which Dora replied with just a
+suspicion of a note of sadness in her voice.
+
+"Yes, Carol, I quite agree with you, or at least if I were you I should
+do."
+
+"Which," said Ernshaw, "is, I think, as nearly as possible the same
+thing. Surely if one cannot agree with one's self----"
+
+"No, Mr. Ernshaw," said Dora, putting her elbows on the table and her
+chin between her hands. "No, I'm afraid I can hardly agree with you
+there. After all, our worst enemies are those of our own household, by
+which of course I mean our immediate surroundings. It is this awful
+necessity to live, to eat and to have a place to sleep in. Of course you
+are thinking of what Talleyrand said to the young aristocrat who wanted
+to live for nothing."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw, "I know that. He said he didn't see the necessity,
+and I am not altogether certain that he was wrong, but you----"
+
+"Yes, I," she replied in a tone that had a thrill of angry reproach
+running through it, "I, as you know, am--well--a superfluous woman, one
+who isn't wanted, a sort of waste product of the factory that we call
+civilisation."
+
+"I am afraid you people are getting far too serious in your
+conversation," said Carol from her end of the table opposite Sir Arthur.
+"No, Dora, I really can't allow it; social problems are not in the menu
+to-night, and you and Mr. Ernshaw will have to keep them for some other
+time. Meanwhile, suppose we leave the rest for their smokes, and you
+come with me and run through that song you are going to sing; we haven't
+tried it together for quite a long time, as Mr. Rayburn said when we
+were on the other side of the Atlantic. Come along."
+
+As she rose from her chair, Koda Bux, who had been standing immovable
+behind his master, opened the door, and as Carol, daintily and yet most
+plainly dressed, passed through, his sombre eyes lit up as though by an
+inspiration of long past days, and his teeth came together and he said
+in his soul:
+
+"It is the daughter of the Mem Sahib; what marvel is this! If there is
+vengeance to be done, may mine be the hand. Inshallah! I should die
+content, even if it was only a minute afterwards. He has his kismet, and
+I have mine. Allah will give it to me; but they may be the same. Once
+the roomal round his neck, and his breath would be already in his mouth.
+Dog and son of a dog, he would be better dead!"
+
+It had been arranged that Carol and Dora should take up their abode with
+Sir Arthur, so that Carol might be married from her father's house.
+Under the circumstances it was only natural that the wedding was to be
+absolutely private, and it was already decided that immediately after
+the wedding Rayburn and Carol should leave for a month in Paris, and
+then go on to Western Australia, where most of Rayburn's mining
+properties were. He also owned one side of a street in Perth and a
+country estate with a big bungalow-built house on the eastern hills
+overlooking the Swan River.
+
+The only difficulty appeared ahead to Sir Arthur was some mysterious
+connection with the Raleighs and the Garthornes. It was, of course,
+impossible that the wedding could take place without their knowledge, if
+Sir Arthur was to give Carol away as he intended to do, and yet the
+moment that Garthorne's name was mentioned Carol had turned white to the
+lips and a look of deadly fear had come into her eyes.
+
+"No, no," she said, "not them, I can't tell you why, and you mustn't ask
+me. You have been very good to me, and you are going to do more for me
+than ever was done to a girl like me before, but sooner than meet them I
+would run away again as I did from Melville Gardens. I would, really,
+but you must not ask me why; there are some things that cannot be told."
+
+After this Sir Arthur, finding it impossible to get any inkling of the
+mystery from Carol, asked Dora if she could tell him the meaning of it,
+and she too turned white. She did not reply for a few moments, and then
+she said:
+
+"No, Sir Arthur, I cannot tell you. All I can say is that Carol is
+perfectly right. It would be utterly impossible for her to meet either
+Sir Reginald Garthorne or his son, and of course she could not meet Mrs.
+Garthorne without meeting her husband. There is a reason, and a very
+solemn one, too, for this, but I can assure you, Sir Arthur----"
+
+"That is enough, Miss Russell," said Sir Arthur gravely. "I am perfectly
+satisfied, and I have no right to ask for an explanation. The wedding
+shall be absolutely private; no one shall be asked except ourselves.
+Vane shall marry them early in the morning, we will come back here for
+lunch, and then they will go straight off to Paris. I will tell the
+Garthornes about it afterwards."
+
+"Yes," said Dora, "I think that would be best."
+
+That night Carol and Dora had a talk in Carol's room. It was rather a
+discussion perhaps than a conversation, and the question was whether Sir
+Arthur and Vane should be told the dreadful secret which Carol had
+discovered at Reginald Garthorne's wedding. Carol, clean-hearted and
+straightforward as she was naturally, shrank in horror from such a
+revelation as this; but Dora, whose nature was deeper, and who had a
+stronger religious bias, felt that at all hazards the truth should be
+told, horrible as it was.
+
+"That man Garthorne," she said, "is a brute. I am perfectly certain that
+he deliberately made your brother drunk that day at Oxford--I mean that
+he took advantage of the weakness that you discovered to tempt him to go
+on drinking, so that he might get drunk on the most important morning of
+his life. He knew very well what he was doing. He knew if he could only
+make him drunk that morning, everything would be at an end between him
+and Miss Raleigh."
+
+"But, my dear Dora, suppose that is so, and I hope it isn't," replied
+Carol, "how on earth can you have found that out? Of course, if it
+really is so, Vane and Sir Arthur ought to know of it, and, well, I
+suppose of the other thing too, dreadful and all as it is, but----"
+
+"I see what you mean," said Dora, "and I will tell you why. In the first
+place, when we were at the flat, Bernard--I mean Mr. Falcon--told me one
+or two things Mr. Garthorne had said to him when they were getting
+confidential over their whiskies, and I had a few minutes' talk with
+Mr. Ernshaw this evening which--well, what Mr. Falcon told me and what
+he said were the two and two that made four. I am afraid that is not
+very grammatical, but it is true. Of course he wouldn't have told me if
+I had not said something about it; but the moment he told me about your
+brother's collapse that morning the truth came to me like a flash.
+Reginald Garthorne is a scoundrel, and his father is worse, for he is a
+hypocrite as well as a scoundrel. He pretends to be Sir Arthur's
+friend--he has done so for years. He has allowed his son to steal Vane's
+life-long love from him, knowing all that he himself did--and, well,
+no--I can't say the rest."
+
+"You mean," said Carol quietly, and with a note of hardness in her
+voice, "you mean that he is my father. It is very dreadful, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Dora, it is, but you are not to blame after all; you didn't know,
+and of course we must admit that Mr. Garthorne didn't know so morally.
+You are both quite innocent there, but there is someone else just now.
+We've been friends and comrades now for a long time, tell me, dear, does
+Mr. Rayburn know?"
+
+"I have told him everything," replied Carol, with an effort which she
+could not conceal, even from Dora.
+
+"Yes, everything, even the very worst. You know when, as he says, he
+fell in love with me and, as I told you, began to treat me altogether
+differently, and then asked me to marry him, I said 'No.' I felt that I
+couldn't say 'Yes' honestly unless he knew everything. I had got very
+fond of him, and I suppose that was the reason why. I felt that I had to
+tell him the truth, and so I told him. Of course it wouldn't have been
+the straight thing to do anything else. If he had been like other
+men----"
+
+"But he isn't," said Dora; "all men are not men, you know, and he's a
+man, and you are just about as lucky a girl as ever got a real man for
+her husband. Now I see what you mean. Yes, of course, it would be wicked
+to tell the truth just now. In a week you will be married and away to
+Australia to live a new life in a new world. Then no one will know Mrs.
+Rayburn, the wife of the millionaire, except as Mrs. Rayburn, but after
+that vengeance must be done."
+
+"But why, Dora--why not let things stop just as they are? What is the
+use of bringing all these things up again and making misery for
+everybody?"
+
+"Simply because the truth should be known, because a man who has done
+another the greatest possible injury should not be allowed to remain his
+friend even in appearance. The truth ought to be told, and it must be
+told."
+
+"Very well," said Carol, "tell it, Dora, after I am gone. I have told
+him all the truth, but you know I am like a girl coming out of hell into
+heaven."
+
+"And do you think that I would spoil your heaven?" said Dora. "No, you
+are too good for that."
+
+"I am not half so good as you," said Carol. "I have only had infinitely
+more good fortune than I deserve."
+
+"I don't think that," replied Dora. "I have known you too long and too
+well. I believe, after all, that everyone does get in this world just
+about what they deserve if everything was understood, which of course it
+isn't; but I am quite certain about you. Good-night, Carol, and pleasant
+dreams--as of course they will be if you have any."
+
+"Good-night, Dora!" laughed Carol, with one of her swift changes of
+manner. "By the way, I have quite forgotten to ask you how you like Mr.
+Ernshaw?"
+
+Dora looked at her straight in the eyes for a moment, her cheeks flushed
+ever so slightly, and she said almost stiffly:
+
+"I am afraid, Carol, you have begun to dream already."
+
+As the door closed Carol went and stood in front of the long mirror in
+the wardrobe, and still smiling at herself, as well she might, she said:
+
+"Well, it is all very wonderful, and part of it very terrible, and I
+certainly have got a great deal more than I deserve. If Dora only gets
+what she deserves it will make things a little more equal.
+Good-night--Mrs. Rayburn!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+On the following Sunday evening London had another theological
+sensation. The National Secular Society had advertised far and wide that
+the preacher of the famous sermon at St. Chrysostom had consented to
+deliver an address at the Hall of Science, and that the chair was to be
+taken by the President of the Society, who was one of the most eloquent
+and uncompromising exponents of free-thought and rationalism in the
+world.
+
+Not only in the Anglican churches but also among Catholics and
+Nonconformists a perfect tempest of indignation had burst forth during
+the past few days. A hurriedly summoned but crowded meeting was held at
+Exeter Hall on the same night that Vane had welcomed Carol and her lover
+into the family circle. It was mainly expressive of evangelical opinion,
+and was addressed with indignant eloquence by several of the principal
+Low Church and Nonconformist divines in London. Their principal theme
+was ritualism and atheism, with special reference to the connection that
+appeared to exist between them in the person of the Rev. Vane Maxwell.
+
+To begin with, he had joined a confraternity of Anglican priests whose
+practises were notoriously and admittedly illegal, and he had taken
+advantage of his position in the pulpit to preach a sermon which had
+sent a thrill of indignation through the hearts of all the most generous
+supporters of Church and mission work throughout the United Kingdom and
+abroad.
+
+He had taken upon himself to put a brutally literal construction on the
+words of Christ which it would be absolutely impossible to carry out in
+practice unless the whole of Christendom were pauperised--and what,
+then, would become of the work of the churches, and, particularly, of
+those vast missionary movements which had spread the light of
+Christianity in so many dark places of the earth? How would they
+continue to exist without the vast sums which Christians of wealth so
+generously contributed? What was to happen, even to the churches of all
+denominations in England itself, if they accepted the preposterous
+doctrine that a man could not enjoy the fruit of his own labour, or
+inherit that of his ancestors, and at the same time remain a Christian?
+It was totally out of the question, far beyond the bounds of all
+practical common sense, and therefore it could not be Christian, since,
+if such a doctrine were true, Christianity would be impossible.
+
+And now, not content with preaching from a Christian pulpit a heresy
+which, if accepted by Christians, would make Christianity a practical
+impossibility, this headstrong, unthinking visionary, reckless of all
+the best traditions of his Church and his cloth, was going to address an
+assembly of infidels and atheists, and, as a minister of the Gospel,
+make friends with those who blasphemed the name of God every time they
+used it, and did their utmost to destroy the edifice of Christianity
+and to uproot the foundations of the Christian faith.
+
+It was monstrous, it was horrible, and the general sense of the
+speeches, and of the resolutions which were unanimously and
+enthusiastically carried at the end of the meeting, was that the man who
+could preach heresy in a Christian pulpit, then, the next Sunday,
+associate himself deliberately with infidels and atheists, was not
+worthy to remain within the fold of the Christian Ministry.
+
+Of course, the speeches were duly reported in the papers the next
+morning with, in some cases, a considerable amount of editorial
+embroidery, and nowhere were they read with greater interest than at the
+breakfast-table of Sir Arthur's house in Warwick Gardens, especially as,
+side by side with them, came the announcement that another meeting of
+protest was to be held at St. James's Hall on the Saturday evening,
+under the auspices of a committee of members of the English Church
+Union. The chair was to be taken by Canon Thornton-Moore, and several of
+the leading lights of High Anglicanism were to speak.
+
+"What a very wicked person you must be, Vane," said Carol, who had
+swiftly skimmed through some of the speeches and the comments on them.
+"The Low Church people seem to have excommunicated you altogether, and
+now the High Church are going to do it. Why don't you go to this meeting
+to-night and give them a bit of your mind? I believe they are all
+frightened of you and your new doctrines, and that is why they are
+making such a fuss about it."
+
+"My doctrines are not new, Carol," replied Vane, with a smile which
+seemed to her very gentle and sweet. "They are just as old as
+Christianity itself, and they are not mine, but the Master's. No, I
+don't think I shall go to the meeting. I am afraid there will be quite
+trouble enough without me, and, besides, personal controversy seldom
+does any good at all. I only hope, indeed, that these good people will
+keep away from the Hall of Science on Sunday night. It is the greatest
+of pities that it was made public. I simply wanted to have a quiet talk
+with the usual audience."
+
+"I am afraid you won't have many more quiet talks with any audiences
+now, Vane," laughed Sir Arthur. "This sudden jump that you have made
+into fame has made it impossible. You will have to pay the usual penalty
+of greatness."
+
+"It appears," said Carol, "in this case, to be mostly abuse and
+misunderstanding."
+
+"I don't think there is much misunderstanding, Carol," said Dora. "It
+seems to me to be quite the other way about. These people understand Mr.
+Maxwell only too well for their own comfort. They see quite plainly that
+if he is right, as, of course, he is, wealth and real Christianity
+cannot go together; therefore, equally, of course, fat livings and
+bishoprics and archbishoprics at ten and fifteen thousand a year will
+also be impossible. It may be very wicked to say so, but I think a lot
+of these good people are worrying themselves much more about salaries
+and endowments and that sort of thing than real Christianity."
+
+"Of course they are," said Carol. "I wonder how many of them will do
+what Vane has done, give up everything he had----"
+
+"My dear Carol," interrupted Vane, gently, "that is not quite the point.
+You must remember that these men have their opinions just as I have
+mine, and they may not think it their duty to do that. I do not believe
+that it is right for a man to be a priest of the Church and possess more
+than the actual necessaries of life. They believe that it is right."
+
+"And a very convenient belief, too!" said Carol, with a look of
+admiration. "Well, I am not as charitable as you are, and I don't
+believe that they do believe it. Now, there's Cecil and the carriage.
+Dear me! how very punctual he is."
+
+"There's not much to wonder at in that," said Sir Arthur. "Well, now, I
+suppose you young ladies are going to have a morning in Paradise--the
+one that is bounded by Oxford Street on the north and Piccadilly on the
+south. Vane, we will go and have a cigar with Mr. Rayburn while they are
+getting ready."
+
+The meeting at St. James's Hall was much less crowded, and, as some
+thought, much more decorous than the one at Exeter Hall. Canon
+Thornton-Moore, a man of stately presence, high social standing and very
+considerable wealth--he had married the daughter of one of the most
+successful operators in the Kaffir Circus--made an ideal chairman. He
+was a High Churchman and the son of a Bishop. He was the incarnation of
+the most aristocratic section of the Anglican Church. He was supported
+by the presence of a Duke and two High Church peers on the platform, and
+half a dozen vicars and curates, all eloquent preachers and fashionable
+exponents of ritualistic doctrine, were announced to speak in advocacy
+of the protest which the meeting had been called to make.
+
+The proceedings were very quiet and dignified--and very churchy. It was
+the Church from beginning to end; it never seemed to strike either the
+speakers or the audience that there was anything that might fairly be
+called Christianity outside the Church. In fact, the words Christ and
+Christianity were not used at all from the platform.
+
+The only approach to unseemliness occurred when, in response to a formal
+intimation that "discussion within reasonable limits" would be
+permitted, one of the Kilburn Sisters, a woman who had given up a
+fortune and relinquished a title, got up and asked the chairman
+point-blank what _his_ interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount was,
+and further, if any of the noble and reverend gentlemen on the platform
+could give a better exposition of it as a rule of Christian life than
+Vane Maxwell had done?
+
+She had hardly uttered her question before murmurs of angry protest
+began to run from lip to lip through the hall; but when she went on to
+ask why the preacher of the now famous sermon should be denounced by his
+fellow priests for giving an address to free-thinkers in a free-thought
+hall, when Christ himself, for his own good purposes, associated himself
+with publicans and sinners and thought none too low or too utterly lost
+to take by the hand, her voice was at once drowned by a chorus of "Oh!
+Oh's!" amidst which the chairman rose and said in his most dignified
+manner:
+
+"I hope that I have the sense and feeling of the meeting with me when I
+say that the questions asked by our most respected sister seem to have
+been asked under a total misconception of the circumstances. It is
+obvious that they raise issues which could not possibly be discussed in
+such a place, and on such an occasion as this. I would remind our dear
+friend that this edifice is not a church, and this platform not a
+pulpit; and that, therefore, I do not feel myself justified, even if
+time and other circumstances permitted, to enter upon a doctrinal
+subject which involves so many far-reaching considerations as this one
+does."
+
+The Canon sat down amidst a many-voiced murmur of approval, and the Duke
+said audibly to him:
+
+"A very proper way, my dear Canon, of dealing with a most improper
+question. The dear lady seems to think that we are not capable of
+reading our Bibles for ourselves."
+
+After that the chairman put to the meeting the resolution of protest to
+the effect that if the Reverend Vane Maxwell persisted in carrying out
+his intention to proceed from a pulpit of the church to the platform of
+an infidel lecture hall, he would make it the painful duty of his
+canonical superiors to take his conduct into most serious consideration,
+and, further, should he persist in this deplorable resolution, he would
+arouse the gravest suspicions in the minds of all loyal churchmen as to
+his fitness for dispensing the sacred functions of his office.
+
+The Kilburn Sister and a few others walked out amidst a chilling
+silence, and under a silent fire of glances which ought to have made
+them feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps it did.
+
+The resolution was put and passed without a dissentient voice, and when
+the proceedings were over and Lady Canore, who had been one of the most
+energetic organisers of the meeting, got back into her carriage, she
+said to her husband:
+
+"I think the dear Canon's reply was most dignified and proper. That
+woman ought to be ashamed of herself--and a Kilburn Sister, too! Donald,
+I shall certainly go and hear what this Mr. Maxwell has to say to
+these--ah--these people at, where is it? the Hall of what? Oh, yes!
+Science, and you must manage to get a seat. I believe you pay for them
+just as you do in a theatre. It is, of course, very shocking, but I
+think it will be most interesting."
+
+A good many other members of the audience said practically the same
+thing in other ways, and so it came about that the Hall in Old Street
+was packed as it had not been since the most famous days of Charles
+Bradlaugh, and packed, too, with a most strangely assorted audience of
+democrats and aristocrats, socialists and landowners, freethinkers of
+the deistic, the atheistic, and the agnostic persuasions, and Christians
+of even more varying shades of opinion, from the most rigidly
+Calvinistic evangelical, to the most artistically emotional of the High
+Anglican cult.
+
+The President rose amidst the usual applause, but it hushed the moment
+he began to speak, in clear incisive tones which sent every syllable
+distinctly from end to end of the hall:
+
+"Friends, I intend to say very little, because we are going to hear
+to-night what we very seldom hear in a secular lecture-hall. We are
+going to hear an address which you are waiting for as eagerly as I am,
+an address delivered by a man who, as a Priest of the Church of England,
+last Sunday sent a thrill of astonishment, of amazement, I might almost
+say of horror, through Christian England."
+
+A burst of applause, coming chiefly from the back of the hall,
+interrupted the speaker, but he put his hand up, and went on:
+
+"No, please! I must ask you not to applaud. For one thing, there is not
+time for it. Just let me get my say said, and then, when Mr. Maxwell
+gives us the message he has brought us from what we are, perhaps, too
+ready to believe the enemy's camp, applaud him as much as you like. What
+I want to do now is to say as far as possible without offence, and
+without hurting the feelings of the many members of Christian churches
+who have come amongst us to-night, that it is to be our privilege to
+listen here in what has been recently called the head-quarters of
+infidelity--an insulting epithet which I, with you and all true
+rationalists indignantly repudiate--a man, a Christian clergyman, a
+priest of the Church of England who has, as you already know, raised a
+hurricane of criticism throughout this Christian country by daring to
+tell Christians just what Jesus of Nazareth meant--if plain words mean
+anything--when he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He has dared to say
+from a Christian pulpit what we have been saying from these platforms of
+ours ever since we had them--that Christendom is not Christian, and that
+it cannot be so until it is prepared to be honest with itself and its
+God.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell has come amongst us to-night with other thoughts, other
+faiths, other beliefs than ours, but from what I see of the audience he
+will not speak to freethinkers only. I believe that there are more
+professing Christians in this hall to-night than there ever have been
+before. Let us remember that. It may be that Mr. Maxwell will teach us
+some lessons as unpalatable as those which he taught from the pulpit of
+St. Chrysostom; but do not let us forget this that we shall be listening
+to a man who is a missionary in the best sense of the word, a man who
+has justified his faith by the sacrifice of his worldly prospects, and
+who has taken upon himself a task infinitely more difficult, infinitely
+more thankless than that of the missionary who, as we believe, carries
+at an immense expense of money which could be better spent in the
+charity that begins at home, a message of salvation, as he no doubt
+honestly believes it to be, to savages who cannot understand it, or to
+the people who were civilized when we were savages, and who don't want
+it and won't have it.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell has taken upon himself, if I may say so without offence, a
+far nobler mission than this, a greater task, if possible, than that of
+the noble men and women of all creeds, and no creed, who minister to the
+wants of our own savages, by which I mean those who have been kept in a
+state of savagery infinitely worse than that of the negro slave of
+seventy years ago, by the necessities of the civilization which is no
+more Christian than it is humane.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, by preaching that one famous sermon of his, has
+constituted himself a missionary to the rich, to those who profess and
+call themselves Christians, and yet are content to live utterly and
+hopelessly unchristian lives. Friends, the man beside me has begun to
+make himself the Savonarola of the twentieth century. Whether his creed
+is ours or not, we must all agree that that sermon of his is the
+beginning of a great and noble work. He told his wealthy and fashionable
+hearers last Sunday that they could not be Christians unless they were
+honest with God and their fellow men. As regards the first part, some of
+us have different beliefs to his, but as regards the second, we are with
+him heart and soul. If he can teach us to be honest with ourselves and
+each other, he will have done more to conquer sin and vice, more to make
+earth that human paradise that the poets and dreamers and prophets of
+all ages have longed for and foretold, than all the churches and all the
+creeds have done for the last two thousand years. It is a godly because
+it is a goodly work, and--if there is a God--that God will bless him and
+help him in it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+As the President sat down and Vane rose to his feet, quite a tumult of
+mingled applause, "hear, hears," hissings and hootings rose up from the
+strangely assorted audience.
+
+Vane faced the half-delighted, half-angry throng with the perfect
+steadiness of a man who has decided upon a certain course and means to
+pursue it at all hazards. Curiosity reduced one portion of the audience
+to silence, and a respectful anticipation the other. In the sea of faces
+before him, Vane recognised several that were familiar to him. His
+father, Carol, Dora, Ernshaw and Rayburn were there as a matter of
+course. Several clerics, high and low, Anglican and Nonconformist, were
+dotted about the audience, some with folded arms and frowning brows as
+though they were expecting the worst of heresies, others smiling in
+bland and undisguised contempt, believing that they had come to see one
+of their own cloth, who had already made himself an even more
+disagreeable subject of reflection to them than even the infidels in
+whose house the magic of Vane's sudden fame had brought them together,
+do that which would make it impossible for him to again commit such an
+offence in the pulpit of an English church.
+
+For a moment or two there was a hush of intense silence of mental
+suspense and expectation as Vane faced his audience and looked steadily
+about him before he began to speak, and when he did begin, the silence
+changed to an almost inaudible murmur and movement which is always the
+sign of relaxed tension among a large body of human beings.
+
+His first words were as unconventional as they were unexpected.
+
+"Brother men and sister women; some of you, like myself, believe in God,
+in the existence of an all-wise, over-ruling Providence, which shapes
+the destinies of mankind, and yet at the same time allows each man and
+woman to work out his or her own earthly destinies for good or ill, as
+he or she chooses--by reason or desire, by inclination or passion--and
+we also believe in the efficacy of the sacrifice which was consummated
+on Calvary. There are others listening to me now to whom these beliefs
+are merely idle dreams, the inventions of enthusiasts, or the deliberate
+frauds of those who brought them into being and imposed them by physical
+force upon those who had no means of resistance, for their own personal
+and political ends.
+
+"I have not come here to make any attempt to settle these differences
+between us. As a priest of the Church, I wish, with all my soul, that I
+could. As a man, I know that I can't. But there is one ground at least
+upon which we can meet as friends, whatever our opinions may be as
+regards religion and theology--two terms which, I think every one here
+will agree with me, are very far from meaning the same thing."
+
+"As a priest of the Church, I cannot hear that without protest!" cried a
+tall, high-browed, thin-featured, deep-eyed clergyman, springing to his
+feet in the middle of the hall. "If theology, the Science of God, does
+not mean the same thing as religion, the word religion has no meaning.
+More dangerous, I had almost said more disgraceful, words never fell
+from the lips of a man calling himself a priest of the Church of God."
+
+The last sentence was spoken in a high, shrill voice, which rose above
+the angry murmurs which came from all parts of the hall, but these Vane
+silenced in a moment, by holding up his hand and smiling as some of the
+audience had never seen a man smile before.
+
+"I am glad," he went on, in slow, very distinct tones, "that such an
+objection has been raised so early by a brother priest. It will help us
+to understand each other more clearly, and so I will try to answer him
+at once. The difference between religion and theology is the difference
+between the whole and the part; but theology is not a science, for there
+is no science of the Infinite. It is only the study of the many
+different conceptions which men of all nations and races have formed as
+to the nature of the over-ruling Power of the universes--of all the
+attempts to solve the insoluble and to answer the unanswerable.
+
+"There are two sayings, one Arabian and one Italian, which I hope I may
+quote without offence. One is, 'God gives us the outline of the picture,
+we fill it in. We cannot change the outline, but we are responsible for
+every stroke of the brush. In the end God judges the picture.'
+
+"The other was the saying of a famous Italian artist, 'Children and
+fools should not see work half done.'
+
+"Now let us grant for the sake of argument that there is a Creator, and
+therefore a scheme of creation. How much can we, dwellers upon a world
+which is but as a grain of sand washed hither and thither by the
+tide-flow of the ocean of Infinity, know about the workings of the Will
+in obedience to which, as some of us believe, that tide ebbs and flows
+through the uncounted ages of Eternity, and over the measureless expanse
+of Infinity? Faced with such a colossal problem as this, must we not all
+confess ourselves to be but as children and fools, since we do not and
+cannot see even half of the work, but only an immeasurably tiny fragment
+of it? For this reason I feel justified in saying that those who deny
+the existence of the Divine Architect of the universe and those who
+claim to know all about His plans, are, at least, equally mistaken.
+
+"But that, although I have been glad of the opportunity of saying it, is
+not quite what I came here to say, and, therefore, we will drop that
+part of the subject. Last Sunday I preached a sermon which--I say it
+both with wonder and gladness--has produced a very much wider and deeper
+effect than I could have hoped it would do. That was a sermon preached
+in a Christian church to a congregation, which, at least, professed and
+called itself Christian. To-night I am going to ask you to listen to a
+secular sermon preached from the same text. It will be very brief,
+because I know that you have a custom, and a very good one, of following
+discourses with discussion, and as I am going to raise a few distinctly
+controversial subjects, I want to leave plenty of our available time
+over for the discussion.
+
+"The theme of my sermon last Sunday at St. Chrysostom's may be summed up
+in one word--Honesty. The essence of the Sermon on the Mount is just
+honesty. I suppose everyone here has read it, and therefore you will
+remember that from beginning to end there is not a word of dogma in it.
+In other words it is absolutely untheological. Perhaps this fact, a very
+important one, has never struck some of you before. When the Master
+preached that sermon, he, as I believe, deliberately left out every
+reference to dogma or doctrine, creed or church, so that men, whatever
+their belief, their nation or their race, could equally accept it as a
+universal rule of life and conduct.
+
+"Some of us here believe in miracles, some do not. I do, and, so
+believing, I think that the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest of all
+miracles. It is a greater thing to preach a doctrine to which all honest
+men, coming whithersoever they may from the ends of the earth, will and
+must subscribe if they _are_ honest--a doctrine which is true for all
+time and for all men, than to cleanse the leper or to raise the dead to
+life.
+
+"I will ask you to let me put this point in another way, and in a
+certainly more attractive form. Let me read you the expression of this
+universal truth in the words of two English poets separated from each
+other by more than two hundred years of time and many mountain ridges
+and deep valleys of changing thought and opinion:
+
+     "Father of all! in every age,
+       In every clime adored,
+     By saint, by savage, and by sage,
+       Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
+
+     "Thou great First Cause, least understood,
+       Who all my sense confined
+     To know but this, that Thou art good,
+       And that myself am blind.
+
+     "Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
+       To see the good from ill;
+     And, binding nature fast in fate,
+       Left free the human will.
+
+"Those lines are from Pope's immortal poem 'The Universal Prayer'; these
+are from Rudyard Kipling's 'Hymn Before Action.'
+
+     "High lust and froward bearing,
+       Proud heart, rebellious brow--
+     Deaf ear and soul uncaring,
+       We seek Thy mercy now!
+     The sinner that forswore Thee,
+       The fool that passed Thee by,
+     Our times are known before Thee--
+       Lord, grant us strength to die!
+
+     "For those who kneel beside us
+       At altars not Thine own,
+     Who lack the lights that guide us,
+       Lord, let their faith atone!
+     If wrong we did to call them,
+       By honour bound they came;
+     Let not Thy wrath befall them,
+       But deal to us the blame!
+
+"Those, perhaps, are the most solemn and deep-meaning words that have
+been written or spoken since Jesus of Nazareth preached the Sermon on
+the Mount, and the inner sense, as I read it, is the same. In life, in
+death, be honest with yourself, with your brother-man and your
+sister-woman, and with your God if you believe in one.
+
+"Last Sunday in the pulpit I quoted the words of Colonel Ingersoll, 'God
+cannot afford to damn an honest man.' That phrase has always seemed to
+me a marvellous mixture of blasphemy, ignorance, and sound common sense.
+From my point of view it is blasphemous, because it is the utterance of
+the atom trying to understand the universe. It is ignorant, because it
+is impossible for that human atom who uttered it to form any adequate
+conception of the infinitely great whole of which he was an infinitely
+small part. And yet, humanly speaking, it is the soundest and hardest of
+common sense. If God is honest He must respect honesty, no matter
+whether it is the honesty of belief, or of disbelief, always supposing
+that the belief and the disbelief _are_ honest.
+
+"The man who calls himself a Christian and does not conduct his daily
+life in accordance with the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, is one
+of two things--a fool who cannot understand the meaning of plain words,
+or a knave, who, for many reasons, which most of my hearers will
+understand, pretends to be that which he is not. I may remind you here
+that knavery is not by any means confined to the limits of what is
+conventionally termed criminality. For every crime that puts a man or a
+woman into prison, there are a hundred others committed in every-day
+life with absolute impunity, and yet they are just as serious, and they
+merit a similar if not a heavier punishment than those which the law
+punishes with social degradation and the miseries of penal servitude.
+
+"I wonder whether it has occurred to any of you who are listening to me
+now--whether you are Christians, professed or real, atheists or
+agnostics--to ask yourselves if, under the present conditions of what we
+are pleased to call civilization, an honest world would be possible, and
+that, I may say, is just the same thing as asking whether Christians can
+or cannot live their lives in accordance with the teachings of Him who
+went about doing good? Of course we all call ourselves honest, and some
+of us really believe that we are. At any rate, most of us would feel
+very much insulted if any one else told us that we were not. But are
+we? Let us put our pride in our pockets for a moment and try to answer
+that pregnant question. Honesty, like many other terms, of which
+immorality is one, has, through its conventional use, acquired a very
+restricted and therefore a quite unreal meaning. We have, by some
+vicious process of thought, got accustomed to call a man or a woman who
+transgresses the social law in a certain direction immoral, and in the
+same way we have come to apply the word dishonesty to practices which
+mean stealing or the attempt to steal property of a concrete form.
+
+"But I think you will all agree with me that both these words have come
+to be used in a sense which is so narrow, that it destroys their
+original meaning. For every man or woman who transgresses the social law
+and is therefore called immoral--of course after being found out--there
+are a hundred or more who break the moral law every hour of their waking
+lives. All of you, no doubt, possess bibles. Read the 27th and 28th
+verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, and you
+will understand what I mean.
+
+"But there is another immorality than this, and, as I believe, a greater
+immorality, for this, so far as it concerns our sister women, is often
+not immorality at all. It is the surrender of a feeble nature to a
+pitiless necessity, the necessity to live, the only alternative, in too
+many cases, to self-murder. There is another immorality infinitely worse
+than this, which when, as we Christians believe, the hosts of men are
+ranged before the Bar of Eternal Justice will spell damnation, hopeless
+and irrevocable, and that is the immorality which means a dishonesty
+that deliberately deceives--not always for the purpose of gain, for this
+kind of dishonesty is generally practised by those whom, to put it
+plainly, it would not pay to steal.
+
+"A French philosopher once said that there is that within the heart of
+every man which, if known, would make his dearest friend hate him. That,
+I am afraid, is true, not only of men but of women. It is not the fault
+of the men or the women; it is due simply to artificial conditions of
+life and to the individual ignorance and stupidity which make reform
+impossible. Until what we call civilised and Christian Society can make
+up its mind to conduct its personal, its national, and its international
+affairs on the broad and simple lines laid down in the Sermon on the
+Mount, no man can afford to be quite honest. In other words, if
+Christendom would be really Christian, it would also be honest; honest
+with itself and with its God, with the God whom it now only pretends to
+worship, saying loudly, 'Lord, Lord,' and doing not the things which He
+saith!
+
+"It would not matter--and this I say with all reverence and with a full
+sense of my responsibilities as a Priest of the Church--it would not
+matter whether Society called itself Christian or not, as long as it was
+honest."
+
+"That is absolute atheism and blasphemy!" exclaimed a well-known
+Nonconformist preacher, springing up and holding his hands out towards
+the platform. "The man who could speak those words cannot be either a
+Christian or a minister of the Gospel. I call upon the speaker to be
+honest now, honest with himself and us, and confess that he is not a
+Christian, and therefore unworthy to be a preacher of any Christian
+creed."
+
+A storm of mingled expressions of approval and assent burst out from
+every part of the crowded hall. Vane stood immovable and listened to it
+with a smile hovering round his lips. The President rose at once and
+said:
+
+"I must remind the reverend gentleman who has made this interruption--an
+interruption which, if made in a church or a chapel, would render him
+liable to imprisonment--is entirely out of order. We welcome discussion,
+but it must come in its proper place. We cannot tolerate interruption,
+and we won't."
+
+The rebuke was too just and too pointed not to be felt, even by the
+bigot who had deserved it. He sat down, and when the thunder of applause
+which greeted the President's brief but pregnant interlude had died
+away, Vane went on without a trace of emotion in his voice:
+
+"I cannot say that I am sorry that that interruption was made, because
+it makes it possible for me to ask whether there is really any
+difference between Christianity and honesty?"
+
+Again he was interrupted, this time by half the audience getting on to
+its feet and cheering. The other portion sat still, and the units of it
+began to look at each other very seriously. Vane was, in fact, bringing
+the matter down to a most uncomfortably fine point. He made a slight
+motion with his hand, and his hearers, having already recognised the
+true missionary, or bringer of messages to the souls of men, instantly
+became silent and expectant.
+
+"If Christianity is not honest, or if honesty is not, for all practical
+purposes, the same thing as Christianity, then so much the worse for
+Christianity or for honesty as the case may be. A religion which is not
+honest is not a religion. Honesty which is not a religion--that is to
+say a tie between man and man--is not honest. That, I think, is a
+dilemma from which there is no escape."
+
+There was another burst of applause, this time almost universal, which
+the President did not attempt to check. A few members of the audience
+looked even more uncomfortable than before, but by the time Vane was
+able to make himself heard again it was quite plain that the great
+majority of his audience, believers and unbelievers, were heart and soul
+with him.
+
+"That," he went on, with a laughing note in his voice, "shows me that we
+have got on to friendly territory at last, on to the ground of our
+common humanity. I said just now, before my friend in the audience
+diverted my attention to another and very important point, most of us
+would feel very much insulted if anyone told us that we were not honest.
+We should jump to the conclusion that such a statement was the same
+thing as calling us thieves or swindlers; but that is not the question.
+Honesty is not by any means confined to commercial dealings. It has a
+social meaning and a very far reaching one too, for, as a matter of
+fact, the man or woman who deceives another in the smallest detail of
+life is not strictly honest, because it is impossible to be strictly
+honest without at the same time being strictly truthful.
+
+"It has been said that half the truth is worse than a lie. It is, I
+think, a greater sin to tell half the truth than a deliberate and
+comprehensive lie, for it is possible to tell a lie with an honest, if
+mistaken purpose; and yet the business of the modern world is mainly
+conducted by half-truths. Everyone tries to deceive the person he is
+doing business with to some extent. It is not altogether his fault, for
+he knows that if he didn't do so, the other man would deceive him, and
+so get the better of the bargain. That is the way of the world, as it is
+called, and a very bad way, and, as we believe, a very unchristian way
+it is.
+
+"Still, it is impossible to blame the trader and the man of commerce for
+this. The real fault, the real sin, is not individual, it is
+collective--the guilt properly belongs to Society. Men do not descend to
+these mean subterfuges and these despicable trickeries merely to make
+money, to pile on hundreds on hundreds and thousands on thousands. In
+their hearts all the best of them despise the methods by which they are
+forced to earn their incomes and make their fortunes; but the penalties
+which the laws of Society place on honesty are so tremendous that a
+really honest man will deliberately sacrifice his own honour rather than
+incur them. That is a very serious thing to say, and yet it is the
+literal truth, and the most pitiable part of the matter is that he
+commits these sins of unscrupulousness and dishonesty chiefly for the
+sake of his wife and children. The social penalties of honesty would
+fall most heavily on them. Their houses and their luxurious furniture,
+their carriages and their horses, their costly clothing and precious
+jewels would be theirs no longer; in a word, they would become poor, and
+Society has no place for people if they are poor, whatever else they may
+be.
+
+"To put the question in another way, a tiger seeking for its prey and
+slaying it ruthlessly when it has found it is not a pleasant subject for
+contemplation, but before we blame the tiger we must remember that
+somewhere at home in the jungle there is a Mrs. Tiger and some little
+tigers who have to be fed somehow. The tiger's methods of killing for
+food are merciful in comparison with the methods of many men who already
+possess enough to give the ordinary comforts of decent life to those who
+are depending upon them, and yet go on deceiving and swindling, for
+deception in commerce is swindling, in order to obtain those
+superfluities of life which are absolutely necessary to keep up what is
+called position in Society.
+
+"I do not say that wealth and comfort would be impossible in an honest
+world; there is no reason why they should be, but they would be gained
+in greater moderation and by different methods. For instance, if Society
+could and would change its standards of honesty and morality, the force
+of public opinion would soon make crime impossible, save among the
+mentally and morally diseased, who would, of course, be treated in the
+same merciful but relentless fashion as we now treat what we call our
+criminal lunatics.
+
+"It will of course be quite impossible for me to treat this vast subject
+in anything like detail in a single address, and therefore I shall
+content myself with having thrown out these few suggestions, and leave
+the development of it to those who will, I hope, take part in the
+discussion.
+
+"But one word more in conclusion. Your President has called me a
+missionary, a missionary to the rich. That is the mission which I have
+taken on myself, and therefore I gladly accept the title, all the more
+gladly because it comes from one who, while he differs from me
+absolutely on every theological point which I believe essential to
+salvation, has proved his faith by giving me that title and by uttering
+a prayer which has, I hope, already been heard by Him to whom all hearts
+are open, and from whom no secrets are hid."
+
+When Vane sat down there burst out a storm of applause, through which
+not a few hisses, mostly from clerical lips, pierced shrilly. Yet, few
+and simple as his words had been, it was quite evident that they had
+gone straight to the hearts of the majority of his audience.
+
+The President rose when the applause subsided, and, after a brief
+speech, in which he frankly admitted that if all teachers of the
+Christian faith were like Vane Maxwell, and if there were no other sort
+of Christianity than his, there would be very little of what too many
+Christians call infidelity in the world, gave the usual notice that the
+meeting was now open for discussion.
+
+Then the storm burst over Vane's devoted head. By a sort of tacit
+agreement the Secularists left the attack to the clergy. As a matter of
+fact they had practically no cause for dispute with Vane. On the
+contrary they delighted in the frankness of his expression of his
+belief, and the uncompromising fashion in which he had denounced and
+repudiated that unchristian form of Christianity which, as the President
+had put it, was responsible through its hypocrisy and double-dealing
+with God and man for all the honest unbelief, and all the scoffing and
+scepticism, which it pretended to deplore. So the Secularists sat still
+and silent, enjoying hugely the series of bitter attacks that were made
+on Vane by cleric after cleric, Anglican and Nonconformist, for close on
+a couple of hours. Vane took it all very quietly, now smiling and now
+looking grave almost to sadness, and when the last speaker had exhausted
+his passion and his eloquence, and the President asked him to reply, he
+got up and said in slow but grave and very clear tones:
+
+"I have no reply to make to what I have heard, save to say that I have
+heard with infinite sorrow from the lips of clergymen of every
+denomination and shade of opinion a series of statements which not one
+of them could justify from the teachings of Him who preached the Sermon
+on the Mount. There is no other criterion of Christian faith and
+doctrine than is to be found in the New Testament, and from the first
+verse in the Gospel according to St. Matthew to the last in Revelations
+there is not one word which contradicts what I have spoken, or which
+supports what they have said.
+
+"That is a serious thing to say, but I say it with full knowledge and
+with perfect faith. I mean no personal offence. That would of course be
+impossible under the circumstances; but it is also quite impossible for
+me, after saying what I have said here and elsewhere, to argue seriously
+with those who are by profession teachers and preachers of the
+revelation of Jesus Christ--of the message of God to man by God
+incarnate in the flesh--and who are yet able to reconcile in their own
+souls the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth and the doings of twentieth
+century Christianity. We have heard the words infidel and infidelity
+used many times to-night. There is no infidelity in honest unbelief;
+and, sorrowfully as I say it, I still feel it my duty to say it, that
+there is more real infidelity inside the churches than there is outside,
+for the worst and most damnable of all infidelities is that which says
+with its lips 'Lord, Lord,' and does not with its heart and its hands do
+that which He saith."
+
+There was a little silence, a silence of astonishment on the one part of
+the audience and of absolute stupefaction on the part of the other. Then
+the storm of applause broke out once more, but there was no hissing
+mingled with it this time. About a score of black-clad figures rose pale
+and silent amidst the cheering throng and walked out. Their example was
+followed by most of the West End Christians, including her ladyship of
+Canore and her husband and daughters, whose curiosity had been more than
+amply satisfied. The cheers changed from enthusiasm to irony as the
+irregular procession moved towards the doors, and an irreverent
+Secularist at the back of the hall jumped on his seat and shouted, with
+an unmistakable Old Street accent:
+
+"Got a bit more than you came for, eh? Hope you've enjoyed your lordly
+selves. Don't forget to say your prayers to-night. You want a lot of
+converting before _you'll_ be Christians. I've 'alf a mind to put up one
+for you to-night myself, blowed if I 'aven't."
+
+Then the applause changed to laughter, hearty and good-humoured, and
+when the President had proposed the usual vote of thanks to the
+lecturer, and Vane had accepted his invitation to give a series of
+addresses at the halls of the Society throughout the country, the most
+memorable meeting on record at the Hall of Science came to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+The next Sunday, Vane, the Mayfair Missionary, as one of the evening
+papers had called him, preached at St. Chrysostom, and took for his
+text:
+
+     "Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things."
+
+During the week, the storm of indignation against him had been growing
+both in strength and violence, and a movement was already on foot to
+arraign him before the Ecclesiastical Courts on charges of heresy and
+unbelief, and of bringing the priesthood into contempt by publicly
+associating himself as a priest with the avowed enemies of the Church.
+
+The church was, of course, crowded, but the congregation was composed of
+very different elements from those which had made up his congregation a
+fortnight before. There were many of its richest members there, but they
+did not come in their carriages. Many others had come in trains or
+'busses, or had walked from Mile End and Bethnal Green to hear the words
+of the new prophet; and scores of these had not seen the inside of a
+church for years, or ever dreamt of listening with anything like respect
+to a sermon from a Christian pulpit, yet none were more respectful and
+attentive than these infidels and heretics whose respectful attention
+and new-awakened reverence were the first fruits of Vane's mission
+harvest.
+
+His sermon was a direct and uncompromising reply to the challenge to
+prove that he was worthy to wear the cloth of the priesthood, and when
+it was over, his hearers, the believers and unbelievers alike, had been
+driven to the conviction, unpleasant as it was to some of them, that if
+the preacher had drawn his conclusions right from the words of Christ
+and his Apostles, it was absolutely certain that neither churches or
+churchmen, whatever their form of doctrine might be, could at the same
+time be wealthy and powerful in the worldly sense, and remain anything
+more than nominal Christians.
+
+After the sermon Vane assisted Father Baldwin in the administration of
+the Sacrament, and Carol and Rayburn took the elements from his hands;
+Carol for the first time in her life, and Rayburn for the first time
+since he had reached manhood. It was for them the consecration of their
+new love and the new life which was to begin next day.
+
+Dora, who had been present at the service and had remained through the
+communion, had, greatly to the surprise of every one, and even to the
+sorrow of Carol and Vane, refused steadily to partake. She would give no
+reason, and therefore Carol quite correctly concluded that she had some
+very sufficient one.
+
+At ten the next morning, Vane married Carol and Rayburn. The ceremony
+was as simple as the forms of the Church allowed, and absolutely
+private. Sir Arthur gave Carol away, and Ernshaw acted as Rayburn's
+best man. The only others present were Father Baldwin and Dora, and a
+few of the usual idlers to whom a wedding of any sort is an irresistible
+attraction, and who had no notion of the strangeness of the wooing and
+the winning, or of the depth of the life-tragedy which was being brought
+to such a happy ending in such simple fashion.
+
+The only guests at the marriage-feast were Dora, Ernshaw, and Vane. It
+was just a family party, as Sir Arthur called it, so the bride and
+bridegroom were spared the giving and receiving of speeches. Never did a
+greater change take place in a girl's life more simply and more quietly
+than this tremendous, almost incredible change which took place in
+Carol's, when, from being a nameless outcast beyond the pale of what is
+more or less correctly termed respectable society, she became the wife
+of a man who had wooed, and won her under such strange circumstances,
+yet knowing everything, and the mistress of millions to boot.
+
+When the brougham that was to take them to the station drew up at the
+door, Rayburn put his hand on Vane's arm, and led him to the study.
+
+"Maxwell," he said, as he shut the door, "I have done the best thing
+to-day that a man can do. I have got a good wife, and----"
+
+"You have done a great deal more than that, Rayburn," said Vane,
+"infinitely more. I needn't tell you what it is, but if ever God and his
+holy Saints looked down with blessing on the union of man and woman,
+they did upon your marriage to-day."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Rayburn, "and for Carol's sake, I hope so
+with all my heart. Now, look here," he went on, in an altered tone,
+taking an envelope out of his pocket, "you know that I don't find myself
+able to believe with you on this question of the possession of wealth.
+Perhaps I have got too much of it to be able to do so; but what I have,
+I know Carol will help me to use better than I could use it myself. It
+is the usual thing, I believe, for a man who has just taken a wife unto
+himself, to make a thank-offering to the Church. Here is mine, and it is
+not only mine, but hers, for we had a talk about it yesterday. Open it
+when we have gone. And now, good-bye, brother Vane, and God speed you in
+your good work!"
+
+When the last good-byes had been said, and the last kisses and
+handshakes exchanged, and the carriage had driven away, Vane went alone
+into the study, and opened the envelope. It contained a note in Carol's
+writing, and a cheque. The note ran thus:
+
+     "MY DEAREST BROTHER,
+
+     "The enclosed is the result of a talk I had with Cecil last night,
+     he also had one with Mr. Ernshaw, and I had one with Dora. I should
+     like it to be used, under your direction, for the good of those who
+     are as I was, but have not been so blest with such good fortune as
+     I have been.
+
+     "Ever your most loving and grateful sister,
+     "CAROL."
+
+The cheque was for twenty thousand pounds.
+
+Vane could scarcely believe his eyes when he looked at the five figures.
+Then, when he had grasped the meaning of them, he murmured:
+
+"God bless them both; they have made a good beginning," and went back
+to join the others in the dining-room.
+
+He had a long talk with Ernshaw that afternoon, and they decided to bank
+the money in their joint name, Ernshaw absolutely refusing to have it in
+his name alone, as the cheque had been given to Vane, and towards the
+end of the talk Ernshaw said:
+
+"I am glad to say that I should not be very much surprised now if what
+your father said a couple of years ago were to come true. In fact, I
+have broached the subject already very gently and circumspectly, of
+course, but she absolutely refuses even to consider the matter for at
+least a year. Still, she did it so gently and so sweetly that I don't by
+any means despair; and that girl, Maxwell, will make as good a wife as a
+parson ever had, and a better one than a good many have. She has given
+me my life-work, too. You are going to try and redeem the rich, or, at
+least, to show them the way of redemption. I, with God's help, and hers,
+am going to try and show a way of redemption to those who have lost
+everything, and this money of Rayburn's will give us a magnificent
+start, if you will agree with me that it will be devoted to it."
+
+"Of course, it must be," said Vane, "there can't be any doubt about
+that. Miss Russell will naturally be at the head of the work, I suppose,
+and the first thing we ought to do, I think, is to get an establishment
+for her, and let her start as soon as may be. I suppose you have talked
+it over with her already?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Ernshaw, "and she is more than delighted with the
+idea."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said Vane, "no one could possibly do the work
+better. Ernshaw, old man," he went on, more gravely, "I'm afraid for
+myself that with a helper, and, I hope, some day a help-meet like Miss
+Russell, you will have a good deal more chance of success in your work
+than I shall in mine."
+
+"That, my dear fellow," replied Ernshaw, "is in other hands than ours.
+There lies the work to our hands, and all we have got to do is to do it.
+By the way, as far as mine is concerned, I hope you will help me to
+persuade your father to take a share in it."
+
+"I am perfectly certain he will," said Vane; "the fact that Carol
+suggested it will be quite enough for that."
+
+"Then if he does, by the time you come back from your first crusade, I
+think you will find things getting pretty well into order."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," said Vane.
+
+But it was already written that this crusade was not to begin until many
+other things had happened. That evening at dinner Sir Arthur said:
+
+"Vane, I had a note from Sir Reginald this afternoon asking me to run
+down to the Abbey for a few days, and then join them at Cowes. You are
+included in the invitation, but, of course, you wouldn't go to Cowes,
+and I don't think I shall, the work here will be very much more
+interesting; but I thought perhaps you might like to run down to the
+Abbey and see Father Philip before you start on your mission. Garthorne
+and Enid are there, and her father and mother are going. It wouldn't be
+a bad opportunity to tell the family party the good news about Carol."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Vane, "I should like that, immensely; in fact, I've been
+thinking already that if Father Baldwin agrees with me that before I do
+make a start on my mission to Midas, as my friend, Reed, called it the
+other day, the best thing I could do would be to spend a day or two at
+the Retreat, and go into the matter thoroughly with Father Philip."
+
+While he was speaking, Ernshaw noticed that Dora turned deadly pale.
+When dinner was over Sir Arthur announced that he was going round for an
+hour to see Sir Godfrey Raleigh on a little Indian business. Dora felt
+now that her opportunity had come. It was a terrible thing to do, and
+yet, all things considered, present, and to come, she felt that it was
+her plain duty to do it, and not to permit this ghastly deception to go
+on any longer. Her soul revolted at the thought of Sir Arthur and Vane,
+Carol's half-brother, going to the Abbey and being received as friends
+by Sir Reginald Garthorne. Knowing what she did, it seemed to her too
+hideous to be thought of, and so when Vane asked jestingly what they
+were going to do to amuse themselves, she got up, looking very white,
+and said, in a voice that had a note almost of terror in it:
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, there is something I want to say to you; something that I
+must say to you. I cannot say it to you and Mr. Ernshaw together; it is
+bad enough to say it even to you, but when I have said it, you will be
+able to talk it over and try what is best to be done. I want to tell it
+to you first, because it concerns you most."
+
+"By all means," said Vane, looking at her with wonder in his eyes, "come
+into the library. Ernshaw, I know, will excuse us; put on a pipe, and
+get yourself some whiskey and soda. Now, Miss Russell," he said, as he
+opened the door for her, "I'm at your service."
+
+They left the room, and Ernshaw lit his pipe and sat down to speculate
+as to the cause of Dora's somewhat singular request, but fifteen minutes
+had not passed before the door was thrown open, and she came in white to
+the lips and shaking from head to foot, and said:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, come, please, quick. Mr. Maxwell is ill, in a fit, I
+think. I have had to tell him something very dreadful, and it has been
+too much for him."
+
+Ernshaw jumped up without a word and ran into the library. Vane was
+lying in a low armchair and half on the floor, his body rigid, his hands
+clenched, his eyes wide open and sightless, and a slight creamy froth
+was streaked round his lips.
+
+"A fit!" said Ernshaw. "You must have given him some terrible shock. Run
+and fetch Koda Bux and we will get him to bed; then tell a servant to go
+for Doctor Allison; we will have him round all right before Sir Arthur
+comes back."
+
+In a couple of minutes Vane was on his bed, and Koda Bux had opened his
+teeth and was dropping drop by drop, a green, syrupy fluid into his
+mouth, while Ernshaw was getting his boots off ready for the hot-water
+bottle that the housekeeper was preparing. By the time the Doctor had
+arrived, Koda Bux's elixir had already done its work. His eyes had
+closed and opened again with a look of recognition in them, his jaws had
+relaxed and his limbs were loosening. The Doctor listened to what
+Ernshaw had said while he was feeling his almost imperceptible pulse and
+Koda was wrapping his feet up in a blanket with a hot-water bottle.
+
+"Yes, I see," said the Doctor, "intensely nervous, high-strung
+temperament, just what we should expect Mr. Vane Maxwell to be now.
+
+"A very great mental shock and a fit. No, not epileptic, epileptoid,
+perhaps. Did you say that this man gave him something which brought him
+round? One of those Indian remedies, I suppose--very wonderful. I wish
+we knew how to make them. I suppose you won't tell us what it is, my
+man?"
+
+Koda Bux's stiff moustache moved as though there were a smile under it,
+and he bowed his head and said:
+
+"Sahib, it is not permitted; but by to-morrow the son of my master shall
+be well, for he is my father and my mother, and my life is his."
+
+"I thought so," laughed the Doctor, who was an old friend of Sir
+Arthur's. "I know you, Koda Bux, and I think I can trust you. I'll look
+in again in a couple of hours, Mr. Ernshaw, just to see that everything
+is right, but I don't think that I shall be wanted."
+
+When the Doctor left Koda Bux took charge of the patient as a right, and
+when they got back into the dining-room, Dora said after a short and
+somewhat awkward silence:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, after what has happened, I suppose it is only fair that I
+should tell you what I told Mr. Maxwell, because when he gets better, of
+course, he will talk it over with you, which is very dreadful, almost
+incredible. I promised Carol that I should not say anything about it
+until she was out of England. Of course, she told Mr. Rayburn; she
+wouldn't marry him until he knew the whole story, and so I'm not
+breaking any confidence in telling you."
+
+"Yes," he said, "I can fully understand that. And now, what is it? It is
+just as well that we should all know before Sir Arthur comes back, if I
+am to have any share in it."
+
+"Of course, you must have," she said, almost passionately. "You could
+not remain Mr. Maxwell's friend and help him in the work you are going
+to do if you did not know, and I had better tell you before Sir Arthur
+comes back, so that you can think what is best to be done."
+
+"Very well; tell me, please."
+
+And she told him the whole miserable, pitiful, terrible story as she had
+heard it from Carol from beginning to end. When she reached the part
+about the flat in Densmore Gardens, his face whitened and his jaws came
+together, and he muttered through his teeth:
+
+"Very awful; but, of course, they didn't know. The sins of the fathers!
+I am afraid Sir Reginald will have a very terrible confession to make.
+It is difficult to believe that a human being could be guilty of such
+infamy."
+
+"Still I'm afraid there is no doubt about it," said Dora. "But what's to
+be done? Mr. Maxwell will never let his father go to the Abbey now
+without telling him what I have told you, and when he knows--no, I
+daren't think about it. And poor Mrs. Garthorne, too; she married Mr.
+Garthorne in all innocence, although I still believe she would rather
+have married Mr. Maxwell. What would happen to her if she knew?"
+
+"She would go mad, I believe," said Ernshaw. "It would be the most
+terrible thing that a woman in her position could learn. We can only
+hope that she shall never learn. If she ever does, God help her!"
+
+"Yes," said Dora. "And yet, what is to happen? How can she help knowing
+in the end? It must come out some time, you know."
+
+"Yes, I am afraid it must," said Ernshaw, "but still, sufficient unto
+the day; we shall do no good by anticipating that. We may as well leave
+it, as the old Greeks used to say, on the knees of the gods."
+
+And meanwhile the gods were working it out in their own way, using Koda
+Bux as their instrument. Vane had gone to sleep after a second dose of
+the drug which had brought him out of his fit, and, as the keen Oriental
+intellect of Koda Bux had more than half expected, perhaps intended, he
+soon began to talk quite reasonably and connectedly in his sleep, and so
+it came to pass that a mystery which had puzzled Koda Bux for many a
+long year was revealed to him.
+
+When the Doctor came Vane was sleeping quietly, and, while he was
+examining him, Sir Arthur arrived, and was told that he had been taken
+ill shortly after dinner, and this the Doctor explained was probably due
+to the very severe mental strain to which he had subjected himself
+during the last week or so. He went up to his room and found Koda Bux on
+guard. Koda salaamed and said:
+
+"Protector of the poor, it is well! To-morrow Vane Sahib shall be well,
+but now he must sleep."
+
+"Very well, Koda Bux," replied Sir Arthur. "I know he can have no better
+nurse than you, and you will watch."
+
+"Yes, sahib, I will watch as long as it is necessary."
+
+Then Sir Arthur went downstairs to hear from Ernshaw and Dora the now
+inevitable story of the sin of the man who had been his friend for more
+than a lifetime. He heard it as a man who knew much of men and women
+could and should hear such a story--in silence; and then, saying a quiet
+good-night to them, he went up to his room to have it out with himself
+just as he had done on that other terrible night when he had found Vane
+drunk on the hearth-rug in the Den, and had recognised that he had
+inherited from his mother the fatal taint of alcoholic insanity.
+
+When he awoke the next morning, after a few hours' sleep, Koda Bux was
+not there to prepare his bath and lay out his clean linen. It was the
+first time that it had happened for nearly twenty years, and it was not
+until Sir Arthur came downstairs that he heard the reason. Koda Bux had
+vanished. No one knew when or how he had gone, but he had gone, leaving
+no sign or trace behind him.
+
+"Vane," said Sir Arthur, as soon as the truth dawned upon him, "we must
+go down to Worcester at once. I know where Koda Bux has gone, and what
+he has gone to do. Garthorne's crime was vile enough, God knows, but we
+mustn't let murder be done if we can possibly help it. Ah, there's an
+ABC, Vane, just see which train he can have got to Kidderminster. I know
+the next one is 9.50, which we can just catch when we have had a
+mouthful of breakfast; that's a fast one, too; at least, fairly fast;
+gets there about half past one."
+
+"5.40, arriving 12.15, 6.30 arriving 12.20," said Vane, reading from the
+time-table.
+
+"In any case, I am afraid he has more than an hour's start of us at
+Kidderminster. We can reduce that by taking a carriage to the Abbey
+because he would walk, and, of course, he may not, probably will not, be
+able to see Garthorne immediately, so we may be in time after all. Vane,
+do you feel strong enough to come?"
+
+"Of course I do, dad," he replied. "As long as I could stand I would
+come."
+
+"And may I come, too, Sir Arthur?" said Dora.
+
+"You, Miss Russell!" he exclaimed, "but why? Surely there is no need
+for us to ask you to witness such a painful scene as this, of course,
+must be."
+
+"I am Carol's friend, Sir Arthur," said Dora, "and I think it only right
+to do all that I can do to prove that her story is true. I have got the
+photographs, and I know the marks by which Sir Reginald can be
+identified. If we are not too late, such a man will, of course, answer
+you with a flat denial, but if I am there I don't think he can."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Arthur. "It is very kind of you, and, of course,
+you can help us a great deal if you will."
+
+"And, of course, I will," she said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Koda Bux, dressed in half-European costume, had taken the 5.40 newspaper
+train from Paddington to Kidderminster. He had been several times at
+Garthorne Abbey in attendance on Sir Arthur, and so he decided to carry
+out his purpose in the boldest, and therefore, possibly, the easiest and
+the safest way. He was, of course, well known to the servants as the
+devoted and confidential henchman of his master, and so he would not
+have the slightest difficulty in obtaining access to Sir Reginald. He
+walked boldly up the drive, intending to say that he had a letter of
+great importance which his master had ordered him to place in Sir
+Reginald's hand. Sir Reginald would see him alone in one of the rooms,
+and then a cast of the roomal over his head, a pull and a wrench--and
+justice would be done.
+
+Koda Bux knew quite enough of English law to be well aware that it had
+no adequate punishment for the terrible crime that Sir Reginald had
+committed--a crime made a thousand times worse by deception of half a
+lifetime.
+
+According to his simple Pathan code of religion and morals there was
+only one proper penalty for the betrayal of a friend's honour and his,
+Koda Bux's, was even more jealous of his master's honour than he was of
+his own, for he had eaten his salt and had sheltered under his roof for
+many a long year, and if the law would not punish his enemy, he would.
+For his own life he cared nothing in comparison with the honour of his
+master's house, and so how could he serve him better than by giving it
+for that of his master's enemy?
+
+It was after lunch-time when he reached the Abbey. Sir Reginald had, in
+fact, just finished lunch and had gone into the library to write some
+letters for the afternoon post, when the footman came to tell him that
+Sir Arthur Maxwell's servant had just come from London with an urgent
+message from his master.
+
+"Dear me," said Sir Reginald, looking up, "that is very strange! Why
+couldn't he have written or telegraphed? It must be something very
+serious, I am afraid. Ah--yes, Ambrose, tell him to sit down in the
+hall, I'll see him in a few minutes."
+
+The door closed, and, as it did so, out of the black, long, buried past
+there came a pale flash of rising fear.
+
+Sir Reginald was one of those men who have practically no thought or
+feeling outside the circle of their own desires and ambitions. He had
+lived on good terms with his fellow men, not out of any respect for
+them, but simply because it was more convenient and comfortable for
+himself. He had committed the worst of crimes against his friend, Sir
+Arthur Maxwell, in perfect callousness, simply because the woman Maxwell
+had married and inspired him with the only passion, the only enthusiasm
+of which he was capable. He had never felt a single pang of remorse for
+it. The sinner who sins through absolute selfishness as he had done
+never does. In fact, his only uncomfortable feeling in connection with
+the whole affair had been the fear of discovery, and that, as the years
+had gone on, had died away until it had become only an evil memory to
+him. And yet, why did Koda Bux, the man who had so nearly discovered his
+infamy twenty-two years ago, come here alone to the Abbey to-day?
+
+Ah, yes, to-day! A diary lay open on the writing-table before him. The
+28th of June. The very day--but that of course was merely a coincidence.
+Well, he would hear what Koda Bux had to say. He signed a letter, put it
+into an envelope, and addressed it. Then he touched the bell. Ambrose
+appeared, and he said:
+
+"You can show the man in now."
+
+"Very good, Sir Reginald," replied the man, and vanished.
+
+A few moments later the door opened again and Koda Bux came in, looked
+at Sir Reginald for a few moments straight in the eyes, and then
+salaamed with subtle oriental humility.
+
+"May my face be bright in your eyes, protector of the poor and husband
+of the widow!" he said, as he raised himself erect again. "I have
+brought a message from my master."
+
+"Well, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald, a trifle uneasily, for he didn't
+quite like the extreme gravity with which the Pathan spoke.
+
+"I suppose it must be something important and confidential, if he has
+sent you here instead of writing or telegraphing. Of course, you have a
+letter from him?"
+
+"No, Sahib," replied Koda Bux, fingering at a blue silk handkerchief
+that was tucked into his waist-band. "The message was of too great
+importance to be trusted to a letter which might be lost, and so my
+master trusted it to the soul of his servant."
+
+"That's rather a strange way for one gentleman to send a message to
+another in this country and in these days, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald,
+getting up from his chair at the writing-table and moving towards the
+bell.
+
+Instantly, with a swift sinuous movement, Koda Bux had passed before the
+fireplace and put himself between Sir Reginald and the bell.
+
+"The Sahib will not call his servants until he has heard the message,"
+he said, not in the cringing tone of the servant, but in the
+straight-spoken words of the soldier. Meanwhile, the fingers of his left
+hand were almost imperceptibly drawing the blue handkerchief out of his
+girdle.
+
+Sir Reginald saw this, and a sudden fear streamed into his soul. His own
+Indian experience told him that this man might be a Thug, and that if
+so, a little roll of blue silk would be a swifter, deadlier, and more
+untraceable weapon than knife or poison, and his thoughts went back to
+the 28th of June, twenty-two years before.
+
+"I am not going to be spoken to like that in my own house and by a
+nigger!" he exclaimed, seeking to cover his fear by a show of anger. "I
+don't believe in you or your message. If you have a letter from your
+master, give it to me, if you haven't, I shan't listen to you. What
+right have you to come here into my library pretending to have a message
+from your master, when you haven't even a letter, or his card, or one
+written word from him?"
+
+"Illustrious," said Koda Bux, with a sudden change of manner, salaaming
+low and moving backwards towards the door, "the slave of my master
+forgot himself in the urgency of his message, which my lord, his friend,
+has not yet heard."
+
+There was an almost imperceptible emphasis on the word "friend" which
+sent a little shiver through such rudiments of soul as Sir Reginald
+possessed. He said roughly:
+
+"Very well, then, if you have brought a message what is it? I can't
+waste half the morning with you."
+
+"The message is short, Sahib," replied Koda Bux, salaaming again, and
+moving a little nearer towards the door. "I am to ask you what you did
+at Simla two-and-twenty years ago this night--what you have done with
+the Mem Sahib who was faithful to my lord's honour when you, dog and son
+of a dog, betrayed it--and what has become of her daughter and yours?
+Oh, cursed of the gods, thou knowest these things as thou knowest the
+two marks of the African spear on thy left arm--but thou dost not know
+the depth of infamy which thy sin dug for thine own son to fall into."
+
+As he was saying this Koda Bux backed close to the door, locked it
+behind him, and took the key out.
+
+Bad as he was, the last words of Koda Bux hit Sir Reginald harder even
+than the others. His son, the heir to his name and fortune, what had he
+to do with that old sin of his committed before he was born?
+
+"You must be mad or opium-drunk, Koda Bux," he whispered hoarsely, "to
+talk like that. Yes, it is the 28th of June, and I have two spear marks
+on my arm--but I am rich, I can make you a prince in your own land.
+Come, you know something about me. That is why you came here; but what
+has my son Reginald to do with it? If I have sinned, what is that to
+him?"
+
+"In the book of the God of the Christians," said Koda Bux, very slowly,
+and approaching him with an almost hypnotic stare in his eyes, "in that
+book it is written that the chief God of the Christians will visit the
+sins of the fathers upon the children. This woman bore you a daughter;
+your lawful wife bore you a son. The woman who was once the wife of
+Maxwell Sahib was a drunkard, and now she's a mad-woman. Your own wife
+bore you a son, and in London your daughter and your son, not knowing
+each other, came together. Your daughter was what the good English call
+an outcast, and, knowing nothing of your sin, they lived--"
+
+"God in heaven! can that be true?" murmured Sir Reginald, sinking back
+against the mantel-piece just as he was going-to pull the bell.
+
+"No, it can't be! Koda Bux, you are lying; no such horrible thing as
+that could be."
+
+"My gods are not thine, if thou hast any, oh, unsainted one!" said Koda
+Bux, "but, like the gods of the Christians, they can avenge when the cup
+of sin is full. Yes, it is true. Your son and your daughter--your son,
+who is now married to her who should have been the wife of Vane Sahib.
+There is no doubt, and it can be proved. But that is only a part of your
+punishment, destroyer of happiness and afflictor of many lives. That is
+a thought which thou wilt take to Hell with thee, and it shall eat into
+thy soul for ever and ever, and when I have sent thee to Hell I will
+tell thy son and the woman he stole from Vane Sahib when he persuaded
+him to take strong drink that morning at the college of Oxford. Yes, I
+have heard it all. I, who am only a nigger! Dog and son of a dog, is not
+thy soul blacker than my skin? And now the hour has struck. Thy breath
+is already in thy mouth!"
+
+Koda Bux snatched the handkerchief from his waist-band and began to
+creep towards him, his Beard and moustache bristling like the back of a
+tiger, and his big, fierce eyes gleaming red. Sir Reginald knew that if
+he once got within throwing distance of that fatal strip of silk he
+would be dead in an instant without a sound. He made a despairing spring
+for the bell-rope, grasped it, and dragged it from its connection.
+
+At the same moment there was a peal at the hall bell, followed by a
+thunderous knocking. Enid, who was in the morning-room with her husband,
+saw a two-horsed carriage come up the drive at a gallop, and the moment
+it had stopped Vane jumped out and rang and knocked. Then out of the
+carriage came Sir Arthur and a lady whom she had never seen before, but
+whom Garthorne, looking over her shoulder out of the window, recognised
+only too quickly.
+
+"What on earth can Sir Arthur and Vane have come for in such a hurry as
+that!" she exclaimed. "Why, it might be a matter of life and death, and
+only such a short time after dear old Koda Bux, too. What can be the
+matter, Reginald?"
+
+But Garthorne had already left the room, his heart shaking with
+apprehension. He ran up into the hall to open the door before one of the
+servants could do it.
+
+"Ah, Sir Arthur, Vane--and Miss Russell--I believe it is----"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Garthorne," said Sir Arthur coldly but quickly, as they
+entered the hall. "We have come to stop a murder if we can. I hope we
+are in time. Where is your father, and has Koda Bux been here?"
+
+"Koda Bux has been in the library with my father for about half-an-hour,
+I believe," said Reginald. "What is the matter?"
+
+"It is a matter of life or death," answered Vane, looking at him with
+burning eyes and speaking with twitching lips. "Perhaps something worse
+even than that. Where are they?--quick, or we shall be too late!"
+
+"They are in the library," said Garthorne, as Enid came running out of
+the morning-room, saying:
+
+"Oh, Sir Arthur and Vane, good morning! How are you? What a very sudden
+visit. I knew Sir Reginald asked you, but----"
+
+"Never mind about that now, Enid," said Garthorne almost roughly. "Come
+along, Sir Arthur, this is the library."
+
+He crossed the great hall, and went down one of the corridors leading
+from it, and the footman was already at one of the doors trying to open
+it. It was locked. Garthorne hammered on it with his fists and shouted,
+but there was no reply.
+
+"I heard the library bell ring, sir," said Ambrose, "just as the front
+door bell went--after that Indian person had been with Sir Reginald some
+time."
+
+"Never mind about that," said Garthorne; "run round to the windows, and
+if any of them are open get in and unlock the door."
+
+But before he had reached the hall door the library door was thrown
+open. Koda Bux salaamed, and, pointing to the lifeless shape of Sir
+Reginald, lying on the hearth-rug, he said to Sir Arthur:
+
+"Protector of the poor, justice has been done. The enemy of thy house is
+dead. Before he died he confessed his sin. Has not thy servant done
+rightly?"
+
+"You have done murder, Koda Bux," said Sir Arthur sternly, pushing him
+aside and going to where Sir Reginald lay. He tried to lift him, but it
+was no use. There was the mark of the roomal round his neck, the staring
+eyes and the half-protruding tongue. Justice, from Koda Bux's point of
+view, had been done. There was nothing more to do but to have him
+carried up to his room and send for the police. Garthorne gripped hold
+of Koda Bux, and called to one of the servants for a rope to tie him up
+until the police came, but the Pathan twisted himself free with scarcely
+an effort.
+
+"There is no need for that, Sahib; I shall not run away," said Koda Bux,
+drawing himself up and saluting Sir Arthur for the last time. "I came
+here to give my life for the one I have taken, so that justice might be
+done, and I have done it. In the next worlds and in the next lives we
+may meet again, and then you will know that neither did I kill your
+father nor die myself without good cause. Of the rest the gods will
+judge."
+
+He made a movement with his jaws and crunched something between his
+teeth. They saw a movement of swallowing in his throat. A swift spasm
+passed over his features; his limbs stiffened into rigidity, and as he
+stood before them so he fell, as a wooden image might have done. And so
+died Koda Bux the Pathan, loyal avenger of his master's honour.
+
+For a few moments there was silence--every tongue chained, every eye
+fixed by the sudden horror of the situation. Garthorne, roused by fear
+and anger, for a swift instinct told him that Dora had not come to the
+Abbey for nothing, was able to speak first. He was Sir Reginald now--but
+why, and how? When a man of this nature is very frightened, he often
+takes refuge in rage, and that is what Garthorne did. He turned on Sir
+Arthur and Vane, his hands clenched, and his lips drawn back from his
+teeth, and said, in a voice which Enid had never heard from him before:
+
+"What does all this mean, Sir Arthur? My father murdered in his own
+house; his murderer tells you that he has 'done justice,' and avenged
+your honour--then poisons himself. If any wrong has been done, how did
+that nigger servant of yours get to know of it? Why should he have been
+let loose to murder my father? If you had anything against him, why
+didn't you charge him with it yourself, as a man and gentleman should?
+You must have been in it the whole lot of you or you wouldn't have been
+here!
+
+"But, perhaps," he went on, with a sudden change of tone, "you would
+rather tell the police when they come; there must be some reason, I
+suppose, for your bringing that woman, a common prostitute, into my
+house, and into the presence of my wife."
+
+"Oh, you fool, you hypocrite, you have asked for the punishment of your
+sin, and you shall have it!"
+
+Dora had taken a couple of strides towards him, and faced him--cheeks
+blazing, and eyes flaming.
+
+"Prostitute! yes, I was; but how do _you_ know it? Because you lived in
+the same house with me. Yes, up to the very week of your wedding, with
+me and that man's daughter. You have asked why he was killed. He was
+killed righteously, because he wasn't fit to live. No, you didn't know
+that then, and so far you are innocent; but you are guilty of a crime
+nearly as great. Your father stole Carol's mother from her husband; you
+stole your wife from the man she loved and would have married but for
+you.
+
+"It was _you_ who made Vane Maxwell drunk that morning at Oxford, in the
+hope of wrecking his career. You didn't do that, but you gained your end
+all the same, and your sin is just as great. How do I know this--how do
+_we_ know it? I will tell you. Carol Vane, Mr. Maxwell's sister, _and
+yours_, went to your wedding. Carol recognised him as her father. Look,
+there is his photograph taken with her, when Carol was ten years old. If
+you don't believe that, look at his left arm, and you will find two
+spear stabs on it, and if that is not enough, I can bring police
+evidence from France to prove that he committed the crime for which he
+has died, and now, you--son of a seducer, libertine and thief of another
+man's love--you have got your answer and your punishment!"
+
+Dora's words, spoken in a moment of rare, but ungovernable passion, had
+leaped from her lips in such a fast and furious torrent of denunciation,
+that before the first few moments of the horror she had caused were
+passed, she had done.
+
+Enid heard her to the end, her voice sounding ever farther and farther
+away, until at last it died out into a faint hum and then a silence.
+Vane ran to her, and caught her just as she was swaying before she fell,
+and carried her to a sofa. It was the first time he had held her in his
+arms since he had had a lover's right to do so, and all the man-soul in
+him rose in a desperate revolt of love and pity against the coldly
+calculating villainy of the man who had used the vilest of means to rob
+him of his love.
+
+The moment he had laid her on the sofa, Dora was at her side, loosening
+the high collar of her dress and rubbing her hands. Garthorne, crushed
+into silence by the terrible vehemence of Dora's accusation, had dropped
+into an armchair close by his father's body. Sir Arthur, half-dazed with
+the horror of it all, threw open the door with a vague idea of getting
+into the fresh air out of that room of death. As he did so, the hall
+door opened, and an Inspector of Police followed by two constables and a
+gentleman in plain clothes entered. The sight of the uniformed
+incarnation of the Law brought him back instantly to the realities of
+the situation. The Inspector touched his cap, and said, briefly, and
+with official precision:
+
+"Good morning, Sir Arthur. This is Dr. Saunders, the Coroner. I met him
+on my way up from the village, and asked him to come with me. Very
+dreadful case, Sir; but I hope the bodies have not been disturbed?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Sir Arthur, "they have not been touched, but Mrs.
+Garthorne is lying in the same room in a faint. I suppose we may take
+her out before you make your examination?"
+
+"Why, certainly, Sir Arthur," said the Coroner. "Of course, we will take
+your word for that. But I believe Mr. Reginald Garthorne is at the
+Abbey, is he not?"
+
+"Yes," replied Sir Arthur, in a changed tone, "he is there, in the
+library, but of course--well, I mean--what has happened has affected him
+terribly, and I don't think he will be able to give you very much
+assistance at present. In fact, he is almost in a state of collapse
+himself."
+
+"That is only natural, under the very painful circumstances," said the
+Inspector, "please don't put him about at all, Sir Arthur. The last
+thing we should wish would be to put the family to any inconvenience or
+unpleasantness, and I am sure Dr. Saunders will arrange that the inquest
+will be as private and quiet as possible."
+
+And so it was, but, somehow, the ghastly truth of it all leaked out, and
+for a week after the inquest the horrible story of Sir Reginald's crime
+and its consequences made sport of the daintiest kind for the readers
+of the gutter rags, those microbes of journalism, which, like those of
+cancer and consumption, can only live on the corruption or decay of the
+body-corporate of Society.
+
+Only one name and one fact never came out, and that was due to Ernest
+Reed's uncompromising declaration that he would shoot any man who said
+anything in print about the identity of Carol Vane with the daughter of
+Sir Reginald Garthorne's victim. He worked by telegraph and otherwise
+for twenty-four hours on end, and the result was that his brother
+pressmen all over the country, being mostly gentlemen, recognised the
+chivalry of his attempt, and so chivalrously suppressed that part of the
+truth. And so effectually was it suppressed, that it was not until about
+a year afterwards that Mr. Ernest Reed found a rather difficult
+matrimonial puzzle solved for him by the receipt of Mr. Cecil Rayburn's
+cheque for a thousand pounds.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+A little more than a year had passed since the inquest on Sir Reginald
+and Koda Bux. For Vane Maxwell, the Missionary to Midas, as every one
+now called him, it had been a continued series of tribulations and
+triumphs. From Land's End to John o' Groats, and from Cork Harbour to
+Aberdeen he had preached the Gospel that he had found in the Sermon on
+the Mount. He had, in truth, proved himself to be the Savonarola of the
+twentieth century, not only in words, but also in the effects of his
+teaching.
+
+He had asked tens and hundreds of thousands of professing Christians,
+just as he had asked the congregation of St. Chrysostom, to choose
+honestly between their creed and their wealth, to be honest, as he had
+said then, with themselves or with God; to choose openly and in the face
+of all men between the service of God and of Mammon. And his appeal had
+been answered throughout the length and breadth of the land.
+
+Never since the days of John Wesley had there been such a re-awakening
+of religious, really religious, feeling in the country. Just as the rich
+Italians brought their treasures of gold and silver and jewels and
+heaped them up under the pulpit of Savonarola in the market-places, so
+hundreds of men and women of every social degree recognised the plain
+fact that they could not be at the same time honestly rich and honestly
+Christians, and so, instead of material treasure, they had sent their
+cheques to Vane.
+
+Before the year was over he found himself nominally the richest man in
+the United Kingdom. He had more than five millions sterling at his
+absolute disposal, almost countless thousands of pounds given up for
+conscience' sake because he had said that honest Christians could not
+own them; and he and Father Philip, Father Baldwin and Ernshaw, having
+given many hours and days of anxious consideration to the very pressing
+question as to which was the best way of disposing of this suddenly,
+and, as they all confessed, unexpectedly acquired wealth, decided to
+devote it to the extirpation, so far as was possible in England, of that
+Cancer in Christianity which Christians of the canting sort call the
+Social Evil.
+
+As Jesus of Nazareth had said to the woman taken in adultery, "Go thou
+and sin no more!" so the Missionary and his helpers said:
+
+"You have sinned more through necessity than choice, and the Society
+which denies you redemption is a greater sinner than you, since it
+drives you into deeper sin. There is no hope for you here. Civilization
+has no place for you, save the streets or the 'homes,' which are, if
+anything, more degrading than the streets.
+
+"Those who are willing to save themselves we will save so far as earthly
+power can help you. We will give you homes where you will not be known,
+where, perhaps, you may begin to lead a new life, where it may be that
+you will become wives and mothers, as good as those who now, when they
+pass you in the street, draw their skirts aside fearing lest they
+should touch yours. And, if not that, at least we will save you from the
+horrible necessity of keeping alive, by living a life of degradation."
+
+The foregoing paragraphs are, to all intents and purposes, a précis of a
+charter of release to the inhabitants of the twentieth century Christian
+Inferno which was drawn up by Dora Russell the day before she yielded to
+Ernshaw's year-long wooing, and consented to be his helpmeet as well as
+his helper.
+
+It was scattered broadcast in hundreds of thousands all over the
+country. Storms of protest burst forth from all the citadels of
+orthodoxy and respectability. It seemed monstrous that these women, who
+had so far defied all the efforts of official Christianity to redeem
+them, should be bribed--as many put it--bribed back into the way of
+virtue, if that were possible, with the millions which had been coaxed
+out of the pockets of sentimental Christians by this Mad Missionary of
+Mayfair--as one of the smartest of Society journals had named him.
+
+But, for all that, the Mad Missionary said very quietly to Ernshaw a few
+hours before he intended to marry him to Dora:
+
+"These good Christians, as they think themselves, are wofully wrong. It
+seems absolutely impossible to get them to see this matter in its proper
+perspective. They can't or won't see that in ninety-nine cases out of a
+hundred it is one of absolute necessity--the choice between that and
+misery and starvation. They don't see that this accursed commercial
+system of ours condemns thousands of girls----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted Dora, "I know what you are going to say. I was a
+shop-girl myself once, a slave, a machine that was not allowed to have
+a will or even a soul of its own, and I----"
+
+Before she could go on, the door of the Den at Warwick Gardens--where
+the conversation had taken place--opened, and Sir Arthur came in with
+some letters in his hands.
+
+"I just met the postman on the doorstep," he said, "and he gave me
+these.
+
+"Here's one for you, Vane. There's one for me, and one for Miss
+Russell--almost the last time I shall call you that, Miss Dora, eh?"
+
+Vane tore his envelope open first. As he unfolded a sheet of note-paper,
+a cheque dropped out. The letter was in Carol's handwriting. His eye ran
+over the first few lines, and he said:
+
+"Good news! Rayburn and Carol are coming home next week and bringing a
+fine boy with them--at least, that is what the fond mother
+says--and--eh?--Rayburn has made another half million out there, and,
+just look, Ernshaw--yes, it is--a cheque for a hundred thousand pounds,
+to be used, as she says here in the postscript, 'as before.'"
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Dora, as she was opening her own envelope.
+"Fancy having Carol back again. Mark, I won't marry you till she comes.
+You must put everything off. I won't hear of it and--oh--look!" she went
+on, after a little pause, "Sir Arthur, read that, please. Isn't it
+awful?"
+
+"The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small," said Sir
+Arthur when he had looked over the sheet of note-paper. "Shall I read
+it, Miss Russell?"
+
+Dora nodded, and he read aloud:
+
+"I have just heard that my husband, whom, as you know, I have not seen
+since that terrible day at the Abbey, has died in a fit of delirium
+tremens. The lawyers tell me that everything will be mine. If so,
+Garthorne Abbey shall go back to the Church if Vane will take it, and if
+you will let me come and help you in your work."
+
+"Thank God!" said Sir Arthur, as he gave the letter back, "not for his
+death, for that was, after all that we have heard, inevitable; but for
+what Enid has done. Vane, she is your latest and, perhaps, after all,
+your worthiest convert. And now, what's this?"
+
+He tore open his own envelope, which was addressed in the handwriting of
+one of his solicitor's clerks. The letter was very brief and formal, but
+before he had read it through his face turned grey under the bronze of
+his skin. He passed it over to Vane, and left the room without a word.
+
+Vane looked at the few formal lines, and, as he folded the letter up
+with trembling fingers, he said almost in a whisper:
+
+"The tragedy is over. My mother is dead."
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+  List of Popular Novels
+  Published by F. V. White & Co. Limited,
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+  F.V. WHITE & CO., LTD., Publishers,
+  SIX SHILLING NOVELS.
+  In 1 Vol., Cloth Gilt, price 6/- each.
+
+  A MATTER OF SENTIMENT. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  POOR FELLOW. By Mrs. J. H. RIDDELL.
+  A DREAM OF FREEDOM. By HUME NISBET.
+  THE MYSTERY OF A SHIPYARD. By R. H. SAVAGE.
+  DEACON AND ACTRESS. By A. O. GUNTER.
+  THE MISSIONARY. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  THE MAN I LOVED. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  THE JOSS--A Reversion. By RICHARD MARSH.
+  QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. C. N. WILLIAMSON.
+  A LOSING GAME. By HUME NISBET.
+  IN THE HOUSE OF HIS FRIENDS. By RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE.
+  THE COURT OF HONOUR. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  FROM DEAL TO SOUTH AFRICA. By HELEN C. BLACK.
+  A MANUFACTURER'S DAUGHTER. By A. C. GUNTER.
+  THE CAREER OF A BEAUTY. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  MAY SILVER. By ALAN ST. AUBYN.
+  A SOLDIER FOR A DAY. By EMILY SPENDER.
+  DENVER'S DOUBLE. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  A CRAFTY FOE. By HUME NISBET.
+  MOSTLY FOOLS AND A DUCHESS. By LUCAS CLEEVE.
+  AN UNCONGENIAL MARRIAGE. By COSMO CLARKE.
+  DOL SHACKFIELD. By HEBER K. DANIELS.
+  THE MAJOR-GENERAL. A Story of Modern Florence. By MONTGOMERY CARMICHAEL.
+  THE KING'S SECRET. By RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE.
+  WAR--AND ARCADIA. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  THE WORLD'S BLACKMAIL. By LUCAS CLEEVE.
+  THE LOVE OF TWO WOMEN. By JOHN JONES.
+  THE FLICK OF FORTUNE. By THOMAS PARKES.
+  LOVE'S GUERDON. By CONRAD H. CARRODER.
+  MIRIAM ROZELLA. By B. L. FARJEON.
+  MERELY PLAYERS. By Mrs. AYLMER GOWING.
+  THE EVOLUTION OF DAPHNE. By Mrs. ALEC MCMILLAN.
+  MISTRESS BRIDGET. By E. YOLLAND.
+  THE ATTACK ON THE FARM. By ANDREW W. ARNOLD. (Illustrated.)
+  THE BRIDE OF GOD. By CONRAD H. CARRODER.
+  ROMANCE OF THE LADY ARBELL. By ALASTOR GRAEME (MRS. F. T. MARRYAT).
+  BELLING THE CAT. By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
+  THE GODS SAW OTHERWISE. By F. H. MELL.
+  SAROLTA'S VERDICT. By E. YOLLAND.
+
+
+
+
+  Novels at Three Shillings and Sixpence.
+  In 1 Vol., Cloth Gilt, price 3/6 each.
+
+  THE MARRIED MISS BINKS. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  WAR--AND ARCADIA. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  FOR RIGHT AND ENGLAND. By HUME NISBET.
+  THE GIRL AT RIVERFIELD MANOR. By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
+  IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. By HUME NISBET.
+
+
+
+
+  FIVE SHILLING NOVELS.
+  In Cloth Gilt, Bevelled Boards, Illustrated, price 5/- each.
+
+  THE CURSE OF THE SNAKE. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+  THE CHILDERBRIDGE MYSTERY. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+
+
+
+
+  A NEW JUVENILE BOOK.
+  In Cloth Gilt, Illustrated, price 2/6.
+
+  THE MAGIC GARDEN. By CECIL MEDLICOTT.
+
+
+
+
+  ONE SHILLING NOVELS.
+  In Paper Covers.
+
+  LORD BROKE'S WIFE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  SHE WAS CALLED NOEL, by the same Author.
+  BITS OF TURF. By NATHANIEL GUBBINS.
+  THE SACK OF LONDON. By ONE WHO SAW IT.
+  A GUIDE BOOK FOR LADY CYCLISTS. By MRS. EDWARD KENNARD.
+  CONTINENTAL CHIT CHAT. By MABEL HUMBERT.
+  PISCATORIAL PATCHES. By MARTIN PESCADOR.
+  A NEAR THING. By H. CUMBERLAND BENTLEY.
+  THE PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. By COSMO CLARKE.
+  RAILWAY SKETCHES. By MARY F. CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+  SIXPENNY NOVELS.
+  COPYRIGHT SERIES.
+
+  A NAME TO CONJURE WITH. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  WHOSO FINDETH A WIFE. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  THE SECRET OF THE DEAD. By L. T. MEADE.
+  AUNT JOHNNIE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  STREET DUST. By OUIDA.
+  THE MEMOIRS OF AN INSPECTOR. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  TURF TALES. By NATHANIEL GUBBINS.
+  STORIES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL. By HUME NISBET.
+  A SWEET SINNER. By HUME NISBET.
+  A RISE IN THE WORLD. By ADELINE SERGEANT.
+  IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  THE BLACK DROP. By HUME NISBET.
+  BROTHERS OF THE CHAIN. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  THE OTHER MAN'S WIFE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  JOHN AMES, Native Commissioner. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  A MAGNIFICENT YOUNG MAN. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  BROUGHT TO BAY. By R. H. SAVAGE.
+  LITTLE MISS PRIM. By FLORENCE WARDEN.
+  THE JUSTICE OF REVENGE. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. C. N. WILLIAMSON.
+  IN WHITE RAIMENT. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  A BORN SOLDIER. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  ALETTA. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  THE EMPIRE MAKERS. By HUME NISBET.
+  A RATIONAL MARRIAGE. By FLORENCE MARRYAT.
+  THE SECRET OF LYNNDALE. By FLORENCE WARDEN.
+  NEW NOVEL. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+
+  _Other Stories by the most Popular Authors of the day will follow in
+  succession._
+
+
+
+
+  MISCELLANEOUS.
+
+  GOOD FORM: a Book of Every Day Etiquette. By MRS. ARMSTRONG, Author of
+  "Modern Etiquette in Public and Private." _Limp Cloth, 2s._
+
+  LETTERS TO A BRIDE, Including Letters to a Debutante. By MRS.
+  ARMSTRONG. _Cloth Gilt, 2s. 6d._
+
+
+
+
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+Alternative spellings and hyphenation have been retained as they appear
+in the original publication. Other punctuation, including quotation
+marks, has been standardized.
+
+In chapter XVII, in the sermon headline beginning with "WEIGHTY WORDS TO
+RICH AND POOR," the name "Maxwell Vane" has been changed to "Vane
+Maxwell."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Missionary
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: August 21, 2009 [EBook #29743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSIONARY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Rose Acquavella and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1><i>The Missionary</i></h1>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span></p>
+
+<h3>George Griffith</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><br /><br />Author of</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">"<i>The Angel of the Revolution</i>,"<br />
+"<i>The Rose of Judah</i>,"<br />
+"<i>The Destined Maid</i>,"<br />
+"<i>The Justice of Revenge</i>,"<br />
+"<i>Brothers of the Chain</i>,"<br />
+"<i>Captain Ishmael</i>," <i>etc., etc.</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>London</i><br />
+F. V. WHITE &amp; CO., LTD.<br />
+14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.<br />
+1902</p>
+
+<p class="center"><br /><br />PRINTED BY KELLY'S DIRECTORIES LIMITED,<br />
+LONDON AND KINGSTON.
+<br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"><b>CONTENTS</b></td><td></td><td align="left"><b>PAGE</b></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#PROLOGUE">PROLOGUE</a></td><td></td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">22</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">31</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">48</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">67</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">86</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">96</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">106</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">115</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">125</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">134</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">144</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">156</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">167</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">177</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">188</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">202</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">214</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">222</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">230</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">238</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">249</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">260</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">276</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">289</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a>.</td><td></td><td align="right">302</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_MISSIONARY" id="THE_MISSIONARY"></a>THE MISSIONARY.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PROLOGUE" id="PROLOGUE"></a>PROLOGUE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;Eny!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you needn't be angry, Vane. I kissed
+<i>you</i> this morning, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"That's no reason why you should kiss that
+chap, too! You're <i>my</i> sweetheart."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she? Well, she won't be much longer, because
+I'm going to have her."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you? Shut up, or I'll punch your head."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't&mdash;and, anyhow, you daren't."</p>
+
+<p>Smack!</p>
+
+<p>It was a good swinging blow with the open
+hand across the cheek, and it left a vivid flush behind
+it on the somewhat sallow skin.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you're going to fight I shall go away,
+and I shan't be friends with either of you."</p>
+
+<p>But as the two lads closed, the blue-eyed,
+golden-haired little beauty only shrank back a
+little nearer to the after-wheelhouse of the homeward
+bound P. and O. liner whose deck was the
+scene of this first act of the tragedy of three lives.
+A bright flush came into her cheeks, and a new
+light began to dance in her eyes as the first look
+of fright died out of them. The breath came and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>went more quickly between the half-opened lips
+with a low sibilant sound. They were pretty, well-cut
+lips, the upper short and exquisitely curved,
+and the lower full with the promise of a sensuous
+maturity.</p>
+
+<p>She was only seven, but she was woman enough
+already to know that these two lads were fighting
+for <i>her</i>&mdash;for the favour of her smiles and the right
+to her kisses&mdash;and so she stayed.</p>
+
+<p>She had heard in India how the tigers fought
+for their mates, and, with the precocity of the
+Anglo-Indian child, she recognised now the likeness
+between tigers and men&mdash;and boys. She
+was being fought for. These two lads, albeit they
+had neither of them seen their eleventh birthday,
+were using all their strength against each other,
+hammering each other's faces with their fists, wrestling
+and writhing, now upstanding and now on the
+deck at her feet, were not unlike the tigers she
+had heard her father tell her mother about.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the hatred in their eyes, red and swollen
+by the impact of well-planted blows. She watched
+the gleam of their teeth between their cut and
+bleeding lips. They hated each other because they
+loved her&mdash;or, in their boyish way, most firmly believed
+they did. Their lips were cut and bleeding
+because she had kissed them.</p>
+
+<p>The fascination of the fight grew upon her.
+The hot young blood began to dance in her veins.
+She found herself encouraging now one and then
+the other&mdash;always the one who was getting the
+worst of it for the time being&mdash;and when at last
+the younger and slighter but more wiry and active
+of them, the one who had caught the other kissing
+her, took adroit advantage of a roll of the ship
+and pitched his antagonist backwards so heavily
+against the wheelhouse that he dropped half-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>stunned
+to the deck, she looked proudly at the
+panting, bleeding victor, and gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Vane, I'm so glad you've won. You
+haven't quite killed him, have you? I suppose
+the captain would hang you if you did. I'm <i>so</i>
+sorry it was all about me. I'll never let any one
+else but you kiss me again. Really I won't. You
+may kiss me now if you like. Take my handkerchief.
+Oh, I don't mind the cuts. You did it for
+me. There! It was brave of you, for he's bigger
+than you. Poor Reggie, let's help him up. I suppose
+you'll both have to go to the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall both get a jolly good licking more
+likely. Still, I don't care as long as you won't let
+him kiss you again."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Vane, indeed I won't, nor anyone else for
+ever and ever if you'll only forgive me this time."</p>
+
+<p>And then, for the first time since the fight began,
+her big bright blue eyes filled and grew dim with
+tears.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was the evening of Boat-race day, and as usual
+that province of Vanity Fair whose centre is Piccadilly
+Circus was more or less completely given
+over to joyously boisterous troops of undergraduates
+and 'Varsity men of all academic ranks
+whom the great event of the year had brought together
+from all parts of the kingdom, and even
+from lands beyond the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The mild saturnalia which London annually
+permits in honour of the historic struggle between
+the rival blues was at its height. The music halls
+were crowded to their utmost capacity, and lusty-voiced
+undergraduates joined enthusiastically, if
+not altogether tunefully, in the choruses of the
+songs; but the enthusiasm was perhaps highest
+and the crowd the greatest at the Palace, where
+start and race and the magnificent finish with
+which the struggle had ended were being shown
+by the American Biograph.</p>
+
+<p>As the series of pictures followed each other on
+the screen, the cries which a few hours before had
+been roaring along the two banks of the river from
+Putney to Mortlake burst out anew from pit and
+gallery, circles and stalls and boxes. Cambridge
+had won for once after a long series of defeats,
+but the Oxford boys and men were cheering just
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>as lustily and yelling themselves just as hoarse as
+the others, for they were all Englishmen and therefore
+good sportsmen.</p>
+
+<p>The crush in the First Circle was terrific, but
+for the moment Vane Maxwell was conscious
+neither of the heat nor the crowding. His whole
+soul was in his eyes as he watched the weirdly
+silent and yet life-like phantoms flitting across the
+screen. It was only when the finish had faded
+into swift darkness and the thunders of applause
+had begun to die down that he became aware of
+the fact that someone was standing on one of his
+feet, and that just behind him someone else had
+got hold of his arm and was holding it with a convulsive
+sort of clutch.</p>
+
+<p>Just then there was a lull in the applause, and he
+caught a faintly murmured "Oh, dear" in a feminine
+voice. He wrenched his foot free, and turned
+round just in time to slip his arm round the waist
+of a fainting girl and save her from falling.</p>
+
+<p>The crush was loosening now, for the great attraction
+of the evening had passed, and a general
+move was being made towards the bars.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please there, this young lady's fainting.
+Give her as much room as you can, please," he said
+loudly enough to be heard for some little distance
+round.</p>
+
+<p>A number of undergraduates of both Universities
+managed to immediately clear a space about
+them, and one of his own college chums at Balliol
+who had come in with him said, "Take her to the
+bar, Maxwell, and give her a drop of brandy.
+Now, move up there, you fellows. Room for
+beauty in distress&mdash;come along!"</p>
+
+<p>A couple of the stalwart attendants had also arrived
+on the scene by this time, and so a lane was
+easily made to the nearest bar. The girl opened
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>her eyes again, looked about her for a moment,
+and then murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you so much, I think I can walk.
+I am getting all right now. It was the crowd and
+the heat. Please don't trouble. It's very good of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's no trouble at all," said Maxwell. "Come
+and let me give you a drop of brandy. That'll
+put you all right."</p>
+
+<p>As they went into the bar they were followed
+by not a few curious glances. Men and lads
+looked at each other and smiled, and women
+looked at them and each other, also smiling, but
+with plainer meaning, and one or two expressed
+themselves openly as to the neatness with which
+the whole affair had been managed.</p>
+
+<p>Crowded as the bar was, Maxwell had no difficulty
+in getting a couple of brandies and a split
+soda for himself and his companion. Two men
+sitting at one of the tables had got up to let her
+sit down. One of them held out his hand to Maxwell
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Vane, old man, is it you? In luck, as
+usual, I see." He said this with a glance towards
+the girl which brought the blood to Maxwell's
+cheeks. Still, he took the other's hand, and said
+good-humouredly:</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Garthorne. Up for the race, I
+suppose? Fine fight, wasn't it? I'm glad you
+won, it was getting a bit monotonous. Thanks for
+letting us have the table. This young lady is not
+very well, felt a bit faint in the crowd."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Garthorne, with another look at
+her which Maxwell did not altogether like. "Well,
+good night, old man. Be as good as you can."</p>
+
+<p>As the two moved away Maxwell's memory went
+back to a scene which had occurred behind the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>wheelhouse of a P. and O. liner about ten years
+before, and, without exactly knowing why, he felt
+as if it would give him a certain amount of satisfaction
+to repeat it. Then he turned to the girl
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon; I hope you haven't been
+waiting. You should have taken a drink at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thanks, that's all right. I'm a lot better
+now," she said, taking up the tumbler and smiling
+over it at him. "Well, here's luck! It was awfully
+good of you to get me out of that crowd. I
+believe I should have fallen down if it hadn't been
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please don't mention that," he said; "only
+too happy&mdash;I mean I was very glad I was there
+to do it. Here's to your complete recovery."</p>
+
+<p>As he drank their eyes met over the glasses.
+Until now he had not really looked at her; things
+had been happening rather too rapidly for that.
+But now, as he put his glass down and began to
+scrutinize the half-saucy, half-demure, and altogether
+charming face on the other side of the
+table, it suddenly dawned upon him that it was
+exceedingly like his own.</p>
+
+<p>The nut-brown hair was almost the same shade
+as his, but it had a gleam of gold in it which his
+lacked. The dark hazel eyes were bigger and
+softer, and were shaded by longer and darker
+lashes than his, but their colour and expression
+were very similar. The rest of the face, too, was
+very similar, only while his nose was almost perfectly
+straight, nearly pure Greek in fact, hers was
+just the merest trifle <i>retroussé</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The mouths and chins were almost identical
+save for the fact that firmness and strength in his
+were replaced by softness and sweetness in hers.
+Not that hers were lacking in firmness, for a skilled
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>physiognomist would have put her down at the
+first glance as a young lady of very decided character;
+but the outlines were softer, the lips were
+more delicate and more mobile, and, young as he
+was, there was a gravity in his smile which was
+replaced in hers by a suspicion of defiant recklessness
+which was not without its mournful meaning
+for those who had eyes to see.</p>
+
+<p>"That's done me a lot of good," she said, as
+she finished her brandy and soda. "Now, I
+mustn't keep you from your friends any longer.
+I'm very much obliged to you indeed. Good
+night!"</p>
+
+<p>He rose as she did, and took the neatly-gloved
+little hand that she held out to him over the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why we should say good night just
+yet unless you particularly wish it," he said. "I
+only came here with a lot of our fellows to see the
+Biograph, and I shan't stop now that's over. I'm
+getting jolly hungry, too. If you have no other
+engagement suppose we were to go and have a
+bit of supper somewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>For some reason or other which she was quite
+unable to define, these words, although they were
+spoken with perfect politeness, and although she
+had heard them scores of times before without offence,
+now almost offended her. And yet there
+was no real reason why they should.</p>
+
+<p>She had been out to supper with pretty nearly
+all sorts and conditions of men. Why should she
+not go with this well-groomed, athletic-looking
+young fellow who had already done her a considerable
+service, who was obviously a gentleman, and
+whose face and expression had now begun to strike
+her as so curiously like her own?</p>
+
+<p>She really had no other engagement for the
+evening, and to refuse would be, to say the least
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>of it, ungracious; so, after a moment's hesitation,
+she took her hand away and said with a quick
+upward glance of her eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I was just beginning to think about
+supper myself when I turned up out there in that
+absurd way, so we may as well have it together.
+Where were you thinking of going? Suppose we
+were to try the grill-room at the Troc. Of course
+everywhere will be pretty crowded to-night, but
+we have as good a chance of getting a table there
+as anywhere else. Besides, I know one or two of
+the waiters. I often go there to lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said; "come along." And in
+a few minutes more they were rolling along in a
+hansom down Shaftesbury Avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Vane Maxwell was in very good humour that
+night with himself and all the world. He had
+taken a double first in Mods., in History and
+Classics, after crowning a brilliant career at Eton
+with a Balliol Scholarship. He was stroke of his
+college boat, and had worked her four places up
+the river. In another year he might be in the
+'Varsity Eight itself, and help to avenge the defeat
+which the Dark Blues had just suffered. The
+sweetheart he had won in that Homeric little battle
+behind the wheelhouse had been faithful to him
+ever since. He had an abundance of pocket
+money and the prospect of a fair fortune, and altogether
+the world appeared to be a very pleasant
+place indeed to live in.</p>
+
+<p>When they got into the cab the girl half expected
+that he would slip his arm round her as
+others were wont to do when they had the chance,
+but he didn't, and she liked him all the better for
+it. He did, however, put his hand through her
+arm and draw her just a little closer to him. Then
+he leant back in the cab, and, as the light from a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>big gin palace lamp flashed on to her face, he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this <i>is</i> jolly. I'm so glad you came. I
+feel just in the humour for a good supper in pleasant
+society."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said, with a little toss of her
+head; "but how do you know my society is going
+to be pleasant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it couldn't be anything else," he laughed.
+"You are far too pretty not to be nice."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," she said gravely. "Are all the pretty
+girls you know nice? Don't you find some of them
+horribly conceited and dull? Lots of fellows I
+know say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of fellows!" he echoed. "Then you have
+a pretty extensive acquaintance&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course I have," she interrupted, cutting
+him short almost roughly. Then she went on with
+a swift change of tone, "Don't you see that a&mdash;a
+girl like me has <i>got</i> to know plenty of fellows? It's&mdash;well,
+it's business, and that's the brutal truth of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her head away and looked out of the
+cab window as though she didn't want him to see
+the expression that came over her face as she said
+the last few words.</p>
+
+<p>But though he did not see the change in her face,
+the change in her voice struck him like a jarring
+note in a harmony that he was beginning to find
+very pleasant. He felt a sort of momentary resentment.
+He knew, of course, that it was the
+"brutal truth," but just then he disliked being reminded
+of it&mdash;especially by her. She seemed a
+great deal too nice for <i>that</i> to be true of her. There
+was a little pause, rather an awkward one, during
+which he tried to think of the proper thing to say.
+Of course he didn't succeed, so he just blurted out:</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, never mind about brutal truths just now,
+little girl."</p>
+
+<p>There was another pause, during which she still
+kept her head turned away. Then he went on
+with a happy inconsequence:</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, has it struck you yet that we're
+rather like each other?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a compliment to me or to yourself?"
+she said, half gravely, and yet with a belying gleam
+of mischief in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a likeness like that could only be a compliment
+to me, of course," he replied, and before
+the conversation could proceed any farther the cab
+stopped at the entrance to the Trocadero.</p>
+
+<p>By great good luck they procured one of the
+little side tables in the inner room just as another
+couple were leaving it. One of the waiters had
+recognised her as she came in, and, with the astute
+alacrity of his kind, had taken possession of them
+and pre-empted the table before anyone else could
+get near it. There were, in fact, others waiting
+who had a prior right, but the gentleman in the
+plum coat and gold buttons made it impossible for
+the superintendent of the room to interfere by saying
+to Maxwell in his blandest tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, sir; it's all right, sir. This is
+the table you engaged."</p>
+
+<p>"He's a smart youth, that Fritz," said the girl
+as they sat down. "These fellows here know
+which side their bread's buttered on, and they look
+after their own customers."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he seems to know his business," said Maxwell,
+"and now I suppose the question is, what are
+we going to have?"</p>
+
+<p>Fritz had come back, and was swiftly and rapidly
+removing the débris left behind by their predecessors.
+The girl looked up at him with an air of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>familiarity which Maxwell didn't altogether like,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"What's good for supper, Fritz? I am hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"A few oysters, miss, grilled sole, and a nice
+little porterhouse steak between two. How's that,
+miss?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked across at Maxwell and nodded, and
+he said, "Yes, I think that will do very nicely.
+Let's have the oysters at once, and some brown
+bread and butter."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, certainly. Any wine, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>The list was presented, opened, of course, at the
+champagne page.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have something fizzy, won't you?" he
+said, looking up from the list.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we may as well," she said, "only I
+don't want you to think me too extravagant."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense," he laughed, and then he told the
+waiter to bring a bottle of Kock Fils '89.</p>
+
+<p>When the man had gone on his errand Maxwell
+said somewhat diffidently:</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, we seem to be getting to know
+each other pretty well, but we've not exactly been
+introduced. I mean we don't know each other's
+names yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, introductions are not much in fashion in
+the world that I live in," she said with a little flush.
+"Of course you don't need telling which half of the
+world that is."</p>
+
+<p>For the moment he felt an unreasonable resentment,
+either at the words or the half defiant way
+in which she spoke them. He was quite old
+enough both in years and the ways of the world to
+know exactly what she meant, and he was perfectly
+well aware that she would not have accepted his
+invitation to supper any more than she would have
+been in the promenade of a music hall unescorted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>if she had been what is conventionally termed respectable.
+Yet somehow he wanted to forget the
+fact and treat her with the respect he would have
+paid to any ordinary acquaintance in his own social
+sphere.</p>
+
+<p>This feeling was probably due both to an innate
+chivalry and to the fact that one of his father's
+favourite precepts was, "My boy, whatever company
+you're in, never forget that you're a gentleman."
+Mingled with it there may also have been
+a dash of masculine vanity. The more he looked
+at the girl the more striking did her likeness to
+himself appear. Really, if he had had a sister she
+could not have been more like him, but he knew
+that he was an only child, and, besides, that thought
+was altogether unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>After a little pause, during which their eyes met
+and their cheeks flushed in a somewhat boy-and-girlish
+fashion, he laughed a trifle awkwardly and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, we shall have to introduce ourselves,
+I suppose. My name is Maxwell&mdash;Vane
+Maxwell."</p>
+
+<p>"Vane!" she echoed, "how funny! My name
+is Vane too&mdash;Carol Vane. It's not a sham one
+either, such as a lot of girls like me take. It's my
+own&mdash;at least, I have always been called Carol, and
+Vane was my mother's name."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Maxwell, after another little pause,
+during which the oysters came and the waiter
+opened the wine. When he had filled the two
+glasses and vanished, Maxwell lifted his and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Carol, it is rather curious that we
+should both have the same names, and also, if I
+may say so without flattering myself too much, be
+so much like each other. At any rate I shall venture
+to hope that your little accident at the Palace
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>has enabled me to make a very charming acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"That's very prettily put, Mr. Vane Maxwell,"
+she said, nodding and smiling at him over her glass.
+"And now that we've been introduced in a sort of
+way, as we haven't got any more interesting subject
+to talk about, suppose we talk about ourselves.
+Which are you, Oxford or Cambridge?"</p>
+
+<p>The conversation thus started rattled merrily
+along for over an hour. Without thinking any disloyalty
+to his own Enid, who was now a fair and
+stately maiden of eighteen, he found it quite impossible
+to resist the strange charm of Miss Carol's
+manner. She was obviously a lady by instinct,
+and she had also been educated after a sort. She
+had read widely if not altogether wisely, and she
+seemed just as familiar with the literature, or, at
+any rate, with the fiction of France and Italy as
+she was with that of England.</p>
+
+<p>This she explained was due to the fact that until
+she was about twelve, that is to say some seven
+years ago, she had been constantly living and wandering
+about in these two countries with her mother
+and sometimes also with a gentleman who, as she
+put it, was pretty probably her father. She explained
+further that at the mature age of thirteen
+she had run away from a French school in which
+she had been placed by some unknown agency and
+joined a wandering English circus-troop with which
+she had travelled half over Europe, leading a more
+or less miserable existence for some five years.
+She had then terminated her connection with the
+Ring by going into housekeeping with an English
+art-student in Paris. Meanwhile she had lost all
+trace of her mother, and had come to the conclusion
+that she had by this time drunk herself to death.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely ever knew her to be quite sober,"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>she said pathetically, and then she changed the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a very cheerful story, as story, but
+Miss Carol told it with such a quaint humour and
+such a vivacity of expression and gesture that, despite
+the under-note of tragedy, Maxwell thought
+it the most interesting story he had ever heard in
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>As the courses disappeared and the empty bottle
+of wine was succeeded by a half bottle "just for
+the last," as Maxwell said, the conversation grew
+gayer and perhaps also a trifle freer, although Miss
+Carol never permitted herself any of those freedoms
+of expression with which too many of the so-called
+Daughters of Delight vulgarise themselves so hopelessly.
+When the half bottle was finished Maxwell
+wanted another, and to this Miss Carol promptly
+and firmly objected.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will excuse me saying so to a new acquaintance,"
+she said, "I wouldn't if I were you.
+We have both of us had enough of this stuff, nice
+and all as it is&mdash;at least, I have, and I think I'm
+more used to it than you. A coffee and liqueur if
+you like. That won't hurt us&mdash;in fact, it'll do us
+good; but I can see something in your eyes that
+shouldn't be there."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" said Maxwell, a trifle
+offended. "Surely you're not going to accuse me
+of the unpardonable crime of getting drunk in the
+company of a lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" she said simply, and yet with a
+decided dignity. "No, I don't mean that. It's a
+funny thing, you know," she went on, leaning her
+elbows on the table and staring straight into his
+eyes, "but there's a queer kind of light coming
+into your eyes, a sort of dancing, jumping yellow
+flame that makes them look almost red. Well,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>your eyes are almost exactly like mine, and mine
+are like my mother's, and whenever she'd got so
+far on with drink that she couldn't stop I used to
+see that light in her eyes. Of course I don't say
+that it means anything; still, there it is. I used to
+call it the danger signal, and keep away from her
+as much as I could till it was over, and I had to
+nurse her back to something like life."</p>
+
+<p>"That's rather approaching the creepy," said
+Maxwell, with an almost imperceptible shrug of his
+shoulders. He had no feeling of offence now. She
+looked so pretty and she spoke so earnestly that it
+was impossible to be offended with her. Moreover,
+although he was far from even getting drunk,
+he felt a dreamy sensation stealing over him which
+seemed to be sapping his self-restraint and making
+him utterly careless of what he did or what happened
+to him so long as it was only pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, it is decidedly curious," he went on.
+"I hope I haven't got the makings of a dipsomaniac
+in me. But I feel quite curiously happy,
+and I believe I could just go on drinking and getting
+happier and happier until I landed in Paradise
+with you standing just inside the gates to welcome
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't!" she said almost sharply. "For goodness
+sake don't begin to talk like that. That's just
+how my mother used to feel, just how she used to
+talk, and she did go on&mdash;of course, there was no
+one to stop her. You should have seen her a
+couple of days after&mdash;a savage, an animal, a wild
+beast, only wild beasts don't get drunk. It's not
+a nice thing to say of your mother, even such a
+mother as mine was, but it's true, and I'm telling
+you because I like you, and it may do you some
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Miss Carol! After that I shall
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>certainly take your advice," he said, pouring his
+cognac into his coffee. "This is the last drink
+to-night, and that reminds me; it's getting rather
+late. How about going home?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's about time," she said. "They close
+at twelve to-night, you know. Which way do you
+go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which way do <i>you</i> go?" he said, as he beckoned
+to the waiter for the bill. "By the way, I was
+going to ask you&mdash;I hope you have never seen
+that light, that danger signal, in your own eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>She ignored his first question <i>in toto</i>, and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I saw it once when I got home after a
+pretty wild supper. It frightened me so that I
+went 'T.T.' for nearly a month, and just now I
+wouldn't drink another glass of that champagne if
+you gave me a thousand pounds to drink it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm sure I shan't ask you after what
+you've said," he laughed, as he threw a couple of
+shillings on the plate which the waiter presented,
+and took up his bill. Then he got up and helped
+her on with her cloak, and as she shook her shapely
+shoulders into it he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"But you haven't answered my question yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Which question?" she said, turning sharply
+round.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way do you go&mdash;or do you intend to
+stop out a bit later?" he replied rather haltingly.
+"I thought perhaps I might have the pleasure&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of seeing me home?" she said, raising her
+eyes to his and flushing hotly. "I'm afraid that's
+impossible. But go and get your coat and
+hat, and let's go outside. It's horribly close in
+here."</p>
+
+<p>He paid his bill at the pay-box near the door,
+and when they got out into the street he took her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>by the arm and said, as they turned down towards
+the Circus:</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask why it is impossible, Miss Carol.
+I thought just now you said that you liked me a
+bit."</p>
+
+<p>"So I do," she replied, with a little thrill in her
+voice; "and that's just why, or partly why&mdash;and
+besides, we're too much alike. Why, we might be
+brother and sister&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite out of the question," he interrupted
+quickly; "I never had a sister. I am an
+only child, and my mother died soon after I was
+born. She died in India nearly twenty years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," she said, almost passionately.
+"Of course we can't possibly be any relation, the
+idea's absurd; but still, it's no use&mdash;I couldn't, I
+daren't. Besides, have you forgotten what you
+were telling me about your fight on the steamer
+with that man we met at the Palace? Aren't you
+in love with the girl still? I quite understood you
+were engaged to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Maxwell frankly, "I am, and perhaps
+I ought to be ashamed of myself. That is two
+lessons you've taught me to-night, Miss Carol, and
+I shan't forget either them or you. Still, I don't
+see why we shouldn't be friends. Honestly, I like
+you very much, and you've said you like me&mdash;why
+shouldn't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's true; I like you all right," she replied
+with almost embarrassing frankness; "but
+for all that it's something very different from love
+at first sight. It's funny, but do you know, Vane&mdash;I
+suppose if we're going to be friends I may call
+you Vane&mdash;although I think I could get to like
+you very much in one way, however different things
+were, I don't believe I could ever fall in love with
+you. But if you only mean friends, just real pals,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>as we say in my half of the world, I am there,
+always supposing that the friendship of such an entirely
+improper young person as I am doesn't do
+you any harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Harm, nonsense!" he said. "Why should it?
+Well, that's a bargain, and now perhaps you won't
+object to tell me where you live."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not now," she said. "I live at 15,
+Melville Gardens, Brook Green, with a very nice
+girl that you may also be friends with if you're
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"Brook Green! Why, that's off the Hammersmith
+Road. We, that is to say dad and myself,
+live in Warwick Gardens, a bit this side of Addison
+Bridge, so if you really mean to go home we may
+as well get a hansom, and you can drop me at
+Warwick Gardens and go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I mean to go home, and I think that
+would be a very good arrangement."</p>
+
+<p>They had crossed over to the pavement in front
+of the Criterion as she said this. It was on the tip
+of Maxwell's tongue to ask her to come in and
+have another drink. He certainly felt a greater
+craving for alcohol than he had ever done in his
+life before, and if he had been alone he might have
+yielded to it; but he was ashamed to do so after
+what he had just said to her, so he hailed an empty
+cab that was just coming up to the kerb. As he
+was handing his companion in, the door of the
+buffet swung open, and Reginald Garthorne came
+out with two other Cambridge men. They were
+all a trifle fresh, and as Garthorne recognised him
+he called out:</p>
+
+<p>"By-by, Maxwell. Don't forget to say your
+prayers."</p>
+
+<p>Maxwell turned round angrily with his foot on
+the step. If he had had that other drink that he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>wanted there would have been a row, but, as it
+was, a word and a gesture from Miss Carol brought
+him into the cab. There was an angry flush on
+her cheeks and a wicked light in her eyes, but she
+said very quietly, "Do you know, I am glad you
+thrashed that fellow once. He ought to be ashamed
+of himself shouting a thing like that out here. I
+suppose he thinks himself a gentleman, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's all right," said Vane. "Garthorne's
+a bit screwed, that's all. Everyone is to-night.
+But he's not at all a bad fellow. His father was
+a soldier in India, and did some very good service.
+He has a staff appointment at home. He's a
+baronet too&mdash;one of the old ones. His mother
+comes of a good stock as well. We've been very
+good chums since that first row. Fellows who
+fight as boys generally are."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I daresay he's all right, but I didn't like
+it," said Miss Carol, leaning back in the cab. "And
+now suppose you tell me something more about
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>When the cab pulled up at the corner of Warwick
+Gardens and he said good-night, he asked
+her for a kiss. She blushed like a fourteen-year-old
+school girl as she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"That's a great compliment, Vane, for I know
+how you mean it. But if you don't mind I really
+think I'd rather not, at least not just yet. You see,
+after all we've only known each other two or three
+hours. Wait until you know me at least a little
+better before you ask again, and then perhaps we'll
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I daresay you're right, Miss Modesty," he
+laughed, as he got out. "In fact, you always seem
+to be right. Good-night, Carol."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Vane." As he stepped backwards
+from the cab she leant forward and smiled and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>waved her hand. A gentleman walking quickly
+from the direction of the bridge looked up and saw
+her pretty laughing face as the light of a lamp fell
+upon it. He stopped almost as suddenly as though
+he had run up against some invisible obstacle, and
+passed his hand across his eyes. Then the cab
+doors closed, the face vanished back into the
+shadow of the interior, and, to his utter amazement,
+Maxwell heard his father's voice say:</p>
+
+<p>"God bless my soul. What a marvellous likeness!"<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Well, Vane!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dad!"</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask who that young lady in the cab with
+you was?"</p>
+
+<p>Vane saw at once that he was in for it, and even
+if he had wished for any concealment, it was impossible
+under the circumstances. As a matter of
+fact, however, he had already made up his mind
+to tell his father the whole story of his little
+adventure, and so he said very gravely and
+deliberately:</p>
+
+<p>"That, dad, is a young lady whose acquaintance
+I made to-night at the Palace. She nearly
+fainted in the crush just after the Biograph was
+over. She happened to be close behind me, and
+so of course she held on to me. I took her into
+one of the bars and gave her a brandy and soda.
+Then we noticed mutually how curiously like
+each other we were, and then&mdash;well, then I asked
+her to supper and she came. We have just driven
+here from the Trocadero. She has gone on to
+where she lives in Melville Gardens, Brook Green.
+I can tell you a lot more about her afterwards, if
+you like."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Maxwell, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.S.I.,
+looked keenly into his son's face while he was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>giving this rapid summary of his evening's adventure.
+There was and always had been the most
+absolute confidence between them. Ever since
+Vane had been old enough they had been companions
+and chums, rather than father and son,
+and so Sir Arthur had not the slightest doubt
+but that Vane was telling the absolute truth. He
+was only looking to see whether the telling of the
+truth embarrassed him or not, and he was well
+pleased to see that it did not.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite an interesting experience, I must say,"
+he said, a little gruffly. "Well, I'm glad to see,
+at any rate, that you didn't accompany the young
+lady home. I presume you were invited."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, dad," replied Vane, this time
+with a little hesitation in his tone, "to tell you the
+honest truth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That was a needless opening, Vane. My son
+could not tell anything else. Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the fact is, dad, it was the other way
+about. I suggested it, and she refused point
+blank. I'm afraid I'd had rather too much fizz on
+top of too many brandies and sodas before
+supper."</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, Vane," said his father, a little
+stiffly. "At any rate, thank God you are not
+drunk or anything like it. But this is hardly the
+sort of thing to discuss in the street. We'll go
+into the Den and have a chat and a smoke before
+we go to bed. You know I'm not squeamish
+about these things. I know that a lad of twenty
+is made of flesh and blood just as a man of thirty
+or forty is, and although I consider what is called
+sowing wild oats foolish as well as a most ungentlemanly
+pastime, still, I equally don't believe
+in the innocence of ignorance, at least not for a
+man."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+<p>"You seem to forget, dad," replied Vane,
+answering him in something very like his own
+tone, "just as I'm sorry to say I forgot for a
+minute or two to-night that I am engaged to
+Enid."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, boy," said his father as they went
+in at the gate. "I didn't forget it though, and
+I'm glad you remembered it."</p>
+
+<p>"Only I ought to have said that it was the girl
+who reminded me of it," said Vane, as he put his
+latch-key into the door.</p>
+
+<p>When they got into the Den, which was a sort
+of combination room, partly a library and partly
+study and smoking-room with a quaint suggestion
+of Oriental fantasy about it, Sir Arthur, according
+to his wont at that time of night, unlocked the
+spirit case, and mixed himself a whiskey and soda.
+As he did so, Vane found his eyes fixed on one
+of the bright cut-glass bottles which contained
+brandy. He would have given anything to be
+able to mix a brandy and soda for himself and
+drink it without believing, or at any rate fearing,
+that after all there might be something in Miss
+Carol's warning.</p>
+
+<p>As Sir Arthur lit his cigar, he said in a rather
+forced tone:</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose after what you've said it's no use
+asking you to have a nightcap, Vane?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a little pause, during which Vane
+looked hard at the spirit-case. Then, with the
+gesture of one under strong emotion, he got up
+from his chair and said in a voice whose tone made
+his father look quickly towards him:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I've ever knowingly disobeyed
+you in my life, dad, but if you were to order me to
+drink a drop of spirit to-night, I shouldn't do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Vane?"</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Just look into my eyes, dad, and tell me if you
+see anything strange about them."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean, boy&mdash;there's
+nothing the matter with your eyes, is there?" said
+Sir Arthur, looking up with a visible start, "what
+has put that idea into your head?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you afterwards, dad, meanwhile, just
+have a look," replied Vane, coming and standing
+under the light.</p>
+
+<p>He felt his father's hands tremble as he laid
+them on his shoulder, and as he looked into his
+eyes a tinge of greyness seemed to steal underneath
+the sun-bronze of his skin. In the clear
+depths of the lad's hazel eyes he saw a faint,
+nickering, wavering light, which gave a yellow
+tinge to them.</p>
+
+<p>A reflection from the flames of hell itself could
+not have had a more awful meaning for him than
+that faint little yellow glimmer, but Arthur Maxwell
+was a strong man, a man who had fought
+plague and famine, storm and flood, treachery and
+revolt in the service of his Queen, and after a
+moment or two he was able to say quite quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what's the matter, Vane? They look,
+perhaps, a little brighter than usual; but I don't
+suppose that's anything more than the excitement
+of the evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see something like a little yellow
+flame in them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, I do," said Sir Arthur, looking away,
+"a reflection from the gaslight, probably. But
+come, Vane, what is all this about? Sit down and
+tell me. And, by the way, I want to hear the
+story of this new acquaintance of yours. Take a
+cigar; that won't hurt you."</p>
+
+<p>Vane took a cheroot and lit it and sat down in
+an easy chair opposite his father, his eyes still
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>wandering as though of their own accord towards
+the spirit-case. Then he began somewhat inconsequentially:</p>
+
+<p>"Dad, what do you think that girl's name is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally, I haven't the remotest notion," replied
+his father. "I only know that she is exceedingly
+good looking, and I must say that from the
+glimpse I had of her, she seems very like yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what you meant, dad, when you said,
+'Bless my soul what a likeness,' or something like
+that when the cab stopped?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur did not reply at once. His eyes
+were gazing vacantly up at a wreath of blue smoke
+from his cigar, then he replied suddenly:</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? Oh, well, probably. You see, my boy,
+I was just a bit startled at seeing you get out, and
+when I saw your two faces in the lamplight, I confess
+that I was decidedly struck by the likeness."</p>
+
+<p>Vane did not find this reply entirely convincing,
+for he remembered that as he got out of the cab
+his back was towards his father, and that Carol's
+face was no longer visible when he turned round
+and faced him. Still, he was far too well bred to
+put his father through anything like a cross-examination,
+and so he went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as I told you, I met this young lady&mdash;for
+although she is what respectable Society in its
+mercy call 'an unfortunate'&mdash;I am certain she <i>is</i>
+a lady&mdash;at the Palace, and we went and had supper
+in the Grill Room at the Trocadero, and there, as
+we had no one to introduce us, we introduced ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"The usual thing under such circumstances, I
+believe," said Sir Arthur, taking a sip at his
+whiskey. "Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told her that my name was Vane Maxwell,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>and she said, 'Now that's curious, my name's
+Vane, too.'"</p>
+
+<p>"What is that&mdash;her name!" said Sir Arthur
+with a start that nearly made him drop his glass.
+"Vane is not a girl's name."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that's her surname. Her whole name is
+Carol Vane. Pretty, isn't it? Vane, she says,
+was her mother's name, and a nice sort of person
+she seems to have been. Poor Carol herself must
+have had a terrible time of it. There was no
+possibility of doubting a word of her story, she
+told it all so simply and so naturally, and yet it
+was tragedy all through.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'd had a large bottle of fizz and a
+small one between us, and I'm afraid I was getting
+a bit on, for I wanted another. I wasn't drunk,
+you know, or anything like it. It didn't seem as
+though I could get drunk; only more and more
+gorgeously happy, and when I told Miss Carol,
+she put her elbows on the table and stared into
+my eyes and told me that they were just like her
+mother's, and that there was a light coming into
+them which she always used to see in hers when
+she was starting on one of her drinking bouts.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she told me point blank that I'd had
+enough and said that she wouldn't drink another
+glass of fizz for a thousand pounds. We wound
+up with a coffee and liqueur, and afterwards when
+we came out I felt an almost irresistible craving
+for a brandy and soda, but I also felt convinced
+that if I took one I should go on all night.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, somehow, what Miss Carol had been
+saying, although it hadn't exactly frightened me,
+certainly stopped me going into the Criterion and
+having one; besides, she was with me still, and I
+knew if I asked her she'd say 'No,' and somehow
+I daren't leave her and go in by myself. So as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>she lives out Brook Green way, we got into a cab
+and drove home. And, would you believe it, she
+wouldn't even give me a kiss when we said good-night.
+She is a most extraordinary girl, I can
+quite imagine any fellow falling really and
+honestly in love with her."</p>
+
+<p>While Vane was telling his story, his father had
+sat motionless, staring hard into the fireplace. He
+had apparently taken not the slightest interest in
+what he was saying. He had never once looked
+up, but as the story went on his face had grown
+greyer and greyer, and the lines in it harder and
+deeper, and every now and then the hand on which
+his cheek was leaning had trembled a little.</p>
+
+<p>When Vane stopped speaking he looked up with
+a start, like a man waking out of an evil dream,
+and said in a husky, unsteady voice, which was
+quite strange to Vane:</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite possible, my boy, that this girl,
+whatever else she may be, was really your
+guardian angel to-night. At your age, a craving
+for drink is a very terrible thing, and you must
+exert the whole strength of your nature to conquer
+it. You must fight against it and pray
+against it as you would against the worst of sins.
+You have a splendid career before you, but drink
+would ruin it and you. Still, we won't talk any
+more about this to-night. I am not feeling particularly
+well. I went round to dine with Raleigh,
+in Addison Gardens, to-night&mdash;by the way, Enid's
+coming back in a few days&mdash;and perhaps I caught
+a little chill walking home. I think I'd better
+turn in."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this he took up the whiskey and soda
+and drained it, and Vane heard his teeth clink
+against the edge of the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"And I think it's time I went, too," said Vane.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>"You certainly don't look very fit to-night, dad.
+Hope I haven't made you uncomfortable by what
+I've been saying. You needn't be afraid though.
+I don't think I shall forget the lesson I've had
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, I don't think you will, Vane. Well,
+good-night. Put the spirits and cigars away, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, dad! I hope you'll be all right
+in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>As the door closed behind his father, Vane went
+to the table on which the open spirit-stand stood.
+His father had forgotten to replace the stopper
+in the whiskey decanter, and the aroma of the ripe
+old spirit rose to his nostrils. Instantly a subtle
+fire seemed to spread through his veins and mount
+up to his brain. The mad craving that he had felt
+outside the Criterion came back upon him with
+tenfold force. He raised the decanter to his nostrils
+and inhaled a long breath of the subtle,
+vaporous poison. He looked around the room
+with burning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He was alone. There was no guardian angel
+near him now. Moved by some impulse other
+than his own will, he took his father's glass and
+poured out half a tumblerful of whiskey, filled it
+with soda water from the syphon, and drank it
+down with quick feverish gulps. Then he set the
+glass on the table and went and looked at himself
+in an Indian mirror over the mantel-piece. The
+pupils of his eyes seemed twice their size, and in
+each a yellow flame was leaping and dancing.</p>
+
+<p>His face seemed transfigured. It was rather
+that of a handsome satyr than of an English lad
+of twenty. The lips were curled in a scornful
+sneer, the nostrils were dilated and the eyebrows
+arched. He laughed at himself&mdash;a laugh that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>startled him, even then. He went back to the
+table and poured out more whiskey, smelt it and
+drank it down raw.</p>
+
+<p>His blood was liquid flame by this time. He
+was no longer in the room. The walls and ceiling
+had vanished, and all round him vivid pictures
+were flitting, pictures of things that he had seen
+during the day, flickering and flashing like those of
+the Biograph; but Carol's face and soft brown
+eyes seemed somehow to be in the middle of all
+of them.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped into a chair and felt about half
+blindly for the decanter. When he got hold of it
+he emptied it partly into the glass and partly over
+the table-cloth. He lifted the glass to his lips
+with both hands, drained it half chokingly, and
+then the pictures stopped moving and grew dim.
+A black pall of darkness seemed to come down
+and crush him to the earth. He lurched out of
+the chair on to the hearth-rug, rolled on to his
+back, and lay there motionless with arms outstretched.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later the door opened and Sir Arthur
+came in in his dressing gown. A glance at the
+empty decanter and the prostrate figure on the
+hearth-rug, showed him the calamity that had
+fallen upon his house. He staggered forward and
+dropped on his knees beside Vane, crying in a weak,
+broken voice:</p>
+
+<p>"My boy, my boy! Good God! what have I
+done? Why didn't I tell him at once?"<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Vane was utterly insensible either to voice or
+touch. His father knelt over him and loosened
+his tie and collar, for his breath was coming hard
+and irregularly. Then he rose to his feet, looked
+down at him for a few moments, and went away
+to summon Koda Bux, his old Pathan bearer, to
+help him to take him up to bed. He knew that
+he could trust him not to gossip, and he would not
+for worlds have had it said about the house the
+next day that Master Vane had been carried to
+bed drunk.</p>
+
+<p>Koda Bux was awake the moment his master
+touched his shoulder. He rose at once and followed
+him. When they reached the library Sir
+Arthur pointed without a word to where Vane lay.
+He looked at him and then at the decanters, and
+said, without moving a feature save his lips:</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, Huzur, the young sahib is exceeding
+drunk, and he must sleep. To-morrow the fires
+of hell will be burning in his brain and in his blood.
+It is a thing that no others should know of. He
+shall sleep in his bed, and thy servant shall watch
+by him until he is well, and neither man nor woman
+shall come near him."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my wish, Koda," said Sir Arthur. "Now
+I will help you to take him upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need that thou, O protector of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>poor, shouldst trouble thyself. This is but one
+man's work."</p>
+
+<p>With that he stooped down, got his arms under
+Vane's knees and shoulders, and lifted him up as
+easily as if he had been a lad of ten. Sir Arthur
+took up the candle which he had brought down
+with him, and went in front to his son's room.</p>
+
+<p>Koda laid him on the bed, and at once went to
+work with the deft rapidity of a practised hand
+to remove his clothes. He saw that he could do no
+more good, so, after laying his hand for a moment
+on Vane's wet, cold brow, he turned away towards
+the door with a deep sigh, which was not lost on
+Koda.</p>
+
+<p>"Trust him to me and sleep in peace, Huzur,"
+he said. "I know how to fight the devil that is
+in him and throw him out. To-morrow Vane
+Sahib shall be as well as ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Do your best for him, Koda. This is the first
+time, and I hope the last. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, friend of the friendless," replied
+the Pathan, standing up and stretching out his
+hands palms downwards. "Fear nothing. May
+your sleep be as the repose of Nirvana."</p>
+
+<p>But there was neither rest nor sleep for Sir
+Arthur Maxwell that night. That vision of the
+girl's face looking out of the cab had been to him
+a vision half of heaven and half of hell. It was
+the face of the girl he had wooed and worked for
+and won nearly thirty years before&mdash;a girl whose
+hands for a brief space had opened the gates of
+Paradise to him. But it was also the face of a
+woman who had brought into his life something
+worse than the bitterness of death.</p>
+
+<p>As he paced up and down his bedroom through
+the still, lonely hours of the night, he asked himself
+again and again what inscrutable fate had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>brought this girl, the fresh, bright, living image
+of the woman who was worse than dead, and his
+son Vane, the idol of his heart, and the hope of his
+life, together.</p>
+
+<p>Why had this girl, this outcast bearing the name
+which he both loved and hated, been the first to
+see in his son's eyes that fatal sign which he knew
+so well, a sign which he had himself seen in eyes
+into which he had once looked as a lad of twenty-four
+with anxious adoration to read his fate in
+them. For years that flickering, wavering light
+had been to him like the reflected glare from the
+flames of hell, and now this girl had seen it as he
+had seen it, mocking and devilish in the eyes of
+his only son.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been better&mdash;he saw that now&mdash;to
+have braced himself to the task of telling Vane
+the whole of the miserable, pitiful story at once,
+as soon, indeed, as Vane's own story had convinced
+him that he had not escaped the curse which
+some dead and gone ancestor of his mother's had
+transmitted to his unborn posterity.</p>
+
+<p>But it was a hard thing for a father to tell his
+son of his mother's shame. As hard, surely, as it
+had been for Jephtha to keep his rash vow and
+drive the steel into his daughter's breast. He had
+hoped that the resolves which Vane had taken, enforced
+by a serious and friendly talk the next day,
+would have been enough to avert the danger.</p>
+
+<p>He did not know, as he knew now, that the
+demon of inherited alcoholism laughs at such poor
+precautions as this. Measures infinitely more
+drastic would be needed, and they must be employed
+at no matter what cost either to himself or
+Vane.</p>
+
+<p>And yet it was an awful thing to do. Year after
+year he had shrunk from it, hoping that it would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>never be necessary; but now the necessity had
+come at last. There could be no doubt of that.
+He had left his son sane and strong, with brave,
+wise words on his lips. An hour after he had gone
+back and found him a senseless thing, human only
+in shape. There could be no hesitation after that.
+It must be done.</p>
+
+<p>Like many men of his kind, men whose lives
+have been passed in wrestling with the barbarisms,
+the ignorance and the superstitions of lower races,
+as well as with the blind forces of nature and the
+scourges of pestilence and famine in distant lands,
+Arthur Maxwell was a man of deep though mostly
+silent religious convictions, and if ever there was
+a time when such a man could find strength and
+guidance in prayer surely this was such a time, and
+yet he had walked up and down his room, which
+since he had entered it had been his Gethsemane,
+for hours before he knelt down by his bedside and
+lifted up his heart, if not his voice, in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>He rose from his knees with clearer sight and
+greater strength to see and face the terrible task
+which lay before him. It was quite plain to him
+now that the task must be faced and carried
+through, and he was more strongly determined
+than ever that before the next day was over Vane
+should know everything that he could tell him.
+Still, there was no rest for him yet, and for hours
+longer he walked up and down the room thinking
+of the past and the future; but most of the past.</p>
+
+<p>About seven sheer physical fatigue compelled
+him to lie down on his bed, and in a few minutes
+he fell off into an uneasy sleep. Just about this
+time Vane woke&mdash;his mouth parched, his brain
+burning and throbbing, and every nerve in his body
+tingling. As soon as he opened his eyes he saw
+Koda Bux standing by his bedside.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+<p>"What on earth's the matter, Koda?" he said
+in a voice that was half a groan. "Great Scott,
+what a head I've got! Ah, I remember now. It
+was that infernal whiskey. What the devil made
+me drink it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Vane Sahib," said Koda sententiously;
+"it was the whiskey, which surely is distilled
+from fruits that grow only on the shores of
+the Sea of Sorrow. Now your head is wracked
+with the torments of hell, and your mouth is like
+a cave in the desert; but you shall be cured and
+sleep, and when you wake you shall be as though
+you had never tasted the drink that is both fire and
+water."</p>
+
+<p>He went away to the dressing-table, shook some
+pink powder out of a little bottle into a glass, and
+came back to the bedside with the glass in one
+hand and the water-bottle in the other. Then he
+poured the water on to the powder and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Drink, sahib, and sleep! When you wake you
+will be well."</p>
+
+<p>The water seemed to turn into something like
+pink champagne as the powder dissolved. Vane
+seized the glass eagerly, and took a long, delicious
+drink. He had scarcely time to hand the glass
+back to Koda and thank him before his burning
+brain grew cool, his nerves ceased to thrill, a delightful
+languor stole over him, and he sank back
+on the pillow and was asleep in a moment. The
+Pathan looked at him half sternly and half sorrowfully
+for a few moments, then he laid his brown
+hand upon his brow. It was already moist and
+cool.</p>
+
+<p>He turned away, and set to work to put the room
+in order and get out Vane's clothes and clean linen
+for the day. Then he went downstairs and brewed
+Sir Arthur's morning coffee as usual. This was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>always the first of his daily tasks. When he took
+it up he found Sir Arthur still fully dressed, lying
+on the bed, moving uneasily in his sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"The follies of the young are the sorrows of the
+old!" he murmured. "He has not slept all night;
+still, this is a sleep which rests not nor refreshes.
+His coffee will do him more good, and then he can
+bathe and rest."</p>
+
+<p>He laid his hand lightly on Sir Arthur's shoulder.
+He woke at once and drank his coffee. Then he
+asked how Vane was, and when he knew that he
+was sleeping again, and would not wake for some
+hours, he got up, undressed, and had a bath and
+dressed again.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a not very successful attempt at
+breakfast, he went out and turned into the Hammersmith
+Road in the direction of Brook Green.
+He remembered the address that Miss Carol had
+given Vane just as he remembered every other
+word of the conversation. He had determined to
+call upon her, and to make as sure as possible that
+his dreadful suspicions were correct before he told
+Vane the truth.</p>
+
+<p>He found No. 15, Melville Gardens, one of a row
+of neat little detached houses; not much more than
+cottages, but cosy and comfortable-looking, each
+with a tiny little plot of ground in front and behind,
+and with a row of trees down each side of the road
+which seemed to stand in apologetic justification
+of the title of gardens.</p>
+
+<p>The door was opened by a neatly-dressed,
+motherly-looking woman of about forty instead of
+by the dishevelled, smutty-faced maid-of-all-work
+that he half expected to find.</p>
+
+<p>"Does Miss Carol Vane live here?" he asked,
+with a curious feeling of nervousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, she and Miss Murray are just finishing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>breakfast. Will you come in and sit down, sir?
+Miss Vane won't be long."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, yes," he said, going in. "I wish
+to see her rather particularly."</p>
+
+<p>"What name shall I say, sir?" said the woman,
+as she showed him into a prettily-furnished little
+sitting-room opening out into the back garden
+with French windows.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir Arthur Maxwell," he replied. "If you will
+give my compliments to Miss Vane, and tell her
+that she will do me a great service by giving me
+about half-an-hour's conversation, I shall be much
+obliged to you."</p>
+
+<p>The housekeeper made something like a little
+curtsey as she left the room. She was distinctly
+impressed by the stately presence and old-world
+courtesy of this bronzed, white-haired gentleman.
+He was so very different from the general run of
+visitors at No. 15; but she had half guessed his
+errand before she knocked at the door of the front
+room in which Miss Carol and her friend and
+house-mate, Dora Murray, were finishing their last
+cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Ford," said Miss Carol, looking up
+from the letter she was reading, "who might that
+be? This is pretty early for a morning call."</p>
+
+<p>"The gentleman's name is Sir Arthur Maxwell,
+Miss."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said Miss Carol, colouring up and
+rising quickly from her chair. "Sir Arthur Maxwell.
+What on earth does <i>he</i> want?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said, miss, that he'd be very much obliged
+to you if you could give him the pleasure of half-an-hour's
+conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, I suppose he was the gentleman who
+stopped at the corner last night just when my new
+acquaintance got out. His father, of course. I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>suppose he's come to row me about making friends
+with his son and heir last night."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the penalties of your fascinations, dear,"
+said Dora, with a smile which parted a pair of eminently
+kissable lips and showed a very pretty set
+of teeth behind them.</p>
+
+<p>Dora was nearly a couple of inches taller than
+Miss Carol, and some three years older. She had
+soft, lightish-brown hair, brown eyebrows, a trifle
+browner, perhaps, than nature had painted them,
+and dark blue eyes, which made a very pretty contrast.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she went on, "I suppose there's nothing
+for you but to go and interview the irate papa. But
+whatever did young hopeful want to go and tell
+him all about it for, and even give him your address!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll excuse me, Miss," said the housekeeper,
+"I don't think that's it. The gentleman isn't at
+all angry. He was as polite and nice to me as
+ever could be. Such a <i>nice</i> gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, Mrs. Ford, you seem quite impressed,"
+said Miss Carol, gathering up her correspondence.
+"Well, I'd better go and have it over,
+whatever it is. I don't suppose I shall be very
+long. Meanwhile, Dora, you may as well make
+yourself useful and dust the bikes. The old gentleman
+won't eat me, I suppose. In fact, if Master
+Vane told him everything, he ought to be very
+much obliged to me for my virtuous reserve."</p>
+
+<p>And then, with a saucy smile at her own reflection
+in the glass as she passed the mantelpiece, she
+walked towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>Carol, being a young lady of many and various
+experiences, did not often find herself in a situation,
+however awkward it might be, which gave her
+much cause for embarrassment. There were not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>many circumstances under which she did not feel
+capable of taking perfect care of herself. Still, she
+confessed to Dora afterwards that when she went
+into the little sitting-room and faced the stately
+old gentleman who was waiting for her she felt
+distinctly nervous&mdash;in short, "in something very
+like a tremble," as she put it later on.</p>
+
+<p>The moment she looked at his face she could
+see his likeness to Vane, and therefore in a measure
+to herself. She had, of course, nothing to be
+afraid of, and therefore there was no cause for fear,
+but for some reason or other she felt less at ease
+than she had done in many more difficult situations.</p>
+
+<p>The same was almost equally true of Sir Arthur.
+In fact, when the door opened and Miss Carol,
+looking exquisitely neat and pretty in a dainty,
+grey, tailor-made cycling costume, walked into
+the room, he was unable to restrain a very visible
+start. It was, indeed, as much as he could do to
+keep himself from uttering an exclamation of
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>As he looked at her, more than thirty years
+vanished in a second, and he saw himself a lad
+of twenty-four with his brand new Oxford degree,
+and his first place on the Indian Civil Service list
+only just published, walking down a country lane
+by the side of a girl, who, but for the difference
+in costume, might have been this very girl standing
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning! Our housekeeper tells me
+that you wish to speak to me."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, the voice was the same, too, and so were
+the expression, the intonation, the attitude, everything.
+But the words brought him back to the
+present, and to the recollection of all that had
+happened since that walk in the country lane.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Vane," he heard himself saying, "I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>have taken the liberty of calling to ask you if you
+would have any objection to a little conversation
+with me. I won't detain you more than half an
+hour."</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," she said; "but won't you sit
+down?" she went on, seating herself on the sofa.
+"I suppose I am right in thinking that you are
+Mr. Vane Maxwell's father, and I suppose, too,
+you are the gentleman who was at the corner of
+Warwick Gardens when he got out of the cab?
+I'm afraid you were a good bit shocked," she continued,
+smiling rather faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not by any means so much shocked as
+astonished," Sir Arthur replied gravely, "and, to
+avoid any misunderstanding, I had better say at
+once that, though I was naturally a little bit
+startled, I was infinitely more astonished, by the
+marvellous likeness&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What, to him!" said Miss Carol, interrupting
+him with a pretty little gesture of deprecation.
+"Yes, of course, I can quite understand that a
+gentleman like you would be a bit disgusted to
+find a likeness between your son and a girl like
+me, for I suppose he told you all about me? I
+mean, you know the sort of disreputable person
+that I am?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Carol said this with a distinct note of
+defiance in her voice. A note which seemed to
+say, "I know what I am, and so do you, and if you
+don't want to talk to me any longer you needn't."
+But she was considerably astonished when Sir
+Arthur, leaning forward in his chair and speaking
+very gravely, said:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child&mdash;you are younger than Vane,
+you know, and I may call you that without offence&mdash;I
+do know what you are, or perhaps it would be
+more just to say what circumstances have made
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>you. I don't want you to think that I have come
+here to preach at you. That is no business of
+mine. Still, I am deeply grieved, though I daresay
+you have no notion why&mdash;I mean no notion
+of the real reason. I am afraid I am expressing
+myself very awkwardly, but just now I don't quite
+seem to be able to keep my thoughts in order."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the gentle gravity of
+his tone and manner which inspired Miss Carol
+with an unaccountable desire to go away and cry.
+She didn't exactly know why, but she was certainly
+experiencing a very uncomfortable feeling
+which was more like apprehension than anything
+else. She couldn't think of anything else to say
+at the moment, and so she said simply:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know why you should be grieved, I
+mean in particular about me. There are plenty
+of others like me, you know, a good many
+thousands in London alone, I believe, and I suppose
+you would feel sorry for any of them. There
+are lots worse off than I am, I can tell you. But
+why should you be sorry for me particularly?"</p>
+
+<p>As she said this she crossed her legs and folded
+her hands over her knee, leaning forward slightly
+and looking keenly at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," he replied, with a little quaver in his
+voice, but looking steadily into her eyes, "because
+you are the living image of the woman who was
+once my wife. A little over thirty years ago&mdash;by
+the way, may I ask how old you are?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was eighteen last September," she said, "that
+is to say, I am getting on for nineteen."</p>
+
+<p>"And your birthday?" he said. "You will
+forgive me asking you so many questions, I
+know, when I tell you why I ask them; but of
+course, you needn't answer them unless you
+choose."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+<p>"There is no reason why I shouldn't," she said,
+"as far as I know. I was born on the twentieth of
+September. What were you going to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to say that if my wife, I mean I
+should rather say the woman who was my wife,
+could be put beside you now as she was thirty
+years ago, dressed as you are now, it would be
+almost impossible to tell the difference between
+you. You told my son, I think, that you take your
+name Vane from your mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Miss Carol, "she told me that
+that was her name. I don't know whether I was
+ever really christened or not, but an English
+musician in Dresden, one of my mother's friends,
+called me Carol when I was quite a little mite of
+a thing because I was always singing, and as that
+was as good a name as any other, I suppose it
+stuck to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know whether your mother was ever
+married?"</p>
+
+<p>"She had been, because she used to talk about
+it and about all she had lost and all that sort of
+thing, you know, when she was drunk," replied
+Miss Carol with a simple directness which went
+straight to Sir Arthur's heart. "Of course, that
+was when I was quite a little thing, about eight or
+nine. Then I was sent to a sort of boarding-school,
+half a school and half a convent, and I
+didn't like that, so I ran away from it, as I told
+your son last night."</p>
+
+<p>"I went home and found the house shut up.
+The concierge told me that my mother had gone
+away in a carriage with two gentlemen&mdash;he said
+one looked like a police agent&mdash;nearly a month
+before. He didn't know where she'd gone to, and
+from that day to this I've never heard anything
+more of her. I told your son the rest of it and I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>daresay he has told you, so there's no need for
+me to go over it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir Arthur, nodding slowly, "Vane
+told me, so if you please I will ask you one or
+two more questions, and then I won't detain you
+any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in no hurry," she replied. "Please ask
+me any number you like."</p>
+
+<p>Her manner was now one of deep interest, for a
+suspicion was already forming in her mind that
+this bronzed, grave-faced man had once been her
+own mother's husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he said. "I should like to ask
+you first whether you happen to have any photograph
+of your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Carol shook her head decisively, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"No. I had one once in a locket, but when I
+went home and found she'd gone away and left
+me all alone in Paris&mdash;that's where we were then&mdash;I
+was so angry that I took it out and tore it up.
+I daresay it was very wrong of me, but I couldn't
+help it, and to tell you the honest truth, I can't
+say that I ever was as fond of her as a daughter
+should have been."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder at it," said Sir Arthur, with a
+sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Carol looked up wonderingly as he said
+this, but he took no notice and said:</p>
+
+<p>"But I suppose you would recognise a photograph
+of her if you saw one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if it was taken anywhere about the time
+that I knew her."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," said Sir Arthur, taking a leather
+letter-case out of his pocket. "This was taken
+quite twenty years ago, a year or two after we
+were married, in short. It is, or was, my wife."</p>
+
+<p>As he took out the photograph he got up,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>crossed the room, and held it out to her. Miss
+Carol got up too, and as she took it she saw that
+his hand was trembling. She took the old-fashioned,
+faded photograph and looked at it.
+He saw that her face flushed as she did so. She
+gave it back to him and said simply:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is my mother."</p>
+
+<p>As he took the photograph from her he looked
+at her with sad, grave eyes across the gulf of sin
+and shame in which the one great love of his
+life had been lost. She was the daughter of his
+wife, and yet she was not his daughter&mdash;and she
+was an outcast. The sting of the old shame
+came back very keenly. The old wound was
+already open and bleeding again. All the pride
+and hope and love of his life were centred now
+on his brilliant son. A few hours before he had
+learnt that his mother had transmitted to him
+the terrible, perhaps the fatal taint of inherited
+alcoholism; and now he had just proved beyond
+doubt that Vane's half-sister&mdash;for she was that in
+blood if not in law&mdash;was what she had just
+so frankly, so defiantly even, admitted herself
+to be.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, how sweet and dainty she looked as
+she stood there before him, a bright flush on
+her cheeks and a soft, regretful expression in
+those big hazel eyes which were so wonderfully
+like <i>hers</i>! No one seeing her and Vane together
+could possibly take them for anything but brother
+and sister&mdash;and but for this marvellous likeness;
+but for the subtle instinct of kindred blood which
+had spoken in this outcast's heart the night before,
+would not a still deeper depth have opened
+in the hell of that old infamy? There was at
+least that to be thankful for.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you don't know where she is now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>&mdash;and
+don't care, most likely?" Carol added,
+raising her eyes almost timidly to his.</p>
+
+<p>"I do," he replied, slowly, "To tell you the
+truth, I was one of the men who took her away
+from the house in the Rue St. Jean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You were!" she exclaimed, recoiling a little
+from him. "Then it was really you who turned
+me out homeless into the streets of Paris?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was, I regret to say," he replied, almost
+humbly, "but I need hardly tell you that I did
+it in complete ignorance. My &mdash;&mdash; your mother
+was making my name, my son's name, a scandal
+throughout Europe. She was a hopeless dipsomaniac.
+I had, believe me, I had suffered for
+years all that an honourable man could endure
+rather than blast my son's prospects in life by
+taking proceedings for divorce, and so proclaiming
+to the world that he was the son of such a
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Carol, quietly, with a little catch
+in her voice, "I understand&mdash;such a woman as I
+suppose I shall be some day. Of course, it was
+very hard on you and your son. And I don't
+suppose it made much difference to me after all.
+She'd have sold me to someone as soon as I was
+old enough; and instead of that I had to sell
+myself. When women take to drink like that
+they don't care about anything. What did you
+do with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"The man with me," replied Sir Arthur, "was
+an officer of the French Courts. He had a
+warrant authorising her detention in a home for
+chronic inebriates. She is there still, little better
+than an imbecile, I regret to say, and with no
+hope of recovery. The physicians I consulted
+told me that she must have had the germs of
+alcoholic insanity in her blood from her very
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>birth. She told us that she had a daughter,
+and we traced you to the school, though she
+obstinately refused to tell us anything that
+would help us to find you. But we were too
+late; you had run away. We hunted all Paris
+over for you, but you were utterly lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Carol, gently, "I wish I'd stopped
+now, or that you'd found me. Things might
+have been different; but, of course, it can't be
+helped now."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a terrible pity," he began, "but still,
+even now perhaps, something may be done&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We won't talk about that now, if you please,
+sir," she interrupted, so decisively that he saw
+at once that there was no discussion of the subject
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," he said, quickly, "I fear I have
+annoyed you. Nothing, I assure you, could be
+farther from my intention. Now I have troubled
+you enough, and more than enough, and I am
+afraid I have recalled some very unpleasant
+memories&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not anything like as bad for me as for you,
+sir," she said, as he paused for a moment. "If
+I have been of any service to you, I'm very glad,
+though it's a miserable business altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and worse than miserable," he replied,
+with a slow shake of his head. Then, glancing
+through the French windows he saw Dora rubbing
+one of two bicycles down with a cloth in
+the little back garden, and he went on: "But I
+see you are getting ready to go for a ride. I
+must not keep you any longer, I am deeply
+grateful to you, believe me, and I hope our
+acquaintance may not end here. And now, good-morning."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand with the same grave
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>courtesy with which he would have offered it to
+the noblest dame of his acquaintance. She looked
+up sharply as though to say, "Do you really mean
+to shake hands with <i>me</i>?" Then her eyes
+dropped, and the next moment her hand was lying,
+trembling a little, in his.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When he left Melville Gardens, Sir Arthur did
+not go straight home. He knew that Vane would
+not be awake for two or three hours yet, and after
+a few moments' hesitation he decided to go and
+call on his old friend, Godfrey Raleigh, with whom
+he had been dining the night before, and, if he
+found him at home, put the whole case frankly
+before him and ask his advice.</p>
+
+<p>He had just retired with a well-earned K.C.S.I.
+from the Bench of the Supreme Court of Bengal,
+but he was one of those men on whom neither
+years nor climate seem to take any effect, and at
+sixty-five his body was as vigorous and his brain
+as active and clear as they had been at thirty-five.
+He had married rather late, and Enid, the Helen of
+that Iliad of the Wheelhouse, was his only child&mdash;and
+therefore naturally the very apple of his eye
+and the idol of his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Her engagement to Vane had seemed to both
+the fathers and to her mother the most natural and
+the most desirable arrangement that could have
+been made. Vane would take a brilliant degree,
+he would enter the Diplomatic Service under the
+best of auspices, and when Enid had completed
+her education with a couple of years on the Continent
+they were to be married on her twentieth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>birthday. That was the promise of these two
+bright young lives. What would the fulfilment be?</p>
+
+<p>Sir Godfrey was, as he believed, the only one of
+his acquaintance in England who knew the truth of
+the tragedy of his life. They had been chums at
+Eton and Oxford. They had gone out to India
+together, Sir Godfrey with a judicial appointment,
+and Sir Arthur as Political Agent to one of the
+minor Independent States, both of them juniors
+with many things to learn and many steps to climb
+before they took a really active and responsible
+part in the propulsion of that huge and complicated
+machine which is called the Indian Government.</p>
+
+<p>The Fates had thrown them a good deal together,
+and they had got to know each other well,
+not quickly, because men who are men need a great
+deal of knowing; but as the months had grown
+into years, and the years into a decade or more,
+they had really learnt to know each other. They
+had gone home together on the same ship to marry
+the girls who had been waiting for them since their
+troths had been plighted during their university
+days. They had come back with their brides on
+the same ship to India; Godfrey Raleigh had been
+godfather to his friend's first-born son. Three
+years later, after the shadow had fallen upon his
+own life, he had performed the same office for his
+friend's daughter, the successor of a baby girl who
+had died during the Rains.</p>
+
+<p>These two children were now the youth and
+maiden who, within the next two or three years
+were to be man and wife. But after the events of
+the last twelve hours or so, Sir Arthur felt that it
+would not be either loyal to his old friend, or just
+to him and his daughter not to go and tell him
+frankly what he had learnt, and to take, not only
+his opinion, but also his advice on the subject.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+<p>He found Sir Godfrey at home, and the judge
+quickly saw that he had not called upon any
+ordinary concern, so he asked him to come and
+smoke a pipe in his den, and there Sir Arthur,
+taking up the thread where it had been dropped
+years before, told him in a few straight, short sentences
+the rest of the story to the end of his interview
+with Miss Carol.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you will understand, Raleigh," he
+said, when he had finished, "I have told you this
+because I thought it was only right to do so. My
+boy is engaged to marry your girl. It is quite
+plain, I am sorry to say, that this alcoholic taint is
+in him, and as I have told you this Miss Carol Vane,
+charming and all as I must confess her to be from
+what I have seen of her, is after all Vane's half-sister,
+and she is also what I told you she was."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear Maxwell, I must confess that
+that is a very difficult problem indeed for us to
+decide. Very difficult indeed," Sir Godfrey had
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, to put it quite plainly, and, if as an
+old lawyer I may say so, from the judicial point of
+view, there are two courses open to us. First, we
+may or, I would rather say, we <i>might</i> adopt the
+strictly scientific view of the matter and say that,
+since the unfortunate woman who was once your
+wife has apparently transmitted the taint of
+alcoholism to your son, it would therefore be improper
+for him to marry Enid for fear that he
+should further transmit this taint to his own offspring.</p>
+
+<p>"That, I suppose, is the way in which a coldblooded
+scientist would put it; but on the other
+hand I think the matter should also be considered
+from the purely human point of view, and here, I
+speak again as an old judge. When you married
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>your wife you had no notion that she had inherited
+this taint of insanity, as we may well call it, from
+some unknown ancestor. Now the same thing
+might have happened with my wife, or in fact, with
+any other woman.</p>
+
+<p>"It is perfectly well known that this poison, as
+one is obliged to call it, may lie latent for generations;
+may, in fact, die out altogether. On the
+other hand, what might have been only a vice in
+the grandfather or the father may develop as insanity
+in the grandson or the son. It is not for
+us to decide these things, at least, that is my
+view.</p>
+
+<p>"You and I have more experience, more judgment;
+but I think that your son and my daughter
+will have more accurate instincts and keener intuitions.
+My own judgment I reserve entirely, and
+I advise you to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>"Go home and tell Vane everything. Don't
+spare yourself or him, for in a case like this truth,
+the whole truth, is, after all, the greatest mercy. I
+will tell my wife the whole story this afternoon,
+and she will tell Enid when she gets back from
+Paris. Then I think the best that we can do will
+be to leave them to find a solution of the problem
+between them. Depend upon it that, whatever
+solution they do arrive at, it will be more accurate
+and will stand the test of time better than any
+arbitrary action which you or I might take."</p>
+
+<p>And so ended the only false&mdash;utterly and hopelessly
+false&mdash;judgment which Sir Godfrey Raleigh
+had ever delivered.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur took it as gospel, it all seemed so
+clear and so logical, so fair to everybody; just the
+sort of judgment, in fact, which might have been
+expected from a man of such vast and varied experience.
+Both of them had the best of intentions,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>for were not the happiness, the earthly fates of their
+two only children bound up in it?</p>
+
+<p>Under such circumstances, though the advice
+might be mistaken, it was absolutely impossible
+that it could be anything else but honest and sincere.
+It was not for them to see into the future,
+nor yet to solve those impossibly intricate problems
+of human passion, of human strength and weakness,
+which, in defiance of all laws human and divine,
+break through the traditions of ages, make a
+mockery of all commonplace laws, and finally solve
+themselves with an accuracy as pitiless as it is
+precise.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur left his friend's house with the firm
+conviction that the only thing to be done under
+the circumstances was to follow his advice. When
+he got back to his house in Warwick Gardens, the
+door was opened by Koda Bux, and the first thing
+he said to him was:</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Vane awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sahib, he is, and well. He is even as though
+he had never drunk of the liquor of fire. He is in
+the library awaiting your return."</p>
+
+<p>It was then getting on for one o'clock, the lunch-time
+of Sir Arthur's household, and the table was
+already laid in what was called the breakfast-room,
+that is to say a room looking out upon one of the
+long, back gardens which are attached to the houses
+in Warwick Gardens.</p>
+
+<p>Vane was sitting in the library waiting, something
+in shame and something in fear, for his
+father's return. He more than half-expected that
+his father would come in and begin at once to haul
+him over the coals on account of what had happened
+the night before. He did not feel altogether
+satisfied about his adventure with Miss Carol, and
+he was very much ashamed of himself, indeed, for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>what had happened afterwards. But as yet, he
+had no suspicion of the terrible secret which in the
+almost immediate future was to decide his destiny
+in life. The dreadful fact of inherited alcoholism
+was yet to be revealed to him. He thought that
+his father was simply going to rate him for having
+exceeded the bounds of prudence during his night
+out, for coming home in a cab with such a person
+as Miss Carol, and then, worse than all, to tell him
+that he had made a beast of himself by beginning
+to drink whiskey when he was alone after having
+refused to take anything while his father was in
+the room. It was that that he was really afraid
+of.</p>
+
+<p>He had no idea of what had happened since the
+time that he had fallen from his chair on to the
+hearth-rug, saving only the brief awakening in his
+bed with Koda Bux standing beside him, the drinking
+of the crimson-coloured effervescing liquid, and
+then the long, calm sleep which had spread itself
+like a gulf between the agony of the one awakening
+and the peace of the next.</p>
+
+<p>He was sitting in one of the big arm-chairs in
+the library when his father came in. He got up
+and stood before him, something as a criminal
+might do before his judge, expecting to hear something
+like a sentence from his lips. He was very
+much ashamed of himself, and being so was perfectly
+prepared to take his punishment which would
+probably come in the shape of a few cold words
+of reproof, and a hard look in his father's eyes
+which he had seen before. But, instead of that,
+when he got up out of the arm-chair, and began
+somewhat falteringly:</p>
+
+<p>"Dad, I'm awfully sorry&mdash;&mdash;" his father stopped
+him, and said with a look at the clock on the
+mantel-piece: "I think it is about lunch time, isn't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>it? Yes, there is the gong. How's your appetite?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, better than I thought it would be," said
+Vane, "better, in fact, than it deserves to be. That
+stuff that Koda gave me this morning has worked
+wonders&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," said Sir Arthur, cutting him
+short, "I think we may as well go and have some
+lunch."</p>
+
+<p>The meal was eaten in a somewhat awkward
+silence, broken by odds and ends of talk which
+were obviously spoken and replied to, not for the
+purpose of conversation, but to fill up time. Both
+father and son were as unhappy as men could very
+well be, and yet the ancient custom which forbids
+the Anglo-Saxon race to talk about unpleasant
+things at meal-times, prevented Sir Arthur from
+saying what he had to say, and Vane from asking
+what he wanted to ask.</p>
+
+<p>At last, when Koda came in and said that coffee
+was served in the Den they got up, both of them
+feeling a certain sense of relief, although both knew
+that the worst was yet to come.</p>
+
+<p>When they got into the Den, Sir Arthur said to
+Koda in Urdu:</p>
+
+<p>"The house is empty. There is no one here.
+The door is bolted. No one must enter, till I
+say so."</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door, spread the palms of his
+hands outwards, inclined his head, and said in the
+same language: "Thou art obeyed, Huzur. It is
+already done." Then he backed out of the door
+and shut it.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur got up out of his chair, turned the key
+in the lock, and said to Vane in a tone whose calmness
+astonished him almost as much as the words
+did:</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Vane, why did you drink that whiskey last
+night? You know I asked you to have some, and
+you said that although you had never disobeyed
+me before, if I had ordered you to have some you
+would not have done it. And yet, after I had left
+the room you emptied the decanter. Why was
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>Vane had expected anything but this, for his
+father had spoken as quietly as if he had been
+asking him about the most ordinary concern of
+their daily life. He remembered dimly those few
+dreadful minutes after the subtle aroma from the
+whiskey decanter had reached his nostrils, the swift
+intoxication, the brilliant series of visions which
+had passed before his eyes, and then the dead,
+black night which had fallen over his senses, and
+after that nothing more until he had awakened
+with parched mouth and burning brain, and Koda
+standing by his bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid, dad, I was very drunk last night,
+but why, I don't know. I was sober enough
+when I came in, you know that yourself. But
+somehow, just when you had gone out of the
+room and told me to put the spirit case away, I
+took up the whiskey decanter and smelt it. There
+seemed to be some infernal influence in it which
+made me simply long to drink. I did not want to
+in the ordinary way, and as I had been having
+brandy and soda and champagne before, of course,
+whiskey was the very worst thing I could possibly
+have drunk. Yet it seemed somehow to get hold
+of me. I felt as though I <i>had</i> to drink. It didn't
+matter what it was so long as it was alcohol. It
+was the smell of it that intoxicated me first, and
+when I had once smelt it I went on, till I was dead
+drunk, and I suppose that is the way that you
+found me. That is all that I know about it. I am
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>horribly ashamed of myself, and I can only promise
+you that, if I can help it, it will never occur
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Vane, and let us talk this over," said
+Sir Arthur, seating himself in the arm-chair on the
+other side of the fire-place. "I suppose you thought
+when I came back that I was going to give you the
+usual sort of lecture that a father would give his
+son under the circumstances. Well, I am not going
+to do that. I am sorry to say that it is a great
+deal more serious than that."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, dad?" said Vane, getting
+up out of the arm-chair into which he had thrown
+himself, as though resigned to receive his sentence.
+"More serious than that? Surely it is bad enough
+for a fellow to come home as I did last night, and
+then get drunk on whiskey and have to be carried
+to bed. There can't be anything very much worse
+than that."</p>
+
+<p>"There might have been," said Sir Arthur, "if
+you had not stopped the cab where you did.
+What would you say if I told you that that girl&mdash;you
+remember what you said to me about her
+likeness to yourself&mdash;what would you say if I
+were to tell you that that girl is your sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! Dad, you don't mean that, do
+you? It can't be. I never had a sister. You
+have always told me that I am the only child.
+Mother died twenty years ago, didn't she? And
+that girl was only about nineteen. No, you can't
+mean it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sir Arthur, in a tone which seemed
+very strange to his son. "I do mean it. When I
+told you that your mother had died a few months
+after you were born, I did not tell you the truth.
+She died to me and to you, but that was all. She
+is alive still. That girl that you drove up in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>cab with last night was her daughter, but not
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>No more terrible words than these could have
+Vane turned white to his lips as he heard them,
+and for a moment he looked into his father's grey
+stern face with a glance that had something of
+hate in it. His fists even clenched and his
+shoulders squared as though the impulse was on
+him to raise his hands against him. But there was
+such an infinite sadness in Sir Arthur's eyes and
+such an expression of unspeakable suffering on
+his hard-set features, that as he looked at him
+the anger died out of Vane's eyes and his hands
+fell limp and open by his side.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before he was able to command
+his voice sufficiently to shape coherent
+words, but at length he managed to say in a hard,
+half-choking tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is impossible that you could tell
+me anything but the truth, dad. And so I am the
+son of a disgraced woman, am I? Poor Eny,
+what will she think of me now? Of course it will
+be all over between us?"</p>
+
+<p>His instinct had spoken, as Sir Godfrey Raleigh
+had said it would, and spoken truly. But Sir
+Arthur said quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"No; my boy. It is bad enough, God knows,
+but it may not be as bad as that. I have been
+to see Miss Vane this morning, and when I had
+satisfied myself of the relationship between you,
+I went on to Raleigh and told him the whole
+story, as I thought it was only right to do. He
+said, very properly I think, that it was a matter
+for you and Enid to decide between yourselves,
+for after all it is the happiness of your lives which
+is in question, and therefore the decision ought to
+rest with you."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I don't see how there can be any decision but
+one," said Vane, who had sat down again, and,
+with his elbows on his knees and his face between
+his hands, was staring with blank eyes down at the
+carpet. "And so I am the son of that girl's
+mother, am I? Well, it couldn't be very much
+worse than that, and yet, God help us, she is my
+mother after all."</p>
+
+<p>Then he threw himself back in his chair, let his
+hands fall limply over the arms and stared up at
+the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>"You may as well tell me the whole of the
+story, now dad," he went on, in a broken, miserable
+voice. "You had better tell me, and then I
+shall know where I am."</p>
+
+<p>His father looked at him for a moment or two
+in silence, and then he said, with a note of reproof
+in his tone:</p>
+
+<p>"That is a hasty judgment, Vane, but a natural
+one, I admit. When I have told you the story
+you will see what I mean. The mother who bore
+you was as good and pure a woman as ever lived
+when she became your mother, and this girl, from
+what I have seen of her this morning, I am perfectly
+certain is thoroughly good and honest in
+herself. I am satisfied that it is her fate that has
+made her what she is; not her fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Vane, "I was wrong. After all I
+have no right to judge my mother. I remember
+nothing about her, and as for Carol, she is a good
+girl whatever else she may be. Can't something be
+done for her, dad? I mean something to get her
+out of that horrible life. It is too awful to think
+of, isn't it? We must do something."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I should have expected you
+to say, Vane," said his father, "and anything that
+I can do shall be done. But I'm afraid it won't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>be very easy. I did suggest something of the sort,
+of course, but she cut me short very quickly.
+She simply said that she could not discuss the
+subject then, and there was an end of it. I am
+quite certain that anything which had even a suggestion
+of charity about it would be quite out of
+the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it would," said Vane, almost angrily.
+"After all, she is my sister. However, that can
+wait. Now tell me what you were going to tell
+me. How did all this begin? Do you know who
+the man was, because if so I want to go and see
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't, Vane," his father replied, slowly.
+"To tell you the truth, I never even attempted to
+find out. We were living at Simla at the time,
+and Simla is, as perhaps you know, not the most
+moral of places. You were nearly three years old,
+and for about a year your mother had shown signs
+of what doctors call now Alcoholic Insanity. I
+shall never forget the first time that I found her
+drunk&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that, dad," Vane interrupted, with
+a sharp catch in his voice, "I don't want to hear
+about it, it's bad enough already. Was Carol
+right about that light which she used to see in her
+eyes and which I suppose you saw in mine last
+night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, perfectly," replied Sir Arthur. "I used
+to think it beautiful once, before I knew what a
+dreadful meaning it had. When she had had a
+glass or so of champagne, her eyes&mdash;and they
+were just like yours and Carol's&mdash;used to light up
+marvellously. People used to speak of them as
+the most beautiful eyes in the East; but
+afterwards, that light in them began to burn
+brighter, and when at last she gave way com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>pletely,
+it became something horrible, although,
+somehow, it was still beautiful&mdash;damnably beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one night," Sir Arthur went on, leaning
+back in his chair and staring into vacancy, "she
+went out to spend the evening, as she told me,
+with a friend; as a matter of fact it was Raleigh's
+sister. She had been drinking a little during the
+afternoon, but I felt that she would be safe there,
+for both Raleigh and his sister knew of this miserable
+failing of hers. Unfortunately, I had a lot
+of work to do that evening, and I was unable to
+go with her. I went about eleven o'clock to bring
+her home. I found she had not been there at
+all. I went back and sat up the whole night, I
+needn't tell you Vane what my thoughts were.
+She didn't come. She never came.</p>
+
+<p>"A month afterwards I got a letter from her
+written from Bombay. She confessed that for
+over a year she had been deceiving me; that
+another man had stolen her love from me; that
+she could never face me or look upon you again,
+and that was all. She gave no address, no
+sign that I could trace her by. If she had done I
+would have forgiven her and asked her to come
+back for your sake. But it was over ten years
+before I saw her again, and then it was in a house
+in a wretched street in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>"Then she was a drunkard, a hopeless
+drunkard, lost to all sense and shame. She had
+taken my name again and was making it infamous,
+and for your sake I was forced to take some
+decided steps. I took proceedings in the French
+Courts, and got authority to confine her in an
+asylum for inebriates, and she is there now, almost
+an imbecile."</p>
+
+<p>"And what about Carol?" said Vane, in a hard,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>strained voice, "doesn't she know who her father
+is, and couldn't you have got a divorce?"</p>
+
+<p>"Carol does not know for certain who her father
+is," said Sir Arthur. "There was someone who
+went about the Continent a good deal with her
+mother when she was very young, and she thinks
+that he was. It is quite possible that he may have
+been the scoundrel, whoever he was, who took her
+away from Simla. As for the divorce, of course
+I could have got one, but I had no desire to marry
+again, and I preferred to let the thing rest as it
+was, rather than drag our name through the cesspool
+of the Divorce Court and the newspapers.
+Everybody was very good to me, and in time I
+lived it down and it was forgotten. In fact, I
+suppose if it hadn't been for that chance meeting
+of yours last night, it might never have been heard
+of again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then that," said Vane, "is, I suppose, the
+secret of my drinking the whiskey last night, and
+the explanation of the light which Carol saw in my
+eyes when I had drunk too much champagne.
+My blood is poisoned, and so, when I've drunk a
+certain amount, the smell of alcohol is irresistible.
+There's one thing perfectly certain, I don't like
+whiskey and I never have liked it, and I'm quite
+sure I never wanted it less than I did last night;
+and yet when I smelt it, the smell somehow
+seemed to get up into my brain and force me to
+drink it.</p>
+
+<p>"I tried my best to resist it. Honestly I did,
+dad, but it was no use. I tasted it, and then I
+took a long drink of it, and then I took another.
+I didn't seem to get drunk, I went mad. I saw
+some magnificent visions, they seemed to be all
+round the room, nickering like the Biograph, then,
+all of a sudden, they vanished, and I don't remem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>ber
+anything more until I woke and found Koda
+standing beside me. Now was that the sort of
+thing that used to happen to my mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was," replied his father, "exactly, and when
+she came to her senses after one of her bouts, she
+used to implore me to keep the smell, even the
+sight, of liquor away from her. Of course I did.
+I gave up drinking myself, and what I had in the
+house for friends I kept constantly under lock and
+key. It seemed to be successful for a time, and
+then she began to get liquor from somewhere else.
+I never could find out how or where she did it.
+I had her watched, but it was no use. Weeks
+would pass and she would be perfectly sober.
+Then, without the slightest warning, she would go
+out for a walk or to pay some calls and come back,
+not drunk, but getting drunk.</p>
+
+<p>"We used to have some terrible scenes then, as
+you may believe. I dismissed four butlers because
+she had either bribed or frightened them into
+giving her the keys of the wine cellar. I had the
+best medical men in India for her, and at last I
+got her to consent to go into a Sanitorium. That,
+however, was merely a blind to keep my suspicions
+quiet. It was only a few days before she was to
+have gone there that she disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>"And you never had any suspicion about the
+scoundrel that she went away with? I expect
+if the truth was known, she got the liquor secretly
+through him after you had stopped it. I am beginning
+already to have a presentiment that I
+shall meet that man some day, and if I do, may
+God have mercy on him, for I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Vane, don't say that, my boy! Remember
+what is written&mdash;'Vengeance is mine,
+saith the Lord.' Whoever he is his sin will find
+him out, if it has not done so already."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+<p>Sir Arthur spoke with the absolute conviction of
+a deeply religious man. He believed his own
+words honestly; and yet, if he could have seen
+how his own prophecy was to be fulfilled, he would
+have given his right hand, nay, he would even
+have shaken hands with the man who had so
+deeply wronged him, rather than that they should
+have had so terrible a fulfilment.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, even while he was speaking the wheels
+of Fate had already begun to revolve.</p>
+
+<p>When Carol and Dora returned from their ride
+Dora found a letter waiting for her. She opened
+it, glanced quickly over the page and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"Carol, how will this suit you for this evening?
+I think a night out would do you good after your
+little shake-up this morning. Listen&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dear Dora</span>,
+</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday I became a happy bachelor
+for a fortnight. Encumbrances gone to Folkestone.
+If you have nothing better to do, meet
+me at the 'West End' at 7.30 this evening, and,
+if possible, bring Miss Vane, as I am bringing a
+friend, who, after my description of her&mdash;don't be
+jealous!&mdash;is quite anxious to meet her. He is
+good looking and very well off, and I think she
+will like him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hoping you will both be able to come,</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yours ever,<br />
+
+"<span class="smcap">Bernard.</span>"<br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"That sounds promising," said Miss Carol. "If
+he's that sort, and nice as well, and has plenty of
+the necessary, I shouldn't mind if he took me on
+as a sort of permanence. Somehow, after last
+night and this morning, I've got sick of this general
+knocking-about. Besides, it's no class. All right,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>I'll come. A bit of a kick-up will do me good,
+I think. That talk with the old gentleman this
+morning gave me quite a number 25 hump, though
+the ride has worked a good bit of it off. Now let's
+feed, I'm hungry enough to dine off cold boiled
+block ornaments."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bernard Falcon, the writer of the letter to
+Dora, was principal partner in the somewhat incongruously
+named firm of solicitors, Messrs.
+Falcon and Lambe, of Mansion House Chambers,
+E.C. The firm did all sorts of work, provided
+only that it paid; the highest class under their
+style, and the other sorts&mdash;the money-lending
+and "speculative business"&mdash;through their own
+"jackals," that is to say seedy and broken-down
+solicitors who had made a failure of their
+own business, but had managed to keep on the
+Rolls and were not above doing "commission
+work" for more prosperous firms.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lambe, away from his business, was a most
+excellent person; a good husband and father, a
+regular church-goer, and a generous supporter of
+all good works in and about Denmark Hill, where
+he lived. He was one of those strangely constituted
+men&mdash;of whom there are multitudes in the
+world&mdash;who will earn money by the most questionable,
+if not absolutely dishonest, methods, without
+a qualm of conscience, and give liberally of that
+same money without recognising for a moment
+that what they honestly believe they are giving to
+God, is a portion of the Wages of Sin&mdash;which, as
+good Christians, they ought never to have
+earned.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bernard Falcon, on the other hand, in his
+private life, aimed at nothing more than respectability
+in the worst sense of the word. His wife
+and his two little girls went to church. He him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>self
+went on Sunday mornings when he had no
+more pressing engagements. His name appeared
+regularly on the subscription lists published in
+connection with St. Michael's, Brondesbury, his
+parish church, and he also paid the rent of No. 15,
+Melville Gardens, Brook Green, in addition to one
+hundred and fifty pounds a year as what he would
+have called "a retainer" to Miss Dora Russell&mdash;to
+say nothing of certain milliner's and jeweller's
+bills which he liquidated, sometimes cheerfully and
+sometimes grudgingly, according to his humour
+and their amount.</p>
+
+<p>When Carol and Dora got out of their cab at the
+door of the "West End" and went into the little
+vestibule-bar to the left, they found two men in
+evening dress waiting for them. One of them&mdash;a
+man of about forty, bald on the temples, of
+medium height, well-fed and well-groomed, and
+not by any means bad-looking, though of an entirely
+mediocre type&mdash;Carol greeted with the easy
+familiarity of old acquaintance, for she had known
+him for nearly a year as Dora's 'particular friend.'
+The other, tall, well-built, handsome, and with that
+unmistakable stamp of breeding on him which Mr.
+Bernard Falcon totally lacked, she instantly recognised
+as Reginald Garthorne, her intended companion
+for the evening.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing he did when they had been
+introduced by Bernard Falcon, was to apologise
+for what he had said in front of the Criterion the
+night before. He did it with admirably calculated
+deference, and in such perfectly chosen words, that
+it was quite impossible for her not to accept his
+apology and "make friends."</p>
+
+<p>During the evening he became completely
+fascinated, not only by her beauty, but far more
+so by the extraordinary charm of her manner. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>was a man who, apart from his physical qualities
+and good looks, could, when he chose, make himself
+very pleasing to women, and, without showing
+a trace of effort, he did his very best to please
+Miss Carol, and succeeded so completely, that
+when, a few days later, he made a proposal of a
+partly domestic nature to her, she, after a brief
+consultation with Dora, accepted it.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the month the house in Melville
+Gardens was to let, and Carol and Dora were installed
+in a flat in Densmore Gardens, South
+Kensington, for the rent of which Reginald
+Garthorne and Mr. Bernard Falcon were jointly
+responsible&mdash;of course, under other names. The
+only condition that Carol had made with Garthorne,
+was that, whatever happened, he would
+not tell Vane of her change of address, and he,
+for very good reasons of his own, had promised
+unconditionally.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next day Enid Raleigh came home.</p>
+
+<p>Almost the first thing she said to her mother,
+who had met her at the station with the carriage,
+was:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and where is Master Vane, please? He
+is in town, isn't he? Why didn't he come to meet
+me? I shall have to make him do penance for
+this."</p>
+
+<p>The words were lightly spoken, spoken in utter
+unconsciousness of the deep meaning which Fate
+had put into them. So far as Enid herself was
+concerned, and as, in fact, she was just thinking
+at the moment, all they meant was that at their next
+meeting she would refuse Vane his long-accustomed
+lover's kiss, and then, after an explanation
+occupying some three or four minutes at most, surrender
+at discretion, after which would come the
+luxury of playing at being offended and standing
+on her dignity for a few minutes more, and then
+enjoying the further luxury of making it up.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear," said her mother, "Vane is in town
+still. I think he doesn't go back to Oxford until
+the end of the week, but he hasn't been very well
+lately&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not well!" exclaimed Enid, sitting up out of
+the corner of the carriage into which she had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>leaned back with that easy abandon which comes
+so naturally to people accustomed to comfort all
+their lives. "Ill! Why, Vane's never been ill in
+his life. What's the matter? It isn't anything
+serious, is it? You don't mean that he's really ill,
+mother, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the reality of the anxiety
+in her tone. Her mother recognised it instantly,
+but she also saw that a brougham rattling over the
+streets of London was not exactly the place to enter
+upon such explanations as it was her destiny and
+her duty to make to this brilliant, beautiful, spoilt
+darling of a daughter who was sitting beside her.</p>
+
+<p>So far as she knew, every hope, every prospect
+of Enid's life, that bright young life which, in the
+fuller acceptation of the term, was only just going
+to begin, was connected more or less intimately
+with Vane Maxwell.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since they had come home together from
+Bombay on that memorable voyage, she and Vane
+had been sweethearts. They were very much in
+love with each other, and so far their love had been
+a striking exception to that old proverb which
+comes true only too often. Saving only those
+lovers' quarrels which don't count because they end
+so much more pleasantly than they begin, there
+had never been a cloud in that morning-sky of life
+towards which they had so far walked hand in
+hand. It seemed as though the Fates themselves
+had conspired to make everything pleasant and
+easy for them; and of course it had never struck
+either of them that when the Fates do this kind
+of thing, they always have a more or less heavy
+account on the other side&mdash;to be presented in due
+course.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Raleigh knew this, and her daughter did
+not. She knew that the terrible explanation had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>to come, but she very naturally shrank from the
+inevitable&mdash;and so, woman-like, she temporised.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, dear," she said, "I can't talk with all
+this jolting and rattle. When we get home I will
+tell you all about it. Vane himself is not ill at all.
+He is just as well as ever he was. It isn't that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose," said Miss Enid, looking
+round sharply, "my lord has been getting himself
+into some scrape or other&mdash;something that has to
+be explained or talked away before he likes to meet
+me. Is that it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Enid, that is not it," replied her mother
+gravely, "but really, dear, I must ask you to say
+nothing more about it just now. When we get
+home we'll have a cup of tea, and then I'll tell you
+all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well," said Enid, a trifle petulantly.
+"I suppose there's some mystery about it. Of
+course there must be, or else he'd have come here
+himself, so we may as well change the subject.
+How do you like the new flat, and what's it like?"</p>
+
+<p>As she said this she threw herself back again
+into the corner and stared out of the opposite window
+of the brougham with a look in her eyes which
+seemed to say that for the time being she had no
+further interest in any earthly affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Raleigh, glad of the relief even for the
+moment, at once began a voluble and minute description
+of the new flat in Addison Gardens into
+which they had moved during her daughter's last
+sojourn in Paris, and this, with certain interjections
+and questions from Enid, lasted until the brougham
+turned into the courtyard and drew up in front of
+the arched doorway out of which the tall, uniformed
+porter came with the fingers of his left hand raised
+to the peak of his cap, to open the carriage door.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Godfrey was out, and would not be back
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>until dinner time; so, as soon as they had taken
+their things off, Lady Raleigh ordered tea in her
+own room, and there, as briefly as was consistent
+with the gravity of the news she had to tell, she
+told Enid everything that her husband had heard
+from Sir Arthur.</p>
+
+<p>Enid, although she flushed slightly at certain portions
+of the narrative, listened to the story with a
+calmness which somewhat surprised her mother.</p>
+
+<p>The little damsel for whose kisses those two boys
+had fought ten or eleven years ago, had now grown
+into a fair and stately maiden of eighteen, very
+dainty and desirable to look upon, and withal possessing
+a dignity which only comes by birth and
+breeding and that larger training and closer contact
+with the world which modern girls of her class
+enjoy. Young as she was, hers was not the innocence
+of ignorance. She had lived too late in the
+century, and had already been too far afield in the
+world for that.</p>
+
+<p>"It comes to this, then," she said quietly, almost
+hardly, "instead of being dead, as we have believed
+all along, Vane's mother is alive; an imbecile
+who has become so through drink, and who seems
+to have misbehaved herself very badly when Vane
+was a baby. She is in an asylum, and will probably
+remain there till she dies. No one but ourselves
+and this interesting young person, Miss
+Carol Vane, appears to know anything about it,
+and I really don't see why Vane is to be held responsible
+for his mother's insanity&mdash;for I suppose
+that's what it comes to.</p>
+
+<p>"And then there is Miss Carol herself. Of
+course she's not a particularly desirable family connection;
+but I don't suppose Vane would expect
+me to meet her, much less fall upon her neck and
+greet her as his long-lost sister. I suppose, too,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>that between us we could manage to do something
+for her, and put her in a more respectable way of
+living and induce her to hold her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"As for Vane getting drunk that night, of course
+it's very improper and all that sort of thing from
+the Sunday School point of view; but I don't suppose
+he was the only undergraduate who took too
+much to drink that night. Probably several hundreds
+of them did, and I daresay a good many of
+them were either engaged or going to be. Would
+they consider that a reason why they should go
+and break off their engagements? I'm afraid there
+wouldn't be many marriages nowadays if engagements
+were broken off on that account.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, mam, dear, what you've told me is
+not exactly pleasant to hear, but still, after all, I
+really can't see anything so very dreadful in it.
+Most families have a skeleton of some sort, I suppose,
+and this is ours, or will be when Vane and I
+are married. We must simply keep the cupboard
+door shut as closely as possible. It's only what lots
+of other people have to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I must say
+I'm very glad to see you take it so reasonably. I'm
+afraid I could not have done so at your age, but
+then girls are so different now, and, besides, you
+always had more of your father's way of looking
+at things than mine. Then, I suppose, Vane may
+come and see you. I think it was very nice of
+him not to come until you had been told everything."</p>
+
+<p>"May come!" said Enid. "I should think so.
+If he doesn't I shall be distinctly offended. I shall
+expect him to come round and make his explanations
+in person before long, and when he does we
+will have a few minutes chat <i>ŕ deux</i>&mdash;and I don't
+think I shall have very much difficulty in con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>vincing
+him of the error of his ways, or, at any rate,
+of his opinions."</p>
+
+<p>"What an extremely conceited speech to make,
+dear!" said her ladyship mildly, and yet with a
+glance of motherly pride at the beauty which went
+so far towards justifying it. "Well, perhaps you
+are right. Certainly, if anyone can, you can, and
+I sincerely hope you will. It would be dreadful if
+anything were to happen to break it off after all
+these years."</p>
+
+<p>The colour went out of Enid's cheeks in an instant,
+and she said in quite an altered voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for goodness sake, mamma, don't say anything
+about that! You know how fond I am of
+Vane. I simply couldn't give him up, whatever
+sort of a mother he had, and if he had a dozen half-sisters
+as disreputable as this Miss Carol Vane&mdash;the
+very idea of her having the impudence to use
+his name! No, I shan't think of that&mdash;I couldn't.
+If Vane did that it would just break my heart&mdash;it
+really would. It would be like taking half my life
+away, and it would simply kill me. I couldn't bear
+it."</p>
+
+<p>She honestly meant what she said, not knowing
+that she said it in utter ignorance of the self that
+said it.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Enid's mind, as it also was in her
+mother's, to send a note round to Warwick Gardens
+to ask both Vane and his father to come round to
+an informal dinner, and to discuss the matter there
+and then; but neither of them gave utterance to
+the thought. Lady Raleigh, knowing her daughter's
+proud and somewhat impetuous temperament,
+instinctively shrank from making a suggestion
+which she would have had very good grounds for
+rejecting, more especially as she had already given
+such a very decided opinion as to Vane's scruples.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+<p>As for Enid herself, she honestly thought so little
+of these same scruples that she felt inclined to accuse
+Vane of a Quixotism which, from her point
+of view at least, was entirely unwarrantable. It
+was, therefore, quite impossible for her to first suggest
+that they should meet after a parting during
+which they might have unconsciously reached what
+was to be the crisis of both their lives.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that the thought remained unspoken,
+and Enid, after spending the evening in
+vexed and anxious uncertainty, went to bed; and
+then, as soon as she felt that she was absolutely
+safe in her solitude, discussed the whole matter over
+again with herself, and wound the discussion up
+with a good hearty cry, after which she fell into
+the dreamless slumber of the healthy and innocent.</p>
+
+<p>When she woke very early the next morning,
+or, rather, while she was on that borderland between
+sleeping and waking where the mind works
+with such strange rapidity, she reviewed the whole
+of the circumstances, and came to the conclusion
+that she was being very badly treated. Vane knew
+perfectly well that she was coming back yesterday
+afternoon, and therefore he had no right to let
+these absurd scruples of his prevent him from performing
+the duties of a lover and meeting her at
+the station. But, even granted that something else
+had made it impossible for him to do so, there was
+absolutely no excuse for his remaining away the
+whole afternoon and evening when he must have
+known how welcome a visit would have been.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Vane had been doing the very last
+thing that she would have imagined him doing.</p>
+
+<p>After his fateful conversation with his father he
+had left the house in Warwick Gardens to wander
+he knew and cared not whither. His thoughts
+were more than sufficient companionship for him,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>and, heeding neither time nor distance, he walked
+as he might have walked in a dream, along the main
+road through Hammersmith and Turnham Green
+and Kew, and so through Richmond Hill till he
+had climbed the hill and stopped for a brief moment
+of desperate debate before the door of the
+saloon bar of the "Star and Garter." The better
+impulse conquered the worse, and he entered the
+park, and, seating himself on one of the chairs
+under the trees, he made an effort to calmly survey
+the question in all its bearings.</p>
+
+<p>It was the most momentous of all human tasks&mdash;the
+choosing of his own future life-path at the
+parting of the ways. One of them, flower-bordered
+and green with the new-grown grass of life's
+spring-time, and the other dry, rugged and rock-strewn&mdash;the
+paths of inclination and duty: the one
+leading up to the golden gates of the Paradise of
+wedded love, and the other slanting down to the
+wide wilderness which he must cross alone, until
+he passed alone into the shadows which lay beyond
+it.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before he had seen himself well on
+the way to everything that can make a man's life
+full and bright and worthy to be lived. He was,
+thanks to his father's industry, relieved from all
+care on the score of money, and, better still, he had
+that within him which made him independent of
+fortune, perfect health and great abilities, already
+well-proved, although he had yet to wait nearly a
+year for his twenty-first birthday.</p>
+
+<p>He had great ambitions and the high hopes
+which go with them. The path to honour and
+distinction, even to fame itself, had lain plainly open
+before him&mdash;and now everything was so different.
+The sun which he had thought was only rising was
+already setting. He knew now that the fruit which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>looked so sweet and luscious had the canker-worm
+feeding on the core; that the flesh which seemed
+so healthy was really tainted and leprous; and
+that, worse than all, the brightest and sweetest
+promise of his life, a promise infinitely sweeter and
+dearer than even the fulfilment of his highest material
+ambition, was now no longer a promise but a
+denial, a life-sacrifice demanded, not only by his
+honour as a man, but by his love as a lover.</p>
+
+<p>He sat thus thinking until the buzzing of a
+motor-car woke him from his day-dream. He
+looked at his watch, and found that he had about
+time to get across the park to Sheen Gate; but
+he fell to dreaming again on the way, and when
+he reached the gate it was closed.</p>
+
+<p>He turned back with the idea of asking a keeper
+to unlock the gate and let him out, but after a few
+strides he halted and sat down again on a seat.
+After all, were he to go home, he could not sleep,
+and it better suited his mood to keep vigil in the
+open air than within the four walls of his room.</p>
+
+<p>And so he passed the night, walking half awake,
+and then sitting, half asleep, dimly reviewing this
+sudden crisis of his fate again and again from all
+possible aspects. And again and again the determination
+to adhere to the decision which duty had
+marked out so clearly seemed to beat itself deeper
+and deeper into his brain.</p>
+
+<p>The taint of alcoholism was in his blood, and
+matrimony and parentage were not for him. In
+the morning he would go straight to Enid's father
+and admit that, although ties reaching back into
+her childhood and his had to be broken, yet it was
+impossible for the engagement between him and
+Enid to be continued.</p>
+
+<p>The night passed, and the park gates were again
+opened, but still Vane sat on, until, noticing the sus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>picious
+glances of some of the early pedestrians,
+he decided to get home, have a tub, and pay his
+fateful visit to Sir Godfrey Raleigh.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, however, that visit was never
+to be paid. Enid had found her waking thoughts
+unpleasant, if not almost intolerable, and, being
+too perfectly healthy to indulge in anything of the
+nature of moping or sulks, she came to the conclusion
+that a good sharp spin on her bicycle would
+be the best mental tonic she could have; so she
+got a cup of coffee and a biscuit, took out her machine,
+and started away to work off, as she hoped,
+the presentiment of coming trouble which seemed
+to have fastened itself upon her.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it happened that she entered Richmond
+Park by Sheen Gate just as Vane, physically weary
+yet still mentally sleepless, was coming out of it.</p>
+
+<p>During his night's vigil he had nerved himself,
+as he thought, to meet every imaginable trial but
+this one&mdash;this vision of his well-beloved, not waiting
+for him, but coming to him fresh and radiant
+in her young beauty, delightful and desirable,
+tempting almost beyond the powers of human resistance,
+and his, too, his own sweetheart, pledged
+to him ever since that memorable afternoon when
+he had fought for her and won her behind the
+wheelhouse in the midst of the Indian Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>When her wonder had given way to complete
+recognition Enid dismounted and waited, naturally
+expecting that he would greet her; but he stood
+silent, looking at her as though he were trying to
+find some words of salutation.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Vane," she said at last, "I suppose we
+may shake hands. I did not expect to see you
+here. Cannot you look a little more cheerful?
+What is the matter? You look as if you hadn't
+been home all night."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<p>He took her hand mechanically, and, as he held
+it and looked down into the sweet upturned face
+with a bright flush on the cheeks and the dawning
+of an angry light in the gentle eyes, he felt an
+almost irresistible desire to take her in his arms
+just as he had done at their last meeting and kiss
+into silence the tempting lips which had just shaped
+those almost scornfully spoken words.</p>
+
+<p>It dawned upon her in the same moment that he
+was looking as she had never seen him look before.
+His face was perfectly bloodless. The features
+were hard-set and deep-lined. There were furrows
+in his forehead and shadows under his eyes. When
+she had last seen his face it was that of a boy of
+twenty, full of health and strength, and without a
+care on his mind. Now it was the face of a man of
+thirty, a man who had lived and sinned and sorrowed.</p>
+
+<p>In that instant her mood and her voice changed,
+and she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Vane, dear, what is it? Why don't you speak
+to me? Are you ill?"</p>
+
+<p>He took her bicycle from her, and, turning,
+walked with her back into the park. After a few
+moments' silence he replied in a voice which seemed
+horribly strange to her:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Enid, I am. I am ill, and I am afraid
+there is no cure for the disease. I have not been
+home. In fact, I have been in the park all night.
+I was shut in by accident, and I remained from
+choice, trying to think out my duty to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense!" she replied. "I know what
+you mean. It's about you getting drunk the other
+night&mdash;and&mdash;and your unfortunate mother and this
+newly-found half-sister of yours. Well, of course,
+I suppose it was exceedingly wrong of you to get
+so very drunk. And the rest&mdash;I mean about your
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>mother&mdash;that is very sad and terrible. But, bad
+as it is, I think you are taking it a great deal too
+seriously. I've talked it all over with mamma, and
+she thinks just as I do about it."</p>
+
+<p>When she had said this Enid felt that she had
+gone quite as far as her self-respect and maidenly
+pride would permit her to go. As she looked up
+at him she saw the pallor of his face change almost
+to grey. His hand was resting lightly on her arm,
+and she felt it tremble. Then he drew it gently
+away and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean, Enid, and it is altogether
+too good and generous of you; but I don't
+think you quite understand&mdash;I mean, you don't
+seem to realise how serious it all is."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Vane, I must say that you are acting
+very strangely. What is the good of going all over
+it again? You can't tell me anything more, I suppose,
+than I have heard already from mamma.
+Surely you don't mean that you intend that everything
+is to be over between us&mdash;that we are only
+to be friends, as they say, in future?"</p>
+
+<p>"I quite see what <i>you</i> mean," he said, his lips
+perceptibly tightening; "and that, too, in a certain
+sense, is what I mean also."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" she exclaimed. "Do you really mean
+that I am not to be any more what I have been
+to you, and that if we meet again it must only be
+as ordinary acquaintances, just friends who have
+known each other a certain number of years?
+Surely, Vane, you don't mean that&mdash;dear?"</p>
+
+<p>The last word escaped her lips almost involuntarily.
+She tried to keep it back, but it got out
+in spite of herself. It was only the fact that they
+were walking on the public highway that prevented
+her from giving way altogether to the sense of
+despair that had come over her. As his face had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>changed a few moments before so did hers now,
+and as she looked at him he stopped momentarily
+in his walk.</p>
+
+<p>But the lessons which he had learnt during the
+last few days, and most of all during this last night
+of lonely wandering and desperate questioning with
+himself, had ground the moral into his soul so
+deeply that not even the sight of her so anxiously
+longing for just one word from him to bring them
+together again, and make them once more as they
+had always been&mdash;almost since either of them could
+remember anything&mdash;was strong enough to force
+him to speak it.</p>
+
+<p>He involuntarily wheeled the bicycle towards the
+middle of the road, as though he was afraid to trust
+himself too near her, and said, speaking as a man
+might speak when pronouncing his own death sentence:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Enid, that is what I do mean. I mean
+that there is a great deal more, something infinitely
+more serious in what has happened during the last
+few days, in what I have learnt and you have been
+told, than you seem to have any idea of."</p>
+
+<p>Enid made a gesture as though she would interrupt
+him, but he went on almost hotly:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, Enid, and then judge me as you
+please&mdash;only listen to me. Four days ago, after I
+had seen the Boat Race, I did as a good many
+other fellows from the 'Varsity do&mdash;I went West.
+By sheer accident I met a girl so like myself that&mdash;well,
+I didn't know then that I had a sister. Yesterday
+I learnt, then, that I have one&mdash;not my
+father's daughter, only my mother's&mdash;and you know
+what that means. We had supper together at the
+Trocadero&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Vane, I do think you might spare me
+these little details," said Enid, with a sort of weary
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>impatience. "I have heard of this half-sister of
+yours already. Suppose we leave her out for the
+present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, again stopping momentarily in
+his walk. "We <i>will</i> leave her out for the present.
+In fact, as far as you are concerned, Enid, she may
+be left out for ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;what do you mean, Vane?" she exclaimed,
+stopping short.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," he said, beginning quickly and then
+halting for a moment. "I mean that, considering
+everything that has happened during the last few
+days, I have no intention of asking you to become
+her half-sister&mdash;even in law."</p>
+
+<p>The real meaning of his utterance forced itself
+swiftly enough upon her now, and for a minute
+rendered her incapable of speech. She, however,
+like others of her blood and breed, had learned
+how to seem most careless when she cared most,
+and so she managed to reply not only steadily but
+even stiffly:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, after that there is very little to be
+said, Mr. Maxwell. I'm afraid I have not properly
+understood what has happened. Perhaps, though,
+it would have been better for you to have seen my
+father and talked this over with him first."</p>
+
+<p>The "Mr. Maxwell" cut him to the quick. It
+was the first time he had ever heard it from her
+lips. Yet it did not affect the decision which was,
+as he had for the time being, at least, convinced
+himself, inevitable, and so miserable was he that
+even her scornful indignation was something like
+a help to him.</p>
+
+<p>He was even grateful that this interview, which
+he had looked forward to with dread, had taken
+place in the open air rather than in the drawing-room
+of Sir Godfrey Raleigh's house, for if she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>had simply sat down and cried, as, perhaps, nine
+out of ten girls in her position would have done, his
+task would have been infinitely more difficult, perhaps
+even impossible of accomplishment. Her
+present attitude, however, seemed to appeal to his
+masculine pride and stimulate it. He turned
+slightly towards her, and said, with a sudden
+change in his voice which she felt almost like a
+blow:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Raleigh, you are quite right. I will
+spare you the details; at least, those which are not
+essential. But there are some which are. For instance,"
+he went on, with a note of vehemence in
+his tone which made it impossible for her to interrupt
+him, "four nights ago I was lying on the
+floor of the Den at home, blind, dead drunk&mdash;drunk,
+mind you, after this sister of mine had seen
+in my eyes the sign of drunkenness which she had
+seen in her mother's&mdash;that was my mother, too, an
+imbecile dipsomaniac, remember&mdash;who had sunk
+to unspeakable degradation before she became
+what she is. I was as sober as I am now when I
+told my father this&mdash;I mean what Carol had told
+me. I noticed that there was something strange
+about him while I was telling him, but I thought
+that was just a matter of circumstances, you
+know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I know, or at any rate I can guess,"
+said Miss Enid, with angry eyes and tightened lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," he went on, "and after that&mdash;after
+my father had asked me to have a glass of
+whiskey with him&mdash;after I had refused and he had
+gone to bed and I was putting the spirit-case away
+without any idea of drinking again, one smell of
+the whiskey seemed to paralyse my whole mental
+force. It turned me from a sane man who had had
+a solemn warning into a madman who had only one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>feeling&mdash;the craving for alcohol in some shape. I
+smelt again, and the smell of it went like fire
+through my veins. I tasted it, and then I drank.
+I drank again and again, until, as I suppose your
+mother has told you, I fell on the rug, no longer
+a man, but simply a helpless, intoxicated beast. I
+was utterly insensible to everything about me, I
+didn't care whether I lived or died. When I woke
+and thought about it I would a thousand times
+rather have been dead.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't that I wanted the liquor. I didn't get
+drunk because I wanted to. I got drunk, Enid, because
+I <i>had</i> to; because there was a lurking devil
+in my blood which forced me to drink that whiskey
+just because it was alcohol, because it was drink,
+because it was the element ready to respond to that
+craving which I have inherited from this unhappy
+mother of mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what that means, Enid? I don't
+think you do. It means that my blood has been
+poisoned from my very birth. Of course, you don't
+know this. Your parents don't know it, any more
+than they know that it is too late to redeem the
+ruin which has fallen upon me. That, at least, I
+can say with a clear conscience is no fault or sin of
+mine. Since then I have thrashed this miserable
+thing out in every way that I can think of. I have
+talked it over with my father, and he has talked it
+over with yours. I have been wandering about the
+park all night trying to find out what I ought to
+do&mdash;and I think I have found it."</p>
+
+<p>"From which I suppose I am to understand," she
+replied, in a voice which was nothing like as firm as
+she intended it to be, "you mean, Vane&mdash;or perhaps
+I ought to say Mr. Maxwell now&mdash;that henceforth&mdash;I
+mean that we are not going to be married
+after all."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+<p>"What I mean is this, Enid," he replied, "that
+dearly as I love you, and just because I love you
+so dearly, because I would give all the world if I
+had it to have you for my wife, I would <i>not</i> make
+you the wife of a man who could become the thing
+that was lying on the hearthrug of the Den four
+nights ago&mdash;a man drunk against his own will, a
+slave to one of the vilest of habits&mdash;no, something
+much worse than a habit, a disease inherited with
+tainted, poisoned blood!</p>
+
+<p>"What would you think of your parents and my
+father if they allowed you to marry a lunatic? Well,
+with that taint in my blood I am worse, a thousand
+times worse, than a lunatic, and I should be a
+criminal as well if I asked you or any other girl for
+whom I had the slightest feeling of love or respect
+to marry me.</p>
+
+<p>"Think what the punishment of such a crime
+might be!" he went on even more vehemently.
+"Every hour of our married life I should be
+haunted by this horrible fear. Tempted by a devil
+lurking in every glass of wine or spirits that I drank,
+or even looked at&mdash;the same devil which had me
+in its grip the other night. Enid, if you could
+have seen me then, I think you would have understood
+better; but if, which God forbid, you could
+have gone through what I went through after I
+swallowed that first drink of whiskey, you would
+as soon think of marrying a criminal out of jail or
+a madman out of a lunatic asylum as you would
+of marrying me. I daresay all this may seem unreasonable,
+perhaps even heartless, to you; but,
+dear, if you only knew what it costs to say it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off abruptly, for as he said this a note
+of tenderness stole for the first time into his voice,
+and found an instant echo in Enid's heart. So far
+she had borne herself bravely through a bitterly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>trying ordeal, but as she noticed a change in his
+tone a swift conviction came to her that if she remained
+many more minutes in his company she
+would certainly break down and there would be
+"a scene," which, under the circumstances, was not
+to be thought of. So she stopped him by holding
+out her hand and saying in a voice which cost her
+a terrible effort to keep steady:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Vane, we have talked quite enough. I see
+your mind is made up, and so there is, of course,
+nothing more to be said except 'good-bye.' I
+think we had better not meet again until we both
+have had more time to think about it all."</p>
+
+<p>This was as far as she could get. They had by
+this time reached Sheen Gate again, and Enid took
+her bicycle from him. She did not look at him,
+and, indeed, could not even trust herself to say
+"thank you." She mounted and rode through the
+comparatively lonely roads in a sort of dream until
+the traffic at Hammersmith Bridge and Broadway
+mercifully compelled her to give her whole attention
+to the steering of her machine.</p>
+
+<p>When she got home she gave her bicycle to the
+porter, went straight to her own room, took off her
+hat and gloves and jacket, and then dropped
+quietly on the bed and laid there, staring with tearless
+eyes up at the ceiling, wondering vaguely what
+it all meant, and if it was really true.</p>
+
+<p>Vane stood and watched her until she swept
+round a bend in the road, and then walked on with
+the one thought echoing and re-echoing in the emptiness
+of his soul&mdash;the thought of the course which
+he was bound to follow by the dictates of both love
+and duty. He had reached the Surrey end of
+Hammersmith Bridge when the strong smell of alcoholic
+liquor coming through the open door of a
+public-house caused him to stop for a moment.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Would a drink do him any harm after what had
+happened? He had passed a sleepless night in the
+open air, and felt almost fainting&mdash;surely a drop
+of brandy would do him no harm under the circumstances?
+Then he remembered the hearthrug in
+the Den, and turned towards the bridge with something
+between a sneer and a curse on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Was he always to be beset by temptation in this
+way&mdash;and would he always have strength to successfully
+combat the evil influence? If Fate had
+really marked him out for a dipsomaniac, was it
+any use his fighting against what must inevitably
+be his destiny? His thoughts were interrupted by
+the rumbling of a 'bus which was coming towards
+him, and, seeing that it was one which went through
+Kensington, he jumped on it and went home.</p>
+
+<p>He alighted at Warwick Gardens, and on reaching
+the house found that his father had just come
+in for lunch.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right, dad," he said, anticipating his inevitable
+question. "I got shut in Richmond Park
+by accident, and did a night in the open. But I'll
+tell you all about it at lunch. I'm going to have
+a tub now."</p>
+
+<p>Lunch was ready by the time Vane came downstairs,
+re-clothed and refreshed, and when they
+were alone he repeated to his father almost verbatim
+the conversation he had had with Enid.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my boy," he said when he had concluded.
+"I cannot but think that as far as you can see now
+you have acted rightly. It is terribly hard on you,
+but I will help you all I can. And perhaps, after
+all, the future may prove brighter than it looks now
+for all of us."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was the end of Term, nearly two years after
+that interview in Richmond Park which, as both
+Vane and Enid had then believed, was for them
+the parting of the ways. Vane was sitting in a
+deep-seated, Russian wicker-chair in his cosy study,
+and opposite him, in a similar chair, was another
+man with whom he had been talking somewhat
+earnestly for about an hour.</p>
+
+<p>To-morrow would be Commemoration Day&mdash;"Commem,"
+to use the undergraduate's abbreviation.
+There would be meetings from far and wide
+of people gathered together, not only from all over
+the kingdom, but from the ends of the earth as
+well; men and women glorying, for their own
+sakes and their sons', in the long traditions of the
+grand old University, the dearly-loved Alma Mater,
+nursing-mother of their fathers and fathers' fathers.
+Here a man who had been a tutor and then a
+Fellow, and was now one of His Majesty's judges;
+there another, who walked with sober mien in the
+leggings and tunic of a Bishop, and who, in his
+time, had dodged the Proctor and his bull-dogs as
+nimbly as the most irresponsible undergraduate of
+the moment&mdash;and so on through the whole hierarchy
+of the University.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+<p>The Lists were just out. Vane had fulfilled the
+promise of his earlier career and had taken a
+brilliant double-first. He had read for Classics
+and History, but he had also taken up incidentally
+Mental Science and Moral Philosophy, and he had
+scored a first in all. If it had then been possible
+for him to have had a Treble-First, it would have
+been his. As it was he had won the most brilliant
+degree of his year&mdash;and there he was, sitting back
+in his chair, blowing cloud after cloud of smoke
+out of his mouth, and every now and then taking
+a sip out of a big cup of tea and looking with something
+more than admiration at the man opposite;
+a man who had only achieved a first, and who, if
+he had been some other kind of man, would have
+been very well contented with it.</p>
+
+<p>It would not, however, have needed a particularly
+keen student of human nature to discover that this
+was not the kind of man who could rest contented
+with anything like a formal success; and, after all,
+even a double-first, to say nothing of a single,
+although a great achievement as the final triumph
+of an educational course, is still only the end of
+the beginning. That done, the student, armed <i>cap-ŕ-pie</i>
+in his intellectual armour, goes forth to face
+something infinitely sterner and more pitiless than
+tutors or proctors, ay, even than Masters and Chancellors
+themselves&mdash;the presiding genius of that
+infinitely greater University called the World,
+where taking your degree means anything that
+human fortune can give you, and where being
+plucked may mean anything from a clerkship in
+an office to selling matches in the gutter.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>am</i> sorry you missed your double, old man!"
+said Vane, continuing the conversation after a
+pause that had lasted for two or three minutes.
+"Still, at any rate, you've got your first, and, after
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>all, a first in Classics and a second in History is
+not to be sneezed at, and I don't suppose it would
+have mattered a hang to you whether you had
+come out anywhere or not."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this there was a sudden contraction of
+his companion's jaw, which resulted in the clean
+biting through of the vulcanite mouthpiece of his
+pipe. He spat the pieces out into the fireplace,
+and said in a perfectly smooth voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what I did that for! I suppose that
+is one of the circumstances in which people say
+that it does a man good to swear."</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly have sworn under the circumstances,"
+said Vane, "or at least, I should have said
+something that one would not say in the presence
+of one's maiden aunt, but then, of course, you
+Ernshaw&mdash;you're above all that sort of thing. You
+have your feelings so well under control that you
+don't even need to swear to relieve them. However,
+that's not quite the subject. What am I to
+do? Am I to go back to her, repenting of the
+evil of my ways, ask her to pardon a passing madness,
+and lay my academic honours at her feet&mdash;as
+God knows I would be only too glad to
+do&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Maxwell. Don't say anything
+more just now, and let me think a bit. We
+have been over this subject a good many times
+already, but now we have come to the crisis, to
+the cross-ways, in fact. You have made me your
+confidant in this matter. The future of your life
+and hers depends upon what you decide to do
+now, and, not only that, but there is your father
+and her father and mother&mdash;the completion, that
+is to say, of three other lives. It is very, very
+serious. It is more than serious, it is solemn.
+Wait a moment, let me think."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+<p>Vane leant back in his chair, dropped his pipe
+quietly on the floor, and waited. He knew that
+Mark Ernshaw, his chum at Eton and his friend
+at Balliol&mdash;this tall, sparely-built man, with dark
+hair, high, somewhat narrow forehead, and big,
+deep-set, brown eyes, delicate features, and the
+somewhat too finely-moulded chin which, taken
+together, showed him to the eye that sees to be
+the enthusiast as well as the man of intellect, perhaps
+of genius&mdash;was not thinking in the ordinary
+meaning of the word. He was praying, and when
+he saw that this was so he folded his hands over
+his eyes, and for nearly ten minutes there was
+absolute silence, Vane was thinking and his friend
+was praying. Perhaps, in another sense, Vane was
+praying too, for the strong religious bias which he
+had inherited from his father had, since the great
+crisis of his life had been passed, and during his
+close intimacy with Mark Ernshaw, grown stronger
+than ever.</p>
+
+<p>He had told him everything. They had gone
+over the whole of the dismal history again and
+again. They had thrashed out the problem in all
+its bearings, now arguing with and now against
+each other, and here was the last day. To-morrow
+in the Theatre they would receive the formal acknowledgment
+which would crown their academic
+careers. Vane's self-imposed probation would
+then be over, the crisis would be passed, and his
+life's course fixed for good and all.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, old man," said Vane, at length, "have
+you settled it? Upon my word I feel almost like
+a man under sentence of death waiting for a reprieve.
+But, after all, why should I? I haven't
+touched a drop of alcohol for over a year. I
+needn't say anything about the work I have done,
+for you know as much about that as I do myself.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>I am as sane and healthy as any man of my age
+need want to be. Of course, as I have told you,
+it was mutually agreed between us, or rather, between
+her parents and my father, that we should
+not meet or correspond until after I had taken my
+degree. I've kept the bargain both ways. I
+haven't written to her or had a word from her all
+the time. And now, what is the future to be?
+Shall I take up the threads of the old life and
+marry and live happily ever afterwards, as they
+say in the story-books&mdash;or shall I&mdash;&mdash;? No, I
+don't think I could do that. Don't you think I've
+shown strength of mind enough to counteract the
+weakness of that one night? For the sake of all
+you've ever loved, old man, don't look so serious.
+You're not going to tell me that it really is all over,
+and that I shall have to give her up after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you must," said Ernshaw. "If you have
+any faith worthy of the name in God or man, it is
+your duty, not only as a man but as a Christian,
+to say good-bye to her as man to woman. It is
+your duty, and you must."</p>
+
+<p>"No, by God, I can't!" cried Maxwell, springing
+to his feet and facing him with clenched teeth,
+set features, and hands gripped up into fists as
+though he were facing an enemy rather than a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw rose slowly from his seat. His face
+seemed to Vane to be transfigured. He looked
+him straight in the eyes, and said, in a voice only
+a little above a whisper, and yet thrilling with an
+intense emotion:</p>
+
+<p>"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
+God in vain! You have asked for my advice and
+my guidance, Maxwell. I have given them to you,
+but not before I have sought for advice and counsel
+from an infinitely higher Source. I believe I have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>had my answer. As I have had it so I have given
+it to you. I have spent a good many hours thinking
+over this problem of yours&mdash;and a harder
+problem few men have ever had to solve&mdash;but
+my fixed and settled conviction is that during this
+last conversation of yours with Miss Raleigh you
+bore yourself like a man; you did your duty;
+you put your hand to the plough. You are not
+going to look back now, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Vane dropped back into his seat and folded his
+hands over his eyes again, and said with a note of
+weariness in his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, old man, I suppose you're right, and
+yet, Ernshaw, it's very hard, so hard that it seems
+almost impossible. They're coming up to 'Commem'
+to-morrow&mdash;I was obliged to ask them, you
+know. I should only have to hold out my hand
+and feel hers in it and say that&mdash;well, that I'd
+thought better of it, and everything would be just
+as it was before. We could begin again just as
+if <i>that</i> had never happened.</p>
+
+<p>"You know it's all I've thought about, all I've
+worked for, ever since we came back from India
+together. Honestly, old man, she really is&mdash;of
+course, with the exception of the Governor&mdash;everything
+there is in the world for me now. If I have
+to give her up, what else is there? You know
+what I was going to do. Now that I've got my
+degree I should have a splendid opening in the
+Foreign Office. The way would be absolutely
+clear before me&mdash;a mere matter of brains and
+interest&mdash;and I know I've got the interest&mdash;and I
+should be an Ambassador, perhaps a Prime
+Minister some day, and she would be my wife&mdash;and
+yet without her it wouldn't be worth anything
+to me. Ernshaw, isn't it a bit too much to ask a
+man on the threshold of his real life to give up all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>that for the sake of an idea&mdash;well, a scientific conviction
+if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Strait is the Gate, and Narrow is the Way!"
+exclaimed Ernshaw. He seemed to tower above
+him as he stood over his chair; Vane looked up
+and saw that his eyes were glowing and his features
+set. His lips and voice trembled as he spoke.
+His whole being seemed irradiated by the light of
+an almost divine enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell, will you be one of the few that find
+it, or one of the many that miss it, and take the
+other way? As a good Christian, as the son of a
+Christian man, you know where <i>that</i> one leads
+to.</p>
+
+<p>"After all, Maxwell," he continued, more quietly,
+"the trials of life are like lessons in school. You
+needed this experience or you would not have got
+it. In every fight you must win or lose. In this
+one you can and must be the victor. I think, nay,
+I know, that I am pointing out to you the way to
+victory, the way to final triumph over all the
+evils that have forced you to a choice between
+following your own most worthy inclinations, and
+what you now think an intolerable misery and an
+impossible sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand as he spoke. Vane did
+not know it at the time, but in reality it was a hand
+held out to save a drowning man. It was a moment
+in which the fate of two lives was to be
+decided for right or wrong, for good or ill, and
+for all time&mdash;perhaps, even for more than Time.
+Vane gripped Ernshaw's hand, and, as the two
+grips closed, he looked straight into the deep-brown
+eyes, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Ernshaw, that will do. By some means you
+have made me feel to-night just as I did that day
+when I was talking with her the last time. Yes,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>you are right. You have shewn me the right way,
+and, God helping me, I'll take it. I suppose if
+she doesn't marry me she'll marry Garthorne; but
+still, I see she mustn't marry me. They are coming
+down for 'Commem' to-morrow. I shall see
+her then, and I'll tell her that I have decided that
+there must be an end of everything except friendship
+between us. Yes, that is the only way after
+all&mdash;and, now, one other word, old man."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is?" said Ernshaw, smiling, almost
+laughing, in the sheer joy of his great triumph, as
+he so honestly believed it to be, over the Powers
+of Evil.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's this," said Vane, "my own life is
+settled now. I can't marry Enid and, of course,
+I'll marry no one else. I shall do as you have
+often advised me to do&mdash;take Orders and do the
+work that God puts nearest to my hand. I know
+that the governor will agree with me when I put
+it to him in that way. But then there's some one
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister, you mean," said Ernshaw.</p>
+
+<p>"My half&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister, I said," Ernshaw interrupted,
+quickly. "Well, what about her?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's this way," continued Vane, somewhat awkwardly,
+"you see&mdash;of course, as you say, she is my
+sister in a way, but she has absolutely refused
+everything that the governor and I have offered
+her. We even asked her to come and live with us,
+we offered, in short, to acknowledge her as one of
+the family."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did she say to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"She simply refused. She said that she had
+not made her life, but that she was ready to take
+it as it is. She said that she wasn't responsible
+for the world as it's made, she'd never owed any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>one
+a shilling since she left her mother&mdash;and mine&mdash;and
+she never intended to. We tried everything
+with her, really we did, and, of course, the
+governor did a great deal more than I did, but
+it wasn't a bit of use. It's a horrible business
+altogether, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, it is anything but that," replied
+Ernshaw, slowly and deliberately as though
+he were considering each word as he uttered it.
+"Maxwell, you have just decided to take Orders.
+I made up my mind to do that long ago. We are
+both of us fairly well off. I have eight or nine
+hundred a year of my own, and I daresay you
+have more, so we can go and do our work without
+troubling about the loaves and fishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Vane, "certainly, but that's not
+quite answering my question, old fellow:&mdash;I mean
+about Carol."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," he replied, "because I am going to
+ask you another. Do you think you know me
+and like me well enough to have me for a brother-in-law?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens, you don't mean <i>that</i>, Ernshaw,
+do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," he said, "that is if she likes me well
+enough. Of course, I haven't seen her yet, and
+she might refuse me; but from all that you've
+told me about her, I'm half in love with her
+already, and&mdash;well, we needn't say anything more
+about that just now. Take me up to Town with
+you after Commem., introduce me to her and leave
+the rest to me and her. If ever a girl was made
+for the wife of such a man as I hope to be some
+day, that girl, Maxwell, is your sister."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Ernshaw, that is impossible. It may be
+only your good nature that prompted you to say
+this, or it may be that, without intention, I have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>somehow led you to look upon her as part of my
+destiny; but you forget, or perhaps, I have not
+told you that we have lost her utterly for the time
+being at least, she disappeared quite suddenly.
+My father and I have made every effort to trace
+her, but without the slightest success."</p>
+
+<p>"Then try again," replied Ernshaw, "and I will
+help in the search. At any rate, when we do find
+her, as I am sure we shall some day, if she will
+have me, I will ask her to be my wife."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was the morning of Commemoration Day and
+Vane was dressing for the great ceremony in the
+Sheldonian Theatre, the conferring of honours
+and degrees, the placing of the Hall-mark of the
+University upon those who had passed its tests
+and proved themselves to be worthy metal. Over
+the end of the bed hung the brand-new bachelor's
+gown and silken hood, which, to-day, for the first
+time, he would be entitled to wear. They were
+the outward material symbols of the victory which
+he had won against all competitors.</p>
+
+<p>He was looking far back into his school-boy
+days and recalling the dreams he had dreamt of
+the time when, if the Fates were very kind to him,
+he would have taken his degree and would be
+able to walk about in all the glory of cap and
+gown and hood as the masters did on Sundays
+and Saints' days.</p>
+
+<p>And now it had come to pass. He had taken
+as good a degree as the best of them. In an hour
+or two he would appear capped and gowned and
+hooded on the closing scene of his University
+career. On one side of him would be the
+Chancellor and all the great dignitaries of the
+University; on the other the great audience&mdash;the
+undergraduates in the upper galleries; graduates,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>tutors and fellows, proud fathers and mothers,
+delighted sisters and other feminine relatives, including
+cousins and others, together with desperately
+envious younger brothers making the
+most earnest resolves to henceforth eschew all
+youthful dissipations, to foreswear idleness for
+ever, and to 'swat' day and night until they too
+had achieved this glorious consummation&mdash;vows,
+alas! to be broken ere the next school term was
+many days old, and yet, with not a few of them, to
+be renewed later on and honestly kept.</p>
+
+<p>He knew that, to use a not altogether inappropriate
+theatrical simile, he would be playing a
+principal part that day. The cheers and the
+plaudits which would burst out from the throats of
+his fellow-students, and, indeed, from the whole
+audience, when he came on to doff his cap and
+kneel before the Chancellor to take from his
+hands the honours he had won, would be given in
+recognition of the most brilliant degree of the year.</p>
+
+<p>And <i>she</i>, too, would be there with her father
+and mother, and his father, all sharing in his
+triumph, all glorying in his success, in this splendid
+fruition of the labours, which, for so many years,
+they had watched with such intensely sympathetic
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>Under any other circumstances this would have
+meant to him even more than the mere formal
+triumph; for though he had worked honestly and
+single-heartedly for the prizes of his academic
+career, he had also worked for them as an athlete
+might have striven for his laurels in the Olympian
+Games, or a knight of the Age of Chivalry might
+have fought for his laurels to lay them at the feet
+of his lady-love.</p>
+
+<p>Now he had won them&mdash;and after all what were
+they worth? This was not only to be a day of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>triumph for him. It was to be a day of hardest
+trial and most bitter sacrifice as well; a trial which,
+as he knew even now, would strain his moral fibre
+very nearly to the breaking point. It was a
+struggle for which he had been bracing himself
+ever since that last conversation which he had had
+with Enid. From that day to this he had never
+clasped her hand or looked into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>That had been the agreement between them,
+and also between his father and her parents.
+They were not to meet again until he had finished
+his university career and taken his degree. That,
+as they thought, would give them both time
+enough to think&mdash;to remain faithful, or to think
+better of it, as the case might be&mdash;and, most important
+of all for Vane, to determine by the help
+of more deliberate thought and added experience,
+and by converse with minds older and more deeply
+versed in the laws of human nature than his own,
+whether or not that resolve, which he had taken
+when he first discovered that there was a taint of
+poison in his blood, should be kept or not.</p>
+
+<p>But now it was all over&mdash;although it ought only
+to have been just beginning. This day, which
+ought to have been the brightest of his life, was,
+in reality, to be the darkest. The golden gates of
+the Eden of Love lay open before him, but, instead
+of entering them, he must pass by with eyes
+averted, and enter instead the sombre portals of
+his life's Gethsemane; there to take up his cross
+and to bear it until the time came to lay it down
+by the side of the grave.</p>
+
+<p>He had thought it all out long and earnestly in
+solitary communion with his own soul, and during
+many long and closely-reasoned conversations with
+Ernshaw, and the one of the night before had
+decided him&mdash;or it might be more correct to say
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>that it had completed the sum of the convictions
+which had been accumulating in his soul for the
+last two years.</p>
+
+<p>The path of duty&mdash;duty to her, to himself and
+to Humanity&mdash;lay straight and plain before him.
+He had nothing to do with the world now. He
+had come to look upon that taint in his blood as
+a taint akin to that of leprosy; an inherited curse
+which forbade him to mix with his kind as other
+men did. He must stand aloof, crying "unclean"
+in his soul if not with his voice. Henceforth he
+must be in the world and not of it&mdash;and this, as
+he thought, he had already proved by his resolve
+to renounce definitely and for ever the greatest
+treasure which the world could give him, a treasure
+which had been his so long, that giving it up
+was like tearing a part of his own being away with
+his own hands.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it was all very hard and very bitter.
+Despite his two years' preparation, the stress of
+that last struggle all through the long hours of the
+night which should have been filled with brightest
+dreams of the morrow, had left him, not only mentally
+worn out, but even physically sick. He felt
+as though the scene which would mark the culminating
+triumph of his academic career, the end
+of his youth and the beginning of his manhood,
+was really an ordeal too great, too agonising, to
+be faced.</p>
+
+<p>His scout had brought up an ample breakfast,
+with, of course, many congratulations on the coming
+honours of the day; but he had only drunk
+some of the coffee and left the food untouched.
+As he stood in front of the glass, putting on his
+collar, his face looked to him more like that of a
+man going to execution, than to take the public
+reward of many a silent hour of hard study. His
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>hands trembled so that he could hardly get his
+necktie into decent shape.</p>
+
+<p>His coffee on the dressing-table. Would a
+teaspoonful of brandy in it do him any harm?
+For two years he had not tasted alcohol in any
+shape, though he had kept it in his rooms for his
+friends. He and Ernshaw, who was also a rigid
+teetotaler, had sat with them and seen them drink.
+He had smelt the fumes of it in the atmosphere of
+the room, first with temptation which he had
+fought against and overcome in the strength of the
+memory of that terrible night in Warwick Gardens.
+Then the subtle aroma had become merely
+a matter of interest to him, a thing to be studied
+as a physician might study the symptoms of a
+disease for which he has found the cure.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen his friends leave his rooms somewhat
+the worse for liquor, and he had reasoned
+with them afterwards, not priggishly or sanctimoniously,
+but just as a man who had had the
+same weakness and had overcome it because he
+thought it necessary to do so, and they had taken
+it all very good-humoredly and gone away and
+done the same thing again a few nights afterwards,
+seeming none the worst for it.</p>
+
+<p>But surely now he had conquered the deadly
+craving. Surely two years of hard mental study
+and healthy physical exercise&mdash;two years, during
+which not a drop of alcohol had passed his lips&mdash;must
+have worked the poison out of his blood.
+Henceforth he was entitled to look upon alcohol
+as a servant, as a minister to his wants, and not
+as a master of his weaknesses.</p>
+
+<p>His mental struggle had so exhausted him that
+his physical nature craved for a stimulant, cried
+out for some support, some new life, new energy,
+if even for an hour or so, so imperiously, that his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>enfeebled mental stamina had not strength enough
+left to say "no."</p>
+
+<p>He had got his collar on and his tie tied, and
+his hands and fingers were trembling as though
+he were just recovering from an attack of malarial
+fever.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't possibly do me any harm now," he said,
+as he moved away from the glass towards the door
+of his sitting-room. "I've conquered all that. I
+haven't the slightest desire for it as drink&mdash;I
+haven't had for over a year now&mdash;I only want it
+as medicine, as a patient has it from a doctor. I
+can't go on without it, I must have something or
+I shall faint in the Theatre or do something ridiculous
+of that sort, and as for meeting Enid&mdash;good
+heavens, how am I to do that at all! Yes, I think
+a couple of teaspoonsful in that coffee will do me
+far more good than harm."</p>
+
+<p>He went towards the sideboard on which stood
+his spirit-case. He unlocked it and took out the
+brandy decanter. As he did so the memory of
+that other night came back to him, and he smiled.
+He had conquered now, and he could afford to
+smile at those old fears. He took the stopper out
+of the decanter and deliberately raised it to his
+nostrils. No, it was powerless. The aroma had
+no more effect upon him than the scent of, say,
+<i>eau de Cologne</i> would have had. That night in
+Warwick Gardens, it had been like the touch of
+some evil magician's wand. Then, in an instant,
+it had transformed his whole nature; but now his
+brain remained cool and calm, and his senses
+absolutely unmoved. Yes, he had conquered.
+He needed a stimulant, merely as an invalid might
+need a tonic, and he could take it with just as
+much safety.</p>
+
+<p>He took the decanter into his bedroom and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>poured a couple of teaspoonsful into his coffee,
+stirred it, lifted the cup, and, after one single priceless
+moment's hesitation, put it to his lips and
+drank it off.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's better!" he said, as he put the cup
+down and felt the subtle glow run like lightning
+through his veins. "Hallo, who's that? Confound
+it, I hope it isn't Ernshaw. I don't want
+to begin the day with a lecture on backsliding."</p>
+
+<p>He put the stopper back, went into the sitting-room,
+and replaced the decanter in the stand before
+he said in answer to a knock at his door:</p>
+
+<p>"Come in! Is that you Ernshaw?"</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and Reginald Garthorne
+came in.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it's me. That's not quite grammatical, I
+believe, but it's usual. Good-morning, Maxwell,"
+he went on, holding out his hand. "I've come
+round early for two reasons. In the first place I
+want to be the first to congratulate you, and in the
+second place I want you to give me a brandy and
+soda. I got here rather late last night with one
+or two other Cambridge men, and one of them
+took us to a man's rooms in Brazenose, and we had
+a rather wet night of it. Not the proper thing, of
+course, but excusable just now."</p>
+
+<p>"As for the congratulations, old man," said
+Maxwell, "thanks for yours and accept mine for
+what you've done in the Tripos, and as for the
+brandy and soda, well, here you are. Open that
+cupboard, and you'll find some soda and glasses."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this, he unlocked the spirit case
+again, and put the brandy decanter on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just been having a spoonful myself in my
+coffee," he went on, with just a little flash of wonder
+why he should have said this. "The fact is,
+I suppose, I've been overdoing it a bit lately, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>that, and the anxiety of the thing, has rather
+knocked me up. I felt as nervous as a freshman
+going in for his first <i>viva voce</i>, when I got up this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder at it," said Garthorne, helping
+himself. "You must have been grinding infernally
+hard. So have I, for the matter of that,
+although, I didn't aspire to a double first. You
+really do look quite knocked up. By the way,"
+he continued, looking at Vane with a smile whose
+significance he might have seen had it not been
+for those two spoonsful of brandy, "I suppose
+you've quite got over that&mdash;well, if you'll excuse
+me saying so&mdash;that foolishness about inherited
+alcoholism and that sort of stuff, and therefore
+you'll lay all your laurels at the feet of the fair
+Enid without a scruple? Of course, you remember
+that juvenile hiding you gave me on the
+"Orient"? Quite romantic, wasn't it? Well, I
+must admit that you proved yourself the better
+boy then, and as you've taken a double first and
+I have only got a single, you've proved yourself
+the better man as well. Here's to you, Maxwell,
+won't you join me? You know you have quite an
+ordeal to go through to-day, and just one won't
+hurt you&mdash;do you good, in fact. You look as if
+you wanted a bracer."</p>
+
+<p>Vane listened to the tempting words, so kindly
+and frankly spoken, as he might have listened to
+words heard in a dream. All the high resolves
+which had shaped themselves with such infinite
+labour during the past two years, seemed already
+to have been made by someone else&mdash;a someone
+else who was yet himself. He had made them
+and he was proud of them, and, of course, he meant
+to hold to them; but he had conquered that
+deadly fear which had held him in chains so long.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>He was a free man now, and could do as he liked
+with his destiny.</p>
+
+<p>His long probation was over, and he had come
+through it triumphant. He was to see Enid
+again that day for the first time for two years.
+He would hear her voice offering him the
+sweetest of all congratulations, and when it was
+all over, there would be a little family gathering
+in his rooms, just their fathers and themselves,
+and he would tell them everything frankly, and
+they should help him to choose&mdash;for after all, it
+was only their right, and she, surely, had the best
+right of all to be consulted. Meanwhile, now that
+he had fought and conquered that old craving for
+alcohol, there would be no harm, especially on
+such a morning as this, in joining Garthorne in
+just one brandy and soda.</p>
+
+<p>It never struck him how strangely inverted
+these thoughts were; what an utter negation of
+his waking thoughts, as they flashed through his
+mind while Garthorne was speaking. They
+seemed perfectly reasonable to him, and&mdash;so
+subtle was the miracle wrought by those two
+spoonsful of brandy&mdash;perfectly honest.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, I don't see why I shouldn't," he
+said, taking up the decanter and pulling one of
+the two glasses which Garthorne had put on the
+table towards him. "I think I have got over that
+little weakness now. At any rate, for the last two
+years I haven't touched a drop of anything
+stronger than coffee, and I've sat here and in other
+men's rooms with fellows drinking in an atmosphere,
+as one might say, full of drink and tobacco
+smoke; and except for the smoking&mdash;of course I
+haven't dropped that&mdash;I've never felt the slightest
+inclination to join them, at least, after the first
+month or so&mdash;so I think I'm pretty safe now."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, of course you are!" said Garthorne. "As
+a matter of fact, you know, I never thought that
+there was anything serious in that idea of yours
+that you'd inherited the taint from some ancestor
+of yours. You got screwed one night for the first
+time in your life, and it gave you a fright. But
+the fact that you've been able to swear off absolutely
+for two years, is perfectly clear proof that
+the craving really existed only in your own
+imagination. If it had been real, you couldn't
+possibly have done it. Well, here's to us, old man,
+and to someone else who shall be nameless just
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>Vane, in the recklessness of his new confidence,
+had mixed himself a pretty stiff dose. As he
+raised his glass with Garthorne's, something
+seemed to drag upon his arm, and something in
+his soul rose in revolt; but the old lurking poison
+was already aflame in his blood. He nodded to
+Garthorne and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, old man. Here's to us and her!"</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before the words would have
+seemed blasphemy to him, now they sounded like
+an ordinary commonplace. He put the glass to
+his lips and emptied it in quick, hungry gulps.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"By Jove, that's good," he said, as he put the
+empty glass down and drew a long, deep breath.
+"You only really appreciate that sort of thing after
+a long abstinence like mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so," laughed Garthorne, putting
+down his own empty glass; "although good and
+all as a brandy and soda is, especially after a rather
+hot night, I should hardly think it was worth while
+to be T.T. for two years just to get the full flavour
+of it. If you don't mind I'll have another."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, old fellow, help yourself," said Vane,
+pushing the decanter towards him. "That's made
+a new man of me. When I got up this morning I
+couldn't eat a scrap of breakfast, but that's made
+me absolutely hungry. The bacon's cold, of course,
+but there's a nice bit of tongue and some brawn,
+and there's some toast and brown bread and butter.
+Sit down and have a bite. The coffee's cold, but
+I can soon get up some hot if you'd like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind about that," said Garthorne.
+"I'm getting a bit peckish myself, and I'll have a
+bite with you with pleasure; but I'm afraid hot
+coffee on the top of brandy and soda at this time
+of the morning would produce something of a conflict
+in the lower regions. I think another B. and
+S. would go ever so much better with it."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this he helped himself and pushed the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>decanter back towards Vane, saying, "and if you'll
+take my advice you'll do the same. It can't hurt
+you, especially if you're eating."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I think I'd better eat something first," said
+Vane, as he set out the breakfast things and began
+to carve. "The hot plates are cold, so there will
+be enough for both. By Jove, that stuff has given
+me an appetite!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I thought it would do you good," said Garthorne.
+"Get something solid inside you and have
+another drink, and you'll be able to face your most
+reverend Chancellor with as much confidence as
+though you were his father-in-law. I'll mix you
+another if you'll allow me while you're carving.
+Give me about half and half, please."</p>
+
+<p>"But don't give <i>me</i> half and half," said Vane,
+with a laugh that sounded rather strangely in
+his own ears, and then, without looking round, he
+went on carving.</p>
+
+<p>Garthorne poured a much more liberal quantity
+of brandy into Vane's glass than he had done into
+his own, and at once filled it up with soda-water
+from the syphon.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you'll find that about right," he said,
+putting it down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, old fellow," said Vane; "much
+obliged!" He put the knife and fork down, lifted
+the glass and took a sip. "Yes, that's about right,
+I think," he said, without even noticing the strength
+of the mixture. And then, with the unnatural appetite
+which the unaccustomed spirit had roused
+in him, he took up his knife and fork and began
+to eat ravenously, taking a gulp of the brandy and
+soda almost between each mouthful.</p>
+
+<p>They laughed and chatted merrily over the old
+days as they went on eating and drinking; and as
+glass succeeded glass Vane became more and more
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>communicative and Garthorne more and more cordial.
+He quickly learnt the truth of many things
+which so far he had only suspected, and at last he
+managed to lead the conversation adroitly up to a
+point at which Vane said in a somewhat thick, unsteady
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Garthorne, yes, that reminds me.
+You remember that night at the Empire when we
+had a bit of a row, Boat-race night, you know&mdash;that
+girl that I got out of the crowd&mdash;pretty girl, wasn't
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Garthorne, repressing a desire to
+laugh out openly. "I remember her quite well;
+a very pretty girl, and, if I may say so without
+paying you a compliment, very like your noble self.
+In fact, if such a thing hadn't been utterly impossible,
+she might almost have been&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My sister!" said Vane, as he drank off the
+remains of his fourth brandy and soda and put the
+glass down with a thump on the table. "Yes,
+that's it, my sister, or at least not quite my sister,
+but&mdash;at least&mdash;well, half-sister, you understand&mdash;my
+mother's daughter, but not my father's&mdash;see?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see, I see," said Garthorne, and then, before
+he could get any farther, there was a quick knock
+at the door. Vane looked dreamily round, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Come in."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and Ernshaw entered, followed
+by Sir Arthur Maxwell.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Maxwell! what on earth does
+this mean?" exclaimed Ernshaw, with something
+like a gasp in his voice, as he saw Vane sitting at
+the table in his shirt-sleeves&mdash;the friend with whom
+he had sat in this same room the night before and
+had that long solemn talk&mdash;the friend who had
+given him such solemn pledges.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+<p>The table was littered and disordered, the coffee
+pot had got knocked over; there was a cup lying
+on its side in the saucer; a dish of bacon containing
+a couple of rashers and two eggs congealed in
+fat, and scraps of meat and broken bits of bread
+and butter lay about on the cloth.</p>
+
+<p>This was like anything but one of the many orderly
+breakfasts which he had shared with Maxwell
+at the same table; but what startled Ernshaw more
+than anything else was the sight of the empty glass
+beside his friend's plate, the brandy decanter with
+less than a wine-glassful in it, and the two empty
+soda syphons on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Ernshaw! Morning, dad!
+Jolly glad to see you. Come in and sit down and
+have a drink&mdash;I mean, a bit of breakfast.
+The coffee's cold, but I can get you some
+more if you wouldn't rather have brandy and
+soda&mdash;plenty more brandy in the cupboard, soda
+too. Get it out and help yourselves. Dad, you
+know Garthorne, of course. Ernshaw, you don't;
+let me introduce you&mdash;very good fellow&mdash;old rival
+of mine in love&mdash;you know who with, the fellow
+I had a fight with on the steamer&mdash;both kids&mdash;first
+man to come and congratulate me this morning.
+Admits that I licked him then as a boy, and have
+licked him since as a man&mdash;took better degree
+than he did. Still, nice of him to come, wasn't it?
+Come on, Ernshaw; don't stand there staring.
+Come on and have a drink, too, and congratulate,
+you old stick. Never mind about last night, I've
+got that all under now; fought it for two years and
+beaten it. Can take a drink now without fear of
+consequences. Taken lots this morning, and look
+at me, sober as the Chancellor. Why, dad, what's
+the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Maxwell had come up to Oxford to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>see his own old academic triumphs repeated with
+added brilliance by his son. He had fully approved
+of all that Vane had done during the two years'
+probation which he had set himself, and he had
+firmly believed that the end of it all would be, as
+he had many a time said to Enid's father, that the
+hard study, the strenuous mental discipline, and the
+stress of healthy emulation, would utterly destroy
+the germs of that morbid feeling which, for a time
+at least, had poisoned the promise of his son's
+youth. He had only arrived from Town, bringing
+Enid and her father, that morning, as they had
+found it impossible to get rooms in Oxford over
+night. He had met Ernshaw in the High, and
+they had come together to Vane's rooms to find
+<i>this</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash that other scene in Warwick Gardens
+came back to him. While his son was speaking
+he had looked into his eyes and seen that
+mocking, dancing flame which he had now a doubly
+terrible reason to remember, and to see it there in
+his eyes now on the morning of the crowning day of
+his youth, shining like a bale-fire of ruin through
+the morning sky of his new life. It was like looking
+down into hell itself.</p>
+
+<p>As Vane came towards him he staggered back
+as though he hardly recognised him. Then, for
+the first time for nearly thirty years since a well-remembered
+night among the Indian Hills, the
+room swam round him and the light grew dark.
+He made a couple of staggering steps towards the
+sofa, tripped over the edge of a rug, and rolled over,
+half on and half off the sofa.</p>
+
+<p>The sight sobered Vane instantaneously, though
+only for an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Dad, what's the matter?" he cried again. "My
+God, Ernshaw, what is it? Tell me, what is it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>&mdash;what
+have I done? Let me go and see what's
+wrong with him."</p>
+
+<p>Then with stumbling steps he tried to get round
+the table. The corner of it caught his thigh. He
+lurched sideways and dropped to the floor like a
+man shot through the brain.</p>
+
+<p>Garthorne was already kneeling by the sofa on
+to which he had lifted Sir Arthur's head and shoulders,
+and had loosened his tie and collar.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Vane," he said, looking round. "I'm
+afraid the excitement of this morning has been a
+bit too much for him. If we're going to get them
+round in time, perhaps you'd better ring up his
+scout and send him for a doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Ernshaw, looking up from where he
+was kneeling by Vane. "I suppose that's about
+the best thing to do, since the crime which you have
+committed is unfortunately not one which warrants
+me in sending for a policeman as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Crime, sir, what the devil do you mean?" cried
+Garthorne, springing to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Ernshaw slowly and without
+moving, "exactly what I say. I feel perfectly certain
+from what I know of Maxwell that this could
+not possibly have occurred unless he had been deliberately
+tempted to drink. Your motives, of
+course, are best known to yourself and to Him who
+will judge them."</p>
+
+<p>"So that's it, is it?" said Garthorne, with a harsh
+laugh. "You think I made him drunk for some
+purpose of my own, a man that I've been friends
+with ever since we punched each other's heads as
+boys. Well, you've been a good chum to Maxwell,
+so for his sake I'll pass over that idiotic remark
+of yours, and tell you for your information
+that he had been drinking before I came into the
+room at all."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+<p>"It's a lie!" exclaimed Ernshaw, springing to
+his feet and going towards the bell. "Nothing on
+earth could make me believe that." And then he
+rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not accustomed to being called a liar," said
+Garthorne very quietly, "without resenting it in
+practical form; but as you don't seem to be quite
+yourself, and as there is so much physical difference
+in my favour, I'll take the trouble to convince you
+that I am speaking the truth."</p>
+
+<p>He went into the bedroom and brought out
+Vane's coffee-cup.</p>
+
+<p>"Smell that," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw took the cup and raised it to his nose.
+The strong smell of brandy rising from the dregs
+was unmistakable. Then there came a knock at
+the door, and Vane's servant came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good Lord, gentlemen, whatever is the
+matter?" he exclaimed, looking at Sir Arthur's
+prostrate form on the sofa and Vane's on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that just now," said Garthorne
+curtly; "help us to carry Mr. Maxwell to
+his room. Then you'd better undress him and get
+him to bed. I suppose you can see what's the
+matter, and I hope also that you've learnt to
+hold your tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said the scout. "No man ever served
+a better master than Mr. Maxwell, and I hope I
+know my duty to him."</p>
+
+<p>Then the three of them picked up Vane's limp,
+loose-jointed form from the floor and carried him
+into his bedroom and laid him on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," Garthorne continued, "I want you to
+tell Mr. Ernshaw whether I came here after or before
+Mr. Maxwell had his coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"A good half-hour after, I should say, sir,"
+said the scout, looking a little mystified. "You
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>see, I brought it up about a quarter past eight, and
+he was up then and half dressed. He must have
+drunk it soon after, because he never will drink
+coffee unless it's hot. If it had got cold he'd have
+had some more up, and you came a bit before nine,
+sir. He must have drunk it before then."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Garthorne. "Now, can you
+remember whether the decanters in the spirit-case
+were filled up last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said the scout. "I filled them up the
+first thing this morning myself, thinking that Mr.
+Maxwell would have some friends come to see him
+on a day like this."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Garthorne; "that'll do, I
+think. Now you'd better get Mr. Maxwell undressed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Ernshaw. "But what about Sir
+Arthur? Surely we ought to get a doctor for him
+as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going for a doctor at once," said Garthorne,
+"if you will tell me where I can find one.
+I have given him a spoonful of brandy, and I'm
+going to give him another. Just come in here for
+a moment, please. You can't do anything for Maxwell
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw followed him into the sitting-room, and
+as he took up the decanter Garthorne went on,
+holding up the brandy decanter, which had only
+a few spoonfuls left in it:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that. You heard what his man said.
+Do you mean to tell me that I could have drunk
+even half of that since nine o'clock and be as sober
+as I certainly am? The idea is absurd."</p>
+
+<p>Then he poured out a little into a wine-glass, put
+his hand under Sir Arthur's head, and let a few
+drops trickle between his lips. Sir Arthur, who
+had been gradually regaining consciousness, drew
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>a deep breath which ended in a cough. Then he
+opened his eyes and said:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter? Where am I? Where's
+Vane?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have had a great shock, Sir Arthur," said
+Garthorne, in a tone so gentle and kindly that
+Ernshaw started at it. "Vane has been taken ill,
+too, and we are putting him to bed. I'm just going
+for a doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Then he laid Sir Arthur's head back on the
+cushion and said, rising to his feet:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Ernshaw, I think that's about all I
+can do for the present. If you will tell me where
+I can find Maxwell's doctor I'll go and send him,
+and then I'll go on and tell Sir Godfrey, not what
+has really taken place, but that something has happened
+which may prevent Maxwell leaving his
+rooms to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw scribbled the name and address of the
+doctor on the back of an envelope and gave it to
+Garthorne, saying, rather hesitatingly:</p>
+
+<p>"There it is, Mr. Garthorne. I'm afraid I've
+been too hasty in what I said to you, and I must
+confess that you've taken it as very few men would
+have done. But if you only knew all that Vane
+has been to me during the last two years, and how
+awful this seems to me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir, don't say any more about it," Garthorne
+interrupted good-humouredly. "I know
+enough of poor Vane's story to see exactly what
+you mean. We'll consider it all unsaid, and now
+I must be off."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Ernshaw's first care, after Garthorne had left
+the room, was to see to the comfort of Sir Arthur,
+who had now quite recovered consciousness, but
+was still feeling faint and ill. He told him as
+much of the truth about Vane as he knew, and
+while he was doing so, Jepson, the scout, came in
+from the bedroom, and said with an air of deferential
+confidence:</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sir, I don't think there'll be any
+need for a doctor to Mr. Maxwell. He's come
+round a bit, and I think I know what his complaint
+is. Being excited, as he might well be on a morning
+like this, he's taken a drop too much on an
+empty stomach, and that led him to drink brandy
+and soda with his breakfast instead of sending
+for some more coffee. I've often seen this sort of
+thing before, sir, you see, and I've found the
+physic that will cure him on the mantelpiece.
+It's this."</p>
+
+<p>He held up a little stoppered bottle full of
+strong ammonia, which Vane had got for cleaning
+up the bindings of some old books.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty drops of this," he went on, "in a wine-glassful
+of water, and he'll be as sober as ever
+he was in half an hour. Then I'll make him some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>strong coffee, and he'll be as right as a trivet.
+Only you mustn't let him take any more drink
+afterwards, or he'll just bring his boots up. I
+suppose I may try, sir? At any rate it won't do
+him any harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Ernshaw, "I've heard of it
+before. Do the best you can for him, Jepson."</p>
+
+<p>Jepson shut the door with a "Thank you, sir,"
+and proceeded to treat his patient.</p>
+
+<p>Before the doctor arrived Sir Arthur had almost
+entirely recovered, and Vane was sitting up in
+bed, supported by the faithful Jepson's arm, gasping
+and coughing, but perfectly sober, and wondering
+dimly what had happened during the last
+hour or two&mdash;or was it weeks, or months, or what?
+He felt horribly sick and ill, and he was trembling
+in every limb, but the clouds of intoxication had
+cleared away from his mind; memory was returning
+to him, and he was asking Jepson disjointed
+questions as to what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind about that, sir," said Jepson.
+"Everything's all right now. Sir Arthur is coming
+round nicely, and now you've got that down,
+you just lay back and keep quiet, and I'll go and
+make your coffee, and before an hour's over you'll
+be ready and fit to go to the Sheldonian and face
+the Chancellor as though you hadn't tasted a
+drop."</p>
+
+<p>Vane, still wondering at his apparently
+miraculous recovery, did as he was told and lay
+back upon the pillows, and Jepson went off to
+brew him an "extra special" pot of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very unfortunate for Mr. Maxwell," he
+said, when he got into his own den, "very unfortunate,
+and on Degree Day too, but if I know
+anything about him and Sir Arthur, and I can get
+him to the Theatre dressed and <i>compos mentis</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>and all that sort of thing&mdash;well, it's a fiver at least
+in my pocket, so it's an ill wind that blows nobody
+good."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor arrived while he was making the
+coffee. Ernshaw explained quickly what had
+happened. He went in and looked at Vane, felt
+his pulse, asked him in a kindly tone why he had
+made such a fool of himself on such a day, then he
+said that he couldn't improve on Jepson's treatment
+under the circumstances, and went in to look
+at Sir Arthur, who now, thanks to Ernshaw's
+care, was almost himself again.</p>
+
+<p>"Curious business this," he said, after he had
+felt Sir Arthur's pulse and found that he was
+practically all right. "Your son's case, I mean.
+I've known him nearly all the time that he's been
+up, and I've always considered that he was a teetotaller
+from principle. Of course it would be
+simply absurd to attempt to conceal from you
+what has been the matter with him this morning.
+He's been drunk, dead drunk, by about half-past
+nine in the morning. At the same time we must
+remember that when a man has been in hard
+training for a boat race, or anything of that sort,
+or if he has been reading hard on tea, which is
+almost as vicious a habit as alcoholism, he can
+get drunk on very little alcohol when the strain
+is taken off. In fact, I have known a man get
+drunk on a pint of bitter and a beef-steak; but
+there doesn't seem any reason of that sort for what
+happened this morning. Still, fortunately, that
+man of his knew what to do, and he's done it&mdash;a
+rather heroic remedy certainly, but one can risk
+that with a good constitution.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I can't quite understand it, I must confess.
+If there was any taint of what we now call
+alcoholic insanity in his blood, it would, of course,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>be perfectly plain. However, we needn't go into
+that now. There can't be any idea of that, and I
+think when he's had his coffee, and you've had a
+mild brandy and soda, Sir Arthur, and kept quiet
+for half an hour or so, I think you will be able to
+go and see your son take the honours which he
+has won, and won very well, too. I suppose no
+idea of this has gone beyond these rooms?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid they have," said Ernshaw. "Garthorne,
+a Cambridge man, the man, you know, Sir
+Arthur, who was here with Vane when you came
+in, the same man who went for you, Doctor, said
+that he would go on and tell Sir Godfrey that Vane
+had been taken ill and wouldn't be able to come
+out of his rooms to-day. In short, that he would
+have to receive his degree by proxy."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil he did," said Sir Arthur, getting up
+from the sofa with the strength of a sudden access
+of anger and moving towards the bedroom door.
+"Look here, doctor, you have just said that Vane
+is getting round. Well, if he is, the old blood in
+him will tell, and he'll take his place and play his
+part with the rest of them. Mr. Ernshaw, I
+know your friendship for my son; I know
+what you have done for him, and how you have
+helped him. Now, will you do me another favour
+and take my compliments to Sir Godfrey Raleigh,
+and say that the matter is not anything like as
+serious as we thought it was, and that both Vane
+and myself will be ready to go through the day's
+programme as arranged. If you will be good
+enough to do that, the doctor and I will be able
+to arrange the rest, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be only too glad," said Ernshaw,
+taking up his hat. "I shall just have about time
+to do it, and then get to my rooms and dress. <i>Au
+revoir</i>, then, until after the ceremony," and with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>that, he opened the door just as Jepson knocked
+at it, bringing in the coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw found Garthorne already at Sir Godfrey's
+rooms in close conversation with Enid. He
+had, of course, heard much about her from Vane,
+but this was the first time he had seen her. She
+had more than fulfilled the promise of two years
+before, and Ernshaw, ascetic as he was, had still
+too strong an artistic vein in his temperament to
+be insensible to her beauty. In fact, as she rose
+to greet the closest friend of the man who had
+been her lover, and who, as she fondly hoped,
+would be so once more after to-day, he started
+and coloured ever so slightly. He had never seen
+anything like her before as she stood there with
+outstretched hand, gently-smiling lips, and big,
+soft, deep eyes, in all the pride and glory of her
+dawning womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>It was this, then, that Vane had to give up.
+This was the priceless treasure which, if he kept
+his vow, he would have to surrender to another
+man. As the thought crossed his mind, he looked
+at Garthorne, and he saw the possibility that, after
+all, he might be the victor in that struggle which
+had begun years ago on the deck of the steamer.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly, as far as physical conditions went,
+there could hardly be a better match; but as he
+looked back to Enid, a darker thought stole into
+his mind. Garthorne had, superficially at least,
+rebutted the charges he had made against him in
+Vane's rooms; but though he had apologised for
+what he had said, the conviction that he had
+deliberately tempted Vane to drink came back to
+him, now that he saw how great a temptation Garthorne
+had to commit such an infamy.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt he knew perfectly well that Enid herself
+would overlook Vane's second lapse as she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>had done his first, and would be quite content to
+marry him on the strength of his promise that he
+would never get drunk again; but he also knew
+that, after what had happened that morning,
+Vane's determination to give her up would be
+tenfold strengthened, and that, when once he had
+definitely done so, the psychological moment
+would have arrived for him to begin his own suit&mdash;at
+first, of course, from a deferential distance,
+from which he might hope to approach her heart
+through the avenue of her injured pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Mrs. Ernshaw!" she said, "I
+am glad to meet such an old and good friend of
+Vane's. I have heard a great deal about you,
+and, I need hardly say, nothing but good. I hope
+you have come to tell me that Vane is better and
+also that you will tell me what has really been the
+matter with him. Mr. Garthorne, here, has been
+very rude; he has absolutely refused to say anything
+about it, and I am quite offended with him.
+I really can't see why there should be any mystery
+about it. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Ralph Ernshaw was one of those men who
+can no more tell a direct lie, or even prevaricate,
+than they can get outside their own skins. He
+held even the white lies of conventionality to be
+unworthy of anyone who held the truth as sacred,
+and yet for the life of him he could not look this
+lovely girl in the face and tell her that the man
+whom she had loved ever since she knew what
+love was, had been lying drunk on the floor of his
+room less than an hour before, and that the sight
+of him had shocked his father into a fainting fit.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Miss Raleigh," he said, after a little
+hesitation, "that Vane would rather tell you that
+himself. In fact, to be quite candid with you, it
+is not a subject upon which I should care to touch
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>even at your request, simply because I think that
+it is a matter which could be very much better
+discussed and explained between Vane and yourself;
+and I think Mr. Garthorne will agree with
+me in that view."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I do," said Garthorne, "I think that
+is the most sensible way of putting it. Enid, if
+you'll take my advice you'll take Ernshaw's, and let
+Vane do his own explaining after Commem."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, I think it's very horrid of both of you,"
+said Enid. "I certainly can't see why there
+should be all this mystery. If it's anything really
+serious, surely I have a right to know. However,
+I suppose I must control my feminine impatience,
+at any rate it can't be anything very bad if he'll
+be able to be at the Theatre and Sir Arthur can
+come with him. I suppose I shall hear all about
+it at dinner to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt that you will, Miss Raleigh,"
+said Ernshaw, "and now, if you will excuse me,
+I must be off to my rooms to get ready for my
+own share of the proceedings. Good morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Mr. Ernshaw," replied Enid,
+a trifle stiffly. "That reminds me how rude I have
+been, I've not congratulated you yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I haven't done anything," said Ernshaw,
+"at least, not in comparison with what Vane has
+done. You'll see the difference in the Theatre.
+Good morning again. Good morning, Mr. Garthorne."</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning&mdash;we shall see you later, I suppose?"
+replied Garthorne, as the door closed, and
+then he turned to Enid and went on: "He's a
+thundering good fellow that Ernshaw. Quite a
+character, I believe, enthusiast, and all that sort
+of thing, but everyone here seems to think he'll be
+a shining light some day."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Yes, he seems very nice," said Enid, "but, as
+a matter of fact, I can't say that I'm particularly
+fond of shining lights or people who are too good,
+and from what papa tells me, this Mr. Ernshaw
+has been making or trying to make Vane a great
+deal too good for me. I even hear that he has
+been trying to make Vane become a parson.
+Fancy Vane, with all his talents and prospects, a
+curate! The idea is absurd, even more absurd
+than this two years' probation idea."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you," said Garthorne, "but
+still, think of the test of constancy and the delight
+of knowing that you have both stood it so well."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the door opened, and Sir Godfrey
+came in, not altogether to Garthorne's satisfaction,
+and so put an end to further developments
+of the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of hours later Enid was sitting with
+her father, a unit of the vast audience which filled
+the Sheldonian Theatre. After Ernshaw's visit,
+neither she nor her father had received any message
+either from Vane or Sir Arthur. She had
+expected that Vane, at least, would have come to
+her before the beginning of the ceremonies, or that,
+at least, Sir Arthur would have come and told her
+something about him, but no, not a word; and
+there she sat between Garthorne and her father,
+angry and yet expectant, waiting for the moment
+of his appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here he is at last," whispered Garthorne,
+as his name and honours were called out in Latin.</p>
+
+<p>Enid held her breath as the familiar figure, clad
+in the unfamiliar academic garb, walked towards
+the Chancellor's throne. She could see that he
+was deadly pale, and that his eyes were shining
+with an unnatural brightness. He never even
+once looked towards her. The wild outburst of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>cheering which greeted his appearance seemed as
+utterly lost upon him as if he had been stone deaf
+and blind. He listened to the Chancellor's
+address with as little emotion as though it concerned
+some one else. Then he knelt down, the
+hood, the outward and visible sign of his intellectual
+triumph, was put over his shoulders; the
+Chancellor spoke the magic words without his
+hearing them. He never felt the three taps given
+with the New Testament on his head, and he rose
+from his knees and moved away from the scene
+of the crowning triumph of his youth as
+mechanically as though the proceedings had no
+more interest for him than if they had been
+taking place a thousand miles away.</p>
+
+<p>All through the afternoon Enid and her father
+waited for them to come, but there was no sign
+from either of them until just before tea-time
+Jepson presented himself with two letters, one
+addressed to Sir Godfrey and one to Enid. Both
+were very short. Sir Godfrey's was from Sir
+Arthur, and ran as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+<span class="smcap">"My Dear Raleigh,</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that you and your daughter will
+forgive the apparent discourtesy of our absence
+from you this afternoon and evening. I find it
+necessary to take Vane to London at once. His
+letter to Enid will explain the reason.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Faithfully yours,<br />
+<span class="smcap">"Arthur Maxwell."</span><br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"There is evidently something very serious the
+matter," said Sir Godfrey, as he handed the note to
+Enid. "Maxwell wouldn't write like that without
+good reason. That's from Vane, I suppose.
+What does he say?"</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Say," exclaimed Enid, with a flash of anger
+through her fast gathering tears. "That's what
+he says. It's too bad, too cruel&mdash;and after leaving
+me alone for two years&mdash;it's miserable!"
+And with that, she made a swift escape out of the
+room and shut the door behind her with an
+emphatic bang.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Godfrey picked the note up from the table
+where she had flung it. There was no form of
+address. It simply began:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I was drunk this morning. Drunk without
+meaning to be so, after being two years without
+touching alcohol and without experiencing the
+slightest craving for it. Last night I had finally
+come to the conclusion that it would be a sin to
+ask you to keep your promise to me. Now I am
+convinced that it would be absolute infamy to do
+so. I dare not even face you to tell you this, so
+utterly unworthy and contemptible am I in my
+own sight. Whatever you hear to the contrary,
+remember that what has happened this morning
+is no fault of anyone but myself. If ever we meet
+again I hope I shall find you the wife of a man
+more worthy of you than I am now, or, with this
+accursed taint in my blood, ever could be. Perhaps
+in those days we may be friends again; but
+for the present we must be strangers.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">"Vane."</span><br /><br /><br />
+</p></blockquote>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Yet another twelve months had passed since Vane
+had taken his degree; since Enid had seen him
+vanish like a spectre out of her life, and had waited
+vainly for his coming, only to receive instead that
+letter of farewell which, the instant she had read
+it, she knew to be final and irrevocable.</p>
+
+<p>In such a nature as hers the tenderest spot was
+her pride. She had been his sweetheart since they
+were boy and girl together, and when the time
+came they had become formally engaged. For
+nearly four years now she had considered herself
+as half married to him. Other men attracted by
+her physical beauty and her mental charm had
+approached her, as they had a perfect right to do,
+in open and honest rivalry of Vane, but she had
+given them one and all very clearly to understand
+that she had definitely plighted her troth, and
+had no intention of breaking it. In other words
+she had been absolutely faithful even in thought.</p>
+
+<p>She had never considered his feelings as to
+what he called his inherited alcoholism as anything
+else than the somewhat fine-drawn scruples
+of a highly-strung, and rather romantic nature.
+She had not troubled herself about the deadly
+scientific aspect of the matter. She knew perfectly
+well that men got drunk sometimes and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>still made excellent husbands, and, more than all,
+she firmly believed that, once Vane's wife, she
+would speedily acquire sufficient influence over
+him to make anything like a recurrence of what
+had happened quite impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Even after his second and worst breakdown on
+the morning of Commemoration Day she would
+still have received him as her lover and, after a
+little friendly lecture which would, of course, have
+ended in the usual way, she would have been perfect
+friends with him again on the old footing.</p>
+
+<p>But that letter had ended everything between
+them. Moreover, it had been followed by one
+from Sir Arthur to her father expressing great
+regret at the turn which matters had taken, but
+saying that, after repeated conversations with
+Vane, he had been forced to the conclusion that
+his resolve to enter the Church and devote himself
+to a life of celibacy and mission work at
+home was really fixed and unalterable.</p>
+
+<p>After that there was, of course, nothing more
+to be said or done. Enid, being a natural, simple-hearted,
+healthy English girl, who enjoyed life a
+great deal too well to worry about looking under
+the surface of things, therefore came to the conclusion
+that she had been jilted for the sake of a
+fine-drawn Quixotic idea. If she had been jilted
+for the sake of another woman it would have
+been quite a different matter. Then there would
+have been something tangible to hate bitterly for
+a season, and then to get revenged on by making
+a much more brilliant marriage, as she could easily
+have done. But it was infinitely worse, and more
+humiliating to be thrown over like this by the
+man whom she had looked upon as her future
+husband nearly all her life, whom she had played
+at housekeeping with while they were children,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>and whom she had never looked upon as anything
+else but a sweetheart or a lover&mdash;and yet
+it was true, miserably true, and now, for the sake
+of a mere idea, she found herself cast off, loverless
+and alone.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a few weeks of secret, but exceeding
+bitterness, she did what nineteen out of every
+twenty girls would have done under the circumstances.
+The twentieth girl would probably have
+considered her life blighted for ever, and vowed
+the remainder of it to single-blessedness, charity
+and good works as a Sister of something or other.
+But Enid belonged to the practical majority, and
+so when the breaking off of the engagement became
+an actual social fact, and Reginald Garthorne
+came just at the psychological moment to
+tell her that never since he had earned that boyish
+licking on the steamer by kissing her, had he been
+able to look with love into the eyes of any other
+woman, she had told him with perfect frankness
+that, as it was quite impossible for her to marry
+Vane, and as she certainly liked him next best,
+and had not the slightest intention of remaining
+single, she was perfectly content to marry him.
+If he chose to take her on those terms he might
+go and talk the matter over with Sir Godfrey,
+and if he and her mother said "yes," she would
+say "yes," too.</p>
+
+<p>It was a somewhat prosaic wooing, perhaps, but
+Reginald Garthorne had been hungering for her in
+his heart for years. Outwardly he had been friends
+with Vane, but in his soul he had hated him consistently
+as boy and man ever since that scene
+behind the wheelhouse of the <i>Orient</i>. He was,
+therefore, perfectly content. He had longed for
+her, and he didn't care how he got her. The rest
+would come afterwards.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+<p>He was rich, far richer than Vane ever would
+be. He had inherited a fortune of nearly two
+hundred thousand pounds from his mother's side
+of the family when he came of age. On his
+father's death he would succeed to the title and a
+fine old country house in the Midlands, with a
+rent-roll and mining royalties worth over thirty
+thousand a year. He would be able to make
+her life a continuous dream of pleasure, amidst
+which she would very soon forget the visionary
+who was throwing away his manhood and all the
+best years of his life just because he had learnt
+that he was the son of a drunken and abandoned
+woman, and had himself got drunk twice in his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>The interview with Sir Godfrey and Lady
+Raleigh had been entirely satisfactory. They
+both considered in their hearts that their daughter
+had been very badly treated. From every social
+point of view this was a match which left nothing
+to be desired, and so they said "yes," and Garthorne
+went back to Enid, and said, triumphantly,
+as he kissed her for the first time since that
+memorable kiss on the steamer:</p>
+
+<p>"And so, you see, darling, I've won, after all!"</p>
+
+<p>It was thus that it came about that, on the same
+day, as the Fates would have it, two ceremonies
+were being performed at the same hour, one in
+St. George's, Hanover Square, and one before
+the altar at Worcester Cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop, in full canonicals, surrounded by
+his attendant clergy, sat inside the altar rails in
+front of the Communion Table, and on the topmost
+step before the rails knelt two young men
+wearing surplices and the hoods of Bachelors of
+Arts of Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Feast of St. James the Apostle, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>in his exhortation the Archdeacon, who was
+preacher for the day, had taken for his text the
+collect:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Grant, O merciful God, that, as Thine holy
+Apostle St. James, leaving his father and all that
+he had without delay, was obedient unto the call
+of Thy Son Jesus Christ and followed Him, so we,
+forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may
+be evermore ready to follow Thy holy commandments,
+through Jesus Christ our Lord!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>One of the men kneeling at the altar rails was
+Mark Ernshaw, and the other was Vane Maxwell.</p>
+
+<p>Among the somewhat scanty congregation which
+had remained after the usual morning service, sat
+Sir Arthur Maxwell. A year ago he would have
+been inclined to laugh at the idea of his son sacrificing
+all his brilliant worldly prospects to enter
+the Church. He was, as has already been said, a
+deeply religious man himself, but still, he was a
+man of the world, a man who had made his own
+way through the world, and won by sheer hard
+work some of the prizes which it has to give, and,
+like many others of his class, he had come to look
+upon the clerical profession somewhat as the refuge
+of the intellectually destitute.</p>
+
+<p>But as the time had gone on since that scene in
+his son's rooms at Oxford, he had come to believe
+that with Vane it was not a mere question, as it is
+with too many other men, of taking Orders to
+secure a profession and a position. He was entering
+the Church as the men of more earnest and
+more faithful ages had done; because he believed
+that he had a duty to do, a mission to perform, a
+sacrifice to make, and, above all, an enemy to fight
+which was God's enemy as well as his own.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+<p>Therefore the words "leaving his father and all
+that he had," awakened no bitter echoes in his
+soul. True it was a sacrifice for him as well as
+for Vane; but for Vane's sake he had made it
+willingly and cheerfully, and he was able now to
+look forward with perfect contentment to the
+triumphs which, in his father's pride, he could not
+help believing his son would win in that higher
+and holier sphere of life which he had chosen.</p>
+
+<p>The presentation being made and the questions
+as to "crime or impediment" being duly asked
+and answered, the Litany and Suffrages began,
+and every note and word of the solemn intonation,
+ringing through the silence of the great Cathedral,
+found an echo which rang true in three souls at
+least among the congregation:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"O God the Father of Heaven: have mercy
+upon us, miserable sinners.</p>
+
+<p>"O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have
+mercy upon us, miserable sinners.</p>
+
+<p>"O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the
+Father and the Son: have mercy upon us, miserable
+sinners.</p>
+
+<p>"O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity, three
+Persons and one God: have mercy upon us, miserable
+sinners.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the
+offences of our forefathers: neither take thou
+vengeance on our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare
+thy people whom thou hast redeemed with Thy
+most precious blood, and be not angry with us for
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>"From all evil and mischief: from sin, from the
+crafts and assaults of the devil: from Thy wrath
+and from everlasting damnation.</p>
+
+<p>"From all blindness of heart: from pride, vain-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>glory
+and hypocrisy: from envy, hatred and malice,
+and all uncharitableness.</p>
+
+<p>"From fornication, and all other deadly sin:
+and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh and
+the devil.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Good Lord deliver us!"<br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the
+offences of our forefathers: neither take thou vengeance
+on our sins."</p>
+
+<p>These, of all the words which he heard spoken
+on that fateful day, the day which marked for him
+the passing of the line which divides the World of
+the Flesh from the World of the Spirit&mdash;the
+frontier of the kingdom of this world separating
+it from that other Kingdom which, though worldwide,
+yet owns but a single Lord&mdash;seemed to fall
+with greater weight into Vane's soul than any
+others of the service. As he heard them he raised
+his bent head, threw it back and, with wide open
+eyes, looked up over the Bishop's head and the
+reredos behind the altar to the central section of
+the great stained glass window containing the
+figure of the Godhead crucified in the flesh, with
+the two Marys, Mary the Mother and Mary Magdalene,
+kneeling at the foot of the Cross.</p>
+
+<p>Like a quiver of summer lightning across the
+horizon of an August sky, there came to him the
+thought of that mother of his whom he had never
+known, and of that girl who was almost his sister,
+long ago lost in the great wilderness of London.
+They were not likenesses, only the faintest of suggestions,
+and yet the mere recollection seemed to
+lend an added solemnity to the vows which he
+was about to take.</p>
+
+<p>
+"I will do so, the Lord being my helper!"<br />
+</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+<p>As he uttered the words there was not the
+faintest doubt in his soul that for the rest of his
+life he would be able to keep both the letter and
+the spirit of the oath unbroken to the end of his
+days. Many a man and woman has rashly wished
+that it were possible to look into the future. Such
+a thought had more than once crossed Vane Maxwell's
+mind, but could he, in that solemn moment,
+have looked into the future and seen what lay before
+him, he would have been well content with
+the high destiny to which his great renunciation
+was to lead him.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>And now the scene changes from Gloucester
+Cathedral, to St. George's, Hanover Square.</p>
+
+<p>It was the smartest wedding of the year, and,
+apart from all its social brilliance, even the most
+rigid critics admitted that London had not seen
+a lovelier bride or a handsomer bridegroom than
+Enid Raleigh and Reginald Garthorne. The
+church was thronged by an audience made up of
+the friendly, the sympathetic, the sentimental, and
+the merely curious, as is usual on such occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Carol Vane and Dora Russel, who had come
+provided with tickets indirectly supplied by the
+bridegroom himself, occupied seats in the left-hand
+gallery at the front. In consequence of the
+crowd, they only got into their places just as the
+bridal procession was moving up the central aisle.
+There was the bride with her attendant bridesmaids,
+six little maidens dressed in pure white,
+the bridegroom with his pages, six counterparts
+dressed in the style of Charles I. Then Sir
+Godfrey and Lady Raleigh, and then a tall,
+grizzled, soldierly-looking man, and beside him a
+white-haired old lady, who might have stepped
+straight out of one of Gainsborough's pictures.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+<p>As Carol caught sight of the man beside her,
+she leant half her body over the front of the
+gallery, and stared with straining eyes down at
+the slowly moving procession. Dora caught her
+by the arm and pulled her back, saying, in a
+whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do that; you might fall over."</p>
+
+<p>Carol turned a white face and a pair of blankly
+staring eyes upon her, caught her by the arm with
+one hand and pointing downwards with the other,
+said in a whisper that seemed to rattle in her
+throat:</p>
+
+<p>"See that man, there&mdash;that tall one with the old
+lady on his arm? That's the man who did all the
+ruin! That's my father&mdash;and my mother was
+Vane's mother, and that's his son, going to marry
+Vane's sweetheart. No, by God, he shan't! I'll
+tell the whole church full, first."</p>
+
+<p>She tore herself free from Dora's hold and
+struggled to her feet, her lips were opened to
+utter words which would have instantly turned the
+wedding into a tragedy; but the rush of thoughts
+which came surging into her brain was too much
+for her. The swift revelation of an almost unbelievable
+life-tragedy struck her like a lightning-stroke;
+she uttered a few incoherent sounds, and
+then dropped back fainting into Dora's arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Another of life's little tragedies, I suppose,"
+whispered a well-dressed matron just behind her,
+to a companion at her side, "a <i>petite maitresse</i>, no
+doubt. It's a curious thing; they always come
+to see their lovers married."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The fainting of Carol in the gallery of the church
+and her being carried out just before the commencement
+of the ceremony, was looked upon by
+some of the more superstitious of the immediate
+spectators as a sign of evil omen to the happiness
+of those who, in the phrase which is so often only
+the echo of devils' laughter, were about "to be
+joined together in holy matrimony."</p>
+
+<p>Still, only a few had heard the broken words
+which the horror-stricken girl had uttered before
+she fell down insensible, and those only thought
+what the good lady behind her had said. To the
+rest of the congregation it was merely an incident,
+due to the crowd and the heat. The little flutter
+of excitement which it caused soon passed away,
+and the ceremony began and went on without any
+of the bridal party even knowing what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>She was carried to the gallery stairs, and there
+Dora sat her down, supporting her with her arm,
+while one sympathetic young lady held a bottle of
+salts to her nostrils, and an older lady emptied a
+scent-bottle on to her handkerchief and held it to
+her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>In a very few minutes she came round. She
+looked about her, and, recognising Dora, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, what's happened? Where am I?
+Yes, I remember&mdash;at a wedding&mdash;and he&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+<p>Then she checked herself, and Dora said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you're well enough to come
+down and get into a cab, and then we'll get
+home? It was the heat and the crush that did
+it, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I can," said Carol. "I'm all right
+now. Thank you very much for being so kind,"
+she went on to the other two with a faint smile of
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't mention it," they said almost together,
+and then the younger one put her hand
+under her arm and helped her up. "Let me help
+you down," she said. "I daresay you'll be all right
+when you get into the open air."</p>
+
+<p>Carol looked round at her and saw that, without
+being exactly pretty, she had a very sweet and sympathetic
+expression, and big, soft brown eyes which
+looked out very kindly under dark level brows. It
+was a face which women perhaps admire more than
+men; but her voice was one which would have gone
+just as quickly to a man's heart as to a woman's.
+At any rate, it went straight to Carol's, and when
+they had got into the cab and she leant back
+against the cushions she said to Dora:</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder who that girl was? Did you notice
+what a sweet face and what a lovely voice she had?
+I'm not very loving towards my own sex, but as
+soon as I got round I felt that I wanted to hug
+her&mdash;and I suppose if she knew the sort of person
+I am she wouldn't have touched me. What a difference
+clothes make, don't they? Now, if I'd been
+dressed as some of the girls are&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're quite wrong there, Carol," said
+Dora, interrupting her. "I don't believe she's that
+sort at all, she was much too nice, I'm certain. She
+had the face of a really good woman, and you know
+good women don't think that of us. It's only the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>goody-goody ones who do that, and there's a lot of
+difference between good and goody-goody."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes," said Miss Carol, "I daresay you're
+right, after all. She had a sweet face, hadn't she?
+But look here, Dora," she went on with a sudden
+change of tone, "did you ever know anything so
+awful? No&mdash;I can't talk about it yet. Tell him to
+pull up at the Monico, and we'll have a brandy and
+soda. I never wanted a drink so badly in my life."</p>
+
+<p>The cab had meanwhile been rolling down Regent
+Street, and had almost reached the Circus.
+Dora put her hand up through the trap and told
+the cabman&mdash;whose opinion of his fares underwent
+an instantaneous change. He nodded and said,
+"Yes, miss," and the next minute pulled up in front
+of the square entrance to the cafe. Dora got out
+first and helped Carol out; then she gave the cabman
+a shilling and they went in.</p>
+
+<p>"Goes to a wedding, does a faint, comes out,
+and stops 'ere when they ought to have been driven
+'ome. Not much class there!" the cabman soliloquised
+as he flicked his whip over his horse's ears
+and turned across towards Piccadilly. He was,
+perhaps, naturally disgusted at the meagre results
+of a job for which he had expected three or four
+shillings at the very least.</p>
+
+<p>The big café was almost deserted, as it usually
+is in the morning, and the two girls found a secluded
+seat at one of the corner tables.</p>
+
+<p>"Dora, you must pay for these," said Carol when
+they had given their order, "and what's more you'll
+have to lend me some money to go on with, for if
+I was starving I wouldn't spend another shilling of
+that man's money."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear child, I don't suppose he knew
+it," said Dora. "Of course you can have anything
+I've got if you want it, and I quite understand how
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>you feel. It's very dreadful, horrible, in fact, but
+you couldn't help it. You're not to blame, and I
+don't see that he is, after all's said and done."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't say that he is," said Carol, "and of
+course I couldn't know, for he isn't a bit like his
+father. He was dark once, so I suppose the&mdash;the
+other one takes after his mother. At least, he
+would do if she was a fair woman. But just fancy
+me having that feeling about Vane that night&mdash;feeling
+that I couldn't&mdash;and yet this one is just as
+near. God forgive me, Dora, isn't it awful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, never mind, dear," said Dora, as the
+waiter brought the drinks. "I don't see that that
+matters one way or the other now. What's done
+<i>is</i> done, and there's an end of it. Well, here's fun,
+and better luck next time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hope so!" said Carol somewhat bitterly, as
+she took a rather long pull at her brandy and soda.
+"Ah, that's better," she went on, as she put her
+glass down. "At any rate, it couldn't be much
+worse luck, could it?"</p>
+
+<p>"But are you perfectly certain," said Dora, "that
+he really was the man? You know, after all, you
+only saw him for quite a moment or so."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm as certain as I am that I'm sitting here,"
+said Carol, "that that was the man who lived with
+my mother in Paris and Vienna and Nice and a lot
+of other places ever since I can remember. It isn't
+likely that I'm going to forget when I have such
+good reason as I have for remembering. He's the
+man, right enough, and if I was face to face with
+him for five minutes I'd prove it. The question is
+whether I ought to prove it or not."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a thing that wants thinking about," said
+Dora. "But how can you prove it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Easy enough," replied Carol, "if he'd just take
+his coat off and turn his shirt-sleeve up. He's got
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>two marks just above his right elbow, two white
+marks, and the one on the front is bigger than the
+one behind. I've seen them many a time when
+he's been sculling or playing tennis. He told me
+he got them from a spear thrust when he was fighting
+in the Zulu war. The spear went right in in
+front and the point came out behind, and if I had
+a thousand pounds I'd bet it that that man has got
+those marks on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, I know lots of other things about him.
+You know I'm not a bad mimic, for one thing, and
+I could imitate his voice and his way of talking
+before I heard him speak, and I know a photographer
+in Paris where I could get his photograph&mdash;one
+taken while he was with us. We went with
+him to have it taken; and, besides, I don't care
+whether that unfortunate mother of mine's mad or
+not, she'd recognise him. I'd bet any money he
+daren't go to the place where she is and face her.
+Well, now I'm better. Let's go home to lunch and
+think it over. It certainly isn't a thing to do anything
+hastily about."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what I think, dear," said Dora,
+finishing her brandy and soda.</p>
+
+<p>"All right; we won't take another cab just yet.
+Let's walk along the 'Dilly for a bit; it'll do me
+good, I think; and besides, I may as well get familiar
+with the old place again," said Carol, rising
+from her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense!" said Dora. "The very idea
+of <i>you</i> having to go in for that sort of thing, when
+there are half a dozen fellows a good deal more
+than ready to take this man Garthorne's place."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said Carol, with a light laugh and
+a toss of her pretty head, "I don't suppose the
+change would be for the worse. But there's one
+thing certain, I shall have to snare the oof bird very
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>shortly, for the first thing I'm going to do when we
+get to the flat is to send back every penny of the
+money that Reginald gave me when we said good-bye.
+Of course I didn't know anything about it,
+but it seems worse a good deal than if I had stolen
+it. Then to-night we'll go to the Empire, and you,
+being rather more married than I am, can chaperone
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Dora. "I'll send a wire to Bernard,
+and perhaps he'll come too and escort us."</p>
+
+<p>Reginald Garthorne had behaved, as both the
+world and the half-world would have said, very
+honourably to Carol when they had said the usual
+good-bye before his marriage. He had paid
+his share of the rent of the flat for her for six
+months ahead, and had given her a couple of hundred
+pounds to go on with. Of this considerably
+over a hundred pounds remained. She changed
+the gold into notes, and even the silver into postal
+orders, and put the whole sum into a packet, which
+she registered and posted to his town address.</p>
+
+<p>She gave no explanation or reason for what she
+was doing. In the first place she could not bring
+herself to tell him the dreadful truth that she had
+discovered; and then, again, it would only after
+all be a piece of needless cruelty. During her connection
+with him he had always treated her with
+kindness and courtesy, and often with generosity.
+She had nothing whatever against him, so why
+should she wreck the happiness of his honeymoon,
+and perhaps of his whole married life, by disclosing
+the secret that had been so strangely revealed to
+her? So she simply wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">"Dear Mr. Garthorne,</span><br /></p>
+
+<p>"You have been very kind to me, and
+I thoroughly appreciate your kindness. But some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>thing
+has happened to-day&mdash;I daresay you can
+guess what it is&mdash;which makes it unnecessary to
+me, and, as you know I have rather curious ideas
+about money matters, I hope you will understand
+my reasons, and not be offended by my returning
+it to you with many thanks.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yours very sincerely,<br />
+<span class="smcap">"Carol Vane."</span><br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Under the circumstances the white lie was one
+which the Recording Angel might well have blotted
+out. Probably he did. But, as the Fates would
+have it, the words proved prophetic.</p>
+
+<p>They went to the Empire that night under the
+escort of Mr. Bernard Falcon, and while they were
+having a stroll round the promenade during the
+interval he nodded and smiled a little awkwardly
+to a tall, good-looking young fellow in evening
+dress, whose bronzed skin, square shoulders and
+easy stride gave one the idea that he was a good
+deal more accustomed to the free and easy costume
+of the Bush or the Veld or the Mining Camp than
+to the swallow-tails and starched linen of after-dinner
+Civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>"What a splendid-looking fellow!" said Dora,
+turning her head slightly as he passed; "the sort
+of man, I should say, who really <i>is</i> a man. Who
+is he, Bernard? You seem to know him!"</p>
+
+<p>"That man?" said Mr. Falcon. "Well, come
+down into the lower bar, and we'll have a drink,
+and I'll tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"That looks a little bit as if you didn't want to
+meet him again!" said Dora, a trifle maliciously.
+"Does he happen to be one of your clients, or someone
+who only knows you as a perfectly respectable
+person?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Falcon did not reply immediately, but he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>frowned a little, as if he didn't find the remark very
+palatable. But when they reached the seclusion
+of the bar and sat down at one of the tables he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, it is something like that. The fact
+is we have done a little business for him, and we
+hope to do more. Lucky beggar, he's one of Fortune's
+darlings."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds interesting," said Carol. "May I
+ask what the good lady has done for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mr. Falcon, folding his hands on
+the table and dropping his voice to a discreet monotone,
+"in the first place she made him the younger
+son of a very good family. Nothing much to begin
+with, of course, but then she also gave him a maiden
+aunt who left him five thousand pounds just after
+he left Cambridge in disgust after failing three
+times to get a pass degree. He had no special turn
+for anything in particular except riding and shooting
+and athletics of all sorts. So, like a sensible
+fellow, instead of stopping in England and fooling
+his money away, as too many younger sons do, he
+put four thousand pounds into my partner's hands&mdash;Lambe,
+I should tell you, was his aunt's solicitor&mdash;to
+be invested in good securities, put the other
+thousand into his pocket, and started out to seek
+his fortune.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a little over five years ago, which makes
+him about thirty now. Of course, I suppose he
+went everywhere and did everything, as such fellows
+do, but we heard very little of him, and he
+never drew a penny of the four thousand pounds,
+and he turned up in London a week or two ago
+something more than a millionaire. It seems that
+he was one of the first to hear of the West Australian
+goldfields&mdash;he was out there prospecting in
+the desert, and a few months later he was one of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>the pioneers of Kalgoorlie, and pegged out a lot of
+the most valuable claims. He put in nearly three
+years there, and now he's come back to enjoy himself.
+He's a very fine fellow, but I must say I'd
+rather not have met him here to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense," laughed Dora, "he'll understand.
+Being a man he knows perfectly well that
+scarcely any of you respectable married men are
+half as respectable as you'd like to be thought.
+However, why not compromise him too? Go and
+fetch him and introduce him."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Falcon knew Dora well enough to take this
+request as something like an order. So he rose,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's not a bad idea, after all, and I daresay
+he won't have the slightest objection to make
+the acquaintance of two such entirely charming
+young ladies."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Falcon rather prided himself upon his way of
+turning a compliment, albeit his action, as they say
+in stable parlance, was a trifle heavy. When he
+had gone Dora nodded to Carol and said:</p>
+
+<p>"There, dear. If I'm not very much mistaken
+this is the reward of virtue."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is its own reward, and generally doesn't
+get it," laughed Carol, colouring slightly. "What
+do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Dora, "that only to-day you made
+yourself penniless from the most laudable of motives,
+and here, this very night, comes Prince
+Charming from the Fortunate Isles, with all his
+pockets and both hands full of money, and a splendid-looking
+fellow as well. I think that's a bit
+mixed, but still it's somewhere about the fact. Ah,
+here they come."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Cecil Rayburn, Miss Dora Murray; Mr.
+Rayburn, Miss Carol Vane. Now we know each
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>other," said Mr. Falcon. "Rayburn, what will you
+have?"</p>
+
+<p>Rayburn had a brandy and soda, and before it
+was finished the conversation was running easily
+and even merrily. With the quick perception of
+the travelled man he speedily discovered that Dora
+was Falconer's particular friend; she always addressed
+him as "Bernie," while Carol always said
+"Mr. Falcon" or "Mr. F."</p>
+
+<p>When they got up, all thoroughly well pleased
+with each other, Falcon said:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you alone, Rayburn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied. "I hadn't anything particular
+to do to-night, and as I was sick of playing
+billiards and swopping lies with the other fellows
+at the Carlton, I just put on a hard-boiled shirt
+and the other things and came over here to seek
+my fortune."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this he looked straight at Carol, their
+eyes met for a moment, and then she coloured up
+swiftly and looked away.</p>
+
+<p>The four wound up the evening with a sumptuous
+supper at Prince's, at which Rayburn played
+host to perfection, and within a week Carol and he
+had left Charing Cross by the eleven o'clock boat-train
+on a trip which had no particular objective,
+but which, as a matter of fact, extended round the
+world before Carol again saw her beloved London.
+In addition to her other rings she wore a new thick
+wedding ring, a compromise with conventionality
+which the etiquette of hotels and steamer saloons
+had rendered imperative, and thus it came to pass
+that Miss Carol, travelling as Mrs. Charles Redfern,
+vanished utterly for more than a year, and this, too,
+was why all the efforts of Vane and Ernshaw and
+Sir Arthur to find her had proved for the present
+unavailing.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Enid Garthorne came back from a somewhat
+extended honeymoon trip to the Riviera and
+thence on through Northern Italy to Venice,
+whence she returned viâ Vienna and Paris, a very
+different woman from the Enid Raleigh who had
+cried so bitterly over that farewell letter of Vane's
+in her bedroom at Oxford.</p>
+
+<p>She had already schooled herself to look upon
+her long love for Vane as, after all, only the
+sustained infatuation of a romantic school-girl, and
+upon him as a high-hearted, clean-souled but utterly
+impossible visionary who had sacrificed the substance
+for the shadow, and who, having chosen
+irrevocably, could only be left to work out his
+own destiny as he had shaped it.</p>
+
+<p>Garthorne, in the first flush of his gratified love
+and triumph, had proved an almost ideal combination
+of lover and husband, and of all the brides
+who were honeymooning in the most luxurious
+resorts of the Continent that Autumn and Winter,
+she, with her youth and beauty, her handsome,
+devoted husband, and splendid fortunes, was accounted
+the most to be envied. As week after
+week went by, and the intoxication of her new life
+grew upon her, she gradually came to believe this
+herself. At the same time, something very like
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>true affection for this man, whose love was very
+real and who seemed to find his only happiness in
+making the world the most delightful of dreamlands
+for her, began to grow up in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, she often thought of Vane; that was
+inevitable. It was inevitable, too, that she should
+look back now and then to some of the many
+tender scenes that had passed between them; but
+as time went on, these memory-pictures grew more
+faint. The fast-succeeding events and the new
+experiences of her married life crowded swiftly
+and thickly upon her, until she began to look upon
+the past more as a dream than as a reality. Vane's
+figure receded rapidly into the background of her
+life, and, as it did so, it seemed in some way to
+become spiritualised, lifted above and beyond the
+world-sphere in which it was now her destiny to
+move.</p>
+
+<p>They got back to England a few weeks before
+the season began, and, after a day or two in London
+for some necessary shopping, they went down to
+Garthorne Abbey, one of the finest old seats in the
+Midland counties, standing on a wooded slope in
+the green border which fringes the Black Country,
+and facing the meadows and woodlands which
+stretch away down to the banks of the Severn,
+beyond which rise the broken, picturesque outlines
+of the Herefordshire Hills.</p>
+
+<p>Here Enid Garthorne spent an entirely delightful
+week exploring the stately home and the
+splendid domain of which she would one day be
+mistress. Day after day in the early clear Spring
+morning, she would go up alone on to a sort of
+terrace-walk which had been made round the roof
+behind the stone balustrade which ran all round
+the house, and look out over the green, well-wooded,
+softly undulating country, her heart filled
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>with a delighted pride and the consciousness, or,
+at any rate, the belief, that after all the cloud which
+had come between her and Vane had had a silver,
+nay, a golden lining, and that, so far, at least, everything
+had been for the best.</p>
+
+<p>As she looked to the eastward, she could see
+stretched along the horizon a low, dun-coloured
+line which was not cloud. It was the smoke of
+the Black Country, and underneath it hundreds
+and hundreds of men, aye, and if she had known it,
+women, too, were toiling in forge and mine and
+factory, earning the thousands which made life so
+easy and so pleasant for her. To the westward
+were the low-lying meadows, the rolling corn-lands,
+and the dark strips and patches of wood and
+coppice which lay for miles on three sides of the
+Home Park, and beyond these she caught bright
+gleams of the silver Severn rippling away to the
+distant Bristol Channel; then, beyond this again,
+the rising uplands which culminated in the irregular
+terraces of the Abberley Hills.</p>
+
+<p>She knew nothing of it at the time, but far
+away, perched up in a leafy nook among them
+was a little cluster of old grey buildings; just a
+chapel, a guest-house, a refectory, and half a dozen
+cells forming a tiny quadrangle which was still
+called St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, but which in the
+old days when all the lands that Enid could see
+from her roof-walk had belonged to the ancient
+Abbey of Ganthony&mdash;of which her husband's name
+was perhaps a corruption&mdash;had been known as
+the House of Our Lady of Rest.</p>
+
+<p>Before the dissolution of the Monasteries it had
+been a place of rest and retreat for servants of the
+Church who had exhausted themselves in her
+service or had found reason to withdraw themselves
+a while from the world and its temptations;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>and such, though creeds have changed, it has practically
+remained until now.</p>
+
+<p>The little church was nominally St. Augustine's,
+the Parish Church of a little scattered hamlet which
+was sprinkled over the hillside beneath it. The
+living had been in the gift of the Garthorne family,
+but Sir Reginald's father had sold the advowson
+to one of the earliest pioneers of the High Church
+movement in England, and through this purchase
+it had passed into the keeping of a small
+Anglican Order calling itself the Fraternity of St.
+Augustine.</p>
+
+<p>This little Brotherhood had not only maintained
+the traditions of the ancient Order of St. Augustine,
+Preacher, Saint and Martyr, but had done all that
+was possible to revive them in their ancient purity.
+The little monastery among the hills, though it
+had passed under another ecclesiastical rule, was
+still a place where priests and deacons might come
+either to rest from the labours which they had
+endured in the service of their Master, or to
+separate themselves from the din and turmoil of
+the world, and, amidst the peace and silence of
+nature, wrestle with the doubts or temptations
+that had beset them. The Vicar of the parish and
+Father Superior of the Retreat was an aged priest
+who had welcomed three generations of his younger
+brothers in Christ as temporary sojourners in this
+little sanctuary, and had sent them away comforted
+and strengthened to take their place again in the
+ranks of the army which wages that battle which
+began when the first prophecy was uttered in Eden,
+and which will only end when the sound of the
+Last Trump marshalls the hosts of men before the
+bar of the Last Tribunal.</p>
+
+<p>Vane had been the occupant of one of the tiny
+little rooms, which had once been the monks' cells,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>for a little over three months when Enid came to
+her future home. The rooms were on the side of
+the quadrangle facing the valley, and from his
+little window he could distinctly see the great white
+house, with its broad terraces standing out against
+the dark background formed by the trees which
+crowned the ridge behind it. He, of course, knew
+perfectly well to whom it belonged and who would
+one day be mistress of it, and one day he saw from
+the <i>Times</i>, the only secular newspaper admitted
+into St. Augustine's, that Mr. and Mrs. Reginald
+Garthorne had returned from their wedding trip
+on the Continent, and, after a day or two in London,
+would proceed for a few weeks to Garthorne
+Abbey to recuperate before the fatigues of the
+season, of which it was generally expected Mrs.
+Garthorne would be one of the most brilliant
+ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of it, the knowledge of all the splendours
+that it contained, of all the worldly wealth
+of which it was the material sign, had not affected
+him in the least. He had already lifted himself
+beyond the possibility of envying anyone the
+possession of such things as these. He could see
+over and beyond them as a man on a mountain top
+might look over a little spot on the plain beneath,
+which to those who dwelt in it was a great and
+splendid city.</p>
+
+<p>Even the knowledge that Enid was coming to
+the Abbey as the wife of its future master only
+drew just a single quiet sigh from his lips, only
+caused him to give one swift look back into the
+world that he had left, for after all this was only
+what he had expected, what he knew to be almost
+inevitable when he had first made up his mind
+to sacrifice his love to what he believed to be his
+duty.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+<p>She had passed out of his existence and he had
+passed out of hers. Henceforth their life-circles
+might touch, but they could never intersect each
+other. Of course, they would meet again in the
+world, but only as friends, with perhaps a warmer
+hand-clasp for the sake of the days that were past
+and gone for ever, but that was all. He had but
+one mistress now, the Church. He was hers body
+and soul to the end, for he had sworn an allegiance
+which could not be broken save at the risk of his
+own soul.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, about a week after he had read
+the paragraph in the <i>Times</i>, he was out on the
+hillside, going from cottage to cottage of the
+hundred or so sprinkled round the high road
+across the hills, for it was his day to carry out
+the parochial duties of the fraternity. Every day
+one of the Fathers, as the villagers called them,
+made his rounds, starting soon after sunrise and
+sometimes not getting back till after dark, for
+Father Philip had no belief in the efficacy of fasting
+and meditation and prayer unless they were supplemented
+by a literal obedience to the commands of
+Him who went about doing good. When priest
+or deacon entered the Retreat, no matter what he
+was, rich or poor, wedded or single, he had to take
+the vows of poverty, obedience and chastity.
+When he left to go back into the world he was
+absolved from them, and was free to do what
+seemed best to his own soul.</p>
+
+<p>Vane had just left a little farmhouse upon which
+a great shame and sorrow had fallen. As too often
+happens in this district, the only daughter of the
+house, discontented with the quiet monotony of
+the farm life, had gone away to Kidderminster to
+work in a carpet factory. That was nearly
+eighteen months ago, and the night before she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>had come back ragged, hungry, and penniless, with
+a nameless baby in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>As he was walking along the road which led
+from this farmhouse to the next hamlet thinking
+of that vanished sister of his and of the poor
+imbecile in the French asylum, he turned a bend
+and saw a figure such as was very seldom seen
+among the villages approaching him about two
+hundred yards away. He stopped, almost as
+though he had received a blow on the chest.
+It was impossible for his eyes to mistake it,
+and with a swift sense, half of anger and half
+of disgust, he felt his heart begin to beat
+harder and quicker. It was Enid, Enid in the
+flesh.</p>
+
+<p>He had read of her marriage, and of her return
+with her husband with hardly an emotion. Day
+after day he had looked upon her future home,
+the home in which she would live as the wife of
+another man and the mother of his children, without
+a single pang of envy or regret&mdash;and now, at
+the first sight of her, his heart was beating, his
+pulses throbbing, and his nerves thrilling.</p>
+
+<p>True, every heart-beat, every pulse-throb, was a
+sin now, for she was a wedded wife&mdash;and meanwhile
+she was still coming towards him. In a
+few minutes more, since it was impossible for him
+to pass her as a stranger, her hand would be
+clasped in his, and he would be once more looking
+into those eyes which had so often looked up into
+his, hearing words of greeting from those lips
+which he had so often kissed, and whose kisses
+were now vowed to another man.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little lane, turning off to the left a
+few yards away. She had never seen him in his
+clerical dress, so she could not have recognised
+him yet. She would only take him for one of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>clergy at the Retreat, he had only to turn down
+the lane&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But no, his old manhood rose in revolt at the
+idea. That would be a flight, a mean, unworthy
+flight, unworthy alike of himself and the high
+resolves that he had taken. It was hard, almost
+impossible even to think of <i>her</i> as a temptation,
+as an enemy to his soul, and yet, even if she were,
+as the leaping blood in his veins told him she
+might be, was it for him, the young soldier of the
+Cross, just buckling on his armour, to turn his
+back upon the first foe he met, even though that
+foe had once been his best beloved? He set his
+teeth and clenched his hands, and walked on past
+the entrance to the lane.</p>
+
+<p>A minute or two later their eyes met. A look
+of astonished recognition instantly leapt into hers.
+She shifted the silver handled walking stick into
+her left hand, and held out the other, daintily
+gauntleted in tan.</p>
+
+<p>"Why Vane!" she exclaimed, in a voice which
+was still as sweet and soft as ever, but which
+seemed to him to have a strange and somewhat
+discordant note in it, "you don't mean to say that
+it's you. I suppose, as a matter of fact, I ought
+to say Mr. Maxwell now&mdash;I mean now that you're
+a clergyman&mdash;but after all, those little things don't
+matter between such very old friends as we are,
+and I'm sure Reggie won't mind, in fact, I shan't
+let him if he does. Just fancy meeting you here!
+I suppose you're one of the Fathers&mdash;is that it?&mdash;at
+the little monastery up there. I've only been
+home a week, and last night I heard about this
+place, so I drove over to see it. But you haven't
+told me how you are yet, and how you like your&mdash;your
+new life."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, she had rattled all this off
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>so quickly that Vane had not had time to reply
+to her greeting. He had taken her hand and,
+somewhat tremblingly, returned the frank, firm
+pressure. While she was speaking, he looked into
+her face and saw that she had already assumed
+the invisible but impenetrable mask in which the
+society woman plays her part in the tragic comedy
+of Vanity Fair. It was the same face and yet not
+the same, the same voice and yet a different one,
+and the sight and sound acted upon him like a
+powerful tonic. This was not the Enid he had
+loved, after all, at least, so it seemed to him. He
+had forgotten, or had never known that every
+woman is a born actress, and that even the brief
+training which Enid had already had was quite
+enough to enable her to say one thing, while
+thinking and feeling something entirely different.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled for the first time as their hands
+parted, and said, in a voice whose calm frankness
+surprised himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Mrs. Garthorne!"&mdash;he absolutely
+couldn't trust himself to pronounce the word
+"Enid"&mdash;"Thanks, I'm very well, and, as you
+have guessed, I am located for the present up in
+the Retreat yonder. I confess I was a little
+startled to see you coming up the road, although I
+saw from the <i>Times</i> the other day that you had
+come back from the Continent and were coming
+down here to the Abbey. Of course, you would
+hear of the Retreat sooner or later, and as it's a
+bit of a show place in its humble way, I had an
+idea that you would come over some time to see
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I suppose you don't allow anything so
+unholy as a woman to enter the sacred precincts,
+do you?"</p>
+
+<p>The artificial flippancy of her tone annoyed him
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>perhaps even more than it shocked him. There
+was a sort of scoff in it which rightly or wrongly
+he took to himself. It seemed to say "You, of
+course, have done with women now and for ever;
+henceforth, you must only look upon us as temptations
+to sin, and so I can say what I like to you."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," he replied, forcing a smile,
+"the Retreat is as open for visiting purposes to
+women as it is to men. It is nothing at all like
+a monastery, you know, although report says it
+is. It is simply a place where clergymen who
+have need of it can go and rest and think and
+pray in peace, and act as curates to the Superior
+who is also vicar of the parish. In fact, it has
+been known for mothers and sisters of the men
+to take rooms in the villages, and they are even
+invited to lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," she said, "how very charming! Of
+course, you will come over to the Abbey and have
+dinner some evening, and sleep, and the next
+morning I shall expect you to let me drive you
+over here and invite me to lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I shall be delighted," he said,
+purposely using the most conventional terms,
+"but I ought to tell you that there is a condition
+attached to our hospitality."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed, and what is that?" she said,
+glancing up at him with one of her old saucy
+looks. "I hope it isn't very stringent. Won't you
+turn and walk a little way with me and tell me all
+about it? There is my pony carriage coming up
+the hill after me. It will overtake us soon, and
+then I won't take up your time any longer, for I
+daresay you are going on some good work."</p>
+
+<p>Again the half-veiled flippancy of her tone
+jarred upon him and made him clench his teeth
+for an instant.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+<p>"With the greatest pleasure," he replied, turning
+and walking with long, slow strides beside her.
+His blood was quite cool now, and a great weight
+had been lifted from his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"It is this way," he went on, speaking as
+calmly as though he were addressing an utter
+stranger. "You know, or perhaps you do not
+know yet, that, beautiful and almost arcadian as
+this place is, there is, I regret to say, a great deal
+of poverty and sorrow, and, I am afraid, sin too,
+and it is part of our duty at the Retreat to seek
+this out and do what we can to relieve it; but
+there is much of that kind of work which women
+can do infinitely better than men, and therefore,
+when a woman enters our gates as our guest, we
+ask her to do what she can to help us."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," she said, more softly and more naturally
+than she had spoken before. "It is a very just
+and a very good condition, and I shall do my best
+to fulfil it; indeed, as I suppose I shall some day
+be Lady of the Manor here, it will be my duty to
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad to hear you say so," he said,
+with a touch of warmth in his tone, "very glad.
+And if you like you can begin at once. You see
+that little farmhouse up the road yonder. Well,
+there is not only sorrow, but sin and shame as
+well in that house. The old people are most
+respectable, and they were once fairly comfortably
+off before the agricultural depression ruined them.
+They are wretchedly poor now, but they struggle
+on somehow. About eighteen months ago their
+daughter went off to Kidderminster to work in the
+mills. She said she would get good wages and
+send some of them home every week. For some
+months she did send them a few shillings, and
+then what is unfortunately only too common
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>about here happened. For a long time they lost
+sight of her, and last night she came back, starving,
+with a baby and no husband."</p>
+
+<p>He said this in a perfectly passionless and impersonal
+tone, just as a doctor might describe the
+symptoms of a disease. "If you care to, you can
+do a great deal of good there," he went on. "I
+have just been there. If you like I will take you
+in and introduce you."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped and hesitated for a moment. It
+struck her as such an utter reversal of their former
+relationships, that it seemed almost to obliterate
+the line which lies between the sublime and the
+ridiculous. Then she moved forward again, saying,
+in her own old natural voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Vane. I have often wondered
+since what sort of circumstances we should meet
+under again, but I never thought of anything like
+this. Yes, I will come, and if there is anything
+I can do I will do it."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would," he said quietly, as he
+strode along beside her towards the farmhouse.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>After introducing Enid to the sorrow-stricken
+family, Vane took his leave of her to go about his
+work. He met the pony-cart coming up the hill,
+and told the footman to wait for his mistress outside
+the farmhouse. Then he went on to the other
+hamlet, doing his work just as well and conscientiously
+as ever, and yet all the while thinking many
+thoughts which had very little connection with it.</p>
+
+<p>He got back to the Retreat just in time for supper,
+and when the meal was over he asked Father
+Philip for the favour of half an hour's conversation.
+The request was, of course, immediately granted,
+and as soon as he was alone with the old man, who
+was wise alike in the things of the world and in
+those of the spirit, he told him, not as penitent to
+confessor, but rather as pupil to teacher, the whole
+story of his meeting and conversation with Enid,
+not omitting the slightest detail that his memory
+held, from the first thrill of emotion that he had experienced
+on seeing her to the last word he had
+spoken to her on leaving the farmhouse.</p>
+
+<p>Father Philip was silent for some time after he
+had finished his story, then, leaning back in his
+deep armchair, he looked at Vane, who was still
+walking slowly up and down the little room, and
+said in a quiet, matter-of-fact voice:</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I'm very glad, Maxwell, that you've told me
+this. As I have told you before, I have listened to
+a good many life-histories in this room, but I must
+admit that yours is one of the strangest and most
+difficult of them. The fact of Miss Raleigh having
+married the son of the lord of the manor here, and
+having come down while you are here, naturally
+makes it more difficult still. But then, you know,
+my dear fellow, the greater the difficulty and the
+danger of the strife the greater the honour and the
+reward of victory.</p>
+
+<p>"For my own part I think that your meeting with
+her in the road down yonder, if not ordered by Providence,
+may, with all reverence, be called providential.
+Those emotions which you experienced
+on first seeing her, and for which you were inclined
+to reproach yourself, were after all perfectly human,
+and therefore natural and pardonable. I needn't tell
+you now that I entirely disagree with those who
+consider that a man should cease to be a man when
+he becomes a clergyman. You are young, and you
+are made of flesh and blood. You were once very
+much in love with this young lady"&mdash;there was a
+slight, almost imperceptible emphasis upon the
+"once" which somehow made Vane wince&mdash;"you
+might have married her, but you forewent that happiness
+in obedience to a conviction which would
+have done honour to the best of us. You would
+have been either more or less than human if your
+heart had not beaten a little harder and your blood
+had not flowed a little faster when you met her
+unexpectedly like that in a country road.</p>
+
+<p>"But," he went on, sitting up in his chair and
+speaking with a little more emphasis, "the very
+fact that you so quickly discovered such a decided
+change in her, and that that change, moreover,
+struck you as being one for the worse, is to my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>mind a distinct proof that your paths in life have
+already diverged very widely."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, Father Philip," said Vane, as the old
+man paused and looked up at him, "you can hardly
+say, surely, that it was a good thing for me to discover
+that change. I can tell you honestly that it
+was a very sad one for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly," said Father Philip, "and, without intending
+the slightest disrespect to Mrs. Garthorne,
+I still say that it was a good thing for you to discover
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, Father Philip? How can it be a
+good thing for a man to discover a change for the
+worse in a woman whom he has grown up with
+from boy and girl, whom he has loved, and who
+has been to him the ideal of all that was good and
+lovable on earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Maxwell, what you have just said convinces
+me that you have learnt or are in course of
+learning one of the most valuable lessons that experience
+can teach you. Remember that a man
+can only see with his own eyes, that he can only
+judge from his own perceptions. I do not agree
+with you in thinking that the Mrs. Garthorne of
+the present differs so greatly from the Miss Raleigh
+of the past. Different in a certain degree, of
+course, she must be. She was a girl then, living
+under the protection of her father's roof. She is a
+wife now, with a home of her own, with new cares,
+new responsibilities, new prospects. In fact, the
+whole world has changed for her, and therefore it
+would be very strange if she had not changed too.
+But that was not the change you saw. I would
+rather believe that that was in yourself, that you
+are a different man, not that she is a different
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I see what you mean," said Vane, seat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>ing
+himself on the edge of an old oak table in the
+middle of the room. "You mean that while she has
+remained the same or nearly so my point of view
+has altered. I see her in a different perspective,
+and through a different atmosphere."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," replied Father Philip. "It is both
+more reasonable and more charitable to believe
+that you have changed for the better, and not she
+for the worse."</p>
+
+<p>"God grant that it may be so," said Vane, slipping
+off the table and beginning his walk again.
+"If it is so, then at least my work has not been
+without some result, and some of my prayers have
+been granted. But now, Father Philip, I want your
+advice. What shall I do? Shall I stay here and
+meet her just as an old friend? Shall I accept her
+invitation over to the Abbey? Shall I bring her
+here and introduce her to you, so that you may tell
+her what she can do for our people? Shall I trust
+myself to this sort of intercourse with her, or, as
+my time here is nearly up, shall I go away?"</p>
+
+<p>"As for trusting yourself, Maxwell," said Father
+Philip slowly, "that is a question I cannot answer.
+You must ask that of your own soul, and I will
+pray and you must pray that it shall answer you
+with an honest 'Yes.' I don't believe that the answer
+will be anything else. But if it is, then by all
+means go, go to the first work that your hand finds
+to do. Go and join your friend Ernshaw in his
+mission under Southey. But if it is 'Yes,' as I hope
+and believe it will be, then stop until it is time for
+you to take your priest's orders. Visit the Abbey,
+bring Mrs. Garthorne here, interest her in the good
+work that you have already, I hope, made her begin
+by taking her to the Clellens. Prove to her and
+her husband, and, most important of all, to yourself,
+that you did not take that resolve of yours
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>lightly or in vain, that, in short, you are one of those
+who can, as Tennyson says, 'rise on stepping-stones
+of their dead selves to higher things.'</p>
+
+<p>"That, Maxwell, is the best advice I can give
+you. When you go to your room you will, of
+course, ask for guidance from the Source which
+cannot err, and I will add my prayers to yours that
+it may be given you."</p>
+
+<p>The next day a mounted footman brought a note
+from Garthorne to Vane saying that his wife had
+told him of her meeting with him, and also expressing
+his pleasure at finding that he was in the
+neighbourhood, and asking him to come over to
+dine and sleep at the Abbey the next evening. If
+that evening would suit him he had only to tell the
+messenger, and a dog-cart would be sent for him,
+as the distance by road over the Bewdley Bridge
+was considerably over seven miles.</p>
+
+<p>He had been awake nearly all night. In fact,
+he had spent the greater part of it on his knees
+questioning his own soul and seeking that advice
+which Father Philip had advised him to seek, and
+when the early morning service in the little chapel
+was over he honestly believed that he had found
+it. He went back into his room, after telling the
+man to put his horse in the stable, and go to what
+was stilled called the buttery and get a glass of
+beer, and wrote a note thanking Garthorne for his
+invitation, and accepting it for the following night.</p>
+
+<p>If Vane had been told a couple of years before
+that he would visit Enid and her husband as an
+ordinary guest, that he would sit opposite to her at
+table and hear her address another man as "dear"
+in the commonplace of marital conversation, that
+he would see her exchange with another man those
+little half-endearments which are not the least of
+the charms of the first few married years, and that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>he would be able to look upon all this at least
+with grave eyes and unmoved features, he would
+simply have laughed at the idea as something too
+ridiculous ever to come within the bounds of
+possibility.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, to the outward view, that was exactly what
+happened during his stay at Garthorne Abbey. He
+seemed to see Enid through some impalpable and
+yet impenetrable medium. He could see her as
+he always had seen her; but to touch her, to put
+his hand upon her, even to dream of one of those
+caresses which such a short time ago had been as
+common as hand-shakes between them, was every
+whit as impossible as the present condition of
+things would have seemed to him then.</p>
+
+<p>There were a few other people to dinner. None
+of them knew anything of his previous relationship
+to Enid, and their presence naturally, and perhaps
+fortunately, kept the conversation away from the
+things of the past; but the Fates had put him in
+full view of Enid at the table, and, do what he
+would, he could not keep his eyes from straying
+back again and again to that perfect and once well-beloved
+face, any more than he could keep his ears
+from listening to that voice which had once been
+the sweetest of music for him, rather than to the
+general conversation in which it was his social duty
+to take a part.</p>
+
+<p>It was a sore trial to the fortitude and self-control
+of a man who had loved as long and as dearly as
+he had done, but the strength which his long vigils
+away among the hills had given him did not desert
+him, and he came through it outwardly calm and
+triumphant, however deeply the iron was entering
+into his soul the while. It was one of those occasions
+on which such a man as he would take
+refuge from spiritual torment in intellectual acti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>vity,
+and neither Enid nor her husband had ever
+heard him talk so brilliantly and withal so lightly
+and good-humouredly as he did that night.</p>
+
+<p>One of the guests was the vicar of Bedminster;
+and a Canon of Worcester, an old friend of Sir
+Reginald's, happened to be staying in the house.
+They were both High Churchmen, the Canon perhaps
+a trifle "higher" than the Vicar, and they
+were both delighted with him. The Canon remembered
+his ordination at Worcester, and during
+the conversation, which had now turned upon the
+relationship between the Church and the People,
+he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Maxwell, I will say frankly if you can
+preach as well as you can talk, and if your doctrine
+is as sound as your opinion on things in general
+seems to be, the Church will be none the poorer
+when you are priested. I think I shall ask the
+Bishop to let you preach the Sunday after you take
+full orders. I suppose your Father Superior up
+there would let you come, wouldn't he?</p>
+
+<p>"A grand man, that Father Philip, by the way,"
+he went on, looking round the table. "In his
+quiet, unostentatious way, in his little room up there
+in the old house of Our Lady of Rest, as they used
+to call it, he has done more real work for the
+Church than, I am afraid, a good many of us have
+done with all our preaching in churches and cathedrals."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Enid, "would be altogether delightful.
+Of course, we should all come and hear
+your Reverence," she went on, with a half ironical
+nod towards Vane. "You know, Canon, Mr. Maxwell
+and I are quite old friends. In fact, we came
+home from India as children in the same ship,
+didn't we, Reggie?" she added, with another
+laughing nod, this time at her husband, "and I am
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>sure your Reverence would have no more interested
+listener than I should be."</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite possible, Mrs. Garthorne," Vane
+replied in something like the same tone, "that you
+might be more interested than pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed," said Enid, "and may I ask why?"</p>
+
+<p>There was an immediate silence round the
+table, everybody wondering what his answer
+would be.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," he replied, with a change of tone
+so swift as to be almost startling, "as soon as I
+take full Orders, it is my purpose, with God's
+help and under Father Philip's advice, to become a
+missionary, not a missionary to the heathen, as we
+are pleased to call them, or to the infinitely more
+degraded heathen of our own country, but to such
+people as you, you who are really living in sin
+without knowing it. Has it ever struck you, Canon,
+how great a work the Church has left undone in
+what are called the upper ranks of Society? You
+know the vast majority of them really and honestly
+believe themselves to be good Christians, and yet,
+as far as practical obedience to the teaching of
+Christ goes, they are no more Christians than an
+unconverted Hottentot is."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;er&mdash;ah&mdash;yes," replied the Canon rather
+awkwardly, and in the midst of a long silence.
+"Of course, I quite understand you and&mdash;er&mdash;by
+the way, do you intend to apply for any preferment?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall get a curacy with Ernshaw if I can
+in the East End to begin with, or, perhaps, with
+Father Baldwin in Kensington," said Vane, unable,
+like Enid and her husband and one or two others,
+to repress a faint smile at the Canon's not very
+skilful change of subject. "But I shall not attempt
+to get a living or anything of that sort. You see,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>I have some private means, and so I shall be in
+the happy position of being able to do my work
+without pay. Besides, while there is such an
+amount of poverty in the lower ranks of the Church,
+I think it is little less than sinful for a man who
+can live without it to take a stipend which, at
+least, might be bread and butter to a man who has
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>There was a rather awkward pause after this
+speech, as everyone at the table save Vane knew
+perfectly well that both the Vicar and the Canon
+had considerable private means in addition to the
+substantial stipends they drew from their clerical
+offices. At length Enid looked across at her husband
+with a wicked twinkle in her eye, and put
+an end to the situation by rising. As soon as the
+ladies were gone, Garthorne sent the wine round
+and adroitly turned the conversation back again
+to general subjects. When they went into the
+drawing-room, a discussion on the prospects of the
+season was in full swing, and from motives of
+prudence, this, varied with a little music and
+singing, was kept up till the ladies retired for the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>When Enid shook hands with Vane they happened
+to be out of earshot of the others, and as
+she returned his clasp with the same old frank
+pressure, she said in a low tone:</p>
+
+<p>"You were splendid to-night, Vane, and you
+will be more splendid still in the pulpit, only they'll
+never let you preach in the Cathedral after that.
+Well, good-night. After all, I was wrong and
+you were right. You have chosen the better part.
+God bless you and be with you, Vane. Good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>As their eyes met he fancied that he saw a faint
+mist in hers. Then her long lashes fell; she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>turned her head away and the next moment she
+was gone.</p>
+
+<p>When the good-nights had been said, Garthorne
+took his male guests into the smoking-room for
+whisky and soda and cigars. Vane laughingly declined,
+and asked permission to light a pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks," he said, with perfect good temper,
+although the offer was not in the best of taste.
+"I've not forgotten the last brandy and soda I
+had with you at Oxford."</p>
+
+<p>When bed-time came, Garthorne took Vane up
+to his room. As his host said "good-night," Vane
+followed him to the door and watched him as he
+went along the panelled corridor and down the
+great staircase to next floor, on which the Bride-chamber
+of the Abbey was situated. Then he
+went in and locked his door.</p>
+
+<p>He sat down in an easy chair in the corner of
+the room and covered his face with his hands.
+After all, had he done the right thing in accepting
+Garthorne's invitation? Had he not over-estimated
+his strength? As he sat there, he felt that
+he had thrown himself unnecessarily into a life
+and death conflict. He encountered temptations
+every day of his life, although to the ordinary
+individual it might seem that the life which he
+and his companions led must be singularly devoid
+of temptation, yet here he was confronted with a
+trial which he could have avoided. Ought he to
+have avoided it?</p>
+
+<p>Then there came to his mind the remembrance
+of a passage in one of the sermons which Father
+Philip had once preached to the little community
+in the Retreat. The words seemed particularly
+appropriate to Vane at the time, and he made a
+note of them in a little memorandum book which
+he always carried with him for the purpose of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>writing down any sentences which he heard or
+read which might strengthen him in the life which
+he had chosen for himself. He took the book
+from his pocket and read:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The ideal life is never one of rigid asceticism
+any more than it is one of voluptuous self-indulgence;
+it is an equilibrium of forces, a vital
+harmony, a constant symphony, in the performance
+of which all capabilities in all phases of expression
+are called into vital but never into hysterical
+activity. The true peace is so heroic that it only
+follows crucifixion of all that was once regarded as
+essential to human happiness."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He sat for a moment after he had read and
+re-read this passage. Then he went to the mirror
+over the mantel-piece, and drew back shocked and
+terrified at the sudden change which had come over
+his features. They reminded him strongly of the
+features he had seen in the glass that other night
+in Warwick Gardens. Then he turned away and
+threw himself on his knees by the bed and
+groaned aloud in the bitterness of his soul:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, God! it is too heavy for me! Not by my
+strength but by Thine alone can I bear it."</p>
+
+<p>It was the only prayer he uttered. In fact, they
+were the only words he could speak; but when
+he rose from the bedside he felt relieved, so far
+relieved that he took from his pocket a well-worn
+copy of Thomas ŕ Kempis's "Imitation," and sat
+and read until almost daybreak.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was the morning of Trinity Sunday, and Worcester
+Cathedral was crowded by a congregation
+which, if it had been an audience in an unconsecrated
+building, could have been justly described
+as brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>Trinity Sunday is usually what may, without
+irreverence, be called more or less of a show Sunday
+in all churches. To-day all the clerical light
+and learning of the diocese was gathered together
+in the grand old Cathedral. The various portions
+of the service were to be conducted by clergy of
+high rank and notable social position. No one
+under the rank of a Canon, at least, would take
+any part in the proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>The first lesson would be read by the Vicar of
+Bedminster, who was also a Canon of the Cathedral,
+and the second by Canon Thornton-Moore,
+whose acquaintance the reader has already made
+at Garthorne Abbey. Both of them were men of
+dignified presence, and both possessed good voices
+and a careful elocutionary training.</p>
+
+<p>The Epistle and Gospel would be read by the
+Archdeacon and the Dean. Organ and choir were
+tuned to a perfection of harmony. And finally
+the Bishop would preach. After that would come
+the administration of the Sacrament to those who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>had not received it at the early service, for Trinity
+Sunday is accredited one of those three days on
+which, at least, the faithful member of the Anglican
+Church shall communicate. Then, the communion
+over, the Bishop would hold an Ordination, in consideration
+of which he had thoughtfully and thankfully
+curtailed his eloquence in the pulpit.</p>
+
+<p>At this ordination Mark Ernshaw, who had
+already won fame both as an earnest and utterly
+self-sacrificing missionary, in the moral and spiritual
+wilds of East and South London, and also as a
+preacher who could fill any West End Church to
+suffocation, was to be admitted to full orders in
+company with his friend, Vane Maxwell, who was
+so far unknown to fame save for the fact that he
+was locally known as one of the dwellers in the
+Retreat among the hills, and, therefore, as one
+who had sat at the feet of the far-famed Father
+Philip, who himself had to-day made one of his
+rare appearances in the world, and was occupying
+one of the Canons' stalls in the chancel.</p>
+
+<p>All the Clergy at the Retreat were popularly
+supposed to have "a past" of some sort, and as
+Vane had come from there and was also credited
+with being young and exceedingly good-looking&mdash;some
+of the lady visitors to the Retreat had
+described him as possessing "an almost saintlike
+beauty, my dear"&mdash;he also was a focus of interest.
+Moreover, he was known to have taken a brilliant
+degree at Oxford, and to have had equally brilliant
+worldly prospects which he had suddenly and unaccountably
+relinquished to go into the Church.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it came to pass that a very different and
+much more numerous congregation witnessed this
+ceremonial than the one which had taken place at
+the same altar rails a little more than a twelvemonth
+before.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+<p>Of course, all the party from the Abbey were
+present, including Sir Reginald, who had come
+down for a few days from town. Enid and her
+husband had communicated. It was their first
+communion since their marriage. Then they had
+gone back to their places to await the ordination.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the front rows of the transept seats
+there was a tall, well-dressed girl, very pretty,
+with dark, deep, serious eyes which, in the intervals
+of the service she had several times raised and
+turned on Enid and her husband, who were sitting
+on the same side towards the front, in the body
+of the Cathedral. She was the very last person
+in the world, saving only, perhaps, Carol herself,
+whom Garthorne would have wished to see just
+then and there, and as soon as he had made sure
+that Dora Murray really was sitting within a few
+yards of him he began to be haunted by ugly
+fears of blackmail and exposure&mdash;which showed
+how very little he had learnt of Dora's character
+during the time that Carol had shared the flat with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>But Dora's thoughts were very different, for they
+were all of fear, mingled with something like
+horror. She looked at the sweet-faced girl sitting
+beside Reginald Garthorne, and thought of the
+ruin and desolation that would fall upon her young
+life, with all its brilliant outward promise, if she
+only knew what she could have told her. She
+looked at her husband and wondered what all these
+good people&mdash;most of whom would have given
+almost anything for an invitation to his home&mdash;what
+these grave-faced, decorous clergy, too, would
+think if they could see him as she had seen him
+only a few months before. There was Sir Arthur
+Maxwell, too, sitting a little farther on, and beside
+him Sir Godfrey and Lady Raleigh, though, of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>course, she did not know them, but she guessed
+who they were, and close to Sir Arthur sat Sir
+Reginald, his host for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the Abbey party had communicated
+together. What would happen if she were
+to go to Sir Arthur after the service, and tell him
+what Carol had told her, if he were to learn that
+he had been kneeling at the altar rails beside the
+betrayer of his wife and the dishonourer of his
+name?</p>
+
+<p>When she had seen Sir Reginald rise from his
+seat and go with the rest of the party across the
+centre transept to the chancel, she needed all her
+self-control to shut her teeth and clench her hands
+and prevent herself from leaving her seat and
+accusing him of his infamy before clergy and congregation.
+She thought thankfully how good a
+thing it was that Carol, with her fierce impetuosity
+and sense of bitter wrong, was not there too.
+There was no telling what disaster might have
+happened, how many lives might have been
+wrecked by the words which she might have flung
+out at him, red-hot from her angry heart.</p>
+
+<p>In her way Dora was a really religious girl, as
+many of her class are. So religious, indeed, that
+she would not have dared to have approached the
+altar herself; because she knew that for her, wedded
+as she was to the pleasant careless life she led,
+repentance and reform were quite out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>She saw no incongruity at all in this. She went
+to church regularly in London, offered up as simple
+and as earnest prayers as anyone; lifted up her
+beautiful voice in the hymns and psalms and
+responses in honest forgetfulness of the things of
+yesterday and to-morrow, and, for the time being
+at least, took the lessons of the sermon to heart
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>with a simple faith which many of her respectable
+sisters in the congregation were far from feeling.</p>
+
+<p>In short, though the circumstances were different,
+she was very much in the position of the average
+respectable, well-to-do church-going Christian who
+will strive all the week, often by quite questionable
+methods, to lay up for himself and his wife
+and family treasures upon earth, and then on Sunday
+go to church and listen with the most perfect
+honesty and the most undisturbed equanimity to
+the reading of the Sermon on the Mount.</p>
+
+<p>But when she saw Sir Reginald go with his son
+and his daughter-in-law, with her parents and
+Vane's father up through the chancel where Vane
+was sitting, her heart turned sick in her breast.
+The sacrilege, the blasphemy of it all seemed
+horrible beyond belief. Again and again the
+words rose to her lips. Again and again an almost
+irresistible impulse impelled her to get up, and
+she was only saved from doing what all that was
+best in her nature urged her to do, by the knowledge
+that, after all, she might only be expelled
+from the Cathedral by the Vergers, and perhaps
+prosecuted afterwards for brawling. Then her
+real story would come out.</p>
+
+<p>She was visiting her parents who lived in Worcester,
+and who believed that she was conducting
+a little millinery business in London. She had
+great natural skill in designing head-gear&mdash;her own
+hat, for instance, had been gazed on by many an
+envious eye since the service began&mdash;and she
+would have bitten her tongue through, rather than
+say a word which would have undeceived them.
+And so for this reason as well she held her
+peace.</p>
+
+<p>Then she had heard the sonorous voice of the
+officiating priest rolling down the chancel:</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+<blockquote><p>"Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of
+your sins, and are in love and charity with your
+neighbours and intend to lead a new life, following
+the commandments of God and walking from
+henceforth in His holy way, draw near with faith
+and take this Holy Sacrament to your comfort."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Then came the general confession, and as she
+followed it in her prayer-book she thought of that
+unconfessed, though, perhaps, not unrepented sin
+of which she alone, save Sir Reginald, in all that
+great congregation knew. How could this man
+kneel there and say these solemn words, before he
+had confessed his sin to the man he had wronged,
+to the husband from whom he had stolen a wife,
+to the son he had deprived of a mother? What
+horrible mockery and blasphemy it all was!
+Surely some day some terrible retribution must
+fall on him for this.</p>
+
+<p>After the Eucharist followed, as usual on such
+occasions, the Ordination Service. She had never
+seen Vane before, but when some of the congregation
+had left after the Communion Service, she
+left her seat and took a vacant one in front of
+the chancel, and then, even at some distance, she
+recognised him immediately by his likeness to
+Carol. It seemed to her that she had never seen
+anything so beautiful in human shape when he
+rose in his surplice and stole and hood to take
+his place before the Bishop at the altar-rail. And
+yet how different must her thoughts have been
+from Enid's, as they both looked upon the kneeling
+figure and listened to the words which were
+the actual fulfilment of the vow that he had taken
+to take up his cross and follow Him who said:
+"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all
+that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+<p>Then, in due course, came the fateful words,
+more full of fate, so far as they concerned Vane,
+than any who knew him in the congregation had
+any idea of.</p>
+
+<p>"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and
+work of a priest in the Church of God, now committed
+unto thee by the Imposition of our hands
+from God. Whose sins thou dost forgive they
+are forgiven, and whose sins thou dost retain they
+are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser
+of the word of God and of his Holy Sacraments;
+in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
+the Holy Ghost. Amen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven,
+and whose sins thou dost retain, they are
+retained!"</p>
+
+<p>Saving only Vane himself, these words had a
+deeper meaning for Dora, the Magdalen, the
+sinner, and the outcast, than they had for anyone
+else in the congregation, and in one sense they
+meant even more to her than they could do to
+him. When he rose from his knees before the
+altar rails, he would rise invested, as she believed,
+by the authority of God through the Church,
+with a power infinitely greater than that of any
+earthly judge. It was his to forgive or retain,
+his to pardon or to damn. That, to her simple
+reasoning, was the absolute meaning of the words
+as the Bishop had spoken them.</p>
+
+<p>Some day it might happen that Carol would be
+confronted with the man whom she believed to
+be her father. What if she were to bring Vane
+face to face with him and he knew him for what
+he was, what would he do, not as man, but as
+priest&mdash;forgive or retain, absolve or damn?</p>
+
+<p>When the ordination service was over and the
+congregation was moving out of the Cathedral,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>Sir Arthur caught sight of Dora for the first
+time. They were only a few feet apart, and
+recognition was inevitable. She looked at him as
+though she had never seen him before, although
+she had been present at more than one interview
+between him and Carol at Melville Gardens, but
+Sir Arthur at once edged his way towards her,
+shook hands in that decorous fashion which is
+usual among departing congregations, and said, in
+an equally decorous whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Miss Murray! I hope you
+have not come here by accident, and that you will
+be able to give me some news of Carol. We
+have looked for you everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Except perhaps in the right place," she murmured,
+putting her hand into his, "and if you
+had found us I don't think it would have been of
+any use. Carol's mind was quite made up. My
+address is 15, Stonebridge Street, if you wish to
+write to me. Good morning."</p>
+
+<p>And then they parted, he to go his way and she
+to go hers, and each with an infinite pity for the
+other, and yet with what different reasons? It
+was only a chance meeting, the accidental crossing
+of two widely diverging life-paths; only one
+of those instances in which romance delights to
+mock the commonplace, and yet how much it
+meant&mdash;and how much might it mean when the
+future had become the present.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Garthorne and Enid had been
+pressing on in front, and so he had not noticed the
+meeting between Sir Arthur and Dora, whereby
+the second possible catastrophe of the day was
+averted.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur was one of the house-party at the
+Abbey, for he and Sir Reginald had been to a
+certain extent colleagues in India, and had kept
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>up their acquaintance, and now that Sir Reginald's
+son had married the girl whom Sir Arthur had
+always looked upon as a prospective daughter-in-law,
+the intimacy had become somewhat closer.
+Sir Arthur had said frankly at the first that he
+thought Vane had done an exceedingly foolish
+thing; but since he had done it and meant to
+stick to it, there was an end of the matter, and if
+Vane couldn't or wouldn't marry Enid, he would,
+after all, rather see her the wife of his old friend's
+son than anybody else's. He had, therefore,
+willingly accepted Sir Reginald's invitation to
+spend a few days at the Abbey and witness his
+son's admission to the full orders of the priesthood.</p>
+
+<p>Vane and Ernshaw, after exchanging greetings
+and receiving congratulations, declined Sir
+Reginald's invitation to dine and sleep at the
+Abbey, and went straight back to the Retreat with
+Father Philip.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that, somewhat late that night after
+their guests had gone to bed, Reginald Garthorne
+had a couple of rather important letters to write,
+and sat up to get them finished. When he had
+sealed and stamped them, he took them to the
+post-box in the hall. The postman's lock-up bag
+was standing on the hall table, and, as he knew
+there wouldn't be any more letters that night, he
+thought he might as well put what there were
+there into the bag and lock it with his own key.
+He took them out in a handful, but before he
+could put them into the bag they slipped and
+scattered on to the table. He bent down to gather
+them up, and there, right under his eyes, was an
+envelope addressed in Sir Arthur Maxwell's handwriting
+to Miss Dora Murray, 15 Stonebridge
+Street, Worcester. He would have given a thou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>sand
+pounds to know what that thin paper cover
+concealed. The thought half entered his mind
+to take it away and steam it, read the letter, and
+then put it back again; but he was not without
+his own notions of honour, and he dismissed the
+thought before it was fully formed. He contented
+himself with taking out his pencil and copying the
+address, and as he put the letters into the bag and
+locked it he said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I was wondering at service what in the
+name of all that's unlucky brought that girl down
+here just now, and I suppose I shall have to find
+out. But what the deuce does the old man want
+writing to her? A nice thing if they were to
+discover the lost Miss Carol and present her to
+the world as Vane's half-sister, and then the rest
+of the story came out. What an almighty fool I
+was to do that. If I'd only known that Enid
+really would have me&mdash;but it's no use grizzling
+over that. I shall have to find out what that
+young woman wants down in this part of the world,
+and why Sir Arthur should be writing to her, that's
+quite certain."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Among Garthorne's letters the next morning there
+chanced to be one from his solicitor in Worcester,
+and so this made an excellent excuse for him to
+get away for the day. Enid was going to drive
+Sir Arthur and Sir Reginald over to the Retreat,
+so he ordered the dogcart to take him to Kidderminster,
+whence he took train for Worcester.</p>
+
+<p>He knew enough of Dora's circumstances with
+regard to her parents to recognise the imprudence
+of calling upon her without notice, and so he
+lunched at the Mitre Hotel, and sent a messenger
+with a note asking her to meet him at three o'clock
+on the River Walk. The messenger was instructed
+to wait for an answer if Miss Murray
+was in.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Murray was in, and when she read the note
+her first notion was that Garthorne had by some
+means got an inkling of the truth, or, at the least,
+had discovered that she was in communication with
+Sir Arthur Maxwell and wished to know the
+reason. She made up her mind at once to hold
+her tongue on both subjects, but at the same time,
+she felt that it would hardly be wise to refuse to
+meet him. It must also be admitted that she also
+was possessed by a pardonable, because feminine,
+curiosity as to what he wanted with her. She felt,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>however, that in such a place as Worcester it
+would be most imprudent for her to meet a man
+so well known in the County as Reginald Garthorne
+on one of the public thoroughfares, and so
+she wrote her answer as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+"<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Garthorne</span>,<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"I have no idea why you should wish to
+see me, and I do not think that it would be prudent
+to meet you as you suggest. You know how I am
+situated here, and so I think it would be best, if
+you really must speak to me, as you say, for you
+to come and see me here, not under your own name,
+of course, as that is much too well known. I
+would therefore suggest that you should call yourself
+Mr. Johnson, and I will say that you are a
+representative of one of the big millinery houses
+in London, and that you have come to see me on
+business. I shall wait in for you till three.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Yours sincerely,<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Dora Murray</span>."<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Garthorne saw the wisdom of this suggestion,
+and "Mr. Johnson" announced himself at half
+past two. Dora received him alone in a little
+back sitting-room, but his reception was not altogether
+encouraging, for when he held out his hand
+and said "Good afternoon, Dora!" she flushed a
+little, and affecting not to see his hand, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Murray, if you please, Mr. Garthorne,
+now and for the future. You seem to have forgotten
+that, for me, at least, Worcester is not
+London."</p>
+
+<p>He was so completely taken aback by this
+utterly unexpected speech, as well as by the unwonted
+tone in which it was spoken, that his outstretched
+hand dropped to his side somewhat
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>limply, and he felt himself straightening up and
+staring at her in blank astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss Murray," he said, in
+a tone which sounded a great deal more awkward
+than he meant it to do. "Of course, I was quite
+wrong; I ought not to have forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no necessity for an apology," she said,
+more distantly than before. "Will you sit down?
+You want to see me about something, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, sitting down and fingering the
+brim of his hat somewhat nervously. "Yes, that
+is what I have come over to Worcester for. In
+fact, I have been wanting to see you for some
+time. In the first place, I had a rather extraordinary
+letter from Carol some time ago, sending
+back some money which I, of course, can't accept,
+so I've brought it with me to ask you to take it
+and use it in any way that you think fit."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, of course, in charity?" said Dora,
+looking him straight in the eyes. "You wouldn't
+insult me by meaning it in any other way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, certainly not," he said, more awkwardly
+than before, and wondering what on earth had
+produced this extraordinary change in her manner.
+"I hope you know me well enough to believe me
+quite incapable of such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"If you only knew how well I know you!"
+thought Dora, "I wonder what you'd think?"</p>
+
+<p>But she said aloud, and rather more kindly than
+before:</p>
+
+<p>"You must forgive me, Mr. Garthorne, I spoke
+rather hastily then. I quite see what you mean.
+It's very good of you, and I'm sure that if Carol
+were here she would tell me to take the money
+and use it that way&mdash;so I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you very much, Miss Murray," he replied,
+taking an envelope out of his pocket-book.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>"There are the notes and postal orders exactly
+as she sent them to me. And now, may I ask
+where she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't answer that, Mr. Garthorne, because
+I don't know. The night that she sent you that
+money back she made the acquaintance of a very
+nice fellow who is something more than a millionaire,
+and since then they've been taking a sort
+of irregular honeymoon round the world. The
+last letter I had from her was from Sydney. She
+seems very jolly and enjoying herself immensely."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to hear it," said Garthorne, speaking the
+thing which was not altogether true. "She's a
+jolly girl, and deserves the best of luck&mdash;which she
+seems to have got. And the millionaire&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>Dora shook her head, and said quietly but
+decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Garthorne, I'm afraid I can't tell you
+anything about him. It would be a breach of
+confidence if I did, and so I'm sure you won't ask
+for it. Do you want to ask me about anything
+else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, hesitatingly, "I do." There was
+a little pause, during which they looked at each
+other, he enquiringly and she absolutely impassive.
+Then he went on: "Of course, you saw us in the
+Cathedral yesterday, and I think you know Sir
+Arthur Maxwell personally. You met him once or
+twice when he went to call on Carol at Melville
+Gardens."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was another pause, and, as Garthorne
+didn't seem able to find anything to say, Dora went
+on speaking very quietly, but with a curious note
+of restraint in her voice which puzzled him considerably.</p>
+
+<p>"I do know Sir Arthur, and I tried hard to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>persuade Carol to do what he wanted her to do,
+although, all the same, I think I should have done
+as she did if I had been her. I don't know whether
+you saw Sir Arthur speak to me in the Cathedral
+as we were coming out, but he did. I have had
+a letter from him this morning, and he is coming
+to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you are not going to say anything&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I am not," said Dora, rising from her
+chair white to the lips and with an ominous glitter
+in her eyes. She took up the envelope which
+Garthorne had laid on the table, and tossed it at
+him. "You know me for what I am in London,
+and it seems that you only look upon me as an
+animal to be hired for the amusement of people
+like you, not as a woman who still has her notions
+of honour. That is an insult which I cannot
+pardon. You behaved well, as things go, to Carol,
+but you have now shown me that, whatever you
+are in name and family, you are in yourself an
+unspeakable cad. You came here thinking that I
+was going to blackmail you because I happened
+to know something about you which you would
+not like your wife to know. If you only knew
+what I could tell you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>And then she checked herself, and after a little
+pause, she pointed to the door and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have got your money, Mr. Garthorne, and
+there is the door. You will oblige me by leaving
+the house as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"But really, Miss Murray&mdash;&mdash;" he began, as
+he rose, not a little bewildered, from his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" she said. "In mercy to yourself and
+your wife, stop! There is the door; go, and
+remember that from now we are strangers, and if
+ever you meet Carol again&mdash;no, I won't say that.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>God grant that you never may see her again, for
+if you do&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and suppose I do, Miss Murray, what
+then?" he interrupted, with his hand on the handle
+of the door. He had never heard such words from
+the lips of either man or woman before, and that
+personal vanity which is a characteristic even of the
+worst of men was grievously outraged.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind what I mean," she said, cutting him
+short again. "I have said all that I am going to
+say except this&mdash;if ever you meet Carol again, for
+her sake and yours, for your wife's and your children's
+when they come, <i>don't see her</i>. Now go!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a something in her voice and in her
+manner which said even more than her lips had
+done. Something which not only struck him dumb
+for the time being, but which also drove home into
+his soul a conviction that this girl, outcast and
+social pariah as she was, not only held his fate in
+her hands, but that she possessed some unknown
+power over his destiny, that she knew something
+which, if spoken, might blast the bright promise
+of his life and overwhelm him in irretrievable ruin.</p>
+
+<p>She had called him a cad, and as his thoughts
+flew back to that morning in Vane Maxwell's rooms
+at Oxford, a pang of self-conviction told him that
+she had spoken justly. He felt, too, that he was
+hopelessly in the wrong, that by his suggestion he
+had sorely insulted her, and that in exchange for
+his insult she had given him mercy. He would
+have given anything to know the real meaning of
+her words, and yet he dare not even ask her.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round at her once and saw her, standing
+rigid and impassive waiting to be relieved of his
+presence. His thoughts went back a few months
+to the times when those little dinners of four had
+been so pleasant, and when this girl, who was now
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>looking at him like an accusing angel, had matched
+even Carol herself in the gaiety of her conversation
+and the careless use she made of her mother-wit,
+and he tried hard to say something which should
+in some way cover his retreat, but the words
+wouldn't come, and so he just opened the door and
+walked out.</p>
+
+<p>Dora heard the street door bang behind him,
+and then her tensely-strung nerves relaxed. She
+dropped into an easy chair, clasped her hands over
+her temples, and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, oh dear, how is all this going to end,
+and what would happen if they only knew! And
+now I've got to see Sir Arthur. Shall I tell him
+everything or not? No, I daren't, I daren't. It's
+too awful. Was there ever anything like it in the
+world before?"</p>
+
+<p>And then her body swayed forward, her elbows
+dropped on to her knees, her hands clasped her
+temples tighter, and the next moment she had burst
+into a passion of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Tears are a torture to men and a relief to women,
+so in a few minutes she lifted her head again, the
+storm was over and she began to look the situation
+over calmly. The more she thought of it the more
+certain it seemed that she could do nothing but
+irretrievable mischief by even hinting to Sir Arthur
+anything of what she knew. At any rate she decided
+that until Carol came back she would keep
+her knowledge absolutely to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Then the train of her thoughts was suddenly
+broken by the postman's knock at the door. There
+was a London letter addressed to herself in the
+familiar handwriting of Mr. Bernard Falcon. As she
+opened it she experienced a singular mixture of relief
+and vexation, tinged by a suggestion of shame.</p>
+
+<p>The letter began with an inquiry as to when she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>was coming back to Town, and ended with an invitation
+to spend a week end in the round trip from
+London to Dover, Calais, Boulogne and Folkestone.</p>
+
+<p>She had been nearly a fortnight in Worcester,
+and, truth to tell, she was getting a little tired of
+it. Falcon's letter offered her a double relief. It
+would save her from the ordeal of meeting Sir
+Arthur, and, combined with the visit of "Mr. Johnson,"
+it would give her a good excuse to her parents
+for going back to Town at once; so she sat down
+and wrote two letters, one to Falcon telling him
+that he could meet her at Paddington the next
+evening, and the other to Sir Arthur telling him
+all she knew about Carol, saving only the name of
+her companion, and regretting that she would not
+be able to meet him, as she was starting for the
+Continent that day. For obvious reasons she, of
+course, said nothing of Garthorne's visit to her.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur was as much disappointed with his
+letter as Mr. Falcon was pleased by his. Dora left
+Worcester the day that he received it, and while
+she was dining with Mr. Falcon at the Globe
+Restaurant, Sir Arthur was telling Vane and Mark
+Ernshaw, who had come over to dine and sleep at
+the Abbey, all that he knew of Miss Carol's latest
+escapade.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very, very sorry," said Ernshaw when he
+had finished. "We've never told you before, Sir
+Arthur, but I may as well tell you now that, if Miss
+Vane had not disappeared as mysteriously as she
+did, Vane was to have introduced me to her, and
+I was going to marry her if she would have me."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur looked at him in silence for a few moments,
+and then he took his hand and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I know that is true, Ernshaw, because you have
+said it; though I would not have believed it from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>anyone else except Vane. I would willingly give
+everything that I possess and go back to work to
+make such a thing possible, but I'm afraid it isn't,
+and now, of course, it is more impossible than ever.
+Frankly, I don't believe she'd have you. It sounds
+a very curious thing to say, but from what I have
+seen of her, granted even that she fell in love with
+you, the more she loved you the more absolutely
+she would refuse to marry you. You know we offered
+her everything we could. Vane and I both
+agreed to acknowledge her and have her to live
+with us, but it was no use. She refused in such
+a way that she made me long all the more to take
+her for my own daughter before the world; but
+there was no mistaking the refusal, and the day
+after our last interview she clinched it by vanishing,
+I suppose with this young millionaire who is
+with her now. It's very terrible, of course, but
+there it is. It's done, and I'm afraid there's no
+mending it. Perhaps, after all, it is better for you
+that it should be so."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Ernshaw," said Vane. "It's not a nice
+thing to say under the circumstances, but I think
+the governor's right."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly, but I don't agree with you," he replied.
+"You know I am what a good many people
+would call an enthusiast on the subject of this so-called
+social evil, for which, as I believe, Society
+itself is almost entirely to blame, and I am quite
+prepared to put my views into practice."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Sir Arthur, smiling gravely, "I
+think when we get back to Town I'd better introduce
+you to Miss Murray, who was living with
+Carol in Melville Gardens, where I first saw her.
+She was in the Cathedral on Sunday. Her parents
+live in Worcester, and they believe, poor people,
+that she has a little millinery business in London.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>She says she's going on the Continent, I suppose
+with this friend of hers. But she has given me an
+address in London where she can be found.</p>
+
+<p>"Now there, Ernshaw," he went on, "there I
+believe you would find a far better subject for your
+social experiment, if you are determined to make
+it, than poor Carol could ever be. I don't know
+her history, but she is evidently a lady born and
+educated. She is quite as good-looking as Carol,
+only an entirely different type, taller, darker, and
+with deep, mysterious brown eyes which evidently
+have a soul behind them. At any rate, I'm quite
+convinced that she would make a much better social
+missionary's wife than poor Carol would.</p>
+
+<p>"She, I sadly fear, is 'a daughter of delight,' as
+the French call them, pure and simple. She told
+me point blank that she preferred her present mode
+of life to respectability, and that she considered
+that taking even my money or Vane's, when she
+had no real claim upon us, was more degrading and
+would hurt her self-respect a great deal more than
+doing what she is doing. In other respects she's
+as good a girl as ever walked, and as honest as the
+daylight, but I'm afraid there is no hope of social
+regeneration for her."</p>
+
+<p>"Hope was once found for one a thousand times
+worse than she!" said Ernshaw quietly. "But as
+I have seen neither of them yet, no harm can be
+done by my making the acquaintance of Miss Murray
+to begin with."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Sir Arthur, not at all sorry to
+change the subject. "And now, talking about
+social missionaries, Vane, have you quite made up
+your mind to carry out this scheme of yours, this
+crusade against money-making and the pomps and
+vanities of Society? Do you really mean to show
+that your own father has been living in sin all these
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>years; that he is not, in fact, a Christian at all, because
+it is impossible for anyone to be decently
+well off and a Christian at the same time? A nice
+sort of thing that, Ernshaw, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If Vane honestly believes, as he does, that his
+is the only true definition of a Christian, it is not
+only his right but his duty to preach it," was the
+young priest's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my belief," said Vane quietly, "and, God
+helping me, I will do what I believe to be my duty."</p>
+
+<p>The party at the Abbey broke up a few days
+after this, and in another week or so Enid and her
+husband were in the full swing of the great merry-go-round
+which is called the London season. She
+was unquestionably the most beautiful of the brides
+of the year, and she was the undisputed belle of
+the Drawing Room at which she was presented.</p>
+
+<p>Garthorne was, of course, very proud of her, and
+received plenty of that second-hand sort of admiration
+which is accorded alike to the owner of a
+distinguished race-horse, a prize bull-dog, or a
+pretty wife.</p>
+
+<p>Under the circumstances, therefore, it was perfectly
+natural that they should enjoy themselves
+very thoroughly, and though towards the end Garthorne
+began to get a little bored, and to think
+rather longingly of his yacht on the Solent and
+his grouse moor in Scotland, Enid, with her youth
+and beauty and perfect constitution, enjoyed every
+hour and every minute of her waking life. Society
+had no very distinguished lion to fall down and
+worship that season, and so, towards the end, things
+were getting a little slow, and people were thinking
+seriously of escaping from the heat and dust of
+London, when the world of wealth and fashion was
+suddenly thrilled into fresh life by an absolutely
+new sensation.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>One Sunday morning, about the middle of June,
+the large and fashionable congregation which filled
+the church of St. Chrysostom, South Kensington,
+a church which will be recognised as one of the
+very "highest" in London, and which, to use a
+not altogether unsuitable term, "draws" all the
+year round by reason of the splendour of its ritual,
+as well as the simple earnest eloquence of its clergy,
+was startled by the preaching of such a sermon
+as no member of it had ever heard before.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher for the morning was announced
+to be the Rev. Father Vane, a name which meant
+nothing to more than about half a dozen members
+of the congregation, but which every man and
+woman in the church had some cause to remember
+by the time the service was over.</p>
+
+<p>Father Baldwin, as the vicar of St. Chrysostom's
+was familiarly known, was a very old friend of
+Father Philip's, and Vane's appearance as preacher
+that morning was the result of certain correspondence
+which had taken place between them, and
+of several long and earnest conversations which he
+had had with Vane himself.</p>
+
+<p>The moment that Vane appeared in the pulpit,
+that strange rustling sound which always betokens
+an access of sensation in a church, became distinctly
+audible from the side where the women
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>sat. As he stood there in cassock, cotta and
+white, gold-embroidered stole, he looked, as many
+a maid, and matron too, said afterwards, almost
+too beautiful to be human. Both as boy and man
+he had always been strikingly handsome, but the
+long weeks and months of prayer and fasting, and
+the constant struggle of the soul against the flesh,
+had refined and spiritualised him. To speak of
+an everyday man of the world, however good-looking
+he may be, as beautiful is rather to ridicule
+him than otherwise, but when such a man as Vane
+passes through such an ordeal as his had been, the
+word beauty may be justly used in the sense in
+which the feminine portion of the congregation of
+St. Chrysostom's unanimously used it that morning.</p>
+
+<p>There was a hush of expectation as he opened
+a small Bible lying on the desk in front of him.
+Then he raised his right hand and made the sign
+of the Cross.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In the name of the Father and of the Son
+and of the Holy Ghost, Amen!"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The words were not hastily and inaudibly
+muttered as they too often are by the clergy of
+the High Anglican persuasion. They rang out as
+clearly as the notes of a bell through the silence
+of the crowded church, and the congregation
+recognised instantly that he possessed, at least,
+the first qualification of a great preacher.</p>
+
+<p>Then he took up his Bible, and said in a quite
+ordinary conversational tone:</p>
+
+<p>"It will be well if those who wish to follow
+what I am about to say will take their Bibles and
+turn to the fifth chapter of the Gospel according
+to St. Matthew."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+<p>The opening was as unpromising as it was unconventional,
+but more than half the congregation
+obeyed, and when the rustling of leaves had subsided,
+he began to read the Sermon on the
+Mount.</p>
+
+<p>When the first thrill of astonishment had passed,
+it was noticed that, after the first few verses, he
+ceased to look at the Bible. Every member of
+the congregation had heard the words over and
+over again, but they had never heard them as
+they heard them now. It was nothing like the
+formal reading of the lessons to which they had
+been accustomed, and as the clear, pure tones of
+his voice rang through the church, and, as his
+eyes and face lighted up with the radiance of an
+almost divine enthusiasm, there were some in his
+audience who began to think that he might well
+have been a re-incarnation of one of those disciples
+of the Master who heard the words as they came
+from His lips that day on the Judean hillside.</p>
+
+<p>He went on verse after verse, never missing a
+word, and unconsciously emphasising each passage
+with gestures, slight in themselves, but eloquent
+and forcible in their exact suitability to the words,
+and very soon every man and woman in the
+church was listening to him, not only with rapt
+attention, but with a growing feeling of uneasiness
+and apprehension as to what was to follow.</p>
+
+<p>At length he came to the twenty-third verse of
+the seventh chapter:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"And then will I profess unto them, I never
+knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There was an emphasis upon the last few words
+which sent a thrill of emotion, and, in many cases,
+one of angry expectation, through the crowded con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>gregation.
+It was one of the wealthiest, and most
+fashionable in London, but, saving a comparatively
+few really earnest souls, it was composed for the
+most part of idlers and loungers, who came to St.
+Chrysostom's partly because it was one of the
+most fashionable churches in the West End, partly
+because it was the proper thing to attend Church
+on Sunday, and partly because the music, and
+singing and preaching were all so good, and the
+elaborate ceremonial was so perfectly performed,
+that it afforded the means of spending a few hours
+on Sunday in a very pleasant way.</p>
+
+<p>The young preacher looked at the crowd of well-dressed
+men and women for a few moments in
+silence, as though he would give them time to
+realise the tremendous solemnity of the words
+they had just heard. There was dead, breathless
+silence at first, and then came a rustling sound,
+mingled with one of deep breathing. Then he
+began again in the same direct, conversational tone
+in which he had asked them to take their Bibles.</p>
+
+<p>"I am addressing," he said, in a low, clear tone
+which could be heard as distinctly at the church
+doors as it could by those immediately under the
+pulpit, "an audience which is composed of men
+and women who are, nominally, at least, Christians,
+and now I am going to ask you, every man and
+woman of you, to ask your own souls the simple
+question, whether you really are Christians, or
+not.</p>
+
+<p>"A good many of you, I daresay, will be a little
+startled, perhaps some of you may even be
+offended by the suggestion of such a question.
+With every regard for your feelings as brother
+men and sister women, I sincerely hope you will
+be. My reason for hoping that is very simple.
+The vast majority of people in Christian countries
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>are Christians simply because they have been born
+of Christian parents, just as they are Protestants or
+Catholics because their parents were such before
+them, and their early training has strongly predisposed
+their minds to the acceptance&mdash;too often
+the blind acceptance&mdash;of a certain set of doctrines
+which, with all reverence, are by themselves of no
+more use for the purpose of saving a human soul
+from eternal damnation than the multiplication
+table would be. These doctrines, these creeds,
+are aids to salvation, most potent aids, but they are
+not essentials, since of themselves they cannot save.</p>
+
+<p>"It is far too often taken for granted that, because
+a man has been brought up in a Christian
+family, has been baptised into the Church of
+Christ, and has later on been admitted into the
+communion of that Church, that, therefore, he is
+justified in believing himself to be a Christian.
+He has, as we of the Church Catholic and
+Universal fervently believe, been placed in the
+path which leads to salvation. His vision has
+been cleared from the mists of error. The
+Church, in the fulfilment of her holy mission, has
+caused the white light of heaven to shine upon
+his eyes. His feet have been set in the strait
+gate and on the narrow way which leads to eternal
+life, but not all the priests from Abraham down
+to our own day, nor all the Churches that ever
+were founded can do any more. The way must
+be travelled by the man himself, his own eyes
+must see the light, his own feet must tread the
+way, no matter how steep or difficult it may be&mdash;or
+that man has no more right to call himself a
+Christian than any worshipper of any of the false
+gods whose reign has vanished from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"It was for the purpose of bringing this most
+solemn truth, this most solemn and momentous of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>all truth home to you that I began by repeating
+the words which the Greatest of all Preachers
+pronounced for the guidance of those who should
+come after Him."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, and took up his Bible again. Meanwhile,
+a few people, both men and women, whose
+dress and appearance bore unmistakable signs of
+worldly wealth, got up and walked out of the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>Vane watched them go, and as he did so the
+rest saw a complete change of expression come
+over his countenance. His eyes grew sombre
+and sorrowful, his lips tightened, and something
+like a frown gathered upon his brow. He not
+only waited in the midst of an almost unnatural
+silence until they had gone, but he went on waiting
+for some moments longer as though he would
+give anyone else an opportunity of leaving the
+church if they desired to do so. No one stirred.
+The look which he turned upon them from the
+pulpit seemed like a spell which held them to
+their seats. Then his lips opened, and they heard
+his voice, tinged with an infinite sadness, saying:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"'The young man saith unto him: All these
+things have I kept from my youth up. What
+lack I yet?</p>
+
+<p>"'Jesus saith unto him: If thou wouldst be perfect
+go and sell that thou hast and give to the
+poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
+come and follow me.</p>
+
+<p>"'But when the young man heard that saying
+he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then said Jesus unto his disciples: Verily I
+say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter
+into the Kingdom of Heaven.'"</p></blockquote>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+<p>Then there came another pause, during which
+his listeners seemed almost afraid to breathe, so
+strong was the spell of apprehension and expectancy
+which he had laid upon them, and he went
+on:</p>
+
+<p>"You have, everyone of you, heard those words
+read and spoken scores and hundreds of times.
+Has it ever struck you that they are words which,
+if you are a Christian man or woman, you must
+believe to be the words of God himself, spoken
+by the lips of Infallible Wisdom, and inspired by
+that Omniscience which sees you sitting here in
+this London church as plainly as It saw that other
+congregation which was assembled that day on the
+slope of the Mount of Olives, and which reads your
+hearts at this moment as It read theirs then? If
+you do not believe that, then it follows that you
+do not believe in the mission or the teaching of
+Christ. You do not believe that He spoke the
+truth when He told the young man that it was
+not only necessary to keep the commandments,
+as he had done from his youth up; but that it was
+also necessary for him to cease to be a rich man,
+and to distribute his wealth in relieving the necessities
+of the poor.</p>
+
+<p>"If you believe that Christ is very God of very
+God, as you say every Sunday of your lives, you
+cannot escape the obligation which those words
+put upon you except at the peril of your immortal
+souls. Remember that it is not by your faiths
+and beliefs, or by the doctrines you have held that
+you will be judged when you stand before the Last
+Tribunal. These are but instruments to be used
+well or ill, but the final appeal will come to your
+works. The last question that will be asked of
+you will not be 'What creed have you believed?'
+or 'What Church have you belonged to?' but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>'What have you done?' and on the answer to
+that, as recorded in the books of God, will depend
+your fate for all eternity.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember the words, 'Not everyone that
+saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
+Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of
+my Father which is in Heaven.'</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, too, that when you join in the
+services of the Church, and when you partake of
+her Sacraments, you are simply saying 'Lord,
+Lord'&mdash;a very good and righteous thing to say;
+but of no more use or benefit to your souls than
+an echo from a blank wall, unless you also do the
+will of Him who is in Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that there are many specious sayings
+invented by those who have reasons of their own
+for trying to prove that when the Son of God
+spoke these words He didn't mean what He said;
+and those who have invented these things are
+amongst the worst enemies of God and His
+Church on earth, no matter whether they say
+these lying words in the drawing-room or from the
+pulpit. They seek to comfort their consciences
+and the consciences of such as you by saying that
+times have changed since these words were
+uttered; that it would be quite impossible to put
+a literal interpretation upon them now.</p>
+
+<p>"Now the man who tells his fellow men that,
+no matter what his position in the world, is a
+liar and a hypocrite, and, what is worse, he is a
+maker of hypocrites, for it is my duty to tell you
+that every man and woman who professes
+Christianity before the world on Sunday and
+during the week disobeys the command of Christ
+as set forth here in His own words, is, consciously
+or unconsciously, a liar and a hypocrite also.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see what these sayings look like when
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>tested by ordinary logic, by that faculty of distinguishing
+the right from the wrong, the true
+from the false, which is perhaps the greatest of
+all God's gifts to men.</p>
+
+<p>"'Times have changed since the Son of God
+delivered the Sermon on the Mount.' That is
+one of those half-truths which are infinitely worse
+than a lie. Times <i>have</i> changed. That is to say
+mortal men and mortal manners have changed;
+but does that warrant us in believing that the
+mind and will of the Immutable God have
+changed too; that what Christ himself declared
+to be fatal to salvation two thousand years ago,
+is compatible with salvation now? That what was
+unlawful then is lawful now&mdash;in short, that the
+Omniscient God, in whose eyes a thousand years
+are as one day and one day as a thousand years,
+who read the minds of men then as He reads them
+now, has altered the decrees of Eternal Justice and
+changed Eternal Truth into a lie?</p>
+
+<p>"If you believe these people, then you must
+believe that too. That Christ himself foresaw, as
+He must have done, that such false teachers as
+these would arise both in His Church and outside
+it is clearly proved by His own words:</p>
+
+<p>"'Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
+have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy
+name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done
+many wonderful works?</p>
+
+<p>"'And then I will profess unto them: I never
+knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.'</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that in that day when these words
+will be spoken hypocrisy and self-deceit will have
+become impossibilities. It will not be possible
+then for you to persuade yourselves, as no doubt
+you do now, that you are good Christians, or that
+you are Christians at all, because you believe cer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>tain
+doctrines and carry out certain ecclesiastical
+observances. You will see your own souls naked
+then, and the eye of Eternal and Immutable Justice
+will see them too&mdash;and unless you have
+proved that you have obedience as well as faith;
+that you have not only believed but also obeyed,
+you will most assuredly hear those words 'I never
+knew you; depart from me ye that work
+iniquity!'</p>
+
+<p>"But," he went on again, after another little
+pause during which some of his audience began
+to look round at each other with something like
+fear in their eyes, "do not forget that there is
+another course open to you. It may be that the
+things of this world, the conventions of society,
+the fear of poverty and the love of wealth, have
+taken such a hold upon you, that, although you
+dare not even confess it to yourselves, you prefer
+these things to obedience to the Divine command
+and all that it may bring.</p>
+
+<p>"You have it in perfectly plain language and on
+the highest possible authority that you cannot
+serve God and Mammon. Those are no empty
+words, they are one of the most solemn pronouncements
+ever made, and they affect you here and to
+all eternity. So long as you go on striving to
+increase your wealth by those means which must
+nowadays be employed to make money, you are
+not and you cannot be Christians. Those are
+harsh words, and yet if they are not true, the
+words of Christ himself are false. There is no
+escape from this dilemma, and if you think that
+devoting one day a week to the nominal service
+of God and six to the real, practical service of
+Mammon, you earn the right to call yourselves
+Christians, that is to say, followers of Christ, you
+are merely practising a pitiful piece of self-decep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>tion
+which would be ludicrous were its consequences
+not so solemn.</p>
+
+<p>"But, as I have said, there is another course
+open to you, a course which, terrible as it is, is
+better than the one that you are now following,
+because it is more honest. Be honest with yourselves
+and each other, and, what is of more consequence,
+be honest with God too. A well-known
+agnostic lecturer once said that no god could afford
+to damn an honest man, and I am not sure that
+he was not right; but if the words of Christ were
+not the empty mouthings of a charlatan or a
+dreamer, there cannot be the slightest doubt about
+the fate of the hypocrite. Remember that on the
+only occasion on which the gentle nature of our
+Lord was roused to anger he denounced in the
+most terrible language that human ears have ever
+heard those whom He called hypocrites, and,
+therefore, I say to you, at whatever cost, either to
+your pockets or to your souls, for you can take
+your choice which, cease to be hypocrites.</p>
+
+<p>"Cease this pitiful pretence which, though it
+may deceive yourselves, certainly does not deceive
+Him from whom no secrets are hid. If you cannot
+forsake the service of Mammon, if you really
+are so tightly bound by his golden chains to the
+things of this world that you cannot or will not
+break loose from the entrancing bondage, then,
+in the name of honesty, say so, say to yourselves
+and to your fellow men: 'I cannot do this thing.
+If I must give up the service of Mammon before
+I can call myself the servant of God, then I
+cannot become the servant of God, and I will
+make a hypocrite and a liar of myself no
+longer.' Then at least you would be honest and
+truthful, honest with yourselves and with your
+brother men and with your sister women and with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>God. You would, as I believe, and as you are now
+trying to make yourselves believe, have made the
+wrong choice, a choice whose consequences must
+inevitably face you on the other side of the grave,
+but you would, at least, be able to face the
+tribunal of Eternal Justice without shame, and,
+with all reverence I say it, I, as a Christian man,
+believe that for this reason the infinite mercy of
+God would find a means of salvation for you.</p>
+
+<p>"Be honest. For God's sake and your own,
+be honest, even though in becoming so, you cease
+to be what is commonly called respectable. If
+you really cannot serve God with a whole soul
+and without reservation, give up the attempt to
+serve Him and say so before all men. It would be a
+terrible thing to do, and yet, awful as such a step
+would be, it might be the first one towards your
+ultimate salvation. The angels might weep, but
+I hardly think that the devils would laugh, for the
+worst enemy of the Father of Lies is an honest man
+or woman. The gentle heart of Jesus might bleed
+for you, but Eternal Justice would respect you and
+give you your due. Once more, speaking not
+only as a priest of God, but as your fellow man,
+let me as man implore you to be honest, and as
+priest, warn you that the penalty of hypocrisy is
+eternal damnation. You have no choice in the
+matter. One or the other you must be, and you
+cannot possibly be both. Wherefore I tell you
+that whether you elect to be the servant of God
+or the servant of Mammon, you must let all men
+know plainly which you are. If you are reasonable
+beings you cannot believe in yourselves or in each
+other, unless you do this. Remember that, however
+fondly you may be deceiving yourselves, you
+cannot blind the eyes of Omniscience. It is a
+hard thing to say, and yet it is only the plain truth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>given to us by the lips of Christ himself, that you
+cannot believe in God unless you do the things
+which He says. Living your present lives you
+do not do them, and therefore you are not only
+infidels and atheists living without God, but you
+are worse&mdash;you are hypocrites, and woe unto you!</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, speaking as solemnly as a priest of
+God can do in His house and in His presence that
+I would rather see this and every church in
+Christendom attended by a score of people&mdash;of
+real Christians whose daily lives throughout the
+week were really guided and sanctified by obedience
+to the teachings of the Master, than I
+would see them crowded with throngs of men and
+women like you, whose acts from Monday morning
+to Saturday night consistently belie every
+word that your lips utter here in the house of God
+and in the presence of the Holy Trinity.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt, there is already anger against me
+in many of your hearts on account of what I have
+believed it my duty to say to you. I would not
+willingly incur the hatred of any man or woman,
+and yet I shall not altogether regret that anger,
+because it will be proof that my words have
+reached, not only your ears, but your hearts. I
+have spoken plainly and without regard to the
+conventionalities either of the world or of the
+pulpit, and I have done so because I believe that
+conventionality is the foe of truth, and therefore
+the enemy of religion. This, remember, is a subject
+of such awful solemnity, laden as it is with
+the eternal fate of every human soul that is
+baptised into the Church of God, that I have found
+it my duty to make it plain to you at any cost.</p>
+
+<p>"When you leave this church, send your horses
+and your carriages away and walk home, for you
+are deliberately breaking the law of God by using
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>them on the Sabbath, and, remember, that he who
+breaks one jot or tittle of the law, shall be guilty
+of the whole, and, instead of going to church
+parade in the park, you women, to excite the
+admiration of the men and the envy of other
+women by the beauty of your dress, or the
+splendour of your equipage, and you men, to begin
+the sordid work of to-morrow before you have
+finished the holy task of to-day, go home and
+take your bibles into the solitude of your own
+chamber. Spend the rest of God's day with God
+Himself. And that you may do this good thing
+well and truly, and find help to choose that way
+of life which leadeth to eternal salvation, May
+the peace of God which passeth all understanding
+be with you now henceforth and for ever, Amen."</p>
+
+<p>He raised his right hand in benediction, turned
+towards the altar and made the sign of the Cross,
+and as he came down the pulpit steps and walked
+up the chancel to his place, some of those who saw
+him, said afterwards, that there was a light on his
+face which they had never seen on a human face
+before.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There was no communion after that service, and
+so the choir and priests formed for the recessional
+hymn. Father Baldwin, as the procession formed
+behind him, came to the front of the chancel and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of the hymn appointed, it will be better
+if we end the service with number 274."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+"Through the night of doubt and sorrow."
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The organ pealed out, the congregation rose, and
+the hymn began. It so happened that as Vane was
+passing the chairs on which Enid and her husband
+were sitting with several friends, the last verse but
+one was reached.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Onward therefore, pilgrim brothers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Onward, with the Cross our aid!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bear its shame, and fight its battle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Till we rest beneath its shade."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the words "Bear its shame and fight its
+battle," she looked up. Her eyes met Vane's for
+a moment; but there was no look of recognition
+in them. A sudden dart of pain seemed to shoot
+into her heart. This man, this prophet-priest, as
+he seemed to her now, had once been hers, her pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>mised
+husband. How far away from her, how far
+above her was he now!</p>
+
+<p>She had listened to the sermon with a double interest,
+interest in the man as well as in the wonderful
+words he had just spoken&mdash;words so simple in
+themselves, and yet spoken with such terrible force,
+a force so terrible that within the space of a few
+minutes it had shattered all her worldly ideals and
+destroyed the faith that she had been brought up
+in, changing her whole outlook upon the world.</p>
+
+<p>She had been educated on the ordinary lines of
+conventional Christianity, and, until now, she had,
+like thousands of others, honestly believed herself
+to be a good Christian woman, just as she believed
+her mother to be. But, as it happened, there was
+that within her soul which instantly responded to
+the truth which she had heard to-day for the first
+time; and she saw that Vane was right, hopelessly,
+piteously right.</p>
+
+<p>And then as the procession passed she looked
+at her husband. He had already sat down, and
+was getting his hat from under the seat. The procession
+streamed slowly out of sight into the vestry,
+and the congregation moved out into the aisles
+with much soft rustling and swishing of skirts and
+a subdued, buzzing hum of eager conversation.</p>
+
+<p>As the three streams of well-dressed men and
+women converged towards the great doorway
+which led out into the street many began to ask
+themselves and each other if any one would obey
+the preacher's exhortation and send their carriages
+away. The carriages were lined up in the street
+just as they would be outside a theatre. Some of
+their owners got in and drove away, making very
+pointed remarks on the impropriety of bringing
+such subjects as carriages and horses into sermons
+and the length that young curates would go now-a-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>days
+to obtain notoriety. Others dismissed theirs
+and went away trying to look unconcerned; while
+other people stared after them, some smiling and
+others looking serious.</p>
+
+<p>The Garthornes' victoria, drawn by a pair of
+beautiful light bays, drew up, and Garthorne put
+out his hand to help Enid in, but she drew back
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks, I think I'll walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense, Enid!" he said impatiently.
+"Time is getting on, and we must have our turn in
+the Park. Everybody will be there, and this is
+about the last Sunday in the season. We haven't
+over much time either."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going into the Park, Reginald," she
+said decidedly. "I am going to walk straight
+home. You can go and do Church Parade if you
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Tomkins, you can go home," he said
+to the coachman. "Mrs. Garthorne prefers to
+walk."</p>
+
+<p>The coachman and footman touched their hats,
+and the victoria drove away.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely to goodness, Enid," said Garthorne almost
+angrily, as they walked away together, "you
+are not doing this because Maxwell said it was
+wrong to use carriages on a Sunday! Good
+heavens, if we were to translate sermons into everyday
+life it would be rather a funny world to live in."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is the use of going to hear them,
+if they are not to be taken seriously?" she said,
+looking up quickly at him. "Why should they
+be preached, or why should we go to church at
+all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is the proper thing to do, I suppose,
+and because Society, whose slaves we are, makes
+it one of the social functions of the week," replied
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>Garthorne, who had as much real religion in his
+composition as a South African Bushman. "We
+men go because you women do, and you women go
+to show others how nicely you can dress, and to see
+what they have got on."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Reginald, that is about as true as it
+is original, and that is not saying very much for it.
+If we don't go to church for any other reasons than
+those it is merely mockery and wickedness to go
+at all. I was very glad to see that a great many
+people did send their carriages away. Next Sunday
+I hope they will have the decency to walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Especially if the British climate, as it probably
+will, ends up the season with a pouring wet Sunday!"
+laughed Garthorne. "No, dear, those godly
+precepts are all very well when you read them in
+Sunday School books or hear them from the pulpit,
+and I am sure Vane put them most admirably to-day,
+although I confess I was slightly surprised to
+hear a really clever fellow like him preaching such
+hopelessly impossible nonsense. Of course I don't
+mean any offence to him&mdash;far from it, but really,
+you know, if theories like those could be put into
+practice they would simply turn the world upside
+down."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you might have found a better word
+than nonsense," she replied a trifle sharply; "but
+the world of to-day certainly would have to be
+turned upside down or inside out to make it anything
+like Christian. That, at least, Vane&mdash;I mean
+Mr. Maxwell&mdash;taught us this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Christian according to the Reverend Vane Maxwell,"
+he said, with the suspicion of a sneer. "Fortunately
+the Churches have agreed that such a violent
+operation is not necessary. By the way,
+though, won't Maxwell get himself into a howling
+row with the ecclesiastical powers that be! Just
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>imagine the bench of Bishops standing anything
+like that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said quietly, "the preaching of the
+Sermon on the Mount in a fashionable London
+church! It does sound very terrible, doesn't it?
+And yet, after all, I suppose they can't take his
+orders away from him even for that. I wonder
+what would happen? It is sure to be in the papers
+to-morrow, and of course everybody will be talking
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Garthorne; "but if Master Vane
+thinks he is going to play Savanarola to this generation
+he will find that he has taken on a pretty
+large order. Are you quite sure you won't take a
+turn in the Park, even on foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'd rather not, but don't let me keep you if
+you would like a stroll. I can get home all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you don't mind, Enid, I think I will.
+There are one or two fellows I want to see particularly
+about something, so bye-bye for the present."</p>
+
+<p>He raised his hat and turned back, and she went
+on towards the house in Queen's Gate with many
+strange thoughts in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>Enid and her husband were by no means the
+only members of the congregation of St. Chrysostom
+who discussed Vane's sermon on their way
+home. In fact, whether people walked or rode
+home, it was the universal topic. Some discussed
+it with timorous sympathy; others, perhaps with
+more worldly wisdom, talked of it quietly and
+cynically as the outburst of a half-fledged clerical
+enthusiast who would very soon find out that his
+superiors, on whom he depended for preferment, regarded
+the doctrines of Christianity as one thing
+and the practises of the Church as something entirely
+different.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+<p>"He's a clever fellow, a very clever fellow and
+very earnest," said Lord Canore, who was a patron
+of several fat livings, to her ladyship and his two
+daughters as they drove home, "but he'll soon get
+those rough corners knocked off him. If they are
+wise they will give him a good living, and then
+make him a canon as soon as possible. There's
+nothing like preferment to sober a man down in
+the Church."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," sighed Lady Caroline Rosse, the elder
+daughter, who was getting somewhat <i>passée</i>, and
+was deeply interested in Church work; "what a
+beautiful voice he has, and such a wonderful face!
+Really, he looked almost inspired at times. He
+would make quite an ideal bishop, and, you know,
+some quite young men are being made bishops now-a-days."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," chuckled his lordship, as he lay back
+against the cushions, "that is the sort of thing I
+mean. You don't catch bishops preaching the Sermon
+on the Mount and sub-editing it as they go
+on."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Canore," said her ladyship frigidly,
+"I think we had better change the subject; that
+last remark of yours was almost blasphemous."</p>
+
+<p>"Never heard such rubbish preached from a respectable
+pulpit in my life," said Mr. Horace Faustmann,
+a member of the Stock Exchange, director
+of several limited companies and a most liberal
+contributor to the offertories, and all Church effort
+in the parish of St. Chrysostom, to his wife as they
+rolled smoothly in their cee-spring, rubber-tyred
+victoria towards Hyde Park Corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if you can't make plenty of money and
+still be a Christian, where are subscriptions coming
+from, and what price the Church endowments? It
+seems absolutely absurd to me. I wonder what on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>earth Baldwin was thinking about to let him preach
+a sermon like that in the smartest church in the
+West End. If he goes on in that style he will just
+ruin the show. Anyhow, he gets no more of my
+money if he is going to insult rich people in the
+pulpit. Any more of that sort of thing, my dear,
+and we'll go somewhere else, won't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so," said the beautiful Mrs.
+Faustmann. She was the daughter of a poor aristocrat,
+and had made a very good social and financial
+bargain. She was one of the smartest women
+and most successful entertainers in London. There
+was another man eating his heart out on her account
+in the Burmese jungle, and sometimes, in
+her tenderest moment, she gave him a thought and
+a little sigh&mdash;about as much thought and sigh as
+her engagements permitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Father Baldwin will really ruin the Church
+if he allows that sort of thing. Of course all the
+good people will give it up. In fact, you saw the
+Steinways, the Northwicks, the Athertons and
+several more leave the church before he was half
+way through his harangue, for really you could
+hardly call it a sermon. All the same, the church
+will be thronged to-night and next Sunday, because
+people will go there just for the sensation of
+the thing, and to see if anything else is going to
+happen; but poor Father Baldwin will simply be
+inundated with letters from the best of his people,
+and I don't think he'll find them very pleasant reading.
+I am going to write, and, although I respect
+the dear man very much, I shall tell him exactly
+what I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right," said her husband, as they turned
+into the Park. "You give it to him straight. If
+you don't, I shall drop him a line myself and tell
+him that if he wants any more of my money, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>he has had a good bit, he will have to keep his
+half-broken clerical colts a bit better in hand; I'm
+not going to support a church to be insulted in it."</p>
+
+<p>Many other similar conversations were going
+on just then in the Park, in fact, Vane and his
+sermon were already being discussed by half
+fashionable London, so fast does the news of so
+startling an event travel from lip to lip when a
+crowd of somewhat <i>blasé</i> people, who have nothing
+in particular to talk about, get together. Most of
+the comments were quite similar to those just
+quoted, for Society felt generally by dinner time
+that night that it had been deliberately insulted,
+outraged, in fact, through its representatives in
+the congregation of St. Chrysostom.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless the church was packed to its
+utmost capacity at evening service. It was known
+that Father Baldwin was to preach, but it was
+hoped that Vane would take some part in the
+service, and of course everyone wanted to see
+him; still, the audience went away disappointed.
+Vane was far away, helping Ernshaw at his
+mission in Bethnal Green, and was telling his
+congregation truths just as uncompromising and
+perhaps as unpalatable as those he had told to his
+wealthy and aristocratic hearers in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Father Baldwin preached, but his sermon was
+rather a homily on the duties of the rich towards
+the poor, especially at a time when the rich were
+about to migrate like gay-plumaged birds of passage
+to other lands and climes in search of
+pleasure, leaving behind the millions of their
+fellow mortals and fellow Christians, whose ceaseless
+life-struggle left no leisure for the delights
+which they had come to look upon as the commonplaces
+of their existence.</p>
+
+<p>He only made one brief allusion to Vane's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>sermon. He knew perfectly well that these
+thronging hundreds of people had not come to
+hear him. He felt, not without sorrow, that quite
+half of them had come to hear, or at least see, the
+man whose name was already the talk of fashionable
+London.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of you," he said, "who are present now
+heard this morning from this pulpit words which
+must have sunk deep into the heart of every man
+and woman who feels an earnest desire to follow
+in the footsteps of the Master as closely as imperfect
+human nature will permit you. It is not
+for me to tell you to what extent those words must
+be taken literally. They were spoken earnestly
+and from the inmost depths of the preacher's own
+soul&mdash;may they sink into the inmost depths of
+yours! They put the most vital interest of human
+life plainly, nay, uncompromisingly before you;
+how far you can or will follow them in your daily
+lives is a matter which rests between yourselves
+and your Redeemer."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning nearly all the papers contained
+more or less lengthy reports of a sermon
+of which half London was already talking.
+Ernest Reed, a smart young reporter with strong
+freethought tendencies, who made a Sunday
+speciality of reporting sermons of all sorts,
+especially the extreme ones, and who wrote
+caustically impartial comments on them in the
+rationalist papers, had instantly grasped the true
+significance of such a sermon being preached to
+such a congregation, and, moreover, he had himself
+been deeply affected by the solemn earnestness
+with which the momentous words had been
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"A Daniel come to judgment! A parson who
+believes in his own creed at last!" was his mental
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>comment, as he closed his note-book. "That
+chap's worth following. I wonder where he is
+going to preach to-night. I'll find out."</p>
+
+<p>Of course he did find out and followed Vane to
+Bethnal Green, with the result that he made what
+is professionally termed "a scoop," since he was
+the only reporter who was able to give both sermons
+verbatim. The <i>Daily Chronicle</i> was the
+only morning paper smart enough to print them
+word for word in parallel columns under the title:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+WEIGHTY WORDS TO RICH AND POOR.<br />
+The Rev. Vane Maxwell<br />
+Asks Mayfair and Bethnal Green<br />
+If they are Christian?<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The consequence was, that all London and a
+very considerable part of England too, stared
+wonderingly over its breakfast table and asked
+itself whether there was really anything in these
+plain, almost homely, and yet terribly pregnant
+words. Certainly there was no getting away from
+the pitiless logic of them. If Vane Maxwell was
+right, England was <i>not</i> a Christian country, save
+in name, and its citizens were Christians only
+because they had been baptized into one or other
+of the churches and so called themselves Christians
+by a sort of courtesy title. For the moment
+at least, Christianity assumed a shape as tangible
+and a meaning almost as serious as party politics.
+In other words Vane's sermon, even when read in
+cold print, put the question: Are you really a
+Christian? so plainly, so uncompromisingly, and
+so unavoidably to every man or woman calling
+himself or herself a Christian, that hundreds of
+thousands of people all over the country, to say
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>nothing of a million or two in London, felt a
+sudden, and, as it seemed to them, somewhat
+unaccountable obligation to give an equally plain
+answer to it. What was the answer to be?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes or no?"</p>
+
+<p>It certainly was a very serious matter to millions
+who had never thought of asking the question for
+themselves, and whose pastors and spiritual
+masters had mostly contented themselves with
+lecturing and teaching in soul-soothing, instead
+of soul-searching, words.</p>
+
+<p>They, good folk, had really never troubled
+themselves very much about the matter. They
+had their business affairs to attend to, their wives
+and families to keep out of the workhouse or to
+maintain in comfort or luxury, as the case might
+be, and a good many of them had certain social
+duties to perform; and so they had got into the
+way of letting the churches and chapels, the
+bishops, priests, deacons and so forth, look after
+these things.</p>
+
+<p>They were paid to do so. That was rather an
+ugly thought. At least, it seemed to be so, after
+reading the words of Jesus Christ, and His servant
+Vane Maxwell; but still it <i>was</i> a fact; and some
+of them were very highly paid. They were living
+in charming houses and had very comfortable investments
+in companies which made money anyhow,
+so long as they made it. Others were
+wretchedly paid, it was true, mostly half-starved
+and inevitably in debt; but still, neither of these
+facts affected the main question, which, of course,
+was the personal one: Are you&mdash;rich man or poor
+man&mdash;you who read these words, a Christian?
+Are you, as the preacher had asked in those five
+terrible words, honest before God and man?</p>
+
+<p>Then to the scores and hundreds of thousands
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>of people who read this, came, in a whispering
+terror, the further question:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you can cheat God, even if you
+are cheating yourself and other people like you&mdash;the
+God Whom you have been taught to believe in
+as knowing all things, the God to whom all secrets
+are known?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a distinctly ugly question to answer, and
+more Bibles were searched throughout the United
+Kingdom than had been for many a long year
+past; but no searcher found any answer that
+satisfied his own soul, if he had one, save the one
+that was given from the Mount of Olives:</p>
+
+<p>"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."</p>
+
+<p>As the young preacher had said, there was no
+compromise. There was certainly the alternative
+of being honest one way or the other; but that
+sort of honesty had a very appalling prospect to
+the respectable British citizen, especially those,
+who, in any way, resembled the young man who
+came to Christ and asked Him what he should
+do to be saved. It was, in short, a case of becoming
+comparative paupers, and only having the
+bare necessaries of life, or keeping what they had,
+and saying honestly to themselves, the world, and
+God:</p>
+
+<p>"I can't be a Christian at that price, and so,
+instead of remaining a Christian humbug, I will be
+an honest atheist."</p>
+
+<p>A very terrible dilemma, certainly, and yet, if
+the Gospels were true, and if the Son of God had
+really preached the Sermon on the Mount, it was
+one from which there was no escape but this. It
+was a plain matter of belief or disbelief, honesty
+or dishonesty, and, if they believed in God, dishonesty
+was impossible, save under the penalty of
+eternal damnation.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>That day the clergy-house of St. Chrysostom
+was, of course, deluged with newspapers and cuttings,
+and the flood continued for two or three
+days, during which Vane, unconscious or careless
+of the fact that he was already the clerical lion of
+London, and, perhaps, the most discussed man for
+the time being in England and the sister kingdoms,
+was working hard helping his friend, Ernshaw,
+to organize an entirely unsectarian twentieth
+century crusade throughout the poorer districts of
+London. He seldom read newspapers, for he preferred
+the living fact to the written word, and, besides,
+such work as his left little time for reading.
+He had seen his name on the placards of the
+morning and evening papers, and he had bought
+some which he had not found time to do more
+than glance over.</p>
+
+<p>He was, of course, glad that his sermon had
+attracted so much attention, but he knew enough
+of newspapers and their readers not to hope for
+too much on this account, and so he was not a
+little surprised when Father Baldwin said to him
+on his return to the clergy-house on the Friday
+evening:</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Well, Maxwell! glad to see you back, although
+you have brought a nice hornet's nest about our
+ears, and started something like a social and religious
+earthquake in Kensington and the adjacent
+lands of Mayfair and Belgravia, to say nothing of
+a distinct fluttering in what I may, perhaps, without
+irreverence call the upper and more spacious
+dove-cotes of the Church."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I really?" said Vane, quietly, "I didn't
+know I had, but if I have done so, I am very
+glad. It was exactly what I intended to do,
+though I confess I had little hope of doing so.
+What is the matter? I hope I haven't got <i>you</i>
+into any unpleasantness, Father Baldwin."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't very much matter if you have," replied
+the older priest, leaning back in his chair
+and looking at him keenly from under his thick,
+iron-grey eyebrows. "You only said what has been
+in the hearts and souls of a good many of us for
+a long time, but it was given to you to say it and,
+let us hope, also the inspiration to say it in the
+proper way."</p>
+
+<p>"Please God!" said Vane. "And now what
+have I done; I mean as regards yourself and St.
+Chrysostom?"</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with," replied Father Baldwin,
+"about half the wealthiest members of the congregation,
+men and women, but mostly men, have
+written to say that if they are to be publicly insulted
+from the pulpit, and told that they are
+liars and hypocrites, and not Christians, save in
+name, they will leave the church and withdraw all
+their subscriptions&mdash;which, of course, from quite
+a worldly point of view, would be somewhat a
+serious matter for the church."</p>
+
+<p>"That simply proves that they are not Christians,"
+said Vane, "and the church is better with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>out
+their money. They practically confess that
+they never have been giving their money honestly
+for the service of God, but merely for self-advertisement
+or as a social obligation. It would be no
+loss to us, and little gain to anybody else they
+gave it to."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I believe you are right," replied Father
+Baldwin. "It seems rather a hard thing to say,
+but people who would leave a church because the
+Sermon on the Mount was preached from its pulpit,
+must be a strange sort of Christians."</p>
+
+<p>"They are not Christians at all!" exclaimed
+Vane, with a burst of righteous wrath, "they are
+the bane and curse of Christianity, and have been
+ever since Constantine made it official and fashionable.
+They are responsible for every corruption
+that has crept into the Church, for every blot
+that defiles the purity of the Creed. They are not
+Christians, and they never have been, for they
+cannot be what they are and followers of Christ
+at the same time. They and the wealthy clergy
+of all the churches are responsible for the unfaith,
+tacit and avowed, of what we are pleased to call
+the lower classes; the classes who compose the
+majority of Christ's Congregation; and they are
+responsible for all the cynicism of the open and
+active enemies of our faith. It is they who make
+it possible for the infidel and the atheist to point
+the finger of scorn at us and say, 'See how these
+Christians love to do the Will of their Master.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I fully appreciate everything you say, Maxwell,"
+replied Father Baldwin, with some little
+hesitation in his tone; for, although he was as
+good a Christian as ever gave up everything to
+serve his Master, and as earnest a priest as ever
+stood before the altar, yet he was getting on in
+years and found it hard to break away from the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>traditions amidst which he had grown up, and
+which he had accepted as a young man with little
+or no inquiry. "At the same time, I must candidly
+admit that I was a trifle startled by your absolutely
+uncompromising rendering of our Lord's words.
+Did you really intend that they should be taken
+literally?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not what I intended, Father Baldwin," replied
+Vane, rising from his seat and beginning
+to walk up and down the plainly furnished, book-lined
+common-room, "the question is what <i>He</i> intended,
+and surely no Christian in his senses could
+believe for a moment that our Lord intended to
+quibble with words and to play with double meanings.
+If He did not mean what He said, and intend
+those who followed Him to do what He said,
+what becomes of our faith? If that is not so,
+surely there is nothing left for us but to give up
+the doctrine of the Trinity altogether, and go
+back to the old Hebrew creed&mdash;which certainly did
+not forbid the accumulation of riches."</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in?" said Sir Arthur Maxwell's
+voice through the open door, "they told me you
+were here, Vane. Good evening, Father Baldwin.
+Well, this is a nice sort of commotion that this son
+of mine has been kicking up. Do you know, Sir,"
+he went on, turning to Vane, "that you have
+suddenly made yourself one of the most famous,
+or, perhaps, I should say notorious, persons in
+London by that sermon of yours? It was very
+fine I admit, and most desperately to the point,
+but I suppose you know that all the world and the
+newspapers are asking where does that point point
+to?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what I was asking your son, Sir
+Arthur," said Father Baldwin. "Granted that he
+is right in his contention that the Sermon on the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>Mount is to be taken literally, it means nothing
+short of a religious as well as a social revolution."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what the papers and everybody
+are saying," said Sir Arthur. "In fact, people are
+beginning to look at one another and ask some
+very awkward questions. For instance, here am
+I, that boy's father, I am not a rich man, but I
+have worked hard and my old age is comfortably
+provided for, and when I die what I have would
+naturally go to Vane, who, on his own showing,
+couldn't have it; in fact, as you know, he has given
+up about a thousand a year as it is that he had
+from my brother Alfred."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not get much sympathy from Father
+Baldwin on that score, father," laughed Vane,
+"you know he gave up nearly twice as much."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing in that," said Father Baldwin,
+hastily, as though he would stop them saying
+any more, "that is a point on which I entirely
+agree with you. When a man has money of his
+own, and devotes himself to the service of the
+Church, he should devote his money to it also. As
+a Christian and a priest he can have no lawful use
+for it, save in the work of the Church."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless he happens to be married and have a
+family," said Sir Arthur. "What ought he to do
+then, Father Baldwin?"</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, Sir Arthur," he replied, "I think
+he would do better to keep out of the ministry
+and devote himself honestly to the affairs of his
+own household. You remember, of course, what
+the Apostle Paul tells us, that the man who neglects
+those is worse than an infidel. Of course, it is not
+a good translation, and it reads very badly now that
+infidel has come to mean one who does not believe
+in creeds. It should, of course, read unfaithful, I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>mean, unfaithful to the solemn responsibilities he
+has taken upon himself; and, although I may be
+wrong, I find it difficult to see how a man can faithfully
+discharge those obligations and those of a
+priest of the Church, but that opens a very wide
+question, and there is a very great deal to be said
+on both sides of it."</p>
+
+<p>"There I quite agree with you," said Sir Arthur,
+"you know, of course, better than I do, that there
+are hundreds of hard-worked parsons in this
+country&mdash;especially in poor parishes&mdash;who can't
+afford curates, who simply couldn't get on without
+their wives, and I know one or two myself
+who say that their wives are worth a couple of
+curates. I'm fairly certain that in most poor country
+parishes the parson's wife is the good angel of the
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"There is not the slightest doubt about it," replied
+Father Baldwin, "I have seen quite enough
+of church work to convince me of that, and this
+is, of course, the very strongest argument, and a
+very convincing one, too, in a certain degree,
+against the celibacy of the clergy. But, still, Sir
+Arthur," he went on, with a change of tone, "I
+suppose you didn't come here to discuss theology
+and church matters. Of course, you want to see
+your son. My study is quite at your service, if
+you want to have a talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, very much, Father," said Sir Arthur,
+"what I really came for was to ask Vane to come
+round and have a bit of dinner with me. I have
+a good many things to talk over with him, and I
+have a guest or two coming whom I am anxious
+for him to meet. What do you say, Vane, can
+you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I can, dad," replied Vane. "I am
+taking a holiday till Sunday, and I couldn't spend
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>it much better than at the old place. On Sunday
+I am going to deliver two lectures at the Hall of
+Science, Old Street, the head-quarters of the
+National Secular Society."</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>what</i>, Maxwell?" exclaimed Father Baldwin,
+with a note of something more than astonishment
+in his voice, "the Hall of Science&mdash;why, that
+was Bradlaugh's place&mdash;the head-centre of London
+infidelity."</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, Father," said Vane, gravely, "do
+you not think that is a word we are accustomed
+to use too vaguely? Is it quite fair or logical to
+call these people infidels? Are they not rather
+faithful to their convictions, however wrong they
+may be? Surely we must, at least, give them the
+credit of believing in their disbelief. Last night I
+heard an informal confession&mdash;one of the strangest,
+perhaps, that a priest ever heard&mdash;from a young
+fellow, of about twenty-two, who reported my
+sermon here, and then followed me to Bethnal
+Green and sent in both accounts to the papers.</p>
+
+<p>"He is well educated, very clever, and the son
+of a clergyman. He is also what people call an
+infidel, and yet he made a confession of faith to
+me that would have melted the soul of a financier,
+if he had one. After that I shall never hear these
+people called infidels without a protest. And, besides,
+is it not a good thing that a priest of God
+should speak the truth that is in him in the temple
+of the unbelievers? How many of our churches
+would permit one of their lecturers to speak from
+the pulpit, or even from the platform of one of
+our schoolrooms."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right, Maxwell," said Father
+Baldwin, "I used the word unthinkingly, therefore
+conventionally. I am very glad you are going,
+but I am afraid if your friends advertise it at all,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>half Kensington and Mayfair will be off to Old
+Street, and crowd them out of their own place.
+As I tell you, they didn't like what you said, but
+for all that, they are dying to hear what you are
+going to say next."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said Sir Arthur, "that is the worst
+of becoming suddenly notorious, Vane. You have
+made yourself, in a most righteous manner, the
+talk of London, and London will follow you now
+wherever you go. However, that can't be helped,
+it is one of the penalties of fame, and now if you
+have nothing more to say to Father Baldwin, you
+might put on your hat, and come, I have got a
+hansom at the door."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On the way from the Clergy-House to Warwick
+Gardens Vane tried more than once to get his
+father to tell him something about the evening's
+entertainment which he had invited him for, but
+Sir Arthur only laughed, albeit somewhat seriously,
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, I am not going to let you spoil a
+pleasant little surprise. I don't say that it will be
+altogether a pleasant one, yet I know that it will
+not be an entirely unpleasant one. To a certain
+extent, as you will find afterwards, it is one of the
+many results of that precious sermon of yours, and,
+as certain things had to be done, I thought they
+would be better done at home than elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>And in reply to Vane's second attempt his father
+said simply:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Vane, this is a surprise party, as they say
+in the States, and I am not going to give the names
+of my guests away. You really must possess your
+soul in patience for the present. Meanwhile tell
+me what Father Baldwin thinks of the position you
+have taken up?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, of course, about this new heresy of
+mine?" replied Vane with a laugh&mdash;"a heresy, by
+the way, which is as old as Christianity. Well, dad,
+to tell you the truth I think the dear old Father is
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>a little bit frightened, but he is too strong a man
+to go back from the position, and too good a Christian
+to want to do so. He sees that I am right, or,
+I should say of course, that this is after all the only
+possible doctrine and belief for a Christian. He
+gave me permission to preach that sermon from
+his pulpit, but I don't think he quite realised, as a
+matter of fact I didn't myself, what an effect it
+would have, and perhaps the consequences have
+worried him a little; but he is perfectly staunch,
+and so are Moran and Webley."</p>
+
+<p>"And so, I suppose," replied Sir Arthur, "St.
+Chrysostom's will not be a pleasant Sunday morning
+and evening resort for rich people any longer.
+That is, perhaps, a somewhat flippant way of putting
+it, but of course you know what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I quite see what you mean, dad," said Vane
+rather more seriously. "I don't think it will be,
+but I do think that before very long we shall have
+a better congregation of Christians than we have
+ever had before, people who, I mean, will have lost
+their delusions about fashionable Christianity&mdash;just
+as if there could be such a thing!&mdash;and who come
+to hear the Word of God as it is, and not as most
+people would like it to be. By the way, have you
+heard that the Canon, I mean Canon Thornton-Moore,
+of Worcester, a man that I met at dinner
+at the Abbey, has accepted the presentation of All
+Saints, Densmore Square? It is supposed to be
+a little higher even than St. Chrysostom, and if
+possible the congregation is even more disgustingly
+rich and fashionable and everything that is not
+Christian."</p>
+
+<p>"I must say, Vane, that you have all the uncompromising
+severity of the true enthusiast, and the
+way in which you include your old father with these
+hopeless sinners is really almost unfilial. I think
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>I can tell you this much, that to-night you are going
+to meet a very much greater sinner than I am, a
+sinner to the extent of millions, and yet, from
+what I have learned of him on the best possible
+authority, as honest a man, as good-hearted a fellow,
+as ever fought the world single-handed and
+beat it."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you did, dad," said Vane in a tone which
+reminded his father of the old days. "I suppose
+there is nothing to be said of the other two persons
+of the Infernal Trinity."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at present," said Sir Arthur, with a sudden
+change in his voice which made Vane look round at
+him. His face had changed with his tone. He was
+leaning with his arms on the door of the cab, staring
+up at the sky over the roofs of the houses. Vane
+noticed a little twitching of the lip under the long
+grey moustache, and thought it well to hold his
+peace.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, perhaps, for both, the cab at that
+moment swung round out of the main road into
+Warwick Gardens. Vane looked at the familiar
+corner at which he had stopped that other hansom
+cab on that memorable Boat Race night and got
+out, after Carol had denied him the kiss he asked
+for, to meet his father on the pavement. Sir Arthur
+remembered it too, and he had good reasons to,
+for he said as the cab swung round:</p>
+
+<p>"Vane, when my lease is up I am going to leave
+this place. I never can pass that corner without
+thinking of what no man ought to be obliged to
+think of."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you mean, dad," cried Vane. "It
+was horrible enough, or at least it might have been
+and yet it wasn't, and because it wasn't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, at any rate," interrupted Sir Arthur as
+the cab pulled up, "let us thank God that it wasn't."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+<p>As they got out another cab drove up just behind
+theirs, and somewhat to his astonishment Vane
+saw Ernshaw get out.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Ernshaw," he said, as they shook
+hands, "isn't this great extravagance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a shilling's worth," laughed Ernshaw in
+reply, "and I think justifiable; a little kiddy was
+knocked down in Addison Road there by a
+butcher's cart, and I picked her up and took her
+to the hospital in Hammersmith Road, and this
+good fellow won't charge me more than a shilling
+for both journeys, although it is out of the radius."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he won't, won't he?" said Sir Arthur, putting
+his hand into his pocket and pulling out a
+couple of half-crowns.</p>
+
+<p>"You take that, my man, not for yourself if you
+won't have it, but for your wife and your children
+if you have got any; you can't say no for them."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, thankee, I won't say no to them," said
+the cabby, taking the half-crowns and touching his
+hat. "It's the best fare I've earned to-day. Good-night,
+sir, and thank you, sir. Come up, old girl."</p>
+
+<p>The whip flicked, and the old mare went round
+to begin another of those endless journeys through
+London streets which horses, if they reason at all,
+must find so utterly incomprehensible and aimless.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this the beginning of the surprises, dad?"
+said Vane, as the two cabs drove away. "This is
+certainly one of the last places in London that I
+should have expected to meet Ernshaw in, after
+seeing him up to his neck in work at Bethnal
+Green yesterday. It must have been a pretty
+strong attraction, Ernshaw, that got you as far
+west as this."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Maxwell," said Ernshaw, "surely the
+worst of us are entitled to a holiday now and then.
+Why, even Father Philip goes to Norway for a fort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>night
+every year, to say nothing of an occasional
+run up to Town now and then, and he confessed
+to me not very long ago that he enjoys no earthly
+pleasure better than a good 'Varsity match at
+Lord's."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing better," said Sir Arthur, "except
+a good Indian polo match. Well, come in. I
+have just got time for a wash and a change before
+our other guests arrive. You clerics don't want a
+change, so you can have a wash and a cigarette if
+you want one in the Den."</p>
+
+<p>As the door opened Koda Bux came along the
+hall and made his salaam; his grave, deep eyes
+made no sign as he recognised Vane in his clerical
+garb; he only salaamed again and welcomed Vane
+back to the house of his father and his mother.
+That was Koda Bux's way of putting it in his
+Indian fashion. He would have put it otherwise
+if he had known what such a welcome meant to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the place of the <i>debacle</i>," said Vane to
+Ernshaw when they met in the Den after they had
+had their wash; "there's the hearthrug&mdash;yes, and
+there's the same spirit-case. It is a curious thing,
+Ernshaw, but since then, or rather, since that other
+ghastly collapse at Oxford, I've lectured in club
+rooms reeking with alcohol; I've gone with you as
+you know where everyone was sodden with the
+gin and stank of it, and even into bars where you
+could smell nothing but liquor and unwashed
+humanity, and yet that intoxication has never come
+back to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Ernshaw; "you have
+prayed and fought since then, and as you have won
+your battles your prayers have been answered."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Vane, "I hope you are right; in fact,
+I am sure you are. I don't suppose a sniff at that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>whiskey decanter would affect me any more than
+a few drops of eau de cologne on my handkerchief."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this he went towards the spirit-case
+on the little old oak sideboard and took out the
+whiskey decanter.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, Vane!" said Ernshaw. "I hope
+you are not forgetting the old doctrine of association.
+Remember what you were saying just now
+about this room. There is a sense, you know, in
+which places are really haunted."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Ernshaw, I believe you are even more
+ideal than I am," laughed Vane, as he took the
+stopper out and raised the decanter to his nostrils.
+As he did so the front door bell tinkled, and the
+hand of a practised footman played a brief fantasia
+on the knocker. In the middle of an inhalation
+Vane stopped and put the bottle down; but even
+as he did so the mysterious force of association
+against which Ernshaw had warned him had begun
+to work upon his imagination. The familiar room,
+with its pictures and furniture and simple ornaments,
+the feel of the cut-glass decanter, which was
+the same one that he had held in his hand that fatal
+night, the smell of the whiskey&mdash;all these elements
+were rapidly combining in those few moments to
+produce an effect partly mental and partly physical
+which might have more than justified Ernshaw's
+sudden fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there are the mysterious guests, I suppose!"
+he said, putting the decanter back into the
+case. "I suppose you don't happen to know who
+they really are, Ernshaw?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, if I did I shouldn't tell you,"
+was the distinctly non-committal reply. "I think
+it will be very much more interesting for you to
+find out yourself."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Koda Bux, in his capacity of major-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>domo
+and general factotum to Sir Arthur, had
+opened the door, and at the same moment Sir
+Arthur himself came downstairs. Vane heard him
+say:</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, ladies; I am sorry that I have
+no hostess to receive you, but Mrs. Saunders, who
+helps Koda Bux to take care of me, will take you
+upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was a low murmur of a woman's voice,
+a rustle of skirts up the stairs, and Sir Arthur went
+on:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mr. Rayburn, if you will come with me
+I will show you where to put your hat and coat
+and have a rinse if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, Sir Arthur," replied a voice which was
+strange to Vane.</p>
+
+<p>"And who might Mr. Rayburn be?" he said to
+Ernshaw. "I didn't know the governor knew anyone
+of that name. Still, from the sound of his
+voice he is a gentleman, and, I should say, a man."</p>
+
+<p>"I think when you meet him you will find him
+both," said Ernshaw.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," laughed Vane, "I think I caught you out
+there. So you are in this conspiracy of mystery,
+are you? Now, look here, Ernshaw, what is it all
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Guilty, but shan't tell," replied his friend. "Now
+here comes Sir Arthur; perhaps he will tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Vane," said Sir Arthur as the door opened,
+"this is Mr. Cecil Rayburn, and I want you to be
+very good friends; you will soon find out why."</p>
+
+<p>Vane looked up and saw a man apparently a year
+or two older than himself, about the same height
+and build, but harder and stronger, and possessing
+that peculiar erectness of carriage and alertness of
+movement that is owned only by those who have
+worked or fought, or done both, in the outlands of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>the earth. But a glance at his face confirmed Vane
+in the opinion he had formed when he heard his
+voice; he was undeniably both a gentleman and
+a man. He held out his hand and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Mr. Rayburn. Of course a
+friend of my father's has to be my friend also."</p>
+
+<p>To his astonishment Cecil Rayburn made no
+movement to take his hand; on the contrary he
+drew back half a pace and said with a note of something
+like nervousness in his voice&mdash;a note which
+sounded strangely in the speech of a man who had
+never known what fear was:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell; I hope we shall be
+friends, but I am afraid I can't shake hands with
+you yet&mdash;I mean, I shouldn't like you to regret it
+afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Before Vane had found any words to shape a
+reply, Sir Arthur said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ernshaw, suppose we go into the drawing-room
+to receive the ladies, and leave these two to
+have it out. We shan't have dinner for half an
+hour, and I think they will manage to understand
+each other before then."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Rayburn," said Vane, "this is a rather
+curious sort of introduction, but I see that you are&mdash;I
+mean that I am quite satisfied that you must
+have some very good reason for refusing to shake
+hands with me. You are the first man who has
+ever done so, and as you have come here as my
+father's guest, I may presume that it is not a
+personal objection."</p>
+
+<p>Vane could not help speaking formally; there
+was a strangeness about the situation which forced
+him to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"That would be impossible, Mr. Maxwell,"
+replied the other, in a low, hesitating tone. "I
+knew that I should meet you here when I
+accepted Sir Arthur's invitation; in fact, we&mdash;I
+mean I came here on purpose to meet you, and, to
+shorten matters, the reason why your father has
+left us alone, is that I have a very serious and I am
+afraid a very difficult confession to make to you."</p>
+
+<p>"A confession!" said Vane, drawing himself up
+and looking Rayburn straight in the eyes. "Do
+you wish me to hear it as a man, or a priest, because
+if I am to hear it as a priest, it would be
+better kept for a more suitable time and place?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to hear it both as man and priest,"
+replied Rayburn, returning his look with perfect
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>steadiness, "and I want you to hear it&mdash;and, in
+fact, unless we are to go away at once, you must
+hear it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Vane, a dim suspicion of the
+truth beginning to steal into his soul, "it is a little
+mysterious to me, but I daresay we shall soon
+understand each other."</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment, and then, with a visible
+effort which made Rayburn love and honour
+him from that moment forth, he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps it would simplify matters for both
+of us if you began by telling me who <i>we</i> are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister, or rather your half-sister," Rayburn
+began falteringly, and then stopped.</p>
+
+<p>He saw Vane wince and heard his teeth come
+together with a snap, and he saw his hands clench
+up into fists and his face pale, already turned ashen
+grey white that denotes utter bloodlessness. It was
+the face of a corpse with living eyes that looked at
+him with an expression which could not be
+translated into human words. Rayburn had
+looked death in the face many a time and laughed
+at it, but he didn't laugh now. As he said afterwards,
+he would have given anything to be a
+couple of miles away from Vane just then. He
+didn't speak because he had nothing to say, his
+thoughts would not be translated into language,
+and so there was nothing for it but to wait for
+Vane to speak.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments more the two men faced
+each other in silence, yet each reading the other's
+thoughts as accurately as though they had been
+talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke
+in a slow, hard, grating voice which none of the
+congregation of St. Chrysostom would have recognised
+as that of the eloquent preacher of the
+Sermon on the Mount, to which Rayburn, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>had heard that sermon, listened with a shock,
+which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through
+him from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more
+fully now. My sister Carol&mdash;she has come here
+with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in
+thinking that you were to some extent responsible,
+quite innocently no doubt, for her disappearance
+about a year ago. Is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rayburn, "that's so, and that's why
+I wouldn't shake hands with you. I did take her
+away. She has been round the world with me,
+travelling with me as my wife, and she isn't my
+wife, and&mdash;well, that is about all there is."</p>
+
+<p>"And why isn't she your wife?" exclaimed
+Vane, with an unreasoning burst of anger. Then,
+after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was
+almost humble.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rayburn, that was a
+foolish thing to say, as most things said in haste
+and anger are. You only did what any other
+man with no ties and plenty of money would have
+done under the circumstances. Forgive me!
+Only the hand of Providence itself saved me from
+committing, without knowledge, an infinitely
+greater sin than yours. I suppose Carol has told
+you how I met her and what happened, and, of
+course, my father has told you about my getting
+out of the cab that night at the top of the
+Gardens? No, no, I have nothing to forgive,
+nothing to say except, as Carol's brother, to ask
+you why you have brought her here? That, at
+least, I think I am entitled to ask."</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell," replied Rayburn, pulling himself
+together as a man might do after being badly
+beaten in a fight, "I have been in a good many
+bad places in my lifetime, but this has been about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>the worst, and I'd a damned sight sooner&mdash;I beg
+your pardon, you know what I mean&mdash;I would
+very much rather been talking to a South American
+Dago with a pistol at my head, than having this
+talk with you, but it's got to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, I suppose, or at any rate your
+father knows, how I met Carol and how we
+fixed it up to go away together. I admit, without
+any reserve, that I did take her just as any man
+like myself, who had had a pretty hard time for a
+few years and had come back with a ridiculous
+superfluity of money, would have taken such a
+girl under such circumstances; that is brutal, but
+at any rate, it is honest. Well, we went round the
+world together, and it was only a fortnight ago&mdash;we've
+been back three weeks now&mdash;that I found
+out who she was."</p>
+
+<p>"Not from her?" exclaimed Vane, with almost
+pitiful eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Rayburn, "she would have died
+first. Over and over again I tried to get her to
+tell me who and what she was, because of course
+it was perfectly easy to see&mdash;well, you know what
+I mean&mdash;but she wouldn't. It was the one confidence
+that she never gave me; in fact, when I was
+trying to insist upon it, she told me if I opened the
+subject again, she would leave me there and then,
+whatever happened to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Then how did you find out?" asked Vane, in
+the same dry, hard voice. "I more than believe
+you when you say she would never have told you."</p>
+
+<p>"Through the merest accident," replied Rayburn.
+"A day or two after we landed, we went
+to dinner at Verrey's, and we had hardly sat down
+before a friend of hers, Miss Russell, came in&mdash;well&mdash;with
+a friend, as they say. She came and
+spoke to Carol, and the four of us dined together.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>The next day Miss Russell came to see Carol, and
+you know, or perhaps you don't know, that it was
+Miss Russell's friend who introduced me to Carol.
+I got hold of Miss Russell afterwards&mdash;she's as
+clean-hearted a girl as ever the Fates&mdash;however,
+you won't agree with me there perhaps, you don't
+believe in Fate, I do. But that's neither here nor
+there. I told her what I am going to tell you,
+and she told me Carol's story, and that is why I
+am here to-night."</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal of meaning in the words,
+but for Vane there was infinitely more in Rayburn's
+voice and the half-shamed manner in which
+he spoke. Vane felt that if this talk went on much
+longer, the strain would be too much for him to
+bear, for it was his sister, or at least the daughter
+of his own mother that this man was talking about.
+He put out his hand again and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think I know now, Mr. Rayburn, what you
+were going to say, and if I am right, let me, her
+brother, say it for you and for her, you won't
+refuse my hand this time, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Rayburn, "I won't, and for the
+matter of that," he went on as their hands met,
+"I don't think there is much more for either of
+us to say, except just for me to ask you one question."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Vane, "and what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are her brother and a priest. Will you
+take me for your brother-in-law and marry us?"</p>
+
+<p>Their hands were still clasped; each was looking
+straight into the other's eyes, and the two
+faces, so different individually, and yet for the
+moment so strangely alike, fronted each other in
+silence. Then Vane dropped Rayburn's hand, put
+his hands on his shoulders, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot be lying, you haven't the mouth or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>the eyes of a man who tells lies. You have sinned,
+sinned deeply, for you have bought with your
+money what should have no other price than lawful
+love; but love has come to you, and love has
+made lawful and right what was sinful before.
+You told me at first that you wanted to confess
+to me both as man and priest. Very well, as
+man, as Carol's brother I forgive you, if you have
+done anything that I have to forgive, and as a
+priest of God I will marry you, and when you have
+taken the Sacrament of Matrimony from my hands,
+as a priest, I will absolve you from your sin. It
+is a miracle&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rayburn, "it is. I am not altogether
+of your way of thinking, you know, but
+there, I am with you; it is a miracle in more ways
+than one. I know I am expressing myself horribly
+badly, but, to put it as shortly as I can, it is
+the sort of miracle that only a good, clean-souled,
+pure-hearted girl like Carol, could have worked
+upon a fellow like myself. I tell you, Maxwell,
+honestly, that if she wouldn't have me now, I'm
+damned if I know what I should do. She is everything
+that is good to me. I am worth nearly a
+couple of millions, and not a cent of it would be
+worth anything to me if I lost her. And so you
+really will marry us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Vane. "Thank God and you into
+whose heart He has put this saving thought of
+righteousness."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Rayburn, "I see what you mean,
+but really, the credit isn't mine at all, it is all
+Carol's. Do you know, Maxwell, that I am going
+to have one of the most delightful wives man
+ever won? If I could only tell you just exactly
+how I fell in love with her&mdash;but of course a man
+could never tell another man that, and after all it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>doesn't matter. I've got the one girl in the world
+I want&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was another little pause, and then Rayburn
+went on, speaking as shyly and hesitatingly
+as a schoolboy confessing a peccadillo:</p>
+
+<p>"There's one other thing I should like to say,
+Maxwell, but I hardly know how to say it."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped again, and Vane said, smiling for
+the first time during the interview:</p>
+
+<p>"Then say it, as one man would say it to
+another. I think we understand each other now.
+What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's this," replied Rayburn, flushing like
+a girl under the tan of his skin, "you know Carol
+and I met quite by chance, and I took her away
+just as what she seemed to be. Then, after a
+month or two&mdash;you'll hardly believe me, but it is
+the Lord's own truth&mdash;I began to fall in love with
+her, honestly I mean, and in quite a different way.
+One evening, it was in Japan, and we were coming
+back from a trip to Fuji. I couldn't stand it any
+longer, I felt such a hopeless sweep, and I told her.
+It was a queer sort of courtship, and it took me
+about six weeks to bring her round&mdash;and then at
+last&mdash;we were in the Rockies then&mdash;she gave in
+and confessed that she loved me in the same way
+that I loved her. I kissed her. I could never tell
+you how different that kiss was from all the
+others."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it was," said Vane, gently. "It was
+a pure one, a holy one, and God was very near
+you, Rayburn, in that moment."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe He was," replied Rayburn, simply,
+"for from that moment, we were both absolutely
+changed. Since that kiss, Carol has been as
+sacred to me as my own sister would be if I had
+one. That is what I wanted to tell you."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And God bless you for telling me!" said Vane,
+solemnly. "If I had any doubts before, I have
+none now. After that, knowing all I do, I would
+give you the blessed Sacrament to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"On Sunday I hope you will give it to us both,"
+replied Rayburn.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the door opened, and Sir
+Arthur came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Dinner is nearly ready," he said. "Are you
+about ready for it? Ah, yes, I see, you understand
+each other, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sir Arthur," said Rayburn, swinging
+round with an almost military precision of movement.
+"I've made my confession, and I am to
+receive absolution when the happiest moment of
+my life comes, and you know when that will be."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I do," said Sir Arthur, with a look at
+Vane, who was staring vacantly down into the
+flower-filled fireplace. "Then you have settled it
+all between you, is that so, Vane?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with God's help, we have," he replied, and
+then, with a swift change of tone and manner he
+went on: "and now as we have got our family
+affairs settled to a certain extent, I suppose we can
+go and join the ladies. I am longing to see Carol
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"And so am I," said Rayburn, "let us go."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Rayburn went out first and Vane followed him,
+feeling, as he said to himself afterwards, as though
+he was walking across the boundary between one
+world and another. He knew that Carol and Dora
+were in the drawing-room. Dora he had never
+seen before. Carol he had not seen since the night
+of the University Boat Race. Ernshaw, with the
+memory of what he had said in Vane's room at
+Oxford fresh in his mind, caught him by the arm
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell, I believe I am going to meet my fate
+to-night as you met yours in another way. Was
+there ever such a complication in the life-affairs of
+little mortals like ourselves?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Vane, "and I don't care,"
+gripping his arm hard as they crossed the hall.
+"Wait, it may be the Providence that shapes our
+ends."</p>
+
+<p>"Rough-hew them as we will," said Rayburn,
+looking backward.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, since we understand each other, as I
+think we do now, <i>Vogue la galčre!</i> And, Mr.
+Ernshaw," he went on, "I have heard things and
+things. I am not giving any confidences away, but
+by the same token you and I will soon be sailing
+in the same boat or something very like it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Ernshaw, "I see what you
+mean!" Then he gripped his arm a little harder
+before they went into the drawing-room. Vane
+went on with his father, and Ernshaw said:</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Maxwell, you have passed your
+crisis, you and Rayburn, I'm only getting near mine.
+What am I to do, what can I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I can't tell you. You see, to put it into
+the twentieth-century language, the Eternal Feminine
+is here, and you have got to reckon with her
+just as Rayburn has done. Come now, if you've
+made your mind up, go and meet your fate."</p>
+
+<p>As he said this Vane pushed the door of the
+drawing-room open. Sir Arthur and Rayburn had
+gone in just before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Carol!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vane! and is it really you&mdash;you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, taking a few swift strides towards
+her and for the first time putting his arms round
+her. "Yes, dear, your brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Really brother, Vane? Do you truly mean it&mdash;will
+you really take me for your sister now that you
+know everything&mdash;I mean all about Cecil and myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Carol, and because I do know, because he
+as a man has told me everything. I am going to
+marry you soon, and no man, no priest could marry
+his sister to his friend with more hope for happiness
+than I shall marry you and Rayburn."</p>
+
+<p>He took hold of her left hand, and stretched out
+his hand to Rayburn and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Come now, sister and brother, as you are going
+to be!"</p>
+
+<p>He took their two hands and joined them. Over
+the two hands he clasped his own, and looking
+swiftly from one to the other he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Afterwards I will say the words that I cannot
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>speak here." And then, with a sudden change of
+tone and manner which came as a quick surprise to
+both Carol and Rayburn, he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Rayburn, this is my sister. Carol, Rayburn
+tells me that he wants to marry you, and I suppose&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't suppose anything at all, Vane. I've
+said yes already. If you and Sir Arthur will only
+say yes too&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Vane drew back from her, and looked round toward
+Sir Arthur and Dora. Rayburn, having gone
+through the formalities of introduction which
+Vane's tact had made necessary, held out his hand
+and they shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather unceremonious, Miss Maxwell," he
+said, addressing her for the first time by a name
+that was not her own, "but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear Carol, you are forgetting that you
+are hostess to-night," said Sir Arthur, "and I think
+there are two of our guests who have not been, as
+one would say in Society, properly introduced."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course; I'm so sorry," said Carol.
+"Dora, forgive me. I know you will. I was too
+happy just now to think of anything else. Mr.
+Ernshaw, this is Dora. Dora, this is Mr. Ernshaw.
+I hope you will be very good friends. That's a
+rather unconventional way of introduction, I must
+say."</p>
+
+<p>As the last words left her laughing lips, and she
+was looking exquisitely dainty and desirable in a
+quietly magnificent costume which had cost as
+much as many much advertised wedding dresses,
+Dora and Ernshaw faced each other for the first
+time. She had seen him with Vane at the ordination
+service in Worcester Cathedral, but they had
+never met before under the sanction of social
+acquaintance.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+<p>She looked at him and he looked at her, and as
+their eyes met some impulse in the soul of both
+made them hold out their hands as people do not
+usually do when they are introduced in ordinary
+drawing-room style. Ernshaw's went out
+straight.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Russell," he said, even while her hand was
+moving slowly towards his.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mr. Ernshaw, whatever you have to
+say, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to keep it just
+for a little," said Sir Arthur, as the door swung
+open. "Here is Koda Bux, and he does not allow
+me to be late for dinner; he has many virtues, but
+that is the best of them. Mr. Rayburn, you will
+take Carol in? Mr. Ernshaw, will you give your
+arm to Miss Russell, and Vane and I will bring up
+the rear."</p>
+
+<p>"Dad," said Vane, as he gripped his father's arm,
+"you have helped to do God's work to-night; look
+at them!"</p>
+
+<p>"You did more when you got out of the cab at
+the top of the gardens here," he whispered in reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't do that, dad; she did. She knew, and
+I didn't. God bless her."</p>
+
+<p>"Amen," said his father. "And now we will
+return to earth and go and eat."</p>
+
+<p>There were not many more delightful dinners
+eaten in London that night than what Cecil Rayburn
+called his betrothal feast. He and Carol now
+understood each other thoroughly. Vane and his
+father also knew the circumstances so far as they
+were concerned, and a little more. Ernshaw and
+Dora, each knowing just a little more than the
+others did, began to make friends fast, and therefore
+rapidly, but Dora was still <i>declassée</i>. Carol
+had already been lifted beyond the confines of that
+half-sphere which is inhabited by so many thou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>sands
+of women who are neither maiden, wife, nor
+widow. Dora was still a dweller in it, knowing all
+its infamy and shame, and knowing, too, that awful
+necessity which is so often at once the equivalent
+and the excuse for sin.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone took Sir Arthur's hint, and the conversation
+rattled on around the table as lightly as
+it might have around any other dinner table in
+London. Carol and Sir Arthur and Rayburn had
+it mostly to themselves at first, but after a little the
+conversation grew more general. Dora and Carol
+engaged in a really brilliant discussion on the subject
+of Mrs. Lynn Linton's last book, with the result
+that Carol said that she wouldn't live for ever
+at any price, to which Dora replied with just a suspicion
+of a note of sadness in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Carol, I quite agree with you, or at least
+if I were you I should do."</p>
+
+<p>"Which," said Ernshaw, "is, I think, as nearly
+as possible the same thing. Surely if one cannot
+agree with one's self&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Ernshaw," said Dora, putting her elbows
+on the table and her chin between her hands.
+"No, I'm afraid I can hardly agree with you there.
+After all, our worst enemies are those of our own
+household, by which of course I mean our immediate
+surroundings. It is this awful necessity to
+live, to eat and to have a place to sleep in. Of
+course you are thinking of what Talleyrand said
+to the young aristocrat who wanted to live for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Ernshaw, "I know that. He said he
+didn't see the necessity, and I am not altogether
+certain that he was wrong, but you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I," she replied in a tone that had a thrill
+of angry reproach running through it, "I, as you
+know, am&mdash;well&mdash;a superfluous woman, one who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>isn't wanted, a sort of waste product of the factory
+that we call civilisation."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you people are getting far too serious
+in your conversation," said Carol from her end
+of the table opposite Sir Arthur. "No, Dora, I
+really can't allow it; social problems are not in the
+menu to-night, and you and Mr. Ernshaw will have
+to keep them for some other time. Meanwhile,
+suppose we leave the rest for their smokes, and you
+come with me and run through that song you are
+going to sing; we haven't tried it together for quite
+a long time, as Mr. Rayburn said when we were on
+the other side of the Atlantic. Come along."</p>
+
+<p>As she rose from her chair, Koda Bux, who had
+been standing immovable behind his master,
+opened the door, and as Carol, daintily and yet
+most plainly dressed, passed through, his sombre
+eyes lit up as though by an inspiration of long past
+days, and his teeth came together and he said in
+his soul:</p>
+
+<p>"It is the daughter of the Mem Sahib; what
+marvel is this! If there is vengeance to be done,
+may mine be the hand. Inshallah! I should die
+content, even if it was only a minute afterwards.
+He has his kismet, and I have mine. Allah will
+give it to me; but they may be the same. Once
+the roomal round his neck, and his breath would
+be already in his mouth. Dog and son of a dog,
+he would be better dead!"</p>
+
+<p>It had been arranged that Carol and Dora should
+take up their abode with Sir Arthur, so that Carol
+might be married from her father's house. Under
+the circumstances it was only natural that the wedding
+was to be absolutely private, and it was already
+decided that immediately after the wedding
+Rayburn and Carol should leave for a month in
+Paris, and then go on to Western Australia, where
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>most of Rayburn's mining properties were. He
+also owned one side of a street in Perth and a
+country estate with a big bungalow-built house on
+the eastern hills overlooking the Swan River.</p>
+
+<p>The only difficulty appeared ahead to Sir Arthur
+was some mysterious connection with the Raleighs
+and the Garthornes. It was, of course, impossible
+that the wedding could take place without their
+knowledge, if Sir Arthur was to give Carol away
+as he intended to do, and yet the moment that
+Garthorne's name was mentioned Carol had turned
+white to the lips and a look of deadly fear had
+come into her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she said, "not them, I can't tell you
+why, and you mustn't ask me. You have been very
+good to me, and you are going to do more for me
+than ever was done to a girl like me before, but
+sooner than meet them I would run away again as
+I did from Melville Gardens. I would, really, but
+you must not ask me why; there are some things
+that cannot be told."</p>
+
+<p>After this Sir Arthur, finding it impossible to get
+any inkling of the mystery from Carol, asked Dora
+if she could tell him the meaning of it, and she too
+turned white. She did not reply for a few moments,
+and then she said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sir Arthur, I cannot tell you. All I can
+say is that Carol is perfectly right. It would be
+utterly impossible for her to meet either Sir Reginald
+Garthorne or his son, and of course she could
+not meet Mrs. Garthorne without meeting her husband.
+There is a reason, and a very solemn one,
+too, for this, but I can assure you, Sir Arthur&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is enough, Miss Russell," said Sir Arthur
+gravely. "I am perfectly satisfied, and I have no
+right to ask for an explanation. The wedding
+shall be absolutely private; no one shall be asked
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>except ourselves. Vane shall marry them early in
+the morning, we will come back here for lunch, and
+then they will go straight off to Paris. I will tell
+the Garthornes about it afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dora, "I think that would be best."</p>
+
+<p>That night Carol and Dora had a talk in Carol's
+room. It was rather a discussion perhaps than a
+conversation, and the question was whether Sir
+Arthur and Vane should be told the dreadful secret
+which Carol had discovered at Reginald Garthorne's
+wedding. Carol, clean-hearted and
+straightforward as she was naturally, shrank in
+horror from such a revelation as this; but Dora,
+whose nature was deeper, and who had a stronger
+religious bias, felt that at all hazards the truth
+should be told, horrible as it was.</p>
+
+<p>"That man Garthorne," she said, "is a brute. I
+am perfectly certain that he deliberately made your
+brother drunk that day at Oxford&mdash;I mean that he
+took advantage of the weakness that you discovered
+to tempt him to go on drinking, so that he
+might get drunk on the most important morning
+of his life. He knew very well what he was doing.
+He knew if he could only make him drunk that
+morning, everything would be at an end between
+him and Miss Raleigh."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear Dora, suppose that is so, and I
+hope it isn't," replied Carol, "how on earth can you
+have found that out? Of course, if it really is so,
+Vane and Sir Arthur ought to know of it, and, well,
+I suppose of the other thing too, dreadful and all
+as it is, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Dora, "and I will
+tell you why. In the first place, when we were at
+the flat, Bernard&mdash;I mean Mr. Falcon&mdash;told me one
+or two things Mr. Garthorne had said to him when
+they were getting confidential over their whiskies,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>and I had a few minutes' talk with Mr. Ernshaw
+this evening which&mdash;well, what Mr. Falcon told me
+and what he said were the two and two that made
+four. I am afraid that is not very grammatical,
+but it is true. Of course he wouldn't have told me
+if I had not said something about it; but the moment
+he told me about your brother's collapse that
+morning the truth came to me like a flash. Reginald
+Garthorne is a scoundrel, and his father is
+worse, for he is a hypocrite as well as a scoundrel.
+He pretends to be Sir Arthur's friend&mdash;he has done
+so for years. He has allowed his son to steal
+Vane's life-long love from him, knowing all that
+he himself did&mdash;and, well, no&mdash;I can't say the
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," said Carol quietly, and with a note
+of hardness in her voice, "you mean that he is my
+father. It is very dreadful, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Dora, it is, but you are not to blame after
+all; you didn't know, and of course we must admit
+that Mr. Garthorne didn't know so morally. You
+are both quite innocent there, but there is someone
+else just now. We've been friends and comrades
+now for a long time, tell me, dear, does Mr. Rayburn
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have told him everything," replied Carol, with
+an effort which she could not conceal, even from
+Dora.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, everything, even the very worst. You
+know when, as he says, he fell in love with me and,
+as I told you, began to treat me altogether differently,
+and then asked me to marry him, I said
+'No.' I felt that I couldn't say 'Yes' honestly
+unless he knew everything. I had got very fond
+of him, and I suppose that was the reason why. I
+felt that I had to tell him the truth, and so I told
+him. Of course it wouldn't have been the straight
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>thing to do anything else. If he had been like
+other men&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But he isn't," said Dora; "all men are not men,
+you know, and he's a man, and you are just about
+as lucky a girl as ever got a real man for her husband.
+Now I see what you mean. Yes, of course,
+it would be wicked to tell the truth just now. In
+a week you will be married and away to Australia
+to live a new life in a new world. Then no one will
+know Mrs. Rayburn, the wife of the millionaire,
+except as Mrs. Rayburn, but after that vengeance
+must be done."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, Dora&mdash;why not let things stop just
+as they are? What is the use of bringing all these
+things up again and making misery for everybody?"</p>
+
+<p>"Simply because the truth should be known, because
+a man who has done another the greatest possible
+injury should not be allowed to remain his
+friend even in appearance. The truth ought to be
+told, and it must be told."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Carol, "tell it, Dora, after I am
+gone. I have told him all the truth, but you know
+I am like a girl coming out of hell into heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think that I would spoil your
+heaven?" said Dora. "No, you are too good for
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not half so good as you," said Carol. "I
+have only had infinitely more good fortune than
+I deserve."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that," replied Dora. "I have
+known you too long and too well. I believe, after
+all, that everyone does get in this world just about
+what they deserve if everything was understood,
+which of course it isn't; but I am quite certain
+about you. Good-night, Carol, and pleasant
+dreams&mdash;as of course they will be if you have any."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Good-night, Dora!" laughed Carol, with one of
+her swift changes of manner. "By the way, I have
+quite forgotten to ask you how you like Mr. Ernshaw?"</p>
+
+<p>Dora looked at her straight in the eyes for a
+moment, her cheeks flushed ever so slightly, and
+she said almost stiffly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Carol, you have begun to dream
+already."</p>
+
+<p>As the door closed Carol went and stood in front
+of the long mirror in the wardrobe, and still smiling
+at herself, as well she might, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is all very wonderful, and part of it
+very terrible, and I certainly have got a great deal
+more than I deserve. If Dora only gets what she
+deserves it will make things a little more equal.
+Good-night&mdash;Mrs. Rayburn!"<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>On the following Sunday evening London had
+another theological sensation. The National
+Secular Society had advertised far and wide that
+the preacher of the famous sermon at St.
+Chrysostom had consented to deliver an address
+at the Hall of Science, and that the chair was to
+be taken by the President of the Society, who was
+one of the most eloquent and uncompromising exponents
+of free-thought and rationalism in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Not only in the Anglican churches but also
+among Catholics and Nonconformists a perfect
+tempest of indignation had burst forth during the
+past few days. A hurriedly summoned but
+crowded meeting was held at Exeter Hall on the
+same night that Vane had welcomed Carol and her
+lover into the family circle. It was mainly expressive
+of evangelical opinion, and was addressed
+with indignant eloquence by several of the principal
+Low Church and Nonconformist divines in
+London. Their principal theme was ritualism and
+atheism, with special reference to the connection
+that appeared to exist between them in the person
+of the Rev. Vane Maxwell.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+<p>To begin with, he had joined a confraternity of
+Anglican priests whose practises were notoriously
+and admittedly illegal, and he had taken advantage
+of his position in the pulpit to preach a sermon
+which had sent a thrill of indignation through the
+hearts of all the most generous supporters of
+Church and mission work throughout the United
+Kingdom and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken upon himself to put a brutally
+literal construction on the words of Christ which
+it would be absolutely impossible to carry out in
+practice unless the whole of Christendom were
+pauperised&mdash;and what, then, would become of the
+work of the churches, and, particularly, of those
+vast missionary movements which had spread the
+light of Christianity in so many dark places of the
+earth? How would they continue to exist without
+the vast sums which Christians of wealth so
+generously contributed? What was to happen,
+even to the churches of all denominations in
+England itself, if they accepted the preposterous
+doctrine that a man could not enjoy the fruit of
+his own labour, or inherit that of his ancestors, and
+at the same time remain a Christian? It was
+totally out of the question, far beyond the bounds
+of all practical common sense, and therefore it
+could not be Christian, since, if such a doctrine were
+true, Christianity would be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>And now, not content with preaching from a
+Christian pulpit a heresy which, if accepted by
+Christians, would make Christianity a practical impossibility,
+this headstrong, unthinking visionary,
+reckless of all the best traditions of his Church
+and his cloth, was going to address an assembly
+of infidels and atheists, and, as a minister of the
+Gospel, make friends with those who blasphemed
+the name of God every time they used it, and did
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>their utmost to destroy the edifice of Christianity
+and to uproot the foundations of the Christian
+faith.</p>
+
+<p>It was monstrous, it was horrible, and the general
+sense of the speeches, and of the resolutions which
+were unanimously and enthusiastically carried at
+the end of the meeting, was that the man who
+could preach heresy in a Christian pulpit, then,
+the next Sunday, associate himself deliberately
+with infidels and atheists, was not worthy to remain
+within the fold of the Christian Ministry.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the speeches were duly reported in
+the papers the next morning with, in some cases,
+a considerable amount of editorial embroidery, and
+nowhere were they read with greater interest than
+at the breakfast-table of Sir Arthur's house in
+Warwick Gardens, especially as, side by side with
+them, came the announcement that another
+meeting of protest was to be held at St. James's
+Hall on the Saturday evening, under the auspices
+of a committee of members of the English Church
+Union. The chair was to be taken by Canon
+Thornton-Moore, and several of the leading lights
+of High Anglicanism were to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"What a very wicked person you must be,
+Vane," said Carol, who had swiftly skimmed
+through some of the speeches and the comments
+on them. "The Low Church people seem to
+have excommunicated you altogether, and now the
+High Church are going to do it. Why don't you
+go to this meeting to-night and give them a bit
+of your mind? I believe they are all frightened
+of you and your new doctrines, and that is why
+they are making such a fuss about it."</p>
+
+<p>"My doctrines are not new, Carol," replied Vane,
+with a smile which seemed to her very gentle and
+sweet. "They are just as old as Christianity
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>itself, and they are not mine, but the Master's.
+No, I don't think I shall go to the meeting. I
+am afraid there will be quite trouble enough
+without me, and, besides, personal controversy
+seldom does any good at all. I only hope, indeed,
+that these good people will keep away from the
+Hall of Science on Sunday night. It is the
+greatest of pities that it was made public. I
+simply wanted to have a quiet talk with the usual
+audience."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you won't have many more quiet
+talks with any audiences now, Vane," laughed Sir
+Arthur. "This sudden jump that you have made
+into fame has made it impossible. You will have
+to pay the usual penalty of greatness."</p>
+
+<p>"It appears," said Carol, "in this case, to be
+mostly abuse and misunderstanding."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there is much misunderstanding,
+Carol," said Dora. "It seems to me to be quite
+the other way about. These people understand
+Mr. Maxwell only too well for their own comfort.
+They see quite plainly that if he is right, as, of
+course, he is, wealth and real Christianity cannot
+go together; therefore, equally, of course, fat
+livings and bishoprics and archbishoprics at ten
+and fifteen thousand a year will also be impossible.
+It may be very wicked to say so, but I think a lot
+of these good people are worrying themselves
+much more about salaries and endowments and
+that sort of thing than real Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they are," said Carol. "I wonder
+how many of them will do what Vane has done,
+give up everything he had&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Carol," interrupted Vane, gently,
+"that is not quite the point. You must remember
+that these men have their opinions just as I have
+mine, and they may not think it their duty to do
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>that. I do not believe that it is right for a man
+to be a priest of the Church and possess more than
+the actual necessaries of life. They believe that
+it is right."</p>
+
+<p>"And a very convenient belief, too!" said Carol,
+with a look of admiration. "Well, I am not as
+charitable as you are, and I don't believe that they
+do believe it. Now, there's Cecil and the carriage.
+Dear me! how very punctual he is."</p>
+
+<p>"There's not much to wonder at in that," said
+Sir Arthur. "Well, now, I suppose you young
+ladies are going to have a morning in Paradise&mdash;the
+one that is bounded by Oxford Street on the
+north and Piccadilly on the south. Vane, we will
+go and have a cigar with Mr. Rayburn while they
+are getting ready."</p>
+
+<p>The meeting at St. James's Hall was much less
+crowded, and, as some thought, much more
+decorous than the one at Exeter Hall. Canon
+Thornton-Moore, a man of stately presence, high
+social standing and very considerable wealth&mdash;he
+had married the daughter of one of the most
+successful operators in the Kaffir Circus&mdash;made an
+ideal chairman. He was a High Churchman and
+the son of a Bishop. He was the incarnation of
+the most aristocratic section of the Anglican
+Church. He was supported by the presence of a
+Duke and two High Church peers on the platform,
+and half a dozen vicars and curates, all eloquent
+preachers and fashionable exponents of ritualistic
+doctrine, were announced to speak in advocacy
+of the protest which the meeting had been called
+to make.</p>
+
+<p>The proceedings were very quiet and dignified&mdash;and
+very churchy. It was the Church from beginning
+to end; it never seemed to strike either
+the speakers or the audience that there was any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>thing
+that might fairly be called Christianity outside
+the Church. In fact, the words Christ and
+Christianity were not used at all from the platform.</p>
+
+<p>The only approach to unseemliness occurred
+when, in response to a formal intimation that
+"discussion within reasonable limits" would be
+permitted, one of the Kilburn Sisters, a woman
+who had given up a fortune and relinquished a
+title, got up and asked the chairman point-blank
+what <i>his</i> interpretation of the Sermon on the
+Mount was, and further, if any of the noble and
+reverend gentlemen on the platform could give
+a better exposition of it as a rule of Christian life
+than Vane Maxwell had done?</p>
+
+<p>She had hardly uttered her question before
+murmurs of angry protest began to run from lip to
+lip through the hall; but when she went on to
+ask why the preacher of the now famous sermon
+should be denounced by his fellow priests for
+giving an address to free-thinkers in a free-thought
+hall, when Christ himself, for his own good purposes,
+associated himself with publicans and
+sinners and thought none too low or too utterly
+lost to take by the hand, her voice was at once
+drowned by a chorus of "Oh! Oh's!" amidst
+which the chairman rose and said in his most
+dignified manner:</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that I have the sense and feeling of
+the meeting with me when I say that the questions
+asked by our most respected sister seem to have
+been asked under a total misconception of the
+circumstances. It is obvious that they raise issues
+which could not possibly be discussed in such a
+place, and on such an occasion as this. I would
+remind our dear friend that this edifice is not a
+church, and this platform not a pulpit; and that,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>therefore, I do not feel myself justified, even
+if time and other circumstances permitted, to
+enter upon a doctrinal subject which involves
+so many far-reaching considerations as this one
+does."</p>
+
+<p>The Canon sat down amidst a many-voiced
+murmur of approval, and the Duke said audibly to
+him:</p>
+
+<p>"A very proper way, my dear Canon, of dealing
+with a most improper question. The dear lady
+seems to think that we are not capable of reading
+our Bibles for ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>After that the chairman put to the meeting the
+resolution of protest to the effect that if the
+Reverend Vane Maxwell persisted in carrying out
+his intention to proceed from a pulpit of the church
+to the platform of an infidel lecture hall, he would
+make it the painful duty of his canonical superiors
+to take his conduct into most serious consideration,
+and, further, should he persist in this deplorable
+resolution, he would arouse the gravest suspicions
+in the minds of all loyal churchmen as to his fitness
+for dispensing the sacred functions of his
+office.</p>
+
+<p>The Kilburn Sister and a few others walked
+out amidst a chilling silence, and under a silent
+fire of glances which ought to have made them
+feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps it did.</p>
+
+<p>The resolution was put and passed without a
+dissentient voice, and when the proceedings were
+over and Lady Canore, who had been one of the
+most energetic organisers of the meeting, got back
+into her carriage, she said to her husband:</p>
+
+<p>"I think the dear Canon's reply was most
+dignified and proper. That woman ought to be
+ashamed of herself&mdash;and a Kilburn Sister, too!
+Donald, I shall certainly go and hear what this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>Mr. Maxwell has to say to these&mdash;ah&mdash;these people
+at, where is it? the Hall of what? Oh, yes!
+Science, and you must manage to get a seat. I
+believe you pay for them just as you do in a
+theatre. It is, of course, very shocking, but I
+think it will be most interesting."</p>
+
+<p>A good many other members of the audience
+said practically the same thing in other ways, and
+so it came about that the Hall in Old Street was
+packed as it had not been since the most famous
+days of Charles Bradlaugh, and packed, too, with
+a most strangely assorted audience of democrats
+and aristocrats, socialists and landowners, freethinkers
+of the deistic, the atheistic, and the
+agnostic persuasions, and Christians of even more
+varying shades of opinion, from the most rigidly
+Calvinistic evangelical, to the most artistically
+emotional of the High Anglican cult.</p>
+
+<p>The President rose amidst the usual applause,
+but it hushed the moment he began to speak, in
+clear incisive tones which sent every syllable
+distinctly from end to end of the hall:</p>
+
+<p>"Friends, I intend to say very little, because we
+are going to hear to-night what we very seldom
+hear in a secular lecture-hall. We are going to
+hear an address which you are waiting for as
+eagerly as I am, an address delivered by a man
+who, as a Priest of the Church of England, last
+Sunday sent a thrill of astonishment, of amazement,
+I might almost say of horror, through Christian
+England."</p>
+
+<p>A burst of applause, coming chiefly from the
+back of the hall, interrupted the speaker, but he
+put his hand up, and went on:</p>
+
+<p>"No, please! I must ask you not to applaud.
+For one thing, there is not time for it. Just let
+me get my say said, and then, when Mr. Maxwell
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>gives us the message he has brought us from what
+we are, perhaps, too ready to believe the enemy's
+camp, applaud him as much as you like. What I
+want to do now is to say as far as possible without
+offence, and without hurting the feelings of the
+many members of Christian churches who have
+come amongst us to-night, that it is to be our
+privilege to listen here in what has been recently
+called the head-quarters of infidelity&mdash;an insulting
+epithet which I, with you and all true
+rationalists indignantly repudiate&mdash;a man, a Christian
+clergyman, a priest of the Church of England
+who has, as you already know, raised a hurricane
+of criticism throughout this Christian country by
+daring to tell Christians just what Jesus of
+Nazareth meant&mdash;if plain words mean anything&mdash;when
+he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He
+has dared to say from a Christian pulpit what we
+have been saying from these platforms of ours
+ever since we had them&mdash;that Christendom
+is not Christian, and that it cannot be so until
+it is prepared to be honest with itself and its
+God.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell has come amongst us to-night
+with other thoughts, other faiths, other beliefs than
+ours, but from what I see of the audience he will
+not speak to freethinkers only. I believe that
+there are more professing Christians in this hall
+to-night than there ever have been before. Let
+us remember that. It may be that Mr. Maxwell
+will teach us some lessons as unpalatable as those
+which he taught from the pulpit of St.
+Chrysostom; but do not let us forget this that
+we shall be listening to a man who is a missionary
+in the best sense of the word, a man who has
+justified his faith by the sacrifice of his worldly
+prospects, and who has taken upon himself a task
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>infinitely more difficult, infinitely more thankless
+than that of the missionary who, as we believe,
+carries at an immense expense of money which
+could be better spent in the charity that begins at
+home, a message of salvation, as he no doubt
+honestly believes it to be, to savages who cannot
+understand it, or to the people who were civilized
+when we were savages, and who don't want it and
+won't have it.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell has taken upon himself, if I may
+say so without offence, a far nobler mission than
+this, a greater task, if possible, than that of the
+noble men and women of all creeds, and no creed,
+who minister to the wants of our own savages, by
+which I mean those who have been kept in a state
+of savagery infinitely worse than that of the negro
+slave of seventy years ago, by the necessities of
+the civilization which is no more Christian than it
+is humane.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, by preaching that one famous
+sermon of his, has constituted himself a missionary
+to the rich, to those who profess and call
+themselves Christians, and yet are content to live
+utterly and hopelessly unchristian lives. Friends,
+the man beside me has begun to make himself
+the Savonarola of the twentieth century. Whether
+his creed is ours or not, we must all agree that
+that sermon of his is the beginning of a great and
+noble work. He told his wealthy and fashionable
+hearers last Sunday that they could not be Christians
+unless they were honest with God and their
+fellow men. As regards the first part, some of
+us have different beliefs to his, but as regards the
+second, we are with him heart and soul. If he
+can teach us to be honest with ourselves and each
+other, he will have done more to conquer sin and
+vice, more to make earth that human paradise
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>that the poets and dreamers and prophets of all
+ages have longed for and foretold, than all the
+churches and all the creeds have done for the last
+two thousand years. It is a godly because it is a
+goodly work, and&mdash;if there is a God&mdash;that God
+will bless him and help him in it."<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>As the President sat down and Vane rose to his
+feet, quite a tumult of mingled applause, "hear,
+hears," hissings and hootings rose up from the
+strangely assorted audience.</p>
+
+<p>Vane faced the half-delighted, half-angry throng
+with the perfect steadiness of a man who has
+decided upon a certain course and means to pursue
+it at all hazards. Curiosity reduced one portion
+of the audience to silence, and a respectful
+anticipation the other. In the sea of faces before
+him, Vane recognised several that were familiar
+to him. His father, Carol, Dora, Ernshaw and
+Rayburn were there as a matter of course.
+Several clerics, high and low, Anglican and Nonconformist,
+were dotted about the audience, some
+with folded arms and frowning brows as though
+they were expecting the worst of heresies, others
+smiling in bland and undisguised contempt, believing
+that they had come to see one of their
+own cloth, who had already made himself an even
+more disagreeable subject of reflection to them
+than even the infidels in whose house the magic
+of Vane's sudden fame had brought them together,
+do that which would make it impossible
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>for him to again commit such an offence in the
+pulpit of an English church.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment or two there was a hush of intense
+silence of mental suspense and expectation as
+Vane faced his audience and looked steadily about
+him before he began to speak, and when he did
+begin, the silence changed to an almost inaudible
+murmur and movement which is always the sign
+of relaxed tension among a large body of human
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>His first words were as unconventional as they
+were unexpected.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother men and sister women; some of you,
+like myself, believe in God, in the existence of an
+all-wise, over-ruling Providence, which shapes the
+destinies of mankind, and yet at the same time
+allows each man and woman to work out his or
+her own earthly destinies for good or ill, as he or
+she chooses&mdash;by reason or desire, by inclination or
+passion&mdash;and we also believe in the efficacy of
+the sacrifice which was consummated on Calvary.
+There are others listening to me now to whom
+these beliefs are merely idle dreams, the inventions
+of enthusiasts, or the deliberate frauds of
+those who brought them into being and imposed
+them by physical force upon those who had no
+means of resistance, for their own personal and
+political ends.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not come here to make any attempt to
+settle these differences between us. As a priest
+of the Church, I wish, with all my soul, that I
+could. As a man, I know that I can't. But there
+is one ground at least upon which we can meet as
+friends, whatever our opinions may be as regards
+religion and theology&mdash;two terms which, I think
+every one here will agree with me, are very far
+from meaning the same thing."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+<p>"As a priest of the Church, I cannot hear that
+without protest!" cried a tall, high-browed, thin-featured,
+deep-eyed clergyman, springing to his
+feet in the middle of the hall. "If theology, the
+Science of God, does not mean the same thing
+as religion, the word religion has no meaning.
+More dangerous, I had almost said more disgraceful,
+words never fell from the lips of a man calling
+himself a priest of the Church of God."</p>
+
+<p>The last sentence was spoken in a high, shrill
+voice, which rose above the angry murmurs which
+came from all parts of the hall, but these Vane
+silenced in a moment, by holding up his hand and
+smiling as some of the audience had never seen a
+man smile before.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," he went on, in slow, very distinct
+tones, "that such an objection has been raised so
+early by a brother priest. It will help us to understand
+each other more clearly, and so I will try to
+answer him at once. The difference between
+religion and theology is the difference between
+the whole and the part; but theology is not a
+science, for there is no science of the Infinite. It
+is only the study of the many different conceptions
+which men of all nations and races have
+formed as to the nature of the over-ruling Power
+of the universes&mdash;of all the attempts to solve the
+insoluble and to answer the unanswerable.</p>
+
+<p>"There are two sayings, one Arabian and one
+Italian, which I hope I may quote without offence.
+One is, 'God gives us the outline of the picture,
+we fill it in. We cannot change the outline, but
+we are responsible for every stroke of the brush.
+In the end God judges the picture.'</p>
+
+<p>"The other was the saying of a famous Italian
+artist, 'Children and fools should not see work half
+done.'</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Now let us grant for the sake of argument
+that there is a Creator, and therefore a scheme of
+creation. How much can we, dwellers upon a
+world which is but as a grain of sand washed hither
+and thither by the tide-flow of the ocean of
+Infinity, know about the workings of the Will in
+obedience to which, as some of us believe, that
+tide ebbs and flows through the uncounted ages
+of Eternity, and over the measureless expanse of
+Infinity? Faced with such a colossal problem as
+this, must we not all confess ourselves to be but
+as children and fools, since we do not and cannot
+see even half of the work, but only an immeasurably
+tiny fragment of it? For this reason I feel
+justified in saying that those who deny the existence
+of the Divine Architect of the universe and
+those who claim to know all about His plans, are,
+at least, equally mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>"But that, although I have been glad of the
+opportunity of saying it, is not quite what I came
+here to say, and, therefore, we will drop that part
+of the subject. Last Sunday I preached a sermon
+which&mdash;I say it both with wonder and gladness&mdash;has
+produced a very much wider and deeper
+effect than I could have hoped it would do. That
+was a sermon preached in a Christian church to
+a congregation, which, at least, professed and
+called itself Christian. To-night I am going to
+ask you to listen to a secular sermon preached
+from the same text. It will be very brief, because
+I know that you have a custom, and a very good
+one, of following discourses with discussion, and
+as I am going to raise a few distinctly controversial
+subjects, I want to leave plenty of our available
+time over for the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"The theme of my sermon last Sunday at St.
+Chrysostom's may be summed up in one word<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>&mdash;Honesty.
+The essence of the Sermon on the
+Mount is just honesty. I suppose everyone here
+has read it, and therefore you will remember that
+from beginning to end there is not a word of
+dogma in it. In other words it is absolutely
+untheological. Perhaps this fact, a very important
+one, has never struck some of you before. When
+the Master preached that sermon, he, as I believe,
+deliberately left out every reference to dogma or
+doctrine, creed or church, so that men, whatever
+their belief, their nation or their race, could equally
+accept it as a universal rule of life and conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of us here believe in miracles, some do
+not. I do, and, so believing, I think that the
+Sermon on the Mount is the greatest of all miracles.
+It is a greater thing to preach a doctrine
+to which all honest men, coming whithersoever
+they may from the ends of the earth, will and
+must subscribe if they <i>are</i> honest&mdash;a doctrine
+which is true for all time and for all men, than to
+cleanse the leper or to raise the dead to life.</p>
+
+<p>"I will ask you to let me put this point in
+another way, and in a certainly more attractive
+form. Let me read you the expression of this
+universal truth in the words of two English poets
+separated from each other by more than two
+hundred years of time and many mountain ridges
+and deep valleys of changing thought and
+opinion:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Father of all! in every age,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In every clime adored,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By saint, by savage, and by sage,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Thou great First Cause, least understood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who all my sense confined<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To know but this, that Thou art good,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And that myself am blind.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet gave me, in this dark estate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To see the good from ill;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, binding nature fast in fate,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Left free the human will.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Those lines are from Pope's immortal poem
+'The Universal Prayer'; these are from Rudyard
+Kipling's 'Hymn Before Action.'</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"High lust and froward bearing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Proud heart, rebellious brow&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deaf ear and soul uncaring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">We seek Thy mercy now!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The sinner that forswore Thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The fool that passed Thee by,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our times are known before Thee&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lord, grant us strength to die!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For those who kneel beside us<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">At altars not Thine own,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who lack the lights that guide us,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Lord, let their faith atone!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If wrong we did to call them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By honour bound they came;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let not Thy wrath befall them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But deal to us the blame!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Those, perhaps, are the most solemn and deep-meaning
+words that have been written or spoken
+since Jesus of Nazareth preached the Sermon on
+the Mount, and the inner sense, as I read it, is
+the same. In life, in death, be honest with yourself,
+with your brother-man and your sister-woman,
+and with your God if you believe in one.</p>
+
+<p>"Last Sunday in the pulpit I quoted the words
+of Colonel Ingersoll, 'God cannot afford to damn
+an honest man.' That phrase has always seemed
+to me a marvellous mixture of blasphemy, ignorance,
+and sound common sense. From my point
+of view it is blasphemous, because it is the utterance
+of the atom trying to understand the universe.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>It is ignorant, because it is impossible for that
+human atom who uttered it to form any adequate
+conception of the infinitely great whole of which
+he was an infinitely small part. And yet, humanly
+speaking, it is the soundest and hardest of common
+sense. If God is honest He must respect
+honesty, no matter whether it is the honesty of
+belief, or of disbelief, always supposing that the
+belief and the disbelief <i>are</i> honest.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who calls himself a Christian and
+does not conduct his daily life in accordance with
+the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, is one
+of two things&mdash;a fool who cannot understand the
+meaning of plain words, or a knave, who, for many
+reasons, which most of my hearers will understand,
+pretends to be that which he is not. I may remind
+you here that knavery is not by any means
+confined to the limits of what is conventionally
+termed criminality. For every crime that puts a
+man or a woman into prison, there are a hundred
+others committed in every-day life with absolute
+impunity, and yet they are just as serious, and they
+merit a similar if not a heavier punishment than
+those which the law punishes with social degradation
+and the miseries of penal servitude.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether it has occurred to any of
+you who are listening to me now&mdash;whether you
+are Christians, professed or real, atheists or agnostics&mdash;to
+ask yourselves if, under the present conditions
+of what we are pleased to call civilization,
+an honest world would be possible, and that, I may
+say, is just the same thing as asking whether
+Christians can or cannot live their lives in accordance
+with the teachings of Him who went about
+doing good? Of course we all call ourselves
+honest, and some of us really believe that we are.
+At any rate, most of us would feel very much
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>insulted if any one else told us that we were not.
+But are we? Let us put our pride in our pockets
+for a moment and try to answer that pregnant
+question. Honesty, like many other terms, of
+which immorality is one, has, through its conventional
+use, acquired a very restricted and therefore
+a quite unreal meaning. We have, by some
+vicious process of thought, got accustomed to call
+a man or a woman who transgresses the social law
+in a certain direction immoral, and in the same
+way we have come to apply the word dishonesty
+to practices which mean stealing or the attempt to
+steal property of a concrete form.</p>
+
+<p>"But I think you will all agree with me that
+both these words have come to be used in a sense
+which is so narrow, that it destroys their original
+meaning. For every man or woman who
+transgresses the social law and is therefore called
+immoral&mdash;of course after being found out&mdash;there
+are a hundred or more who break the moral law
+every hour of their waking lives. All of you, no
+doubt, possess bibles. Read the 27th and 28th
+verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel according
+to Matthew, and you will understand what I mean.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is another immorality than this, and,
+as I believe, a greater immorality, for this, so far
+as it concerns our sister women, is often not
+immorality at all. It is the surrender of a feeble
+nature to a pitiless necessity, the necessity to live,
+the only alternative, in too many cases, to self-murder.
+There is another immorality infinitely
+worse than this, which when, as we Christians believe,
+the hosts of men are ranged before the Bar
+of Eternal Justice will spell damnation, hopeless
+and irrevocable, and that is the immorality which
+means a dishonesty that deliberately deceives&mdash;not
+always for the purpose of gain, for this kind
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>of dishonesty is generally practised by those whom,
+to put it plainly, it would not pay to steal.</p>
+
+<p>"A French philosopher once said that there is
+that within the heart of every man which, if known,
+would make his dearest friend hate him. That, I
+am afraid, is true, not only of men but of women.
+It is not the fault of the men or the women; it is
+due simply to artificial conditions of life and to the
+individual ignorance and stupidity which make reform
+impossible. Until what we call civilised and
+Christian Society can make up its mind to conduct
+its personal, its national, and its international affairs
+on the broad and simple lines laid down in
+the Sermon on the Mount, no man can afford to be
+quite honest. In other words, if Christendom
+would be really Christian, it would also be honest;
+honest with itself and with its God, with the God
+whom it now only pretends to worship, saying
+loudly, 'Lord, Lord,' and doing not the things
+which He saith!</p>
+
+<p>"It would not matter&mdash;and this I say with all
+reverence and with a full sense of my responsibilities
+as a Priest of the Church&mdash;it would not matter
+whether Society called itself Christian or not, as
+long as it was honest."</p>
+
+<p>"That is absolute atheism and blasphemy!" exclaimed
+a well-known Nonconformist preacher,
+springing up and holding his hands out towards
+the platform. "The man who could speak those
+words cannot be either a Christian or a minister of
+the Gospel. I call upon the speaker to be honest
+now, honest with himself and us, and confess that
+he is not a Christian, and therefore unworthy to be
+a preacher of any Christian creed."</p>
+
+<p>A storm of mingled expressions of approval and
+assent burst out from every part of the crowded
+hall. Vane stood immovable and listened to it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>with a smile hovering round his lips. The President
+rose at once and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I must remind the reverend gentleman who has
+made this interruption&mdash;an interruption which, if
+made in a church or a chapel, would render him
+liable to imprisonment&mdash;is entirely out of order.
+We welcome discussion, but it must come in its
+proper place. We cannot tolerate interruption, and
+we won't."</p>
+
+<p>The rebuke was too just and too pointed not to
+be felt, even by the bigot who had deserved it. He
+sat down, and when the thunder of applause which
+greeted the President's brief but pregnant interlude
+had died away, Vane went on without a trace of
+emotion in his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say that I am sorry that that interruption
+was made, because it makes it possible for
+me to ask whether there is really any difference
+between Christianity and honesty?"</p>
+
+<p>Again he was interrupted, this time by half the
+audience getting on to its feet and cheering. The
+other portion sat still, and the units of it began to
+look at each other very seriously. Vane was, in
+fact, bringing the matter down to a most uncomfortably
+fine point. He made a slight motion with
+his hand, and his hearers, having already recognised
+the true missionary, or bringer of messages to the
+souls of men, instantly became silent and expectant.</p>
+
+<p>"If Christianity is not honest, or if honesty is
+not, for all practical purposes, the same thing as
+Christianity, then so much the worse for Christianity
+or for honesty as the case may be. A religion
+which is not honest is not a religion. Honesty
+which is not a religion&mdash;that is to say a tie between
+man and man&mdash;is not honest. That, I think, is a
+dilemma from which there is no escape."</p>
+
+<p>There was another burst of applause, this time
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>almost universal, which the President did not attempt
+to check. A few members of the audience
+looked even more uncomfortable than before, but
+by the time Vane was able to make himself heard
+again it was quite plain that the great majority of
+his audience, believers and unbelievers, were heart
+and soul with him.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he went on, with a laughing note in his
+voice, "shows me that we have got on to friendly
+territory at last, on to the ground of our common
+humanity. I said just now, before my friend in the
+audience diverted my attention to another and very
+important point, most of us would feel very much
+insulted if anyone told us that we were not honest.
+We should jump to the conclusion that such a statement
+was the same thing as calling us thieves or
+swindlers; but that is not the question. Honesty
+is not by any means confined to commercial dealings.
+It has a social meaning and a very far reaching
+one too, for, as a matter of fact, the man or
+woman who deceives another in the smallest detail
+of life is not strictly honest, because it is impossible
+to be strictly honest without at the same time
+being strictly truthful.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been said that half the truth is worse
+than a lie. It is, I think, a greater sin to tell half
+the truth than a deliberate and comprehensive lie,
+for it is possible to tell a lie with an honest, if mistaken
+purpose; and yet the business of the modern
+world is mainly conducted by half-truths. Everyone
+tries to deceive the person he is doing business
+with to some extent. It is not altogether his fault,
+for he knows that if he didn't do so, the other man
+would deceive him, and so get the better of the
+bargain. That is the way of the world, as it is
+called, and a very bad way, and, as we believe, a
+very unchristian way it is.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Still, it is impossible to blame the trader and
+the man of commerce for this. The real fault, the
+real sin, is not individual, it is collective&mdash;the
+guilt properly belongs to Society. Men do not
+descend to these mean subterfuges and these despicable
+trickeries merely to make money, to pile on
+hundreds on hundreds and thousands on thousands.
+In their hearts all the best of them despise
+the methods by which they are forced to earn
+their incomes and make their fortunes; but the
+penalties which the laws of Society place on honesty
+are so tremendous that a really honest man
+will deliberately sacrifice his own honour rather
+than incur them. That is a very serious thing to
+say, and yet it is the literal truth, and the most
+pitiable part of the matter is that he commits these
+sins of unscrupulousness and dishonesty chiefly for
+the sake of his wife and children. The social
+penalties of honesty would fall most heavily on
+them. Their houses and their luxurious furniture,
+their carriages and their horses, their costly clothing
+and precious jewels would be theirs no longer;
+in a word, they would become poor, and Society
+has no place for people if they are poor, whatever
+else they may be.</p>
+
+<p>"To put the question in another way, a tiger
+seeking for its prey and slaying it ruthlessly when
+it has found it is not a pleasant subject for contemplation,
+but before we blame the tiger we must remember
+that somewhere at home in the jungle
+there is a Mrs. Tiger and some little tigers who
+have to be fed somehow. The tiger's methods of
+killing for food are merciful in comparison with the
+methods of many men who already possess enough
+to give the ordinary comforts of decent life to those
+who are depending upon them, and yet go on deceiving
+and swindling, for deception in commerce
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>is swindling, in order to obtain those superfluities
+of life which are absolutely necessary to keep up
+what is called position in Society.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not say that wealth and comfort would be
+impossible in an honest world; there is no reason
+why they should be, but they would be gained in
+greater moderation and by different methods. For
+instance, if Society could and would change its
+standards of honesty and morality, the force of
+public opinion would soon make crime impossible,
+save among the mentally and morally diseased,
+who would, of course, be treated in the same merciful
+but relentless fashion as we now treat what
+we call our criminal lunatics.</p>
+
+<p>"It will of course be quite impossible for me to
+treat this vast subject in anything like detail in a
+single address, and therefore I shall content myself
+with having thrown out these few suggestions, and
+leave the development of it to those who will, I
+hope, take part in the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"But one word more in conclusion. Your President
+has called me a missionary, a missionary to the
+rich. That is the mission which I have taken on
+myself, and therefore I gladly accept the title, all
+the more gladly because it comes from one who,
+while he differs from me absolutely on every theological
+point which I believe essential to salvation,
+has proved his faith by giving me that title and
+by uttering a prayer which has, I hope, already
+been heard by Him to whom all hearts are open,
+and from whom no secrets are hid."</p>
+
+<p>When Vane sat down there burst out a storm of
+applause, through which not a few hisses, mostly
+from clerical lips, pierced shrilly. Yet, few and
+simple as his words had been, it was quite evident
+that they had gone straight to the hearts of the
+majority of his audience.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+<p>The President rose when the applause subsided,
+and, after a brief speech, in which he frankly admitted
+that if all teachers of the Christian faith were
+like Vane Maxwell, and if there were no other sort
+of Christianity than his, there would be very little
+of what too many Christians call infidelity in the
+world, gave the usual notice that the meeting was
+now open for discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Then the storm burst over Vane's devoted head.
+By a sort of tacit agreement the Secularists left the
+attack to the clergy. As a matter of fact they had
+practically no cause for dispute with Vane. On
+the contrary they delighted in the frankness of his
+expression of his belief, and the uncompromising
+fashion in which he had denounced and repudiated
+that unchristian form of Christianity which, as the
+President had put it, was responsible through its
+hypocrisy and double-dealing with God and man
+for all the honest unbelief, and all the scoffing and
+scepticism, which it pretended to deplore. So the
+Secularists sat still and silent, enjoying hugely the
+series of bitter attacks that were made on Vane by
+cleric after cleric, Anglican and Nonconformist, for
+close on a couple of hours. Vane took it all very
+quietly, now smiling and now looking grave almost
+to sadness, and when the last speaker had exhausted
+his passion and his eloquence, and the President
+asked him to reply, he got up and said in
+slow but grave and very clear tones:</p>
+
+<p>"I have no reply to make to what I have heard,
+save to say that I have heard with infinite sorrow
+from the lips of clergymen of every denomination
+and shade of opinion a series of statements which
+not one of them could justify from the teachings of
+Him who preached the Sermon on the Mount.
+There is no other criterion of Christian faith and
+doctrine than is to be found in the New Testament,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>and from the first verse in the Gospel according to
+St. Matthew to the last in Revelations there is not
+one word which contradicts what I have spoken, or
+which supports what they have said.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a serious thing to say, but I say it with
+full knowledge and with perfect faith. I mean no
+personal offence. That would of course be impossible
+under the circumstances; but it is also quite
+impossible for me, after saying what I have said
+here and elsewhere, to argue seriously with those
+who are by profession teachers and preachers of
+the revelation of Jesus Christ&mdash;of the message of
+God to man by God incarnate in the flesh&mdash;and
+who are yet able to reconcile in their own souls the
+sayings of Jesus of Nazareth and the doings of
+twentieth century Christianity. We have heard
+the words infidel and infidelity used many times
+to-night. There is no infidelity in honest unbelief;
+and, sorrowfully as I say it, I still feel it my duty
+to say it, that there is more real infidelity inside
+the churches than there is outside, for the worst
+and most damnable of all infidelities is that which
+says with its lips 'Lord, Lord,' and does not with
+its heart and its hands do that which He saith."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little silence, a silence of astonishment
+on the one part of the audience and of
+absolute stupefaction on the part of the other.
+Then the storm of applause broke out once more,
+but there was no hissing mingled with it this time.
+About a score of black-clad figures rose pale and
+silent amidst the cheering throng and walked out.
+Their example was followed by most of the West
+End Christians, including her ladyship of Canore
+and her husband and daughters, whose curiosity
+had been more than amply satisfied. The cheers
+changed from enthusiasm to irony as the irregular
+procession moved towards the doors, and an ir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>reverent
+Secularist at the back of the hall jumped
+on his seat and shouted, with an unmistakable Old
+Street accent:</p>
+
+<p>"Got a bit more than you came for, eh? Hope
+you've enjoyed your lordly selves. Don't forget to
+say your prayers to-night. You want a lot of converting
+before <i>you'll</i> be Christians. I've 'alf a
+mind to put up one for you to-night myself, blowed
+if I 'aven't."</p>
+
+<p>Then the applause changed to laughter, hearty
+and good-humoured, and when the President had
+proposed the usual vote of thanks to the lecturer,
+and Vane had accepted his invitation to give a
+series of addresses at the halls of the Society
+throughout the country, the most memorable meeting
+on record at the Hall of Science came to an
+end.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The next Sunday, Vane, the Mayfair Missionary,
+as one of the evening papers had called him,
+preached at St. Chrysostom, and took for his
+text:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not
+these things."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>During the week, the storm of indignation
+against him had been growing both in strength
+and violence, and a movement was already on
+foot to arraign him before the Ecclesiastical
+Courts on charges of heresy and unbelief, and of
+bringing the priesthood into contempt by publicly
+associating himself as a priest with the avowed
+enemies of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The church was, of course, crowded, but the
+congregation was composed of very different
+elements from those which had made up his
+congregation a fortnight before. There were
+many of its richest members there, but they did not
+come in their carriages. Many others had come
+in trains or 'busses, or had walked from Mile End
+and Bethnal Green to hear the words of the new
+prophet; and scores of these had not seen the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>inside of a church for years, or ever dreamt of
+listening with anything like respect to a sermon
+from a Christian pulpit, yet none were more
+respectful and attentive than these infidels and
+heretics whose respectful attention and new-awakened
+reverence were the first fruits of Vane's
+mission harvest.</p>
+
+<p>His sermon was a direct and uncompromising
+reply to the challenge to prove that he was worthy
+to wear the cloth of the priesthood, and when it
+was over, his hearers, the believers and unbelievers
+alike, had been driven to the conviction, unpleasant
+as it was to some of them, that if the preacher had
+drawn his conclusions right from the words of
+Christ and his Apostles, it was absolutely certain
+that neither churches or churchmen, whatever their
+form of doctrine might be, could at the same time
+be wealthy and powerful in the worldly sense, and
+remain anything more than nominal Christians.</p>
+
+<p>After the sermon Vane assisted Father Baldwin
+in the administration of the Sacrament, and Carol
+and Rayburn took the elements from his hands;
+Carol for the first time in her life, and Rayburn
+for the first time since he had reached manhood.
+It was for them the consecration of their new
+love and the new life which was to begin next day.</p>
+
+<p>Dora, who had been present at the service and
+had remained through the communion, had, greatly
+to the surprise of every one, and even to the sorrow
+of Carol and Vane, refused steadily to partake.
+She would give no reason, and therefore Carol
+quite correctly concluded that she had some very
+sufficient one.</p>
+
+<p>At ten the next morning, Vane married Carol
+and Rayburn. The ceremony was as simple as
+the forms of the Church allowed, and absolutely
+private. Sir Arthur gave Carol away, and Ern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>shaw
+acted as Rayburn's best man. The only
+others present were Father Baldwin and Dora,
+and a few of the usual idlers to whom a wedding
+of any sort is an irresistible attraction, and who
+had no notion of the strangeness of the wooing
+and the winning, or of the depth of the life-tragedy
+which was being brought to such a happy
+ending in such simple fashion.</p>
+
+<p>The only guests at the marriage-feast were
+Dora, Ernshaw, and Vane. It was just a family
+party, as Sir Arthur called it, so the bride and
+bridegroom were spared the giving and receiving
+of speeches. Never did a greater change take
+place in a girl's life more simply and more quietly
+than this tremendous, almost incredible change
+which took place in Carol's, when, from being a
+nameless outcast beyond the pale of what is more
+or less correctly termed respectable society, she
+became the wife of a man who had wooed, and
+won her under such strange circumstances, yet
+knowing everything, and the mistress of millions
+to boot.</p>
+
+<p>When the brougham that was to take them to
+the station drew up at the door, Rayburn put
+his hand on Vane's arm, and led him to the
+study.</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell," he said, as he shut the door, "I
+have done the best thing to-day that a man can
+do. I have got a good wife, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You have done a great deal more than that,
+Rayburn," said Vane, "infinitely more. I needn't
+tell you what it is, but if ever God and his holy
+Saints looked down with blessing on the union
+of man and woman, they did upon your marriage
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Rayburn, "and
+for Carol's sake, I hope so with all my heart.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>Now, look here," he went on, in an altered tone,
+taking an envelope out of his pocket, "you know
+that I don't find myself able to believe with you
+on this question of the possession of wealth.
+Perhaps I have got too much of it to be able to
+do so; but what I have, I know Carol will help
+me to use better than I could use it myself. It is
+the usual thing, I believe, for a man who has just
+taken a wife unto himself, to make a thank-offering
+to the Church. Here is mine, and it is not
+only mine, but hers, for we had a talk about it
+yesterday. Open it when we have gone. And
+now, good-bye, brother Vane, and God speed you
+in your good work!"</p>
+
+<p>When the last good-byes had been said, and the
+last kisses and handshakes exchanged, and the
+carriage had driven away, Vane went alone into
+the study, and opened the envelope. It contained
+a note in Carol's writing, and a cheque. The
+note ran thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+
+"<span class="smcap">My Dearest Brother</span>,<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"The enclosed is the result of a talk I
+had with Cecil last night, he also had one with
+Mr. Ernshaw, and I had one with Dora. I should
+like it to be used, under your direction, for the
+good of those who are as I was, but have not
+been so blest with such good fortune as I have
+been.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Ever your most loving and grateful sister,<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Carol</span>."<br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The cheque was for twenty thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Vane could scarcely believe his eyes when he
+looked at the five figures. Then, when he had
+grasped the meaning of them, he murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"God bless them both; they have made a good
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>beginning," and went back to join the others in
+the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>He had a long talk with Ernshaw that afternoon,
+and they decided to bank the money in
+their joint name, Ernshaw absolutely refusing to
+have it in his name alone, as the cheque had been
+given to Vane, and towards the end of the talk
+Ernshaw said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to say that I should not be very
+much surprised now if what your father said a
+couple of years ago were to come true. In fact,
+I have broached the subject already very gently
+and circumspectly, of course, but she absolutely
+refuses even to consider the matter for at least a
+year. Still, she did it so gently and so sweetly
+that I don't by any means despair; and that girl,
+Maxwell, will make as good a wife as a parson
+ever had, and a better one than a good many have.
+She has given me my life-work, too. You are
+going to try and redeem the rich, or, at least, to
+show them the way of redemption. I, with God's
+help, and hers, am going to try and show a way
+of redemption to those who have lost everything,
+and this money of Rayburn's will give us a magnificent
+start, if you will agree with me that it will be
+devoted to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, it must be," said Vane, "there can't
+be any doubt about that. Miss Russell will
+naturally be at the head of the work, I suppose,
+and the first thing we ought to do, I think, is to
+get an establishment for her, and let her start as
+soon as may be. I suppose you have talked it
+over with her already?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied Ernshaw, "and she is more
+than delighted with the idea."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear it," said Vane, "no one
+could possibly do the work better. Ernshaw, old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>man," he went on, more gravely, "I'm afraid for
+myself that with a helper, and, I hope, some day
+a help-meet like Miss Russell, you will have a
+good deal more chance of success in your work
+than I shall in mine."</p>
+
+<p>"That, my dear fellow," replied Ernshaw, "is in
+other hands than ours. There lies the work to
+our hands, and all we have got to do is to do it.
+By the way, as far as mine is concerned, I hope
+you will help me to persuade your father to take
+a share in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am perfectly certain he will," said Vane; "the
+fact that Carol suggested it will be quite enough
+for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then if he does, by the time you come back
+from your first crusade, I think you will find things
+getting pretty well into order."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I shall," said Vane.</p>
+
+<p>But it was already written that this crusade was
+not to begin until many other things had happened.
+That evening at dinner Sir Arthur said:</p>
+
+<p>"Vane, I had a note from Sir Reginald this
+afternoon asking me to run down to the Abbey
+for a few days, and then join them at Cowes.
+You are included in the invitation, but, of course,
+you wouldn't go to Cowes, and I don't think
+I shall, the work here will be very much
+more interesting; but I thought perhaps you
+might like to run down to the Abbey and see
+Father Philip before you start on your mission.
+Garthorne and Enid are there, and her father and
+mother are going. It wouldn't be a bad opportunity
+to tell the family party the good news about
+Carol."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Vane, "I should like that, immensely;
+in fact, I've been thinking already that
+if Father Baldwin agrees with me that before I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>do make a start on my mission to Midas, as my
+friend, Reed, called it the other day, the best thing
+I could do would be to spend a day or two at the
+Retreat, and go into the matter thoroughly with
+Father Philip."</p>
+
+<p>While he was speaking, Ernshaw noticed that
+Dora turned deadly pale. When dinner was over
+Sir Arthur announced that he was going round
+for an hour to see Sir Godfrey Raleigh on a little
+Indian business. Dora felt now that her opportunity
+had come. It was a terrible thing to do,
+and yet, all things considered, present, and to come,
+she felt that it was her plain duty to do it, and not
+to permit this ghastly deception to go on any
+longer. Her soul revolted at the thought of Sir
+Arthur and Vane, Carol's half-brother, going to
+the Abbey and being received as friends by Sir
+Reginald Garthorne. Knowing what she did, it
+seemed to her too hideous to be thought of, and
+so when Vane asked jestingly what they were
+going to do to amuse themselves, she got up,
+looking very white, and said, in a voice that had
+a note almost of terror in it:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Maxwell, there is something I want to say
+to you; something that I must say to you. I cannot
+say it to you and Mr. Ernshaw together; it is bad
+enough to say it even to you, but when I have said
+it, you will be able to talk it over and try what is
+best to be done. I want to tell it to you first, because
+it concerns you most."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," said Vane, looking at her with
+wonder in his eyes, "come into the library. Ernshaw,
+I know, will excuse us; put on a pipe, and
+get yourself some whiskey and soda. Now, Miss
+Russell," he said, as he opened the door for her,
+"I'm at your service."</p>
+
+<p>They left the room, and Ernshaw lit his pipe
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>and sat down to speculate as to the cause of Dora's
+somewhat singular request, but fifteen minutes had
+not passed before the door was thrown open,
+and she came in white to the lips and shaking from
+head to foot, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ernshaw, come, please, quick. Mr. Maxwell
+is ill, in a fit, I think. I have had to tell him
+something very dreadful, and it has been too much
+for him."</p>
+
+<p>Ernshaw jumped up without a word and ran
+into the library. Vane was lying in a low armchair
+and half on the floor, his body rigid, his hands
+clenched, his eyes wide open and sightless, and a
+slight creamy froth was streaked round his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"A fit!" said Ernshaw. "You must have given
+him some terrible shock. Run and fetch Koda
+Bux and we will get him to bed; then tell a
+servant to go for Doctor Allison; we will have
+him round all right before Sir Arthur comes
+back."</p>
+
+<p>In a couple of minutes Vane was on his bed,
+and Koda Bux had opened his teeth and was
+dropping drop by drop, a green, syrupy fluid into
+his mouth, while Ernshaw was getting his boots
+off ready for the hot-water bottle that the housekeeper
+was preparing. By the time the Doctor
+had arrived, Koda Bux's elixir had already done
+its work. His eyes had closed and opened again
+with a look of recognition in them, his jaws had
+relaxed and his limbs were loosening. The Doctor
+listened to what Ernshaw had said while he was
+feeling his almost imperceptible pulse and Koda
+was wrapping his feet up in a blanket with a hot-water
+bottle.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see," said the Doctor, "intensely nervous,
+high-strung temperament, just what we should
+expect Mr. Vane Maxwell to be now.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+<p>"A very great mental shock and a fit. No,
+not epileptic, epileptoid, perhaps. Did you say
+that this man gave him something which brought
+him round? One of those Indian remedies, I
+suppose&mdash;very wonderful. I wish we knew how
+to make them. I suppose you won't tell us what
+it is, my man?"</p>
+
+<p>Koda Bux's stiff moustache moved as though
+there were a smile under it, and he bowed his head
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Sahib, it is not permitted; but by to-morrow
+the son of my master shall be well, for he is my
+father and my mother, and my life is his."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," laughed the Doctor, who was an
+old friend of Sir Arthur's. "I know you, Koda
+Bux, and I think I can trust you. I'll look in again
+in a couple of hours, Mr. Ernshaw, just to see that
+everything is right, but I don't think that I shall
+be wanted."</p>
+
+<p>When the Doctor left Koda Bux took charge of
+the patient as a right, and when they got back
+into the dining-room, Dora said after a short and
+somewhat awkward silence:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ernshaw, after what has happened, I
+suppose it is only fair that I should tell you what
+I told Mr. Maxwell, because when he gets better,
+of course, he will talk it over with you, which is
+very dreadful, almost incredible. I promised Carol
+that I should not say anything about it until she
+was out of England. Of course, she told Mr. Rayburn;
+she wouldn't marry him until he knew the
+whole story, and so I'm not breaking any confidence
+in telling you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I can fully understand that.
+And now, what is it? It is just as well that we
+should all know before Sir Arthur comes back, if I
+am to have any share in it."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Of course, you must have," she said, almost
+passionately. "You could not remain Mr. Maxwell's
+friend and help him in the work you are
+going to do if you did not know, and I had better
+tell you before Sir Arthur comes back, so that
+you can think what is best to be done."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; tell me, please."</p>
+
+<p>And she told him the whole miserable, pitiful,
+terrible story as she had heard it from Carol from
+beginning to end. When she reached the part
+about the flat in Densmore Gardens, his face
+whitened and his jaws came together, and he
+muttered through his teeth:</p>
+
+<p>"Very awful; but, of course, they didn't know.
+The sins of the fathers! I am afraid Sir Reginald
+will have a very terrible confession to make. It
+is difficult to believe that a human being could be
+guilty of such infamy."</p>
+
+<p>"Still I'm afraid there is no doubt about it,"
+said Dora. "But what's to be done? Mr. Maxwell
+will never let his father go to the Abbey now
+without telling him what I have told you, and when
+he knows&mdash;no, I daren't think about it. And poor
+Mrs. Garthorne, too; she married Mr. Garthorne
+in all innocence, although I still believe she would
+rather have married Mr. Maxwell. What would
+happen to her if she knew?"</p>
+
+<p>"She would go mad, I believe," said Ernshaw.
+"It would be the most terrible thing that a woman
+in her position could learn. We can only hope
+that she shall never learn. If she ever does, God
+help her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dora. "And yet, what is to happen?
+How can she help knowing in the end? It must
+come out some time, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am afraid it must," said Ernshaw, "but
+still, sufficient unto the day; we shall do no good
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>by anticipating that. We may as well leave it,
+as the old Greeks used to say, on the knees of
+the gods."</p>
+
+<p>And meanwhile the gods were working it out
+in their own way, using Koda Bux as their instrument.
+Vane had gone to sleep after a second
+dose of the drug which had brought him out of
+his fit, and, as the keen Oriental intellect of Koda
+Bux had more than half expected, perhaps intended,
+he soon began to talk quite reasonably
+and connectedly in his sleep, and so it came to
+pass that a mystery which had puzzled Koda Bux
+for many a long year was revealed to him.</p>
+
+<p>When the Doctor came Vane was sleeping
+quietly, and, while he was examining him, Sir
+Arthur arrived, and was told that he had been
+taken ill shortly after dinner, and this the Doctor
+explained was probably due to the very severe
+mental strain to which he had subjected himself
+during the last week or so. He went up to his
+room and found Koda Bux on guard. Koda
+salaamed and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Protector of the poor, it is well! To-morrow
+Vane Sahib shall be well, but now he must sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Koda Bux," replied Sir Arthur. "I
+know he can have no better nurse than you, and
+you will watch."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sahib, I will watch as long as it is
+necessary."</p>
+
+<p>Then Sir Arthur went downstairs to hear from
+Ernshaw and Dora the now inevitable story of the
+sin of the man who had been his friend for more
+than a lifetime. He heard it as a man who knew
+much of men and women could and should hear
+such a story&mdash;in silence; and then, saying a quiet
+good-night to them, he went up to his room to
+have it out with himself just as he had done on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>that other terrible night when he had found Vane
+drunk on the hearth-rug in the Den, and had recognised
+that he had inherited from his mother the
+fatal taint of alcoholic insanity.</p>
+
+<p>When he awoke the next morning, after a few
+hours' sleep, Koda Bux was not there to prepare
+his bath and lay out his clean linen. It was the
+first time that it had happened for nearly twenty
+years, and it was not until Sir Arthur came downstairs
+that he heard the reason. Koda Bux had
+vanished. No one knew when or how he had
+gone, but he had gone, leaving no sign or trace
+behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Vane," said Sir Arthur, as soon as the truth
+dawned upon him, "we must go down to Worcester
+at once. I know where Koda Bux has gone, and
+what he has gone to do. Garthorne's crime was
+vile enough, God knows, but we mustn't let murder
+be done if we can possibly help it. Ah, there's an
+ABC, Vane, just see which train he can have got
+to Kidderminster. I know the next one is 9.50,
+which we can just catch when we have had a
+mouthful of breakfast; that's a fast one, too; at
+least, fairly fast; gets there about half past one."</p>
+
+<p>"5.40, arriving 12.15, 6.30 arriving 12.20," said
+Vane, reading from the time-table.</p>
+
+<p>"In any case, I am afraid he has more than an
+hour's start of us at Kidderminster. We can
+reduce that by taking a carriage to the Abbey
+because he would walk, and, of course, he may
+not, probably will not, be able to see Garthorne
+immediately, so we may be in time after all. Vane,
+do you feel strong enough to come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I do, dad," he replied. "As long
+as I could stand I would come."</p>
+
+<p>"And may I come, too, Sir Arthur?" said Dora.</p>
+
+<p>"You, Miss Russell!" he exclaimed, "but why?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>Surely there is no need for us to ask you to witness
+such a painful scene as this, of course, must be."</p>
+
+<p>"I am Carol's friend, Sir Arthur," said Dora,
+"and I think it only right to do all that I can do
+to prove that her story is true. I have got the
+photographs, and I know the marks by which Sir
+Reginald can be identified. If we are not too late,
+such a man will, of course, answer you with a flat
+denial, but if I am there I don't think he can."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Sir Arthur. "It is very kind
+of you, and, of course, you can help us a great deal
+if you will."</p>
+
+<p>"And, of course, I will," she said.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Koda Bux, dressed in half-European costume,
+had taken the 5.40 newspaper train from Paddington
+to Kidderminster. He had been several times
+at Garthorne Abbey in attendance on Sir Arthur,
+and so he decided to carry out his purpose in the
+boldest, and therefore, possibly, the easiest and
+the safest way. He was, of course, well known to
+the servants as the devoted and confidential
+henchman of his master, and so he would not
+have the slightest difficulty in obtaining access to
+Sir Reginald. He walked boldly up the drive,
+intending to say that he had a letter of great
+importance which his master had ordered him to
+place in Sir Reginald's hand. Sir Reginald would
+see him alone in one of the rooms, and then a cast
+of the roomal over his head, a pull and a wrench&mdash;and
+justice would be done.</p>
+
+<p>Koda Bux knew quite enough of English law to
+be well aware that it had no adequate punishment
+for the terrible crime that Sir Reginald had committed&mdash;a
+crime made a thousand times worse by
+deception of half a lifetime.</p>
+
+<p>According to his simple Pathan code of religion
+and morals there was only one proper penalty for
+the betrayal of a friend's honour and his, Koda
+Bux's, was even more jealous of his master's
+honour than he was of his own, for he had eaten
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>his salt and had sheltered under his roof for many
+a long year, and if the law would not punish his
+enemy, he would. For his own life he cared
+nothing in comparison with the honour of his
+master's house, and so how could he serve him
+better than by giving it for that of his master's
+enemy?</p>
+
+<p>It was after lunch-time when he reached the
+Abbey. Sir Reginald had, in fact, just finished
+lunch and had gone into the library to write some
+letters for the afternoon post, when the footman
+came to tell him that Sir Arthur Maxwell's servant
+had just come from London with an urgent
+message from his master.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," said Sir Reginald, looking up, "that
+is very strange! Why couldn't he have written or
+telegraphed? It must be something very serious,
+I am afraid. Ah&mdash;yes, Ambrose, tell him to sit
+down in the hall, I'll see him in a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>The door closed, and, as it did so, out of the
+black, long, buried past there came a pale flash
+of rising fear.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Reginald was one of those men who have
+practically no thought or feeling outside the circle
+of their own desires and ambitions. He had lived
+on good terms with his fellow men, not out of any
+respect for them, but simply because it was more
+convenient and comfortable for himself. He had
+committed the worst of crimes against his friend,
+Sir Arthur Maxwell, in perfect callousness, simply
+because the woman Maxwell had married and inspired
+him with the only passion, the only
+enthusiasm of which he was capable. He had
+never felt a single pang of remorse for it. The
+sinner who sins through absolute selfishness as
+he had done never does. In fact, his only uncomfortable
+feeling in connection with the whole
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>affair had been the fear of discovery, and that,
+as the years had gone on, had died away until it
+had become only an evil memory to him. And
+yet, why did Koda Bux, the man who had so
+nearly discovered his infamy twenty-two years
+ago, come here alone to the Abbey to-day?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, yes, to-day! A diary lay open on the
+writing-table before him. The 28th of June.
+The very day&mdash;but that of course was merely a
+coincidence. Well, he would hear what Koda Bux
+had to say. He signed a letter, put it into an
+envelope, and addressed it. Then he touched the
+bell. Ambrose appeared, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You can show the man in now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, Sir Reginald," replied the man, and
+vanished.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later the door opened again
+and Koda Bux came in, looked at Sir Reginald for
+a few moments straight in the eyes, and then
+salaamed with subtle oriental humility.</p>
+
+<p>"May my face be bright in your eyes, protector
+of the poor and husband of the widow!" he said,
+as he raised himself erect again. "I have brought
+a message from my master."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald, a trifle
+uneasily, for he didn't quite like the extreme
+gravity with which the Pathan spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it must be something important and
+confidential, if he has sent you here instead of
+writing or telegraphing. Of course, you have a
+letter from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Sahib," replied Koda Bux, fingering at a
+blue silk handkerchief that was tucked into his
+waist-band. "The message was of too great importance
+to be trusted to a letter which might be
+lost, and so my master trusted it to the soul of his
+servant."</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+<p>"That's rather a strange way for one gentleman
+to send a message to another in this country and
+in these days, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald,
+getting up from his chair at the writing-table and
+moving towards the bell.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly, with a swift sinuous movement, Koda
+Bux had passed before the fireplace and put himself
+between Sir Reginald and the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"The Sahib will not call his servants until he
+has heard the message," he said, not in the cringing
+tone of the servant, but in the straight-spoken
+words of the soldier. Meanwhile, the fingers of
+his left hand were almost imperceptibly drawing
+the blue handkerchief out of his girdle.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Reginald saw this, and a sudden fear
+streamed into his soul. His own Indian experience
+told him that this man might be a Thug, and
+that if so, a little roll of blue silk would be a
+swifter, deadlier, and more untraceable weapon
+than knife or poison, and his thoughts went back
+to the 28th of June, twenty-two years before.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to be spoken to like that in my
+own house and by a nigger!" he exclaimed,
+seeking to cover his fear by a show of anger. "I
+don't believe in you or your message. If you have
+a letter from your master, give it to me, if you
+haven't, I shan't listen to you. What right have
+you to come here into my library pretending to
+have a message from your master, when you
+haven't even a letter, or his card, or one written
+word from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Illustrious," said Koda Bux, with a sudden
+change of manner, salaaming low and moving backwards
+towards the door, "the slave of my master
+forgot himself in the urgency of his message, which
+my lord, his friend, has not yet heard."</p>
+
+<p>There was an almost imperceptible emphasis on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>the word "friend" which sent a little shiver through
+such rudiments of soul as Sir Reginald possessed.
+He said roughly:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, if you have brought a message
+what is it? I can't waste half the morning with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"The message is short, Sahib," replied Koda
+Bux, salaaming again, and moving a little nearer
+towards the door. "I am to ask you what you
+did at Simla two-and-twenty years ago this night&mdash;what
+you have done with the Mem Sahib who
+was faithful to my lord's honour when you, dog and
+son of a dog, betrayed it&mdash;and what has become of
+her daughter and yours? Oh, cursed of the gods,
+thou knowest these things as thou knowest the two
+marks of the African spear on thy left arm&mdash;but
+thou dost not know the depth of infamy which thy
+sin dug for thine own son to fall into."</p>
+
+<p>As he was saying this Koda Bux backed close
+to the door, locked it behind him, and took the key
+out.</p>
+
+<p>Bad as he was, the last words of Koda Bux hit
+Sir Reginald harder even than the others. His
+son, the heir to his name and fortune, what had
+he to do with that old sin of his committed before
+he was born?</p>
+
+<p>"You must be mad or opium-drunk, Koda Bux,"
+he whispered hoarsely, "to talk like that. Yes,
+it is the 28th of June, and I have two spear marks
+on my arm&mdash;but I am rich, I can make you a prince
+in your own land. Come, you know something
+about me. That is why you came here; but what
+has my son Reginald to do with it? If I have
+sinned, what is that to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the book of the God of the Christians," said
+Koda Bux, very slowly, and approaching him with
+an almost hypnotic stare in his eyes, "in that book
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>it is written that the chief God of the Christians
+will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
+This woman bore you a daughter; your lawful wife
+bore you a son. The woman who was once the
+wife of Maxwell Sahib was a drunkard, and now
+she's a mad-woman. Your own wife bore you a
+son, and in London your daughter and your son,
+not knowing each other, came together. Your
+daughter was what the good English call an outcast,
+and, knowing nothing of your sin, they
+lived&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"God in heaven! can that be true?" murmured
+Sir Reginald, sinking back against the mantel-piece
+just as he was going-to pull the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it can't be! Koda Bux, you are lying; no
+such horrible thing as that could be."</p>
+
+<p>"My gods are not thine, if thou hast any, oh,
+unsainted one!" said Koda Bux, "but, like the gods
+of the Christians, they can avenge when the cup
+of sin is full. Yes, it is true. Your son and your
+daughter&mdash;your son, who is now married to her who
+should have been the wife of Vane Sahib. There
+is no doubt, and it can be proved. But that is only
+a part of your punishment, destroyer of happiness
+and afflictor of many lives. That is a thought
+which thou wilt take to Hell with thee, and it shall
+eat into thy soul for ever and ever, and when I have
+sent thee to Hell I will tell thy son and the woman
+he stole from Vane Sahib when he persuaded him
+to take strong drink that morning at the college
+of Oxford. Yes, I have heard it all. I, who am
+only a nigger! Dog and son of a dog, is not thy
+soul blacker than my skin? And now the hour
+has struck. Thy breath is already in thy mouth!"</p>
+
+<p>Koda Bux snatched the handkerchief from his
+waist-band and began to creep towards him, his
+Beard and moustache bristling like the back of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>tiger, and his big, fierce eyes gleaming red. Sir
+Reginald knew that if he once got within throwing
+distance of that fatal strip of silk he would be dead
+in an instant without a sound. He made a despairing
+spring for the bell-rope, grasped it, and dragged
+it from its connection.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment there was a peal at the hall
+bell, followed by a thunderous knocking. Enid, who
+was in the morning-room with her husband, saw a
+two-horsed carriage come up the drive at a gallop,
+and the moment it had stopped Vane jumped out
+and rang and knocked. Then out of the carriage
+came Sir Arthur and a lady whom she had never
+seen before, but whom Garthorne, looking over her
+shoulder out of the window, recognised only too
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth can Sir Arthur and Vane have
+come for in such a hurry as that!" she exclaimed.
+"Why, it might be a matter of life and death, and
+only such a short time after dear old Koda Bux,
+too. What can be the matter, Reginald?"</p>
+
+<p>But Garthorne had already left the room, his
+heart shaking with apprehension. He ran up into
+the hall to open the door before one of the servants
+could do it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Sir Arthur, Vane&mdash;and Miss Russell&mdash;I believe
+it is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Garthorne," said Sir Arthur coldly but
+quickly, as they entered the hall. "We have come
+to stop a murder if we can. I hope we are in time.
+Where is your father, and has Koda Bux been
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Koda Bux has been in the library with my
+father for about half-an-hour, I believe," said Reginald.
+"What is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a matter of life or death," answered Vane,
+looking at him with burning eyes and speaking with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>twitching lips. "Perhaps something worse even
+than that. Where are they?&mdash;quick, or we shall
+be too late!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are in the library," said Garthorne, as
+Enid came running out of the morning-room, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sir Arthur and Vane, good morning! How
+are you? What a very sudden visit. I knew Sir
+Reginald asked you, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that now, Enid," said Garthorne
+almost roughly. "Come along, Sir Arthur,
+this is the library."</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the great hall, and went down one of
+the corridors leading from it, and the footman was
+already at one of the doors trying to open it. It
+was locked. Garthorne hammered on it with his
+fists and shouted, but there was no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the library bell ring, sir," said Ambrose,
+"just as the front door bell went&mdash;after that Indian
+person had been with Sir Reginald some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about that," said Garthorne; "run
+round to the windows, and if any of them are open
+get in and unlock the door."</p>
+
+<p>But before he had reached the hall door the
+library door was thrown open. Koda Bux salaamed,
+and, pointing to the lifeless shape of Sir Reginald,
+lying on the hearth-rug, he said to Sir Arthur:</p>
+
+<p>"Protector of the poor, justice has been done.
+The enemy of thy house is dead. Before he died
+he confessed his sin. Has not thy servant done
+rightly?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have done murder, Koda Bux," said Sir
+Arthur sternly, pushing him aside and going to
+where Sir Reginald lay. He tried to lift him, but
+it was no use. There was the mark of the roomal
+round his neck, the staring eyes and the half-protruding
+tongue. Justice, from Koda Bux's point
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>of view, had been done. There was nothing more
+to do but to have him carried up to his room and
+send for the police. Garthorne gripped hold of
+Koda Bux, and called to one of the servants for a
+rope to tie him up until the police came, but the
+Pathan twisted himself free with scarcely an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need for that, Sahib; I shall not
+run away," said Koda Bux, drawing himself up and
+saluting Sir Arthur for the last time. "I came here
+to give my life for the one I have taken, so that
+justice might be done, and I have done it. In the
+next worlds and in the next lives we may meet
+again, and then you will know that neither did I
+kill your father nor die myself without good cause.
+Of the rest the gods will judge."</p>
+
+<p>He made a movement with his jaws and crunched
+something between his teeth. They saw a movement
+of swallowing in his throat. A swift spasm
+passed over his features; his limbs stiffened into
+rigidity, and as he stood before them so he fell, as
+a wooden image might have done. And so died
+Koda Bux the Pathan, loyal avenger of his master's
+honour.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was silence&mdash;every
+tongue chained, every eye fixed by the sudden
+horror of the situation. Garthorne, roused by
+fear and anger, for a swift instinct told him that
+Dora had not come to the Abbey for nothing,
+was able to speak first. He was Sir Reginald
+now&mdash;but why, and how? When a man of this
+nature is very frightened, he often takes refuge in
+rage, and that is what Garthorne did. He turned
+on Sir Arthur and Vane, his hands clenched, and
+his lips drawn back from his teeth, and said, in a
+voice which Enid had never heard from him before:</p>
+
+<p>"What does all this mean, Sir Arthur? My
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>father murdered in his own house; his murderer
+tells you that he has 'done justice,' and avenged
+your honour&mdash;then poisons himself. If any wrong
+has been done, how did that nigger servant of
+yours get to know of it? Why should he have
+been let loose to murder my father? If you had
+anything against him, why didn't you charge him
+with it yourself, as a man and gentleman should?
+You must have been in it the whole lot of you or
+you wouldn't have been here!</p>
+
+<p>"But, perhaps," he went on, with a sudden
+change of tone, "you would rather tell the police
+when they come; there must be some reason, I
+suppose, for your bringing that woman, a common
+prostitute, into my house, and into the presence
+of my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you fool, you hypocrite, you have asked
+for the punishment of your sin, and you shall
+have it!"</p>
+
+<p>Dora had taken a couple of strides towards
+him, and faced him&mdash;cheeks blazing, and eyes
+flaming.</p>
+
+<p>"Prostitute! yes, I was; but how do <i>you</i> know
+it? Because you lived in the same house with
+me. Yes, up to the very week of your wedding,
+with me and that man's daughter. You have
+asked why he was killed. He was killed
+righteously, because he wasn't fit to live. No,
+you didn't know that then, and so far you are
+innocent; but you are guilty of a crime nearly
+as great. Your father stole Carol's mother from
+her husband; you stole your wife from the man
+she loved and would have married but for you.</p>
+
+<p>"It was <i>you</i> who made Vane Maxwell drunk
+that morning at Oxford, in the hope of wrecking
+his career. You didn't do that, but you gained
+your end all the same, and your sin is just as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>great. How do I know this&mdash;how do <i>we</i> know
+it? I will tell you. Carol Vane, Mr. Maxwell's
+sister, <i>and yours</i>, went to your wedding. Carol
+recognised him as her father. Look, there is his
+photograph taken with her, when Carol was ten
+years old. If you don't believe that, look at his
+left arm, and you will find two spear stabs on it,
+and if that is not enough, I can bring police
+evidence from France to prove that he committed
+the crime for which he has died, and now, you&mdash;son
+of a seducer, libertine and thief of another
+man's love&mdash;you have got your answer and your
+punishment!"</p>
+
+<p>Dora's words, spoken in a moment of rare, but
+ungovernable passion, had leaped from her lips in
+such a fast and furious torrent of denunciation, that
+before the first few moments of the horror she had
+caused were passed, she had done.</p>
+
+<p>Enid heard her to the end, her voice sounding
+ever farther and farther away, until at last it died
+out into a faint hum and then a silence. Vane ran
+to her, and caught her just as she was swaying
+before she fell, and carried her to a sofa. It was
+the first time he had held her in his arms since he
+had had a lover's right to do so, and all the man-soul
+in him rose in a desperate revolt of love and
+pity against the coldly calculating villainy of the
+man who had used the vilest of means to rob him
+of his love.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he had laid her on the sofa, Dora
+was at her side, loosening the high collar of her
+dress and rubbing her hands. Garthorne, crushed
+into silence by the terrible vehemence of Dora's
+accusation, had dropped into an armchair close by
+his father's body. Sir Arthur, half-dazed with
+the horror of it all, threw open the door with a
+vague idea of getting into the fresh air out of that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>room of death. As he did so, the hall door opened,
+and an Inspector of Police followed by two constables
+and a gentleman in plain clothes entered.
+The sight of the uniformed incarnation of the Law
+brought him back instantly to the realities of the
+situation. The Inspector touched his cap, and said,
+briefly, and with official precision:</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Sir Arthur. This is Dr.
+Saunders, the Coroner. I met him on my way
+up from the village, and asked him to come with
+me. Very dreadful case, Sir; but I hope the
+bodies have not been disturbed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," said Sir Arthur, "they have not been
+touched, but Mrs. Garthorne is lying in the same
+room in a faint. I suppose we may take her out
+before you make your examination?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, Sir Arthur," said the Coroner.
+"Of course, we will take your word for that. But
+I believe Mr. Reginald Garthorne is at the Abbey,
+is he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Sir Arthur, in a changed tone,
+"he is there, in the library, but of course&mdash;well, I
+mean&mdash;what has happened has affected him
+terribly, and I don't think he will be able to give
+you very much assistance at present. In fact, he
+is almost in a state of collapse himself."</p>
+
+<p>"That is only natural, under the very painful
+circumstances," said the Inspector, "please don't
+put him about at all, Sir Arthur. The last thing
+we should wish would be to put the family to any
+inconvenience or unpleasantness, and I am sure
+Dr. Saunders will arrange that the inquest will be
+as private and quiet as possible."</p>
+
+<p>And so it was, but, somehow, the ghastly truth
+of it all leaked out, and for a week after the inquest
+the horrible story of Sir Reginald's crime and its
+consequences made sport of the daintiest kind for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>the readers of the gutter rags, those microbes of
+journalism, which, like those of cancer and consumption,
+can only live on the corruption or decay
+of the body-corporate of Society.</p>
+
+<p>Only one name and one fact never came out,
+and that was due to Ernest Reed's uncompromising
+declaration that he would shoot any man who
+said anything in print about the identity of Carol
+Vane with the daughter of Sir Reginald Garthorne's
+victim. He worked by telegraph and
+otherwise for twenty-four hours on end, and the
+result was that his brother pressmen all over the
+country, being mostly gentlemen, recognised the
+chivalry of his attempt, and so chivalrously suppressed
+that part of the truth. And so effectually
+was it suppressed, that it was not until about a
+year afterwards that Mr. Ernest Reed found a
+rather difficult matrimonial puzzle solved for him
+by the receipt of Mr. Cecil Rayburn's cheque for
+a thousand pounds.<br /><br /></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>A little more than a year had passed since the
+inquest on Sir Reginald and Koda Bux. For Vane
+Maxwell, the Missionary to Midas, as every one
+now called him, it had been a continued series of
+tribulations and triumphs. From Land's End to
+John o' Groats, and from Cork Harbour to Aberdeen
+he had preached the Gospel that he had found
+in the Sermon on the Mount. He had, in truth,
+proved himself to be the Savonarola of the
+twentieth century, not only in words, but also in
+the effects of his teaching.</p>
+
+<p>He had asked tens and hundreds of thousands
+of professing Christians, just as he had asked the
+congregation of St. Chrysostom, to choose honestly
+between their creed and their wealth, to be honest,
+as he had said then, with themselves or with God;
+to choose openly and in the face of all men between
+the service of God and of Mammon. And his
+appeal had been answered throughout the length
+and breadth of the land.</p>
+
+<p>Never since the days of John Wesley had there
+been such a re-awakening of religious, really religious,
+feeling in the country. Just as the rich
+Italians brought their treasures of gold and silver
+and jewels and heaped them up under the pulpit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>of Savonarola in the market-places, so hundreds
+of men and women of every social degree recognised
+the plain fact that they could not be at the
+same time honestly rich and honestly Christians,
+and so, instead of material treasure, they had sent
+their cheques to Vane.</p>
+
+<p>Before the year was over he found himself
+nominally the richest man in the United Kingdom.
+He had more than five millions sterling at his
+absolute disposal, almost countless thousands of
+pounds given up for conscience' sake because he
+had said that honest Christians could not own
+them; and he and Father Philip, Father Baldwin
+and Ernshaw, having given many hours and days
+of anxious consideration to the very pressing question
+as to which was the best way of disposing of
+this suddenly, and, as they all confessed, unexpectedly
+acquired wealth, decided to devote it to
+the extirpation, so far as was possible in England,
+of that Cancer in Christianity which Christians of
+the canting sort call the Social Evil.</p>
+
+<p>As Jesus of Nazareth had said to the woman
+taken in adultery, "Go thou and sin no more!"
+so the Missionary and his helpers said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have sinned more through necessity than
+choice, and the Society which denies you redemption
+is a greater sinner than you, since it drives
+you into deeper sin. There is no hope for you
+here. Civilization has no place for you, save the
+streets or the 'homes,' which are, if anything, more
+degrading than the streets.</p>
+
+<p>"Those who are willing to save themselves we
+will save so far as earthly power can help you. We
+will give you homes where you will not be known,
+where, perhaps, you may begin to lead a new life,
+where it may be that you will become wives and
+mothers, as good as those who now, when they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>pass you in the street, draw their skirts aside fearing
+lest they should touch yours. And, if not that, at
+least we will save you from the horrible necessity
+of keeping alive, by living a life of degradation."</p>
+
+<p>The foregoing paragraphs are, to all intents and
+purposes, a précis of a charter of release to the
+inhabitants of the twentieth century Christian
+Inferno which was drawn up by Dora Russell the
+day before she yielded to Ernshaw's year-long
+wooing, and consented to be his helpmeet as well
+as his helper.</p>
+
+<p>It was scattered broadcast in hundreds of
+thousands all over the country. Storms of protest
+burst forth from all the citadels of orthodoxy and
+respectability. It seemed monstrous that these
+women, who had so far defied all the efforts of
+official Christianity to redeem them, should be
+bribed&mdash;as many put it&mdash;bribed back into the way
+of virtue, if that were possible, with the millions
+which had been coaxed out of the pockets of sentimental
+Christians by this Mad Missionary of Mayfair&mdash;as
+one of the smartest of Society journals had
+named him.</p>
+
+<p>But, for all that, the Mad Missionary said very
+quietly to Ernshaw a few hours before he intended
+to marry him to Dora:</p>
+
+<p>"These good Christians, as they think themselves,
+are wofully wrong. It seems absolutely impossible
+to get them to see this matter in its proper
+perspective. They can't or won't see that in
+ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is one of
+absolute necessity&mdash;the choice between that and
+misery and starvation. They don't see that this
+accursed commercial system of ours condemns
+thousands of girls&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," interrupted Dora, "I know what you are
+going to say. I was a shop-girl myself once, a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>slave, a machine that was not allowed to have a
+will or even a soul of its own, and I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Before she could go on, the door of the Den at
+Warwick Gardens&mdash;where the conversation had
+taken place&mdash;opened, and Sir Arthur came in with
+some letters in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I just met the postman on the doorstep," he
+said, "and he gave me these.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's one for you, Vane. There's one for
+me, and one for Miss Russell&mdash;almost the last time
+I shall call you that, Miss Dora, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Vane tore his envelope open first. As he unfolded
+a sheet of note-paper, a cheque dropped
+out. The letter was in Carol's handwriting. His
+eye ran over the first few lines, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Good news! Rayburn and Carol are coming
+home next week and bringing a fine boy with
+them&mdash;at least, that is what the fond mother says&mdash;and&mdash;eh?&mdash;Rayburn
+has made another half
+million out there, and, just look, Ernshaw&mdash;yes,
+it is&mdash;a cheque for a hundred thousand pounds, to
+be used, as she says here in the postscript, 'as
+before.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Dora, as she was
+opening her own envelope. "Fancy having Carol
+back again. Mark, I won't marry you till she
+comes. You must put everything off. I won't
+hear of it and&mdash;oh&mdash;look!" she went on, after a
+little pause, "Sir Arthur, read that, please. Isn't
+it awful?"</p>
+
+<p>"The mills of God grind slowly but they grind
+exceeding small," said Sir Arthur when he had
+looked over the sheet of note-paper. "Shall I
+read it, Miss Russell?"</p>
+
+<p>Dora nodded, and he read aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"I have just heard that my husband, whom, as
+you know, I have not seen since that terrible day at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>the Abbey, has died in a fit of delirium tremens.
+The lawyers tell me that everything will be mine.
+If so, Garthorne Abbey shall go back to the Church
+if Vane will take it, and if you will let me come
+and help you in your work."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" said Sir Arthur, as he gave the
+letter back, "not for his death, for that was, after
+all that we have heard, inevitable; but for what
+Enid has done. Vane, she is your latest and,
+perhaps, after all, your worthiest convert. And
+now, what's this?"</p>
+
+<p>He tore open his own envelope, which was addressed
+in the handwriting of one of his solicitor's
+clerks. The letter was very brief and formal, but
+before he had read it through his face turned grey
+under the bronze of his skin. He passed it over
+to Vane, and left the room without a word.</p>
+
+<p>Vane looked at the few formal lines, and, as
+he folded the letter up with trembling fingers, he
+said almost in a whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"The tragedy is over. My mother is dead."<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_END" id="THE_END"></a>THE END.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h3><br /><br /><br />
+List of<br />
+Popular Novels<br />
+Published by<br />
+F. V. White &amp; Co.<br />
+Limited,<br />
+14, Bedford Street,<br />
+Strand, W.C.<br /><br /><br /><br />
+</h3>
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+F.V. WHITE &amp; CO., LTD., Publishers,</p>
+<h3>SIX SHILLING NOVELS.</h3>
+<p class="center">In 1 Vol., Cloth Gilt, price 6/- each.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<br />
+A MATTER OF SENTIMENT. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+POOR FELLOW. By Mrs. <span class="smcap">J. H. Riddell</span>.<br />
+A DREAM OF FREEDOM. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+THE MYSTERY OF A SHIPYARD. By <span class="smcap">R. H. Savage</span>.<br />
+DEACON AND ACTRESS. By <span class="smcap">A. O. Gunter</span>.<br />
+THE MISSIONARY. By <span class="smcap">George Griffith</span>.<br />
+THE MAN I LOVED. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+THE JOSS&mdash;A Reversion. By <span class="smcap">Richard Marsh</span>.<br />
+QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. <span class="smcap">C. N. Williamson</span>.<br />
+A LOSING GAME. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+IN THE HOUSE OF HIS FRIENDS. By <span class="smcap">Richard Henry Savage</span>.<br />
+THE COURT OF HONOUR. By <span class="smcap">William le Queux</span>.<br />
+FROM DEAL TO SOUTH AFRICA. By <span class="smcap">Helen C. Black</span>.<br />
+A MANUFACTURER'S DAUGHTER. By <span class="smcap">A. C. Gunter</span>.<br />
+THE CAREER OF A BEAUTY. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+MAY SILVER. By <span class="smcap">Alan St. Aubyn</span>.<br />
+A SOLDIER FOR A DAY. By <span class="smcap">Emily Spender</span>.<br />
+DENVER'S DOUBLE. By <span class="smcap">George Griffith</span>.<br />
+A CRAFTY FOE. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+MOSTLY FOOLS AND A DUCHESS. By <span class="smcap">Lucas Cleeve</span>.<br />
+AN UNCONGENIAL MARRIAGE. By <span class="smcap">Cosmo Clarke</span>.<br />
+DOL SHACKFIELD. By <span class="smcap">Heber K. Daniels</span>.<br />
+THE MAJOR-GENERAL. A Story of Modern Florence. By <span class="smcap">Montgomery Carmichael</span>.<br />
+THE KING'S SECRET. By <span class="smcap">Richard Henry Savage</span>.<br />
+WAR&mdash;AND ARCADIA. By <span class="smcap">Bertram Mitford</span>.<br />
+THE WORLD'S BLACKMAIL. By <span class="smcap">Lucas Cleeve</span>.<br />
+THE LOVE OF TWO WOMEN. By <span class="smcap">John Jones</span>.<br />
+THE FLICK OF FORTUNE. By <span class="smcap">Thomas Parkes</span>.<br />
+LOVE'S GUERDON. By <span class="smcap">Conrad H. Carroder</span>.<br />
+MIRIAM ROZELLA. By <span class="smcap">B. L. Farjeon</span>.<br />
+MERELY PLAYERS. By <span class="smcap">Mrs. Aylmer Gowing</span>.<br />
+THE EVOLUTION OF DAPHNE. By <span class="smcap">Mrs. Alec McMillan</span>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 4]</span>MISTRESS BRIDGET. By <span class="smcap">E. Yolland</span>.<br />
+THE ATTACK ON THE FARM. By <span class="smcap">Andrew W. Arnold</span>. (Illustrated.)<br />
+THE BRIDE OF GOD. By <span class="smcap">Conrad H. Carroder</span>.<br />
+ROMANCE OF THE LADY ARBELL. By <span class="smcap">Alastor Graeme</span> (<span class="smcap">Mrs. F. T. Marryat</span>).<br />
+BELLING THE CAT. By <span class="smcap">Perrington Primm</span>.<br />
+THE GODS SAW OTHERWISE. By <span class="smcap">F. H. Mell</span>.<br />
+SAROLTA'S VERDICT. By <span class="smcap">E. Yolland</span>.<br />
+<br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<h3>Novels at Three Shillings and Sixpence.</h3>
+<p class="center">In 1 Vol., Cloth Gilt, price 3/6 each.<br /></p>
+
+<p><br />
+THE MARRIED MISS BINKS. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+WAR&mdash;AND ARCADIA. By <span class="smcap">Bertram Mitford</span>.<br />
+FOR RIGHT AND ENGLAND. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+THE GIRL AT RIVERFIELD MANOR. By <span class="smcap">Perrington Primm</span>.<br />
+IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br /><br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>FIVE SHILLING NOVELS.</h3>
+<p class="center">In Cloth Gilt, Bevelled Boards, Illustrated, price 5/- each.<br /></p>
+
+<p><br />
+THE CURSE OF THE SNAKE. By <span class="smcap">Guy Boothby</span>.<br />
+THE CHILDERBRIDGE MYSTERY. By <span class="smcap">Guy Boothby</span>.<br /><br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>A NEW JUVENILE BOOK.</h3>
+<p class="center">In Cloth Gilt, Illustrated, price 2/6.<br /></p>
+
+<p><br />
+THE MAGIC GARDEN. By <span class="smcap">Cecil Medlicott</span>.<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 5]</span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>ONE SHILLING NOVELS.</h3>
+<p class="center">In Paper Covers.<br /></p>
+
+<p><br />
+LORD BROKE'S WIFE. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+SHE WAS CALLED NOEL, by the same Author.<br />
+BITS OF TURF. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel Gubbins</span>.<br />
+THE SACK OF LONDON. By <span class="smcap">One Who Saw It</span>.<br />
+A GUIDE BOOK FOR LADY CYCLISTS. By <span class="smcap">Mrs. Edward Kennard</span>.<br />
+CONTINENTAL CHIT CHAT. By <span class="smcap">Mabel Humbert</span>.<br />
+PISCATORIAL PATCHES. By <span class="smcap">Martin Pescador</span>.<br />
+A NEAR THING. By <span class="smcap">H. Cumberland Bentley</span>.<br />
+THE PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. By <span class="smcap">Cosmo Clarke</span>.<br />
+RAILWAY SKETCHES. By <span class="smcap">Mary F. Cross</span>.<br /><br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<h3>SIXPENNY NOVELS.</h3>
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT SERIES.<br /></p>
+
+<p><br />
+A NAME TO CONJURE WITH. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+WHOSO FINDETH A WIFE. By <span class="smcap">William Le Queux</span>.<br />
+THE SECRET OF THE DEAD. By <span class="smcap">L. T. Meade</span>.<br />
+AUNT JOHNNIE. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+STREET DUST. By <span class="smcap">Ouida</span>.<br />
+THE MEMOIRS OF AN INSPECTOR. By <span class="smcap">George Griffith</span>.<br />
+TURF TALES. By <span class="smcap">Nathaniel Gubbins</span>.<br />
+STORIES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+A SWEET SINNER. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg 6]</span>A RISE IN THE WORLD. By <span class="smcap">Adeline Sergeant</span>.<br />
+IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE. By <span class="smcap">William le Queux</span>.<br />
+THE BLACK DROP. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+BROTHERS OF THE CHAIN. By <span class="smcap">George Griffith</span>.<br />
+THE OTHER MAN'S WIFE. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+JOHN AMES, Native Commissioner. By <span class="smcap">Bertram Mitford</span>.<br />
+A MAGNIFICENT YOUNG MAN. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+BROUGHT TO BAY. By <span class="smcap">R. H. Savage</span>.<br />
+LITTLE MISS PRIM. By <span class="smcap">Florence Warden</span>.<br />
+THE JUSTICE OF REVENGE. By <span class="smcap">George Griffith</span>.<br />
+QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. <span class="smcap">C. N. Williamson</span>.<br />
+IN WHITE RAIMENT. By <span class="smcap">William le Queux</span>.<br />
+A BORN SOLDIER. By <span class="smcap">John Strange Winter</span>.<br />
+ALETTA. By <span class="smcap">Bertram Mitford</span>.<br />
+THE EMPIRE MAKERS. By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>.<br />
+A RATIONAL MARRIAGE. By <span class="smcap">Florence Marryat</span>.<br />
+THE SECRET OF LYNNDALE. By <span class="smcap">Florence Warden</span>.<br />
+NEW NOVEL. By <span class="smcap">Guy Boothby</span>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>Other Stories by the most Popular Authors of the day will follow
+in succession.</i><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<h3>MISCELLANEOUS.</h3>
+
+<p>GOOD FORM: a Book of Every Day Etiquette. By
+<span class="smcap">Mrs. Armstrong</span>, Author of "Modern Etiquette in Public and
+Private." <i>Limp Cloth, 2s.</i></p>
+
+<p>LETTERS TO A BRIDE, Including Letters to a
+Debutante. By <span class="smcap">Mrs. Armstrong</span>. <i>Cloth Gilt, 2s. 6d.</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h4>14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.<br /><br /><br /><br /></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h4>Transcriber's Note</h4>
+
+<p>Alternative spellings and hyphenation have been retained as they appear
+in the original publication. Other punctuation, including quotation
+marks, has been standardized.</p>
+
+<p>In chapter XVII, in <a href="#Page_211">the sermon headline</a> beginning with "WEIGHTY WORDS TO
+RICH AND POOR," the name "Maxwell Vane" has been changed to "Vane
+Maxwell."</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSIONARY ***
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/29743.txt b/29743.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b35197
--- /dev/null
+++ b/29743.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9821 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Missionary
+
+Author: George Griffith
+
+Release Date: August 21, 2009 [EBook #29743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSIONARY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Rose Acquavella and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  _The Missionary_
+
+  BY
+
+  George Griffith
+
+  AUTHOR OF
+
+  "_The Angel of the Revolution_,"
+  "_The Rose of Judah_,"
+  "_The Destined Maid_,"
+  "_The Justice of Revenge_,"
+  "_Brothers of the Chain_,"
+  "_Captain Ishmael_," _etc., etc._
+
+
+  _London_
+  F. V. WHITE & CO., LTD.
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+  1902
+
+  PRINTED BY KELLY'S DIRECTORIES LIMITED,
+  LONDON AND KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                  PAGE
+
+  PROLOGUE           1
+
+  CHAPTER I.         4
+
+  CHAPTER II.       22
+
+  CHAPTER III.      31
+
+  CHAPTER IV.       48
+
+  CHAPTER V.        67
+
+  CHAPTER VI.       86
+
+  CHAPTER VII.      96
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.    106
+
+  CHAPTER IX.      115
+
+  CHAPTER X.       125
+
+  CHAPTER XI.      134
+
+  CHAPTER XII.     144
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.    156
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.     167
+
+  CHAPTER XV.      177
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.     188
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.    202
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.   214
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.     222
+
+  CHAPTER XX.      230
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.     238
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.    249
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.   260
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.    276
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.     289
+
+  EPILOGUE.        302
+
+
+
+
+THE MISSIONARY.
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+"Oh--Eny!"
+
+"Well, you needn't be angry, Vane. I kissed _you_ this morning, you
+know."
+
+"That's no reason why you should kiss that chap, too! You're _my_
+sweetheart."
+
+"Is she? Well, she won't be much longer, because I'm going to have her."
+
+"Are you? Shut up, or I'll punch your head."
+
+"You can't--and, anyhow, you daren't."
+
+Smack!
+
+It was a good swinging blow with the open hand across the cheek, and it
+left a vivid flush behind it on the somewhat sallow skin.
+
+"Oh, if you're going to fight I shall go away, and I shan't be friends
+with either of you."
+
+But as the two lads closed, the blue-eyed, golden-haired little beauty
+only shrank back a little nearer to the after-wheelhouse of the homeward
+bound P. and O. liner whose deck was the scene of this first act of the
+tragedy of three lives. A bright flush came into her cheeks, and a new
+light began to dance in her eyes as the first look of fright died out of
+them. The breath came and went more quickly between the half-opened
+lips with a low sibilant sound. They were pretty, well-cut lips, the
+upper short and exquisitely curved, and the lower full with the promise
+of a sensuous maturity.
+
+She was only seven, but she was woman enough already to know that these
+two lads were fighting for _her_--for the favour of her smiles and the
+right to her kisses--and so she stayed.
+
+She had heard in India how the tigers fought for their mates, and, with
+the precocity of the Anglo-Indian child, she recognised now the likeness
+between tigers and men--and boys. She was being fought for. These two
+lads, albeit they had neither of them seen their eleventh birthday, were
+using all their strength against each other, hammering each other's
+faces with their fists, wrestling and writhing, now upstanding and now
+on the deck at her feet, were not unlike the tigers she had heard her
+father tell her mother about.
+
+She saw the hatred in their eyes, red and swollen by the impact of
+well-planted blows. She watched the gleam of their teeth between their
+cut and bleeding lips. They hated each other because they loved her--or,
+in their boyish way, most firmly believed they did. Their lips were cut
+and bleeding because she had kissed them.
+
+The fascination of the fight grew upon her. The hot young blood began to
+dance in her veins. She found herself encouraging now one and then the
+other--always the one who was getting the worst of it for the time
+being--and when at last the younger and slighter but more wiry and
+active of them, the one who had caught the other kissing her, took
+adroit advantage of a roll of the ship and pitched his antagonist
+backwards so heavily against the wheelhouse that he dropped
+half-stunned to the deck, she looked proudly at the panting, bleeding
+victor, and gasped:
+
+"Oh, Vane, I'm so glad you've won. You haven't quite killed him, have
+you? I suppose the captain would hang you if you did. I'm _so_ sorry it
+was all about me. I'll never let any one else but you kiss me again.
+Really I won't. You may kiss me now if you like. Take my handkerchief.
+Oh, I don't mind the cuts. You did it for me. There! It was brave of
+you, for he's bigger than you. Poor Reggie, let's help him up. I suppose
+you'll both have to go to the doctor."
+
+"We shall both get a jolly good licking more likely. Still, I don't care
+as long as you won't let him kiss you again."
+
+"No, Vane, indeed I won't, nor anyone else for ever and ever if you'll
+only forgive me this time."
+
+And then, for the first time since the fight began, her big bright blue
+eyes filled and grew dim with tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was the evening of Boat-race day, and as usual that province of
+Vanity Fair whose centre is Piccadilly Circus was more or less
+completely given over to joyously boisterous troops of undergraduates
+and 'Varsity men of all academic ranks whom the great event of the year
+had brought together from all parts of the kingdom, and even from lands
+beyond the sea.
+
+The mild saturnalia which London annually permits in honour of the
+historic struggle between the rival blues was at its height. The music
+halls were crowded to their utmost capacity, and lusty-voiced
+undergraduates joined enthusiastically, if not altogether tunefully, in
+the choruses of the songs; but the enthusiasm was perhaps highest and
+the crowd the greatest at the Palace, where start and race and the
+magnificent finish with which the struggle had ended were being shown by
+the American Biograph.
+
+As the series of pictures followed each other on the screen, the cries
+which a few hours before had been roaring along the two banks of the
+river from Putney to Mortlake burst out anew from pit and gallery,
+circles and stalls and boxes. Cambridge had won for once after a long
+series of defeats, but the Oxford boys and men were cheering just as
+lustily and yelling themselves just as hoarse as the others, for they
+were all Englishmen and therefore good sportsmen.
+
+The crush in the First Circle was terrific, but for the moment Vane
+Maxwell was conscious neither of the heat nor the crowding. His whole
+soul was in his eyes as he watched the weirdly silent and yet life-like
+phantoms flitting across the screen. It was only when the finish had
+faded into swift darkness and the thunders of applause had begun to die
+down that he became aware of the fact that someone was standing on one
+of his feet, and that just behind him someone else had got hold of his
+arm and was holding it with a convulsive sort of clutch.
+
+Just then there was a lull in the applause, and he caught a faintly
+murmured "Oh, dear" in a feminine voice. He wrenched his foot free, and
+turned round just in time to slip his arm round the waist of a fainting
+girl and save her from falling.
+
+The crush was loosening now, for the great attraction of the evening had
+passed, and a general move was being made towards the bars.
+
+"If you please there, this young lady's fainting. Give her as much room
+as you can, please," he said loudly enough to be heard for some little
+distance round.
+
+A number of undergraduates of both Universities managed to immediately
+clear a space about them, and one of his own college chums at Balliol
+who had come in with him said, "Take her to the bar, Maxwell, and give
+her a drop of brandy. Now, move up there, you fellows. Room for beauty
+in distress--come along!"
+
+A couple of the stalwart attendants had also arrived on the scene by
+this time, and so a lane was easily made to the nearest bar. The girl
+opened her eyes again, looked about her for a moment, and then
+murmured:
+
+"Oh, thank you so much, I think I can walk. I am getting all right now.
+It was the crowd and the heat. Please don't trouble. It's very good of
+you."
+
+"It's no trouble at all," said Maxwell. "Come and let me give you a drop
+of brandy. That'll put you all right."
+
+As they went into the bar they were followed by not a few curious
+glances. Men and lads looked at each other and smiled, and women looked
+at them and each other, also smiling, but with plainer meaning, and one
+or two expressed themselves openly as to the neatness with which the
+whole affair had been managed.
+
+Crowded as the bar was, Maxwell had no difficulty in getting a couple of
+brandies and a split soda for himself and his companion. Two men sitting
+at one of the tables had got up to let her sit down. One of them held
+out his hand to Maxwell and said:
+
+"Why, Vane, old man, is it you? In luck, as usual, I see." He said this
+with a glance towards the girl which brought the blood to Maxwell's
+cheeks. Still, he took the other's hand, and said good-humouredly:
+
+"Good evening, Garthorne. Up for the race, I suppose? Fine fight, wasn't
+it? I'm glad you won, it was getting a bit monotonous. Thanks for
+letting us have the table. This young lady is not very well, felt a bit
+faint in the crowd."
+
+"I see," said Garthorne, with another look at her which Maxwell did not
+altogether like. "Well, good night, old man. Be as good as you can."
+
+As the two moved away Maxwell's memory went back to a scene which had
+occurred behind the wheelhouse of a P. and O. liner about ten years
+before, and, without exactly knowing why, he felt as if it would give
+him a certain amount of satisfaction to repeat it. Then he turned to the
+girl and said:
+
+"I beg your pardon; I hope you haven't been waiting. You should have
+taken a drink at once."
+
+"Oh, thanks, that's all right. I'm a lot better now," she said, taking
+up the tumbler and smiling over it at him. "Well, here's luck! It was
+awfully good of you to get me out of that crowd. I believe I should have
+fallen down if it hadn't been for you."
+
+"Oh, please don't mention that," he said; "only too happy--I mean I was
+very glad I was there to do it. Here's to your complete recovery."
+
+As he drank their eyes met over the glasses. Until now he had not really
+looked at her; things had been happening rather too rapidly for that.
+But now, as he put his glass down and began to scrutinize the
+half-saucy, half-demure, and altogether charming face on the other side
+of the table, it suddenly dawned upon him that it was exceedingly like
+his own.
+
+The nut-brown hair was almost the same shade as his, but it had a gleam
+of gold in it which his lacked. The dark hazel eyes were bigger and
+softer, and were shaded by longer and darker lashes than his, but their
+colour and expression were very similar. The rest of the face, too, was
+very similar, only while his nose was almost perfectly straight, nearly
+pure Greek in fact, hers was just the merest trifle _retrousse_.
+
+The mouths and chins were almost identical save for the fact that
+firmness and strength in his were replaced by softness and sweetness in
+hers. Not that hers were lacking in firmness, for a skilled
+physiognomist would have put her down at the first glance as a young
+lady of very decided character; but the outlines were softer, the lips
+were more delicate and more mobile, and, young as he was, there was a
+gravity in his smile which was replaced in hers by a suspicion of
+defiant recklessness which was not without its mournful meaning for
+those who had eyes to see.
+
+"That's done me a lot of good," she said, as she finished her brandy and
+soda. "Now, I mustn't keep you from your friends any longer. I'm very
+much obliged to you indeed. Good night!"
+
+He rose as she did, and took the neatly-gloved little hand that she held
+out to him over the table.
+
+"I don't see why we should say good night just yet unless you
+particularly wish it," he said. "I only came here with a lot of our
+fellows to see the Biograph, and I shan't stop now that's over. I'm
+getting jolly hungry, too. If you have no other engagement suppose we
+were to go and have a bit of supper somewhere?"
+
+For some reason or other which she was quite unable to define, these
+words, although they were spoken with perfect politeness, and although
+she had heard them scores of times before without offence, now almost
+offended her. And yet there was no real reason why they should.
+
+She had been out to supper with pretty nearly all sorts and conditions
+of men. Why should she not go with this well-groomed, athletic-looking
+young fellow who had already done her a considerable service, who was
+obviously a gentleman, and whose face and expression had now begun to
+strike her as so curiously like her own?
+
+She really had no other engagement for the evening, and to refuse would
+be, to say the least of it, ungracious; so, after a moment's
+hesitation, she took her hand away and said with a quick upward glance
+of her eyes:
+
+"Very well, I was just beginning to think about supper myself when I
+turned up out there in that absurd way, so we may as well have it
+together. Where were you thinking of going? Suppose we were to try the
+grill-room at the Troc. Of course everywhere will be pretty crowded
+to-night, but we have as good a chance of getting a table there as
+anywhere else. Besides, I know one or two of the waiters. I often go
+there to lunch."
+
+"Very well," he said; "come along." And in a few minutes more they were
+rolling along in a hansom down Shaftesbury Avenue.
+
+Vane Maxwell was in very good humour that night with himself and all the
+world. He had taken a double first in Mods., in History and Classics,
+after crowning a brilliant career at Eton with a Balliol Scholarship. He
+was stroke of his college boat, and had worked her four places up the
+river. In another year he might be in the 'Varsity Eight itself, and
+help to avenge the defeat which the Dark Blues had just suffered. The
+sweetheart he had won in that Homeric little battle behind the
+wheelhouse had been faithful to him ever since. He had an abundance of
+pocket money and the prospect of a fair fortune, and altogether the
+world appeared to be a very pleasant place indeed to live in.
+
+When they got into the cab the girl half expected that he would slip his
+arm round her as others were wont to do when they had the chance, but he
+didn't, and she liked him all the better for it. He did, however, put
+his hand through her arm and draw her just a little closer to him. Then
+he leant back in the cab, and, as the light from a big gin palace lamp
+flashed on to her face, he said:
+
+"Well, this _is_ jolly. I'm so glad you came. I feel just in the humour
+for a good supper in pleasant society."
+
+"Thank you," she said, with a little toss of her head; "but how do you
+know my society is going to be pleasant?"
+
+"Oh, it couldn't be anything else," he laughed. "You are far too pretty
+not to be nice."
+
+"Thanks," she said gravely. "Are all the pretty girls you know nice?
+Don't you find some of them horribly conceited and dull? Lots of fellows
+I know say so."
+
+"Lots of fellows!" he echoed. "Then you have a pretty extensive
+acquaintance----"
+
+"Why, of course I have," she interrupted, cutting him short almost
+roughly. Then she went on with a swift change of tone, "Don't you see
+that a--a girl like me has _got_ to know plenty of fellows? It's--well,
+it's business, and that's the brutal truth of it."
+
+She turned her head away and looked out of the cab window as though she
+didn't want him to see the expression that came over her face as she
+said the last few words.
+
+But though he did not see the change in her face, the change in her
+voice struck him like a jarring note in a harmony that he was beginning
+to find very pleasant. He felt a sort of momentary resentment. He knew,
+of course, that it was the "brutal truth," but just then he disliked
+being reminded of it--especially by her. She seemed a great deal too
+nice for _that_ to be true of her. There was a little pause, rather an
+awkward one, during which he tried to think of the proper thing to say.
+Of course he didn't succeed, so he just blurted out:
+
+"Oh, never mind about brutal truths just now, little girl."
+
+There was another pause, during which she still kept her head turned
+away. Then he went on with a happy inconsequence:
+
+"By the way, has it struck you yet that we're rather like each other?"
+
+"Is that a compliment to me or to yourself?" she said, half gravely, and
+yet with a belying gleam of mischief in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, a likeness like that could only be a compliment to me, of course,"
+he replied, and before the conversation could proceed any farther the
+cab stopped at the entrance to the Trocadero.
+
+By great good luck they procured one of the little side tables in the
+inner room just as another couple were leaving it. One of the waiters
+had recognised her as she came in, and, with the astute alacrity of his
+kind, had taken possession of them and pre-empted the table before
+anyone else could get near it. There were, in fact, others waiting who
+had a prior right, but the gentleman in the plum coat and gold buttons
+made it impossible for the superintendent of the room to interfere by
+saying to Maxwell in his blandest tone:
+
+"Good evening, sir; it's all right, sir. This is the table you engaged."
+
+"He's a smart youth, that Fritz," said the girl as they sat down. "These
+fellows here know which side their bread's buttered on, and they look
+after their own customers."
+
+"Yes, he seems to know his business," said Maxwell, "and now I suppose
+the question is, what are we going to have?"
+
+Fritz had come back, and was swiftly and rapidly removing the debris
+left behind by their predecessors. The girl looked up at him with an air
+of familiarity which Maxwell didn't altogether like, and said:
+
+"What's good for supper, Fritz? I am hungry."
+
+"A few oysters, miss, grilled sole, and a nice little porterhouse steak
+between two. How's that, miss?"
+
+She looked across at Maxwell and nodded, and he said, "Yes, I think that
+will do very nicely. Let's have the oysters at once, and some brown
+bread and butter."
+
+"Yes, sir, certainly. Any wine, sir?"
+
+The list was presented, opened, of course, at the champagne page.
+
+"You'll have something fizzy, won't you?" he said, looking up from the
+list.
+
+"I suppose we may as well," she said, "only I don't want you to think me
+too extravagant."
+
+"Nonsense," he laughed, and then he told the waiter to bring a bottle of
+Kock Fils '89.
+
+When the man had gone on his errand Maxwell said somewhat diffidently:
+
+"By the way, we seem to be getting to know each other pretty well, but
+we've not exactly been introduced. I mean we don't know each other's
+names yet."
+
+"Oh, introductions are not much in fashion in the world that I live in,"
+she said with a little flush. "Of course you don't need telling which
+half of the world that is."
+
+For the moment he felt an unreasonable resentment, either at the words
+or the half defiant way in which she spoke them. He was quite old enough
+both in years and the ways of the world to know exactly what she meant,
+and he was perfectly well aware that she would not have accepted his
+invitation to supper any more than she would have been in the promenade
+of a music hall unescorted if she had been what is conventionally
+termed respectable. Yet somehow he wanted to forget the fact and treat
+her with the respect he would have paid to any ordinary acquaintance in
+his own social sphere.
+
+This feeling was probably due both to an innate chivalry and to the fact
+that one of his father's favourite precepts was, "My boy, whatever
+company you're in, never forget that you're a gentleman." Mingled with
+it there may also have been a dash of masculine vanity. The more he
+looked at the girl the more striking did her likeness to himself appear.
+Really, if he had had a sister she could not have been more like him,
+but he knew that he was an only child, and, besides, that thought was
+altogether unthinkable.
+
+After a little pause, during which their eyes met and their cheeks
+flushed in a somewhat boy-and-girlish fashion, he laughed a trifle
+awkwardly and said:
+
+"Well, then, we shall have to introduce ourselves, I suppose. My name is
+Maxwell--Vane Maxwell."
+
+"Vane!" she echoed, "how funny! My name is Vane too--Carol Vane. It's
+not a sham one either, such as a lot of girls like me take. It's my
+own--at least, I have always been called Carol, and Vane was my mother's
+name."
+
+"I see," said Maxwell, after another little pause, during which the
+oysters came and the waiter opened the wine. When he had filled the two
+glasses and vanished, Maxwell lifted his and said:
+
+"Well, Miss Carol, it is rather curious that we should both have the
+same names, and also, if I may say so without flattering myself too much,
+be so much like each other. At any rate I shall venture to hope that
+your little accident at the Palace has enabled me to make a very
+charming acquaintance."
+
+"That's very prettily put, Mr. Vane Maxwell," she said, nodding and
+smiling at him over her glass. "And now that we've been introduced in a
+sort of way, as we haven't got any more interesting subject to talk
+about, suppose we talk about ourselves. Which are you, Oxford or
+Cambridge?"
+
+The conversation thus started rattled merrily along for over an hour.
+Without thinking any disloyalty to his own Enid, who was now a fair and
+stately maiden of eighteen, he found it quite impossible to resist the
+strange charm of Miss Carol's manner. She was obviously a lady by
+instinct, and she had also been educated after a sort. She had read
+widely if not altogether wisely, and she seemed just as familiar with
+the literature, or, at any rate, with the fiction of France and Italy as
+she was with that of England.
+
+This she explained was due to the fact that until she was about twelve,
+that is to say some seven years ago, she had been constantly living and
+wandering about in these two countries with her mother and sometimes
+also with a gentleman who, as she put it, was pretty probably her
+father. She explained further that at the mature age of thirteen she had
+run away from a French school in which she had been placed by some
+unknown agency and joined a wandering English circus-troop with which
+she had travelled half over Europe, leading a more or less miserable
+existence for some five years. She had then terminated her connection
+with the Ring by going into housekeeping with an English art-student in
+Paris. Meanwhile she had lost all trace of her mother, and had come to
+the conclusion that she had by this time drunk herself to death.
+
+"I scarcely ever knew her to be quite sober," she said pathetically,
+and then she changed the subject.
+
+It was not a very cheerful story, as story, but Miss Carol told it with
+such a quaint humour and such a vivacity of expression and gesture that,
+despite the under-note of tragedy, Maxwell thought it the most
+interesting story he had ever heard in his life.
+
+As the courses disappeared and the empty bottle of wine was succeeded by
+a half bottle "just for the last," as Maxwell said, the conversation
+grew gayer and perhaps also a trifle freer, although Miss Carol never
+permitted herself any of those freedoms of expression with which too
+many of the so-called Daughters of Delight vulgarise themselves so
+hopelessly. When the half bottle was finished Maxwell wanted another,
+and to this Miss Carol promptly and firmly objected.
+
+"If you will excuse me saying so to a new acquaintance," she said, "I
+wouldn't if I were you. We have both of us had enough of this stuff,
+nice and all as it is--at least, I have, and I think I'm more used to it
+than you. A coffee and liqueur if you like. That won't hurt us--in fact,
+it'll do us good; but I can see something in your eyes that shouldn't be
+there."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Maxwell, a trifle offended. "Surely you're not
+going to accuse me of the unpardonable crime of getting drunk in the
+company of a lady."
+
+"Thank you!" she said simply, and yet with a decided dignity. "No, I
+don't mean that. It's a funny thing, you know," she went on, leaning her
+elbows on the table and staring straight into his eyes, "but there's a
+queer kind of light coming into your eyes, a sort of dancing, jumping
+yellow flame that makes them look almost red. Well, your eyes are
+almost exactly like mine, and mine are like my mother's, and whenever
+she'd got so far on with drink that she couldn't stop I used to see that
+light in her eyes. Of course I don't say that it means anything; still,
+there it is. I used to call it the danger signal, and keep away from her
+as much as I could till it was over, and I had to nurse her back to
+something like life."
+
+"That's rather approaching the creepy," said Maxwell, with an almost
+imperceptible shrug of his shoulders. He had no feeling of offence now.
+She looked so pretty and she spoke so earnestly that it was impossible
+to be offended with her. Moreover, although he was far from even getting
+drunk, he felt a dreamy sensation stealing over him which seemed to be
+sapping his self-restraint and making him utterly careless of what he
+did or what happened to him so long as it was only pleasant.
+
+"Really, it is decidedly curious," he went on. "I hope I haven't got the
+makings of a dipsomaniac in me. But I feel quite curiously happy, and I
+believe I could just go on drinking and getting happier and happier
+until I landed in Paradise with you standing just inside the gates to
+welcome me."
+
+"Don't!" she said almost sharply. "For goodness sake don't begin to talk
+like that. That's just how my mother used to feel, just how she used to
+talk, and she did go on--of course, there was no one to stop her. You
+should have seen her a couple of days after--a savage, an animal, a wild
+beast, only wild beasts don't get drunk. It's not a nice thing to say of
+your mother, even such a mother as mine was, but it's true, and I'm
+telling you because I like you, and it may do you some good."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Carol! After that I shall certainly take your advice,"
+he said, pouring his cognac into his coffee. "This is the last drink
+to-night, and that reminds me; it's getting rather late. How about going
+home?"
+
+"I think it's about time," she said. "They close at twelve to-night, you
+know. Which way do you go?"
+
+"Which way do _you_ go?" he said, as he beckoned to the waiter for the
+bill. "By the way, I was going to ask you--I hope you have never seen
+that light, that danger signal, in your own eyes?"
+
+She ignored his first question _in toto_, and replied:
+
+"Yes, I saw it once when I got home after a pretty wild supper. It
+frightened me so that I went 'T.T.' for nearly a month, and just now I
+wouldn't drink another glass of that champagne if you gave me a thousand
+pounds to drink it."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I shan't ask you after what you've said," he laughed, as
+he threw a couple of shillings on the plate which the waiter presented,
+and took up his bill. Then he got up and helped her on with her cloak,
+and as she shook her shapely shoulders into it he went on:
+
+"But you haven't answered my question yet."
+
+"Which question?" she said, turning sharply round.
+
+"Which way do you go--or do you intend to stop out a bit later?" he
+replied rather haltingly. "I thought perhaps I might have the
+pleasure----"
+
+"Of seeing me home?" she said, raising her eyes to his and flushing
+hotly. "I'm afraid that's impossible. But go and get your coat and hat,
+and let's go outside. It's horribly close in here."
+
+He paid his bill at the pay-box near the door, and when they got out
+into the street he took her by the arm and said, as they turned down
+towards the Circus:
+
+"And may I ask why it is impossible, Miss Carol. I thought just now you
+said that you liked me a bit."
+
+"So I do," she replied, with a little thrill in her voice; "and that's
+just why, or partly why--and besides, we're too much alike. Why, we
+might be brother and sister----"
+
+"That is quite out of the question," he interrupted quickly; "I never
+had a sister. I am an only child, and my mother died soon after I was
+born. She died in India nearly twenty years ago."
+
+"I can't help it," she said, almost passionately. "Of course we can't
+possibly be any relation, the idea's absurd; but still, it's no use--I
+couldn't, I daren't. Besides, have you forgotten what you were telling
+me about your fight on the steamer with that man we met at the Palace?
+Aren't you in love with the girl still? I quite understood you were
+engaged to her."
+
+"Yes," said Maxwell frankly, "I am, and perhaps I ought to be ashamed of
+myself. That is two lessons you've taught me to-night, Miss Carol, and I
+shan't forget either them or you. Still, I don't see why we shouldn't be
+friends. Honestly, I like you very much, and you've said you like
+me--why shouldn't we?"
+
+"Yes, that's true; I like you all right," she replied with almost
+embarrassing frankness; "but for all that it's something very different
+from love at first sight. It's funny, but do you know, Vane--I suppose
+if we're going to be friends I may call you Vane--although I think I
+could get to like you very much in one way, however different things
+were, I don't believe I could ever fall in love with you. But if you
+only mean friends, just real pals, as we say in my half of the world, I
+am there, always supposing that the friendship of such an entirely
+improper young person as I am doesn't do you any harm."
+
+"Harm, nonsense!" he said. "Why should it? Well, that's a bargain, and
+now perhaps you won't object to tell me where you live."
+
+"Oh, no, not now," she said. "I live at 15, Melville Gardens, Brook
+Green, with a very nice girl that you may also be friends with if you're
+good."
+
+"Brook Green! Why, that's off the Hammersmith Road. We, that is to say
+dad and myself, live in Warwick Gardens, a bit this side of Addison
+Bridge, so if you really mean to go home we may as well get a hansom,
+and you can drop me at Warwick Gardens and go on."
+
+"Of course I mean to go home, and I think that would be a very good
+arrangement."
+
+They had crossed over to the pavement in front of the Criterion as she
+said this. It was on the tip of Maxwell's tongue to ask her to come in
+and have another drink. He certainly felt a greater craving for alcohol
+than he had ever done in his life before, and if he had been alone he
+might have yielded to it; but he was ashamed to do so after what he had
+just said to her, so he hailed an empty cab that was just coming up to
+the kerb. As he was handing his companion in, the door of the buffet
+swung open, and Reginald Garthorne came out with two other Cambridge
+men. They were all a trifle fresh, and as Garthorne recognised him he
+called out:
+
+"By-by, Maxwell. Don't forget to say your prayers."
+
+Maxwell turned round angrily with his foot on the step. If he had had
+that other drink that he wanted there would have been a row, but, as it
+was, a word and a gesture from Miss Carol brought him into the cab.
+There was an angry flush on her cheeks and a wicked light in her eyes,
+but she said very quietly, "Do you know, I am glad you thrashed that
+fellow once. He ought to be ashamed of himself shouting a thing like
+that out here. I suppose he thinks himself a gentleman, too."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said Vane. "Garthorne's a bit screwed, that's
+all. Everyone is to-night. But he's not at all a bad fellow. His father
+was a soldier in India, and did some very good service. He has a staff
+appointment at home. He's a baronet too--one of the old ones. His mother
+comes of a good stock as well. We've been very good chums since that
+first row. Fellows who fight as boys generally are."
+
+"Oh, I daresay he's all right, but I didn't like it," said Miss Carol,
+leaning back in the cab. "And now suppose you tell me something more
+about yourself."
+
+When the cab pulled up at the corner of Warwick Gardens and he said
+good-night, he asked her for a kiss. She blushed like a
+fourteen-year-old school girl as she replied:
+
+"That's a great compliment, Vane, for I know how you mean it. But if you
+don't mind I really think I'd rather not, at least not just yet. You
+see, after all we've only known each other two or three hours. Wait
+until you know me at least a little better before you ask again, and
+then perhaps we'll see."
+
+"Well, I daresay you're right, Miss Modesty," he laughed, as he got out.
+"In fact, you always seem to be right. Good-night, Carol."
+
+"Good-night, Vane." As he stepped backwards from the cab she leant
+forward and smiled and waved her hand. A gentleman walking quickly from
+the direction of the bridge looked up and saw her pretty laughing face
+as the light of a lamp fell upon it. He stopped almost as suddenly as
+though he had run up against some invisible obstacle, and passed his
+hand across his eyes. Then the cab doors closed, the face vanished back
+into the shadow of the interior, and, to his utter amazement, Maxwell
+heard his father's voice say:
+
+"God bless my soul. What a marvellous likeness!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Well, Vane!"
+
+"Well, dad!"
+
+"May I ask who that young lady in the cab with you was?"
+
+Vane saw at once that he was in for it, and even if he had wished for
+any concealment, it was impossible under the circumstances. As a matter
+of fact, however, he had already made up his mind to tell his father the
+whole story of his little adventure, and so he said very gravely and
+deliberately:
+
+"That, dad, is a young lady whose acquaintance I made to-night at the
+Palace. She nearly fainted in the crush just after the Biograph was
+over. She happened to be close behind me, and so of course she held on
+to me. I took her into one of the bars and gave her a brandy and soda.
+Then we noticed mutually how curiously like each other we were, and
+then--well, then I asked her to supper and she came. We have just driven
+here from the Trocadero. She has gone on to where she lives in Melville
+Gardens, Brook Green. I can tell you a lot more about her afterwards, if
+you like."
+
+Sir Arthur Maxwell, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.S.I., looked keenly into his
+son's face while he was giving this rapid summary of his evening's
+adventure. There was and always had been the most absolute confidence
+between them. Ever since Vane had been old enough they had been
+companions and chums, rather than father and son, and so Sir Arthur had
+not the slightest doubt but that Vane was telling the absolute truth. He
+was only looking to see whether the telling of the truth embarrassed him
+or not, and he was well pleased to see that it did not.
+
+"Quite an interesting experience, I must say," he said, a little
+gruffly. "Well, I'm glad to see, at any rate, that you didn't accompany
+the young lady home. I presume you were invited."
+
+"On the contrary, dad," replied Vane, this time with a little hesitation
+in his tone, "to tell you the honest truth----"
+
+"That was a needless opening, Vane. My son could not tell anything else.
+Go on."
+
+"Well, the fact is, dad, it was the other way about. I suggested it, and
+she refused point blank. I'm afraid I'd had rather too much fizz on top
+of too many brandies and sodas before supper."
+
+"That will do, Vane," said his father, a little stiffly. "At any rate,
+thank God you are not drunk or anything like it. But this is hardly the
+sort of thing to discuss in the street. We'll go into the Den and have a
+chat and a smoke before we go to bed. You know I'm not squeamish about
+these things. I know that a lad of twenty is made of flesh and blood
+just as a man of thirty or forty is, and although I consider what is
+called sowing wild oats foolish as well as a most ungentlemanly pastime,
+still, I equally don't believe in the innocence of ignorance, at least
+not for a man."
+
+"You seem to forget, dad," replied Vane, answering him in something very
+like his own tone, "just as I'm sorry to say I forgot for a minute or
+two to-night that I am engaged to Enid."
+
+"Quite right, boy," said his father as they went in at the gate. "I
+didn't forget it though, and I'm glad you remembered it."
+
+"Only I ought to have said that it was the girl who reminded me of it,"
+said Vane, as he put his latch-key into the door.
+
+When they got into the Den, which was a sort of combination room, partly
+a library and partly study and smoking-room with a quaint suggestion of
+Oriental fantasy about it, Sir Arthur, according to his wont at that
+time of night, unlocked the spirit case, and mixed himself a whiskey and
+soda. As he did so, Vane found his eyes fixed on one of the bright
+cut-glass bottles which contained brandy. He would have given anything
+to be able to mix a brandy and soda for himself and drink it without
+believing, or at any rate fearing, that after all there might be
+something in Miss Carol's warning.
+
+As Sir Arthur lit his cigar, he said in a rather forced tone:
+
+"I suppose after what you've said it's no use asking you to have a
+nightcap, Vane?"
+
+There was a little pause, during which Vane looked hard at the
+spirit-case. Then, with the gesture of one under strong emotion, he got
+up from his chair and said in a voice whose tone made his father look
+quickly towards him:
+
+"I don't think I've ever knowingly disobeyed you in my life, dad, but if
+you were to order me to drink a drop of spirit to-night, I shouldn't do
+it."
+
+"Why not, Vane?"
+
+"Just look into my eyes, dad, and tell me if you see anything strange
+about them."
+
+"What on earth do you mean, boy--there's nothing the matter with your
+eyes, is there?" said Sir Arthur, looking up with a visible start, "what
+has put that idea into your head?"
+
+"I'll tell you afterwards, dad, meanwhile, just have a look," replied
+Vane, coming and standing under the light.
+
+He felt his father's hands tremble as he laid them on his shoulder, and
+as he looked into his eyes a tinge of greyness seemed to steal
+underneath the sun-bronze of his skin. In the clear depths of the lad's
+hazel eyes he saw a faint, nickering, wavering light, which gave a
+yellow tinge to them.
+
+A reflection from the flames of hell itself could not have had a more
+awful meaning for him than that faint little yellow glimmer, but Arthur
+Maxwell was a strong man, a man who had fought plague and famine, storm
+and flood, treachery and revolt in the service of his Queen, and after a
+moment or two he was able to say quite quietly:
+
+"Well, what's the matter, Vane? They look, perhaps, a little brighter
+than usual; but I don't suppose that's anything more than the excitement
+of the evening."
+
+"Don't you see something like a little yellow flame in them?"
+
+"Well, yes, I do," said Sir Arthur, looking away, "a reflection from the
+gaslight, probably. But come, Vane, what is all this about? Sit down and
+tell me. And, by the way, I want to hear the story of this new
+acquaintance of yours. Take a cigar; that won't hurt you."
+
+Vane took a cheroot and lit it and sat down in an easy chair opposite
+his father, his eyes still wandering as though of their own accord
+towards the spirit-case. Then he began somewhat inconsequentially:
+
+"Dad, what do you think that girl's name is?"
+
+"Naturally, I haven't the remotest notion," replied his father. "I only
+know that she is exceedingly good looking, and I must say that from the
+glimpse I had of her, she seems very like yourself."
+
+"Is that what you meant, dad, when you said, 'Bless my soul what a
+likeness,' or something like that when the cab stopped?"
+
+Sir Arthur did not reply at once. His eyes were gazing vacantly up at a
+wreath of blue smoke from his cigar, then he replied suddenly:
+
+"Eh? Oh, well, probably. You see, my boy, I was just a bit startled at
+seeing you get out, and when I saw your two faces in the lamplight, I
+confess that I was decidedly struck by the likeness."
+
+Vane did not find this reply entirely convincing, for he remembered that
+as he got out of the cab his back was towards his father, and that
+Carol's face was no longer visible when he turned round and faced him.
+Still, he was far too well bred to put his father through anything like
+a cross-examination, and so he went on.
+
+"Well, as I told you, I met this young lady--for although she is what
+respectable Society in its mercy call 'an unfortunate'--I am certain she
+_is_ a lady--at the Palace, and we went and had supper in the Grill Room
+at the Trocadero, and there, as we had no one to introduce us, we
+introduced ourselves."
+
+"The usual thing under such circumstances, I believe," said Sir Arthur,
+taking a sip at his whiskey. "Well?"
+
+"I told her that my name was Vane Maxwell, and she said, 'Now that's
+curious, my name's Vane, too.'"
+
+"What is that--her name!" said Sir Arthur with a start that nearly made
+him drop his glass. "Vane is not a girl's name."
+
+"No, that's her surname. Her whole name is Carol Vane. Pretty, isn't it?
+Vane, she says, was her mother's name, and a nice sort of person she
+seems to have been. Poor Carol herself must have had a terrible time of
+it. There was no possibility of doubting a word of her story, she told
+it all so simply and so naturally, and yet it was tragedy all through.
+
+"Well, we'd had a large bottle of fizz and a small one between us, and
+I'm afraid I was getting a bit on, for I wanted another. I wasn't drunk,
+you know, or anything like it. It didn't seem as though I could get
+drunk; only more and more gorgeously happy, and when I told Miss Carol,
+she put her elbows on the table and stared into my eyes and told me that
+they were just like her mother's, and that there was a light coming into
+them which she always used to see in hers when she was starting on one
+of her drinking bouts.
+
+"Then she told me point blank that I'd had enough and said that she
+wouldn't drink another glass of fizz for a thousand pounds. We wound up
+with a coffee and liqueur, and afterwards when we came out I felt an
+almost irresistible craving for a brandy and soda, but I also felt
+convinced that if I took one I should go on all night.
+
+"Still, somehow, what Miss Carol had been saying, although it hadn't
+exactly frightened me, certainly stopped me going into the Criterion and
+having one; besides, she was with me still, and I knew if I asked her
+she'd say 'No,' and somehow I daren't leave her and go in by myself. So
+as she lives out Brook Green way, we got into a cab and drove home.
+And, would you believe it, she wouldn't even give me a kiss when we said
+good-night. She is a most extraordinary girl, I can quite imagine any
+fellow falling really and honestly in love with her."
+
+While Vane was telling his story, his father had sat motionless, staring
+hard into the fireplace. He had apparently taken not the slightest
+interest in what he was saying. He had never once looked up, but as the
+story went on his face had grown greyer and greyer, and the lines in it
+harder and deeper, and every now and then the hand on which his cheek
+was leaning had trembled a little.
+
+When Vane stopped speaking he looked up with a start, like a man waking
+out of an evil dream, and said in a husky, unsteady voice, which was
+quite strange to Vane:
+
+"It is quite possible, my boy, that this girl, whatever else she may be,
+was really your guardian angel to-night. At your age, a craving for
+drink is a very terrible thing, and you must exert the whole strength of
+your nature to conquer it. You must fight against it and pray against it
+as you would against the worst of sins. You have a splendid career
+before you, but drink would ruin it and you. Still, we won't talk any
+more about this to-night. I am not feeling particularly well. I went
+round to dine with Raleigh, in Addison Gardens, to-night--by the way,
+Enid's coming back in a few days--and perhaps I caught a little chill
+walking home. I think I'd better turn in."
+
+As he said this he took up the whiskey and soda and drained it, and Vane
+heard his teeth clink against the edge of the glass.
+
+"And I think it's time I went, too," said Vane. "You certainly don't
+look very fit to-night, dad. Hope I haven't made you uncomfortable by
+what I've been saying. You needn't be afraid though. I don't think I
+shall forget the lesson I've had to-night."
+
+"No, no, I don't think you will, Vane. Well, good-night. Put the spirits
+and cigars away, will you?"
+
+"Good-night, dad! I hope you'll be all right in the morning."
+
+As the door closed behind his father, Vane went to the table on which
+the open spirit-stand stood. His father had forgotten to replace the
+stopper in the whiskey decanter, and the aroma of the ripe old spirit
+rose to his nostrils. Instantly a subtle fire seemed to spread through
+his veins and mount up to his brain. The mad craving that he had felt
+outside the Criterion came back upon him with tenfold force. He raised
+the decanter to his nostrils and inhaled a long breath of the subtle,
+vaporous poison. He looked around the room with burning eyes.
+
+He was alone. There was no guardian angel near him now. Moved by some
+impulse other than his own will, he took his father's glass and poured
+out half a tumblerful of whiskey, filled it with soda water from the
+syphon, and drank it down with quick feverish gulps. Then he set the
+glass on the table and went and looked at himself in an Indian mirror
+over the mantel-piece. The pupils of his eyes seemed twice their size,
+and in each a yellow flame was leaping and dancing.
+
+His face seemed transfigured. It was rather that of a handsome satyr
+than of an English lad of twenty. The lips were curled in a scornful
+sneer, the nostrils were dilated and the eyebrows arched. He laughed at
+himself--a laugh that startled him, even then. He went back to the
+table and poured out more whiskey, smelt it and drank it down raw.
+
+His blood was liquid flame by this time. He was no longer in the room.
+The walls and ceiling had vanished, and all round him vivid pictures
+were flitting, pictures of things that he had seen during the day,
+flickering and flashing like those of the Biograph; but Carol's face and
+soft brown eyes seemed somehow to be in the middle of all of them.
+
+He dropped into a chair and felt about half blindly for the decanter.
+When he got hold of it he emptied it partly into the glass and partly
+over the table-cloth. He lifted the glass to his lips with both hands,
+drained it half chokingly, and then the pictures stopped moving and grew
+dim. A black pall of darkness seemed to come down and crush him to the
+earth. He lurched out of the chair on to the hearth-rug, rolled on to
+his back, and lay there motionless with arms outstretched.
+
+An hour later the door opened and Sir Arthur came in in his dressing
+gown. A glance at the empty decanter and the prostrate figure on the
+hearth-rug, showed him the calamity that had fallen upon his house. He
+staggered forward and dropped on his knees beside Vane, crying in a
+weak, broken voice:
+
+"My boy, my boy! Good God! what have I done? Why didn't I tell him at
+once?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Vane was utterly insensible either to voice or touch. His father knelt
+over him and loosened his tie and collar, for his breath was coming hard
+and irregularly. Then he rose to his feet, looked down at him for a few
+moments, and went away to summon Koda Bux, his old Pathan bearer, to
+help him to take him up to bed. He knew that he could trust him not to
+gossip, and he would not for worlds have had it said about the house the
+next day that Master Vane had been carried to bed drunk.
+
+Koda Bux was awake the moment his master touched his shoulder. He rose
+at once and followed him. When they reached the library Sir Arthur
+pointed without a word to where Vane lay. He looked at him and then at
+the decanters, and said, without moving a feature save his lips:
+
+"Truly, Huzur, the young sahib is exceeding drunk, and he must sleep.
+To-morrow the fires of hell will be burning in his brain and in his
+blood. It is a thing that no others should know of. He shall sleep in
+his bed, and thy servant shall watch by him until he is well, and
+neither man nor woman shall come near him."
+
+"That is my wish, Koda," said Sir Arthur. "Now I will help you to take
+him upstairs."
+
+"There is no need that thou, O protector of the poor, shouldst trouble
+thyself. This is but one man's work."
+
+With that he stooped down, got his arms under Vane's knees and
+shoulders, and lifted him up as easily as if he had been a lad of ten.
+Sir Arthur took up the candle which he had brought down with him, and
+went in front to his son's room.
+
+Koda laid him on the bed, and at once went to work with the deft
+rapidity of a practised hand to remove his clothes. He saw that he could
+do no more good, so, after laying his hand for a moment on Vane's wet,
+cold brow, he turned away towards the door with a deep sigh, which was
+not lost on Koda.
+
+"Trust him to me and sleep in peace, Huzur," he said. "I know how to
+fight the devil that is in him and throw him out. To-morrow Vane Sahib
+shall be as well as ever."
+
+"Do your best for him, Koda. This is the first time, and I hope the
+last. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, friend of the friendless," replied the Pathan, standing up
+and stretching out his hands palms downwards. "Fear nothing. May your
+sleep be as the repose of Nirvana."
+
+But there was neither rest nor sleep for Sir Arthur Maxwell that night.
+That vision of the girl's face looking out of the cab had been to him a
+vision half of heaven and half of hell. It was the face of the girl he
+had wooed and worked for and won nearly thirty years before--a girl
+whose hands for a brief space had opened the gates of Paradise to him.
+But it was also the face of a woman who had brought into his life
+something worse than the bitterness of death.
+
+As he paced up and down his bedroom through the still, lonely hours of
+the night, he asked himself again and again what inscrutable fate had
+brought this girl, the fresh, bright, living image of the woman who was
+worse than dead, and his son Vane, the idol of his heart, and the hope
+of his life, together.
+
+Why had this girl, this outcast bearing the name which he both loved and
+hated, been the first to see in his son's eyes that fatal sign which he
+knew so well, a sign which he had himself seen in eyes into which he had
+once looked as a lad of twenty-four with anxious adoration to read his
+fate in them. For years that flickering, wavering light had been to him
+like the reflected glare from the flames of hell, and now this girl had
+seen it as he had seen it, mocking and devilish in the eyes of his only
+son.
+
+It would have been better--he saw that now--to have braced himself to
+the task of telling Vane the whole of the miserable, pitiful story at
+once, as soon, indeed, as Vane's own story had convinced him that he had
+not escaped the curse which some dead and gone ancestor of his mother's
+had transmitted to his unborn posterity.
+
+But it was a hard thing for a father to tell his son of his mother's
+shame. As hard, surely, as it had been for Jephtha to keep his rash vow
+and drive the steel into his daughter's breast. He had hoped that the
+resolves which Vane had taken, enforced by a serious and friendly talk
+the next day, would have been enough to avert the danger.
+
+He did not know, as he knew now, that the demon of inherited alcoholism
+laughs at such poor precautions as this. Measures infinitely more
+drastic would be needed, and they must be employed at no matter what
+cost either to himself or Vane.
+
+And yet it was an awful thing to do. Year after year he had shrunk from
+it, hoping that it would never be necessary; but now the necessity had
+come at last. There could be no doubt of that. He had left his son sane
+and strong, with brave, wise words on his lips. An hour after he had
+gone back and found him a senseless thing, human only in shape. There
+could be no hesitation after that. It must be done.
+
+Like many men of his kind, men whose lives have been passed in wrestling
+with the barbarisms, the ignorance and the superstitions of lower races,
+as well as with the blind forces of nature and the scourges of
+pestilence and famine in distant lands, Arthur Maxwell was a man of deep
+though mostly silent religious convictions, and if ever there was a time
+when such a man could find strength and guidance in prayer surely this
+was such a time, and yet he had walked up and down his room, which since
+he had entered it had been his Gethsemane, for hours before he knelt
+down by his bedside and lifted up his heart, if not his voice, in
+prayer.
+
+He rose from his knees with clearer sight and greater strength to see
+and face the terrible task which lay before him. It was quite plain to
+him now that the task must be faced and carried through, and he was more
+strongly determined than ever that before the next day was over Vane
+should know everything that he could tell him. Still, there was no rest
+for him yet, and for hours longer he walked up and down the room
+thinking of the past and the future; but most of the past.
+
+About seven sheer physical fatigue compelled him to lie down on his bed,
+and in a few minutes he fell off into an uneasy sleep. Just about this
+time Vane woke--his mouth parched, his brain burning and throbbing, and
+every nerve in his body tingling. As soon as he opened his eyes he saw
+Koda Bux standing by his bedside.
+
+"What on earth's the matter, Koda?" he said in a voice that was half a
+groan. "Great Scott, what a head I've got! Ah, I remember now. It was
+that infernal whiskey. What the devil made me drink it?"
+
+"You are right, Vane Sahib," said Koda sententiously; "it was the
+whiskey, which surely is distilled from fruits that grow only on the
+shores of the Sea of Sorrow. Now your head is wracked with the torments
+of hell, and your mouth is like a cave in the desert; but you shall be
+cured and sleep, and when you wake you shall be as though you had never
+tasted the drink that is both fire and water."
+
+He went away to the dressing-table, shook some pink powder out of a
+little bottle into a glass, and came back to the bedside with the glass
+in one hand and the water-bottle in the other. Then he poured the water
+on to the powder and said:
+
+"Drink, sahib, and sleep! When you wake you will be well."
+
+The water seemed to turn into something like pink champagne as the
+powder dissolved. Vane seized the glass eagerly, and took a long,
+delicious drink. He had scarcely time to hand the glass back to Koda and
+thank him before his burning brain grew cool, his nerves ceased to
+thrill, a delightful languor stole over him, and he sank back on the
+pillow and was asleep in a moment. The Pathan looked at him half sternly
+and half sorrowfully for a few moments, then he laid his brown hand upon
+his brow. It was already moist and cool.
+
+He turned away, and set to work to put the room in order and get out
+Vane's clothes and clean linen for the day. Then he went downstairs and
+brewed Sir Arthur's morning coffee as usual. This was always the first
+of his daily tasks. When he took it up he found Sir Arthur still fully
+dressed, lying on the bed, moving uneasily in his sleep.
+
+"The follies of the young are the sorrows of the old!" he murmured. "He
+has not slept all night; still, this is a sleep which rests not nor
+refreshes. His coffee will do him more good, and then he can bathe and
+rest."
+
+He laid his hand lightly on Sir Arthur's shoulder. He woke at once and
+drank his coffee. Then he asked how Vane was, and when he knew that he
+was sleeping again, and would not wake for some hours, he got up,
+undressed, and had a bath and dressed again.
+
+Then, after a not very successful attempt at breakfast, he went out and
+turned into the Hammersmith Road in the direction of Brook Green. He
+remembered the address that Miss Carol had given Vane just as he
+remembered every other word of the conversation. He had determined to
+call upon her, and to make as sure as possible that his dreadful
+suspicions were correct before he told Vane the truth.
+
+He found No. 15, Melville Gardens, one of a row of neat little detached
+houses; not much more than cottages, but cosy and comfortable-looking,
+each with a tiny little plot of ground in front and behind, and with a
+row of trees down each side of the road which seemed to stand in
+apologetic justification of the title of gardens.
+
+The door was opened by a neatly-dressed, motherly-looking woman of about
+forty instead of by the dishevelled, smutty-faced maid-of-all-work that
+he half expected to find.
+
+"Does Miss Carol Vane live here?" he asked, with a curious feeling of
+nervousness.
+
+"Yes, sir, she and Miss Murray are just finishing breakfast. Will you
+come in and sit down, sir? Miss Vane won't be long."
+
+"Thank you, yes," he said, going in. "I wish to see her rather
+particularly."
+
+"What name shall I say, sir?" said the woman, as she showed him into a
+prettily-furnished little sitting-room opening out into the back garden
+with French windows.
+
+"Sir Arthur Maxwell," he replied. "If you will give my compliments to
+Miss Vane, and tell her that she will do me a great service by giving me
+about half-an-hour's conversation, I shall be much obliged to you."
+
+The housekeeper made something like a little curtsey as she left the
+room. She was distinctly impressed by the stately presence and old-world
+courtesy of this bronzed, white-haired gentleman. He was so very
+different from the general run of visitors at No. 15; but she had half
+guessed his errand before she knocked at the door of the front room in
+which Miss Carol and her friend and house-mate, Dora Murray, were
+finishing their last cup of tea.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Ford," said Miss Carol, looking up from the letter she was
+reading, "who might that be? This is pretty early for a morning call."
+
+"The gentleman's name is Sir Arthur Maxwell, Miss."
+
+"What!" said Miss Carol, colouring up and rising quickly from her chair.
+"Sir Arthur Maxwell. What on earth does _he_ want?"
+
+"He said, miss, that he'd be very much obliged to you if you could give
+him the pleasure of half-an-hour's conversation."
+
+"Oh, dear, I suppose he was the gentleman who stopped at the corner last
+night just when my new acquaintance got out. His father, of course. I
+suppose he's come to row me about making friends with his son and heir
+last night."
+
+"One of the penalties of your fascinations, dear," said Dora, with a
+smile which parted a pair of eminently kissable lips and showed a very
+pretty set of teeth behind them.
+
+Dora was nearly a couple of inches taller than Miss Carol, and some
+three years older. She had soft, lightish-brown hair, brown eyebrows, a
+trifle browner, perhaps, than nature had painted them, and dark blue
+eyes, which made a very pretty contrast.
+
+"Well," she went on, "I suppose there's nothing for you but to go and
+interview the irate papa. But whatever did young hopeful want to go and
+tell him all about it for, and even give him your address!"
+
+"If you'll excuse me, Miss," said the housekeeper, "I don't think that's
+it. The gentleman isn't at all angry. He was as polite and nice to me as
+ever could be. Such a _nice_ gentleman."
+
+"Dear me, Mrs. Ford, you seem quite impressed," said Miss Carol,
+gathering up her correspondence. "Well, I'd better go and have it over,
+whatever it is. I don't suppose I shall be very long. Meanwhile, Dora,
+you may as well make yourself useful and dust the bikes. The old
+gentleman won't eat me, I suppose. In fact, if Master Vane told him
+everything, he ought to be very much obliged to me for my virtuous
+reserve."
+
+And then, with a saucy smile at her own reflection in the glass as she
+passed the mantelpiece, she walked towards the door.
+
+Carol, being a young lady of many and various experiences, did not often
+find herself in a situation, however awkward it might be, which gave her
+much cause for embarrassment. There were not many circumstances under
+which she did not feel capable of taking perfect care of herself. Still,
+she confessed to Dora afterwards that when she went into the little
+sitting-room and faced the stately old gentleman who was waiting for her
+she felt distinctly nervous--in short, "in something very like a
+tremble," as she put it later on.
+
+The moment she looked at his face she could see his likeness to Vane,
+and therefore in a measure to herself. She had, of course, nothing to be
+afraid of, and therefore there was no cause for fear, but for some
+reason or other she felt less at ease than she had done in many more
+difficult situations.
+
+The same was almost equally true of Sir Arthur. In fact, when the door
+opened and Miss Carol, looking exquisitely neat and pretty in a dainty,
+grey, tailor-made cycling costume, walked into the room, he was unable
+to restrain a very visible start. It was, indeed, as much as he could do
+to keep himself from uttering an exclamation of astonishment.
+
+As he looked at her, more than thirty years vanished in a second, and he
+saw himself a lad of twenty-four with his brand new Oxford degree, and
+his first place on the Indian Civil Service list only just published,
+walking down a country lane by the side of a girl, who, but for the
+difference in costume, might have been this very girl standing before
+him.
+
+"Good morning! Our housekeeper tells me that you wish to speak to me."
+
+Yes, the voice was the same, too, and so were the expression, the
+intonation, the attitude, everything. But the words brought him back to
+the present, and to the recollection of all that had happened since that
+walk in the country lane.
+
+"Yes, Miss Vane," he heard himself saying, "I have taken the liberty of
+calling to ask you if you would have any objection to a little
+conversation with me. I won't detain you more than half an hour."
+
+"With pleasure," she said; "but won't you sit down?" she went on,
+seating herself on the sofa. "I suppose I am right in thinking that you
+are Mr. Vane Maxwell's father, and I suppose, too, you are the gentleman
+who was at the corner of Warwick Gardens when he got out of the cab? I'm
+afraid you were a good bit shocked," she continued, smiling rather
+faintly.
+
+"I was not by any means so much shocked as astonished," Sir Arthur
+replied gravely, "and, to avoid any misunderstanding, I had better say
+at once that, though I was naturally a little bit startled, I was
+infinitely more astonished, by the marvellous likeness----"
+
+"What, to him!" said Miss Carol, interrupting him with a pretty little
+gesture of deprecation. "Yes, of course, I can quite understand that a
+gentleman like you would be a bit disgusted to find a likeness between
+your son and a girl like me, for I suppose he told you all about me? I
+mean, you know the sort of disreputable person that I am?"
+
+Miss Carol said this with a distinct note of defiance in her voice. A
+note which seemed to say, "I know what I am, and so do you, and if you
+don't want to talk to me any longer you needn't." But she was
+considerably astonished when Sir Arthur, leaning forward in his chair
+and speaking very gravely, said:
+
+"My dear child--you are younger than Vane, you know, and I may call you
+that without offence--I do know what you are, or perhaps it would be
+more just to say what circumstances have made you. I don't want you to
+think that I have come here to preach at you. That is no business of
+mine. Still, I am deeply grieved, though I daresay you have no notion
+why--I mean no notion of the real reason. I am afraid I am expressing
+myself very awkwardly, but just now I don't quite seem to be able to
+keep my thoughts in order."
+
+There was something in the gentle gravity of his tone and manner which
+inspired Miss Carol with an unaccountable desire to go away and cry. She
+didn't exactly know why, but she was certainly experiencing a very
+uncomfortable feeling which was more like apprehension than anything
+else. She couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment, and so
+she said simply:
+
+"I don't know why you should be grieved, I mean in particular about me.
+There are plenty of others like me, you know, a good many thousands in
+London alone, I believe, and I suppose you would feel sorry for any of
+them. There are lots worse off than I am, I can tell you. But why should
+you be sorry for me particularly?"
+
+As she said this she crossed her legs and folded her hands over her
+knee, leaning forward slightly and looking keenly at him.
+
+"Because," he replied, with a little quaver in his voice, but looking
+steadily into her eyes, "because you are the living image of the woman
+who was once my wife. A little over thirty years ago--by the way, may I
+ask how old you are?"
+
+"I was eighteen last September," she said, "that is to say, I am getting
+on for nineteen."
+
+"And your birthday?" he said. "You will forgive me asking you so many
+questions, I know, when I tell you why I ask them; but of course, you
+needn't answer them unless you choose."
+
+"There is no reason why I shouldn't," she said, "as far as I know. I was
+born on the twentieth of September. What were you going to say?"
+
+"I was going to say that if my wife, I mean I should rather say the
+woman who was my wife, could be put beside you now as she was thirty
+years ago, dressed as you are now, it would be almost impossible to tell
+the difference between you. You told my son, I think, that you take your
+name Vane from your mother."
+
+"Yes," replied Miss Carol, "she told me that that was her name. I don't
+know whether I was ever really christened or not, but an English
+musician in Dresden, one of my mother's friends, called me Carol when I
+was quite a little mite of a thing because I was always singing, and as
+that was as good a name as any other, I suppose it stuck to me."
+
+"Do you know whether your mother was ever married?"
+
+"She had been, because she used to talk about it and about all she had
+lost and all that sort of thing, you know, when she was drunk," replied
+Miss Carol with a simple directness which went straight to Sir Arthur's
+heart. "Of course, that was when I was quite a little thing, about eight
+or nine. Then I was sent to a sort of boarding-school, half a school and
+half a convent, and I didn't like that, so I ran away from it, as I told
+your son last night."
+
+"I went home and found the house shut up. The concierge told me that my
+mother had gone away in a carriage with two gentlemen--he said one
+looked like a police agent--nearly a month before. He didn't know where
+she'd gone to, and from that day to this I've never heard anything more
+of her. I told your son the rest of it and I daresay he has told you,
+so there's no need for me to go over it again."
+
+"Yes," said Sir Arthur, nodding slowly, "Vane told me, so if you please
+I will ask you one or two more questions, and then I won't detain you
+any longer."
+
+"I am in no hurry," she replied. "Please ask me any number you like."
+
+Her manner was now one of deep interest, for a suspicion was already
+forming in her mind that this bronzed, grave-faced man had once been her
+own mother's husband.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "I should like to ask you first whether you happen
+to have any photograph of your mother?"
+
+Miss Carol shook her head decisively, and said:
+
+"No. I had one once in a locket, but when I went home and found she'd
+gone away and left me all alone in Paris--that's where we were then--I
+was so angry that I took it out and tore it up. I daresay it was very
+wrong of me, but I couldn't help it, and to tell you the honest truth, I
+can't say that I ever was as fond of her as a daughter should have
+been."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," said Sir Arthur, with a sigh.
+
+Miss Carol looked up wonderingly as he said this, but he took no notice
+and said:
+
+"But I suppose you would recognise a photograph of her if you saw one?"
+
+"Yes, if it was taken anywhere about the time that I knew her."
+
+"Quite so," said Sir Arthur, taking a leather letter-case out of his
+pocket. "This was taken quite twenty years ago, a year or two after we
+were married, in short. It is, or was, my wife."
+
+As he took out the photograph he got up, crossed the room, and held it
+out to her. Miss Carol got up too, and as she took it she saw that his
+hand was trembling. She took the old-fashioned, faded photograph and
+looked at it. He saw that her face flushed as she did so. She gave it
+back to him and said simply:
+
+"Yes, that is my mother."
+
+As he took the photograph from her he looked at her with sad, grave eyes
+across the gulf of sin and shame in which the one great love of his life
+had been lost. She was the daughter of his wife, and yet she was not his
+daughter--and she was an outcast. The sting of the old shame came back
+very keenly. The old wound was already open and bleeding again. All the
+pride and hope and love of his life were centred now on his brilliant
+son. A few hours before he had learnt that his mother had transmitted to
+him the terrible, perhaps the fatal taint of inherited alcoholism; and
+now he had just proved beyond doubt that Vane's half-sister--for she was
+that in blood if not in law--was what she had just so frankly, so
+defiantly even, admitted herself to be.
+
+And yet, how sweet and dainty she looked as she stood there before him,
+a bright flush on her cheeks and a soft, regretful expression in those
+big hazel eyes which were so wonderfully like _hers_! No one seeing her
+and Vane together could possibly take them for anything but brother and
+sister--and but for this marvellous likeness; but for the subtle
+instinct of kindred blood which had spoken in this outcast's heart the
+night before, would not a still deeper depth have opened in the hell of
+that old infamy? There was at least that to be thankful for.
+
+"I suppose you don't know where she is now--and don't care, most
+likely?" Carol added, raising her eyes almost timidly to his.
+
+"I do," he replied, slowly, "To tell you the truth, I was one of the men
+who took her away from the house in the Rue St. Jean----"
+
+"You were!" she exclaimed, recoiling a little from him. "Then it was
+really you who turned me out homeless into the streets of Paris?"
+
+"Yes, it was, I regret to say," he replied, almost humbly, "but I need
+hardly tell you that I did it in complete ignorance. My ---- your mother
+was making my name, my son's name, a scandal throughout Europe. She was
+a hopeless dipsomaniac. I had, believe me, I had suffered for years all
+that an honourable man could endure rather than blast my son's prospects
+in life by taking proceedings for divorce, and so proclaiming to the
+world that he was the son of such a woman."
+
+"Yes," said Carol, quietly, with a little catch in her voice, "I
+understand--such a woman as I suppose I shall be some day. Of course, it
+was very hard on you and your son. And I don't suppose it made much
+difference to me after all. She'd have sold me to someone as soon as I
+was old enough; and instead of that I had to sell myself. When women
+take to drink like that they don't care about anything. What did you do
+with her?"
+
+"The man with me," replied Sir Arthur, "was an officer of the French
+Courts. He had a warrant authorising her detention in a home for chronic
+inebriates. She is there still, little better than an imbecile, I regret
+to say, and with no hope of recovery. The physicians I consulted told me
+that she must have had the germs of alcoholic insanity in her blood from
+her very birth. She told us that she had a daughter, and we traced you
+to the school, though she obstinately refused to tell us anything that
+would help us to find you. But we were too late; you had run away. We
+hunted all Paris over for you, but you were utterly lost."
+
+"Well," said Carol, gently, "I wish I'd stopped now, or that you'd found
+me. Things might have been different; but, of course, it can't be helped
+now."
+
+"It was a terrible pity," he began, "but still, even now perhaps,
+something may be done----"
+
+"We won't talk about that now, if you please, sir," she interrupted, so
+decisively that he saw at once that there was no discussion of the
+subject possible.
+
+"Pardon me," he said, quickly, "I fear I have annoyed you. Nothing, I
+assure you, could be farther from my intention. Now I have troubled you
+enough, and more than enough, and I am afraid I have recalled some very
+unpleasant memories----"
+
+"Not anything like as bad for me as for you, sir," she said, as he
+paused for a moment. "If I have been of any service to you, I'm very
+glad, though it's a miserable business altogether."
+
+"Yes, and worse than miserable," he replied, with a slow shake of his
+head. Then, glancing through the French windows he saw Dora rubbing one
+of two bicycles down with a cloth in the little back garden, and he went
+on: "But I see you are getting ready to go for a ride. I must not keep
+you any longer, I am deeply grateful to you, believe me, and I hope our
+acquaintance may not end here. And now, good-morning."
+
+He held out his hand with the same grave courtesy with which he would
+have offered it to the noblest dame of his acquaintance. She looked up
+sharply as though to say, "Do you really mean to shake hands with _me_?"
+Then her eyes dropped, and the next moment her hand was lying, trembling
+a little, in his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+When he left Melville Gardens, Sir Arthur did not go straight home. He
+knew that Vane would not be awake for two or three hours yet, and after
+a few moments' hesitation he decided to go and call on his old friend,
+Godfrey Raleigh, with whom he had been dining the night before, and, if
+he found him at home, put the whole case frankly before him and ask his
+advice.
+
+He had just retired with a well-earned K.C.S.I. from the Bench of the
+Supreme Court of Bengal, but he was one of those men on whom neither
+years nor climate seem to take any effect, and at sixty-five his body
+was as vigorous and his brain as active and clear as they had been at
+thirty-five. He had married rather late, and Enid, the Helen of that
+Iliad of the Wheelhouse, was his only child--and therefore naturally the
+very apple of his eye and the idol of his heart.
+
+Her engagement to Vane had seemed to both the fathers and to her mother
+the most natural and the most desirable arrangement that could have been
+made. Vane would take a brilliant degree, he would enter the Diplomatic
+Service under the best of auspices, and when Enid had completed her
+education with a couple of years on the Continent they were to be
+married on her twentieth birthday. That was the promise of these two
+bright young lives. What would the fulfilment be?
+
+Sir Godfrey was, as he believed, the only one of his acquaintance in
+England who knew the truth of the tragedy of his life. They had been
+chums at Eton and Oxford. They had gone out to India together, Sir
+Godfrey with a judicial appointment, and Sir Arthur as Political Agent
+to one of the minor Independent States, both of them juniors with many
+things to learn and many steps to climb before they took a really active
+and responsible part in the propulsion of that huge and complicated
+machine which is called the Indian Government.
+
+The Fates had thrown them a good deal together, and they had got to know
+each other well, not quickly, because men who are men need a great deal
+of knowing; but as the months had grown into years, and the years into a
+decade or more, they had really learnt to know each other. They had gone
+home together on the same ship to marry the girls who had been waiting
+for them since their troths had been plighted during their university
+days. They had come back with their brides on the same ship to India;
+Godfrey Raleigh had been godfather to his friend's first-born son. Three
+years later, after the shadow had fallen upon his own life, he had
+performed the same office for his friend's daughter, the successor of a
+baby girl who had died during the Rains.
+
+These two children were now the youth and maiden who, within the next
+two or three years were to be man and wife. But after the events of the
+last twelve hours or so, Sir Arthur felt that it would not be either
+loyal to his old friend, or just to him and his daughter not to go and
+tell him frankly what he had learnt, and to take, not only his opinion,
+but also his advice on the subject.
+
+He found Sir Godfrey at home, and the judge quickly saw that he had not
+called upon any ordinary concern, so he asked him to come and smoke a
+pipe in his den, and there Sir Arthur, taking up the thread where it had
+been dropped years before, told him in a few straight, short sentences
+the rest of the story to the end of his interview with Miss Carol.
+
+"Of course, you will understand, Raleigh," he said, when he had
+finished, "I have told you this because I thought it was only right to
+do so. My boy is engaged to marry your girl. It is quite plain, I am
+sorry to say, that this alcoholic taint is in him, and as I have told
+you this Miss Carol Vane, charming and all as I must confess her to be
+from what I have seen of her, is after all Vane's half-sister, and she
+is also what I told you she was."
+
+"Well, my dear Maxwell, I must confess that that is a very difficult
+problem indeed for us to decide. Very difficult indeed," Sir Godfrey had
+replied.
+
+"You see, to put it quite plainly, and, if as an old lawyer I may say
+so, from the judicial point of view, there are two courses open to us.
+First, we may or, I would rather say, we _might_ adopt the strictly
+scientific view of the matter and say that, since the unfortunate woman
+who was once your wife has apparently transmitted the taint of
+alcoholism to your son, it would therefore be improper for him to marry
+Enid for fear that he should further transmit this taint to his own
+offspring.
+
+"That, I suppose, is the way in which a coldblooded scientist would put
+it; but on the other hand I think the matter should also be considered
+from the purely human point of view, and here, I speak again as an old
+judge. When you married your wife you had no notion that she had
+inherited this taint of insanity, as we may well call it, from some
+unknown ancestor. Now the same thing might have happened with my wife,
+or in fact, with any other woman.
+
+"It is perfectly well known that this poison, as one is obliged to call
+it, may lie latent for generations; may, in fact, die out altogether. On
+the other hand, what might have been only a vice in the grandfather or
+the father may develop as insanity in the grandson or the son. It is not
+for us to decide these things, at least, that is my view.
+
+"You and I have more experience, more judgment; but I think that your
+son and my daughter will have more accurate instincts and keener
+intuitions. My own judgment I reserve entirely, and I advise you to do
+the same.
+
+"Go home and tell Vane everything. Don't spare yourself or him, for in a
+case like this truth, the whole truth, is, after all, the greatest
+mercy. I will tell my wife the whole story this afternoon, and she will
+tell Enid when she gets back from Paris. Then I think the best that we
+can do will be to leave them to find a solution of the problem between
+them. Depend upon it that, whatever solution they do arrive at, it will
+be more accurate and will stand the test of time better than any
+arbitrary action which you or I might take."
+
+And so ended the only false--utterly and hopelessly false--judgment
+which Sir Godfrey Raleigh had ever delivered.
+
+Sir Arthur took it as gospel, it all seemed so clear and so logical, so
+fair to everybody; just the sort of judgment, in fact, which might have
+been expected from a man of such vast and varied experience. Both of
+them had the best of intentions, for were not the happiness, the
+earthly fates of their two only children bound up in it?
+
+Under such circumstances, though the advice might be mistaken, it was
+absolutely impossible that it could be anything else but honest and
+sincere. It was not for them to see into the future, nor yet to solve
+those impossibly intricate problems of human passion, of human strength
+and weakness, which, in defiance of all laws human and divine, break
+through the traditions of ages, make a mockery of all commonplace laws,
+and finally solve themselves with an accuracy as pitiless as it is
+precise.
+
+Sir Arthur left his friend's house with the firm conviction that the
+only thing to be done under the circumstances was to follow his advice.
+When he got back to his house in Warwick Gardens, the door was opened by
+Koda Bux, and the first thing he said to him was:
+
+"Is Mr. Vane awake?"
+
+"Sahib, he is, and well. He is even as though he had never drunk of the
+liquor of fire. He is in the library awaiting your return."
+
+It was then getting on for one o'clock, the lunch-time of Sir Arthur's
+household, and the table was already laid in what was called the
+breakfast-room, that is to say a room looking out upon one of the long,
+back gardens which are attached to the houses in Warwick Gardens.
+
+Vane was sitting in the library waiting, something in shame and
+something in fear, for his father's return. He more than half-expected
+that his father would come in and begin at once to haul him over the
+coals on account of what had happened the night before. He did not feel
+altogether satisfied about his adventure with Miss Carol, and he was
+very much ashamed of himself, indeed, for what had happened afterwards.
+But as yet, he had no suspicion of the terrible secret which in the
+almost immediate future was to decide his destiny in life. The dreadful
+fact of inherited alcoholism was yet to be revealed to him. He thought
+that his father was simply going to rate him for having exceeded the
+bounds of prudence during his night out, for coming home in a cab with
+such a person as Miss Carol, and then, worse than all, to tell him that
+he had made a beast of himself by beginning to drink whiskey when he was
+alone after having refused to take anything while his father was in the
+room. It was that that he was really afraid of.
+
+He had no idea of what had happened since the time that he had fallen
+from his chair on to the hearth-rug, saving only the brief awakening in
+his bed with Koda Bux standing beside him, the drinking of the
+crimson-coloured effervescing liquid, and then the long, calm sleep
+which had spread itself like a gulf between the agony of the one
+awakening and the peace of the next.
+
+He was sitting in one of the big arm-chairs in the library when his
+father came in. He got up and stood before him, something as a criminal
+might do before his judge, expecting to hear something like a sentence
+from his lips. He was very much ashamed of himself, and being so was
+perfectly prepared to take his punishment which would probably come in
+the shape of a few cold words of reproof, and a hard look in his
+father's eyes which he had seen before. But, instead of that, when he
+got up out of the arm-chair, and began somewhat falteringly:
+
+"Dad, I'm awfully sorry----" his father stopped him, and said with a
+look at the clock on the mantel-piece: "I think it is about lunch time,
+isn't it? Yes, there is the gong. How's your appetite?"
+
+"Well, better than I thought it would be," said Vane, "better, in fact,
+than it deserves to be. That stuff that Koda gave me this morning has
+worked wonders----"
+
+"Very well, then," said Sir Arthur, cutting him short, "I think we may
+as well go and have some lunch."
+
+The meal was eaten in a somewhat awkward silence, broken by odds and
+ends of talk which were obviously spoken and replied to, not for the
+purpose of conversation, but to fill up time. Both father and son were
+as unhappy as men could very well be, and yet the ancient custom which
+forbids the Anglo-Saxon race to talk about unpleasant things at
+meal-times, prevented Sir Arthur from saying what he had to say, and
+Vane from asking what he wanted to ask.
+
+At last, when Koda came in and said that coffee was served in the Den
+they got up, both of them feeling a certain sense of relief, although
+both knew that the worst was yet to come.
+
+When they got into the Den, Sir Arthur said to Koda in Urdu:
+
+"The house is empty. There is no one here. The door is bolted. No one
+must enter, till I say so."
+
+He opened the door, spread the palms of his hands outwards, inclined his
+head, and said in the same language: "Thou art obeyed, Huzur. It is
+already done." Then he backed out of the door and shut it.
+
+Sir Arthur got up out of his chair, turned the key in the lock, and said
+to Vane in a tone whose calmness astonished him almost as much as the
+words did:
+
+"Vane, why did you drink that whiskey last night? You know I asked you
+to have some, and you said that although you had never disobeyed me
+before, if I had ordered you to have some you would not have done it.
+And yet, after I had left the room you emptied the decanter. Why was
+that?"
+
+Vane had expected anything but this, for his father had spoken as
+quietly as if he had been asking him about the most ordinary concern of
+their daily life. He remembered dimly those few dreadful minutes after
+the subtle aroma from the whiskey decanter had reached his nostrils, the
+swift intoxication, the brilliant series of visions which had passed
+before his eyes, and then the dead, black night which had fallen over
+his senses, and after that nothing more until he had awakened with
+parched mouth and burning brain, and Koda standing by his bedside.
+
+"I'm afraid, dad, I was very drunk last night, but why, I don't know. I
+was sober enough when I came in, you know that yourself. But somehow,
+just when you had gone out of the room and told me to put the spirit
+case away, I took up the whiskey decanter and smelt it. There seemed to
+be some infernal influence in it which made me simply long to drink. I
+did not want to in the ordinary way, and as I had been having brandy and
+soda and champagne before, of course, whiskey was the very worst thing I
+could possibly have drunk. Yet it seemed somehow to get hold of me. I
+felt as though I _had_ to drink. It didn't matter what it was so long as
+it was alcohol. It was the smell of it that intoxicated me first, and
+when I had once smelt it I went on, till I was dead drunk, and I suppose
+that is the way that you found me. That is all that I know about it. I
+am horribly ashamed of myself, and I can only promise you that, if I
+can help it, it will never occur again."
+
+"Sit down, Vane, and let us talk this over," said Sir Arthur, seating
+himself in the arm-chair on the other side of the fire-place. "I suppose
+you thought when I came back that I was going to give you the usual sort
+of lecture that a father would give his son under the circumstances.
+Well, I am not going to do that. I am sorry to say that it is a great
+deal more serious than that."
+
+"What do you mean, dad?" said Vane, getting up out of the arm-chair into
+which he had thrown himself, as though resigned to receive his sentence.
+"More serious than that? Surely it is bad enough for a fellow to come
+home as I did last night, and then get drunk on whiskey and have to be
+carried to bed. There can't be anything very much worse than that."
+
+"There might have been," said Sir Arthur, "if you had not stopped the
+cab where you did. What would you say if I told you that that girl--you
+remember what you said to me about her likeness to yourself--what would
+you say if I were to tell you that that girl is your sister?"
+
+"Good God! Dad, you don't mean that, do you? It can't be. I never had a
+sister. You have always told me that I am the only child. Mother died
+twenty years ago, didn't she? And that girl was only about nineteen. No,
+you can't mean it!"
+
+"Yes," said Sir Arthur, in a tone which seemed very strange to his son.
+"I do mean it. When I told you that your mother had died a few months
+after you were born, I did not tell you the truth. She died to me and to
+you, but that was all. She is alive still. That girl that you drove up
+in the cab with last night was her daughter, but not mine."
+
+No more terrible words than these could have Vane turned white to his
+lips as he heard them, and for a moment he looked into his father's grey
+stern face with a glance that had something of hate in it. His fists
+even clenched and his shoulders squared as though the impulse was on him
+to raise his hands against him. But there was such an infinite sadness
+in Sir Arthur's eyes and such an expression of unspeakable suffering on
+his hard-set features, that as he looked at him the anger died out of
+Vane's eyes and his hands fell limp and open by his side.
+
+It was some time before he was able to command his voice sufficiently to
+shape coherent words, but at length he managed to say in a hard,
+half-choking tone:
+
+"Of course it is impossible that you could tell me anything but the
+truth, dad. And so I am the son of a disgraced woman, am I? Poor Eny,
+what will she think of me now? Of course it will be all over between
+us?"
+
+His instinct had spoken, as Sir Godfrey Raleigh had said it would, and
+spoken truly. But Sir Arthur said quickly:
+
+"No; my boy. It is bad enough, God knows, but it may not be as bad as
+that. I have been to see Miss Vane this morning, and when I had
+satisfied myself of the relationship between you, I went on to Raleigh
+and told him the whole story, as I thought it was only right to do. He
+said, very properly I think, that it was a matter for you and Enid to
+decide between yourselves, for after all it is the happiness of your
+lives which is in question, and therefore the decision ought to rest
+with you."
+
+"I don't see how there can be any decision but one," said Vane, who had
+sat down again, and, with his elbows on his knees and his face between
+his hands, was staring with blank eyes down at the carpet. "And so I am
+the son of that girl's mother, am I? Well, it couldn't be very much
+worse than that, and yet, God help us, she is my mother after all."
+
+Then he threw himself back in his chair, let his hands fall limply over
+the arms and stared up at the ceiling.
+
+"You may as well tell me the whole of the story, now dad," he went on,
+in a broken, miserable voice. "You had better tell me, and then I shall
+know where I am."
+
+His father looked at him for a moment or two in silence, and then he
+said, with a note of reproof in his tone:
+
+"That is a hasty judgment, Vane, but a natural one, I admit. When I have
+told you the story you will see what I mean. The mother who bore you was
+as good and pure a woman as ever lived when she became your mother, and
+this girl, from what I have seen of her this morning, I am perfectly
+certain is thoroughly good and honest in herself. I am satisfied that it
+is her fate that has made her what she is; not her fault."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "I was wrong. After all I have no right to judge my
+mother. I remember nothing about her, and as for Carol, she is a good
+girl whatever else she may be. Can't something be done for her, dad? I
+mean something to get her out of that horrible life. It is too awful to
+think of, isn't it? We must do something."
+
+"That's just what I should have expected you to say, Vane," said his
+father, "and anything that I can do shall be done. But I'm afraid it
+won't be very easy. I did suggest something of the sort, of course, but
+she cut me short very quickly. She simply said that she could not
+discuss the subject then, and there was an end of it. I am quite certain
+that anything which had even a suggestion of charity about it would be
+quite out of the question."
+
+"Of course it would," said Vane, almost angrily. "After all, she is my
+sister. However, that can wait. Now tell me what you were going to tell
+me. How did all this begin? Do you know who the man was, because if so I
+want to go and see him?"
+
+"No, I don't, Vane," his father replied, slowly. "To tell you the truth,
+I never even attempted to find out. We were living at Simla at the time,
+and Simla is, as perhaps you know, not the most moral of places. You
+were nearly three years old, and for about a year your mother had shown
+signs of what doctors call now Alcoholic Insanity. I shall never forget
+the first time that I found her drunk----"
+
+"Never mind that, dad," Vane interrupted, with a sharp catch in his
+voice, "I don't want to hear about it, it's bad enough already. Was
+Carol right about that light which she used to see in her eyes and which
+I suppose you saw in mine last night?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly," replied Sir Arthur. "I used to think it beautiful
+once, before I knew what a dreadful meaning it had. When she had had a
+glass or so of champagne, her eyes--and they were just like yours and
+Carol's--used to light up marvellously. People used to speak of them as
+the most beautiful eyes in the East; but afterwards, that light in them
+began to burn brighter, and when at last she gave way completely, it
+became something horrible, although, somehow, it was still
+beautiful--damnably beautiful."
+
+"Well, one night," Sir Arthur went on, leaning back in his chair and
+staring into vacancy, "she went out to spend the evening, as she told
+me, with a friend; as a matter of fact it was Raleigh's sister. She had
+been drinking a little during the afternoon, but I felt that she would
+be safe there, for both Raleigh and his sister knew of this miserable
+failing of hers. Unfortunately, I had a lot of work to do that evening,
+and I was unable to go with her. I went about eleven o'clock to bring
+her home. I found she had not been there at all. I went back and sat up
+the whole night, I needn't tell you Vane what my thoughts were. She
+didn't come. She never came.
+
+"A month afterwards I got a letter from her written from Bombay. She
+confessed that for over a year she had been deceiving me; that another
+man had stolen her love from me; that she could never face me or look
+upon you again, and that was all. She gave no address, no sign that I
+could trace her by. If she had done I would have forgiven her and asked
+her to come back for your sake. But it was over ten years before I saw
+her again, and then it was in a house in a wretched street in Paris.
+
+"Then she was a drunkard, a hopeless drunkard, lost to all sense and
+shame. She had taken my name again and was making it infamous, and for
+your sake I was forced to take some decided steps. I took proceedings in
+the French Courts, and got authority to confine her in an asylum for
+inebriates, and she is there now, almost an imbecile."
+
+"And what about Carol?" said Vane, in a hard, strained voice, "doesn't
+she know who her father is, and couldn't you have got a divorce?"
+
+"Carol does not know for certain who her father is," said Sir Arthur.
+"There was someone who went about the Continent a good deal with her
+mother when she was very young, and she thinks that he was. It is quite
+possible that he may have been the scoundrel, whoever he was, who took
+her away from Simla. As for the divorce, of course I could have got one,
+but I had no desire to marry again, and I preferred to let the thing
+rest as it was, rather than drag our name through the cesspool of the
+Divorce Court and the newspapers. Everybody was very good to me, and in
+time I lived it down and it was forgotten. In fact, I suppose if it
+hadn't been for that chance meeting of yours last night, it might never
+have been heard of again."
+
+"Then that," said Vane, "is, I suppose, the secret of my drinking the
+whiskey last night, and the explanation of the light which Carol saw in
+my eyes when I had drunk too much champagne. My blood is poisoned, and
+so, when I've drunk a certain amount, the smell of alcohol is
+irresistible. There's one thing perfectly certain, I don't like whiskey
+and I never have liked it, and I'm quite sure I never wanted it less
+than I did last night; and yet when I smelt it, the smell somehow seemed
+to get up into my brain and force me to drink it.
+
+"I tried my best to resist it. Honestly I did, dad, but it was no use. I
+tasted it, and then I took a long drink of it, and then I took another.
+I didn't seem to get drunk, I went mad. I saw some magnificent visions,
+they seemed to be all round the room, nickering like the Biograph, then,
+all of a sudden, they vanished, and I don't remember anything more
+until I woke and found Koda standing beside me. Now was that the sort of
+thing that used to happen to my mother?"
+
+"It was," replied his father, "exactly, and when she came to her senses
+after one of her bouts, she used to implore me to keep the smell, even
+the sight, of liquor away from her. Of course I did. I gave up drinking
+myself, and what I had in the house for friends I kept constantly under
+lock and key. It seemed to be successful for a time, and then she began
+to get liquor from somewhere else. I never could find out how or where
+she did it. I had her watched, but it was no use. Weeks would pass and
+she would be perfectly sober. Then, without the slightest warning, she
+would go out for a walk or to pay some calls and come back, not drunk,
+but getting drunk.
+
+"We used to have some terrible scenes then, as you may believe. I
+dismissed four butlers because she had either bribed or frightened them
+into giving her the keys of the wine cellar. I had the best medical men
+in India for her, and at last I got her to consent to go into a
+Sanitorium. That, however, was merely a blind to keep my suspicions
+quiet. It was only a few days before she was to have gone there that she
+disappeared."
+
+"And you never had any suspicion about the scoundrel that she went away
+with? I expect if the truth was known, she got the liquor secretly
+through him after you had stopped it. I am beginning already to have a
+presentiment that I shall meet that man some day, and if I do, may God
+have mercy on him, for I won't!"
+
+"No, no, Vane, don't say that, my boy! Remember what is
+written--'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' Whoever he is his sin will
+find him out, if it has not done so already."
+
+Sir Arthur spoke with the absolute conviction of a deeply religious man.
+He believed his own words honestly; and yet, if he could have seen how
+his own prophecy was to be fulfilled, he would have given his right
+hand, nay, he would even have shaken hands with the man who had so
+deeply wronged him, rather than that they should have had so terrible a
+fulfilment.
+
+Indeed, even while he was speaking the wheels of Fate had already begun
+to revolve.
+
+When Carol and Dora returned from their ride Dora found a letter waiting
+for her. She opened it, glanced quickly over the page and then said:
+
+"Carol, how will this suit you for this evening? I think a night out
+would do you good after your little shake-up this morning. Listen--
+
+     "DEAR DORA,
+
+     "Yesterday I became a happy bachelor for a fortnight. Encumbrances
+     gone to Folkestone. If you have nothing better to do, meet me at
+     the 'West End' at 7.30 this evening, and, if possible, bring Miss
+     Vane, as I am bringing a friend, who, after my description of
+     her--don't be jealous!--is quite anxious to meet her. He is good
+     looking and very well off, and I think she will like him.
+
+     "Hoping you will both be able to come,
+
+     "Yours ever,
+     "BERNARD."
+
+"That sounds promising," said Miss Carol. "If he's that sort, and nice
+as well, and has plenty of the necessary, I shouldn't mind if he took me
+on as a sort of permanence. Somehow, after last night and this morning,
+I've got sick of this general knocking-about. Besides, it's no class.
+All right, I'll come. A bit of a kick-up will do me good, I think. That
+talk with the old gentleman this morning gave me quite a number 25 hump,
+though the ride has worked a good bit of it off. Now let's feed, I'm
+hungry enough to dine off cold boiled block ornaments."
+
+Mr. Bernard Falcon, the writer of the letter to Dora, was principal
+partner in the somewhat incongruously named firm of solicitors, Messrs.
+Falcon and Lambe, of Mansion House Chambers, E.C. The firm did all sorts
+of work, provided only that it paid; the highest class under their
+style, and the other sorts--the money-lending and "speculative
+business"--through their own "jackals," that is to say seedy and
+broken-down solicitors who had made a failure of their own business, but
+had managed to keep on the Rolls and were not above doing "commission
+work" for more prosperous firms.
+
+Mr. Lambe, away from his business, was a most excellent person; a good
+husband and father, a regular church-goer, and a generous supporter of
+all good works in and about Denmark Hill, where he lived. He was one of
+those strangely constituted men--of whom there are multitudes in the
+world--who will earn money by the most questionable, if not absolutely
+dishonest, methods, without a qualm of conscience, and give liberally of
+that same money without recognising for a moment that what they honestly
+believe they are giving to God, is a portion of the Wages of Sin--which,
+as good Christians, they ought never to have earned.
+
+Mr. Bernard Falcon, on the other hand, in his private life, aimed at
+nothing more than respectability in the worst sense of the word. His
+wife and his two little girls went to church. He himself went on Sunday
+mornings when he had no more pressing engagements. His name appeared
+regularly on the subscription lists published in connection with St.
+Michael's, Brondesbury, his parish church, and he also paid the rent of
+No. 15, Melville Gardens, Brook Green, in addition to one hundred and
+fifty pounds a year as what he would have called "a retainer" to Miss
+Dora Russell--to say nothing of certain milliner's and jeweller's bills
+which he liquidated, sometimes cheerfully and sometimes grudgingly,
+according to his humour and their amount.
+
+When Carol and Dora got out of their cab at the door of the "West End"
+and went into the little vestibule-bar to the left, they found two men
+in evening dress waiting for them. One of them--a man of about forty,
+bald on the temples, of medium height, well-fed and well-groomed, and
+not by any means bad-looking, though of an entirely mediocre type--Carol
+greeted with the easy familiarity of old acquaintance, for she had known
+him for nearly a year as Dora's 'particular friend.' The other, tall,
+well-built, handsome, and with that unmistakable stamp of breeding on
+him which Mr. Bernard Falcon totally lacked, she instantly recognised as
+Reginald Garthorne, her intended companion for the evening.
+
+The first thing he did when they had been introduced by Bernard Falcon,
+was to apologise for what he had said in front of the Criterion the
+night before. He did it with admirably calculated deference, and in such
+perfectly chosen words, that it was quite impossible for her not to
+accept his apology and "make friends."
+
+During the evening he became completely fascinated, not only by her
+beauty, but far more so by the extraordinary charm of her manner. He
+was a man who, apart from his physical qualities and good looks, could,
+when he chose, make himself very pleasing to women, and, without showing
+a trace of effort, he did his very best to please Miss Carol, and
+succeeded so completely, that when, a few days later, he made a proposal
+of a partly domestic nature to her, she, after a brief consultation with
+Dora, accepted it.
+
+At the end of the month the house in Melville Gardens was to let, and
+Carol and Dora were installed in a flat in Densmore Gardens, South
+Kensington, for the rent of which Reginald Garthorne and Mr. Bernard
+Falcon were jointly responsible--of course, under other names. The only
+condition that Carol had made with Garthorne, was that, whatever
+happened, he would not tell Vane of her change of address, and he, for
+very good reasons of his own, had promised unconditionally.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The next day Enid Raleigh came home.
+
+Almost the first thing she said to her mother, who had met her at the
+station with the carriage, was:
+
+"Well, and where is Master Vane, please? He is in town, isn't he? Why
+didn't he come to meet me? I shall have to make him do penance for
+this."
+
+The words were lightly spoken, spoken in utter unconsciousness of the
+deep meaning which Fate had put into them. So far as Enid herself was
+concerned, and as, in fact, she was just thinking at the moment, all
+they meant was that at their next meeting she would refuse Vane his
+long-accustomed lover's kiss, and then, after an explanation occupying
+some three or four minutes at most, surrender at discretion, after which
+would come the luxury of playing at being offended and standing on her
+dignity for a few minutes more, and then enjoying the further luxury of
+making it up.
+
+"Yes, dear," said her mother, "Vane is in town still. I think he doesn't
+go back to Oxford until the end of the week, but he hasn't been very
+well lately----"
+
+"Not well!" exclaimed Enid, sitting up out of the corner of the carriage
+into which she had leaned back with that easy abandon which comes so
+naturally to people accustomed to comfort all their lives. "Ill! Why,
+Vane's never been ill in his life. What's the matter? It isn't anything
+serious, is it? You don't mean that he's really ill, mother, do you?"
+
+There was no mistaking the reality of the anxiety in her tone. Her
+mother recognised it instantly, but she also saw that a brougham
+rattling over the streets of London was not exactly the place to enter
+upon such explanations as it was her destiny and her duty to make to
+this brilliant, beautiful, spoilt darling of a daughter who was sitting
+beside her.
+
+So far as she knew, every hope, every prospect of Enid's life, that
+bright young life which, in the fuller acceptation of the term, was only
+just going to begin, was connected more or less intimately with Vane
+Maxwell.
+
+Ever since they had come home together from Bombay on that memorable
+voyage, she and Vane had been sweethearts. They were very much in love
+with each other, and so far their love had been a striking exception to
+that old proverb which comes true only too often. Saving only those
+lovers' quarrels which don't count because they end so much more
+pleasantly than they begin, there had never been a cloud in that
+morning-sky of life towards which they had so far walked hand in hand.
+It seemed as though the Fates themselves had conspired to make
+everything pleasant and easy for them; and of course it had never struck
+either of them that when the Fates do this kind of thing, they always
+have a more or less heavy account on the other side--to be presented in
+due course.
+
+Lady Raleigh knew this, and her daughter did not. She knew that the
+terrible explanation had to come, but she very naturally shrank from
+the inevitable--and so, woman-like, she temporised.
+
+"Really, dear," she said, "I can't talk with all this jolting and
+rattle. When we get home I will tell you all about it. Vane himself is
+not ill at all. He is just as well as ever he was. It isn't that."
+
+"Then I suppose," said Miss Enid, looking round sharply, "my lord has
+been getting himself into some scrape or other--something that has to be
+explained or talked away before he likes to meet me. Is that it?"
+
+"No, Enid, that is not it," replied her mother gravely, "but really,
+dear, I must ask you to say nothing more about it just now. When we get
+home we'll have a cup of tea, and then I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Oh, very well," said Enid, a trifle petulantly. "I suppose there's some
+mystery about it. Of course there must be, or else he'd have come here
+himself, so we may as well change the subject. How do you like the new
+flat, and what's it like?"
+
+As she said this she threw herself back again into the corner and stared
+out of the opposite window of the brougham with a look in her eyes which
+seemed to say that for the time being she had no further interest in any
+earthly affairs.
+
+Lady Raleigh, glad of the relief even for the moment, at once began a
+voluble and minute description of the new flat in Addison Gardens into
+which they had moved during her daughter's last sojourn in Paris, and
+this, with certain interjections and questions from Enid, lasted until
+the brougham turned into the courtyard and drew up in front of the
+arched doorway out of which the tall, uniformed porter came with the
+fingers of his left hand raised to the peak of his cap, to open the
+carriage door.
+
+Sir Godfrey was out, and would not be back until dinner time; so, as
+soon as they had taken their things off, Lady Raleigh ordered tea in her
+own room, and there, as briefly as was consistent with the gravity of
+the news she had to tell, she told Enid everything that her husband had
+heard from Sir Arthur.
+
+Enid, although she flushed slightly at certain portions of the
+narrative, listened to the story with a calmness which somewhat
+surprised her mother.
+
+The little damsel for whose kisses those two boys had fought ten or
+eleven years ago, had now grown into a fair and stately maiden of
+eighteen, very dainty and desirable to look upon, and withal possessing
+a dignity which only comes by birth and breeding and that larger
+training and closer contact with the world which modern girls of her
+class enjoy. Young as she was, hers was not the innocence of ignorance.
+She had lived too late in the century, and had already been too far
+afield in the world for that.
+
+"It comes to this, then," she said quietly, almost hardly, "instead of
+being dead, as we have believed all along, Vane's mother is alive; an
+imbecile who has become so through drink, and who seems to have
+misbehaved herself very badly when Vane was a baby. She is in an asylum,
+and will probably remain there till she dies. No one but ourselves and
+this interesting young person, Miss Carol Vane, appears to know anything
+about it, and I really don't see why Vane is to be held responsible for
+his mother's insanity--for I suppose that's what it comes to.
+
+"And then there is Miss Carol herself. Of course she's not a
+particularly desirable family connection; but I don't suppose Vane would
+expect me to meet her, much less fall upon her neck and greet her as his
+long-lost sister. I suppose, too, that between us we could manage to do
+something for her, and put her in a more respectable way of living and
+induce her to hold her tongue.
+
+"As for Vane getting drunk that night, of course it's very improper and
+all that sort of thing from the Sunday School point of view; but I don't
+suppose he was the only undergraduate who took too much to drink that
+night. Probably several hundreds of them did, and I daresay a good many
+of them were either engaged or going to be. Would they consider that a
+reason why they should go and break off their engagements? I'm afraid
+there wouldn't be many marriages nowadays if engagements were broken off
+on that account.
+
+"Of course, mam, dear, what you've told me is not exactly pleasant to
+hear, but still, after all, I really can't see anything so very dreadful
+in it. Most families have a skeleton of some sort, I suppose, and this
+is ours, or will be when Vane and I are married. We must simply keep the
+cupboard door shut as closely as possible. It's only what lots of other
+people have to do."
+
+"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I must say I'm very glad to see you
+take it so reasonably. I'm afraid I could not have done so at your age,
+but then girls are so different now, and, besides, you always had more
+of your father's way of looking at things than mine. Then, I suppose,
+Vane may come and see you. I think it was very nice of him not to come
+until you had been told everything."
+
+"May come!" said Enid. "I should think so. If he doesn't I shall be
+distinctly offended. I shall expect him to come round and make his
+explanations in person before long, and when he does we will have a few
+minutes chat _a deux_--and I don't think I shall have very much
+difficulty in convincing him of the error of his ways, or, at any rate,
+of his opinions."
+
+"What an extremely conceited speech to make, dear!" said her ladyship
+mildly, and yet with a glance of motherly pride at the beauty which went
+so far towards justifying it. "Well, perhaps you are right. Certainly,
+if anyone can, you can, and I sincerely hope you will. It would be
+dreadful if anything were to happen to break it off after all these
+years."
+
+The colour went out of Enid's cheeks in an instant, and she said in
+quite an altered voice:
+
+"Oh, for goodness sake, mamma, don't say anything about that! You know
+how fond I am of Vane. I simply couldn't give him up, whatever sort of a
+mother he had, and if he had a dozen half-sisters as disreputable as
+this Miss Carol Vane--the very idea of her having the impudence to use
+his name! No, I shan't think of that--I couldn't. If Vane did that it
+would just break my heart--it really would. It would be like taking half
+my life away, and it would simply kill me. I couldn't bear it."
+
+She honestly meant what she said, not knowing that she said it in utter
+ignorance of the self that said it.
+
+It was in Enid's mind, as it also was in her mother's, to send a note
+round to Warwick Gardens to ask both Vane and his father to come round
+to an informal dinner, and to discuss the matter there and then; but
+neither of them gave utterance to the thought. Lady Raleigh, knowing her
+daughter's proud and somewhat impetuous temperament, instinctively
+shrank from making a suggestion which she would have had very good
+grounds for rejecting, more especially as she had already given such a
+very decided opinion as to Vane's scruples.
+
+As for Enid herself, she honestly thought so little of these same
+scruples that she felt inclined to accuse Vane of a Quixotism which,
+from her point of view at least, was entirely unwarrantable. It was,
+therefore, quite impossible for her to first suggest that they should
+meet after a parting during which they might have unconsciously reached
+what was to be the crisis of both their lives.
+
+The result was that the thought remained unspoken, and Enid, after
+spending the evening in vexed and anxious uncertainty, went to bed; and
+then, as soon as she felt that she was absolutely safe in her solitude,
+discussed the whole matter over again with herself, and wound the
+discussion up with a good hearty cry, after which she fell into the
+dreamless slumber of the healthy and innocent.
+
+When she woke very early the next morning, or, rather, while she was on
+that borderland between sleeping and waking where the mind works with
+such strange rapidity, she reviewed the whole of the circumstances, and
+came to the conclusion that she was being very badly treated. Vane knew
+perfectly well that she was coming back yesterday afternoon, and
+therefore he had no right to let these absurd scruples of his prevent
+him from performing the duties of a lover and meeting her at the
+station. But, even granted that something else had made it impossible
+for him to do so, there was absolutely no excuse for his remaining away
+the whole afternoon and evening when he must have known how welcome a
+visit would have been.
+
+Meanwhile Vane had been doing the very last thing that she would have
+imagined him doing.
+
+After his fateful conversation with his father he had left the house in
+Warwick Gardens to wander he knew and cared not whither. His thoughts
+were more than sufficient companionship for him, and, heeding neither
+time nor distance, he walked as he might have walked in a dream, along
+the main road through Hammersmith and Turnham Green and Kew, and so
+through Richmond Hill till he had climbed the hill and stopped for a
+brief moment of desperate debate before the door of the saloon bar of
+the "Star and Garter." The better impulse conquered the worse, and he
+entered the park, and, seating himself on one of the chairs under the
+trees, he made an effort to calmly survey the question in all its
+bearings.
+
+It was the most momentous of all human tasks--the choosing of his own
+future life-path at the parting of the ways. One of them,
+flower-bordered and green with the new-grown grass of life's
+spring-time, and the other dry, rugged and rock-strewn--the paths of
+inclination and duty: the one leading up to the golden gates of the
+Paradise of wedded love, and the other slanting down to the wide
+wilderness which he must cross alone, until he passed alone into the
+shadows which lay beyond it.
+
+A few days before he had seen himself well on the way to everything that
+can make a man's life full and bright and worthy to be lived. He was,
+thanks to his father's industry, relieved from all care on the score of
+money, and, better still, he had that within him which made him
+independent of fortune, perfect health and great abilities, already
+well-proved, although he had yet to wait nearly a year for his
+twenty-first birthday.
+
+He had great ambitions and the high hopes which go with them. The path
+to honour and distinction, even to fame itself, had lain plainly open
+before him--and now everything was so different. The sun which he had
+thought was only rising was already setting. He knew now that the fruit
+which looked so sweet and luscious had the canker-worm feeding on the
+core; that the flesh which seemed so healthy was really tainted and
+leprous; and that, worse than all, the brightest and sweetest promise of
+his life, a promise infinitely sweeter and dearer than even the
+fulfilment of his highest material ambition, was now no longer a promise
+but a denial, a life-sacrifice demanded, not only by his honour as a
+man, but by his love as a lover.
+
+He sat thus thinking until the buzzing of a motor-car woke him from his
+day-dream. He looked at his watch, and found that he had about time to
+get across the park to Sheen Gate; but he fell to dreaming again on the
+way, and when he reached the gate it was closed.
+
+He turned back with the idea of asking a keeper to unlock the gate and
+let him out, but after a few strides he halted and sat down again on a
+seat. After all, were he to go home, he could not sleep, and it better
+suited his mood to keep vigil in the open air than within the four walls
+of his room.
+
+And so he passed the night, walking half awake, and then sitting, half
+asleep, dimly reviewing this sudden crisis of his fate again and again
+from all possible aspects. And again and again the determination to
+adhere to the decision which duty had marked out so clearly seemed to
+beat itself deeper and deeper into his brain.
+
+The taint of alcoholism was in his blood, and matrimony and parentage
+were not for him. In the morning he would go straight to Enid's father
+and admit that, although ties reaching back into her childhood and his
+had to be broken, yet it was impossible for the engagement between him
+and Enid to be continued.
+
+The night passed, and the park gates were again opened, but still Vane
+sat on, until, noticing the suspicious glances of some of the early
+pedestrians, he decided to get home, have a tub, and pay his fateful
+visit to Sir Godfrey Raleigh.
+
+As it happened, however, that visit was never to be paid. Enid had found
+her waking thoughts unpleasant, if not almost intolerable, and, being
+too perfectly healthy to indulge in anything of the nature of moping or
+sulks, she came to the conclusion that a good sharp spin on her bicycle
+would be the best mental tonic she could have; so she got a cup of
+coffee and a biscuit, took out her machine, and started away to work
+off, as she hoped, the presentiment of coming trouble which seemed to
+have fastened itself upon her.
+
+Thus it happened that she entered Richmond Park by Sheen Gate just as
+Vane, physically weary yet still mentally sleepless, was coming out of
+it.
+
+During his night's vigil he had nerved himself, as he thought, to meet
+every imaginable trial but this one--this vision of his well-beloved,
+not waiting for him, but coming to him fresh and radiant in her young
+beauty, delightful and desirable, tempting almost beyond the powers of
+human resistance, and his, too, his own sweetheart, pledged to him ever
+since that memorable afternoon when he had fought for her and won her
+behind the wheelhouse in the midst of the Indian Ocean.
+
+When her wonder had given way to complete recognition Enid dismounted
+and waited, naturally expecting that he would greet her; but he stood
+silent, looking at her as though he were trying to find some words of
+salutation.
+
+"Well, Vane," she said at last, "I suppose we may shake hands. I did not
+expect to see you here. Cannot you look a little more cheerful? What is
+the matter? You look as if you hadn't been home all night."
+
+He took her hand mechanically, and, as he held it and looked down into
+the sweet upturned face with a bright flush on the cheeks and the
+dawning of an angry light in the gentle eyes, he felt an almost
+irresistible desire to take her in his arms just as he had done at their
+last meeting and kiss into silence the tempting lips which had just
+shaped those almost scornfully spoken words.
+
+It dawned upon her in the same moment that he was looking as she had
+never seen him look before. His face was perfectly bloodless. The
+features were hard-set and deep-lined. There were furrows in his
+forehead and shadows under his eyes. When she had last seen his face it
+was that of a boy of twenty, full of health and strength, and without a
+care on his mind. Now it was the face of a man of thirty, a man who had
+lived and sinned and sorrowed.
+
+In that instant her mood and her voice changed, and she said:
+
+"Vane, dear, what is it? Why don't you speak to me? Are you ill?"
+
+He took her bicycle from her, and, turning, walked with her back into
+the park. After a few moments' silence he replied in a voice which
+seemed horribly strange to her:
+
+"Yes, Enid, I am. I am ill, and I am afraid there is no cure for the
+disease. I have not been home. In fact, I have been in the park all
+night. I was shut in by accident, and I remained from choice, trying to
+think out my duty to you."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" she replied. "I know what you mean. It's about you
+getting drunk the other night--and--and your unfortunate mother and this
+newly-found half-sister of yours. Well, of course, I suppose it was
+exceedingly wrong of you to get so very drunk. And the rest--I mean
+about your mother--that is very sad and terrible. But, bad as it is, I
+think you are taking it a great deal too seriously. I've talked it all
+over with mamma, and she thinks just as I do about it."
+
+When she had said this Enid felt that she had gone quite as far as her
+self-respect and maidenly pride would permit her to go. As she looked up
+at him she saw the pallor of his face change almost to grey. His hand
+was resting lightly on her arm, and she felt it tremble. Then he drew it
+gently away and said:
+
+"I know what you mean, Enid, and it is altogether too good and generous
+of you; but I don't think you quite understand--I mean, you don't seem
+to realise how serious it all is."
+
+"Really, Vane, I must say that you are acting very strangely. What is
+the good of going all over it again? You can't tell me anything more, I
+suppose, than I have heard already from mamma. Surely you don't mean
+that you intend that everything is to be over between us--that we are
+only to be friends, as they say, in future?"
+
+"I quite see what _you_ mean," he said, his lips perceptibly tightening;
+"and that, too, in a certain sense, is what I mean also."
+
+"What!" she exclaimed. "Do you really mean that I am not to be any more
+what I have been to you, and that if we meet again it must only be as
+ordinary acquaintances, just friends who have known each other a certain
+number of years? Surely, Vane, you don't mean that--dear?"
+
+The last word escaped her lips almost involuntarily. She tried to keep
+it back, but it got out in spite of herself. It was only the fact that
+they were walking on the public highway that prevented her from giving
+way altogether to the sense of despair that had come over her. As his
+face had changed a few moments before so did hers now, and as she
+looked at him he stopped momentarily in his walk.
+
+But the lessons which he had learnt during the last few days, and most
+of all during this last night of lonely wandering and desperate
+questioning with himself, had ground the moral into his soul so deeply
+that not even the sight of her so anxiously longing for just one word
+from him to bring them together again, and make them once more as they
+had always been--almost since either of them could remember
+anything--was strong enough to force him to speak it.
+
+He involuntarily wheeled the bicycle towards the middle of the road, as
+though he was afraid to trust himself too near her, and said, speaking
+as a man might speak when pronouncing his own death sentence:
+
+"Yes, Enid, that is what I do mean. I mean that there is a great deal
+more, something infinitely more serious in what has happened during the
+last few days, in what I have learnt and you have been told, than you
+seem to have any idea of."
+
+Enid made a gesture as though she would interrupt him, but he went on
+almost hotly:
+
+"Listen to me, Enid, and then judge me as you please--only listen to me.
+Four days ago, after I had seen the Boat Race, I did as a good many
+other fellows from the 'Varsity do--I went West. By sheer accident I met
+a girl so like myself that--well, I didn't know then that I had a
+sister. Yesterday I learnt, then, that I have one--not my father's
+daughter, only my mother's--and you know what that means. We had supper
+together at the Trocadero----"
+
+"Really, Vane, I do think you might spare me these little details," said
+Enid, with a sort of weary impatience. "I have heard of this
+half-sister of yours already. Suppose we leave her out for the present?"
+
+"Yes," he said, again stopping momentarily in his walk. "We _will_ leave
+her out for the present. In fact, as far as you are concerned, Enid, she
+may be left out for ever."
+
+"Why--what do you mean, Vane?" she exclaimed, stopping short.
+
+"I mean," he said, beginning quickly and then halting for a moment. "I
+mean that, considering everything that has happened during the last few
+days, I have no intention of asking you to become her half-sister--even
+in law."
+
+The real meaning of his utterance forced itself swiftly enough upon her
+now, and for a minute rendered her incapable of speech. She, however,
+like others of her blood and breed, had learned how to seem most
+careless when she cared most, and so she managed to reply not only
+steadily but even stiffly:
+
+"Of course, after that there is very little to be said, Mr. Maxwell. I'm
+afraid I have not properly understood what has happened. Perhaps,
+though, it would have been better for you to have seen my father and
+talked this over with him first."
+
+The "Mr. Maxwell" cut him to the quick. It was the first time he had
+ever heard it from her lips. Yet it did not affect the decision which
+was, as he had for the time being, at least, convinced himself,
+inevitable, and so miserable was he that even her scornful indignation
+was something like a help to him.
+
+He was even grateful that this interview, which he had looked forward to
+with dread, had taken place in the open air rather than in the
+drawing-room of Sir Godfrey Raleigh's house, for if she had simply sat
+down and cried, as, perhaps, nine out of ten girls in her position would
+have done, his task would have been infinitely more difficult, perhaps
+even impossible of accomplishment. Her present attitude, however, seemed
+to appeal to his masculine pride and stimulate it. He turned slightly
+towards her, and said, with a sudden change in his voice which she felt
+almost like a blow:
+
+"Yes, Miss Raleigh, you are quite right. I will spare you the details;
+at least, those which are not essential. But there are some which are.
+For instance," he went on, with a note of vehemence in his tone which
+made it impossible for her to interrupt him, "four nights ago I was
+lying on the floor of the Den at home, blind, dead drunk--drunk, mind
+you, after this sister of mine had seen in my eyes the sign of
+drunkenness which she had seen in her mother's--that was my mother, too,
+an imbecile dipsomaniac, remember--who had sunk to unspeakable
+degradation before she became what she is. I was as sober as I am now
+when I told my father this--I mean what Carol had told me. I noticed
+that there was something strange about him while I was telling him, but
+I thought that was just a matter of circumstances, you know----"
+
+"Yes, I think I know, or at any rate I can guess," said Miss Enid, with
+angry eyes and tightened lips.
+
+"Very well, then," he went on, "and after that--after my father had
+asked me to have a glass of whiskey with him--after I had refused and he
+had gone to bed and I was putting the spirit-case away without any idea
+of drinking again, one smell of the whiskey seemed to paralyse my whole
+mental force. It turned me from a sane man who had had a solemn warning
+into a madman who had only one feeling--the craving for alcohol in some
+shape. I smelt again, and the smell of it went like fire through my
+veins. I tasted it, and then I drank. I drank again and again, until, as
+I suppose your mother has told you, I fell on the rug, no longer a man,
+but simply a helpless, intoxicated beast. I was utterly insensible to
+everything about me, I didn't care whether I lived or died. When I woke
+and thought about it I would a thousand times rather have been dead.
+
+"It wasn't that I wanted the liquor. I didn't get drunk because I wanted
+to. I got drunk, Enid, because I _had_ to; because there was a lurking
+devil in my blood which forced me to drink that whiskey just because it
+was alcohol, because it was drink, because it was the element ready to
+respond to that craving which I have inherited from this unhappy mother
+of mine.
+
+"Do you know what that means, Enid? I don't think you do. It means that
+my blood has been poisoned from my very birth. Of course, you don't know
+this. Your parents don't know it, any more than they know that it is too
+late to redeem the ruin which has fallen upon me. That, at least, I can
+say with a clear conscience is no fault or sin of mine. Since then I
+have thrashed this miserable thing out in every way that I can think of.
+I have talked it over with my father, and he has talked it over with
+yours. I have been wandering about the park all night trying to find out
+what I ought to do--and I think I have found it."
+
+"From which I suppose I am to understand," she replied, in a voice which
+was nothing like as firm as she intended it to be, "you mean, Vane--or
+perhaps I ought to say Mr. Maxwell now--that henceforth--I mean that we
+are not going to be married after all."
+
+"What I mean is this, Enid," he replied, "that dearly as I love you, and
+just because I love you so dearly, because I would give all the world if
+I had it to have you for my wife, I would _not_ make you the wife of a
+man who could become the thing that was lying on the hearthrug of the
+Den four nights ago--a man drunk against his own will, a slave to one of
+the vilest of habits--no, something much worse than a habit, a disease
+inherited with tainted, poisoned blood!
+
+"What would you think of your parents and my father if they allowed you
+to marry a lunatic? Well, with that taint in my blood I am worse, a
+thousand times worse, than a lunatic, and I should be a criminal as well
+if I asked you or any other girl for whom I had the slightest feeling of
+love or respect to marry me.
+
+"Think what the punishment of such a crime might be!" he went on even
+more vehemently. "Every hour of our married life I should be haunted by
+this horrible fear. Tempted by a devil lurking in every glass of wine or
+spirits that I drank, or even looked at--the same devil which had me in
+its grip the other night. Enid, if you could have seen me then, I think
+you would have understood better; but if, which God forbid, you could
+have gone through what I went through after I swallowed that first drink
+of whiskey, you would as soon think of marrying a criminal out of jail
+or a madman out of a lunatic asylum as you would of marrying me. I
+daresay all this may seem unreasonable, perhaps even heartless, to you;
+but, dear, if you only knew what it costs to say it----"
+
+He broke off abruptly, for as he said this a note of tenderness stole
+for the first time into his voice, and found an instant echo in Enid's
+heart. So far she had borne herself bravely through a bitterly trying
+ordeal, but as she noticed a change in his tone a swift conviction came
+to her that if she remained many more minutes in his company she would
+certainly break down and there would be "a scene," which, under the
+circumstances, was not to be thought of. So she stopped him by holding
+out her hand and saying in a voice which cost her a terrible effort to
+keep steady:
+
+"No, Vane, we have talked quite enough. I see your mind is made up, and
+so there is, of course, nothing more to be said except 'good-bye.' I
+think we had better not meet again until we both have had more time to
+think about it all."
+
+This was as far as she could get. They had by this time reached Sheen
+Gate again, and Enid took her bicycle from him. She did not look at him,
+and, indeed, could not even trust herself to say "thank you." She
+mounted and rode through the comparatively lonely roads in a sort of
+dream until the traffic at Hammersmith Bridge and Broadway mercifully
+compelled her to give her whole attention to the steering of her
+machine.
+
+When she got home she gave her bicycle to the porter, went straight to
+her own room, took off her hat and gloves and jacket, and then dropped
+quietly on the bed and laid there, staring with tearless eyes up at the
+ceiling, wondering vaguely what it all meant, and if it was really true.
+
+Vane stood and watched her until she swept round a bend in the road, and
+then walked on with the one thought echoing and re-echoing in the
+emptiness of his soul--the thought of the course which he was bound to
+follow by the dictates of both love and duty. He had reached the Surrey
+end of Hammersmith Bridge when the strong smell of alcoholic liquor
+coming through the open door of a public-house caused him to stop for a
+moment. Would a drink do him any harm after what had happened? He had
+passed a sleepless night in the open air, and felt almost
+fainting--surely a drop of brandy would do him no harm under the
+circumstances? Then he remembered the hearthrug in the Den, and turned
+towards the bridge with something between a sneer and a curse on his
+lips.
+
+Was he always to be beset by temptation in this way--and would he always
+have strength to successfully combat the evil influence? If Fate had
+really marked him out for a dipsomaniac, was it any use his fighting
+against what must inevitably be his destiny? His thoughts were
+interrupted by the rumbling of a 'bus which was coming towards him, and,
+seeing that it was one which went through Kensington, he jumped on it
+and went home.
+
+He alighted at Warwick Gardens, and on reaching the house found that his
+father had just come in for lunch.
+
+"It's all right, dad," he said, anticipating his inevitable question. "I
+got shut in Richmond Park by accident, and did a night in the open. But
+I'll tell you all about it at lunch. I'm going to have a tub now."
+
+Lunch was ready by the time Vane came downstairs, re-clothed and
+refreshed, and when they were alone he repeated to his father almost
+verbatim the conversation he had had with Enid.
+
+"Well, my boy," he said when he had concluded. "I cannot but think that
+as far as you can see now you have acted rightly. It is terribly hard on
+you, but I will help you all I can. And perhaps, after all, the future
+may prove brighter than it looks now for all of us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+It was the end of Term, nearly two years after that interview in
+Richmond Park which, as both Vane and Enid had then believed, was for
+them the parting of the ways. Vane was sitting in a deep-seated, Russian
+wicker-chair in his cosy study, and opposite him, in a similar chair,
+was another man with whom he had been talking somewhat earnestly for
+about an hour.
+
+To-morrow would be Commemoration Day--"Commem," to use the
+undergraduate's abbreviation. There would be meetings from far and wide
+of people gathered together, not only from all over the kingdom, but
+from the ends of the earth as well; men and women glorying, for their
+own sakes and their sons', in the long traditions of the grand old
+University, the dearly-loved Alma Mater, nursing-mother of their fathers
+and fathers' fathers. Here a man who had been a tutor and then a Fellow,
+and was now one of His Majesty's judges; there another, who walked with
+sober mien in the leggings and tunic of a Bishop, and who, in his time,
+had dodged the Proctor and his bull-dogs as nimbly as the most
+irresponsible undergraduate of the moment--and so on through the whole
+hierarchy of the University.
+
+The Lists were just out. Vane had fulfilled the promise of his earlier
+career and had taken a brilliant double-first. He had read for Classics
+and History, but he had also taken up incidentally Mental Science and
+Moral Philosophy, and he had scored a first in all. If it had then been
+possible for him to have had a Treble-First, it would have been his. As
+it was he had won the most brilliant degree of his year--and there he
+was, sitting back in his chair, blowing cloud after cloud of smoke out
+of his mouth, and every now and then taking a sip out of a big cup of
+tea and looking with something more than admiration at the man opposite;
+a man who had only achieved a first, and who, if he had been some other
+kind of man, would have been very well contented with it.
+
+It would not, however, have needed a particularly keen student of human
+nature to discover that this was not the kind of man who could rest
+contented with anything like a formal success; and, after all, even a
+double-first, to say nothing of a single, although a great achievement
+as the final triumph of an educational course, is still only the end of
+the beginning. That done, the student, armed _cap-a-pie_ in his
+intellectual armour, goes forth to face something infinitely sterner and
+more pitiless than tutors or proctors, ay, even than Masters and
+Chancellors themselves--the presiding genius of that infinitely greater
+University called the World, where taking your degree means anything
+that human fortune can give you, and where being plucked may mean
+anything from a clerkship in an office to selling matches in the gutter.
+
+"I _am_ sorry you missed your double, old man!" said Vane, continuing
+the conversation after a pause that had lasted for two or three minutes.
+"Still, at any rate, you've got your first, and, after all, a first in
+Classics and a second in History is not to be sneezed at, and I don't
+suppose it would have mattered a hang to you whether you had come out
+anywhere or not."
+
+As he said this there was a sudden contraction of his companion's jaw,
+which resulted in the clean biting through of the vulcanite mouthpiece
+of his pipe. He spat the pieces out into the fireplace, and said in a
+perfectly smooth voice:
+
+"I wonder what I did that for! I suppose that is one of the
+circumstances in which people say that it does a man good to swear."
+
+"I should certainly have sworn under the circumstances," said Vane, "or
+at least, I should have said something that one would not say in the
+presence of one's maiden aunt, but then, of course, you Ernshaw--you're
+above all that sort of thing. You have your feelings so well under
+control that you don't even need to swear to relieve them. However,
+that's not quite the subject. What am I to do? Am I to go back to her,
+repenting of the evil of my ways, ask her to pardon a passing madness,
+and lay my academic honours at her feet--as God knows I would be only
+too glad to do----"
+
+"Wait a moment, Maxwell. Don't say anything more just now, and let me
+think a bit. We have been over this subject a good many times already,
+but now we have come to the crisis, to the cross-ways, in fact. You have
+made me your confidant in this matter. The future of your life and hers
+depends upon what you decide to do now, and, not only that, but there is
+your father and her father and mother--the completion, that is to say,
+of three other lives. It is very, very serious. It is more than serious,
+it is solemn. Wait a moment, let me think."
+
+Vane leant back in his chair, dropped his pipe quietly on the floor, and
+waited. He knew that Mark Ernshaw, his chum at Eton and his friend at
+Balliol--this tall, sparely-built man, with dark hair, high, somewhat
+narrow forehead, and big, deep-set, brown eyes, delicate features, and
+the somewhat too finely-moulded chin which, taken together, showed him
+to the eye that sees to be the enthusiast as well as the man of
+intellect, perhaps of genius--was not thinking in the ordinary meaning
+of the word. He was praying, and when he saw that this was so he folded
+his hands over his eyes, and for nearly ten minutes there was absolute
+silence, Vane was thinking and his friend was praying. Perhaps, in
+another sense, Vane was praying too, for the strong religious bias which
+he had inherited from his father had, since the great crisis of his life
+had been passed, and during his close intimacy with Mark Ernshaw, grown
+stronger than ever.
+
+He had told him everything. They had gone over the whole of the dismal
+history again and again. They had thrashed out the problem in all its
+bearings, now arguing with and now against each other, and here was the
+last day. To-morrow in the Theatre they would receive the formal
+acknowledgment which would crown their academic careers. Vane's
+self-imposed probation would then be over, the crisis would be passed,
+and his life's course fixed for good and all.
+
+"Well, old man," said Vane, at length, "have you settled it? Upon my
+word I feel almost like a man under sentence of death waiting for a
+reprieve. But, after all, why should I? I haven't touched a drop of
+alcohol for over a year. I needn't say anything about the work I have
+done, for you know as much about that as I do myself. I am as sane and
+healthy as any man of my age need want to be. Of course, as I have told
+you, it was mutually agreed between us, or rather, between her parents
+and my father, that we should not meet or correspond until after I had
+taken my degree. I've kept the bargain both ways. I haven't written to
+her or had a word from her all the time. And now, what is the future to
+be? Shall I take up the threads of the old life and marry and live
+happily ever afterwards, as they say in the story-books--or shall I----?
+No, I don't think I could do that. Don't you think I've shown strength
+of mind enough to counteract the weakness of that one night? For the
+sake of all you've ever loved, old man, don't look so serious. You're
+not going to tell me that it really is all over, and that I shall have
+to give her up after all?"
+
+"Yes, you must," said Ernshaw. "If you have any faith worthy of the name
+in God or man, it is your duty, not only as a man but as a Christian, to
+say good-bye to her as man to woman. It is your duty, and you must."
+
+"No, by God, I can't!" cried Maxwell, springing to his feet and facing
+him with clenched teeth, set features, and hands gripped up into fists
+as though he were facing an enemy rather than a friend.
+
+Ernshaw rose slowly from his seat. His face seemed to Vane to be
+transfigured. He looked him straight in the eyes, and said, in a voice
+only a little above a whisper, and yet thrilling with an intense
+emotion:
+
+"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain! You have
+asked for my advice and my guidance, Maxwell. I have given them to you,
+but not before I have sought for advice and counsel from an infinitely
+higher Source. I believe I have had my answer. As I have had it so I
+have given it to you. I have spent a good many hours thinking over this
+problem of yours--and a harder problem few men have ever had to
+solve--but my fixed and settled conviction is that during this last
+conversation of yours with Miss Raleigh you bore yourself like a man;
+you did your duty; you put your hand to the plough. You are not going to
+look back now, are you?"
+
+Vane dropped back into his seat and folded his hands over his eyes
+again, and said with a note of weariness in his voice:
+
+"Well, yes, old man, I suppose you're right, and yet, Ernshaw, it's very
+hard, so hard that it seems almost impossible. They're coming up to
+'Commem' to-morrow--I was obliged to ask them, you know. I should only
+have to hold out my hand and feel hers in it and say that--well, that
+I'd thought better of it, and everything would be just as it was before.
+We could begin again just as if _that_ had never happened.
+
+"You know it's all I've thought about, all I've worked for, ever since
+we came back from India together. Honestly, old man, she really is--of
+course, with the exception of the Governor--everything there is in the
+world for me now. If I have to give her up, what else is there? You know
+what I was going to do. Now that I've got my degree I should have a
+splendid opening in the Foreign Office. The way would be absolutely
+clear before me--a mere matter of brains and interest--and I know I've
+got the interest--and I should be an Ambassador, perhaps a Prime
+Minister some day, and she would be my wife--and yet without her it
+wouldn't be worth anything to me. Ernshaw, isn't it a bit too much to
+ask a man on the threshold of his real life to give up all that for the
+sake of an idea--well, a scientific conviction if you like."
+
+"Strait is the Gate, and Narrow is the Way!" exclaimed Ernshaw. He
+seemed to tower above him as he stood over his chair; Vane looked up and
+saw that his eyes were glowing and his features set. His lips and voice
+trembled as he spoke. His whole being seemed irradiated by the light of
+an almost divine enthusiasm.
+
+"Maxwell, will you be one of the few that find it, or one of the many
+that miss it, and take the other way? As a good Christian, as the son of
+a Christian man, you know where _that_ one leads to.
+
+"After all, Maxwell," he continued, more quietly, "the trials of life
+are like lessons in school. You needed this experience or you would not
+have got it. In every fight you must win or lose. In this one you can
+and must be the victor. I think, nay, I know, that I am pointing out to
+you the way to victory, the way to final triumph over all the evils that
+have forced you to a choice between following your own most worthy
+inclinations, and what you now think an intolerable misery and an
+impossible sacrifice."
+
+He held out his hand as he spoke. Vane did not know it at the time, but
+in reality it was a hand held out to save a drowning man. It was a
+moment in which the fate of two lives was to be decided for right or
+wrong, for good or ill, and for all time--perhaps, even for more than
+Time. Vane gripped Ernshaw's hand, and, as the two grips closed, he
+looked straight into the deep-brown eyes, and said:
+
+"Ernshaw, that will do. By some means you have made me feel to-night
+just as I did that day when I was talking with her the last time. Yes,
+you are right. You have shewn me the right way, and, God helping me,
+I'll take it. I suppose if she doesn't marry me she'll marry Garthorne;
+but still, I see she mustn't marry me. They are coming down for 'Commem'
+to-morrow. I shall see her then, and I'll tell her that I have decided
+that there must be an end of everything except friendship between us.
+Yes, that is the only way after all--and, now, one other word, old man."
+
+"And that is?" said Ernshaw, smiling, almost laughing, in the sheer joy
+of his great triumph, as he so honestly believed it to be, over the
+Powers of Evil.
+
+"Well, it's this," said Vane, "my own life is settled now. I can't marry
+Enid and, of course, I'll marry no one else. I shall do as you have
+often advised me to do--take Orders and do the work that God puts
+nearest to my hand. I know that the governor will agree with me when I
+put it to him in that way. But then there's some one else."
+
+"Your sister, you mean," said Ernshaw.
+
+"My half----"
+
+"Your sister, I said," Ernshaw interrupted, quickly. "Well, what about
+her?"
+
+"It's this way," continued Vane, somewhat awkwardly, "you see--of
+course, as you say, she is my sister in a way, but she has absolutely
+refused everything that the governor and I have offered her. We even
+asked her to come and live with us, we offered, in short, to acknowledge
+her as one of the family."
+
+"And what did she say to that?"
+
+"She simply refused. She said that she had not made her life, but that
+she was ready to take it as it is. She said that she wasn't responsible
+for the world as it's made, she'd never owed anyone a shilling since
+she left her mother--and mine--and she never intended to. We tried
+everything with her, really we did, and, of course, the governor did a
+great deal more than I did, but it wasn't a bit of use. It's a horrible
+business altogether, isn't it?"
+
+"On the contrary, it is anything but that," replied Ernshaw, slowly and
+deliberately as though he were considering each word as he uttered it.
+"Maxwell, you have just decided to take Orders. I made up my mind to do
+that long ago. We are both of us fairly well off. I have eight or nine
+hundred a year of my own, and I daresay you have more, so we can go and
+do our work without troubling about the loaves and fishes."
+
+"Yes," replied Vane, "certainly, but that's not quite answering my
+question, old fellow:--I mean about Carol."
+
+"Quite so," he replied, "because I am going to ask you another. Do you
+think you know me and like me well enough to have me for a
+brother-in-law?"
+
+"Good Heavens, you don't mean _that_, Ernshaw, do you?"
+
+"I do," he said, "that is if she likes me well enough. Of course, I
+haven't seen her yet, and she might refuse me; but from all that you've
+told me about her, I'm half in love with her already, and--well, we
+needn't say anything more about that just now. Take me up to Town with
+you after Commem., introduce me to her and leave the rest to me and her.
+If ever a girl was made for the wife of such a man as I hope to be some
+day, that girl, Maxwell, is your sister."
+
+"But, Ernshaw, that is impossible. It may be only your good nature that
+prompted you to say this, or it may be that, without intention, I have
+somehow led you to look upon her as part of my destiny; but you forget,
+or perhaps, I have not told you that we have lost her utterly for the
+time being at least, she disappeared quite suddenly. My father and I
+have made every effort to trace her, but without the slightest success."
+
+"Then try again," replied Ernshaw, "and I will help in the search. At
+any rate, when we do find her, as I am sure we shall some day, if she
+will have me, I will ask her to be my wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+It was the morning of Commemoration Day and Vane was dressing for the
+great ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre, the conferring of honours and
+degrees, the placing of the Hall-mark of the University upon those who
+had passed its tests and proved themselves to be worthy metal. Over the
+end of the bed hung the brand-new bachelor's gown and silken hood,
+which, to-day, for the first time, he would be entitled to wear. They
+were the outward material symbols of the victory which he had won
+against all competitors.
+
+He was looking far back into his school-boy days and recalling the
+dreams he had dreamt of the time when, if the Fates were very kind to
+him, he would have taken his degree and would be able to walk about in
+all the glory of cap and gown and hood as the masters did on Sundays and
+Saints' days.
+
+And now it had come to pass. He had taken as good a degree as the best
+of them. In an hour or two he would appear capped and gowned and hooded
+on the closing scene of his University career. On one side of him would
+be the Chancellor and all the great dignitaries of the University; on
+the other the great audience--the undergraduates in the upper galleries;
+graduates, tutors and fellows, proud fathers and mothers, delighted
+sisters and other feminine relatives, including cousins and others,
+together with desperately envious younger brothers making the most
+earnest resolves to henceforth eschew all youthful dissipations, to
+foreswear idleness for ever, and to 'swat' day and night until they too
+had achieved this glorious consummation--vows, alas! to be broken ere
+the next school term was many days old, and yet, with not a few of them,
+to be renewed later on and honestly kept.
+
+He knew that, to use a not altogether inappropriate theatrical simile,
+he would be playing a principal part that day. The cheers and the
+plaudits which would burst out from the throats of his fellow-students,
+and, indeed, from the whole audience, when he came on to doff his cap
+and kneel before the Chancellor to take from his hands the honours he
+had won, would be given in recognition of the most brilliant degree of
+the year.
+
+And _she_, too, would be there with her father and mother, and his
+father, all sharing in his triumph, all glorying in his success, in this
+splendid fruition of the labours, which, for so many years, they had
+watched with such intensely sympathetic interest.
+
+Under any other circumstances this would have meant to him even more
+than the mere formal triumph; for though he had worked honestly and
+single-heartedly for the prizes of his academic career, he had also
+worked for them as an athlete might have striven for his laurels in the
+Olympian Games, or a knight of the Age of Chivalry might have fought for
+his laurels to lay them at the feet of his lady-love.
+
+Now he had won them--and after all what were they worth? This was not
+only to be a day of triumph for him. It was to be a day of hardest
+trial and most bitter sacrifice as well; a trial which, as he knew even
+now, would strain his moral fibre very nearly to the breaking point. It
+was a struggle for which he had been bracing himself ever since that
+last conversation which he had had with Enid. From that day to this he
+had never clasped her hand or looked into her eyes.
+
+That had been the agreement between them, and also between his father
+and her parents. They were not to meet again until he had finished his
+university career and taken his degree. That, as they thought, would
+give them both time enough to think--to remain faithful, or to think
+better of it, as the case might be--and, most important of all for Vane,
+to determine by the help of more deliberate thought and added
+experience, and by converse with minds older and more deeply versed in
+the laws of human nature than his own, whether or not that resolve,
+which he had taken when he first discovered that there was a taint of
+poison in his blood, should be kept or not.
+
+But now it was all over--although it ought only to have been just
+beginning. This day, which ought to have been the brightest of his life,
+was, in reality, to be the darkest. The golden gates of the Eden of Love
+lay open before him, but, instead of entering them, he must pass by with
+eyes averted, and enter instead the sombre portals of his life's
+Gethsemane; there to take up his cross and to bear it until the time
+came to lay it down by the side of the grave.
+
+He had thought it all out long and earnestly in solitary communion with
+his own soul, and during many long and closely-reasoned conversations
+with Ernshaw, and the one of the night before had decided him--or it
+might be more correct to say that it had completed the sum of the
+convictions which had been accumulating in his soul for the last two
+years.
+
+The path of duty--duty to her, to himself and to Humanity--lay straight
+and plain before him. He had nothing to do with the world now. He had
+come to look upon that taint in his blood as a taint akin to that of
+leprosy; an inherited curse which forbade him to mix with his kind as
+other men did. He must stand aloof, crying "unclean" in his soul if not
+with his voice. Henceforth he must be in the world and not of it--and
+this, as he thought, he had already proved by his resolve to renounce
+definitely and for ever the greatest treasure which the world could give
+him, a treasure which had been his so long, that giving it up was like
+tearing a part of his own being away with his own hands.
+
+Still, it was all very hard and very bitter. Despite his two years'
+preparation, the stress of that last struggle all through the long hours
+of the night which should have been filled with brightest dreams of the
+morrow, had left him, not only mentally worn out, but even physically
+sick. He felt as though the scene which would mark the culminating
+triumph of his academic career, the end of his youth and the beginning
+of his manhood, was really an ordeal too great, too agonising, to be
+faced.
+
+His scout had brought up an ample breakfast, with, of course, many
+congratulations on the coming honours of the day; but he had only drunk
+some of the coffee and left the food untouched. As he stood in front of
+the glass, putting on his collar, his face looked to him more like that
+of a man going to execution, than to take the public reward of many a
+silent hour of hard study. His hands trembled so that he could hardly
+get his necktie into decent shape.
+
+His coffee on the dressing-table. Would a teaspoonful of brandy in it do
+him any harm? For two years he had not tasted alcohol in any shape,
+though he had kept it in his rooms for his friends. He and Ernshaw, who
+was also a rigid teetotaler, had sat with them and seen them drink. He
+had smelt the fumes of it in the atmosphere of the room, first with
+temptation which he had fought against and overcome in the strength of
+the memory of that terrible night in Warwick Gardens. Then the subtle
+aroma had become merely a matter of interest to him, a thing to be
+studied as a physician might study the symptoms of a disease for which
+he has found the cure.
+
+He had seen his friends leave his rooms somewhat the worse for liquor,
+and he had reasoned with them afterwards, not priggishly or
+sanctimoniously, but just as a man who had had the same weakness and had
+overcome it because he thought it necessary to do so, and they had taken
+it all very good-humoredly and gone away and done the same thing again a
+few nights afterwards, seeming none the worst for it.
+
+But surely now he had conquered the deadly craving. Surely two years of
+hard mental study and healthy physical exercise--two years, during which
+not a drop of alcohol had passed his lips--must have worked the poison
+out of his blood. Henceforth he was entitled to look upon alcohol as a
+servant, as a minister to his wants, and not as a master of his
+weaknesses.
+
+His mental struggle had so exhausted him that his physical nature craved
+for a stimulant, cried out for some support, some new life, new energy,
+if even for an hour or so, so imperiously, that his enfeebled mental
+stamina had not strength enough left to say "no."
+
+He had got his collar on and his tie tied, and his hands and fingers
+were trembling as though he were just recovering from an attack of
+malarial fever.
+
+"It can't possibly do me any harm now," he said, as he moved away from
+the glass towards the door of his sitting-room. "I've conquered all
+that. I haven't the slightest desire for it as drink--I haven't had for
+over a year now--I only want it as medicine, as a patient has it from a
+doctor. I can't go on without it, I must have something or I shall faint
+in the Theatre or do something ridiculous of that sort, and as for
+meeting Enid--good heavens, how am I to do that at all! Yes, I think a
+couple of teaspoonsful in that coffee will do me far more good than
+harm."
+
+He went towards the sideboard on which stood his spirit-case. He
+unlocked it and took out the brandy decanter. As he did so the memory of
+that other night came back to him, and he smiled. He had conquered now,
+and he could afford to smile at those old fears. He took the stopper out
+of the decanter and deliberately raised it to his nostrils. No, it was
+powerless. The aroma had no more effect upon him than the scent of, say,
+_eau de Cologne_ would have had. That night in Warwick Gardens, it had
+been like the touch of some evil magician's wand. Then, in an instant,
+it had transformed his whole nature; but now his brain remained cool and
+calm, and his senses absolutely unmoved. Yes, he had conquered. He
+needed a stimulant, merely as an invalid might need a tonic, and he
+could take it with just as much safety.
+
+He took the decanter into his bedroom and poured a couple of
+teaspoonsful into his coffee, stirred it, lifted the cup, and, after one
+single priceless moment's hesitation, put it to his lips and drank it
+off.
+
+"Ah, that's better!" he said, as he put the cup down and felt the subtle
+glow run like lightning through his veins. "Hallo, who's that? Confound
+it, I hope it isn't Ernshaw. I don't want to begin the day with a
+lecture on backsliding."
+
+He put the stopper back, went into the sitting-room, and replaced the
+decanter in the stand before he said in answer to a knock at his door:
+
+"Come in! Is that you Ernshaw?"
+
+The door opened, and Reginald Garthorne came in.
+
+"No, it's me. That's not quite grammatical, I believe, but it's usual.
+Good-morning, Maxwell," he went on, holding out his hand. "I've come
+round early for two reasons. In the first place I want to be the first
+to congratulate you, and in the second place I want you to give me a
+brandy and soda. I got here rather late last night with one or two other
+Cambridge men, and one of them took us to a man's rooms in Brazenose,
+and we had a rather wet night of it. Not the proper thing, of course,
+but excusable just now."
+
+"As for the congratulations, old man," said Maxwell, "thanks for yours
+and accept mine for what you've done in the Tripos, and as for the
+brandy and soda, well, here you are. Open that cupboard, and you'll find
+some soda and glasses."
+
+As he said this, he unlocked the spirit case again, and put the brandy
+decanter on the table.
+
+"I've just been having a spoonful myself in my coffee," he went on, with
+just a little flash of wonder why he should have said this. "The fact
+is, I suppose, I've been overdoing it a bit lately, and that, and the
+anxiety of the thing, has rather knocked me up. I felt as nervous as a
+freshman going in for his first _viva voce_, when I got up this
+morning."
+
+"I don't wonder at it," said Garthorne, helping himself. "You must have
+been grinding infernally hard. So have I, for the matter of that,
+although, I didn't aspire to a double first. You really do look quite
+knocked up. By the way," he continued, looking at Vane with a smile
+whose significance he might have seen had it not been for those two
+spoonsful of brandy, "I suppose you've quite got over that--well, if
+you'll excuse me saying so--that foolishness about inherited alcoholism
+and that sort of stuff, and therefore you'll lay all your laurels at the
+feet of the fair Enid without a scruple? Of course, you remember that
+juvenile hiding you gave me on the "Orient"? Quite romantic, wasn't it?
+Well, I must admit that you proved yourself the better boy then, and as
+you've taken a double first and I have only got a single, you've proved
+yourself the better man as well. Here's to you, Maxwell, won't you join
+me? You know you have quite an ordeal to go through to-day, and just one
+won't hurt you--do you good, in fact. You look as if you wanted a
+bracer."
+
+Vane listened to the tempting words, so kindly and frankly spoken, as he
+might have listened to words heard in a dream. All the high resolves
+which had shaped themselves with such infinite labour during the past
+two years, seemed already to have been made by someone else--a someone
+else who was yet himself. He had made them and he was proud of them,
+and, of course, he meant to hold to them; but he had conquered that
+deadly fear which had held him in chains so long. He was a free man
+now, and could do as he liked with his destiny.
+
+His long probation was over, and he had come through it triumphant. He
+was to see Enid again that day for the first time for two years. He
+would hear her voice offering him the sweetest of all congratulations,
+and when it was all over, there would be a little family gathering in
+his rooms, just their fathers and themselves, and he would tell them
+everything frankly, and they should help him to choose--for after all,
+it was only their right, and she, surely, had the best right of all to
+be consulted. Meanwhile, now that he had fought and conquered that old
+craving for alcohol, there would be no harm, especially on such a
+morning as this, in joining Garthorne in just one brandy and soda.
+
+It never struck him how strangely inverted these thoughts were; what an
+utter negation of his waking thoughts, as they flashed through his mind
+while Garthorne was speaking. They seemed perfectly reasonable to him,
+and--so subtle was the miracle wrought by those two spoonsful of
+brandy--perfectly honest.
+
+"Well, really, I don't see why I shouldn't," he said, taking up the
+decanter and pulling one of the two glasses which Garthorne had put on
+the table towards him. "I think I have got over that little weakness
+now. At any rate, for the last two years I haven't touched a drop of
+anything stronger than coffee, and I've sat here and in other men's
+rooms with fellows drinking in an atmosphere, as one might say, full of
+drink and tobacco smoke; and except for the smoking--of course I haven't
+dropped that--I've never felt the slightest inclination to join them, at
+least, after the first month or so--so I think I'm pretty safe now."
+
+"Oh, of course you are!" said Garthorne. "As a matter of fact, you know,
+I never thought that there was anything serious in that idea of yours
+that you'd inherited the taint from some ancestor of yours. You got
+screwed one night for the first time in your life, and it gave you a
+fright. But the fact that you've been able to swear off absolutely for
+two years, is perfectly clear proof that the craving really existed only
+in your own imagination. If it had been real, you couldn't possibly have
+done it. Well, here's to us, old man, and to someone else who shall be
+nameless just now!"
+
+Vane, in the recklessness of his new confidence, had mixed himself a
+pretty stiff dose. As he raised his glass with Garthorne's, something
+seemed to drag upon his arm, and something in his soul rose in revolt;
+but the old lurking poison was already aflame in his blood. He nodded to
+Garthorne and said:
+
+"Thanks, old man. Here's to us and her!"
+
+A few minutes before the words would have seemed blasphemy to him, now
+they sounded like an ordinary commonplace. He put the glass to his lips
+and emptied it in quick, hungry gulps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"By Jove, that's good," he said, as he put the empty glass down and drew
+a long, deep breath. "You only really appreciate that sort of thing
+after a long abstinence like mine."
+
+"I should think so," laughed Garthorne, putting down his own empty
+glass; "although good and all as a brandy and soda is, especially after
+a rather hot night, I should hardly think it was worth while to be T.T.
+for two years just to get the full flavour of it. If you don't mind I'll
+have another."
+
+"Certainly, old fellow, help yourself," said Vane, pushing the decanter
+towards him. "That's made a new man of me. When I got up this morning I
+couldn't eat a scrap of breakfast, but that's made me absolutely hungry.
+The bacon's cold, of course, but there's a nice bit of tongue and some
+brawn, and there's some toast and brown bread and butter. Sit down and
+have a bite. The coffee's cold, but I can soon get up some hot if you'd
+like it."
+
+"Oh, never mind about that," said Garthorne. "I'm getting a bit peckish
+myself, and I'll have a bite with you with pleasure; but I'm afraid hot
+coffee on the top of brandy and soda at this time of the morning would
+produce something of a conflict in the lower regions. I think another B.
+and S. would go ever so much better with it."
+
+As he said this he helped himself and pushed the decanter back towards
+Vane, saying, "and if you'll take my advice you'll do the same. It can't
+hurt you, especially if you're eating."
+
+"Still, I think I'd better eat something first," said Vane, as he set
+out the breakfast things and began to carve. "The hot plates are cold,
+so there will be enough for both. By Jove, that stuff has given me an
+appetite!"
+
+"Yes, I thought it would do you good," said Garthorne. "Get something
+solid inside you and have another drink, and you'll be able to face your
+most reverend Chancellor with as much confidence as though you were his
+father-in-law. I'll mix you another if you'll allow me while you're
+carving. Give me about half and half, please."
+
+"But don't give _me_ half and half," said Vane, with a laugh that
+sounded rather strangely in his own ears, and then, without looking
+round, he went on carving.
+
+Garthorne poured a much more liberal quantity of brandy into Vane's
+glass than he had done into his own, and at once filled it up with
+soda-water from the syphon.
+
+"I think you'll find that about right," he said, putting it down beside
+him.
+
+"Thanks, old fellow," said Vane; "much obliged!" He put the knife and
+fork down, lifted the glass and took a sip. "Yes, that's about right, I
+think," he said, without even noticing the strength of the mixture. And
+then, with the unnatural appetite which the unaccustomed spirit had
+roused in him, he took up his knife and fork and began to eat
+ravenously, taking a gulp of the brandy and soda almost between each
+mouthful.
+
+They laughed and chatted merrily over the old days as they went on
+eating and drinking; and as glass succeeded glass Vane became more and
+more communicative and Garthorne more and more cordial. He quickly
+learnt the truth of many things which so far he had only suspected, and
+at last he managed to lead the conversation adroitly up to a point at
+which Vane said in a somewhat thick, unsteady voice:
+
+"By the way, Garthorne, yes, that reminds me. You remember that night at
+the Empire when we had a bit of a row, Boat-race night, you know--that
+girl that I got out of the crowd--pretty girl, wasn't she?"
+
+"Yes," replied Garthorne, repressing a desire to laugh out openly. "I
+remember her quite well; a very pretty girl, and, if I may say so
+without paying you a compliment, very like your noble self. In fact, if
+such a thing hadn't been utterly impossible, she might almost have
+been----"
+
+"My sister!" said Vane, as he drank off the remains of his fourth brandy
+and soda and put the glass down with a thump on the table. "Yes, that's
+it, my sister, or at least not quite my sister, but--at least--well,
+half-sister, you understand--my mother's daughter, but not my
+father's--see?"
+
+"I see, I see," said Garthorne, and then, before he could get any
+farther, there was a quick knock at the door. Vane looked dreamily
+round, and said:
+
+"Come in."
+
+The door opened, and Ernshaw entered, followed by Sir Arthur Maxwell.
+
+"Good heavens, Maxwell! what on earth does this mean?" exclaimed
+Ernshaw, with something like a gasp in his voice, as he saw Vane sitting
+at the table in his shirt-sleeves--the friend with whom he had sat in
+this same room the night before and had that long solemn talk--the
+friend who had given him such solemn pledges.
+
+The table was littered and disordered, the coffee pot had got knocked
+over; there was a cup lying on its side in the saucer; a dish of bacon
+containing a couple of rashers and two eggs congealed in fat, and scraps
+of meat and broken bits of bread and butter lay about on the cloth.
+
+This was like anything but one of the many orderly breakfasts which he
+had shared with Maxwell at the same table; but what startled Ernshaw
+more than anything else was the sight of the empty glass beside his
+friend's plate, the brandy decanter with less than a wine-glassful in
+it, and the two empty soda syphons on the table.
+
+"Good morning, Ernshaw! Morning, dad! Jolly glad to see you. Come in and
+sit down and have a drink--I mean, a bit of breakfast. The coffee's
+cold, but I can get you some more if you wouldn't rather have brandy and
+soda--plenty more brandy in the cupboard, soda too. Get it out and help
+yourselves. Dad, you know Garthorne, of course. Ernshaw, you don't; let
+me introduce you--very good fellow--old rival of mine in love--you know
+who with, the fellow I had a fight with on the steamer--both kids--first
+man to come and congratulate me this morning. Admits that I licked him
+then as a boy, and have licked him since as a man--took better degree
+than he did. Still, nice of him to come, wasn't it? Come on, Ernshaw;
+don't stand there staring. Come on and have a drink, too, and
+congratulate, you old stick. Never mind about last night, I've got that
+all under now; fought it for two years and beaten it. Can take a drink
+now without fear of consequences. Taken lots this morning, and look at
+me, sober as the Chancellor. Why, dad, what's the matter?"
+
+Sir Arthur Maxwell had come up to Oxford to see his own old academic
+triumphs repeated with added brilliance by his son. He had fully
+approved of all that Vane had done during the two years' probation which
+he had set himself, and he had firmly believed that the end of it all
+would be, as he had many a time said to Enid's father, that the hard
+study, the strenuous mental discipline, and the stress of healthy
+emulation, would utterly destroy the germs of that morbid feeling which,
+for a time at least, had poisoned the promise of his son's youth. He had
+only arrived from Town, bringing Enid and her father, that morning, as
+they had found it impossible to get rooms in Oxford over night. He had
+met Ernshaw in the High, and they had come together to Vane's rooms to
+find _this_!
+
+Like a flash that other scene in Warwick Gardens came back to him. While
+his son was speaking he had looked into his eyes and seen that mocking,
+dancing flame which he had now a doubly terrible reason to remember, and
+to see it there in his eyes now on the morning of the crowning day of
+his youth, shining like a bale-fire of ruin through the morning sky of
+his new life. It was like looking down into hell itself.
+
+As Vane came towards him he staggered back as though he hardly
+recognised him. Then, for the first time for nearly thirty years since a
+well-remembered night among the Indian Hills, the room swam round him
+and the light grew dark. He made a couple of staggering steps towards
+the sofa, tripped over the edge of a rug, and rolled over, half on and
+half off the sofa.
+
+The sight sobered Vane instantaneously, though only for an instant.
+
+"Dad, what's the matter?" he cried again. "My God, Ernshaw, what is it?
+Tell me, what is it--what have I done? Let me go and see what's wrong
+with him."
+
+Then with stumbling steps he tried to get round the table. The corner of
+it caught his thigh. He lurched sideways and dropped to the floor like a
+man shot through the brain.
+
+Garthorne was already kneeling by the sofa on to which he had lifted Sir
+Arthur's head and shoulders, and had loosened his tie and collar.
+
+"Poor Vane," he said, looking round. "I'm afraid the excitement of this
+morning has been a bit too much for him. If we're going to get them
+round in time, perhaps you'd better ring up his scout and send him for a
+doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw, looking up from where he was kneeling by Vane. "I
+suppose that's about the best thing to do, since the crime which you
+have committed is unfortunately not one which warrants me in sending for
+a policeman as well."
+
+"Crime, sir, what the devil do you mean?" cried Garthorne, springing to
+his feet.
+
+"I mean," said Ernshaw slowly and without moving, "exactly what I say. I
+feel perfectly certain from what I know of Maxwell that this could not
+possibly have occurred unless he had been deliberately tempted to drink.
+Your motives, of course, are best known to yourself and to Him who will
+judge them."
+
+"So that's it, is it?" said Garthorne, with a harsh laugh. "You think I
+made him drunk for some purpose of my own, a man that I've been friends
+with ever since we punched each other's heads as boys. Well, you've been
+a good chum to Maxwell, so for his sake I'll pass over that idiotic
+remark of yours, and tell you for your information that he had been
+drinking before I came into the room at all."
+
+"It's a lie!" exclaimed Ernshaw, springing to his feet and going towards
+the bell. "Nothing on earth could make me believe that." And then he
+rang the bell.
+
+"I'm not accustomed to being called a liar," said Garthorne very
+quietly, "without resenting it in practical form; but as you don't seem
+to be quite yourself, and as there is so much physical difference in my
+favour, I'll take the trouble to convince you that I am speaking the
+truth."
+
+He went into the bedroom and brought out Vane's coffee-cup.
+
+"Smell that," he said.
+
+Ernshaw took the cup and raised it to his nose. The strong smell of
+brandy rising from the dregs was unmistakable. Then there came a knock
+at the door, and Vane's servant came in.
+
+"Oh, good Lord, gentlemen, whatever is the matter?" he exclaimed,
+looking at Sir Arthur's prostrate form on the sofa and Vane's on the
+floor.
+
+"Never mind about that just now," said Garthorne curtly; "help us to
+carry Mr. Maxwell to his room. Then you'd better undress him and get him
+to bed. I suppose you can see what's the matter, and I hope also that
+you've learnt to hold your tongue."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the scout. "No man ever served a better master than Mr.
+Maxwell, and I hope I know my duty to him."
+
+Then the three of them picked up Vane's limp, loose-jointed form from
+the floor and carried him into his bedroom and laid him on the bed.
+
+"Now," Garthorne continued, "I want you to tell Mr. Ernshaw whether I
+came here after or before Mr. Maxwell had his coffee."
+
+"A good half-hour after, I should say, sir," said the scout, looking a
+little mystified. "You see, I brought it up about a quarter past eight,
+and he was up then and half dressed. He must have drunk it soon after,
+because he never will drink coffee unless it's hot. If it had got cold
+he'd have had some more up, and you came a bit before nine, sir. He must
+have drunk it before then."
+
+"Very well," said Garthorne. "Now, can you remember whether the
+decanters in the spirit-case were filled up last night?"
+
+"No, sir," said the scout. "I filled them up the first thing this
+morning myself, thinking that Mr. Maxwell would have some friends come
+to see him on a day like this."
+
+"Thank you," said Garthorne; "that'll do, I think. Now you'd better get
+Mr. Maxwell undressed."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw. "But what about Sir Arthur? Surely we ought to get
+a doctor for him as soon as possible."
+
+"I am going for a doctor at once," said Garthorne, "if you will tell me
+where I can find one. I have given him a spoonful of brandy, and I'm
+going to give him another. Just come in here for a moment, please. You
+can't do anything for Maxwell yet."
+
+Ernshaw followed him into the sitting-room, and as he took up the
+decanter Garthorne went on, holding up the brandy decanter, which had
+only a few spoonfuls left in it:
+
+"Look at that. You heard what his man said. Do you mean to tell me that
+I could have drunk even half of that since nine o'clock and be as sober
+as I certainly am? The idea is absurd."
+
+Then he poured out a little into a wine-glass, put his hand under Sir
+Arthur's head, and let a few drops trickle between his lips. Sir Arthur,
+who had been gradually regaining consciousness, drew a deep breath
+which ended in a cough. Then he opened his eyes and said:
+
+"What's the matter? Where am I? Where's Vane?"
+
+"You have had a great shock, Sir Arthur," said Garthorne, in a tone so
+gentle and kindly that Ernshaw started at it. "Vane has been taken ill,
+too, and we are putting him to bed. I'm just going for a doctor."
+
+Then he laid Sir Arthur's head back on the cushion and said, rising to
+his feet:
+
+"Now, Mr. Ernshaw, I think that's about all I can do for the present. If
+you will tell me where I can find Maxwell's doctor I'll go and send him,
+and then I'll go on and tell Sir Godfrey, not what has really taken
+place, but that something has happened which may prevent Maxwell leaving
+his rooms to-day."
+
+Ernshaw scribbled the name and address of the doctor on the back of an
+envelope and gave it to Garthorne, saying, rather hesitatingly:
+
+"There it is, Mr. Garthorne. I'm afraid I've been too hasty in what I
+said to you, and I must confess that you've taken it as very few men
+would have done. But if you only knew all that Vane has been to me
+during the last two years, and how awful this seems to me----"
+
+"My dear sir, don't say any more about it," Garthorne interrupted
+good-humouredly. "I know enough of poor Vane's story to see exactly what
+you mean. We'll consider it all unsaid, and now I must be off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Ernshaw's first care, after Garthorne had left the room, was to see to
+the comfort of Sir Arthur, who had now quite recovered consciousness,
+but was still feeling faint and ill. He told him as much of the truth
+about Vane as he knew, and while he was doing so, Jepson, the scout,
+came in from the bedroom, and said with an air of deferential
+confidence:
+
+"If you please, sir, I don't think there'll be any need for a doctor to
+Mr. Maxwell. He's come round a bit, and I think I know what his
+complaint is. Being excited, as he might well be on a morning like this,
+he's taken a drop too much on an empty stomach, and that led him to
+drink brandy and soda with his breakfast instead of sending for some
+more coffee. I've often seen this sort of thing before, sir, you see,
+and I've found the physic that will cure him on the mantelpiece. It's
+this."
+
+He held up a little stoppered bottle full of strong ammonia, which Vane
+had got for cleaning up the bindings of some old books.
+
+"Twenty drops of this," he went on, "in a wine-glassful of water, and
+he'll be as sober as ever he was in half an hour. Then I'll make him
+some strong coffee, and he'll be as right as a trivet. Only you mustn't
+let him take any more drink afterwards, or he'll just bring his boots
+up. I suppose I may try, sir? At any rate it won't do him any harm."
+
+"Certainly," said Ernshaw, "I've heard of it before. Do the best you can
+for him, Jepson."
+
+Jepson shut the door with a "Thank you, sir," and proceeded to treat his
+patient.
+
+Before the doctor arrived Sir Arthur had almost entirely recovered, and
+Vane was sitting up in bed, supported by the faithful Jepson's arm,
+gasping and coughing, but perfectly sober, and wondering dimly what had
+happened during the last hour or two--or was it weeks, or months, or
+what? He felt horribly sick and ill, and he was trembling in every limb,
+but the clouds of intoxication had cleared away from his mind; memory
+was returning to him, and he was asking Jepson disjointed questions as
+to what had happened.
+
+"Never you mind about that, sir," said Jepson. "Everything's all right
+now. Sir Arthur is coming round nicely, and now you've got that down,
+you just lay back and keep quiet, and I'll go and make your coffee, and
+before an hour's over you'll be ready and fit to go to the Sheldonian
+and face the Chancellor as though you hadn't tasted a drop."
+
+Vane, still wondering at his apparently miraculous recovery, did as he
+was told and lay back upon the pillows, and Jepson went off to brew him
+an "extra special" pot of coffee.
+
+"It's very unfortunate for Mr. Maxwell," he said, when he got into his
+own den, "very unfortunate, and on Degree Day too, but if I know
+anything about him and Sir Arthur, and I can get him to the Theatre
+dressed and _compos mentis_ and all that sort of thing--well, it's a
+fiver at least in my pocket, so it's an ill wind that blows nobody
+good."
+
+The doctor arrived while he was making the coffee. Ernshaw explained
+quickly what had happened. He went in and looked at Vane, felt his
+pulse, asked him in a kindly tone why he had made such a fool of himself
+on such a day, then he said that he couldn't improve on Jepson's
+treatment under the circumstances, and went in to look at Sir Arthur,
+who now, thanks to Ernshaw's care, was almost himself again.
+
+"Curious business this," he said, after he had felt Sir Arthur's pulse
+and found that he was practically all right. "Your son's case, I mean.
+I've known him nearly all the time that he's been up, and I've always
+considered that he was a teetotaller from principle. Of course it would
+be simply absurd to attempt to conceal from you what has been the matter
+with him this morning. He's been drunk, dead drunk, by about half-past
+nine in the morning. At the same time we must remember that when a man
+has been in hard training for a boat race, or anything of that sort, or
+if he has been reading hard on tea, which is almost as vicious a habit
+as alcoholism, he can get drunk on very little alcohol when the strain
+is taken off. In fact, I have known a man get drunk on a pint of bitter
+and a beef-steak; but there doesn't seem any reason of that sort for
+what happened this morning. Still, fortunately, that man of his knew
+what to do, and he's done it--a rather heroic remedy certainly, but one
+can risk that with a good constitution.
+
+"Still, I can't quite understand it, I must confess. If there was any
+taint of what we now call alcoholic insanity in his blood, it would, of
+course, be perfectly plain. However, we needn't go into that now. There
+can't be any idea of that, and I think when he's had his coffee, and
+you've had a mild brandy and soda, Sir Arthur, and kept quiet for half
+an hour or so, I think you will be able to go and see your son take the
+honours which he has won, and won very well, too. I suppose no idea of
+this has gone beyond these rooms?"
+
+"I'm afraid they have," said Ernshaw. "Garthorne, a Cambridge man, the
+man, you know, Sir Arthur, who was here with Vane when you came in, the
+same man who went for you, Doctor, said that he would go on and tell Sir
+Godfrey that Vane had been taken ill and wouldn't be able to come out of
+his rooms to-day. In short, that he would have to receive his degree by
+proxy."
+
+"The devil he did," said Sir Arthur, getting up from the sofa with the
+strength of a sudden access of anger and moving towards the bedroom
+door. "Look here, doctor, you have just said that Vane is getting round.
+Well, if he is, the old blood in him will tell, and he'll take his place
+and play his part with the rest of them. Mr. Ernshaw, I know your
+friendship for my son; I know what you have done for him, and how you
+have helped him. Now, will you do me another favour and take my
+compliments to Sir Godfrey Raleigh, and say that the matter is not
+anything like as serious as we thought it was, and that both Vane and
+myself will be ready to go through the day's programme as arranged. If
+you will be good enough to do that, the doctor and I will be able to
+arrange the rest, I think."
+
+"I shall be only too glad," said Ernshaw, taking up his hat. "I shall
+just have about time to do it, and then get to my rooms and dress. _Au
+revoir_, then, until after the ceremony," and with that, he opened the
+door just as Jepson knocked at it, bringing in the coffee.
+
+Ernshaw found Garthorne already at Sir Godfrey's rooms in close
+conversation with Enid. He had, of course, heard much about her from
+Vane, but this was the first time he had seen her. She had more than
+fulfilled the promise of two years before, and Ernshaw, ascetic as he
+was, had still too strong an artistic vein in his temperament to be
+insensible to her beauty. In fact, as she rose to greet the closest
+friend of the man who had been her lover, and who, as she fondly hoped,
+would be so once more after to-day, he started and coloured ever so
+slightly. He had never seen anything like her before as she stood there
+with outstretched hand, gently-smiling lips, and big, soft, deep eyes,
+in all the pride and glory of her dawning womanhood.
+
+It was this, then, that Vane had to give up. This was the priceless
+treasure which, if he kept his vow, he would have to surrender to
+another man. As the thought crossed his mind, he looked at Garthorne,
+and he saw the possibility that, after all, he might be the victor in
+that struggle which had begun years ago on the deck of the steamer.
+
+Certainly, as far as physical conditions went, there could hardly be a
+better match; but as he looked back to Enid, a darker thought stole into
+his mind. Garthorne had, superficially at least, rebutted the charges he
+had made against him in Vane's rooms; but though he had apologised for
+what he had said, the conviction that he had deliberately tempted Vane
+to drink came back to him, now that he saw how great a temptation
+Garthorne had to commit such an infamy.
+
+No doubt he knew perfectly well that Enid herself would overlook Vane's
+second lapse as she had done his first, and would be quite content to
+marry him on the strength of his promise that he would never get drunk
+again; but he also knew that, after what had happened that morning,
+Vane's determination to give her up would be tenfold strengthened, and
+that, when once he had definitely done so, the psychological moment
+would have arrived for him to begin his own suit--at first, of course,
+from a deferential distance, from which he might hope to approach her
+heart through the avenue of her injured pride.
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Ernshaw!" she said, "I am glad to meet such an old
+and good friend of Vane's. I have heard a great deal about you, and, I
+need hardly say, nothing but good. I hope you have come to tell me that
+Vane is better and also that you will tell me what has really been the
+matter with him. Mr. Garthorne, here, has been very rude; he has
+absolutely refused to say anything about it, and I am quite offended
+with him. I really can't see why there should be any mystery about it.
+What is it?"
+
+Ralph Ernshaw was one of those men who can no more tell a direct lie, or
+even prevaricate, than they can get outside their own skins. He held
+even the white lies of conventionality to be unworthy of anyone who held
+the truth as sacred, and yet for the life of him he could not look this
+lovely girl in the face and tell her that the man whom she had loved
+ever since she knew what love was, had been lying drunk on the floor of
+his room less than an hour before, and that the sight of him had shocked
+his father into a fainting fit.
+
+"I think, Miss Raleigh," he said, after a little hesitation, "that Vane
+would rather tell you that himself. In fact, to be quite candid with
+you, it is not a subject upon which I should care to touch even at your
+request, simply because I think that it is a matter which could be very
+much better discussed and explained between Vane and yourself; and I
+think Mr. Garthorne will agree with me in that view."
+
+"Certainly I do," said Garthorne, "I think that is the most sensible way
+of putting it. Enid, if you'll take my advice you'll take Ernshaw's, and
+let Vane do his own explaining after Commem."
+
+"Really, I think it's very horrid of both of you," said Enid. "I
+certainly can't see why there should be all this mystery. If it's
+anything really serious, surely I have a right to know. However, I
+suppose I must control my feminine impatience, at any rate it can't be
+anything very bad if he'll be able to be at the Theatre and Sir Arthur
+can come with him. I suppose I shall hear all about it at dinner
+to-night."
+
+"I have no doubt that you will, Miss Raleigh," said Ernshaw, "and now,
+if you will excuse me, I must be off to my rooms to get ready for my own
+share of the proceedings. Good morning."
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Ernshaw," replied Enid, a trifle stiffly. "That
+reminds me how rude I have been, I've not congratulated you yet."
+
+"Oh, I haven't done anything," said Ernshaw, "at least, not in
+comparison with what Vane has done. You'll see the difference in the
+Theatre. Good morning again. Good morning, Mr. Garthorne."
+
+"Good morning--we shall see you later, I suppose?" replied Garthorne, as
+the door closed, and then he turned to Enid and went on: "He's a
+thundering good fellow that Ernshaw. Quite a character, I believe,
+enthusiast, and all that sort of thing, but everyone here seems to think
+he'll be a shining light some day."
+
+"Yes, he seems very nice," said Enid, "but, as a matter of fact, I can't
+say that I'm particularly fond of shining lights or people who are too
+good, and from what papa tells me, this Mr. Ernshaw has been making or
+trying to make Vane a great deal too good for me. I even hear that he
+has been trying to make Vane become a parson. Fancy Vane, with all his
+talents and prospects, a curate! The idea is absurd, even more absurd
+than this two years' probation idea."
+
+"I quite agree with you," said Garthorne, "but still, think of the test
+of constancy and the delight of knowing that you have both stood it so
+well."
+
+At this moment the door opened, and Sir Godfrey came in, not altogether
+to Garthorne's satisfaction, and so put an end to further developments
+of the conversation.
+
+A couple of hours later Enid was sitting with her father, a unit of the
+vast audience which filled the Sheldonian Theatre. After Ernshaw's
+visit, neither she nor her father had received any message either from
+Vane or Sir Arthur. She had expected that Vane, at least, would have
+come to her before the beginning of the ceremonies, or that, at least,
+Sir Arthur would have come and told her something about him, but no, not
+a word; and there she sat between Garthorne and her father, angry and
+yet expectant, waiting for the moment of his appearance.
+
+"Ah, here he is at last," whispered Garthorne, as his name and honours
+were called out in Latin.
+
+Enid held her breath as the familiar figure, clad in the unfamiliar
+academic garb, walked towards the Chancellor's throne. She could see
+that he was deadly pale, and that his eyes were shining with an
+unnatural brightness. He never even once looked towards her. The wild
+outburst of cheering which greeted his appearance seemed as utterly
+lost upon him as if he had been stone deaf and blind. He listened to the
+Chancellor's address with as little emotion as though it concerned some
+one else. Then he knelt down, the hood, the outward and visible sign of
+his intellectual triumph, was put over his shoulders; the Chancellor
+spoke the magic words without his hearing them. He never felt the three
+taps given with the New Testament on his head, and he rose from his
+knees and moved away from the scene of the crowning triumph of his youth
+as mechanically as though the proceedings had no more interest for him
+than if they had been taking place a thousand miles away.
+
+All through the afternoon Enid and her father waited for them to come,
+but there was no sign from either of them until just before tea-time
+Jepson presented himself with two letters, one addressed to Sir Godfrey
+and one to Enid. Both were very short. Sir Godfrey's was from Sir
+Arthur, and ran as follows:
+
+     "MY DEAR RALEIGH,
+
+     "I hope that you and your daughter will forgive the apparent
+     discourtesy of our absence from you this afternoon and evening. I
+     find it necessary to take Vane to London at once. His letter to
+     Enid will explain the reason.
+
+     "Faithfully yours,
+     "ARTHUR MAXWELL."
+
+"There is evidently something very serious the matter," said Sir
+Godfrey, as he handed the note to Enid. "Maxwell wouldn't write like
+that without good reason. That's from Vane, I suppose. What does he
+say?"
+
+"Say," exclaimed Enid, with a flash of anger through her fast gathering
+tears. "That's what he says. It's too bad, too cruel--and after leaving
+me alone for two years--it's miserable!" And with that, she made a swift
+escape out of the room and shut the door behind her with an emphatic
+bang.
+
+Sir Godfrey picked the note up from the table where she had flung it.
+There was no form of address. It simply began:
+
+
+"I was drunk this morning. Drunk without meaning to be so, after being
+two years without touching alcohol and without experiencing the
+slightest craving for it. Last night I had finally come to the
+conclusion that it would be a sin to ask you to keep your promise to me.
+Now I am convinced that it would be absolute infamy to do so. I dare not
+even face you to tell you this, so utterly unworthy and contemptible am
+I in my own sight. Whatever you hear to the contrary, remember that what
+has happened this morning is no fault of anyone but myself. If ever we
+meet again I hope I shall find you the wife of a man more worthy of you
+than I am now, or, with this accursed taint in my blood, ever could be.
+Perhaps in those days we may be friends again; but for the present we
+must be strangers.
+
+"Vane."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Yet another twelve months had passed since Vane had taken his degree;
+since Enid had seen him vanish like a spectre out of her life, and had
+waited vainly for his coming, only to receive instead that letter of
+farewell which, the instant she had read it, she knew to be final and
+irrevocable.
+
+In such a nature as hers the tenderest spot was her pride. She had been
+his sweetheart since they were boy and girl together, and when the time
+came they had become formally engaged. For nearly four years now she had
+considered herself as half married to him. Other men attracted by her
+physical beauty and her mental charm had approached her, as they had a
+perfect right to do, in open and honest rivalry of Vane, but she had
+given them one and all very clearly to understand that she had
+definitely plighted her troth, and had no intention of breaking it. In
+other words she had been absolutely faithful even in thought.
+
+She had never considered his feelings as to what he called his inherited
+alcoholism as anything else than the somewhat fine-drawn scruples of a
+highly-strung, and rather romantic nature. She had not troubled herself
+about the deadly scientific aspect of the matter. She knew perfectly
+well that men got drunk sometimes and still made excellent husbands,
+and, more than all, she firmly believed that, once Vane's wife, she
+would speedily acquire sufficient influence over him to make anything
+like a recurrence of what had happened quite impossible.
+
+Even after his second and worst breakdown on the morning of
+Commemoration Day she would still have received him as her lover and,
+after a little friendly lecture which would, of course, have ended in
+the usual way, she would have been perfect friends with him again on the
+old footing.
+
+But that letter had ended everything between them. Moreover, it had been
+followed by one from Sir Arthur to her father expressing great regret at
+the turn which matters had taken, but saying that, after repeated
+conversations with Vane, he had been forced to the conclusion that his
+resolve to enter the Church and devote himself to a life of celibacy and
+mission work at home was really fixed and unalterable.
+
+After that there was, of course, nothing more to be said or done. Enid,
+being a natural, simple-hearted, healthy English girl, who enjoyed life
+a great deal too well to worry about looking under the surface of
+things, therefore came to the conclusion that she had been jilted for
+the sake of a fine-drawn Quixotic idea. If she had been jilted for the
+sake of another woman it would have been quite a different matter. Then
+there would have been something tangible to hate bitterly for a season,
+and then to get revenged on by making a much more brilliant marriage, as
+she could easily have done. But it was infinitely worse, and more
+humiliating to be thrown over like this by the man whom she had looked
+upon as her future husband nearly all her life, whom she had played at
+housekeeping with while they were children, and whom she had never
+looked upon as anything else but a sweetheart or a lover--and yet it was
+true, miserably true, and now, for the sake of a mere idea, she found
+herself cast off, loverless and alone.
+
+Then, after a few weeks of secret, but exceeding bitterness, she did
+what nineteen out of every twenty girls would have done under the
+circumstances. The twentieth girl would probably have considered her
+life blighted for ever, and vowed the remainder of it to
+single-blessedness, charity and good works as a Sister of something or
+other. But Enid belonged to the practical majority, and so when the
+breaking off of the engagement became an actual social fact, and
+Reginald Garthorne came just at the psychological moment to tell her
+that never since he had earned that boyish licking on the steamer by
+kissing her, had he been able to look with love into the eyes of any
+other woman, she had told him with perfect frankness that, as it was
+quite impossible for her to marry Vane, and as she certainly liked him
+next best, and had not the slightest intention of remaining single, she
+was perfectly content to marry him. If he chose to take her on those
+terms he might go and talk the matter over with Sir Godfrey, and if he
+and her mother said "yes," she would say "yes," too.
+
+It was a somewhat prosaic wooing, perhaps, but Reginald Garthorne had
+been hungering for her in his heart for years. Outwardly he had been
+friends with Vane, but in his soul he had hated him consistently as boy
+and man ever since that scene behind the wheelhouse of the _Orient_. He
+was, therefore, perfectly content. He had longed for her, and he didn't
+care how he got her. The rest would come afterwards.
+
+He was rich, far richer than Vane ever would be. He had inherited a
+fortune of nearly two hundred thousand pounds from his mother's side of
+the family when he came of age. On his father's death he would succeed
+to the title and a fine old country house in the Midlands, with a
+rent-roll and mining royalties worth over thirty thousand a year. He
+would be able to make her life a continuous dream of pleasure, amidst
+which she would very soon forget the visionary who was throwing away his
+manhood and all the best years of his life just because he had learnt
+that he was the son of a drunken and abandoned woman, and had himself
+got drunk twice in his life.
+
+The interview with Sir Godfrey and Lady Raleigh had been entirely
+satisfactory. They both considered in their hearts that their daughter
+had been very badly treated. From every social point of view this was a
+match which left nothing to be desired, and so they said "yes," and
+Garthorne went back to Enid, and said, triumphantly, as he kissed her
+for the first time since that memorable kiss on the steamer:
+
+"And so, you see, darling, I've won, after all!"
+
+It was thus that it came about that, on the same day, as the Fates would
+have it, two ceremonies were being performed at the same hour, one in
+St. George's, Hanover Square, and one before the altar at Worcester
+Cathedral.
+
+The Bishop, in full canonicals, surrounded by his attendant clergy, sat
+inside the altar rails in front of the Communion Table, and on the
+topmost step before the rails knelt two young men wearing surplices and
+the hoods of Bachelors of Arts of Oxford.
+
+It was the Feast of St. James the Apostle, and in his exhortation the
+Archdeacon, who was preacher for the day, had taken for his text the
+collect:
+
+     "Grant, O merciful God, that, as Thine holy Apostle St. James,
+     leaving his father and all that he had without delay, was obedient
+     unto the call of Thy Son Jesus Christ and followed Him, so we,
+     forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready
+     to follow Thy holy commandments, through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
+
+One of the men kneeling at the altar rails was Mark Ernshaw, and the
+other was Vane Maxwell.
+
+Among the somewhat scanty congregation which had remained after the
+usual morning service, sat Sir Arthur Maxwell. A year ago he would have
+been inclined to laugh at the idea of his son sacrificing all his
+brilliant worldly prospects to enter the Church. He was, as has already
+been said, a deeply religious man himself, but still, he was a man of
+the world, a man who had made his own way through the world, and won by
+sheer hard work some of the prizes which it has to give, and, like many
+others of his class, he had come to look upon the clerical profession
+somewhat as the refuge of the intellectually destitute.
+
+But as the time had gone on since that scene in his son's rooms at
+Oxford, he had come to believe that with Vane it was not a mere
+question, as it is with too many other men, of taking Orders to secure a
+profession and a position. He was entering the Church as the men of more
+earnest and more faithful ages had done; because he believed that he had
+a duty to do, a mission to perform, a sacrifice to make, and, above all,
+an enemy to fight which was God's enemy as well as his own.
+
+Therefore the words "leaving his father and all that he had," awakened
+no bitter echoes in his soul. True it was a sacrifice for him as well as
+for Vane; but for Vane's sake he had made it willingly and cheerfully,
+and he was able now to look forward with perfect contentment to the
+triumphs which, in his father's pride, he could not help believing his
+son would win in that higher and holier sphere of life which he had
+chosen.
+
+The presentation being made and the questions as to "crime or
+impediment" being duly asked and answered, the Litany and Suffrages
+began, and every note and word of the solemn intonation, ringing through
+the silence of the great Cathedral, found an echo which rang true in
+three souls at least among the congregation:
+
+     "O God the Father of Heaven: have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "O God the Son, Redeemer of the world: have mercy upon us,
+     miserable sinners.
+
+     "O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son: have
+     mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "O Holy blessed and glorious Trinity, three Persons and one God:
+     have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.
+
+     "Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our
+     forefathers: neither take thou vengeance on our sins: spare us,
+     good Lord, spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with Thy most
+     precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever.
+
+     "From all evil and mischief: from sin, from the crafts and assaults
+     of the devil: from Thy wrath and from everlasting damnation.
+
+     "From all blindness of heart: from pride, vain-glory and
+     hypocrisy: from envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness.
+
+     "From fornication, and all other deadly sin: and from all the
+     deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil.
+
+     "Good Lord deliver us!"
+
+"Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers:
+neither take thou vengeance on our sins."
+
+These, of all the words which he heard spoken on that fateful day, the
+day which marked for him the passing of the line which divides the World
+of the Flesh from the World of the Spirit--the frontier of the kingdom
+of this world separating it from that other Kingdom which, though
+worldwide, yet owns but a single Lord--seemed to fall with greater
+weight into Vane's soul than any others of the service. As he heard them
+he raised his bent head, threw it back and, with wide open eyes, looked
+up over the Bishop's head and the reredos behind the altar to the
+central section of the great stained glass window containing the figure
+of the Godhead crucified in the flesh, with the two Marys, Mary the
+Mother and Mary Magdalene, kneeling at the foot of the Cross.
+
+Like a quiver of summer lightning across the horizon of an August sky,
+there came to him the thought of that mother of his whom he had never
+known, and of that girl who was almost his sister, long ago lost in the
+great wilderness of London. They were not likenesses, only the faintest
+of suggestions, and yet the mere recollection seemed to lend an added
+solemnity to the vows which he was about to take.
+
+     "I will do so, the Lord being my helper!"
+
+As he uttered the words there was not the faintest doubt in his soul
+that for the rest of his life he would be able to keep both the letter
+and the spirit of the oath unbroken to the end of his days. Many a man
+and woman has rashly wished that it were possible to look into the
+future. Such a thought had more than once crossed Vane Maxwell's mind,
+but could he, in that solemn moment, have looked into the future and
+seen what lay before him, he would have been well content with the high
+destiny to which his great renunciation was to lead him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now the scene changes from Gloucester Cathedral, to St. George's,
+Hanover Square.
+
+It was the smartest wedding of the year, and, apart from all its social
+brilliance, even the most rigid critics admitted that London had not
+seen a lovelier bride or a handsomer bridegroom than Enid Raleigh and
+Reginald Garthorne. The church was thronged by an audience made up of
+the friendly, the sympathetic, the sentimental, and the merely curious,
+as is usual on such occasions.
+
+Carol Vane and Dora Russel, who had come provided with tickets
+indirectly supplied by the bridegroom himself, occupied seats in the
+left-hand gallery at the front. In consequence of the crowd, they only
+got into their places just as the bridal procession was moving up the
+central aisle. There was the bride with her attendant bridesmaids, six
+little maidens dressed in pure white, the bridegroom with his pages, six
+counterparts dressed in the style of Charles I. Then Sir Godfrey and
+Lady Raleigh, and then a tall, grizzled, soldierly-looking man, and
+beside him a white-haired old lady, who might have stepped straight out
+of one of Gainsborough's pictures.
+
+As Carol caught sight of the man beside her, she leant half her body
+over the front of the gallery, and stared with straining eyes down at
+the slowly moving procession. Dora caught her by the arm and pulled her
+back, saying, in a whisper:
+
+"Don't do that; you might fall over."
+
+Carol turned a white face and a pair of blankly staring eyes upon her,
+caught her by the arm with one hand and pointing downwards with the
+other, said in a whisper that seemed to rattle in her throat:
+
+"See that man, there--that tall one with the old lady on his arm? That's
+the man who did all the ruin! That's my father--and my mother was Vane's
+mother, and that's his son, going to marry Vane's sweetheart. No, by
+God, he shan't! I'll tell the whole church full, first."
+
+She tore herself free from Dora's hold and struggled to her feet, her
+lips were opened to utter words which would have instantly turned the
+wedding into a tragedy; but the rush of thoughts which came surging into
+her brain was too much for her. The swift revelation of an almost
+unbelievable life-tragedy struck her like a lightning-stroke; she
+uttered a few incoherent sounds, and then dropped back fainting into
+Dora's arms.
+
+"Another of life's little tragedies, I suppose," whispered a
+well-dressed matron just behind her, to a companion at her side, "a
+_petite maitresse_, no doubt. It's a curious thing; they always come to
+see their lovers married."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The fainting of Carol in the gallery of the church and her being carried
+out just before the commencement of the ceremony, was looked upon by
+some of the more superstitious of the immediate spectators as a sign of
+evil omen to the happiness of those who, in the phrase which is so often
+only the echo of devils' laughter, were about "to be joined together in
+holy matrimony."
+
+Still, only a few had heard the broken words which the horror-stricken
+girl had uttered before she fell down insensible, and those only thought
+what the good lady behind her had said. To the rest of the congregation
+it was merely an incident, due to the crowd and the heat. The little
+flutter of excitement which it caused soon passed away, and the ceremony
+began and went on without any of the bridal party even knowing what had
+happened.
+
+She was carried to the gallery stairs, and there Dora sat her down,
+supporting her with her arm, while one sympathetic young lady held a
+bottle of salts to her nostrils, and an older lady emptied a
+scent-bottle on to her handkerchief and held it to her forehead.
+
+In a very few minutes she came round. She looked about her, and,
+recognising Dora, said:
+
+"Oh, dear, what's happened? Where am I? Yes, I remember--at a
+wedding--and he----"
+
+Then she checked herself, and Dora said:
+
+"Do you think you're well enough to come down and get into a cab, and
+then we'll get home? It was the heat and the crush that did it, I
+suppose."
+
+"Yes, I think I can," said Carol. "I'm all right now. Thank you very
+much for being so kind," she went on to the other two with a faint smile
+of gratitude.
+
+"Oh, don't mention it," they said almost together, and then the younger
+one put her hand under her arm and helped her up. "Let me help you
+down," she said. "I daresay you'll be all right when you get into the
+open air."
+
+Carol looked round at her and saw that, without being exactly pretty,
+she had a very sweet and sympathetic expression, and big, soft brown
+eyes which looked out very kindly under dark level brows. It was a face
+which women perhaps admire more than men; but her voice was one which
+would have gone just as quickly to a man's heart as to a woman's. At any
+rate, it went straight to Carol's, and when they had got into the cab
+and she leant back against the cushions she said to Dora:
+
+"I wonder who that girl was? Did you notice what a sweet face and what a
+lovely voice she had? I'm not very loving towards my own sex, but as
+soon as I got round I felt that I wanted to hug her--and I suppose if
+she knew the sort of person I am she wouldn't have touched me. What a
+difference clothes make, don't they? Now, if I'd been dressed as some of
+the girls are----"
+
+"I think you're quite wrong there, Carol," said Dora, interrupting her.
+"I don't believe she's that sort at all, she was much too nice, I'm
+certain. She had the face of a really good woman, and you know good
+women don't think that of us. It's only the goody-goody ones who do
+that, and there's a lot of difference between good and goody-goody."
+
+"Well, yes," said Miss Carol, "I daresay you're right, after all. She
+had a sweet face, hadn't she? But look here, Dora," she went on with a
+sudden change of tone, "did you ever know anything so awful? No--I can't
+talk about it yet. Tell him to pull up at the Monico, and we'll have a
+brandy and soda. I never wanted a drink so badly in my life."
+
+The cab had meanwhile been rolling down Regent Street, and had almost
+reached the Circus. Dora put her hand up through the trap and told the
+cabman--whose opinion of his fares underwent an instantaneous change. He
+nodded and said, "Yes, miss," and the next minute pulled up in front of
+the square entrance to the cafe. Dora got out first and helped Carol
+out; then she gave the cabman a shilling and they went in.
+
+"Goes to a wedding, does a faint, comes out, and stops 'ere when they
+ought to have been driven 'ome. Not much class there!" the cabman
+soliloquised as he flicked his whip over his horse's ears and turned
+across towards Piccadilly. He was, perhaps, naturally disgusted at the
+meagre results of a job for which he had expected three or four
+shillings at the very least.
+
+The big cafe was almost deserted, as it usually is in the morning, and
+the two girls found a secluded seat at one of the corner tables.
+
+"Dora, you must pay for these," said Carol when they had given their
+order, "and what's more you'll have to lend me some money to go on with,
+for if I was starving I wouldn't spend another shilling of that man's
+money."
+
+"But, my dear child, I don't suppose he knew it," said Dora. "Of course
+you can have anything I've got if you want it, and I quite understand
+how you feel. It's very dreadful, horrible, in fact, but you couldn't
+help it. You're not to blame, and I don't see that he is, after all's
+said and done."
+
+"No, I don't say that he is," said Carol, "and of course I couldn't
+know, for he isn't a bit like his father. He was dark once, so I suppose
+the--the other one takes after his mother. At least, he would do if she
+was a fair woman. But just fancy me having that feeling about Vane that
+night--feeling that I couldn't--and yet this one is just as near. God
+forgive me, Dora, isn't it awful?"
+
+"Well, never mind, dear," said Dora, as the waiter brought the drinks.
+"I don't see that that matters one way or the other now. What's done
+_is_ done, and there's an end of it. Well, here's fun, and better luck
+next time!"
+
+"Hope so!" said Carol somewhat bitterly, as she took a rather long pull
+at her brandy and soda. "Ah, that's better," she went on, as she put her
+glass down. "At any rate, it couldn't be much worse luck, could it?"
+
+"But are you perfectly certain," said Dora, "that he really was the man?
+You know, after all, you only saw him for quite a moment or so."
+
+"I'm as certain as I am that I'm sitting here," said Carol, "that that
+was the man who lived with my mother in Paris and Vienna and Nice and a
+lot of other places ever since I can remember. It isn't likely that I'm
+going to forget when I have such good reason as I have for remembering.
+He's the man, right enough, and if I was face to face with him for five
+minutes I'd prove it. The question is whether I ought to prove it or
+not."
+
+"That's a thing that wants thinking about," said Dora. "But how can you
+prove it?"
+
+"Easy enough," replied Carol, "if he'd just take his coat off and turn
+his shirt-sleeve up. He's got two marks just above his right elbow, two
+white marks, and the one on the front is bigger than the one behind.
+I've seen them many a time when he's been sculling or playing tennis. He
+told me he got them from a spear thrust when he was fighting in the Zulu
+war. The spear went right in in front and the point came out behind, and
+if I had a thousand pounds I'd bet it that that man has got those marks
+on his arm.
+
+"Besides, I know lots of other things about him. You know I'm not a bad
+mimic, for one thing, and I could imitate his voice and his way of
+talking before I heard him speak, and I know a photographer in Paris
+where I could get his photograph--one taken while he was with us. We
+went with him to have it taken; and, besides, I don't care whether that
+unfortunate mother of mine's mad or not, she'd recognise him. I'd bet
+any money he daren't go to the place where she is and face her. Well,
+now I'm better. Let's go home to lunch and think it over. It certainly
+isn't a thing to do anything hastily about."
+
+"That's just what I think, dear," said Dora, finishing her brandy and
+soda.
+
+"All right; we won't take another cab just yet. Let's walk along the
+'Dilly for a bit; it'll do me good, I think; and besides, I may as well
+get familiar with the old place again," said Carol, rising from her
+seat.
+
+"What nonsense!" said Dora. "The very idea of _you_ having to go in for
+that sort of thing, when there are half a dozen fellows a good deal more
+than ready to take this man Garthorne's place."
+
+"Well, well," said Carol, with a light laugh and a toss of her pretty
+head, "I don't suppose the change would be for the worse. But there's
+one thing certain, I shall have to snare the oof bird very shortly, for
+the first thing I'm going to do when we get to the flat is to send back
+every penny of the money that Reginald gave me when we said good-bye. Of
+course I didn't know anything about it, but it seems worse a good deal
+than if I had stolen it. Then to-night we'll go to the Empire, and you,
+being rather more married than I am, can chaperone me."
+
+"All right," said Dora. "I'll send a wire to Bernard, and perhaps he'll
+come too and escort us."
+
+Reginald Garthorne had behaved, as both the world and the half-world
+would have said, very honourably to Carol when they had said the usual
+good-bye before his marriage. He had paid his share of the rent of the
+flat for her for six months ahead, and had given her a couple of hundred
+pounds to go on with. Of this considerably over a hundred pounds
+remained. She changed the gold into notes, and even the silver into
+postal orders, and put the whole sum into a packet, which she registered
+and posted to his town address.
+
+She gave no explanation or reason for what she was doing. In the first
+place she could not bring herself to tell him the dreadful truth that
+she had discovered; and then, again, it would only after all be a piece
+of needless cruelty. During her connection with him he had always
+treated her with kindness and courtesy, and often with generosity. She
+had nothing whatever against him, so why should she wreck the happiness
+of his honeymoon, and perhaps of his whole married life, by disclosing
+the secret that had been so strangely revealed to her? So she simply
+wrote:
+
+     "DEAR MR. GARTHORNE,
+
+     "You have been very kind to me, and I thoroughly appreciate your
+     kindness. But something has happened to-day--I daresay you can
+     guess what it is--which makes it unnecessary to me, and, as you
+     know I have rather curious ideas about money matters, I hope you
+     will understand my reasons, and not be offended by my returning it
+     to you with many thanks.
+
+     "Yours very sincerely,
+     "CAROL VANE."
+
+Under the circumstances the white lie was one which the Recording Angel
+might well have blotted out. Probably he did. But, as the Fates would
+have it, the words proved prophetic.
+
+They went to the Empire that night under the escort of Mr. Bernard
+Falcon, and while they were having a stroll round the promenade during
+the interval he nodded and smiled a little awkwardly to a tall,
+good-looking young fellow in evening dress, whose bronzed skin, square
+shoulders and easy stride gave one the idea that he was a good deal more
+accustomed to the free and easy costume of the Bush or the Veld or the
+Mining Camp than to the swallow-tails and starched linen of after-dinner
+Civilisation.
+
+"What a splendid-looking fellow!" said Dora, turning her head slightly
+as he passed; "the sort of man, I should say, who really _is_ a man. Who
+is he, Bernard? You seem to know him!"
+
+"That man?" said Mr. Falcon. "Well, come down into the lower bar, and
+we'll have a drink, and I'll tell you."
+
+"That looks a little bit as if you didn't want to meet him again!" said
+Dora, a trifle maliciously. "Does he happen to be one of your clients,
+or someone who only knows you as a perfectly respectable person?"
+
+Mr. Falcon did not reply immediately, but he frowned a little, as if he
+didn't find the remark very palatable. But when they reached the
+seclusion of the bar and sat down at one of the tables he said:
+
+"Well, yes, it is something like that. The fact is we have done a little
+business for him, and we hope to do more. Lucky beggar, he's one of
+Fortune's darlings."
+
+"That sounds interesting," said Carol. "May I ask what the good lady has
+done for him?"
+
+"Well," said Mr. Falcon, folding his hands on the table and dropping his
+voice to a discreet monotone, "in the first place she made him the
+younger son of a very good family. Nothing much to begin with, of
+course, but then she also gave him a maiden aunt who left him five
+thousand pounds just after he left Cambridge in disgust after failing
+three times to get a pass degree. He had no special turn for anything in
+particular except riding and shooting and athletics of all sorts. So,
+like a sensible fellow, instead of stopping in England and fooling his
+money away, as too many younger sons do, he put four thousand pounds
+into my partner's hands--Lambe, I should tell you, was his aunt's
+solicitor--to be invested in good securities, put the other thousand
+into his pocket, and started out to seek his fortune.
+
+"That's a little over five years ago, which makes him about thirty now.
+Of course, I suppose he went everywhere and did everything, as such
+fellows do, but we heard very little of him, and he never drew a penny
+of the four thousand pounds, and he turned up in London a week or two
+ago something more than a millionaire. It seems that he was one of the
+first to hear of the West Australian goldfields--he was out there
+prospecting in the desert, and a few months later he was one of the
+pioneers of Kalgoorlie, and pegged out a lot of the most valuable
+claims. He put in nearly three years there, and now he's come back to
+enjoy himself. He's a very fine fellow, but I must say I'd rather not
+have met him here to-night."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," laughed Dora, "he'll understand. Being a man he knows
+perfectly well that scarcely any of you respectable married men are half
+as respectable as you'd like to be thought. However, why not compromise
+him too? Go and fetch him and introduce him."
+
+Mr. Falcon knew Dora well enough to take this request as something like
+an order. So he rose, saying:
+
+"Well, that's not a bad idea, after all, and I daresay he won't have the
+slightest objection to make the acquaintance of two such entirely
+charming young ladies."
+
+Mr. Falcon rather prided himself upon his way of turning a compliment,
+albeit his action, as they say in stable parlance, was a trifle heavy.
+When he had gone Dora nodded to Carol and said:
+
+"There, dear. If I'm not very much mistaken this is the reward of
+virtue."
+
+"Which is its own reward, and generally doesn't get it," laughed Carol,
+colouring slightly. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," said Dora, "that only to-day you made yourself penniless from
+the most laudable of motives, and here, this very night, comes Prince
+Charming from the Fortunate Isles, with all his pockets and both hands
+full of money, and a splendid-looking fellow as well. I think that's a
+bit mixed, but still it's somewhere about the fact. Ah, here they come."
+
+"Mr. Cecil Rayburn, Miss Dora Murray; Mr. Rayburn, Miss Carol Vane. Now
+we know each other," said Mr. Falcon. "Rayburn, what will you have?"
+
+Rayburn had a brandy and soda, and before it was finished the
+conversation was running easily and even merrily. With the quick
+perception of the travelled man he speedily discovered that Dora was
+Falconer's particular friend; she always addressed him as "Bernie,"
+while Carol always said "Mr. Falcon" or "Mr. F."
+
+When they got up, all thoroughly well pleased with each other, Falcon
+said:
+
+"Are you alone, Rayburn?"
+
+"Yes," he replied. "I hadn't anything particular to do to-night, and as
+I was sick of playing billiards and swopping lies with the other fellows
+at the Carlton, I just put on a hard-boiled shirt and the other things
+and came over here to seek my fortune."
+
+As he said this he looked straight at Carol, their eyes met for a
+moment, and then she coloured up swiftly and looked away.
+
+The four wound up the evening with a sumptuous supper at Prince's, at
+which Rayburn played host to perfection, and within a week Carol and he
+had left Charing Cross by the eleven o'clock boat-train on a trip which
+had no particular objective, but which, as a matter of fact, extended
+round the world before Carol again saw her beloved London. In addition
+to her other rings she wore a new thick wedding ring, a compromise with
+conventionality which the etiquette of hotels and steamer saloons had
+rendered imperative, and thus it came to pass that Miss Carol,
+travelling as Mrs. Charles Redfern, vanished utterly for more than a
+year, and this, too, was why all the efforts of Vane and Ernshaw and Sir
+Arthur to find her had proved for the present unavailing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Enid Garthorne came back from a somewhat extended honeymoon trip to the
+Riviera and thence on through Northern Italy to Venice, whence she
+returned via Vienna and Paris, a very different woman from the Enid
+Raleigh who had cried so bitterly over that farewell letter of Vane's in
+her bedroom at Oxford.
+
+She had already schooled herself to look upon her long love for Vane as,
+after all, only the sustained infatuation of a romantic school-girl, and
+upon him as a high-hearted, clean-souled but utterly impossible
+visionary who had sacrificed the substance for the shadow, and who,
+having chosen irrevocably, could only be left to work out his own
+destiny as he had shaped it.
+
+Garthorne, in the first flush of his gratified love and triumph, had
+proved an almost ideal combination of lover and husband, and of all the
+brides who were honeymooning in the most luxurious resorts of the
+Continent that Autumn and Winter, she, with her youth and beauty, her
+handsome, devoted husband, and splendid fortunes, was accounted the most
+to be envied. As week after week went by, and the intoxication of her
+new life grew upon her, she gradually came to believe this herself. At
+the same time, something very like true affection for this man, whose
+love was very real and who seemed to find his only happiness in making
+the world the most delightful of dreamlands for her, began to grow up in
+her heart.
+
+Of course, she often thought of Vane; that was inevitable. It was
+inevitable, too, that she should look back now and then to some of the
+many tender scenes that had passed between them; but as time went on,
+these memory-pictures grew more faint. The fast-succeeding events and
+the new experiences of her married life crowded swiftly and thickly upon
+her, until she began to look upon the past more as a dream than as a
+reality. Vane's figure receded rapidly into the background of her life,
+and, as it did so, it seemed in some way to become spiritualised, lifted
+above and beyond the world-sphere in which it was now her destiny to
+move.
+
+They got back to England a few weeks before the season began, and, after
+a day or two in London for some necessary shopping, they went down to
+Garthorne Abbey, one of the finest old seats in the Midland counties,
+standing on a wooded slope in the green border which fringes the Black
+Country, and facing the meadows and woodlands which stretch away down to
+the banks of the Severn, beyond which rise the broken, picturesque
+outlines of the Herefordshire Hills.
+
+Here Enid Garthorne spent an entirely delightful week exploring the
+stately home and the splendid domain of which she would one day be
+mistress. Day after day in the early clear Spring morning, she would go
+up alone on to a sort of terrace-walk which had been made round the roof
+behind the stone balustrade which ran all round the house, and look out
+over the green, well-wooded, softly undulating country, her heart filled
+with a delighted pride and the consciousness, or, at any rate, the
+belief, that after all the cloud which had come between her and Vane had
+had a silver, nay, a golden lining, and that, so far, at least,
+everything had been for the best.
+
+As she looked to the eastward, she could see stretched along the horizon
+a low, dun-coloured line which was not cloud. It was the smoke of the
+Black Country, and underneath it hundreds and hundreds of men, aye, and
+if she had known it, women, too, were toiling in forge and mine and
+factory, earning the thousands which made life so easy and so pleasant
+for her. To the westward were the low-lying meadows, the rolling
+corn-lands, and the dark strips and patches of wood and coppice which
+lay for miles on three sides of the Home Park, and beyond these she
+caught bright gleams of the silver Severn rippling away to the distant
+Bristol Channel; then, beyond this again, the rising uplands which
+culminated in the irregular terraces of the Abberley Hills.
+
+She knew nothing of it at the time, but far away, perched up in a leafy
+nook among them was a little cluster of old grey buildings; just a
+chapel, a guest-house, a refectory, and half a dozen cells forming a
+tiny quadrangle which was still called St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, but
+which in the old days when all the lands that Enid could see from her
+roof-walk had belonged to the ancient Abbey of Ganthony--of which her
+husband's name was perhaps a corruption--had been known as the House of
+Our Lady of Rest.
+
+Before the dissolution of the Monasteries it had been a place of rest
+and retreat for servants of the Church who had exhausted themselves in
+her service or had found reason to withdraw themselves a while from the
+world and its temptations; and such, though creeds have changed, it has
+practically remained until now.
+
+The little church was nominally St. Augustine's, the Parish Church of a
+little scattered hamlet which was sprinkled over the hillside beneath
+it. The living had been in the gift of the Garthorne family, but Sir
+Reginald's father had sold the advowson to one of the earliest pioneers
+of the High Church movement in England, and through this purchase it had
+passed into the keeping of a small Anglican Order calling itself the
+Fraternity of St. Augustine.
+
+This little Brotherhood had not only maintained the traditions of the
+ancient Order of St. Augustine, Preacher, Saint and Martyr, but had done
+all that was possible to revive them in their ancient purity. The little
+monastery among the hills, though it had passed under another
+ecclesiastical rule, was still a place where priests and deacons might
+come either to rest from the labours which they had endured in the
+service of their Master, or to separate themselves from the din and
+turmoil of the world, and, amidst the peace and silence of nature,
+wrestle with the doubts or temptations that had beset them. The Vicar of
+the parish and Father Superior of the Retreat was an aged priest who had
+welcomed three generations of his younger brothers in Christ as
+temporary sojourners in this little sanctuary, and had sent them away
+comforted and strengthened to take their place again in the ranks of the
+army which wages that battle which began when the first prophecy was
+uttered in Eden, and which will only end when the sound of the Last
+Trump marshalls the hosts of men before the bar of the Last Tribunal.
+
+Vane had been the occupant of one of the tiny little rooms, which had
+once been the monks' cells, for a little over three months when Enid
+came to her future home. The rooms were on the side of the quadrangle
+facing the valley, and from his little window he could distinctly see
+the great white house, with its broad terraces standing out against the
+dark background formed by the trees which crowned the ridge behind it.
+He, of course, knew perfectly well to whom it belonged and who would one
+day be mistress of it, and one day he saw from the _Times_, the only
+secular newspaper admitted into St. Augustine's, that Mr. and Mrs.
+Reginald Garthorne had returned from their wedding trip on the
+Continent, and, after a day or two in London, would proceed for a few
+weeks to Garthorne Abbey to recuperate before the fatigues of the
+season, of which it was generally expected Mrs. Garthorne would be one
+of the most brilliant ornaments.
+
+The sight of it, the knowledge of all the splendours that it contained,
+of all the worldly wealth of which it was the material sign, had not
+affected him in the least. He had already lifted himself beyond the
+possibility of envying anyone the possession of such things as these. He
+could see over and beyond them as a man on a mountain top might look
+over a little spot on the plain beneath, which to those who dwelt in it
+was a great and splendid city.
+
+Even the knowledge that Enid was coming to the Abbey as the wife of its
+future master only drew just a single quiet sigh from his lips, only
+caused him to give one swift look back into the world that he had left,
+for after all this was only what he had expected, what he knew to be
+almost inevitable when he had first made up his mind to sacrifice his
+love to what he believed to be his duty.
+
+She had passed out of his existence and he had passed out of hers.
+Henceforth their life-circles might touch, but they could never
+intersect each other. Of course, they would meet again in the world, but
+only as friends, with perhaps a warmer hand-clasp for the sake of the
+days that were past and gone for ever, but that was all. He had but one
+mistress now, the Church. He was hers body and soul to the end, for he
+had sworn an allegiance which could not be broken save at the risk of
+his own soul.
+
+One morning, about a week after he had read the paragraph in the
+_Times_, he was out on the hillside, going from cottage to cottage of
+the hundred or so sprinkled round the high road across the hills, for it
+was his day to carry out the parochial duties of the fraternity. Every
+day one of the Fathers, as the villagers called them, made his rounds,
+starting soon after sunrise and sometimes not getting back till after
+dark, for Father Philip had no belief in the efficacy of fasting and
+meditation and prayer unless they were supplemented by a literal
+obedience to the commands of Him who went about doing good. When priest
+or deacon entered the Retreat, no matter what he was, rich or poor,
+wedded or single, he had to take the vows of poverty, obedience and
+chastity. When he left to go back into the world he was absolved from
+them, and was free to do what seemed best to his own soul.
+
+Vane had just left a little farmhouse upon which a great shame and
+sorrow had fallen. As too often happens in this district, the only
+daughter of the house, discontented with the quiet monotony of the farm
+life, had gone away to Kidderminster to work in a carpet factory. That
+was nearly eighteen months ago, and the night before she had come back
+ragged, hungry, and penniless, with a nameless baby in her arms.
+
+As he was walking along the road which led from this farmhouse to the
+next hamlet thinking of that vanished sister of his and of the poor
+imbecile in the French asylum, he turned a bend and saw a figure such as
+was very seldom seen among the villages approaching him about two
+hundred yards away. He stopped, almost as though he had received a blow
+on the chest. It was impossible for his eyes to mistake it, and with a
+swift sense, half of anger and half of disgust, he felt his heart begin
+to beat harder and quicker. It was Enid, Enid in the flesh.
+
+He had read of her marriage, and of her return with her husband with
+hardly an emotion. Day after day he had looked upon her future home, the
+home in which she would live as the wife of another man and the mother
+of his children, without a single pang of envy or regret--and now, at
+the first sight of her, his heart was beating, his pulses throbbing, and
+his nerves thrilling.
+
+True, every heart-beat, every pulse-throb, was a sin now, for she was a
+wedded wife--and meanwhile she was still coming towards him. In a few
+minutes more, since it was impossible for him to pass her as a stranger,
+her hand would be clasped in his, and he would be once more looking into
+those eyes which had so often looked up into his, hearing words of
+greeting from those lips which he had so often kissed, and whose kisses
+were now vowed to another man.
+
+There was a little lane, turning off to the left a few yards away. She
+had never seen him in his clerical dress, so she could not have
+recognised him yet. She would only take him for one of the clergy at
+the Retreat, he had only to turn down the lane--
+
+But no, his old manhood rose in revolt at the idea. That would be a
+flight, a mean, unworthy flight, unworthy alike of himself and the high
+resolves that he had taken. It was hard, almost impossible even to think
+of _her_ as a temptation, as an enemy to his soul, and yet, even if she
+were, as the leaping blood in his veins told him she might be, was it
+for him, the young soldier of the Cross, just buckling on his armour, to
+turn his back upon the first foe he met, even though that foe had once
+been his best beloved? He set his teeth and clenched his hands, and
+walked on past the entrance to the lane.
+
+A minute or two later their eyes met. A look of astonished recognition
+instantly leapt into hers. She shifted the silver handled walking stick
+into her left hand, and held out the other, daintily gauntleted in tan.
+
+"Why Vane!" she exclaimed, in a voice which was still as sweet and soft
+as ever, but which seemed to him to have a strange and somewhat
+discordant note in it, "you don't mean to say that it's you. I suppose,
+as a matter of fact, I ought to say Mr. Maxwell now--I mean now that
+you're a clergyman--but after all, those little things don't matter
+between such very old friends as we are, and I'm sure Reggie won't mind,
+in fact, I shan't let him if he does. Just fancy meeting you here! I
+suppose you're one of the Fathers--is that it?--at the little monastery
+up there. I've only been home a week, and last night I heard about this
+place, so I drove over to see it. But you haven't told me how you are
+yet, and how you like your--your new life."
+
+As a matter of fact, she had rattled all this off so quickly that Vane
+had not had time to reply to her greeting. He had taken her hand and,
+somewhat tremblingly, returned the frank, firm pressure. While she was
+speaking, he looked into her face and saw that she had already assumed
+the invisible but impenetrable mask in which the society woman plays her
+part in the tragic comedy of Vanity Fair. It was the same face and yet
+not the same, the same voice and yet a different one, and the sight and
+sound acted upon him like a powerful tonic. This was not the Enid he had
+loved, after all, at least, so it seemed to him. He had forgotten, or
+had never known that every woman is a born actress, and that even the
+brief training which Enid had already had was quite enough to enable her
+to say one thing, while thinking and feeling something entirely
+different.
+
+He smiled for the first time as their hands parted, and said, in a voice
+whose calm frankness surprised himself:
+
+"Good morning, Mrs. Garthorne!"--he absolutely couldn't trust himself to
+pronounce the word "Enid"--"Thanks, I'm very well, and, as you have
+guessed, I am located for the present up in the Retreat yonder. I
+confess I was a little startled to see you coming up the road, although
+I saw from the _Times_ the other day that you had come back from the
+Continent and were coming down here to the Abbey. Of course, you would
+hear of the Retreat sooner or later, and as it's a bit of a show place
+in its humble way, I had an idea that you would come over some time to
+see it."
+
+"Oh, but I suppose you don't allow anything so unholy as a woman to
+enter the sacred precincts, do you?"
+
+The artificial flippancy of her tone annoyed him perhaps even more than
+it shocked him. There was a sort of scoff in it which rightly or wrongly
+he took to himself. It seemed to say "You, of course, have done with
+women now and for ever; henceforth, you must only look upon us as
+temptations to sin, and so I can say what I like to you."
+
+"On the contrary," he replied, forcing a smile, "the Retreat is as open
+for visiting purposes to women as it is to men. It is nothing at all
+like a monastery, you know, although report says it is. It is simply a
+place where clergymen who have need of it can go and rest and think and
+pray in peace, and act as curates to the Superior who is also vicar of
+the parish. In fact, it has been known for mothers and sisters of the
+men to take rooms in the villages, and they are even invited to lunch."
+
+"Dear me," she said, "how very charming! Of course, you will come over
+to the Abbey and have dinner some evening, and sleep, and the next
+morning I shall expect you to let me drive you over here and invite me
+to lunch."
+
+"Of course, I shall be delighted," he said, purposely using the most
+conventional terms, "but I ought to tell you that there is a condition
+attached to our hospitality."
+
+"Oh, indeed, and what is that?" she said, glancing up at him with one of
+her old saucy looks. "I hope it isn't very stringent. Won't you turn and
+walk a little way with me and tell me all about it? There is my pony
+carriage coming up the hill after me. It will overtake us soon, and then
+I won't take up your time any longer, for I daresay you are going on
+some good work."
+
+Again the half-veiled flippancy of her tone jarred upon him and made him
+clench his teeth for an instant.
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," he replied, turning and walking with long,
+slow strides beside her. His blood was quite cool now, and a great
+weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
+
+"It is this way," he went on, speaking as calmly as though he were
+addressing an utter stranger. "You know, or perhaps you do not know yet,
+that, beautiful and almost arcadian as this place is, there is, I regret
+to say, a great deal of poverty and sorrow, and, I am afraid, sin too,
+and it is part of our duty at the Retreat to seek this out and do what
+we can to relieve it; but there is much of that kind of work which women
+can do infinitely better than men, and therefore, when a woman enters
+our gates as our guest, we ask her to do what she can to help us."
+
+"I see," she said, more softly and more naturally than she had spoken
+before. "It is a very just and a very good condition, and I shall do my
+best to fulfil it; indeed, as I suppose I shall some day be Lady of the
+Manor here, it will be my duty to do it."
+
+"I am very glad to hear you say so," he said, with a touch of warmth in
+his tone, "very glad. And if you like you can begin at once. You see
+that little farmhouse up the road yonder. Well, there is not only
+sorrow, but sin and shame as well in that house. The old people are most
+respectable, and they were once fairly comfortably off before the
+agricultural depression ruined them. They are wretchedly poor now, but
+they struggle on somehow. About eighteen months ago their daughter went
+off to Kidderminster to work in the mills. She said she would get good
+wages and send some of them home every week. For some months she did
+send them a few shillings, and then what is unfortunately only too
+common about here happened. For a long time they lost sight of her, and
+last night she came back, starving, with a baby and no husband."
+
+He said this in a perfectly passionless and impersonal tone, just as a
+doctor might describe the symptoms of a disease. "If you care to, you
+can do a great deal of good there," he went on. "I have just been there.
+If you like I will take you in and introduce you."
+
+She stopped and hesitated for a moment. It struck her as such an utter
+reversal of their former relationships, that it seemed almost to
+obliterate the line which lies between the sublime and the ridiculous.
+Then she moved forward again, saying, in her own old natural voice:
+
+"Thank you, Vane. I have often wondered since what sort of circumstances
+we should meet under again, but I never thought of anything like this.
+Yes, I will come, and if there is anything I can do I will do it."
+
+"I thought you would," he said quietly, as he strode along beside her
+towards the farmhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+After introducing Enid to the sorrow-stricken family, Vane took his
+leave of her to go about his work. He met the pony-cart coming up the
+hill, and told the footman to wait for his mistress outside the
+farmhouse. Then he went on to the other hamlet, doing his work just as
+well and conscientiously as ever, and yet all the while thinking many
+thoughts which had very little connection with it.
+
+He got back to the Retreat just in time for supper, and when the meal
+was over he asked Father Philip for the favour of half an hour's
+conversation. The request was, of course, immediately granted, and as
+soon as he was alone with the old man, who was wise alike in the things
+of the world and in those of the spirit, he told him, not as penitent to
+confessor, but rather as pupil to teacher, the whole story of his
+meeting and conversation with Enid, not omitting the slightest detail
+that his memory held, from the first thrill of emotion that he had
+experienced on seeing her to the last word he had spoken to her on
+leaving the farmhouse.
+
+Father Philip was silent for some time after he had finished his story,
+then, leaning back in his deep armchair, he looked at Vane, who was
+still walking slowly up and down the little room, and said in a quiet,
+matter-of-fact voice:
+
+"I'm very glad, Maxwell, that you've told me this. As I have told you
+before, I have listened to a good many life-histories in this room, but
+I must admit that yours is one of the strangest and most difficult of
+them. The fact of Miss Raleigh having married the son of the lord of the
+manor here, and having come down while you are here, naturally makes it
+more difficult still. But then, you know, my dear fellow, the greater
+the difficulty and the danger of the strife the greater the honour and
+the reward of victory.
+
+"For my own part I think that your meeting with her in the road down
+yonder, if not ordered by Providence, may, with all reverence, be called
+providential. Those emotions which you experienced on first seeing her,
+and for which you were inclined to reproach yourself, were after all
+perfectly human, and therefore natural and pardonable. I needn't tell
+you now that I entirely disagree with those who consider that a man
+should cease to be a man when he becomes a clergyman. You are young, and
+you are made of flesh and blood. You were once very much in love with
+this young lady"--there was a slight, almost imperceptible emphasis upon
+the "once" which somehow made Vane wince--"you might have married her,
+but you forewent that happiness in obedience to a conviction which would
+have done honour to the best of us. You would have been either more or
+less than human if your heart had not beaten a little harder and your
+blood had not flowed a little faster when you met her unexpectedly like
+that in a country road.
+
+"But," he went on, sitting up in his chair and speaking with a little
+more emphasis, "the very fact that you so quickly discovered such a
+decided change in her, and that that change, moreover, struck you as
+being one for the worse, is to my mind a distinct proof that your paths
+in life have already diverged very widely."
+
+"And yet, Father Philip," said Vane, as the old man paused and looked up
+at him, "you can hardly say, surely, that it was a good thing for me to
+discover that change. I can tell you honestly that it was a very sad one
+for me."
+
+"Possibly," said Father Philip, "and, without intending the slightest
+disrespect to Mrs. Garthorne, I still say that it was a good thing for
+you to discover it."
+
+"But why, Father Philip? How can it be a good thing for a man to
+discover a change for the worse in a woman whom he has grown up with
+from boy and girl, whom he has loved, and who has been to him the ideal
+of all that was good and lovable on earth?"
+
+"My dear Maxwell, what you have just said convinces me that you have
+learnt or are in course of learning one of the most valuable lessons
+that experience can teach you. Remember that a man can only see with his
+own eyes, that he can only judge from his own perceptions. I do not
+agree with you in thinking that the Mrs. Garthorne of the present
+differs so greatly from the Miss Raleigh of the past. Different in a
+certain degree, of course, she must be. She was a girl then, living
+under the protection of her father's roof. She is a wife now, with a
+home of her own, with new cares, new responsibilities, new prospects. In
+fact, the whole world has changed for her, and therefore it would be
+very strange if she had not changed too. But that was not the change you
+saw. I would rather believe that that was in yourself, that you are a
+different man, not that she is a different woman."
+
+"I think I see what you mean," said Vane, seating himself on the edge
+of an old oak table in the middle of the room. "You mean that while she
+has remained the same or nearly so my point of view has altered. I see
+her in a different perspective, and through a different atmosphere."
+
+"Exactly," replied Father Philip. "It is both more reasonable and more
+charitable to believe that you have changed for the better, and not she
+for the worse."
+
+"God grant that it may be so," said Vane, slipping off the table and
+beginning his walk again. "If it is so, then at least my work has not
+been without some result, and some of my prayers have been granted. But
+now, Father Philip, I want your advice. What shall I do? Shall I stay
+here and meet her just as an old friend? Shall I accept her invitation
+over to the Abbey? Shall I bring her here and introduce her to you, so
+that you may tell her what she can do for our people? Shall I trust
+myself to this sort of intercourse with her, or, as my time here is
+nearly up, shall I go away?"
+
+"As for trusting yourself, Maxwell," said Father Philip slowly, "that is
+a question I cannot answer. You must ask that of your own soul, and I
+will pray and you must pray that it shall answer you with an honest
+'Yes.' I don't believe that the answer will be anything else. But if it
+is, then by all means go, go to the first work that your hand finds to
+do. Go and join your friend Ernshaw in his mission under Southey. But if
+it is 'Yes,' as I hope and believe it will be, then stop until it is
+time for you to take your priest's orders. Visit the Abbey, bring Mrs.
+Garthorne here, interest her in the good work that you have already, I
+hope, made her begin by taking her to the Clellens. Prove to her and her
+husband, and, most important of all, to yourself, that you did not take
+that resolve of yours lightly or in vain, that, in short, you are one
+of those who can, as Tennyson says, 'rise on stepping-stones of their
+dead selves to higher things.'
+
+"That, Maxwell, is the best advice I can give you. When you go to your
+room you will, of course, ask for guidance from the Source which cannot
+err, and I will add my prayers to yours that it may be given you."
+
+The next day a mounted footman brought a note from Garthorne to Vane
+saying that his wife had told him of her meeting with him, and also
+expressing his pleasure at finding that he was in the neighbourhood, and
+asking him to come over to dine and sleep at the Abbey the next evening.
+If that evening would suit him he had only to tell the messenger, and a
+dog-cart would be sent for him, as the distance by road over the Bewdley
+Bridge was considerably over seven miles.
+
+He had been awake nearly all night. In fact, he had spent the greater
+part of it on his knees questioning his own soul and seeking that advice
+which Father Philip had advised him to seek, and when the early morning
+service in the little chapel was over he honestly believed that he had
+found it. He went back into his room, after telling the man to put his
+horse in the stable, and go to what was stilled called the buttery and
+get a glass of beer, and wrote a note thanking Garthorne for his
+invitation, and accepting it for the following night.
+
+If Vane had been told a couple of years before that he would visit Enid
+and her husband as an ordinary guest, that he would sit opposite to her
+at table and hear her address another man as "dear" in the commonplace
+of marital conversation, that he would see her exchange with another man
+those little half-endearments which are not the least of the charms of
+the first few married years, and that he would be able to look upon all
+this at least with grave eyes and unmoved features, he would simply have
+laughed at the idea as something too ridiculous ever to come within the
+bounds of possibility.
+
+Yet, to the outward view, that was exactly what happened during his stay
+at Garthorne Abbey. He seemed to see Enid through some impalpable and
+yet impenetrable medium. He could see her as he always had seen her; but
+to touch her, to put his hand upon her, even to dream of one of those
+caresses which such a short time ago had been as common as hand-shakes
+between them, was every whit as impossible as the present condition of
+things would have seemed to him then.
+
+There were a few other people to dinner. None of them knew anything of
+his previous relationship to Enid, and their presence naturally, and
+perhaps fortunately, kept the conversation away from the things of the
+past; but the Fates had put him in full view of Enid at the table, and,
+do what he would, he could not keep his eyes from straying back again
+and again to that perfect and once well-beloved face, any more than he
+could keep his ears from listening to that voice which had once been the
+sweetest of music for him, rather than to the general conversation in
+which it was his social duty to take a part.
+
+It was a sore trial to the fortitude and self-control of a man who had
+loved as long and as dearly as he had done, but the strength which his
+long vigils away among the hills had given him did not desert him, and
+he came through it outwardly calm and triumphant, however deeply the
+iron was entering into his soul the while. It was one of those occasions
+on which such a man as he would take refuge from spiritual torment in
+intellectual activity, and neither Enid nor her husband had ever heard
+him talk so brilliantly and withal so lightly and good-humouredly as he
+did that night.
+
+One of the guests was the vicar of Bedminster; and a Canon of Worcester,
+an old friend of Sir Reginald's, happened to be staying in the house.
+They were both High Churchmen, the Canon perhaps a trifle "higher" than
+the Vicar, and they were both delighted with him. The Canon remembered
+his ordination at Worcester, and during the conversation, which had now
+turned upon the relationship between the Church and the People, he said:
+
+"Well, Maxwell, I will say frankly if you can preach as well as you can
+talk, and if your doctrine is as sound as your opinion on things in
+general seems to be, the Church will be none the poorer when you are
+priested. I think I shall ask the Bishop to let you preach the Sunday
+after you take full orders. I suppose your Father Superior up there
+would let you come, wouldn't he?
+
+"A grand man, that Father Philip, by the way," he went on, looking round
+the table. "In his quiet, unostentatious way, in his little room up
+there in the old house of Our Lady of Rest, as they used to call it, he
+has done more real work for the Church than, I am afraid, a good many of
+us have done with all our preaching in churches and cathedrals."
+
+"That," said Enid, "would be altogether delightful. Of course, we should
+all come and hear your Reverence," she went on, with a half ironical nod
+towards Vane. "You know, Canon, Mr. Maxwell and I are quite old friends.
+In fact, we came home from India as children in the same ship, didn't
+we, Reggie?" she added, with another laughing nod, this time at her
+husband, "and I am sure your Reverence would have no more interested
+listener than I should be."
+
+"It is quite possible, Mrs. Garthorne," Vane replied in something like
+the same tone, "that you might be more interested than pleased."
+
+"Indeed," said Enid, "and may I ask why?"
+
+There was an immediate silence round the table, everybody wondering what
+his answer would be.
+
+"Because," he replied, with a change of tone so swift as to be almost
+startling, "as soon as I take full Orders, it is my purpose, with God's
+help and under Father Philip's advice, to become a missionary, not a
+missionary to the heathen, as we are pleased to call them, or to the
+infinitely more degraded heathen of our own country, but to such people
+as you, you who are really living in sin without knowing it. Has it ever
+struck you, Canon, how great a work the Church has left undone in what
+are called the upper ranks of Society? You know the vast majority of
+them really and honestly believe themselves to be good Christians, and
+yet, as far as practical obedience to the teaching of Christ goes, they
+are no more Christians than an unconverted Hottentot is."
+
+"Oh--er--ah--yes," replied the Canon rather awkwardly, and in the midst
+of a long silence. "Of course, I quite understand you and--er--by the
+way, do you intend to apply for any preferment?"
+
+"I shall get a curacy with Ernshaw if I can in the East End to begin
+with, or, perhaps, with Father Baldwin in Kensington," said Vane,
+unable, like Enid and her husband and one or two others, to repress a
+faint smile at the Canon's not very skilful change of subject. "But I
+shall not attempt to get a living or anything of that sort. You see, I
+have some private means, and so I shall be in the happy position of
+being able to do my work without pay. Besides, while there is such an
+amount of poverty in the lower ranks of the Church, I think it is little
+less than sinful for a man who can live without it to take a stipend
+which, at least, might be bread and butter to a man who has nothing."
+
+There was a rather awkward pause after this speech, as everyone at the
+table save Vane knew perfectly well that both the Vicar and the Canon
+had considerable private means in addition to the substantial stipends
+they drew from their clerical offices. At length Enid looked across at
+her husband with a wicked twinkle in her eye, and put an end to the
+situation by rising. As soon as the ladies were gone, Garthorne sent the
+wine round and adroitly turned the conversation back again to general
+subjects. When they went into the drawing-room, a discussion on the
+prospects of the season was in full swing, and from motives of prudence,
+this, varied with a little music and singing, was kept up till the
+ladies retired for the night.
+
+When Enid shook hands with Vane they happened to be out of earshot of
+the others, and as she returned his clasp with the same old frank
+pressure, she said in a low tone:
+
+"You were splendid to-night, Vane, and you will be more splendid still
+in the pulpit, only they'll never let you preach in the Cathedral after
+that. Well, good-night. After all, I was wrong and you were right. You
+have chosen the better part. God bless you and be with you, Vane.
+Good-night!"
+
+As their eyes met he fancied that he saw a faint mist in hers. Then her
+long lashes fell; she turned her head away and the next moment she was
+gone.
+
+When the good-nights had been said, Garthorne took his male guests into
+the smoking-room for whisky and soda and cigars. Vane laughingly
+declined, and asked permission to light a pipe.
+
+"No, thanks," he said, with perfect good temper, although the offer was
+not in the best of taste. "I've not forgotten the last brandy and soda I
+had with you at Oxford."
+
+When bed-time came, Garthorne took Vane up to his room. As his host said
+"good-night," Vane followed him to the door and watched him as he went
+along the panelled corridor and down the great staircase to next floor,
+on which the Bride-chamber of the Abbey was situated. Then he went in
+and locked his door.
+
+He sat down in an easy chair in the corner of the room and covered his
+face with his hands. After all, had he done the right thing in accepting
+Garthorne's invitation? Had he not over-estimated his strength? As he
+sat there, he felt that he had thrown himself unnecessarily into a life
+and death conflict. He encountered temptations every day of his life,
+although to the ordinary individual it might seem that the life which he
+and his companions led must be singularly devoid of temptation, yet here
+he was confronted with a trial which he could have avoided. Ought he to
+have avoided it?
+
+Then there came to his mind the remembrance of a passage in one of the
+sermons which Father Philip had once preached to the little community in
+the Retreat. The words seemed particularly appropriate to Vane at the
+time, and he made a note of them in a little memorandum book which he
+always carried with him for the purpose of writing down any sentences
+which he heard or read which might strengthen him in the life which he
+had chosen for himself. He took the book from his pocket and read:
+
+"The ideal life is never one of rigid asceticism any more than it is one
+of voluptuous self-indulgence; it is an equilibrium of forces, a vital
+harmony, a constant symphony, in the performance of which all
+capabilities in all phases of expression are called into vital but never
+into hysterical activity. The true peace is so heroic that it only
+follows crucifixion of all that was once regarded as essential to human
+happiness."
+
+He sat for a moment after he had read and re-read this passage. Then he
+went to the mirror over the mantel-piece, and drew back shocked and
+terrified at the sudden change which had come over his features. They
+reminded him strongly of the features he had seen in the glass that
+other night in Warwick Gardens. Then he turned away and threw himself on
+his knees by the bed and groaned aloud in the bitterness of his soul:
+
+"Oh, God! it is too heavy for me! Not by my strength but by Thine alone
+can I bear it."
+
+It was the only prayer he uttered. In fact, they were the only words he
+could speak; but when he rose from the bedside he felt relieved, so far
+relieved that he took from his pocket a well-worn copy of Thomas a
+Kempis's "Imitation," and sat and read until almost daybreak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+It was the morning of Trinity Sunday, and Worcester Cathedral was
+crowded by a congregation which, if it had been an audience in an
+unconsecrated building, could have been justly described as brilliant.
+
+Trinity Sunday is usually what may, without irreverence, be called more
+or less of a show Sunday in all churches. To-day all the clerical light
+and learning of the diocese was gathered together in the grand old
+Cathedral. The various portions of the service were to be conducted by
+clergy of high rank and notable social position. No one under the rank
+of a Canon, at least, would take any part in the proceedings.
+
+The first lesson would be read by the Vicar of Bedminster, who was also
+a Canon of the Cathedral, and the second by Canon Thornton-Moore, whose
+acquaintance the reader has already made at Garthorne Abbey. Both of
+them were men of dignified presence, and both possessed good voices and
+a careful elocutionary training.
+
+The Epistle and Gospel would be read by the Archdeacon and the Dean.
+Organ and choir were tuned to a perfection of harmony. And finally the
+Bishop would preach. After that would come the administration of the
+Sacrament to those who had not received it at the early service, for
+Trinity Sunday is accredited one of those three days on which, at least,
+the faithful member of the Anglican Church shall communicate. Then, the
+communion over, the Bishop would hold an Ordination, in consideration of
+which he had thoughtfully and thankfully curtailed his eloquence in the
+pulpit.
+
+At this ordination Mark Ernshaw, who had already won fame both as an
+earnest and utterly self-sacrificing missionary, in the moral and
+spiritual wilds of East and South London, and also as a preacher who
+could fill any West End Church to suffocation, was to be admitted to
+full orders in company with his friend, Vane Maxwell, who was so far
+unknown to fame save for the fact that he was locally known as one of
+the dwellers in the Retreat among the hills, and, therefore, as one who
+had sat at the feet of the far-famed Father Philip, who himself had
+to-day made one of his rare appearances in the world, and was occupying
+one of the Canons' stalls in the chancel.
+
+All the Clergy at the Retreat were popularly supposed to have "a past"
+of some sort, and as Vane had come from there and was also credited with
+being young and exceedingly good-looking--some of the lady visitors to
+the Retreat had described him as possessing "an almost saintlike beauty,
+my dear"--he also was a focus of interest. Moreover, he was known to
+have taken a brilliant degree at Oxford, and to have had equally
+brilliant worldly prospects which he had suddenly and unaccountably
+relinquished to go into the Church.
+
+Thus it came to pass that a very different and much more numerous
+congregation witnessed this ceremonial than the one which had taken
+place at the same altar rails a little more than a twelvemonth before.
+
+Of course, all the party from the Abbey were present, including Sir
+Reginald, who had come down for a few days from town. Enid and her
+husband had communicated. It was their first communion since their
+marriage. Then they had gone back to their places to await the
+ordination.
+
+In one of the front rows of the transept seats there was a tall,
+well-dressed girl, very pretty, with dark, deep, serious eyes which, in
+the intervals of the service she had several times raised and turned on
+Enid and her husband, who were sitting on the same side towards the
+front, in the body of the Cathedral. She was the very last person in the
+world, saving only, perhaps, Carol herself, whom Garthorne would have
+wished to see just then and there, and as soon as he had made sure that
+Dora Murray really was sitting within a few yards of him he began to be
+haunted by ugly fears of blackmail and exposure--which showed how very
+little he had learnt of Dora's character during the time that Carol had
+shared the flat with her.
+
+But Dora's thoughts were very different, for they were all of fear,
+mingled with something like horror. She looked at the sweet-faced girl
+sitting beside Reginald Garthorne, and thought of the ruin and
+desolation that would fall upon her young life, with all its brilliant
+outward promise, if she only knew what she could have told her. She
+looked at her husband and wondered what all these good people--most of
+whom would have given almost anything for an invitation to his
+home--what these grave-faced, decorous clergy, too, would think if they
+could see him as she had seen him only a few months before. There was
+Sir Arthur Maxwell, too, sitting a little farther on, and beside him Sir
+Godfrey and Lady Raleigh, though, of course, she did not know them, but
+she guessed who they were, and close to Sir Arthur sat Sir Reginald, his
+host for the time being.
+
+The whole of the Abbey party had communicated together. What would
+happen if she were to go to Sir Arthur after the service, and tell him
+what Carol had told her, if he were to learn that he had been kneeling
+at the altar rails beside the betrayer of his wife and the dishonourer
+of his name?
+
+When she had seen Sir Reginald rise from his seat and go with the rest
+of the party across the centre transept to the chancel, she needed all
+her self-control to shut her teeth and clench her hands and prevent
+herself from leaving her seat and accusing him of his infamy before
+clergy and congregation. She thought thankfully how good a thing it was
+that Carol, with her fierce impetuosity and sense of bitter wrong, was
+not there too. There was no telling what disaster might have happened,
+how many lives might have been wrecked by the words which she might have
+flung out at him, red-hot from her angry heart.
+
+In her way Dora was a really religious girl, as many of her class are.
+So religious, indeed, that she would not have dared to have approached
+the altar herself; because she knew that for her, wedded as she was to
+the pleasant careless life she led, repentance and reform were quite out
+of the question.
+
+She saw no incongruity at all in this. She went to church regularly in
+London, offered up as simple and as earnest prayers as anyone; lifted up
+her beautiful voice in the hymns and psalms and responses in honest
+forgetfulness of the things of yesterday and to-morrow, and, for the
+time being at least, took the lessons of the sermon to heart with a
+simple faith which many of her respectable sisters in the congregation
+were far from feeling.
+
+In short, though the circumstances were different, she was very much in
+the position of the average respectable, well-to-do church-going
+Christian who will strive all the week, often by quite questionable
+methods, to lay up for himself and his wife and family treasures upon
+earth, and then on Sunday go to church and listen with the most perfect
+honesty and the most undisturbed equanimity to the reading of the Sermon
+on the Mount.
+
+But when she saw Sir Reginald go with his son and his daughter-in-law,
+with her parents and Vane's father up through the chancel where Vane was
+sitting, her heart turned sick in her breast. The sacrilege, the
+blasphemy of it all seemed horrible beyond belief. Again and again the
+words rose to her lips. Again and again an almost irresistible impulse
+impelled her to get up, and she was only saved from doing what all that
+was best in her nature urged her to do, by the knowledge that, after
+all, she might only be expelled from the Cathedral by the Vergers, and
+perhaps prosecuted afterwards for brawling. Then her real story would
+come out.
+
+She was visiting her parents who lived in Worcester, and who believed
+that she was conducting a little millinery business in London. She had
+great natural skill in designing head-gear--her own hat, for instance,
+had been gazed on by many an envious eye since the service began--and
+she would have bitten her tongue through, rather than say a word which
+would have undeceived them. And so for this reason as well she held her
+peace.
+
+Then she had heard the sonorous voice of the officiating priest rolling
+down the chancel:
+
+     "Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in
+     love and charity with your neighbours and intend to lead a new
+     life, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth
+     in His holy way, draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament
+     to your comfort."
+
+Then came the general confession, and as she followed it in her
+prayer-book she thought of that unconfessed, though, perhaps, not
+unrepented sin of which she alone, save Sir Reginald, in all that great
+congregation knew. How could this man kneel there and say these solemn
+words, before he had confessed his sin to the man he had wronged, to the
+husband from whom he had stolen a wife, to the son he had deprived of a
+mother? What horrible mockery and blasphemy it all was! Surely some day
+some terrible retribution must fall on him for this.
+
+After the Eucharist followed, as usual on such occasions, the Ordination
+Service. She had never seen Vane before, but when some of the
+congregation had left after the Communion Service, she left her seat and
+took a vacant one in front of the chancel, and then, even at some
+distance, she recognised him immediately by his likeness to Carol. It
+seemed to her that she had never seen anything so beautiful in human
+shape when he rose in his surplice and stole and hood to take his place
+before the Bishop at the altar-rail. And yet how different must her
+thoughts have been from Enid's, as they both looked upon the kneeling
+figure and listened to the words which were the actual fulfilment of the
+vow that he had taken to take up his cross and follow Him who said:
+"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot
+be my disciple."
+
+Then, in due course, came the fateful words, more full of fate, so far
+as they concerned Vane, than any who knew him in the congregation had
+any idea of.
+
+"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the
+Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands
+from God. Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins
+thou dost retain they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of
+the word of God and of his Holy Sacraments; in the name of the Father
+and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen!"
+
+"Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins thou
+dost retain, they are retained!"
+
+Saving only Vane himself, these words had a deeper meaning for Dora, the
+Magdalen, the sinner, and the outcast, than they had for anyone else in
+the congregation, and in one sense they meant even more to her than they
+could do to him. When he rose from his knees before the altar rails, he
+would rise invested, as she believed, by the authority of God through
+the Church, with a power infinitely greater than that of any earthly
+judge. It was his to forgive or retain, his to pardon or to damn. That,
+to her simple reasoning, was the absolute meaning of the words as the
+Bishop had spoken them.
+
+Some day it might happen that Carol would be confronted with the man
+whom she believed to be her father. What if she were to bring Vane face
+to face with him and he knew him for what he was, what would he do, not
+as man, but as priest--forgive or retain, absolve or damn?
+
+When the ordination service was over and the congregation was moving out
+of the Cathedral, Sir Arthur caught sight of Dora for the first time.
+They were only a few feet apart, and recognition was inevitable. She
+looked at him as though she had never seen him before, although she had
+been present at more than one interview between him and Carol at
+Melville Gardens, but Sir Arthur at once edged his way towards her,
+shook hands in that decorous fashion which is usual among departing
+congregations, and said, in an equally decorous whisper:
+
+"Good morning, Miss Murray! I hope you have not come here by accident,
+and that you will be able to give me some news of Carol. We have looked
+for you everywhere."
+
+"Except perhaps in the right place," she murmured, putting her hand into
+his, "and if you had found us I don't think it would have been of any
+use. Carol's mind was quite made up. My address is 15, Stonebridge
+Street, if you wish to write to me. Good morning."
+
+And then they parted, he to go his way and she to go hers, and each with
+an infinite pity for the other, and yet with what different reasons? It
+was only a chance meeting, the accidental crossing of two widely
+diverging life-paths; only one of those instances in which romance
+delights to mock the commonplace, and yet how much it meant--and how
+much might it mean when the future had become the present.
+
+Fortunately, Garthorne and Enid had been pressing on in front, and so he
+had not noticed the meeting between Sir Arthur and Dora, whereby the
+second possible catastrophe of the day was averted.
+
+Sir Arthur was one of the house-party at the Abbey, for he and Sir
+Reginald had been to a certain extent colleagues in India, and had kept
+up their acquaintance, and now that Sir Reginald's son had married the
+girl whom Sir Arthur had always looked upon as a prospective
+daughter-in-law, the intimacy had become somewhat closer. Sir Arthur had
+said frankly at the first that he thought Vane had done an exceedingly
+foolish thing; but since he had done it and meant to stick to it, there
+was an end of the matter, and if Vane couldn't or wouldn't marry Enid,
+he would, after all, rather see her the wife of his old friend's son
+than anybody else's. He had, therefore, willingly accepted Sir
+Reginald's invitation to spend a few days at the Abbey and witness his
+son's admission to the full orders of the priesthood.
+
+Vane and Ernshaw, after exchanging greetings and receiving
+congratulations, declined Sir Reginald's invitation to dine and sleep at
+the Abbey, and went straight back to the Retreat with Father Philip.
+
+It happened that, somewhat late that night after their guests had gone
+to bed, Reginald Garthorne had a couple of rather important letters to
+write, and sat up to get them finished. When he had sealed and stamped
+them, he took them to the post-box in the hall. The postman's lock-up
+bag was standing on the hall table, and, as he knew there wouldn't be
+any more letters that night, he thought he might as well put what there
+were there into the bag and lock it with his own key. He took them out
+in a handful, but before he could put them into the bag they slipped and
+scattered on to the table. He bent down to gather them up, and there,
+right under his eyes, was an envelope addressed in Sir Arthur Maxwell's
+handwriting to Miss Dora Murray, 15 Stonebridge Street, Worcester. He
+would have given a thousand pounds to know what that thin paper cover
+concealed. The thought half entered his mind to take it away and steam
+it, read the letter, and then put it back again; but he was not without
+his own notions of honour, and he dismissed the thought before it was
+fully formed. He contented himself with taking out his pencil and
+copying the address, and as he put the letters into the bag and locked
+it he said to himself:
+
+"Well, I was wondering at service what in the name of all that's unlucky
+brought that girl down here just now, and I suppose I shall have to find
+out. But what the deuce does the old man want writing to her? A nice
+thing if they were to discover the lost Miss Carol and present her to
+the world as Vane's half-sister, and then the rest of the story came
+out. What an almighty fool I was to do that. If I'd only known that Enid
+really would have me--but it's no use grizzling over that. I shall have
+to find out what that young woman wants down in this part of the world,
+and why Sir Arthur should be writing to her, that's quite certain."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Among Garthorne's letters the next morning there chanced to be one from
+his solicitor in Worcester, and so this made an excellent excuse for him
+to get away for the day. Enid was going to drive Sir Arthur and Sir
+Reginald over to the Retreat, so he ordered the dogcart to take him to
+Kidderminster, whence he took train for Worcester.
+
+He knew enough of Dora's circumstances with regard to her parents to
+recognise the imprudence of calling upon her without notice, and so he
+lunched at the Mitre Hotel, and sent a messenger with a note asking her
+to meet him at three o'clock on the River Walk. The messenger was
+instructed to wait for an answer if Miss Murray was in.
+
+Miss Murray was in, and when she read the note her first notion was that
+Garthorne had by some means got an inkling of the truth, or, at the
+least, had discovered that she was in communication with Sir Arthur
+Maxwell and wished to know the reason. She made up her mind at once to
+hold her tongue on both subjects, but at the same time, she felt that it
+would hardly be wise to refuse to meet him. It must also be admitted
+that she also was possessed by a pardonable, because feminine, curiosity
+as to what he wanted with her. She felt, however, that in such a place
+as Worcester it would be most imprudent for her to meet a man so well
+known in the County as Reginald Garthorne on one of the public
+thoroughfares, and so she wrote her answer as follows:--
+
+     "DEAR MR. GARTHORNE,
+
+     "I have no idea why you should wish to see me, and I do not think
+     that it would be prudent to meet you as you suggest. You know how I
+     am situated here, and so I think it would be best, if you really
+     must speak to me, as you say, for you to come and see me here, not
+     under your own name, of course, as that is much too well known. I
+     would therefore suggest that you should call yourself Mr. Johnson,
+     and I will say that you are a representative of one of the big
+     millinery houses in London, and that you have come to see me on
+     business. I shall wait in for you till three.
+
+     "Yours sincerely,
+     "DORA MURRAY."
+
+Garthorne saw the wisdom of this suggestion, and "Mr. Johnson" announced
+himself at half past two. Dora received him alone in a little back
+sitting-room, but his reception was not altogether encouraging, for when
+he held out his hand and said "Good afternoon, Dora!" she flushed a
+little, and affecting not to see his hand, she said:
+
+"Miss Murray, if you please, Mr. Garthorne, now and for the future. You
+seem to have forgotten that, for me, at least, Worcester is not London."
+
+He was so completely taken aback by this utterly unexpected speech, as
+well as by the unwonted tone in which it was spoken, that his
+outstretched hand dropped to his side somewhat limply, and he felt
+himself straightening up and staring at her in blank astonishment.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Murray," he said, in a tone which sounded a
+great deal more awkward than he meant it to do. "Of course, I was quite
+wrong; I ought not to have forgotten."
+
+"There is no necessity for an apology," she said, more distantly than
+before. "Will you sit down? You want to see me about something, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes," he said, sitting down and fingering the brim of his hat somewhat
+nervously. "Yes, that is what I have come over to Worcester for. In
+fact, I have been wanting to see you for some time. In the first place,
+I had a rather extraordinary letter from Carol some time ago, sending
+back some money which I, of course, can't accept, so I've brought it
+with me to ask you to take it and use it in any way that you think fit."
+
+"You mean, of course, in charity?" said Dora, looking him straight in
+the eyes. "You wouldn't insult me by meaning it in any other way."
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not," he said, more awkwardly than before, and
+wondering what on earth had produced this extraordinary change in her
+manner. "I hope you know me well enough to believe me quite incapable of
+such a thing."
+
+"If you only knew how well I know you!" thought Dora, "I wonder what
+you'd think?"
+
+But she said aloud, and rather more kindly than before:
+
+"You must forgive me, Mr. Garthorne, I spoke rather hastily then. I
+quite see what you mean. It's very good of you, and I'm sure that if
+Carol were here she would tell me to take the money and use it that
+way--so I will."
+
+"Thank you very much, Miss Murray," he replied, taking an envelope out
+of his pocket-book. "There are the notes and postal orders exactly as
+she sent them to me. And now, may I ask where she is?"
+
+"I can't answer that, Mr. Garthorne, because I don't know. The night
+that she sent you that money back she made the acquaintance of a very
+nice fellow who is something more than a millionaire, and since then
+they've been taking a sort of irregular honeymoon round the world. The
+last letter I had from her was from Sydney. She seems very jolly and
+enjoying herself immensely."
+
+"Glad to hear it," said Garthorne, speaking the thing which was not
+altogether true. "She's a jolly girl, and deserves the best of
+luck--which she seems to have got. And the millionaire----?"
+
+Dora shook her head, and said quietly but decisively.
+
+"No, Mr. Garthorne, I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about him. It
+would be a breach of confidence if I did, and so I'm sure you won't ask
+for it. Do you want to ask me about anything else?"
+
+"Yes," he said, hesitatingly, "I do." There was a little pause, during
+which they looked at each other, he enquiringly and she absolutely
+impassive. Then he went on: "Of course, you saw us in the Cathedral
+yesterday, and I think you know Sir Arthur Maxwell personally. You met
+him once or twice when he went to call on Carol at Melville Gardens."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then there was another pause, and, as Garthorne didn't seem able to find
+anything to say, Dora went on speaking very quietly, but with a curious
+note of restraint in her voice which puzzled him considerably.
+
+"I do know Sir Arthur, and I tried hard to persuade Carol to do what he
+wanted her to do, although, all the same, I think I should have done as
+she did if I had been her. I don't know whether you saw Sir Arthur speak
+to me in the Cathedral as we were coming out, but he did. I have had a
+letter from him this morning, and he is coming to see me."
+
+"Of course, you are not going to say anything----"
+
+"No, sir, I am not," said Dora, rising from her chair white to the lips
+and with an ominous glitter in her eyes. She took up the envelope which
+Garthorne had laid on the table, and tossed it at him. "You know me for
+what I am in London, and it seems that you only look upon me as an
+animal to be hired for the amusement of people like you, not as a woman
+who still has her notions of honour. That is an insult which I cannot
+pardon. You behaved well, as things go, to Carol, but you have now shown
+me that, whatever you are in name and family, you are in yourself an
+unspeakable cad. You came here thinking that I was going to blackmail
+you because I happened to know something about you which you would not
+like your wife to know. If you only knew what I could tell you----"
+
+And then she checked herself, and after a little pause, she pointed to
+the door and said:
+
+"You have got your money, Mr. Garthorne, and there is the door. You will
+oblige me by leaving the house as soon as possible."
+
+"But really, Miss Murray----" he began, as he rose, not a little
+bewildered, from his chair.
+
+"Stop!" she said. "In mercy to yourself and your wife, stop! There is
+the door; go, and remember that from now we are strangers, and if ever
+you meet Carol again--no, I won't say that. God grant that you never
+may see her again, for if you do----"
+
+"Well, and suppose I do, Miss Murray, what then?" he interrupted, with
+his hand on the handle of the door. He had never heard such words from
+the lips of either man or woman before, and that personal vanity which
+is a characteristic even of the worst of men was grievously outraged.
+
+"Never mind what I mean," she said, cutting him short again. "I have
+said all that I am going to say except this--if ever you meet Carol
+again, for her sake and yours, for your wife's and your children's when
+they come, _don't see her_. Now go!"
+
+There was a something in her voice and in her manner which said even
+more than her lips had done. Something which not only struck him dumb
+for the time being, but which also drove home into his soul a conviction
+that this girl, outcast and social pariah as she was, not only held his
+fate in her hands, but that she possessed some unknown power over his
+destiny, that she knew something which, if spoken, might blast the
+bright promise of his life and overwhelm him in irretrievable ruin.
+
+She had called him a cad, and as his thoughts flew back to that morning
+in Vane Maxwell's rooms at Oxford, a pang of self-conviction told him
+that she had spoken justly. He felt, too, that he was hopelessly in the
+wrong, that by his suggestion he had sorely insulted her, and that in
+exchange for his insult she had given him mercy. He would have given
+anything to know the real meaning of her words, and yet he dare not even
+ask her.
+
+He looked round at her once and saw her, standing rigid and impassive
+waiting to be relieved of his presence. His thoughts went back a few
+months to the times when those little dinners of four had been so
+pleasant, and when this girl, who was now looking at him like an
+accusing angel, had matched even Carol herself in the gaiety of her
+conversation and the careless use she made of her mother-wit, and he
+tried hard to say something which should in some way cover his retreat,
+but the words wouldn't come, and so he just opened the door and walked
+out.
+
+Dora heard the street door bang behind him, and then her tensely-strung
+nerves relaxed. She dropped into an easy chair, clasped her hands over
+her temples, and whispered:
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear, how is all this going to end, and what would happen
+if they only knew! And now I've got to see Sir Arthur. Shall I tell him
+everything or not? No, I daren't, I daren't. It's too awful. Was there
+ever anything like it in the world before?"
+
+And then her body swayed forward, her elbows dropped on to her knees,
+her hands clasped her temples tighter, and the next moment she had burst
+into a passion of tears.
+
+Tears are a torture to men and a relief to women, so in a few minutes
+she lifted her head again, the storm was over and she began to look the
+situation over calmly. The more she thought of it the more certain it
+seemed that she could do nothing but irretrievable mischief by even
+hinting to Sir Arthur anything of what she knew. At any rate she decided
+that until Carol came back she would keep her knowledge absolutely to
+herself.
+
+Then the train of her thoughts was suddenly broken by the postman's
+knock at the door. There was a London letter addressed to herself in the
+familiar handwriting of Mr. Bernard Falcon. As she opened it she
+experienced a singular mixture of relief and vexation, tinged by a
+suggestion of shame.
+
+The letter began with an inquiry as to when she was coming back to
+Town, and ended with an invitation to spend a week end in the round trip
+from London to Dover, Calais, Boulogne and Folkestone.
+
+She had been nearly a fortnight in Worcester, and, truth to tell, she
+was getting a little tired of it. Falcon's letter offered her a double
+relief. It would save her from the ordeal of meeting Sir Arthur, and,
+combined with the visit of "Mr. Johnson," it would give her a good
+excuse to her parents for going back to Town at once; so she sat down
+and wrote two letters, one to Falcon telling him that he could meet her
+at Paddington the next evening, and the other to Sir Arthur telling him
+all she knew about Carol, saving only the name of her companion, and
+regretting that she would not be able to meet him, as she was starting
+for the Continent that day. For obvious reasons she, of course, said
+nothing of Garthorne's visit to her.
+
+Sir Arthur was as much disappointed with his letter as Mr. Falcon was
+pleased by his. Dora left Worcester the day that he received it, and
+while she was dining with Mr. Falcon at the Globe Restaurant, Sir Arthur
+was telling Vane and Mark Ernshaw, who had come over to dine and sleep
+at the Abbey, all that he knew of Miss Carol's latest escapade.
+
+"I'm very, very sorry," said Ernshaw when he had finished. "We've never
+told you before, Sir Arthur, but I may as well tell you now that, if
+Miss Vane had not disappeared as mysteriously as she did, Vane was to
+have introduced me to her, and I was going to marry her if she would
+have me."
+
+Sir Arthur looked at him in silence for a few moments, and then he took
+his hand and said:
+
+"I know that is true, Ernshaw, because you have said it; though I would
+not have believed it from anyone else except Vane. I would willingly
+give everything that I possess and go back to work to make such a thing
+possible, but I'm afraid it isn't, and now, of course, it is more
+impossible than ever. Frankly, I don't believe she'd have you. It sounds
+a very curious thing to say, but from what I have seen of her, granted
+even that she fell in love with you, the more she loved you the more
+absolutely she would refuse to marry you. You know we offered her
+everything we could. Vane and I both agreed to acknowledge her and have
+her to live with us, but it was no use. She refused in such a way that
+she made me long all the more to take her for my own daughter before the
+world; but there was no mistaking the refusal, and the day after our
+last interview she clinched it by vanishing, I suppose with this young
+millionaire who is with her now. It's very terrible, of course, but
+there it is. It's done, and I'm afraid there's no mending it. Perhaps,
+after all, it is better for you that it should be so."
+
+"Yes, Ernshaw," said Vane. "It's not a nice thing to say under the
+circumstances, but I think the governor's right."
+
+"Possibly, but I don't agree with you," he replied. "You know I am what
+a good many people would call an enthusiast on the subject of this
+so-called social evil, for which, as I believe, Society itself is almost
+entirely to blame, and I am quite prepared to put my views into
+practice."
+
+"Then," said Sir Arthur, smiling gravely, "I think when we get back to
+Town I'd better introduce you to Miss Murray, who was living with Carol
+in Melville Gardens, where I first saw her. She was in the Cathedral on
+Sunday. Her parents live in Worcester, and they believe, poor people,
+that she has a little millinery business in London. She says she's
+going on the Continent, I suppose with this friend of hers. But she has
+given me an address in London where she can be found.
+
+"Now there, Ernshaw," he went on, "there I believe you would find a far
+better subject for your social experiment, if you are determined to make
+it, than poor Carol could ever be. I don't know her history, but she is
+evidently a lady born and educated. She is quite as good-looking as
+Carol, only an entirely different type, taller, darker, and with deep,
+mysterious brown eyes which evidently have a soul behind them. At any
+rate, I'm quite convinced that she would make a much better social
+missionary's wife than poor Carol would.
+
+"She, I sadly fear, is 'a daughter of delight,' as the French call them,
+pure and simple. She told me point blank that she preferred her present
+mode of life to respectability, and that she considered that taking even
+my money or Vane's, when she had no real claim upon us, was more
+degrading and would hurt her self-respect a great deal more than doing
+what she is doing. In other respects she's as good a girl as ever
+walked, and as honest as the daylight, but I'm afraid there is no hope
+of social regeneration for her."
+
+"Hope was once found for one a thousand times worse than she!" said
+Ernshaw quietly. "But as I have seen neither of them yet, no harm can be
+done by my making the acquaintance of Miss Murray to begin with."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Arthur, not at all sorry to change the subject.
+"And now, talking about social missionaries, Vane, have you quite made
+up your mind to carry out this scheme of yours, this crusade against
+money-making and the pomps and vanities of Society? Do you really mean
+to show that your own father has been living in sin all these years;
+that he is not, in fact, a Christian at all, because it is impossible
+for anyone to be decently well off and a Christian at the same time? A
+nice sort of thing that, Ernshaw, isn't it?"
+
+"If Vane honestly believes, as he does, that his is the only true
+definition of a Christian, it is not only his right but his duty to
+preach it," was the young priest's reply.
+
+"It is my belief," said Vane quietly, "and, God helping me, I will do
+what I believe to be my duty."
+
+The party at the Abbey broke up a few days after this, and in another
+week or so Enid and her husband were in the full swing of the great
+merry-go-round which is called the London season. She was unquestionably
+the most beautiful of the brides of the year, and she was the undisputed
+belle of the Drawing Room at which she was presented.
+
+Garthorne was, of course, very proud of her, and received plenty of that
+second-hand sort of admiration which is accorded alike to the owner of a
+distinguished race-horse, a prize bull-dog, or a pretty wife.
+
+Under the circumstances, therefore, it was perfectly natural that they
+should enjoy themselves very thoroughly, and though towards the end
+Garthorne began to get a little bored, and to think rather longingly of
+his yacht on the Solent and his grouse moor in Scotland, Enid, with her
+youth and beauty and perfect constitution, enjoyed every hour and every
+minute of her waking life. Society had no very distinguished lion to
+fall down and worship that season, and so, towards the end, things were
+getting a little slow, and people were thinking seriously of escaping
+from the heat and dust of London, when the world of wealth and fashion
+was suddenly thrilled into fresh life by an absolutely new sensation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+One Sunday morning, about the middle of June, the large and fashionable
+congregation which filled the church of St. Chrysostom, South
+Kensington, a church which will be recognised as one of the very
+"highest" in London, and which, to use a not altogether unsuitable term,
+"draws" all the year round by reason of the splendour of its ritual, as
+well as the simple earnest eloquence of its clergy, was startled by the
+preaching of such a sermon as no member of it had ever heard before.
+
+The preacher for the morning was announced to be the Rev. Father Vane, a
+name which meant nothing to more than about half a dozen members of the
+congregation, but which every man and woman in the church had some cause
+to remember by the time the service was over.
+
+Father Baldwin, as the vicar of St. Chrysostom's was familiarly known,
+was a very old friend of Father Philip's, and Vane's appearance as
+preacher that morning was the result of certain correspondence which had
+taken place between them, and of several long and earnest conversations
+which he had had with Vane himself.
+
+The moment that Vane appeared in the pulpit, that strange rustling sound
+which always betokens an access of sensation in a church, became
+distinctly audible from the side where the women sat. As he stood there
+in cassock, cotta and white, gold-embroidered stole, he looked, as many
+a maid, and matron too, said afterwards, almost too beautiful to be
+human. Both as boy and man he had always been strikingly handsome, but
+the long weeks and months of prayer and fasting, and the constant
+struggle of the soul against the flesh, had refined and spiritualised
+him. To speak of an everyday man of the world, however good-looking he
+may be, as beautiful is rather to ridicule him than otherwise, but when
+such a man as Vane passes through such an ordeal as his had been, the
+word beauty may be justly used in the sense in which the feminine
+portion of the congregation of St. Chrysostom's unanimously used it that
+morning.
+
+There was a hush of expectation as he opened a small Bible lying on the
+desk in front of him. Then he raised his right hand and made the sign of
+the Cross.
+
+     "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
+     Amen!"
+
+The words were not hastily and inaudibly muttered as they too often are
+by the clergy of the High Anglican persuasion. They rang out as clearly
+as the notes of a bell through the silence of the crowded church, and
+the congregation recognised instantly that he possessed, at least, the
+first qualification of a great preacher.
+
+Then he took up his Bible, and said in a quite ordinary conversational
+tone:
+
+"It will be well if those who wish to follow what I am about to say will
+take their Bibles and turn to the fifth chapter of the Gospel according
+to St. Matthew."
+
+The opening was as unpromising as it was unconventional, but more than
+half the congregation obeyed, and when the rustling of leaves had
+subsided, he began to read the Sermon on the Mount.
+
+When the first thrill of astonishment had passed, it was noticed that,
+after the first few verses, he ceased to look at the Bible. Every member
+of the congregation had heard the words over and over again, but they
+had never heard them as they heard them now. It was nothing like the
+formal reading of the lessons to which they had been accustomed, and as
+the clear, pure tones of his voice rang through the church, and, as his
+eyes and face lighted up with the radiance of an almost divine
+enthusiasm, there were some in his audience who began to think that he
+might well have been a re-incarnation of one of those disciples of the
+Master who heard the words as they came from His lips that day on the
+Judean hillside.
+
+He went on verse after verse, never missing a word, and unconsciously
+emphasising each passage with gestures, slight in themselves, but
+eloquent and forcible in their exact suitability to the words, and very
+soon every man and woman in the church was listening to him, not only
+with rapt attention, but with a growing feeling of uneasiness and
+apprehension as to what was to follow.
+
+At length he came to the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter:
+
+     "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from
+     me, ye that work iniquity."
+
+There was an emphasis upon the last few words which sent a thrill of
+emotion, and, in many cases, one of angry expectation, through the
+crowded congregation. It was one of the wealthiest, and most
+fashionable in London, but, saving a comparatively few really earnest
+souls, it was composed for the most part of idlers and loungers, who
+came to St. Chrysostom's partly because it was one of the most
+fashionable churches in the West End, partly because it was the proper
+thing to attend Church on Sunday, and partly because the music, and
+singing and preaching were all so good, and the elaborate ceremonial was
+so perfectly performed, that it afforded the means of spending a few
+hours on Sunday in a very pleasant way.
+
+The young preacher looked at the crowd of well-dressed men and women for
+a few moments in silence, as though he would give them time to realise
+the tremendous solemnity of the words they had just heard. There was
+dead, breathless silence at first, and then came a rustling sound,
+mingled with one of deep breathing. Then he began again in the same
+direct, conversational tone in which he had asked them to take their
+Bibles.
+
+"I am addressing," he said, in a low, clear tone which could be heard as
+distinctly at the church doors as it could by those immediately under
+the pulpit, "an audience which is composed of men and women who are,
+nominally, at least, Christians, and now I am going to ask you, every
+man and woman of you, to ask your own souls the simple question, whether
+you really are Christians, or not.
+
+"A good many of you, I daresay, will be a little startled, perhaps some
+of you may even be offended by the suggestion of such a question. With
+every regard for your feelings as brother men and sister women, I
+sincerely hope you will be. My reason for hoping that is very simple.
+The vast majority of people in Christian countries are Christians
+simply because they have been born of Christian parents, just as they
+are Protestants or Catholics because their parents were such before
+them, and their early training has strongly predisposed their minds to
+the acceptance--too often the blind acceptance--of a certain set of
+doctrines which, with all reverence, are by themselves of no more use
+for the purpose of saving a human soul from eternal damnation than the
+multiplication table would be. These doctrines, these creeds, are aids
+to salvation, most potent aids, but they are not essentials, since of
+themselves they cannot save.
+
+"It is far too often taken for granted that, because a man has been
+brought up in a Christian family, has been baptised into the Church of
+Christ, and has later on been admitted into the communion of that
+Church, that, therefore, he is justified in believing himself to be a
+Christian. He has, as we of the Church Catholic and Universal fervently
+believe, been placed in the path which leads to salvation. His vision
+has been cleared from the mists of error. The Church, in the fulfilment
+of her holy mission, has caused the white light of heaven to shine upon
+his eyes. His feet have been set in the strait gate and on the narrow
+way which leads to eternal life, but not all the priests from Abraham
+down to our own day, nor all the Churches that ever were founded can do
+any more. The way must be travelled by the man himself, his own eyes
+must see the light, his own feet must tread the way, no matter how steep
+or difficult it may be--or that man has no more right to call himself a
+Christian than any worshipper of any of the false gods whose reign has
+vanished from the earth.
+
+"It was for the purpose of bringing this most solemn truth, this most
+solemn and momentous of all truth home to you that I began by repeating
+the words which the Greatest of all Preachers pronounced for the
+guidance of those who should come after Him."
+
+He paused, and took up his Bible again. Meanwhile, a few people, both
+men and women, whose dress and appearance bore unmistakable signs of
+worldly wealth, got up and walked out of the church.
+
+Vane watched them go, and as he did so the rest saw a complete change of
+expression come over his countenance. His eyes grew sombre and
+sorrowful, his lips tightened, and something like a frown gathered upon
+his brow. He not only waited in the midst of an almost unnatural silence
+until they had gone, but he went on waiting for some moments longer as
+though he would give anyone else an opportunity of leaving the church if
+they desired to do so. No one stirred. The look which he turned upon
+them from the pulpit seemed like a spell which held them to their seats.
+Then his lips opened, and they heard his voice, tinged with an infinite
+sadness, saying:
+
+     "'The young man saith unto him: All these things have I kept from
+     my youth up. What lack I yet?
+
+     "'Jesus saith unto him: If thou wouldst be perfect go and sell that
+     thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
+     heaven, and come and follow me.
+
+     "'But when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful,
+     for he had great possessions.
+
+     "'Then said Jesus unto his disciples: Verily I say unto you that a
+     rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.'"
+
+Then there came another pause, during which his listeners seemed almost
+afraid to breathe, so strong was the spell of apprehension and
+expectancy which he had laid upon them, and he went on:
+
+"You have, everyone of you, heard those words read and spoken scores and
+hundreds of times. Has it ever struck you that they are words which, if
+you are a Christian man or woman, you must believe to be the words of
+God himself, spoken by the lips of Infallible Wisdom, and inspired by
+that Omniscience which sees you sitting here in this London church as
+plainly as It saw that other congregation which was assembled that day
+on the slope of the Mount of Olives, and which reads your hearts at this
+moment as It read theirs then? If you do not believe that, then it
+follows that you do not believe in the mission or the teaching of
+Christ. You do not believe that He spoke the truth when He told the
+young man that it was not only necessary to keep the commandments, as he
+had done from his youth up; but that it was also necessary for him to
+cease to be a rich man, and to distribute his wealth in relieving the
+necessities of the poor.
+
+"If you believe that Christ is very God of very God, as you say every
+Sunday of your lives, you cannot escape the obligation which those words
+put upon you except at the peril of your immortal souls. Remember that
+it is not by your faiths and beliefs, or by the doctrines you have held
+that you will be judged when you stand before the Last Tribunal. These
+are but instruments to be used well or ill, but the final appeal will
+come to your works. The last question that will be asked of you will not
+be 'What creed have you believed?' or 'What Church have you belonged
+to?' but 'What have you done?' and on the answer to that, as recorded
+in the books of God, will depend your fate for all eternity.
+
+"Remember the words, 'Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall
+enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
+Father which is in Heaven.'
+
+"Remember, too, that when you join in the services of the Church, and
+when you partake of her Sacraments, you are simply saying 'Lord,
+Lord'--a very good and righteous thing to say; but of no more use or
+benefit to your souls than an echo from a blank wall, unless you also do
+the will of Him who is in Heaven.
+
+"I know that there are many specious sayings invented by those who have
+reasons of their own for trying to prove that when the Son of God spoke
+these words He didn't mean what He said; and those who have invented
+these things are amongst the worst enemies of God and His Church on
+earth, no matter whether they say these lying words in the drawing-room
+or from the pulpit. They seek to comfort their consciences and the
+consciences of such as you by saying that times have changed since these
+words were uttered; that it would be quite impossible to put a literal
+interpretation upon them now.
+
+"Now the man who tells his fellow men that, no matter what his position
+in the world, is a liar and a hypocrite, and, what is worse, he is a
+maker of hypocrites, for it is my duty to tell you that every man and
+woman who professes Christianity before the world on Sunday and during
+the week disobeys the command of Christ as set forth here in His own
+words, is, consciously or unconsciously, a liar and a hypocrite also.
+
+"Let us see what these sayings look like when tested by ordinary logic,
+by that faculty of distinguishing the right from the wrong, the true
+from the false, which is perhaps the greatest of all God's gifts to men.
+
+"'Times have changed since the Son of God delivered the Sermon on the
+Mount.' That is one of those half-truths which are infinitely worse than
+a lie. Times _have_ changed. That is to say mortal men and mortal
+manners have changed; but does that warrant us in believing that the
+mind and will of the Immutable God have changed too; that what Christ
+himself declared to be fatal to salvation two thousand years ago, is
+compatible with salvation now? That what was unlawful then is lawful
+now--in short, that the Omniscient God, in whose eyes a thousand years
+are as one day and one day as a thousand years, who read the minds of
+men then as He reads them now, has altered the decrees of Eternal
+Justice and changed Eternal Truth into a lie?
+
+"If you believe these people, then you must believe that too. That
+Christ himself foresaw, as He must have done, that such false teachers
+as these would arise both in His Church and outside it is clearly proved
+by His own words:
+
+"'Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
+Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many
+wonderful works?
+
+"'And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you, depart from me ye
+that work iniquity.'
+
+"Remember that in that day when these words will be spoken hypocrisy and
+self-deceit will have become impossibilities. It will not be possible
+then for you to persuade yourselves, as no doubt you do now, that you
+are good Christians, or that you are Christians at all, because you
+believe certain doctrines and carry out certain ecclesiastical
+observances. You will see your own souls naked then, and the eye of
+Eternal and Immutable Justice will see them too--and unless you have
+proved that you have obedience as well as faith; that you have not only
+believed but also obeyed, you will most assuredly hear those words 'I
+never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity!'
+
+"But," he went on again, after another little pause during which some of
+his audience began to look round at each other with something like fear
+in their eyes, "do not forget that there is another course open to you.
+It may be that the things of this world, the conventions of society, the
+fear of poverty and the love of wealth, have taken such a hold upon you,
+that, although you dare not even confess it to yourselves, you prefer
+these things to obedience to the Divine command and all that it may
+bring.
+
+"You have it in perfectly plain language and on the highest possible
+authority that you cannot serve God and Mammon. Those are no empty
+words, they are one of the most solemn pronouncements ever made, and
+they affect you here and to all eternity. So long as you go on striving
+to increase your wealth by those means which must nowadays be employed
+to make money, you are not and you cannot be Christians. Those are harsh
+words, and yet if they are not true, the words of Christ himself are
+false. There is no escape from this dilemma, and if you think that
+devoting one day a week to the nominal service of God and six to the
+real, practical service of Mammon, you earn the right to call yourselves
+Christians, that is to say, followers of Christ, you are merely
+practising a pitiful piece of self-deception which would be ludicrous
+were its consequences not so solemn.
+
+"But, as I have said, there is another course open to you, a course
+which, terrible as it is, is better than the one that you are now
+following, because it is more honest. Be honest with yourselves and each
+other, and, what is of more consequence, be honest with God too. A
+well-known agnostic lecturer once said that no god could afford to damn
+an honest man, and I am not sure that he was not right; but if the words
+of Christ were not the empty mouthings of a charlatan or a dreamer,
+there cannot be the slightest doubt about the fate of the hypocrite.
+Remember that on the only occasion on which the gentle nature of our
+Lord was roused to anger he denounced in the most terrible language that
+human ears have ever heard those whom He called hypocrites, and,
+therefore, I say to you, at whatever cost, either to your pockets or to
+your souls, for you can take your choice which, cease to be hypocrites.
+
+"Cease this pitiful pretence which, though it may deceive yourselves,
+certainly does not deceive Him from whom no secrets are hid. If you
+cannot forsake the service of Mammon, if you really are so tightly bound
+by his golden chains to the things of this world that you cannot or will
+not break loose from the entrancing bondage, then, in the name of
+honesty, say so, say to yourselves and to your fellow men: 'I cannot do
+this thing. If I must give up the service of Mammon before I can call
+myself the servant of God, then I cannot become the servant of God, and
+I will make a hypocrite and a liar of myself no longer.' Then at least
+you would be honest and truthful, honest with yourselves and with your
+brother men and with your sister women and with God. You would, as I
+believe, and as you are now trying to make yourselves believe, have made
+the wrong choice, a choice whose consequences must inevitably face you
+on the other side of the grave, but you would, at least, be able to face
+the tribunal of Eternal Justice without shame, and, with all reverence I
+say it, I, as a Christian man, believe that for this reason the infinite
+mercy of God would find a means of salvation for you.
+
+"Be honest. For God's sake and your own, be honest, even though in
+becoming so, you cease to be what is commonly called respectable. If you
+really cannot serve God with a whole soul and without reservation, give
+up the attempt to serve Him and say so before all men. It would be a
+terrible thing to do, and yet, awful as such a step would be, it might
+be the first one towards your ultimate salvation. The angels might weep,
+but I hardly think that the devils would laugh, for the worst enemy of
+the Father of Lies is an honest man or woman. The gentle heart of Jesus
+might bleed for you, but Eternal Justice would respect you and give you
+your due. Once more, speaking not only as a priest of God, but as your
+fellow man, let me as man implore you to be honest, and as priest, warn
+you that the penalty of hypocrisy is eternal damnation. You have no
+choice in the matter. One or the other you must be, and you cannot
+possibly be both. Wherefore I tell you that whether you elect to be the
+servant of God or the servant of Mammon, you must let all men know
+plainly which you are. If you are reasonable beings you cannot believe
+in yourselves or in each other, unless you do this. Remember that,
+however fondly you may be deceiving yourselves, you cannot blind the
+eyes of Omniscience. It is a hard thing to say, and yet it is only the
+plain truth given to us by the lips of Christ himself, that you cannot
+believe in God unless you do the things which He says. Living your
+present lives you do not do them, and therefore you are not only
+infidels and atheists living without God, but you are worse--you are
+hypocrites, and woe unto you!
+
+"I tell you, speaking as solemnly as a priest of God can do in His house
+and in His presence that I would rather see this and every church in
+Christendom attended by a score of people--of real Christians whose
+daily lives throughout the week were really guided and sanctified by
+obedience to the teachings of the Master, than I would see them crowded
+with throngs of men and women like you, whose acts from Monday morning
+to Saturday night consistently belie every word that your lips utter
+here in the house of God and in the presence of the Holy Trinity.
+
+"No doubt, there is already anger against me in many of your hearts on
+account of what I have believed it my duty to say to you. I would not
+willingly incur the hatred of any man or woman, and yet I shall not
+altogether regret that anger, because it will be proof that my words
+have reached, not only your ears, but your hearts. I have spoken plainly
+and without regard to the conventionalities either of the world or of
+the pulpit, and I have done so because I believe that conventionality is
+the foe of truth, and therefore the enemy of religion. This, remember,
+is a subject of such awful solemnity, laden as it is with the eternal
+fate of every human soul that is baptised into the Church of God, that I
+have found it my duty to make it plain to you at any cost.
+
+"When you leave this church, send your horses and your carriages away
+and walk home, for you are deliberately breaking the law of God by using
+them on the Sabbath, and, remember, that he who breaks one jot or
+tittle of the law, shall be guilty of the whole, and, instead of going
+to church parade in the park, you women, to excite the admiration of the
+men and the envy of other women by the beauty of your dress, or the
+splendour of your equipage, and you men, to begin the sordid work of
+to-morrow before you have finished the holy task of to-day, go home and
+take your bibles into the solitude of your own chamber. Spend the rest
+of God's day with God Himself. And that you may do this good thing well
+and truly, and find help to choose that way of life which leadeth to
+eternal salvation, May the peace of God which passeth all understanding
+be with you now henceforth and for ever, Amen."
+
+He raised his right hand in benediction, turned towards the altar and
+made the sign of the Cross, and as he came down the pulpit steps and
+walked up the chancel to his place, some of those who saw him, said
+afterwards, that there was a light on his face which they had never seen
+on a human face before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+There was no communion after that service, and so the choir and priests
+formed for the recessional hymn. Father Baldwin, as the procession
+formed behind him, came to the front of the chancel and said:
+
+"Instead of the hymn appointed, it will be better if we end the service
+with number 274."
+
+     "Through the night of doubt and sorrow."
+
+The organ pealed out, the congregation rose, and the hymn began. It so
+happened that as Vane was passing the chairs on which Enid and her
+husband were sitting with several friends, the last verse but one was
+reached.
+
+     "Onward therefore, pilgrim brothers,
+       Onward, with the Cross our aid!
+     Bear its shame, and fight its battle,
+       Till we rest beneath its shade."
+
+At the words "Bear its shame and fight its battle," she looked up. Her
+eyes met Vane's for a moment; but there was no look of recognition in
+them. A sudden dart of pain seemed to shoot into her heart. This man,
+this prophet-priest, as he seemed to her now, had once been hers, her
+promised husband. How far away from her, how far above her was he now!
+
+She had listened to the sermon with a double interest, interest in the
+man as well as in the wonderful words he had just spoken--words so
+simple in themselves, and yet spoken with such terrible force, a force
+so terrible that within the space of a few minutes it had shattered all
+her worldly ideals and destroyed the faith that she had been brought up
+in, changing her whole outlook upon the world.
+
+She had been educated on the ordinary lines of conventional
+Christianity, and, until now, she had, like thousands of others,
+honestly believed herself to be a good Christian woman, just as she
+believed her mother to be. But, as it happened, there was that within
+her soul which instantly responded to the truth which she had heard
+to-day for the first time; and she saw that Vane was right, hopelessly,
+piteously right.
+
+And then as the procession passed she looked at her husband. He had
+already sat down, and was getting his hat from under the seat. The
+procession streamed slowly out of sight into the vestry, and the
+congregation moved out into the aisles with much soft rustling and
+swishing of skirts and a subdued, buzzing hum of eager conversation.
+
+As the three streams of well-dressed men and women converged towards the
+great doorway which led out into the street many began to ask themselves
+and each other if any one would obey the preacher's exhortation and send
+their carriages away. The carriages were lined up in the street just as
+they would be outside a theatre. Some of their owners got in and drove
+away, making very pointed remarks on the impropriety of bringing such
+subjects as carriages and horses into sermons and the length that young
+curates would go now-a-days to obtain notoriety. Others dismissed
+theirs and went away trying to look unconcerned; while other people
+stared after them, some smiling and others looking serious.
+
+The Garthornes' victoria, drawn by a pair of beautiful light bays, drew
+up, and Garthorne put out his hand to help Enid in, but she drew back
+and said:
+
+"No, thanks, I think I'll walk."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Enid!" he said impatiently. "Time is getting on, and we
+must have our turn in the Park. Everybody will be there, and this is
+about the last Sunday in the season. We haven't over much time either."
+
+"I am not going into the Park, Reginald," she said decidedly. "I am
+going to walk straight home. You can go and do Church Parade if you
+like."
+
+"All right, Tomkins, you can go home," he said to the coachman. "Mrs.
+Garthorne prefers to walk."
+
+The coachman and footman touched their hats, and the victoria drove
+away.
+
+"Surely to goodness, Enid," said Garthorne almost angrily, as they
+walked away together, "you are not doing this because Maxwell said it
+was wrong to use carriages on a Sunday! Good heavens, if we were to
+translate sermons into everyday life it would be rather a funny world to
+live in."
+
+"Then what is the use of going to hear them, if they are not to be taken
+seriously?" she said, looking up quickly at him. "Why should they be
+preached, or why should we go to church at all?"
+
+"Because it is the proper thing to do, I suppose, and because Society,
+whose slaves we are, makes it one of the social functions of the week,"
+replied Garthorne, who had as much real religion in his composition as
+a South African Bushman. "We men go because you women do, and you women
+go to show others how nicely you can dress, and to see what they have
+got on."
+
+"My dear Reginald, that is about as true as it is original, and that is
+not saying very much for it. If we don't go to church for any other
+reasons than those it is merely mockery and wickedness to go at all. I
+was very glad to see that a great many people did send their carriages
+away. Next Sunday I hope they will have the decency to walk."
+
+"Especially if the British climate, as it probably will, ends up the
+season with a pouring wet Sunday!" laughed Garthorne. "No, dear, those
+godly precepts are all very well when you read them in Sunday School
+books or hear them from the pulpit, and I am sure Vane put them most
+admirably to-day, although I confess I was slightly surprised to hear a
+really clever fellow like him preaching such hopelessly impossible
+nonsense. Of course I don't mean any offence to him--far from it, but
+really, you know, if theories like those could be put into practice they
+would simply turn the world upside down."
+
+"I think you might have found a better word than nonsense," she replied
+a trifle sharply; "but the world of to-day certainly would have to be
+turned upside down or inside out to make it anything like Christian.
+That, at least, Vane--I mean Mr. Maxwell--taught us this morning."
+
+"Christian according to the Reverend Vane Maxwell," he said, with the
+suspicion of a sneer. "Fortunately the Churches have agreed that such a
+violent operation is not necessary. By the way, though, won't Maxwell
+get himself into a howling row with the ecclesiastical powers that be!
+Just imagine the bench of Bishops standing anything like that!"
+
+"Yes," she said quietly, "the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount in a
+fashionable London church! It does sound very terrible, doesn't it? And
+yet, after all, I suppose they can't take his orders away from him even
+for that. I wonder what would happen? It is sure to be in the papers
+to-morrow, and of course everybody will be talking about it."
+
+"Yes," said Garthorne; "but if Master Vane thinks he is going to play
+Savanarola to this generation he will find that he has taken on a pretty
+large order. Are you quite sure you won't take a turn in the Park, even
+on foot?"
+
+"No, I'd rather not, but don't let me keep you if you would like a
+stroll. I can get home all right."
+
+"Well, if you don't mind, Enid, I think I will. There are one or two
+fellows I want to see particularly about something, so bye-bye for the
+present."
+
+He raised his hat and turned back, and she went on towards the house in
+Queen's Gate with many strange thoughts in her heart.
+
+Enid and her husband were by no means the only members of the
+congregation of St. Chrysostom who discussed Vane's sermon on their way
+home. In fact, whether people walked or rode home, it was the universal
+topic. Some discussed it with timorous sympathy; others, perhaps with
+more worldly wisdom, talked of it quietly and cynically as the outburst
+of a half-fledged clerical enthusiast who would very soon find out that
+his superiors, on whom he depended for preferment, regarded the
+doctrines of Christianity as one thing and the practises of the Church
+as something entirely different.
+
+"He's a clever fellow, a very clever fellow and very earnest," said Lord
+Canore, who was a patron of several fat livings, to her ladyship and his
+two daughters as they drove home, "but he'll soon get those rough
+corners knocked off him. If they are wise they will give him a good
+living, and then make him a canon as soon as possible. There's nothing
+like preferment to sober a man down in the Church."
+
+"Yes," sighed Lady Caroline Rosse, the elder daughter, who was getting
+somewhat _passee_, and was deeply interested in Church work; "what a
+beautiful voice he has, and such a wonderful face! Really, he looked
+almost inspired at times. He would make quite an ideal bishop, and, you
+know, some quite young men are being made bishops now-a-days."
+
+"Yes," chuckled his lordship, as he lay back against the cushions, "that
+is the sort of thing I mean. You don't catch bishops preaching the
+Sermon on the Mount and sub-editing it as they go on."
+
+"My dear Canore," said her ladyship frigidly, "I think we had better
+change the subject; that last remark of yours was almost blasphemous."
+
+"Never heard such rubbish preached from a respectable pulpit in my
+life," said Mr. Horace Faustmann, a member of the Stock Exchange,
+director of several limited companies and a most liberal contributor to
+the offertories, and all Church effort in the parish of St. Chrysostom,
+to his wife as they rolled smoothly in their cee-spring, rubber-tyred
+victoria towards Hyde Park Corner.
+
+"Why, if you can't make plenty of money and still be a Christian, where
+are subscriptions coming from, and what price the Church endowments? It
+seems absolutely absurd to me. I wonder what on earth Baldwin was
+thinking about to let him preach a sermon like that in the smartest
+church in the West End. If he goes on in that style he will just ruin
+the show. Anyhow, he gets no more of my money if he is going to insult
+rich people in the pulpit. Any more of that sort of thing, my dear, and
+we'll go somewhere else, won't we?"
+
+"I should think so," said the beautiful Mrs. Faustmann. She was the
+daughter of a poor aristocrat, and had made a very good social and
+financial bargain. She was one of the smartest women and most successful
+entertainers in London. There was another man eating his heart out on
+her account in the Burmese jungle, and sometimes, in her tenderest
+moment, she gave him a thought and a little sigh--about as much thought
+and sigh as her engagements permitted.
+
+"Yes, Father Baldwin will really ruin the Church if he allows that sort
+of thing. Of course all the good people will give it up. In fact, you
+saw the Steinways, the Northwicks, the Athertons and several more leave
+the church before he was half way through his harangue, for really you
+could hardly call it a sermon. All the same, the church will be thronged
+to-night and next Sunday, because people will go there just for the
+sensation of the thing, and to see if anything else is going to happen;
+but poor Father Baldwin will simply be inundated with letters from the
+best of his people, and I don't think he'll find them very pleasant
+reading. I am going to write, and, although I respect the dear man very
+much, I shall tell him exactly what I think."
+
+"Quite right," said her husband, as they turned into the Park. "You give
+it to him straight. If you don't, I shall drop him a line myself and
+tell him that if he wants any more of my money, and he has had a good
+bit, he will have to keep his half-broken clerical colts a bit better in
+hand; I'm not going to support a church to be insulted in it."
+
+Many other similar conversations were going on just then in the Park, in
+fact, Vane and his sermon were already being discussed by half
+fashionable London, so fast does the news of so startling an event
+travel from lip to lip when a crowd of somewhat _blase_ people, who have
+nothing in particular to talk about, get together. Most of the comments
+were quite similar to those just quoted, for Society felt generally by
+dinner time that night that it had been deliberately insulted, outraged,
+in fact, through its representatives in the congregation of St.
+Chrysostom.
+
+Nevertheless the church was packed to its utmost capacity at evening
+service. It was known that Father Baldwin was to preach, but it was
+hoped that Vane would take some part in the service, and of course
+everyone wanted to see him; still, the audience went away disappointed.
+Vane was far away, helping Ernshaw at his mission in Bethnal Green, and
+was telling his congregation truths just as uncompromising and perhaps
+as unpalatable as those he had told to his wealthy and aristocratic
+hearers in the morning.
+
+Father Baldwin preached, but his sermon was rather a homily on the
+duties of the rich towards the poor, especially at a time when the rich
+were about to migrate like gay-plumaged birds of passage to other lands
+and climes in search of pleasure, leaving behind the millions of their
+fellow mortals and fellow Christians, whose ceaseless life-struggle left
+no leisure for the delights which they had come to look upon as the
+commonplaces of their existence.
+
+He only made one brief allusion to Vane's sermon. He knew perfectly
+well that these thronging hundreds of people had not come to hear him.
+He felt, not without sorrow, that quite half of them had come to hear,
+or at least see, the man whose name was already the talk of fashionable
+London.
+
+"Some of you," he said, "who are present now heard this morning from
+this pulpit words which must have sunk deep into the heart of every man
+and woman who feels an earnest desire to follow in the footsteps of the
+Master as closely as imperfect human nature will permit you. It is not
+for me to tell you to what extent those words must be taken literally.
+They were spoken earnestly and from the inmost depths of the preacher's
+own soul--may they sink into the inmost depths of yours! They put the
+most vital interest of human life plainly, nay, uncompromisingly before
+you; how far you can or will follow them in your daily lives is a matter
+which rests between yourselves and your Redeemer."
+
+The next morning nearly all the papers contained more or less lengthy
+reports of a sermon of which half London was already talking. Ernest
+Reed, a smart young reporter with strong freethought tendencies, who
+made a Sunday speciality of reporting sermons of all sorts, especially
+the extreme ones, and who wrote caustically impartial comments on them
+in the rationalist papers, had instantly grasped the true significance
+of such a sermon being preached to such a congregation, and, moreover,
+he had himself been deeply affected by the solemn earnestness with which
+the momentous words had been spoken.
+
+"A Daniel come to judgment! A parson who believes in his own creed at
+last!" was his mental comment, as he closed his note-book. "That chap's
+worth following. I wonder where he is going to preach to-night. I'll
+find out."
+
+Of course he did find out and followed Vane to Bethnal Green, with the
+result that he made what is professionally termed "a scoop," since he
+was the only reporter who was able to give both sermons verbatim. The
+_Daily Chronicle_ was the only morning paper smart enough to print them
+word for word in parallel columns under the title:
+
+     WEIGHTY WORDS TO RICH AND POOR.
+     The Rev. Vane Maxwell
+     Asks Mayfair and Bethnal Green
+     If they are Christian?
+
+The consequence was, that all London and a very considerable part of
+England too, stared wonderingly over its breakfast table and asked
+itself whether there was really anything in these plain, almost homely,
+and yet terribly pregnant words. Certainly there was no getting away
+from the pitiless logic of them. If Vane Maxwell was right, England was
+_not_ a Christian country, save in name, and its citizens were
+Christians only because they had been baptized into one or other of the
+churches and so called themselves Christians by a sort of courtesy
+title. For the moment at least, Christianity assumed a shape as tangible
+and a meaning almost as serious as party politics. In other words Vane's
+sermon, even when read in cold print, put the question: Are you really a
+Christian? so plainly, so uncompromisingly, and so unavoidably to every
+man or woman calling himself or herself a Christian, that hundreds of
+thousands of people all over the country, to say nothing of a million
+or two in London, felt a sudden, and, as it seemed to them, somewhat
+unaccountable obligation to give an equally plain answer to it. What was
+the answer to be?
+
+"Yes or no?"
+
+It certainly was a very serious matter to millions who had never thought
+of asking the question for themselves, and whose pastors and spiritual
+masters had mostly contented themselves with lecturing and teaching in
+soul-soothing, instead of soul-searching, words.
+
+They, good folk, had really never troubled themselves very much about
+the matter. They had their business affairs to attend to, their wives
+and families to keep out of the workhouse or to maintain in comfort or
+luxury, as the case might be, and a good many of them had certain social
+duties to perform; and so they had got into the way of letting the
+churches and chapels, the bishops, priests, deacons and so forth, look
+after these things.
+
+They were paid to do so. That was rather an ugly thought. At least, it
+seemed to be so, after reading the words of Jesus Christ, and His
+servant Vane Maxwell; but still it _was_ a fact; and some of them were
+very highly paid. They were living in charming houses and had very
+comfortable investments in companies which made money anyhow, so long as
+they made it. Others were wretchedly paid, it was true, mostly
+half-starved and inevitably in debt; but still, neither of these facts
+affected the main question, which, of course, was the personal one: Are
+you--rich man or poor man--you who read these words, a Christian? Are
+you, as the preacher had asked in those five terrible words, honest
+before God and man?
+
+Then to the scores and hundreds of thousands of people who read this,
+came, in a whispering terror, the further question:
+
+"Do you think you can cheat God, even if you are cheating yourself and
+other people like you--the God Whom you have been taught to believe in
+as knowing all things, the God to whom all secrets are known?"
+
+It was a distinctly ugly question to answer, and more Bibles were
+searched throughout the United Kingdom than had been for many a long
+year past; but no searcher found any answer that satisfied his own soul,
+if he had one, save the one that was given from the Mount of Olives:
+
+"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
+
+As the young preacher had said, there was no compromise. There was
+certainly the alternative of being honest one way or the other; but that
+sort of honesty had a very appalling prospect to the respectable British
+citizen, especially those, who, in any way, resembled the young man who
+came to Christ and asked Him what he should do to be saved. It was, in
+short, a case of becoming comparative paupers, and only having the bare
+necessaries of life, or keeping what they had, and saying honestly to
+themselves, the world, and God:
+
+"I can't be a Christian at that price, and so, instead of remaining a
+Christian humbug, I will be an honest atheist."
+
+A very terrible dilemma, certainly, and yet, if the Gospels were true,
+and if the Son of God had really preached the Sermon on the Mount, it
+was one from which there was no escape but this. It was a plain matter
+of belief or disbelief, honesty or dishonesty, and, if they believed in
+God, dishonesty was impossible, save under the penalty of eternal
+damnation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+That day the clergy-house of St. Chrysostom was, of course, deluged with
+newspapers and cuttings, and the flood continued for two or three days,
+during which Vane, unconscious or careless of the fact that he was
+already the clerical lion of London, and, perhaps, the most discussed
+man for the time being in England and the sister kingdoms, was working
+hard helping his friend, Ernshaw, to organize an entirely unsectarian
+twentieth century crusade throughout the poorer districts of London. He
+seldom read newspapers, for he preferred the living fact to the written
+word, and, besides, such work as his left little time for reading. He
+had seen his name on the placards of the morning and evening papers, and
+he had bought some which he had not found time to do more than glance
+over.
+
+He was, of course, glad that his sermon had attracted so much attention,
+but he knew enough of newspapers and their readers not to hope for too
+much on this account, and so he was not a little surprised when Father
+Baldwin said to him on his return to the clergy-house on the Friday
+evening:
+
+"Well, Maxwell! glad to see you back, although you have brought a nice
+hornet's nest about our ears, and started something like a social and
+religious earthquake in Kensington and the adjacent lands of Mayfair and
+Belgravia, to say nothing of a distinct fluttering in what I may,
+perhaps, without irreverence call the upper and more spacious dove-cotes
+of the Church."
+
+"Have I really?" said Vane, quietly, "I didn't know I had, but if I have
+done so, I am very glad. It was exactly what I intended to do, though I
+confess I had little hope of doing so. What is the matter? I hope I
+haven't got _you_ into any unpleasantness, Father Baldwin."
+
+"It doesn't very much matter if you have," replied the older priest,
+leaning back in his chair and looking at him keenly from under his
+thick, iron-grey eyebrows. "You only said what has been in the hearts
+and souls of a good many of us for a long time, but it was given to you
+to say it and, let us hope, also the inspiration to say it in the proper
+way."
+
+"Please God!" said Vane. "And now what have I done; I mean as regards
+yourself and St. Chrysostom?"
+
+"To begin with," replied Father Baldwin, "about half the wealthiest
+members of the congregation, men and women, but mostly men, have written
+to say that if they are to be publicly insulted from the pulpit, and
+told that they are liars and hypocrites, and not Christians, save in
+name, they will leave the church and withdraw all their
+subscriptions--which, of course, from quite a worldly point of view,
+would be somewhat a serious matter for the church."
+
+"That simply proves that they are not Christians," said Vane, "and the
+church is better without their money. They practically confess that
+they never have been giving their money honestly for the service of God,
+but merely for self-advertisement or as a social obligation. It would be
+no loss to us, and little gain to anybody else they gave it to."
+
+"Yes, I believe you are right," replied Father Baldwin. "It seems rather
+a hard thing to say, but people who would leave a church because the
+Sermon on the Mount was preached from its pulpit, must be a strange sort
+of Christians."
+
+"They are not Christians at all!" exclaimed Vane, with a burst of
+righteous wrath, "they are the bane and curse of Christianity, and have
+been ever since Constantine made it official and fashionable. They are
+responsible for every corruption that has crept into the Church, for
+every blot that defiles the purity of the Creed. They are not
+Christians, and they never have been, for they cannot be what they are
+and followers of Christ at the same time. They and the wealthy clergy of
+all the churches are responsible for the unfaith, tacit and avowed, of
+what we are pleased to call the lower classes; the classes who compose
+the majority of Christ's Congregation; and they are responsible for all
+the cynicism of the open and active enemies of our faith. It is they who
+make it possible for the infidel and the atheist to point the finger of
+scorn at us and say, 'See how these Christians love to do the Will of
+their Master.'"
+
+"I fully appreciate everything you say, Maxwell," replied Father
+Baldwin, with some little hesitation in his tone; for, although he was
+as good a Christian as ever gave up everything to serve his Master, and
+as earnest a priest as ever stood before the altar, yet he was getting
+on in years and found it hard to break away from the traditions amidst
+which he had grown up, and which he had accepted as a young man with
+little or no inquiry. "At the same time, I must candidly admit that I
+was a trifle startled by your absolutely uncompromising rendering of our
+Lord's words. Did you really intend that they should be taken
+literally?"
+
+"It is not what I intended, Father Baldwin," replied Vane, rising from
+his seat and beginning to walk up and down the plainly furnished,
+book-lined common-room, "the question is what _He_ intended, and surely
+no Christian in his senses could believe for a moment that our Lord
+intended to quibble with words and to play with double meanings. If He
+did not mean what He said, and intend those who followed Him to do what
+He said, what becomes of our faith? If that is not so, surely there is
+nothing left for us but to give up the doctrine of the Trinity
+altogether, and go back to the old Hebrew creed--which certainly did not
+forbid the accumulation of riches."
+
+"May I come in?" said Sir Arthur Maxwell's voice through the open door,
+"they told me you were here, Vane. Good evening, Father Baldwin. Well,
+this is a nice sort of commotion that this son of mine has been kicking
+up. Do you know, Sir," he went on, turning to Vane, "that you have
+suddenly made yourself one of the most famous, or, perhaps, I should say
+notorious, persons in London by that sermon of yours? It was very fine I
+admit, and most desperately to the point, but I suppose you know that
+all the world and the newspapers are asking where does that point point
+to?"
+
+"That is just what I was asking your son, Sir Arthur," said Father
+Baldwin. "Granted that he is right in his contention that the Sermon on
+the Mount is to be taken literally, it means nothing short of a
+religious as well as a social revolution."
+
+"That is exactly what the papers and everybody are saying," said Sir
+Arthur. "In fact, people are beginning to look at one another and ask
+some very awkward questions. For instance, here am I, that boy's father,
+I am not a rich man, but I have worked hard and my old age is
+comfortably provided for, and when I die what I have would naturally go
+to Vane, who, on his own showing, couldn't have it; in fact, as you
+know, he has given up about a thousand a year as it is that he had from
+my brother Alfred."
+
+"You will not get much sympathy from Father Baldwin on that score,
+father," laughed Vane, "you know he gave up nearly twice as much."
+
+"There is nothing in that," said Father Baldwin, hastily, as though he
+would stop them saying any more, "that is a point on which I entirely
+agree with you. When a man has money of his own, and devotes himself to
+the service of the Church, he should devote his money to it also. As a
+Christian and a priest he can have no lawful use for it, save in the
+work of the Church."
+
+"Unless he happens to be married and have a family," said Sir Arthur.
+"What ought he to do then, Father Baldwin?"
+
+"In that case, Sir Arthur," he replied, "I think he would do better to
+keep out of the ministry and devote himself honestly to the affairs of
+his own household. You remember, of course, what the Apostle Paul tells
+us, that the man who neglects those is worse than an infidel. Of course,
+it is not a good translation, and it reads very badly now that infidel
+has come to mean one who does not believe in creeds. It should, of
+course, read unfaithful, I mean, unfaithful to the solemn
+responsibilities he has taken upon himself; and, although I may be
+wrong, I find it difficult to see how a man can faithfully discharge
+those obligations and those of a priest of the Church, but that opens a
+very wide question, and there is a very great deal to be said on both
+sides of it."
+
+"There I quite agree with you," said Sir Arthur, "you know, of course,
+better than I do, that there are hundreds of hard-worked parsons in this
+country--especially in poor parishes--who can't afford curates, who
+simply couldn't get on without their wives, and I know one or two myself
+who say that their wives are worth a couple of curates. I'm fairly
+certain that in most poor country parishes the parson's wife is the good
+angel of the place."
+
+"There is not the slightest doubt about it," replied Father Baldwin, "I
+have seen quite enough of church work to convince me of that, and this
+is, of course, the very strongest argument, and a very convincing one,
+too, in a certain degree, against the celibacy of the clergy. But,
+still, Sir Arthur," he went on, with a change of tone, "I suppose you
+didn't come here to discuss theology and church matters. Of course, you
+want to see your son. My study is quite at your service, if you want to
+have a talk."
+
+"Thanks, very much, Father," said Sir Arthur, "what I really came for
+was to ask Vane to come round and have a bit of dinner with me. I have a
+good many things to talk over with him, and I have a guest or two coming
+whom I am anxious for him to meet. What do you say, Vane, can you come?"
+
+"Of course I can, dad," replied Vane. "I am taking a holiday till
+Sunday, and I couldn't spend it much better than at the old place. On
+Sunday I am going to deliver two lectures at the Hall of Science, Old
+Street, the head-quarters of the National Secular Society."
+
+"The _what_, Maxwell?" exclaimed Father Baldwin, with a note of
+something more than astonishment in his voice, "the Hall of
+Science--why, that was Bradlaugh's place--the head-centre of London
+infidelity."
+
+"Excuse me, Father," said Vane, gravely, "do you not think that is a
+word we are accustomed to use too vaguely? Is it quite fair or logical
+to call these people infidels? Are they not rather faithful to their
+convictions, however wrong they may be? Surely we must, at least, give
+them the credit of believing in their disbelief. Last night I heard an
+informal confession--one of the strangest, perhaps, that a priest ever
+heard--from a young fellow, of about twenty-two, who reported my sermon
+here, and then followed me to Bethnal Green and sent in both accounts to
+the papers.
+
+"He is well educated, very clever, and the son of a clergyman. He is
+also what people call an infidel, and yet he made a confession of faith
+to me that would have melted the soul of a financier, if he had one.
+After that I shall never hear these people called infidels without a
+protest. And, besides, is it not a good thing that a priest of God
+should speak the truth that is in him in the temple of the unbelievers?
+How many of our churches would permit one of their lecturers to speak
+from the pulpit, or even from the platform of one of our schoolrooms."
+
+"You are quite right, Maxwell," said Father Baldwin, "I used the word
+unthinkingly, therefore conventionally. I am very glad you are going,
+but I am afraid if your friends advertise it at all, half Kensington
+and Mayfair will be off to Old Street, and crowd them out of their own
+place. As I tell you, they didn't like what you said, but for all that,
+they are dying to hear what you are going to say next."
+
+"Exactly," said Sir Arthur, "that is the worst of becoming suddenly
+notorious, Vane. You have made yourself, in a most righteous manner, the
+talk of London, and London will follow you now wherever you go. However,
+that can't be helped, it is one of the penalties of fame, and now if you
+have nothing more to say to Father Baldwin, you might put on your hat,
+and come, I have got a hansom at the door."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+On the way from the Clergy-House to Warwick Gardens Vane tried more than
+once to get his father to tell him something about the evening's
+entertainment which he had invited him for, but Sir Arthur only laughed,
+albeit somewhat seriously, and said:
+
+"My dear boy, I am not going to let you spoil a pleasant little
+surprise. I don't say that it will be altogether a pleasant one, yet I
+know that it will not be an entirely unpleasant one. To a certain
+extent, as you will find afterwards, it is one of the many results of
+that precious sermon of yours, and, as certain things had to be done, I
+thought they would be better done at home than elsewhere."
+
+And in reply to Vane's second attempt his father said simply:
+
+"No, Vane, this is a surprise party, as they say in the States, and I am
+not going to give the names of my guests away. You really must possess
+your soul in patience for the present. Meanwhile tell me what Father
+Baldwin thinks of the position you have taken up?"
+
+"You mean, of course, about this new heresy of mine?" replied Vane with
+a laugh--"a heresy, by the way, which is as old as Christianity. Well,
+dad, to tell you the truth I think the dear old Father is a little bit
+frightened, but he is too strong a man to go back from the position, and
+too good a Christian to want to do so. He sees that I am right, or, I
+should say of course, that this is after all the only possible doctrine
+and belief for a Christian. He gave me permission to preach that sermon
+from his pulpit, but I don't think he quite realised, as a matter of
+fact I didn't myself, what an effect it would have, and perhaps the
+consequences have worried him a little; but he is perfectly staunch, and
+so are Moran and Webley."
+
+"And so, I suppose," replied Sir Arthur, "St. Chrysostom's will not be a
+pleasant Sunday morning and evening resort for rich people any longer.
+That is, perhaps, a somewhat flippant way of putting it, but of course
+you know what I mean."
+
+"Yes, I quite see what you mean, dad," said Vane rather more seriously.
+"I don't think it will be, but I do think that before very long we shall
+have a better congregation of Christians than we have ever had before,
+people who, I mean, will have lost their delusions about fashionable
+Christianity--just as if there could be such a thing!--and who come to
+hear the Word of God as it is, and not as most people would like it to
+be. By the way, have you heard that the Canon, I mean Canon
+Thornton-Moore, of Worcester, a man that I met at dinner at the Abbey,
+has accepted the presentation of All Saints, Densmore Square? It is
+supposed to be a little higher even than St. Chrysostom, and if possible
+the congregation is even more disgustingly rich and fashionable and
+everything that is not Christian."
+
+"I must say, Vane, that you have all the uncompromising severity of the
+true enthusiast, and the way in which you include your old father with
+these hopeless sinners is really almost unfilial. I think I can tell
+you this much, that to-night you are going to meet a very much greater
+sinner than I am, a sinner to the extent of millions, and yet, from what
+I have learned of him on the best possible authority, as honest a man,
+as good-hearted a fellow, as ever fought the world single-handed and
+beat it."
+
+"Just as you did, dad," said Vane in a tone which reminded his father of
+the old days. "I suppose there is nothing to be said of the other two
+persons of the Infernal Trinity."
+
+"Not at present," said Sir Arthur, with a sudden change in his voice
+which made Vane look round at him. His face had changed with his tone.
+He was leaning with his arms on the door of the cab, staring up at the
+sky over the roofs of the houses. Vane noticed a little twitching of the
+lip under the long grey moustache, and thought it well to hold his
+peace.
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, for both, the cab at that moment swung round out
+of the main road into Warwick Gardens. Vane looked at the familiar
+corner at which he had stopped that other hansom cab on that memorable
+Boat Race night and got out, after Carol had denied him the kiss he
+asked for, to meet his father on the pavement. Sir Arthur remembered it
+too, and he had good reasons to, for he said as the cab swung round:
+
+"Vane, when my lease is up I am going to leave this place. I never can
+pass that corner without thinking of what no man ought to be obliged to
+think of."
+
+"I know what you mean, dad," cried Vane. "It was horrible enough, or at
+least it might have been and yet it wasn't, and because it wasn't----"
+
+"Well, at any rate," interrupted Sir Arthur as the cab pulled up, "let
+us thank God that it wasn't."
+
+As they got out another cab drove up just behind theirs, and somewhat to
+his astonishment Vane saw Ernshaw get out.
+
+"My dear Ernshaw," he said, as they shook hands, "isn't this great
+extravagance?"
+
+"Only a shilling's worth," laughed Ernshaw in reply, "and I think
+justifiable; a little kiddy was knocked down in Addison Road there by a
+butcher's cart, and I picked her up and took her to the hospital in
+Hammersmith Road, and this good fellow won't charge me more than a
+shilling for both journeys, although it is out of the radius."
+
+"Oh, he won't, won't he?" said Sir Arthur, putting his hand into his
+pocket and pulling out a couple of half-crowns.
+
+"You take that, my man, not for yourself if you won't have it, but for
+your wife and your children if you have got any; you can't say no for
+them."
+
+"No, sir, thankee, I won't say no to them," said the cabby, taking the
+half-crowns and touching his hat. "It's the best fare I've earned
+to-day. Good-night, sir, and thank you, sir. Come up, old girl."
+
+The whip flicked, and the old mare went round to begin another of those
+endless journeys through London streets which horses, if they reason at
+all, must find so utterly incomprehensible and aimless.
+
+"Is this the beginning of the surprises, dad?" said Vane, as the two
+cabs drove away. "This is certainly one of the last places in London
+that I should have expected to meet Ernshaw in, after seeing him up to
+his neck in work at Bethnal Green yesterday. It must have been a pretty
+strong attraction, Ernshaw, that got you as far west as this."
+
+"My dear Maxwell," said Ernshaw, "surely the worst of us are entitled to
+a holiday now and then. Why, even Father Philip goes to Norway for a
+fortnight every year, to say nothing of an occasional run up to Town
+now and then, and he confessed to me not very long ago that he enjoys no
+earthly pleasure better than a good 'Varsity match at Lord's."
+
+"There is nothing better," said Sir Arthur, "except a good Indian polo
+match. Well, come in. I have just got time for a wash and a change
+before our other guests arrive. You clerics don't want a change, so you
+can have a wash and a cigarette if you want one in the Den."
+
+As the door opened Koda Bux came along the hall and made his salaam; his
+grave, deep eyes made no sign as he recognised Vane in his clerical
+garb; he only salaamed again and welcomed Vane back to the house of his
+father and his mother. That was Koda Bux's way of putting it in his
+Indian fashion. He would have put it otherwise if he had known what such
+a welcome meant to him.
+
+"This is the place of the _debacle_," said Vane to Ernshaw when they met
+in the Den after they had had their wash; "there's the hearthrug--yes,
+and there's the same spirit-case. It is a curious thing, Ernshaw, but
+since then, or rather, since that other ghastly collapse at Oxford, I've
+lectured in club rooms reeking with alcohol; I've gone with you as you
+know where everyone was sodden with the gin and stank of it, and even
+into bars where you could smell nothing but liquor and unwashed
+humanity, and yet that intoxication has never come back to me."
+
+"Of course not," said Ernshaw; "you have prayed and fought since then,
+and as you have won your battles your prayers have been answered."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "I hope you are right; in fact, I am sure you are. I
+don't suppose a sniff at that whiskey decanter would affect me any more
+than a few drops of eau de cologne on my handkerchief."
+
+As he said this he went towards the spirit-case on the little old oak
+sideboard and took out the whiskey decanter.
+
+"Take care, Vane!" said Ernshaw. "I hope you are not forgetting the old
+doctrine of association. Remember what you were saying just now about
+this room. There is a sense, you know, in which places are really
+haunted."
+
+"My dear Ernshaw, I believe you are even more ideal than I am," laughed
+Vane, as he took the stopper out and raised the decanter to his
+nostrils. As he did so the front door bell tinkled, and the hand of a
+practised footman played a brief fantasia on the knocker. In the middle
+of an inhalation Vane stopped and put the bottle down; but even as he
+did so the mysterious force of association against which Ernshaw had
+warned him had begun to work upon his imagination. The familiar room,
+with its pictures and furniture and simple ornaments, the feel of the
+cut-glass decanter, which was the same one that he had held in his hand
+that fatal night, the smell of the whiskey--all these elements were
+rapidly combining in those few moments to produce an effect partly
+mental and partly physical which might have more than justified
+Ernshaw's sudden fear.
+
+"Ah, there are the mysterious guests, I suppose!" he said, putting the
+decanter back into the case. "I suppose you don't happen to know who
+they really are, Ernshaw?"
+
+"My dear fellow, if I did I shouldn't tell you," was the distinctly
+non-committal reply. "I think it will be very much more interesting for
+you to find out yourself."
+
+By this time Koda Bux, in his capacity of major-domo and general
+factotum to Sir Arthur, had opened the door, and at the same moment Sir
+Arthur himself came downstairs. Vane heard him say:
+
+"Good evening, ladies; I am sorry that I have no hostess to receive you,
+but Mrs. Saunders, who helps Koda Bux to take care of me, will take you
+upstairs."
+
+Then there was a low murmur of a woman's voice, a rustle of skirts up
+the stairs, and Sir Arthur went on:
+
+"Now, Mr. Rayburn, if you will come with me I will show you where to put
+your hat and coat and have a rinse if you like."
+
+"Thanks, Sir Arthur," replied a voice which was strange to Vane.
+
+"And who might Mr. Rayburn be?" he said to Ernshaw. "I didn't know the
+governor knew anyone of that name. Still, from the sound of his voice he
+is a gentleman, and, I should say, a man."
+
+"I think when you meet him you will find him both," said Ernshaw.
+
+"Ah," laughed Vane, "I think I caught you out there. So you are in this
+conspiracy of mystery, are you? Now, look here, Ernshaw, what is it all
+about?"
+
+"Guilty, but shan't tell," replied his friend. "Now here comes Sir
+Arthur; perhaps he will tell."
+
+"Vane," said Sir Arthur as the door opened, "this is Mr. Cecil Rayburn,
+and I want you to be very good friends; you will soon find out why."
+
+Vane looked up and saw a man apparently a year or two older than
+himself, about the same height and build, but harder and stronger, and
+possessing that peculiar erectness of carriage and alertness of movement
+that is owned only by those who have worked or fought, or done both, in
+the outlands of the earth. But a glance at his face confirmed Vane in
+the opinion he had formed when he heard his voice; he was undeniably
+both a gentleman and a man. He held out his hand and said:
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Rayburn. Of course a friend of my father's has to be
+my friend also."
+
+To his astonishment Cecil Rayburn made no movement to take his hand; on
+the contrary he drew back half a pace and said with a note of something
+like nervousness in his voice--a note which sounded strangely in the
+speech of a man who had never known what fear was:
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell; I hope we shall be friends, but I am afraid I
+can't shake hands with you yet--I mean, I shouldn't like you to regret
+it afterwards."
+
+Before Vane had found any words to shape a reply, Sir Arthur said:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, suppose we go into the drawing-room to receive the ladies,
+and leave these two to have it out. We shan't have dinner for half an
+hour, and I think they will manage to understand each other before
+then."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+"Well, Mr. Rayburn," said Vane, "this is a rather curious sort of
+introduction, but I see that you are--I mean that I am quite satisfied
+that you must have some very good reason for refusing to shake hands
+with me. You are the first man who has ever done so, and as you have
+come here as my father's guest, I may presume that it is not a personal
+objection."
+
+Vane could not help speaking formally; there was a strangeness about the
+situation which forced him to do so.
+
+"That would be impossible, Mr. Maxwell," replied the other, in a low,
+hesitating tone. "I knew that I should meet you here when I accepted Sir
+Arthur's invitation; in fact, we--I mean I came here on purpose to meet
+you, and, to shorten matters, the reason why your father has left us
+alone, is that I have a very serious and I am afraid a very difficult
+confession to make to you."
+
+"A confession!" said Vane, drawing himself up and looking Rayburn
+straight in the eyes. "Do you wish me to hear it as a man, or a priest,
+because if I am to hear it as a priest, it would be better kept for a
+more suitable time and place?"
+
+"I want you to hear it both as man and priest," replied Rayburn,
+returning his look with perfect steadiness, "and I want you to hear
+it--and, in fact, unless we are to go away at once, you must hear it
+now."
+
+"Very well," said Vane, a dim suspicion of the truth beginning to steal
+into his soul, "it is a little mysterious to me, but I daresay we shall
+soon understand each other."
+
+He paused for a moment, and then, with a visible effort which made
+Rayburn love and honour him from that moment forth, he went on:
+
+"And perhaps it would simplify matters for both of us if you began by
+telling me who _we_ are?"
+
+"Your sister, or rather your half-sister," Rayburn began falteringly,
+and then stopped.
+
+He saw Vane wince and heard his teeth come together with a snap, and he
+saw his hands clench up into fists and his face pale, already turned
+ashen grey white that denotes utter bloodlessness. It was the face of a
+corpse with living eyes that looked at him with an expression which
+could not be translated into human words. Rayburn had looked death in
+the face many a time and laughed at it, but he didn't laugh now. As he
+said afterwards, he would have given anything to be a couple of miles
+away from Vane just then. He didn't speak because he had nothing to say,
+his thoughts would not be translated into language, and so there was
+nothing for it but to wait for Vane to speak.
+
+For a few moments more the two men faced each other in silence, yet each
+reading the other's thoughts as accurately as though they had been
+talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke in a slow, hard, grating
+voice which none of the congregation of St. Chrysostom would have
+recognised as that of the eloquent preacher of the Sermon on the Mount,
+to which Rayburn, who had heard that sermon, listened with a shock,
+which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through him from head to
+foot.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more fully now. My sister
+Carol--she has come here with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in
+thinking that you were to some extent responsible, quite innocently no
+doubt, for her disappearance about a year ago. Is that so?"
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "that's so, and that's why I wouldn't shake hands
+with you. I did take her away. She has been round the world with me,
+travelling with me as my wife, and she isn't my wife, and--well, that is
+about all there is."
+
+"And why isn't she your wife?" exclaimed Vane, with an unreasoning burst
+of anger. Then, after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was
+almost humble.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rayburn, that was a foolish thing to say, as
+most things said in haste and anger are. You only did what any other man
+with no ties and plenty of money would have done under the
+circumstances. Forgive me! Only the hand of Providence itself saved me
+from committing, without knowledge, an infinitely greater sin than
+yours. I suppose Carol has told you how I met her and what happened,
+and, of course, my father has told you about my getting out of the cab
+that night at the top of the Gardens? No, no, I have nothing to forgive,
+nothing to say except, as Carol's brother, to ask you why you have
+brought her here? That, at least, I think I am entitled to ask."
+
+"Maxwell," replied Rayburn, pulling himself together as a man might do
+after being badly beaten in a fight, "I have been in a good many bad
+places in my lifetime, but this has been about the worst, and I'd a
+damned sight sooner--I beg your pardon, you know what I mean--I would
+very much rather been talking to a South American Dago with a pistol at
+my head, than having this talk with you, but it's got to be done.
+
+"You know, I suppose, or at any rate your father knows, how I met Carol
+and how we fixed it up to go away together. I admit, without any
+reserve, that I did take her just as any man like myself, who had had a
+pretty hard time for a few years and had come back with a ridiculous
+superfluity of money, would have taken such a girl under such
+circumstances; that is brutal, but at any rate, it is honest. Well, we
+went round the world together, and it was only a fortnight ago--we've
+been back three weeks now--that I found out who she was."
+
+"Not from her?" exclaimed Vane, with almost pitiful eagerness.
+
+"No," replied Rayburn, "she would have died first. Over and over again I
+tried to get her to tell me who and what she was, because of course it
+was perfectly easy to see--well, you know what I mean--but she wouldn't.
+It was the one confidence that she never gave me; in fact, when I was
+trying to insist upon it, she told me if I opened the subject again, she
+would leave me there and then, whatever happened to her."
+
+"Then how did you find out?" asked Vane, in the same dry, hard voice. "I
+more than believe you when you say she would never have told you."
+
+"Through the merest accident," replied Rayburn. "A day or two after we
+landed, we went to dinner at Verrey's, and we had hardly sat down before
+a friend of hers, Miss Russell, came in--well--with a friend, as they
+say. She came and spoke to Carol, and the four of us dined together.
+The next day Miss Russell came to see Carol, and you know, or perhaps
+you don't know, that it was Miss Russell's friend who introduced me to
+Carol. I got hold of Miss Russell afterwards--she's as clean-hearted a
+girl as ever the Fates--however, you won't agree with me there perhaps,
+you don't believe in Fate, I do. But that's neither here nor there. I
+told her what I am going to tell you, and she told me Carol's story, and
+that is why I am here to-night."
+
+There was a good deal of meaning in the words, but for Vane there was
+infinitely more in Rayburn's voice and the half-shamed manner in which
+he spoke. Vane felt that if this talk went on much longer, the strain
+would be too much for him to bear, for it was his sister, or at least
+the daughter of his own mother that this man was talking about. He put
+out his hand again and said:
+
+"I think I know now, Mr. Rayburn, what you were going to say, and if I
+am right, let me, her brother, say it for you and for her, you won't
+refuse my hand this time, will you?"
+
+"No," said Rayburn, "I won't, and for the matter of that," he went on as
+their hands met, "I don't think there is much more for either of us to
+say, except just for me to ask you one question."
+
+"Yes," said Vane, "and what is that?"
+
+"You are her brother and a priest. Will you take me for your
+brother-in-law and marry us?"
+
+Their hands were still clasped; each was looking straight into the
+other's eyes, and the two faces, so different individually, and yet for
+the moment so strangely alike, fronted each other in silence. Then Vane
+dropped Rayburn's hand, put his hands on his shoulders, and said:
+
+"You cannot be lying, you haven't the mouth or the eyes of a man who
+tells lies. You have sinned, sinned deeply, for you have bought with
+your money what should have no other price than lawful love; but love
+has come to you, and love has made lawful and right what was sinful
+before. You told me at first that you wanted to confess to me both as
+man and priest. Very well, as man, as Carol's brother I forgive you, if
+you have done anything that I have to forgive, and as a priest of God I
+will marry you, and when you have taken the Sacrament of Matrimony from
+my hands, as a priest, I will absolve you from your sin. It is a
+miracle----"
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "it is. I am not altogether of your way of
+thinking, you know, but there, I am with you; it is a miracle in more
+ways than one. I know I am expressing myself horribly badly, but, to put
+it as shortly as I can, it is the sort of miracle that only a good,
+clean-souled, pure-hearted girl like Carol, could have worked upon a
+fellow like myself. I tell you, Maxwell, honestly, that if she wouldn't
+have me now, I'm damned if I know what I should do. She is everything
+that is good to me. I am worth nearly a couple of millions, and not a
+cent of it would be worth anything to me if I lost her. And so you
+really will marry us?"
+
+"I will," said Vane. "Thank God and you into whose heart He has put this
+saving thought of righteousness."
+
+"Yes," said Rayburn, "I see what you mean, but really, the credit isn't
+mine at all, it is all Carol's. Do you know, Maxwell, that I am going to
+have one of the most delightful wives man ever won? If I could only tell
+you just exactly how I fell in love with her--but of course a man could
+never tell another man that, and after all it doesn't matter. I've got
+the one girl in the world I want----"
+
+There was another little pause, and then Rayburn went on, speaking as
+shyly and hesitatingly as a schoolboy confessing a peccadillo:
+
+"There's one other thing I should like to say, Maxwell, but I hardly
+know how to say it."
+
+He stopped again, and Vane said, smiling for the first time during the
+interview:
+
+"Then say it, as one man would say it to another. I think we understand
+each other now. What is it?"
+
+"Well, it's this," replied Rayburn, flushing like a girl under the tan
+of his skin, "you know Carol and I met quite by chance, and I took her
+away just as what she seemed to be. Then, after a month or two--you'll
+hardly believe me, but it is the Lord's own truth--I began to fall in
+love with her, honestly I mean, and in quite a different way. One
+evening, it was in Japan, and we were coming back from a trip to Fuji. I
+couldn't stand it any longer, I felt such a hopeless sweep, and I told
+her. It was a queer sort of courtship, and it took me about six weeks to
+bring her round--and then at last--we were in the Rockies then--she gave
+in and confessed that she loved me in the same way that I loved her. I
+kissed her. I could never tell you how different that kiss was from all
+the others."
+
+"Of course it was," said Vane, gently. "It was a pure one, a holy one,
+and God was very near you, Rayburn, in that moment."
+
+"I believe He was," replied Rayburn, simply, "for from that moment, we
+were both absolutely changed. Since that kiss, Carol has been as sacred
+to me as my own sister would be if I had one. That is what I wanted to
+tell you."
+
+"And God bless you for telling me!" said Vane, solemnly. "If I had any
+doubts before, I have none now. After that, knowing all I do, I would
+give you the blessed Sacrament to-morrow."
+
+"On Sunday I hope you will give it to us both," replied Rayburn.
+
+At that moment the door opened, and Sir Arthur came in.
+
+"Dinner is nearly ready," he said. "Are you about ready for it? Ah, yes,
+I see, you understand each other, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Arthur," said Rayburn, swinging round with an almost military
+precision of movement. "I've made my confession, and I am to receive
+absolution when the happiest moment of my life comes, and you know when
+that will be."
+
+"I think I do," said Sir Arthur, with a look at Vane, who was staring
+vacantly down into the flower-filled fireplace. "Then you have settled
+it all between you, is that so, Vane?"
+
+"Yes, with God's help, we have," he replied, and then, with a swift
+change of tone and manner he went on: "and now as we have got our family
+affairs settled to a certain extent, I suppose we can go and join the
+ladies. I am longing to see Carol again."
+
+"And so am I," said Rayburn, "let us go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Rayburn went out first and Vane followed him, feeling, as he said to
+himself afterwards, as though he was walking across the boundary between
+one world and another. He knew that Carol and Dora were in the
+drawing-room. Dora he had never seen before. Carol he had not seen since
+the night of the University Boat Race. Ernshaw, with the memory of what
+he had said in Vane's room at Oxford fresh in his mind, caught him by
+the arm and said:
+
+"Maxwell, I believe I am going to meet my fate to-night as you met yours
+in another way. Was there ever such a complication in the life-affairs
+of little mortals like ourselves?"
+
+"I don't know," said Vane, "and I don't care," gripping his arm hard as
+they crossed the hall. "Wait, it may be the Providence that shapes our
+ends."
+
+"Rough-hew them as we will," said Rayburn, looking backward.
+
+"Ah, well, since we understand each other, as I think we do now, _Vogue
+la galere!_ And, Mr. Ernshaw," he went on, "I have heard things and
+things. I am not giving any confidences away, but by the same token you
+and I will soon be sailing in the same boat or something very like
+it----"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ernshaw, "I see what you mean!" Then he gripped his arm
+a little harder before they went into the drawing-room. Vane went on
+with his father, and Ernshaw said:
+
+"Look here, Maxwell, you have passed your crisis, you and Rayburn, I'm
+only getting near mine. What am I to do, what can I do?"
+
+"That I can't tell you. You see, to put it into the twentieth-century
+language, the Eternal Feminine is here, and you have got to reckon with
+her just as Rayburn has done. Come now, if you've made your mind up, go
+and meet your fate."
+
+As he said this Vane pushed the door of the drawing-room open. Sir
+Arthur and Rayburn had gone in just before him.
+
+"Carol!"
+
+"Vane! and is it really you--you?"
+
+"Yes," he said, taking a few swift strides towards her and for the first
+time putting his arms round her. "Yes, dear, your brother."
+
+"Really brother, Vane? Do you truly mean it--will you really take me for
+your sister now that you know everything--I mean all about Cecil and
+myself?"
+
+"Yes, Carol, and because I do know, because he as a man has told me
+everything. I am going to marry you soon, and no man, no priest could
+marry his sister to his friend with more hope for happiness than I shall
+marry you and Rayburn."
+
+He took hold of her left hand, and stretched out his hand to Rayburn and
+said:
+
+"Come now, sister and brother, as you are going to be!"
+
+He took their two hands and joined them. Over the two hands he clasped
+his own, and looking swiftly from one to the other he said:
+
+"Afterwards I will say the words that I cannot speak here." And then,
+with a sudden change of tone and manner which came as a quick surprise
+to both Carol and Rayburn, he went on:
+
+"Rayburn, this is my sister. Carol, Rayburn tells me that he wants to
+marry you, and I suppose----"
+
+"You needn't suppose anything at all, Vane. I've said yes already. If
+you and Sir Arthur will only say yes too----"
+
+Vane drew back from her, and looked round toward Sir Arthur and Dora.
+Rayburn, having gone through the formalities of introduction which
+Vane's tact had made necessary, held out his hand and they shook hands.
+
+"It is rather unceremonious, Miss Maxwell," he said, addressing her for
+the first time by a name that was not her own, "but----"
+
+"But, my dear Carol, you are forgetting that you are hostess to-night,"
+said Sir Arthur, "and I think there are two of our guests who have not
+been, as one would say in Society, properly introduced."
+
+"Oh, of course; I'm so sorry," said Carol. "Dora, forgive me. I know you
+will. I was too happy just now to think of anything else. Mr. Ernshaw,
+this is Dora. Dora, this is Mr. Ernshaw. I hope you will be very good
+friends. That's a rather unconventional way of introduction, I must
+say."
+
+As the last words left her laughing lips, and she was looking
+exquisitely dainty and desirable in a quietly magnificent costume which
+had cost as much as many much advertised wedding dresses, Dora and
+Ernshaw faced each other for the first time. She had seen him with Vane
+at the ordination service in Worcester Cathedral, but they had never met
+before under the sanction of social acquaintance.
+
+She looked at him and he looked at her, and as their eyes met some
+impulse in the soul of both made them hold out their hands as people do
+not usually do when they are introduced in ordinary drawing-room style.
+Ernshaw's went out straight.
+
+"Miss Russell," he said, even while her hand was moving slowly towards
+his.
+
+"My dear Mr. Ernshaw, whatever you have to say, I'm afraid I will have
+to ask you to keep it just for a little," said Sir Arthur, as the door
+swung open. "Here is Koda Bux, and he does not allow me to be late for
+dinner; he has many virtues, but that is the best of them. Mr. Rayburn,
+you will take Carol in? Mr. Ernshaw, will you give your arm to Miss
+Russell, and Vane and I will bring up the rear."
+
+"Dad," said Vane, as he gripped his father's arm, "you have helped to do
+God's work to-night; look at them!"
+
+"You did more when you got out of the cab at the top of the gardens
+here," he whispered in reply.
+
+"I didn't do that, dad; she did. She knew, and I didn't. God bless her."
+
+"Amen," said his father. "And now we will return to earth and go and
+eat."
+
+There were not many more delightful dinners eaten in London that night
+than what Cecil Rayburn called his betrothal feast. He and Carol now
+understood each other thoroughly. Vane and his father also knew the
+circumstances so far as they were concerned, and a little more. Ernshaw
+and Dora, each knowing just a little more than the others did, began to
+make friends fast, and therefore rapidly, but Dora was still
+_declassee_. Carol had already been lifted beyond the confines of that
+half-sphere which is inhabited by so many thousands of women who are
+neither maiden, wife, nor widow. Dora was still a dweller in it, knowing
+all its infamy and shame, and knowing, too, that awful necessity which
+is so often at once the equivalent and the excuse for sin.
+
+Everyone took Sir Arthur's hint, and the conversation rattled on around
+the table as lightly as it might have around any other dinner table in
+London. Carol and Sir Arthur and Rayburn had it mostly to themselves at
+first, but after a little the conversation grew more general. Dora and
+Carol engaged in a really brilliant discussion on the subject of Mrs.
+Lynn Linton's last book, with the result that Carol said that she
+wouldn't live for ever at any price, to which Dora replied with just a
+suspicion of a note of sadness in her voice.
+
+"Yes, Carol, I quite agree with you, or at least if I were you I should
+do."
+
+"Which," said Ernshaw, "is, I think, as nearly as possible the same
+thing. Surely if one cannot agree with one's self----"
+
+"No, Mr. Ernshaw," said Dora, putting her elbows on the table and her
+chin between her hands. "No, I'm afraid I can hardly agree with you
+there. After all, our worst enemies are those of our own household, by
+which of course I mean our immediate surroundings. It is this awful
+necessity to live, to eat and to have a place to sleep in. Of course you
+are thinking of what Talleyrand said to the young aristocrat who wanted
+to live for nothing."
+
+"Yes," said Ernshaw, "I know that. He said he didn't see the necessity,
+and I am not altogether certain that he was wrong, but you----"
+
+"Yes, I," she replied in a tone that had a thrill of angry reproach
+running through it, "I, as you know, am--well--a superfluous woman, one
+who isn't wanted, a sort of waste product of the factory that we call
+civilisation."
+
+"I am afraid you people are getting far too serious in your
+conversation," said Carol from her end of the table opposite Sir Arthur.
+"No, Dora, I really can't allow it; social problems are not in the menu
+to-night, and you and Mr. Ernshaw will have to keep them for some other
+time. Meanwhile, suppose we leave the rest for their smokes, and you
+come with me and run through that song you are going to sing; we haven't
+tried it together for quite a long time, as Mr. Rayburn said when we
+were on the other side of the Atlantic. Come along."
+
+As she rose from her chair, Koda Bux, who had been standing immovable
+behind his master, opened the door, and as Carol, daintily and yet most
+plainly dressed, passed through, his sombre eyes lit up as though by an
+inspiration of long past days, and his teeth came together and he said
+in his soul:
+
+"It is the daughter of the Mem Sahib; what marvel is this! If there is
+vengeance to be done, may mine be the hand. Inshallah! I should die
+content, even if it was only a minute afterwards. He has his kismet, and
+I have mine. Allah will give it to me; but they may be the same. Once
+the roomal round his neck, and his breath would be already in his mouth.
+Dog and son of a dog, he would be better dead!"
+
+It had been arranged that Carol and Dora should take up their abode with
+Sir Arthur, so that Carol might be married from her father's house.
+Under the circumstances it was only natural that the wedding was to be
+absolutely private, and it was already decided that immediately after
+the wedding Rayburn and Carol should leave for a month in Paris, and
+then go on to Western Australia, where most of Rayburn's mining
+properties were. He also owned one side of a street in Perth and a
+country estate with a big bungalow-built house on the eastern hills
+overlooking the Swan River.
+
+The only difficulty appeared ahead to Sir Arthur was some mysterious
+connection with the Raleighs and the Garthornes. It was, of course,
+impossible that the wedding could take place without their knowledge, if
+Sir Arthur was to give Carol away as he intended to do, and yet the
+moment that Garthorne's name was mentioned Carol had turned white to the
+lips and a look of deadly fear had come into her eyes.
+
+"No, no," she said, "not them, I can't tell you why, and you mustn't ask
+me. You have been very good to me, and you are going to do more for me
+than ever was done to a girl like me before, but sooner than meet them I
+would run away again as I did from Melville Gardens. I would, really,
+but you must not ask me why; there are some things that cannot be told."
+
+After this Sir Arthur, finding it impossible to get any inkling of the
+mystery from Carol, asked Dora if she could tell him the meaning of it,
+and she too turned white. She did not reply for a few moments, and then
+she said:
+
+"No, Sir Arthur, I cannot tell you. All I can say is that Carol is
+perfectly right. It would be utterly impossible for her to meet either
+Sir Reginald Garthorne or his son, and of course she could not meet Mrs.
+Garthorne without meeting her husband. There is a reason, and a very
+solemn one, too, for this, but I can assure you, Sir Arthur----"
+
+"That is enough, Miss Russell," said Sir Arthur gravely. "I am perfectly
+satisfied, and I have no right to ask for an explanation. The wedding
+shall be absolutely private; no one shall be asked except ourselves.
+Vane shall marry them early in the morning, we will come back here for
+lunch, and then they will go straight off to Paris. I will tell the
+Garthornes about it afterwards."
+
+"Yes," said Dora, "I think that would be best."
+
+That night Carol and Dora had a talk in Carol's room. It was rather a
+discussion perhaps than a conversation, and the question was whether Sir
+Arthur and Vane should be told the dreadful secret which Carol had
+discovered at Reginald Garthorne's wedding. Carol, clean-hearted and
+straightforward as she was naturally, shrank in horror from such a
+revelation as this; but Dora, whose nature was deeper, and who had a
+stronger religious bias, felt that at all hazards the truth should be
+told, horrible as it was.
+
+"That man Garthorne," she said, "is a brute. I am perfectly certain that
+he deliberately made your brother drunk that day at Oxford--I mean that
+he took advantage of the weakness that you discovered to tempt him to go
+on drinking, so that he might get drunk on the most important morning of
+his life. He knew very well what he was doing. He knew if he could only
+make him drunk that morning, everything would be at an end between him
+and Miss Raleigh."
+
+"But, my dear Dora, suppose that is so, and I hope it isn't," replied
+Carol, "how on earth can you have found that out? Of course, if it
+really is so, Vane and Sir Arthur ought to know of it, and, well, I
+suppose of the other thing too, dreadful and all as it is, but----"
+
+"I see what you mean," said Dora, "and I will tell you why. In the first
+place, when we were at the flat, Bernard--I mean Mr. Falcon--told me one
+or two things Mr. Garthorne had said to him when they were getting
+confidential over their whiskies, and I had a few minutes' talk with
+Mr. Ernshaw this evening which--well, what Mr. Falcon told me and what
+he said were the two and two that made four. I am afraid that is not
+very grammatical, but it is true. Of course he wouldn't have told me if
+I had not said something about it; but the moment he told me about your
+brother's collapse that morning the truth came to me like a flash.
+Reginald Garthorne is a scoundrel, and his father is worse, for he is a
+hypocrite as well as a scoundrel. He pretends to be Sir Arthur's
+friend--he has done so for years. He has allowed his son to steal Vane's
+life-long love from him, knowing all that he himself did--and, well,
+no--I can't say the rest."
+
+"You mean," said Carol quietly, and with a note of hardness in her
+voice, "you mean that he is my father. It is very dreadful, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Dora, it is, but you are not to blame after all; you didn't know,
+and of course we must admit that Mr. Garthorne didn't know so morally.
+You are both quite innocent there, but there is someone else just now.
+We've been friends and comrades now for a long time, tell me, dear, does
+Mr. Rayburn know?"
+
+"I have told him everything," replied Carol, with an effort which she
+could not conceal, even from Dora.
+
+"Yes, everything, even the very worst. You know when, as he says, he
+fell in love with me and, as I told you, began to treat me altogether
+differently, and then asked me to marry him, I said 'No.' I felt that I
+couldn't say 'Yes' honestly unless he knew everything. I had got very
+fond of him, and I suppose that was the reason why. I felt that I had to
+tell him the truth, and so I told him. Of course it wouldn't have been
+the straight thing to do anything else. If he had been like other
+men----"
+
+"But he isn't," said Dora; "all men are not men, you know, and he's a
+man, and you are just about as lucky a girl as ever got a real man for
+her husband. Now I see what you mean. Yes, of course, it would be wicked
+to tell the truth just now. In a week you will be married and away to
+Australia to live a new life in a new world. Then no one will know Mrs.
+Rayburn, the wife of the millionaire, except as Mrs. Rayburn, but after
+that vengeance must be done."
+
+"But why, Dora--why not let things stop just as they are? What is the
+use of bringing all these things up again and making misery for
+everybody?"
+
+"Simply because the truth should be known, because a man who has done
+another the greatest possible injury should not be allowed to remain his
+friend even in appearance. The truth ought to be told, and it must be
+told."
+
+"Very well," said Carol, "tell it, Dora, after I am gone. I have told
+him all the truth, but you know I am like a girl coming out of hell into
+heaven."
+
+"And do you think that I would spoil your heaven?" said Dora. "No, you
+are too good for that."
+
+"I am not half so good as you," said Carol. "I have only had infinitely
+more good fortune than I deserve."
+
+"I don't think that," replied Dora. "I have known you too long and too
+well. I believe, after all, that everyone does get in this world just
+about what they deserve if everything was understood, which of course it
+isn't; but I am quite certain about you. Good-night, Carol, and pleasant
+dreams--as of course they will be if you have any."
+
+"Good-night, Dora!" laughed Carol, with one of her swift changes of
+manner. "By the way, I have quite forgotten to ask you how you like Mr.
+Ernshaw?"
+
+Dora looked at her straight in the eyes for a moment, her cheeks flushed
+ever so slightly, and she said almost stiffly:
+
+"I am afraid, Carol, you have begun to dream already."
+
+As the door closed Carol went and stood in front of the long mirror in
+the wardrobe, and still smiling at herself, as well she might, she said:
+
+"Well, it is all very wonderful, and part of it very terrible, and I
+certainly have got a great deal more than I deserve. If Dora only gets
+what she deserves it will make things a little more equal.
+Good-night--Mrs. Rayburn!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+On the following Sunday evening London had another theological
+sensation. The National Secular Society had advertised far and wide that
+the preacher of the famous sermon at St. Chrysostom had consented to
+deliver an address at the Hall of Science, and that the chair was to be
+taken by the President of the Society, who was one of the most eloquent
+and uncompromising exponents of free-thought and rationalism in the
+world.
+
+Not only in the Anglican churches but also among Catholics and
+Nonconformists a perfect tempest of indignation had burst forth during
+the past few days. A hurriedly summoned but crowded meeting was held at
+Exeter Hall on the same night that Vane had welcomed Carol and her lover
+into the family circle. It was mainly expressive of evangelical opinion,
+and was addressed with indignant eloquence by several of the principal
+Low Church and Nonconformist divines in London. Their principal theme
+was ritualism and atheism, with special reference to the connection that
+appeared to exist between them in the person of the Rev. Vane Maxwell.
+
+To begin with, he had joined a confraternity of Anglican priests whose
+practises were notoriously and admittedly illegal, and he had taken
+advantage of his position in the pulpit to preach a sermon which had
+sent a thrill of indignation through the hearts of all the most generous
+supporters of Church and mission work throughout the United Kingdom and
+abroad.
+
+He had taken upon himself to put a brutally literal construction on the
+words of Christ which it would be absolutely impossible to carry out in
+practice unless the whole of Christendom were pauperised--and what,
+then, would become of the work of the churches, and, particularly, of
+those vast missionary movements which had spread the light of
+Christianity in so many dark places of the earth? How would they
+continue to exist without the vast sums which Christians of wealth so
+generously contributed? What was to happen, even to the churches of all
+denominations in England itself, if they accepted the preposterous
+doctrine that a man could not enjoy the fruit of his own labour, or
+inherit that of his ancestors, and at the same time remain a Christian?
+It was totally out of the question, far beyond the bounds of all
+practical common sense, and therefore it could not be Christian, since,
+if such a doctrine were true, Christianity would be impossible.
+
+And now, not content with preaching from a Christian pulpit a heresy
+which, if accepted by Christians, would make Christianity a practical
+impossibility, this headstrong, unthinking visionary, reckless of all
+the best traditions of his Church and his cloth, was going to address an
+assembly of infidels and atheists, and, as a minister of the Gospel,
+make friends with those who blasphemed the name of God every time they
+used it, and did their utmost to destroy the edifice of Christianity
+and to uproot the foundations of the Christian faith.
+
+It was monstrous, it was horrible, and the general sense of the
+speeches, and of the resolutions which were unanimously and
+enthusiastically carried at the end of the meeting, was that the man who
+could preach heresy in a Christian pulpit, then, the next Sunday,
+associate himself deliberately with infidels and atheists, was not
+worthy to remain within the fold of the Christian Ministry.
+
+Of course, the speeches were duly reported in the papers the next
+morning with, in some cases, a considerable amount of editorial
+embroidery, and nowhere were they read with greater interest than at the
+breakfast-table of Sir Arthur's house in Warwick Gardens, especially as,
+side by side with them, came the announcement that another meeting of
+protest was to be held at St. James's Hall on the Saturday evening,
+under the auspices of a committee of members of the English Church
+Union. The chair was to be taken by Canon Thornton-Moore, and several of
+the leading lights of High Anglicanism were to speak.
+
+"What a very wicked person you must be, Vane," said Carol, who had
+swiftly skimmed through some of the speeches and the comments on them.
+"The Low Church people seem to have excommunicated you altogether, and
+now the High Church are going to do it. Why don't you go to this meeting
+to-night and give them a bit of your mind? I believe they are all
+frightened of you and your new doctrines, and that is why they are
+making such a fuss about it."
+
+"My doctrines are not new, Carol," replied Vane, with a smile which
+seemed to her very gentle and sweet. "They are just as old as
+Christianity itself, and they are not mine, but the Master's. No, I
+don't think I shall go to the meeting. I am afraid there will be quite
+trouble enough without me, and, besides, personal controversy seldom
+does any good at all. I only hope, indeed, that these good people will
+keep away from the Hall of Science on Sunday night. It is the greatest
+of pities that it was made public. I simply wanted to have a quiet talk
+with the usual audience."
+
+"I am afraid you won't have many more quiet talks with any audiences
+now, Vane," laughed Sir Arthur. "This sudden jump that you have made
+into fame has made it impossible. You will have to pay the usual penalty
+of greatness."
+
+"It appears," said Carol, "in this case, to be mostly abuse and
+misunderstanding."
+
+"I don't think there is much misunderstanding, Carol," said Dora. "It
+seems to me to be quite the other way about. These people understand Mr.
+Maxwell only too well for their own comfort. They see quite plainly that
+if he is right, as, of course, he is, wealth and real Christianity
+cannot go together; therefore, equally, of course, fat livings and
+bishoprics and archbishoprics at ten and fifteen thousand a year will
+also be impossible. It may be very wicked to say so, but I think a lot
+of these good people are worrying themselves much more about salaries
+and endowments and that sort of thing than real Christianity."
+
+"Of course they are," said Carol. "I wonder how many of them will do
+what Vane has done, give up everything he had----"
+
+"My dear Carol," interrupted Vane, gently, "that is not quite the point.
+You must remember that these men have their opinions just as I have
+mine, and they may not think it their duty to do that. I do not believe
+that it is right for a man to be a priest of the Church and possess more
+than the actual necessaries of life. They believe that it is right."
+
+"And a very convenient belief, too!" said Carol, with a look of
+admiration. "Well, I am not as charitable as you are, and I don't
+believe that they do believe it. Now, there's Cecil and the carriage.
+Dear me! how very punctual he is."
+
+"There's not much to wonder at in that," said Sir Arthur. "Well, now, I
+suppose you young ladies are going to have a morning in Paradise--the
+one that is bounded by Oxford Street on the north and Piccadilly on the
+south. Vane, we will go and have a cigar with Mr. Rayburn while they are
+getting ready."
+
+The meeting at St. James's Hall was much less crowded, and, as some
+thought, much more decorous than the one at Exeter Hall. Canon
+Thornton-Moore, a man of stately presence, high social standing and very
+considerable wealth--he had married the daughter of one of the most
+successful operators in the Kaffir Circus--made an ideal chairman. He
+was a High Churchman and the son of a Bishop. He was the incarnation of
+the most aristocratic section of the Anglican Church. He was supported
+by the presence of a Duke and two High Church peers on the platform, and
+half a dozen vicars and curates, all eloquent preachers and fashionable
+exponents of ritualistic doctrine, were announced to speak in advocacy
+of the protest which the meeting had been called to make.
+
+The proceedings were very quiet and dignified--and very churchy. It was
+the Church from beginning to end; it never seemed to strike either the
+speakers or the audience that there was anything that might fairly be
+called Christianity outside the Church. In fact, the words Christ and
+Christianity were not used at all from the platform.
+
+The only approach to unseemliness occurred when, in response to a formal
+intimation that "discussion within reasonable limits" would be
+permitted, one of the Kilburn Sisters, a woman who had given up a
+fortune and relinquished a title, got up and asked the chairman
+point-blank what _his_ interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount was,
+and further, if any of the noble and reverend gentlemen on the platform
+could give a better exposition of it as a rule of Christian life than
+Vane Maxwell had done?
+
+She had hardly uttered her question before murmurs of angry protest
+began to run from lip to lip through the hall; but when she went on to
+ask why the preacher of the now famous sermon should be denounced by his
+fellow priests for giving an address to free-thinkers in a free-thought
+hall, when Christ himself, for his own good purposes, associated himself
+with publicans and sinners and thought none too low or too utterly lost
+to take by the hand, her voice was at once drowned by a chorus of "Oh!
+Oh's!" amidst which the chairman rose and said in his most dignified
+manner:
+
+"I hope that I have the sense and feeling of the meeting with me when I
+say that the questions asked by our most respected sister seem to have
+been asked under a total misconception of the circumstances. It is
+obvious that they raise issues which could not possibly be discussed in
+such a place, and on such an occasion as this. I would remind our dear
+friend that this edifice is not a church, and this platform not a
+pulpit; and that, therefore, I do not feel myself justified, even if
+time and other circumstances permitted, to enter upon a doctrinal
+subject which involves so many far-reaching considerations as this one
+does."
+
+The Canon sat down amidst a many-voiced murmur of approval, and the Duke
+said audibly to him:
+
+"A very proper way, my dear Canon, of dealing with a most improper
+question. The dear lady seems to think that we are not capable of
+reading our Bibles for ourselves."
+
+After that the chairman put to the meeting the resolution of protest to
+the effect that if the Reverend Vane Maxwell persisted in carrying out
+his intention to proceed from a pulpit of the church to the platform of
+an infidel lecture hall, he would make it the painful duty of his
+canonical superiors to take his conduct into most serious consideration,
+and, further, should he persist in this deplorable resolution, he would
+arouse the gravest suspicions in the minds of all loyal churchmen as to
+his fitness for dispensing the sacred functions of his office.
+
+The Kilburn Sister and a few others walked out amidst a chilling
+silence, and under a silent fire of glances which ought to have made
+them feel very uncomfortable. Perhaps it did.
+
+The resolution was put and passed without a dissentient voice, and when
+the proceedings were over and Lady Canore, who had been one of the most
+energetic organisers of the meeting, got back into her carriage, she
+said to her husband:
+
+"I think the dear Canon's reply was most dignified and proper. That
+woman ought to be ashamed of herself--and a Kilburn Sister, too! Donald,
+I shall certainly go and hear what this Mr. Maxwell has to say to
+these--ah--these people at, where is it? the Hall of what? Oh, yes!
+Science, and you must manage to get a seat. I believe you pay for them
+just as you do in a theatre. It is, of course, very shocking, but I
+think it will be most interesting."
+
+A good many other members of the audience said practically the same
+thing in other ways, and so it came about that the Hall in Old Street
+was packed as it had not been since the most famous days of Charles
+Bradlaugh, and packed, too, with a most strangely assorted audience of
+democrats and aristocrats, socialists and landowners, freethinkers of
+the deistic, the atheistic, and the agnostic persuasions, and Christians
+of even more varying shades of opinion, from the most rigidly
+Calvinistic evangelical, to the most artistically emotional of the High
+Anglican cult.
+
+The President rose amidst the usual applause, but it hushed the moment
+he began to speak, in clear incisive tones which sent every syllable
+distinctly from end to end of the hall:
+
+"Friends, I intend to say very little, because we are going to hear
+to-night what we very seldom hear in a secular lecture-hall. We are
+going to hear an address which you are waiting for as eagerly as I am,
+an address delivered by a man who, as a Priest of the Church of England,
+last Sunday sent a thrill of astonishment, of amazement, I might almost
+say of horror, through Christian England."
+
+A burst of applause, coming chiefly from the back of the hall,
+interrupted the speaker, but he put his hand up, and went on:
+
+"No, please! I must ask you not to applaud. For one thing, there is not
+time for it. Just let me get my say said, and then, when Mr. Maxwell
+gives us the message he has brought us from what we are, perhaps, too
+ready to believe the enemy's camp, applaud him as much as you like. What
+I want to do now is to say as far as possible without offence, and
+without hurting the feelings of the many members of Christian churches
+who have come amongst us to-night, that it is to be our privilege to
+listen here in what has been recently called the head-quarters of
+infidelity--an insulting epithet which I, with you and all true
+rationalists indignantly repudiate--a man, a Christian clergyman, a
+priest of the Church of England who has, as you already know, raised a
+hurricane of criticism throughout this Christian country by daring to
+tell Christians just what Jesus of Nazareth meant--if plain words mean
+anything--when he preached the Sermon on the Mount. He has dared to say
+from a Christian pulpit what we have been saying from these platforms of
+ours ever since we had them--that Christendom is not Christian, and that
+it cannot be so until it is prepared to be honest with itself and its
+God.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell has come amongst us to-night with other thoughts, other
+faiths, other beliefs than ours, but from what I see of the audience he
+will not speak to freethinkers only. I believe that there are more
+professing Christians in this hall to-night than there ever have been
+before. Let us remember that. It may be that Mr. Maxwell will teach us
+some lessons as unpalatable as those which he taught from the pulpit of
+St. Chrysostom; but do not let us forget this that we shall be listening
+to a man who is a missionary in the best sense of the word, a man who
+has justified his faith by the sacrifice of his worldly prospects, and
+who has taken upon himself a task infinitely more difficult, infinitely
+more thankless than that of the missionary who, as we believe, carries
+at an immense expense of money which could be better spent in the
+charity that begins at home, a message of salvation, as he no doubt
+honestly believes it to be, to savages who cannot understand it, or to
+the people who were civilized when we were savages, and who don't want
+it and won't have it.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell has taken upon himself, if I may say so without offence, a
+far nobler mission than this, a greater task, if possible, than that of
+the noble men and women of all creeds, and no creed, who minister to the
+wants of our own savages, by which I mean those who have been kept in a
+state of savagery infinitely worse than that of the negro slave of
+seventy years ago, by the necessities of the civilization which is no
+more Christian than it is humane.
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, by preaching that one famous sermon of his, has
+constituted himself a missionary to the rich, to those who profess and
+call themselves Christians, and yet are content to live utterly and
+hopelessly unchristian lives. Friends, the man beside me has begun to
+make himself the Savonarola of the twentieth century. Whether his creed
+is ours or not, we must all agree that that sermon of his is the
+beginning of a great and noble work. He told his wealthy and fashionable
+hearers last Sunday that they could not be Christians unless they were
+honest with God and their fellow men. As regards the first part, some of
+us have different beliefs to his, but as regards the second, we are with
+him heart and soul. If he can teach us to be honest with ourselves and
+each other, he will have done more to conquer sin and vice, more to make
+earth that human paradise that the poets and dreamers and prophets of
+all ages have longed for and foretold, than all the churches and all the
+creeds have done for the last two thousand years. It is a godly because
+it is a goodly work, and--if there is a God--that God will bless him and
+help him in it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+As the President sat down and Vane rose to his feet, quite a tumult of
+mingled applause, "hear, hears," hissings and hootings rose up from the
+strangely assorted audience.
+
+Vane faced the half-delighted, half-angry throng with the perfect
+steadiness of a man who has decided upon a certain course and means to
+pursue it at all hazards. Curiosity reduced one portion of the audience
+to silence, and a respectful anticipation the other. In the sea of faces
+before him, Vane recognised several that were familiar to him. His
+father, Carol, Dora, Ernshaw and Rayburn were there as a matter of
+course. Several clerics, high and low, Anglican and Nonconformist, were
+dotted about the audience, some with folded arms and frowning brows as
+though they were expecting the worst of heresies, others smiling in
+bland and undisguised contempt, believing that they had come to see one
+of their own cloth, who had already made himself an even more
+disagreeable subject of reflection to them than even the infidels in
+whose house the magic of Vane's sudden fame had brought them together,
+do that which would make it impossible for him to again commit such an
+offence in the pulpit of an English church.
+
+For a moment or two there was a hush of intense silence of mental
+suspense and expectation as Vane faced his audience and looked steadily
+about him before he began to speak, and when he did begin, the silence
+changed to an almost inaudible murmur and movement which is always the
+sign of relaxed tension among a large body of human beings.
+
+His first words were as unconventional as they were unexpected.
+
+"Brother men and sister women; some of you, like myself, believe in God,
+in the existence of an all-wise, over-ruling Providence, which shapes
+the destinies of mankind, and yet at the same time allows each man and
+woman to work out his or her own earthly destinies for good or ill, as
+he or she chooses--by reason or desire, by inclination or passion--and
+we also believe in the efficacy of the sacrifice which was consummated
+on Calvary. There are others listening to me now to whom these beliefs
+are merely idle dreams, the inventions of enthusiasts, or the deliberate
+frauds of those who brought them into being and imposed them by physical
+force upon those who had no means of resistance, for their own personal
+and political ends.
+
+"I have not come here to make any attempt to settle these differences
+between us. As a priest of the Church, I wish, with all my soul, that I
+could. As a man, I know that I can't. But there is one ground at least
+upon which we can meet as friends, whatever our opinions may be as
+regards religion and theology--two terms which, I think every one here
+will agree with me, are very far from meaning the same thing."
+
+"As a priest of the Church, I cannot hear that without protest!" cried a
+tall, high-browed, thin-featured, deep-eyed clergyman, springing to his
+feet in the middle of the hall. "If theology, the Science of God, does
+not mean the same thing as religion, the word religion has no meaning.
+More dangerous, I had almost said more disgraceful, words never fell
+from the lips of a man calling himself a priest of the Church of God."
+
+The last sentence was spoken in a high, shrill voice, which rose above
+the angry murmurs which came from all parts of the hall, but these Vane
+silenced in a moment, by holding up his hand and smiling as some of the
+audience had never seen a man smile before.
+
+"I am glad," he went on, in slow, very distinct tones, "that such an
+objection has been raised so early by a brother priest. It will help us
+to understand each other more clearly, and so I will try to answer him
+at once. The difference between religion and theology is the difference
+between the whole and the part; but theology is not a science, for there
+is no science of the Infinite. It is only the study of the many
+different conceptions which men of all nations and races have formed as
+to the nature of the over-ruling Power of the universes--of all the
+attempts to solve the insoluble and to answer the unanswerable.
+
+"There are two sayings, one Arabian and one Italian, which I hope I may
+quote without offence. One is, 'God gives us the outline of the picture,
+we fill it in. We cannot change the outline, but we are responsible for
+every stroke of the brush. In the end God judges the picture.'
+
+"The other was the saying of a famous Italian artist, 'Children and
+fools should not see work half done.'
+
+"Now let us grant for the sake of argument that there is a Creator, and
+therefore a scheme of creation. How much can we, dwellers upon a world
+which is but as a grain of sand washed hither and thither by the
+tide-flow of the ocean of Infinity, know about the workings of the Will
+in obedience to which, as some of us believe, that tide ebbs and flows
+through the uncounted ages of Eternity, and over the measureless expanse
+of Infinity? Faced with such a colossal problem as this, must we not all
+confess ourselves to be but as children and fools, since we do not and
+cannot see even half of the work, but only an immeasurably tiny fragment
+of it? For this reason I feel justified in saying that those who deny
+the existence of the Divine Architect of the universe and those who
+claim to know all about His plans, are, at least, equally mistaken.
+
+"But that, although I have been glad of the opportunity of saying it, is
+not quite what I came here to say, and, therefore, we will drop that
+part of the subject. Last Sunday I preached a sermon which--I say it
+both with wonder and gladness--has produced a very much wider and deeper
+effect than I could have hoped it would do. That was a sermon preached
+in a Christian church to a congregation, which, at least, professed and
+called itself Christian. To-night I am going to ask you to listen to a
+secular sermon preached from the same text. It will be very brief,
+because I know that you have a custom, and a very good one, of following
+discourses with discussion, and as I am going to raise a few distinctly
+controversial subjects, I want to leave plenty of our available time
+over for the discussion.
+
+"The theme of my sermon last Sunday at St. Chrysostom's may be summed up
+in one word--Honesty. The essence of the Sermon on the Mount is just
+honesty. I suppose everyone here has read it, and therefore you will
+remember that from beginning to end there is not a word of dogma in it.
+In other words it is absolutely untheological. Perhaps this fact, a very
+important one, has never struck some of you before. When the Master
+preached that sermon, he, as I believe, deliberately left out every
+reference to dogma or doctrine, creed or church, so that men, whatever
+their belief, their nation or their race, could equally accept it as a
+universal rule of life and conduct.
+
+"Some of us here believe in miracles, some do not. I do, and, so
+believing, I think that the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest of all
+miracles. It is a greater thing to preach a doctrine to which all honest
+men, coming whithersoever they may from the ends of the earth, will and
+must subscribe if they _are_ honest--a doctrine which is true for all
+time and for all men, than to cleanse the leper or to raise the dead to
+life.
+
+"I will ask you to let me put this point in another way, and in a
+certainly more attractive form. Let me read you the expression of this
+universal truth in the words of two English poets separated from each
+other by more than two hundred years of time and many mountain ridges
+and deep valleys of changing thought and opinion:
+
+     "Father of all! in every age,
+       In every clime adored,
+     By saint, by savage, and by sage,
+       Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
+
+     "Thou great First Cause, least understood,
+       Who all my sense confined
+     To know but this, that Thou art good,
+       And that myself am blind.
+
+     "Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
+       To see the good from ill;
+     And, binding nature fast in fate,
+       Left free the human will.
+
+"Those lines are from Pope's immortal poem 'The Universal Prayer'; these
+are from Rudyard Kipling's 'Hymn Before Action.'
+
+     "High lust and froward bearing,
+       Proud heart, rebellious brow--
+     Deaf ear and soul uncaring,
+       We seek Thy mercy now!
+     The sinner that forswore Thee,
+       The fool that passed Thee by,
+     Our times are known before Thee--
+       Lord, grant us strength to die!
+
+     "For those who kneel beside us
+       At altars not Thine own,
+     Who lack the lights that guide us,
+       Lord, let their faith atone!
+     If wrong we did to call them,
+       By honour bound they came;
+     Let not Thy wrath befall them,
+       But deal to us the blame!
+
+"Those, perhaps, are the most solemn and deep-meaning words that have
+been written or spoken since Jesus of Nazareth preached the Sermon on
+the Mount, and the inner sense, as I read it, is the same. In life, in
+death, be honest with yourself, with your brother-man and your
+sister-woman, and with your God if you believe in one.
+
+"Last Sunday in the pulpit I quoted the words of Colonel Ingersoll, 'God
+cannot afford to damn an honest man.' That phrase has always seemed to
+me a marvellous mixture of blasphemy, ignorance, and sound common sense.
+From my point of view it is blasphemous, because it is the utterance of
+the atom trying to understand the universe. It is ignorant, because it
+is impossible for that human atom who uttered it to form any adequate
+conception of the infinitely great whole of which he was an infinitely
+small part. And yet, humanly speaking, it is the soundest and hardest of
+common sense. If God is honest He must respect honesty, no matter
+whether it is the honesty of belief, or of disbelief, always supposing
+that the belief and the disbelief _are_ honest.
+
+"The man who calls himself a Christian and does not conduct his daily
+life in accordance with the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, is one
+of two things--a fool who cannot understand the meaning of plain words,
+or a knave, who, for many reasons, which most of my hearers will
+understand, pretends to be that which he is not. I may remind you here
+that knavery is not by any means confined to the limits of what is
+conventionally termed criminality. For every crime that puts a man or a
+woman into prison, there are a hundred others committed in every-day
+life with absolute impunity, and yet they are just as serious, and they
+merit a similar if not a heavier punishment than those which the law
+punishes with social degradation and the miseries of penal servitude.
+
+"I wonder whether it has occurred to any of you who are listening to me
+now--whether you are Christians, professed or real, atheists or
+agnostics--to ask yourselves if, under the present conditions of what we
+are pleased to call civilization, an honest world would be possible, and
+that, I may say, is just the same thing as asking whether Christians can
+or cannot live their lives in accordance with the teachings of Him who
+went about doing good? Of course we all call ourselves honest, and some
+of us really believe that we are. At any rate, most of us would feel
+very much insulted if any one else told us that we were not. But are
+we? Let us put our pride in our pockets for a moment and try to answer
+that pregnant question. Honesty, like many other terms, of which
+immorality is one, has, through its conventional use, acquired a very
+restricted and therefore a quite unreal meaning. We have, by some
+vicious process of thought, got accustomed to call a man or a woman who
+transgresses the social law in a certain direction immoral, and in the
+same way we have come to apply the word dishonesty to practices which
+mean stealing or the attempt to steal property of a concrete form.
+
+"But I think you will all agree with me that both these words have come
+to be used in a sense which is so narrow, that it destroys their
+original meaning. For every man or woman who transgresses the social law
+and is therefore called immoral--of course after being found out--there
+are a hundred or more who break the moral law every hour of their waking
+lives. All of you, no doubt, possess bibles. Read the 27th and 28th
+verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, and you
+will understand what I mean.
+
+"But there is another immorality than this, and, as I believe, a greater
+immorality, for this, so far as it concerns our sister women, is often
+not immorality at all. It is the surrender of a feeble nature to a
+pitiless necessity, the necessity to live, the only alternative, in too
+many cases, to self-murder. There is another immorality infinitely worse
+than this, which when, as we Christians believe, the hosts of men are
+ranged before the Bar of Eternal Justice will spell damnation, hopeless
+and irrevocable, and that is the immorality which means a dishonesty
+that deliberately deceives--not always for the purpose of gain, for this
+kind of dishonesty is generally practised by those whom, to put it
+plainly, it would not pay to steal.
+
+"A French philosopher once said that there is that within the heart of
+every man which, if known, would make his dearest friend hate him. That,
+I am afraid, is true, not only of men but of women. It is not the fault
+of the men or the women; it is due simply to artificial conditions of
+life and to the individual ignorance and stupidity which make reform
+impossible. Until what we call civilised and Christian Society can make
+up its mind to conduct its personal, its national, and its international
+affairs on the broad and simple lines laid down in the Sermon on the
+Mount, no man can afford to be quite honest. In other words, if
+Christendom would be really Christian, it would also be honest; honest
+with itself and with its God, with the God whom it now only pretends to
+worship, saying loudly, 'Lord, Lord,' and doing not the things which He
+saith!
+
+"It would not matter--and this I say with all reverence and with a full
+sense of my responsibilities as a Priest of the Church--it would not
+matter whether Society called itself Christian or not, as long as it was
+honest."
+
+"That is absolute atheism and blasphemy!" exclaimed a well-known
+Nonconformist preacher, springing up and holding his hands out towards
+the platform. "The man who could speak those words cannot be either a
+Christian or a minister of the Gospel. I call upon the speaker to be
+honest now, honest with himself and us, and confess that he is not a
+Christian, and therefore unworthy to be a preacher of any Christian
+creed."
+
+A storm of mingled expressions of approval and assent burst out from
+every part of the crowded hall. Vane stood immovable and listened to it
+with a smile hovering round his lips. The President rose at once and
+said:
+
+"I must remind the reverend gentleman who has made this interruption--an
+interruption which, if made in a church or a chapel, would render him
+liable to imprisonment--is entirely out of order. We welcome discussion,
+but it must come in its proper place. We cannot tolerate interruption,
+and we won't."
+
+The rebuke was too just and too pointed not to be felt, even by the
+bigot who had deserved it. He sat down, and when the thunder of applause
+which greeted the President's brief but pregnant interlude had died
+away, Vane went on without a trace of emotion in his voice:
+
+"I cannot say that I am sorry that that interruption was made, because
+it makes it possible for me to ask whether there is really any
+difference between Christianity and honesty?"
+
+Again he was interrupted, this time by half the audience getting on to
+its feet and cheering. The other portion sat still, and the units of it
+began to look at each other very seriously. Vane was, in fact, bringing
+the matter down to a most uncomfortably fine point. He made a slight
+motion with his hand, and his hearers, having already recognised the
+true missionary, or bringer of messages to the souls of men, instantly
+became silent and expectant.
+
+"If Christianity is not honest, or if honesty is not, for all practical
+purposes, the same thing as Christianity, then so much the worse for
+Christianity or for honesty as the case may be. A religion which is not
+honest is not a religion. Honesty which is not a religion--that is to
+say a tie between man and man--is not honest. That, I think, is a
+dilemma from which there is no escape."
+
+There was another burst of applause, this time almost universal, which
+the President did not attempt to check. A few members of the audience
+looked even more uncomfortable than before, but by the time Vane was
+able to make himself heard again it was quite plain that the great
+majority of his audience, believers and unbelievers, were heart and soul
+with him.
+
+"That," he went on, with a laughing note in his voice, "shows me that we
+have got on to friendly territory at last, on to the ground of our
+common humanity. I said just now, before my friend in the audience
+diverted my attention to another and very important point, most of us
+would feel very much insulted if anyone told us that we were not honest.
+We should jump to the conclusion that such a statement was the same
+thing as calling us thieves or swindlers; but that is not the question.
+Honesty is not by any means confined to commercial dealings. It has a
+social meaning and a very far reaching one too, for, as a matter of
+fact, the man or woman who deceives another in the smallest detail of
+life is not strictly honest, because it is impossible to be strictly
+honest without at the same time being strictly truthful.
+
+"It has been said that half the truth is worse than a lie. It is, I
+think, a greater sin to tell half the truth than a deliberate and
+comprehensive lie, for it is possible to tell a lie with an honest, if
+mistaken purpose; and yet the business of the modern world is mainly
+conducted by half-truths. Everyone tries to deceive the person he is
+doing business with to some extent. It is not altogether his fault, for
+he knows that if he didn't do so, the other man would deceive him, and
+so get the better of the bargain. That is the way of the world, as it is
+called, and a very bad way, and, as we believe, a very unchristian way
+it is.
+
+"Still, it is impossible to blame the trader and the man of commerce for
+this. The real fault, the real sin, is not individual, it is
+collective--the guilt properly belongs to Society. Men do not descend to
+these mean subterfuges and these despicable trickeries merely to make
+money, to pile on hundreds on hundreds and thousands on thousands. In
+their hearts all the best of them despise the methods by which they are
+forced to earn their incomes and make their fortunes; but the penalties
+which the laws of Society place on honesty are so tremendous that a
+really honest man will deliberately sacrifice his own honour rather than
+incur them. That is a very serious thing to say, and yet it is the
+literal truth, and the most pitiable part of the matter is that he
+commits these sins of unscrupulousness and dishonesty chiefly for the
+sake of his wife and children. The social penalties of honesty would
+fall most heavily on them. Their houses and their luxurious furniture,
+their carriages and their horses, their costly clothing and precious
+jewels would be theirs no longer; in a word, they would become poor, and
+Society has no place for people if they are poor, whatever else they may
+be.
+
+"To put the question in another way, a tiger seeking for its prey and
+slaying it ruthlessly when it has found it is not a pleasant subject for
+contemplation, but before we blame the tiger we must remember that
+somewhere at home in the jungle there is a Mrs. Tiger and some little
+tigers who have to be fed somehow. The tiger's methods of killing for
+food are merciful in comparison with the methods of many men who already
+possess enough to give the ordinary comforts of decent life to those who
+are depending upon them, and yet go on deceiving and swindling, for
+deception in commerce is swindling, in order to obtain those
+superfluities of life which are absolutely necessary to keep up what is
+called position in Society.
+
+"I do not say that wealth and comfort would be impossible in an honest
+world; there is no reason why they should be, but they would be gained
+in greater moderation and by different methods. For instance, if Society
+could and would change its standards of honesty and morality, the force
+of public opinion would soon make crime impossible, save among the
+mentally and morally diseased, who would, of course, be treated in the
+same merciful but relentless fashion as we now treat what we call our
+criminal lunatics.
+
+"It will of course be quite impossible for me to treat this vast subject
+in anything like detail in a single address, and therefore I shall
+content myself with having thrown out these few suggestions, and leave
+the development of it to those who will, I hope, take part in the
+discussion.
+
+"But one word more in conclusion. Your President has called me a
+missionary, a missionary to the rich. That is the mission which I have
+taken on myself, and therefore I gladly accept the title, all the more
+gladly because it comes from one who, while he differs from me
+absolutely on every theological point which I believe essential to
+salvation, has proved his faith by giving me that title and by uttering
+a prayer which has, I hope, already been heard by Him to whom all hearts
+are open, and from whom no secrets are hid."
+
+When Vane sat down there burst out a storm of applause, through which
+not a few hisses, mostly from clerical lips, pierced shrilly. Yet, few
+and simple as his words had been, it was quite evident that they had
+gone straight to the hearts of the majority of his audience.
+
+The President rose when the applause subsided, and, after a brief
+speech, in which he frankly admitted that if all teachers of the
+Christian faith were like Vane Maxwell, and if there were no other sort
+of Christianity than his, there would be very little of what too many
+Christians call infidelity in the world, gave the usual notice that the
+meeting was now open for discussion.
+
+Then the storm burst over Vane's devoted head. By a sort of tacit
+agreement the Secularists left the attack to the clergy. As a matter of
+fact they had practically no cause for dispute with Vane. On the
+contrary they delighted in the frankness of his expression of his
+belief, and the uncompromising fashion in which he had denounced and
+repudiated that unchristian form of Christianity which, as the President
+had put it, was responsible through its hypocrisy and double-dealing
+with God and man for all the honest unbelief, and all the scoffing and
+scepticism, which it pretended to deplore. So the Secularists sat still
+and silent, enjoying hugely the series of bitter attacks that were made
+on Vane by cleric after cleric, Anglican and Nonconformist, for close on
+a couple of hours. Vane took it all very quietly, now smiling and now
+looking grave almost to sadness, and when the last speaker had exhausted
+his passion and his eloquence, and the President asked him to reply, he
+got up and said in slow but grave and very clear tones:
+
+"I have no reply to make to what I have heard, save to say that I have
+heard with infinite sorrow from the lips of clergymen of every
+denomination and shade of opinion a series of statements which not one
+of them could justify from the teachings of Him who preached the Sermon
+on the Mount. There is no other criterion of Christian faith and
+doctrine than is to be found in the New Testament, and from the first
+verse in the Gospel according to St. Matthew to the last in Revelations
+there is not one word which contradicts what I have spoken, or which
+supports what they have said.
+
+"That is a serious thing to say, but I say it with full knowledge and
+with perfect faith. I mean no personal offence. That would of course be
+impossible under the circumstances; but it is also quite impossible for
+me, after saying what I have said here and elsewhere, to argue seriously
+with those who are by profession teachers and preachers of the
+revelation of Jesus Christ--of the message of God to man by God
+incarnate in the flesh--and who are yet able to reconcile in their own
+souls the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth and the doings of twentieth
+century Christianity. We have heard the words infidel and infidelity
+used many times to-night. There is no infidelity in honest unbelief;
+and, sorrowfully as I say it, I still feel it my duty to say it, that
+there is more real infidelity inside the churches than there is outside,
+for the worst and most damnable of all infidelities is that which says
+with its lips 'Lord, Lord,' and does not with its heart and its hands do
+that which He saith."
+
+There was a little silence, a silence of astonishment on the one part of
+the audience and of absolute stupefaction on the part of the other. Then
+the storm of applause broke out once more, but there was no hissing
+mingled with it this time. About a score of black-clad figures rose pale
+and silent amidst the cheering throng and walked out. Their example was
+followed by most of the West End Christians, including her ladyship of
+Canore and her husband and daughters, whose curiosity had been more than
+amply satisfied. The cheers changed from enthusiasm to irony as the
+irregular procession moved towards the doors, and an irreverent
+Secularist at the back of the hall jumped on his seat and shouted, with
+an unmistakable Old Street accent:
+
+"Got a bit more than you came for, eh? Hope you've enjoyed your lordly
+selves. Don't forget to say your prayers to-night. You want a lot of
+converting before _you'll_ be Christians. I've 'alf a mind to put up one
+for you to-night myself, blowed if I 'aven't."
+
+Then the applause changed to laughter, hearty and good-humoured, and
+when the President had proposed the usual vote of thanks to the
+lecturer, and Vane had accepted his invitation to give a series of
+addresses at the halls of the Society throughout the country, the most
+memorable meeting on record at the Hall of Science came to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+The next Sunday, Vane, the Mayfair Missionary, as one of the evening
+papers had called him, preached at St. Chrysostom, and took for his
+text:
+
+     "Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things."
+
+During the week, the storm of indignation against him had been growing
+both in strength and violence, and a movement was already on foot to
+arraign him before the Ecclesiastical Courts on charges of heresy and
+unbelief, and of bringing the priesthood into contempt by publicly
+associating himself as a priest with the avowed enemies of the Church.
+
+The church was, of course, crowded, but the congregation was composed of
+very different elements from those which had made up his congregation a
+fortnight before. There were many of its richest members there, but they
+did not come in their carriages. Many others had come in trains or
+'busses, or had walked from Mile End and Bethnal Green to hear the words
+of the new prophet; and scores of these had not seen the inside of a
+church for years, or ever dreamt of listening with anything like respect
+to a sermon from a Christian pulpit, yet none were more respectful and
+attentive than these infidels and heretics whose respectful attention
+and new-awakened reverence were the first fruits of Vane's mission
+harvest.
+
+His sermon was a direct and uncompromising reply to the challenge to
+prove that he was worthy to wear the cloth of the priesthood, and when
+it was over, his hearers, the believers and unbelievers alike, had been
+driven to the conviction, unpleasant as it was to some of them, that if
+the preacher had drawn his conclusions right from the words of Christ
+and his Apostles, it was absolutely certain that neither churches or
+churchmen, whatever their form of doctrine might be, could at the same
+time be wealthy and powerful in the worldly sense, and remain anything
+more than nominal Christians.
+
+After the sermon Vane assisted Father Baldwin in the administration of
+the Sacrament, and Carol and Rayburn took the elements from his hands;
+Carol for the first time in her life, and Rayburn for the first time
+since he had reached manhood. It was for them the consecration of their
+new love and the new life which was to begin next day.
+
+Dora, who had been present at the service and had remained through the
+communion, had, greatly to the surprise of every one, and even to the
+sorrow of Carol and Vane, refused steadily to partake. She would give no
+reason, and therefore Carol quite correctly concluded that she had some
+very sufficient one.
+
+At ten the next morning, Vane married Carol and Rayburn. The ceremony
+was as simple as the forms of the Church allowed, and absolutely
+private. Sir Arthur gave Carol away, and Ernshaw acted as Rayburn's
+best man. The only others present were Father Baldwin and Dora, and a
+few of the usual idlers to whom a wedding of any sort is an irresistible
+attraction, and who had no notion of the strangeness of the wooing and
+the winning, or of the depth of the life-tragedy which was being brought
+to such a happy ending in such simple fashion.
+
+The only guests at the marriage-feast were Dora, Ernshaw, and Vane. It
+was just a family party, as Sir Arthur called it, so the bride and
+bridegroom were spared the giving and receiving of speeches. Never did a
+greater change take place in a girl's life more simply and more quietly
+than this tremendous, almost incredible change which took place in
+Carol's, when, from being a nameless outcast beyond the pale of what is
+more or less correctly termed respectable society, she became the wife
+of a man who had wooed, and won her under such strange circumstances,
+yet knowing everything, and the mistress of millions to boot.
+
+When the brougham that was to take them to the station drew up at the
+door, Rayburn put his hand on Vane's arm, and led him to the study.
+
+"Maxwell," he said, as he shut the door, "I have done the best thing
+to-day that a man can do. I have got a good wife, and----"
+
+"You have done a great deal more than that, Rayburn," said Vane,
+"infinitely more. I needn't tell you what it is, but if ever God and his
+holy Saints looked down with blessing on the union of man and woman,
+they did upon your marriage to-day."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Rayburn, "and for Carol's sake, I hope so
+with all my heart. Now, look here," he went on, in an altered tone,
+taking an envelope out of his pocket, "you know that I don't find myself
+able to believe with you on this question of the possession of wealth.
+Perhaps I have got too much of it to be able to do so; but what I have,
+I know Carol will help me to use better than I could use it myself. It
+is the usual thing, I believe, for a man who has just taken a wife unto
+himself, to make a thank-offering to the Church. Here is mine, and it is
+not only mine, but hers, for we had a talk about it yesterday. Open it
+when we have gone. And now, good-bye, brother Vane, and God speed you in
+your good work!"
+
+When the last good-byes had been said, and the last kisses and
+handshakes exchanged, and the carriage had driven away, Vane went alone
+into the study, and opened the envelope. It contained a note in Carol's
+writing, and a cheque. The note ran thus:
+
+     "MY DEAREST BROTHER,
+
+     "The enclosed is the result of a talk I had with Cecil last night,
+     he also had one with Mr. Ernshaw, and I had one with Dora. I should
+     like it to be used, under your direction, for the good of those who
+     are as I was, but have not been so blest with such good fortune as
+     I have been.
+
+     "Ever your most loving and grateful sister,
+     "CAROL."
+
+The cheque was for twenty thousand pounds.
+
+Vane could scarcely believe his eyes when he looked at the five figures.
+Then, when he had grasped the meaning of them, he murmured:
+
+"God bless them both; they have made a good beginning," and went back
+to join the others in the dining-room.
+
+He had a long talk with Ernshaw that afternoon, and they decided to bank
+the money in their joint name, Ernshaw absolutely refusing to have it in
+his name alone, as the cheque had been given to Vane, and towards the
+end of the talk Ernshaw said:
+
+"I am glad to say that I should not be very much surprised now if what
+your father said a couple of years ago were to come true. In fact, I
+have broached the subject already very gently and circumspectly, of
+course, but she absolutely refuses even to consider the matter for at
+least a year. Still, she did it so gently and so sweetly that I don't by
+any means despair; and that girl, Maxwell, will make as good a wife as a
+parson ever had, and a better one than a good many have. She has given
+me my life-work, too. You are going to try and redeem the rich, or, at
+least, to show them the way of redemption. I, with God's help, and hers,
+am going to try and show a way of redemption to those who have lost
+everything, and this money of Rayburn's will give us a magnificent
+start, if you will agree with me that it will be devoted to it."
+
+"Of course, it must be," said Vane, "there can't be any doubt about
+that. Miss Russell will naturally be at the head of the work, I suppose,
+and the first thing we ought to do, I think, is to get an establishment
+for her, and let her start as soon as may be. I suppose you have talked
+it over with her already?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Ernshaw, "and she is more than delighted with the
+idea."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," said Vane, "no one could possibly do the work
+better. Ernshaw, old man," he went on, more gravely, "I'm afraid for
+myself that with a helper, and, I hope, some day a help-meet like Miss
+Russell, you will have a good deal more chance of success in your work
+than I shall in mine."
+
+"That, my dear fellow," replied Ernshaw, "is in other hands than ours.
+There lies the work to our hands, and all we have got to do is to do it.
+By the way, as far as mine is concerned, I hope you will help me to
+persuade your father to take a share in it."
+
+"I am perfectly certain he will," said Vane; "the fact that Carol
+suggested it will be quite enough for that."
+
+"Then if he does, by the time you come back from your first crusade, I
+think you will find things getting pretty well into order."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," said Vane.
+
+But it was already written that this crusade was not to begin until many
+other things had happened. That evening at dinner Sir Arthur said:
+
+"Vane, I had a note from Sir Reginald this afternoon asking me to run
+down to the Abbey for a few days, and then join them at Cowes. You are
+included in the invitation, but, of course, you wouldn't go to Cowes,
+and I don't think I shall, the work here will be very much more
+interesting; but I thought perhaps you might like to run down to the
+Abbey and see Father Philip before you start on your mission. Garthorne
+and Enid are there, and her father and mother are going. It wouldn't be
+a bad opportunity to tell the family party the good news about Carol."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Vane, "I should like that, immensely; in fact, I've been
+thinking already that if Father Baldwin agrees with me that before I do
+make a start on my mission to Midas, as my friend, Reed, called it the
+other day, the best thing I could do would be to spend a day or two at
+the Retreat, and go into the matter thoroughly with Father Philip."
+
+While he was speaking, Ernshaw noticed that Dora turned deadly pale.
+When dinner was over Sir Arthur announced that he was going round for an
+hour to see Sir Godfrey Raleigh on a little Indian business. Dora felt
+now that her opportunity had come. It was a terrible thing to do, and
+yet, all things considered, present, and to come, she felt that it was
+her plain duty to do it, and not to permit this ghastly deception to go
+on any longer. Her soul revolted at the thought of Sir Arthur and Vane,
+Carol's half-brother, going to the Abbey and being received as friends
+by Sir Reginald Garthorne. Knowing what she did, it seemed to her too
+hideous to be thought of, and so when Vane asked jestingly what they
+were going to do to amuse themselves, she got up, looking very white,
+and said, in a voice that had a note almost of terror in it:
+
+"Mr. Maxwell, there is something I want to say to you; something that I
+must say to you. I cannot say it to you and Mr. Ernshaw together; it is
+bad enough to say it even to you, but when I have said it, you will be
+able to talk it over and try what is best to be done. I want to tell it
+to you first, because it concerns you most."
+
+"By all means," said Vane, looking at her with wonder in his eyes, "come
+into the library. Ernshaw, I know, will excuse us; put on a pipe, and
+get yourself some whiskey and soda. Now, Miss Russell," he said, as he
+opened the door for her, "I'm at your service."
+
+They left the room, and Ernshaw lit his pipe and sat down to speculate
+as to the cause of Dora's somewhat singular request, but fifteen minutes
+had not passed before the door was thrown open, and she came in white to
+the lips and shaking from head to foot, and said:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, come, please, quick. Mr. Maxwell is ill, in a fit, I
+think. I have had to tell him something very dreadful, and it has been
+too much for him."
+
+Ernshaw jumped up without a word and ran into the library. Vane was
+lying in a low armchair and half on the floor, his body rigid, his hands
+clenched, his eyes wide open and sightless, and a slight creamy froth
+was streaked round his lips.
+
+"A fit!" said Ernshaw. "You must have given him some terrible shock. Run
+and fetch Koda Bux and we will get him to bed; then tell a servant to go
+for Doctor Allison; we will have him round all right before Sir Arthur
+comes back."
+
+In a couple of minutes Vane was on his bed, and Koda Bux had opened his
+teeth and was dropping drop by drop, a green, syrupy fluid into his
+mouth, while Ernshaw was getting his boots off ready for the hot-water
+bottle that the housekeeper was preparing. By the time the Doctor had
+arrived, Koda Bux's elixir had already done its work. His eyes had
+closed and opened again with a look of recognition in them, his jaws had
+relaxed and his limbs were loosening. The Doctor listened to what
+Ernshaw had said while he was feeling his almost imperceptible pulse and
+Koda was wrapping his feet up in a blanket with a hot-water bottle.
+
+"Yes, I see," said the Doctor, "intensely nervous, high-strung
+temperament, just what we should expect Mr. Vane Maxwell to be now.
+
+"A very great mental shock and a fit. No, not epileptic, epileptoid,
+perhaps. Did you say that this man gave him something which brought him
+round? One of those Indian remedies, I suppose--very wonderful. I wish
+we knew how to make them. I suppose you won't tell us what it is, my
+man?"
+
+Koda Bux's stiff moustache moved as though there were a smile under it,
+and he bowed his head and said:
+
+"Sahib, it is not permitted; but by to-morrow the son of my master shall
+be well, for he is my father and my mother, and my life is his."
+
+"I thought so," laughed the Doctor, who was an old friend of Sir
+Arthur's. "I know you, Koda Bux, and I think I can trust you. I'll look
+in again in a couple of hours, Mr. Ernshaw, just to see that everything
+is right, but I don't think that I shall be wanted."
+
+When the Doctor left Koda Bux took charge of the patient as a right, and
+when they got back into the dining-room, Dora said after a short and
+somewhat awkward silence:
+
+"Mr. Ernshaw, after what has happened, I suppose it is only fair that I
+should tell you what I told Mr. Maxwell, because when he gets better, of
+course, he will talk it over with you, which is very dreadful, almost
+incredible. I promised Carol that I should not say anything about it
+until she was out of England. Of course, she told Mr. Rayburn; she
+wouldn't marry him until he knew the whole story, and so I'm not
+breaking any confidence in telling you."
+
+"Yes," he said, "I can fully understand that. And now, what is it? It is
+just as well that we should all know before Sir Arthur comes back, if I
+am to have any share in it."
+
+"Of course, you must have," she said, almost passionately. "You could
+not remain Mr. Maxwell's friend and help him in the work you are going
+to do if you did not know, and I had better tell you before Sir Arthur
+comes back, so that you can think what is best to be done."
+
+"Very well; tell me, please."
+
+And she told him the whole miserable, pitiful, terrible story as she had
+heard it from Carol from beginning to end. When she reached the part
+about the flat in Densmore Gardens, his face whitened and his jaws came
+together, and he muttered through his teeth:
+
+"Very awful; but, of course, they didn't know. The sins of the fathers!
+I am afraid Sir Reginald will have a very terrible confession to make.
+It is difficult to believe that a human being could be guilty of such
+infamy."
+
+"Still I'm afraid there is no doubt about it," said Dora. "But what's to
+be done? Mr. Maxwell will never let his father go to the Abbey now
+without telling him what I have told you, and when he knows--no, I
+daren't think about it. And poor Mrs. Garthorne, too; she married Mr.
+Garthorne in all innocence, although I still believe she would rather
+have married Mr. Maxwell. What would happen to her if she knew?"
+
+"She would go mad, I believe," said Ernshaw. "It would be the most
+terrible thing that a woman in her position could learn. We can only
+hope that she shall never learn. If she ever does, God help her!"
+
+"Yes," said Dora. "And yet, what is to happen? How can she help knowing
+in the end? It must come out some time, you know."
+
+"Yes, I am afraid it must," said Ernshaw, "but still, sufficient unto
+the day; we shall do no good by anticipating that. We may as well leave
+it, as the old Greeks used to say, on the knees of the gods."
+
+And meanwhile the gods were working it out in their own way, using Koda
+Bux as their instrument. Vane had gone to sleep after a second dose of
+the drug which had brought him out of his fit, and, as the keen Oriental
+intellect of Koda Bux had more than half expected, perhaps intended, he
+soon began to talk quite reasonably and connectedly in his sleep, and so
+it came to pass that a mystery which had puzzled Koda Bux for many a
+long year was revealed to him.
+
+When the Doctor came Vane was sleeping quietly, and, while he was
+examining him, Sir Arthur arrived, and was told that he had been taken
+ill shortly after dinner, and this the Doctor explained was probably due
+to the very severe mental strain to which he had subjected himself
+during the last week or so. He went up to his room and found Koda Bux on
+guard. Koda salaamed and said:
+
+"Protector of the poor, it is well! To-morrow Vane Sahib shall be well,
+but now he must sleep."
+
+"Very well, Koda Bux," replied Sir Arthur. "I know he can have no better
+nurse than you, and you will watch."
+
+"Yes, sahib, I will watch as long as it is necessary."
+
+Then Sir Arthur went downstairs to hear from Ernshaw and Dora the now
+inevitable story of the sin of the man who had been his friend for more
+than a lifetime. He heard it as a man who knew much of men and women
+could and should hear such a story--in silence; and then, saying a quiet
+good-night to them, he went up to his room to have it out with himself
+just as he had done on that other terrible night when he had found Vane
+drunk on the hearth-rug in the Den, and had recognised that he had
+inherited from his mother the fatal taint of alcoholic insanity.
+
+When he awoke the next morning, after a few hours' sleep, Koda Bux was
+not there to prepare his bath and lay out his clean linen. It was the
+first time that it had happened for nearly twenty years, and it was not
+until Sir Arthur came downstairs that he heard the reason. Koda Bux had
+vanished. No one knew when or how he had gone, but he had gone, leaving
+no sign or trace behind him.
+
+"Vane," said Sir Arthur, as soon as the truth dawned upon him, "we must
+go down to Worcester at once. I know where Koda Bux has gone, and what
+he has gone to do. Garthorne's crime was vile enough, God knows, but we
+mustn't let murder be done if we can possibly help it. Ah, there's an
+ABC, Vane, just see which train he can have got to Kidderminster. I know
+the next one is 9.50, which we can just catch when we have had a
+mouthful of breakfast; that's a fast one, too; at least, fairly fast;
+gets there about half past one."
+
+"5.40, arriving 12.15, 6.30 arriving 12.20," said Vane, reading from the
+time-table.
+
+"In any case, I am afraid he has more than an hour's start of us at
+Kidderminster. We can reduce that by taking a carriage to the Abbey
+because he would walk, and, of course, he may not, probably will not, be
+able to see Garthorne immediately, so we may be in time after all. Vane,
+do you feel strong enough to come?"
+
+"Of course I do, dad," he replied. "As long as I could stand I would
+come."
+
+"And may I come, too, Sir Arthur?" said Dora.
+
+"You, Miss Russell!" he exclaimed, "but why? Surely there is no need
+for us to ask you to witness such a painful scene as this, of course,
+must be."
+
+"I am Carol's friend, Sir Arthur," said Dora, "and I think it only right
+to do all that I can do to prove that her story is true. I have got the
+photographs, and I know the marks by which Sir Reginald can be
+identified. If we are not too late, such a man will, of course, answer
+you with a flat denial, but if I am there I don't think he can."
+
+"Very well," said Sir Arthur. "It is very kind of you, and, of course,
+you can help us a great deal if you will."
+
+"And, of course, I will," she said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Koda Bux, dressed in half-European costume, had taken the 5.40 newspaper
+train from Paddington to Kidderminster. He had been several times at
+Garthorne Abbey in attendance on Sir Arthur, and so he decided to carry
+out his purpose in the boldest, and therefore, possibly, the easiest and
+the safest way. He was, of course, well known to the servants as the
+devoted and confidential henchman of his master, and so he would not
+have the slightest difficulty in obtaining access to Sir Reginald. He
+walked boldly up the drive, intending to say that he had a letter of
+great importance which his master had ordered him to place in Sir
+Reginald's hand. Sir Reginald would see him alone in one of the rooms,
+and then a cast of the roomal over his head, a pull and a wrench--and
+justice would be done.
+
+Koda Bux knew quite enough of English law to be well aware that it had
+no adequate punishment for the terrible crime that Sir Reginald had
+committed--a crime made a thousand times worse by deception of half a
+lifetime.
+
+According to his simple Pathan code of religion and morals there was
+only one proper penalty for the betrayal of a friend's honour and his,
+Koda Bux's, was even more jealous of his master's honour than he was of
+his own, for he had eaten his salt and had sheltered under his roof for
+many a long year, and if the law would not punish his enemy, he would.
+For his own life he cared nothing in comparison with the honour of his
+master's house, and so how could he serve him better than by giving it
+for that of his master's enemy?
+
+It was after lunch-time when he reached the Abbey. Sir Reginald had, in
+fact, just finished lunch and had gone into the library to write some
+letters for the afternoon post, when the footman came to tell him that
+Sir Arthur Maxwell's servant had just come from London with an urgent
+message from his master.
+
+"Dear me," said Sir Reginald, looking up, "that is very strange! Why
+couldn't he have written or telegraphed? It must be something very
+serious, I am afraid. Ah--yes, Ambrose, tell him to sit down in the
+hall, I'll see him in a few minutes."
+
+The door closed, and, as it did so, out of the black, long, buried past
+there came a pale flash of rising fear.
+
+Sir Reginald was one of those men who have practically no thought or
+feeling outside the circle of their own desires and ambitions. He had
+lived on good terms with his fellow men, not out of any respect for
+them, but simply because it was more convenient and comfortable for
+himself. He had committed the worst of crimes against his friend, Sir
+Arthur Maxwell, in perfect callousness, simply because the woman Maxwell
+had married and inspired him with the only passion, the only enthusiasm
+of which he was capable. He had never felt a single pang of remorse for
+it. The sinner who sins through absolute selfishness as he had done
+never does. In fact, his only uncomfortable feeling in connection with
+the whole affair had been the fear of discovery, and that, as the years
+had gone on, had died away until it had become only an evil memory to
+him. And yet, why did Koda Bux, the man who had so nearly discovered his
+infamy twenty-two years ago, come here alone to the Abbey to-day?
+
+Ah, yes, to-day! A diary lay open on the writing-table before him. The
+28th of June. The very day--but that of course was merely a coincidence.
+Well, he would hear what Koda Bux had to say. He signed a letter, put it
+into an envelope, and addressed it. Then he touched the bell. Ambrose
+appeared, and he said:
+
+"You can show the man in now."
+
+"Very good, Sir Reginald," replied the man, and vanished.
+
+A few moments later the door opened again and Koda Bux came in, looked
+at Sir Reginald for a few moments straight in the eyes, and then
+salaamed with subtle oriental humility.
+
+"May my face be bright in your eyes, protector of the poor and husband
+of the widow!" he said, as he raised himself erect again. "I have
+brought a message from my master."
+
+"Well, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald, a trifle uneasily, for he didn't
+quite like the extreme gravity with which the Pathan spoke.
+
+"I suppose it must be something important and confidential, if he has
+sent you here instead of writing or telegraphing. Of course, you have a
+letter from him?"
+
+"No, Sahib," replied Koda Bux, fingering at a blue silk handkerchief
+that was tucked into his waist-band. "The message was of too great
+importance to be trusted to a letter which might be lost, and so my
+master trusted it to the soul of his servant."
+
+"That's rather a strange way for one gentleman to send a message to
+another in this country and in these days, Koda Bux," said Sir Reginald,
+getting up from his chair at the writing-table and moving towards the
+bell.
+
+Instantly, with a swift sinuous movement, Koda Bux had passed before the
+fireplace and put himself between Sir Reginald and the bell.
+
+"The Sahib will not call his servants until he has heard the message,"
+he said, not in the cringing tone of the servant, but in the
+straight-spoken words of the soldier. Meanwhile, the fingers of his left
+hand were almost imperceptibly drawing the blue handkerchief out of his
+girdle.
+
+Sir Reginald saw this, and a sudden fear streamed into his soul. His own
+Indian experience told him that this man might be a Thug, and that if
+so, a little roll of blue silk would be a swifter, deadlier, and more
+untraceable weapon than knife or poison, and his thoughts went back to
+the 28th of June, twenty-two years before.
+
+"I am not going to be spoken to like that in my own house and by a
+nigger!" he exclaimed, seeking to cover his fear by a show of anger. "I
+don't believe in you or your message. If you have a letter from your
+master, give it to me, if you haven't, I shan't listen to you. What
+right have you to come here into my library pretending to have a message
+from your master, when you haven't even a letter, or his card, or one
+written word from him?"
+
+"Illustrious," said Koda Bux, with a sudden change of manner, salaaming
+low and moving backwards towards the door, "the slave of my master
+forgot himself in the urgency of his message, which my lord, his friend,
+has not yet heard."
+
+There was an almost imperceptible emphasis on the word "friend" which
+sent a little shiver through such rudiments of soul as Sir Reginald
+possessed. He said roughly:
+
+"Very well, then, if you have brought a message what is it? I can't
+waste half the morning with you."
+
+"The message is short, Sahib," replied Koda Bux, salaaming again, and
+moving a little nearer towards the door. "I am to ask you what you did
+at Simla two-and-twenty years ago this night--what you have done with
+the Mem Sahib who was faithful to my lord's honour when you, dog and son
+of a dog, betrayed it--and what has become of her daughter and yours?
+Oh, cursed of the gods, thou knowest these things as thou knowest the
+two marks of the African spear on thy left arm--but thou dost not know
+the depth of infamy which thy sin dug for thine own son to fall into."
+
+As he was saying this Koda Bux backed close to the door, locked it
+behind him, and took the key out.
+
+Bad as he was, the last words of Koda Bux hit Sir Reginald harder even
+than the others. His son, the heir to his name and fortune, what had he
+to do with that old sin of his committed before he was born?
+
+"You must be mad or opium-drunk, Koda Bux," he whispered hoarsely, "to
+talk like that. Yes, it is the 28th of June, and I have two spear marks
+on my arm--but I am rich, I can make you a prince in your own land.
+Come, you know something about me. That is why you came here; but what
+has my son Reginald to do with it? If I have sinned, what is that to
+him?"
+
+"In the book of the God of the Christians," said Koda Bux, very slowly,
+and approaching him with an almost hypnotic stare in his eyes, "in that
+book it is written that the chief God of the Christians will visit the
+sins of the fathers upon the children. This woman bore you a daughter;
+your lawful wife bore you a son. The woman who was once the wife of
+Maxwell Sahib was a drunkard, and now she's a mad-woman. Your own wife
+bore you a son, and in London your daughter and your son, not knowing
+each other, came together. Your daughter was what the good English call
+an outcast, and, knowing nothing of your sin, they lived--"
+
+"God in heaven! can that be true?" murmured Sir Reginald, sinking back
+against the mantel-piece just as he was going-to pull the bell.
+
+"No, it can't be! Koda Bux, you are lying; no such horrible thing as
+that could be."
+
+"My gods are not thine, if thou hast any, oh, unsainted one!" said Koda
+Bux, "but, like the gods of the Christians, they can avenge when the cup
+of sin is full. Yes, it is true. Your son and your daughter--your son,
+who is now married to her who should have been the wife of Vane Sahib.
+There is no doubt, and it can be proved. But that is only a part of your
+punishment, destroyer of happiness and afflictor of many lives. That is
+a thought which thou wilt take to Hell with thee, and it shall eat into
+thy soul for ever and ever, and when I have sent thee to Hell I will
+tell thy son and the woman he stole from Vane Sahib when he persuaded
+him to take strong drink that morning at the college of Oxford. Yes, I
+have heard it all. I, who am only a nigger! Dog and son of a dog, is not
+thy soul blacker than my skin? And now the hour has struck. Thy breath
+is already in thy mouth!"
+
+Koda Bux snatched the handkerchief from his waist-band and began to
+creep towards him, his Beard and moustache bristling like the back of a
+tiger, and his big, fierce eyes gleaming red. Sir Reginald knew that if
+he once got within throwing distance of that fatal strip of silk he
+would be dead in an instant without a sound. He made a despairing spring
+for the bell-rope, grasped it, and dragged it from its connection.
+
+At the same moment there was a peal at the hall bell, followed by a
+thunderous knocking. Enid, who was in the morning-room with her husband,
+saw a two-horsed carriage come up the drive at a gallop, and the moment
+it had stopped Vane jumped out and rang and knocked. Then out of the
+carriage came Sir Arthur and a lady whom she had never seen before, but
+whom Garthorne, looking over her shoulder out of the window, recognised
+only too quickly.
+
+"What on earth can Sir Arthur and Vane have come for in such a hurry as
+that!" she exclaimed. "Why, it might be a matter of life and death, and
+only such a short time after dear old Koda Bux, too. What can be the
+matter, Reginald?"
+
+But Garthorne had already left the room, his heart shaking with
+apprehension. He ran up into the hall to open the door before one of the
+servants could do it.
+
+"Ah, Sir Arthur, Vane--and Miss Russell--I believe it is----"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Garthorne," said Sir Arthur coldly but quickly, as they
+entered the hall. "We have come to stop a murder if we can. I hope we
+are in time. Where is your father, and has Koda Bux been here?"
+
+"Koda Bux has been in the library with my father for about half-an-hour,
+I believe," said Reginald. "What is the matter?"
+
+"It is a matter of life or death," answered Vane, looking at him with
+burning eyes and speaking with twitching lips. "Perhaps something worse
+even than that. Where are they?--quick, or we shall be too late!"
+
+"They are in the library," said Garthorne, as Enid came running out of
+the morning-room, saying:
+
+"Oh, Sir Arthur and Vane, good morning! How are you? What a very sudden
+visit. I knew Sir Reginald asked you, but----"
+
+"Never mind about that now, Enid," said Garthorne almost roughly. "Come
+along, Sir Arthur, this is the library."
+
+He crossed the great hall, and went down one of the corridors leading
+from it, and the footman was already at one of the doors trying to open
+it. It was locked. Garthorne hammered on it with his fists and shouted,
+but there was no reply.
+
+"I heard the library bell ring, sir," said Ambrose, "just as the front
+door bell went--after that Indian person had been with Sir Reginald some
+time."
+
+"Never mind about that," said Garthorne; "run round to the windows, and
+if any of them are open get in and unlock the door."
+
+But before he had reached the hall door the library door was thrown
+open. Koda Bux salaamed, and, pointing to the lifeless shape of Sir
+Reginald, lying on the hearth-rug, he said to Sir Arthur:
+
+"Protector of the poor, justice has been done. The enemy of thy house is
+dead. Before he died he confessed his sin. Has not thy servant done
+rightly?"
+
+"You have done murder, Koda Bux," said Sir Arthur sternly, pushing him
+aside and going to where Sir Reginald lay. He tried to lift him, but it
+was no use. There was the mark of the roomal round his neck, the staring
+eyes and the half-protruding tongue. Justice, from Koda Bux's point of
+view, had been done. There was nothing more to do but to have him
+carried up to his room and send for the police. Garthorne gripped hold
+of Koda Bux, and called to one of the servants for a rope to tie him up
+until the police came, but the Pathan twisted himself free with scarcely
+an effort.
+
+"There is no need for that, Sahib; I shall not run away," said Koda Bux,
+drawing himself up and saluting Sir Arthur for the last time. "I came
+here to give my life for the one I have taken, so that justice might be
+done, and I have done it. In the next worlds and in the next lives we
+may meet again, and then you will know that neither did I kill your
+father nor die myself without good cause. Of the rest the gods will
+judge."
+
+He made a movement with his jaws and crunched something between his
+teeth. They saw a movement of swallowing in his throat. A swift spasm
+passed over his features; his limbs stiffened into rigidity, and as he
+stood before them so he fell, as a wooden image might have done. And so
+died Koda Bux the Pathan, loyal avenger of his master's honour.
+
+For a few moments there was silence--every tongue chained, every eye
+fixed by the sudden horror of the situation. Garthorne, roused by fear
+and anger, for a swift instinct told him that Dora had not come to the
+Abbey for nothing, was able to speak first. He was Sir Reginald now--but
+why, and how? When a man of this nature is very frightened, he often
+takes refuge in rage, and that is what Garthorne did. He turned on Sir
+Arthur and Vane, his hands clenched, and his lips drawn back from his
+teeth, and said, in a voice which Enid had never heard from him before:
+
+"What does all this mean, Sir Arthur? My father murdered in his own
+house; his murderer tells you that he has 'done justice,' and avenged
+your honour--then poisons himself. If any wrong has been done, how did
+that nigger servant of yours get to know of it? Why should he have been
+let loose to murder my father? If you had anything against him, why
+didn't you charge him with it yourself, as a man and gentleman should?
+You must have been in it the whole lot of you or you wouldn't have been
+here!
+
+"But, perhaps," he went on, with a sudden change of tone, "you would
+rather tell the police when they come; there must be some reason, I
+suppose, for your bringing that woman, a common prostitute, into my
+house, and into the presence of my wife."
+
+"Oh, you fool, you hypocrite, you have asked for the punishment of your
+sin, and you shall have it!"
+
+Dora had taken a couple of strides towards him, and faced him--cheeks
+blazing, and eyes flaming.
+
+"Prostitute! yes, I was; but how do _you_ know it? Because you lived in
+the same house with me. Yes, up to the very week of your wedding, with
+me and that man's daughter. You have asked why he was killed. He was
+killed righteously, because he wasn't fit to live. No, you didn't know
+that then, and so far you are innocent; but you are guilty of a crime
+nearly as great. Your father stole Carol's mother from her husband; you
+stole your wife from the man she loved and would have married but for
+you.
+
+"It was _you_ who made Vane Maxwell drunk that morning at Oxford, in the
+hope of wrecking his career. You didn't do that, but you gained your end
+all the same, and your sin is just as great. How do I know this--how do
+_we_ know it? I will tell you. Carol Vane, Mr. Maxwell's sister, _and
+yours_, went to your wedding. Carol recognised him as her father. Look,
+there is his photograph taken with her, when Carol was ten years old. If
+you don't believe that, look at his left arm, and you will find two
+spear stabs on it, and if that is not enough, I can bring police
+evidence from France to prove that he committed the crime for which he
+has died, and now, you--son of a seducer, libertine and thief of another
+man's love--you have got your answer and your punishment!"
+
+Dora's words, spoken in a moment of rare, but ungovernable passion, had
+leaped from her lips in such a fast and furious torrent of denunciation,
+that before the first few moments of the horror she had caused were
+passed, she had done.
+
+Enid heard her to the end, her voice sounding ever farther and farther
+away, until at last it died out into a faint hum and then a silence.
+Vane ran to her, and caught her just as she was swaying before she fell,
+and carried her to a sofa. It was the first time he had held her in his
+arms since he had had a lover's right to do so, and all the man-soul in
+him rose in a desperate revolt of love and pity against the coldly
+calculating villainy of the man who had used the vilest of means to rob
+him of his love.
+
+The moment he had laid her on the sofa, Dora was at her side, loosening
+the high collar of her dress and rubbing her hands. Garthorne, crushed
+into silence by the terrible vehemence of Dora's accusation, had dropped
+into an armchair close by his father's body. Sir Arthur, half-dazed with
+the horror of it all, threw open the door with a vague idea of getting
+into the fresh air out of that room of death. As he did so, the hall
+door opened, and an Inspector of Police followed by two constables and a
+gentleman in plain clothes entered. The sight of the uniformed
+incarnation of the Law brought him back instantly to the realities of
+the situation. The Inspector touched his cap, and said, briefly, and
+with official precision:
+
+"Good morning, Sir Arthur. This is Dr. Saunders, the Coroner. I met him
+on my way up from the village, and asked him to come with me. Very
+dreadful case, Sir; but I hope the bodies have not been disturbed?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Sir Arthur, "they have not been touched, but Mrs.
+Garthorne is lying in the same room in a faint. I suppose we may take
+her out before you make your examination?"
+
+"Why, certainly, Sir Arthur," said the Coroner. "Of course, we will take
+your word for that. But I believe Mr. Reginald Garthorne is at the
+Abbey, is he not?"
+
+"Yes," replied Sir Arthur, in a changed tone, "he is there, in the
+library, but of course--well, I mean--what has happened has affected him
+terribly, and I don't think he will be able to give you very much
+assistance at present. In fact, he is almost in a state of collapse
+himself."
+
+"That is only natural, under the very painful circumstances," said the
+Inspector, "please don't put him about at all, Sir Arthur. The last
+thing we should wish would be to put the family to any inconvenience or
+unpleasantness, and I am sure Dr. Saunders will arrange that the inquest
+will be as private and quiet as possible."
+
+And so it was, but, somehow, the ghastly truth of it all leaked out, and
+for a week after the inquest the horrible story of Sir Reginald's crime
+and its consequences made sport of the daintiest kind for the readers
+of the gutter rags, those microbes of journalism, which, like those of
+cancer and consumption, can only live on the corruption or decay of the
+body-corporate of Society.
+
+Only one name and one fact never came out, and that was due to Ernest
+Reed's uncompromising declaration that he would shoot any man who said
+anything in print about the identity of Carol Vane with the daughter of
+Sir Reginald Garthorne's victim. He worked by telegraph and otherwise
+for twenty-four hours on end, and the result was that his brother
+pressmen all over the country, being mostly gentlemen, recognised the
+chivalry of his attempt, and so chivalrously suppressed that part of the
+truth. And so effectually was it suppressed, that it was not until about
+a year afterwards that Mr. Ernest Reed found a rather difficult
+matrimonial puzzle solved for him by the receipt of Mr. Cecil Rayburn's
+cheque for a thousand pounds.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+A little more than a year had passed since the inquest on Sir Reginald
+and Koda Bux. For Vane Maxwell, the Missionary to Midas, as every one
+now called him, it had been a continued series of tribulations and
+triumphs. From Land's End to John o' Groats, and from Cork Harbour to
+Aberdeen he had preached the Gospel that he had found in the Sermon on
+the Mount. He had, in truth, proved himself to be the Savonarola of the
+twentieth century, not only in words, but also in the effects of his
+teaching.
+
+He had asked tens and hundreds of thousands of professing Christians,
+just as he had asked the congregation of St. Chrysostom, to choose
+honestly between their creed and their wealth, to be honest, as he had
+said then, with themselves or with God; to choose openly and in the face
+of all men between the service of God and of Mammon. And his appeal had
+been answered throughout the length and breadth of the land.
+
+Never since the days of John Wesley had there been such a re-awakening
+of religious, really religious, feeling in the country. Just as the rich
+Italians brought their treasures of gold and silver and jewels and
+heaped them up under the pulpit of Savonarola in the market-places, so
+hundreds of men and women of every social degree recognised the plain
+fact that they could not be at the same time honestly rich and honestly
+Christians, and so, instead of material treasure, they had sent their
+cheques to Vane.
+
+Before the year was over he found himself nominally the richest man in
+the United Kingdom. He had more than five millions sterling at his
+absolute disposal, almost countless thousands of pounds given up for
+conscience' sake because he had said that honest Christians could not
+own them; and he and Father Philip, Father Baldwin and Ernshaw, having
+given many hours and days of anxious consideration to the very pressing
+question as to which was the best way of disposing of this suddenly,
+and, as they all confessed, unexpectedly acquired wealth, decided to
+devote it to the extirpation, so far as was possible in England, of that
+Cancer in Christianity which Christians of the canting sort call the
+Social Evil.
+
+As Jesus of Nazareth had said to the woman taken in adultery, "Go thou
+and sin no more!" so the Missionary and his helpers said:
+
+"You have sinned more through necessity than choice, and the Society
+which denies you redemption is a greater sinner than you, since it
+drives you into deeper sin. There is no hope for you here. Civilization
+has no place for you, save the streets or the 'homes,' which are, if
+anything, more degrading than the streets.
+
+"Those who are willing to save themselves we will save so far as earthly
+power can help you. We will give you homes where you will not be known,
+where, perhaps, you may begin to lead a new life, where it may be that
+you will become wives and mothers, as good as those who now, when they
+pass you in the street, draw their skirts aside fearing lest they
+should touch yours. And, if not that, at least we will save you from the
+horrible necessity of keeping alive, by living a life of degradation."
+
+The foregoing paragraphs are, to all intents and purposes, a precis of a
+charter of release to the inhabitants of the twentieth century Christian
+Inferno which was drawn up by Dora Russell the day before she yielded to
+Ernshaw's year-long wooing, and consented to be his helpmeet as well as
+his helper.
+
+It was scattered broadcast in hundreds of thousands all over the
+country. Storms of protest burst forth from all the citadels of
+orthodoxy and respectability. It seemed monstrous that these women, who
+had so far defied all the efforts of official Christianity to redeem
+them, should be bribed--as many put it--bribed back into the way of
+virtue, if that were possible, with the millions which had been coaxed
+out of the pockets of sentimental Christians by this Mad Missionary of
+Mayfair--as one of the smartest of Society journals had named him.
+
+But, for all that, the Mad Missionary said very quietly to Ernshaw a few
+hours before he intended to marry him to Dora:
+
+"These good Christians, as they think themselves, are wofully wrong. It
+seems absolutely impossible to get them to see this matter in its proper
+perspective. They can't or won't see that in ninety-nine cases out of a
+hundred it is one of absolute necessity--the choice between that and
+misery and starvation. They don't see that this accursed commercial
+system of ours condemns thousands of girls----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted Dora, "I know what you are going to say. I was a
+shop-girl myself once, a slave, a machine that was not allowed to have
+a will or even a soul of its own, and I----"
+
+Before she could go on, the door of the Den at Warwick Gardens--where
+the conversation had taken place--opened, and Sir Arthur came in with
+some letters in his hands.
+
+"I just met the postman on the doorstep," he said, "and he gave me
+these.
+
+"Here's one for you, Vane. There's one for me, and one for Miss
+Russell--almost the last time I shall call you that, Miss Dora, eh?"
+
+Vane tore his envelope open first. As he unfolded a sheet of note-paper,
+a cheque dropped out. The letter was in Carol's handwriting. His eye ran
+over the first few lines, and he said:
+
+"Good news! Rayburn and Carol are coming home next week and bringing a
+fine boy with them--at least, that is what the fond mother
+says--and--eh?--Rayburn has made another half million out there, and,
+just look, Ernshaw--yes, it is--a cheque for a hundred thousand pounds,
+to be used, as she says here in the postscript, 'as before.'"
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad," exclaimed Dora, as she was opening her own envelope.
+"Fancy having Carol back again. Mark, I won't marry you till she comes.
+You must put everything off. I won't hear of it and--oh--look!" she went
+on, after a little pause, "Sir Arthur, read that, please. Isn't it
+awful?"
+
+"The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small," said Sir
+Arthur when he had looked over the sheet of note-paper. "Shall I read
+it, Miss Russell?"
+
+Dora nodded, and he read aloud:
+
+"I have just heard that my husband, whom, as you know, I have not seen
+since that terrible day at the Abbey, has died in a fit of delirium
+tremens. The lawyers tell me that everything will be mine. If so,
+Garthorne Abbey shall go back to the Church if Vane will take it, and if
+you will let me come and help you in your work."
+
+"Thank God!" said Sir Arthur, as he gave the letter back, "not for his
+death, for that was, after all that we have heard, inevitable; but for
+what Enid has done. Vane, she is your latest and, perhaps, after all,
+your worthiest convert. And now, what's this?"
+
+He tore open his own envelope, which was addressed in the handwriting of
+one of his solicitor's clerks. The letter was very brief and formal, but
+before he had read it through his face turned grey under the bronze of
+his skin. He passed it over to Vane, and left the room without a word.
+
+Vane looked at the few formal lines, and, as he folded the letter up
+with trembling fingers, he said almost in a whisper:
+
+"The tragedy is over. My mother is dead."
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+  List of Popular Novels
+  Published by F. V. White & Co. Limited,
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+  F.V. WHITE & CO., LTD., Publishers,
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+  THE MYSTERY OF A SHIPYARD. By R. H. SAVAGE.
+  DEACON AND ACTRESS. By A. O. GUNTER.
+  THE MISSIONARY. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  THE MAN I LOVED. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
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+  QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. C. N. WILLIAMSON.
+  A LOSING GAME. By HUME NISBET.
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+  THE COURT OF HONOUR. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  FROM DEAL TO SOUTH AFRICA. By HELEN C. BLACK.
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+  THE CAREER OF A BEAUTY. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
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+  AN UNCONGENIAL MARRIAGE. By COSMO CLARKE.
+  DOL SHACKFIELD. By HEBER K. DANIELS.
+  THE MAJOR-GENERAL. A Story of Modern Florence. By MONTGOMERY CARMICHAEL.
+  THE KING'S SECRET. By RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE.
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+  THE WORLD'S BLACKMAIL. By LUCAS CLEEVE.
+  THE LOVE OF TWO WOMEN. By JOHN JONES.
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+  MIRIAM ROZELLA. By B. L. FARJEON.
+  MERELY PLAYERS. By Mrs. AYLMER GOWING.
+  THE EVOLUTION OF DAPHNE. By Mrs. ALEC MCMILLAN.
+  MISTRESS BRIDGET. By E. YOLLAND.
+  THE ATTACK ON THE FARM. By ANDREW W. ARNOLD. (Illustrated.)
+  THE BRIDE OF GOD. By CONRAD H. CARRODER.
+  ROMANCE OF THE LADY ARBELL. By ALASTOR GRAEME (MRS. F. T. MARRYAT).
+  BELLING THE CAT. By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
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+
+  THE MARRIED MISS BINKS. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  WAR--AND ARCADIA. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  FOR RIGHT AND ENGLAND. By HUME NISBET.
+  THE GIRL AT RIVERFIELD MANOR. By PERRINGTON PRIMM.
+  IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. By HUME NISBET.
+
+
+
+
+  FIVE SHILLING NOVELS.
+  In Cloth Gilt, Bevelled Boards, Illustrated, price 5/- each.
+
+  THE CURSE OF THE SNAKE. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+  THE CHILDERBRIDGE MYSTERY. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+
+
+
+
+  A NEW JUVENILE BOOK.
+  In Cloth Gilt, Illustrated, price 2/6.
+
+  THE MAGIC GARDEN. By CECIL MEDLICOTT.
+
+
+
+
+  ONE SHILLING NOVELS.
+  In Paper Covers.
+
+  LORD BROKE'S WIFE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  SHE WAS CALLED NOEL, by the same Author.
+  BITS OF TURF. By NATHANIEL GUBBINS.
+  THE SACK OF LONDON. By ONE WHO SAW IT.
+  A GUIDE BOOK FOR LADY CYCLISTS. By MRS. EDWARD KENNARD.
+  CONTINENTAL CHIT CHAT. By MABEL HUMBERT.
+  PISCATORIAL PATCHES. By MARTIN PESCADOR.
+  A NEAR THING. By H. CUMBERLAND BENTLEY.
+  THE PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. By COSMO CLARKE.
+  RAILWAY SKETCHES. By MARY F. CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+  SIXPENNY NOVELS.
+  COPYRIGHT SERIES.
+
+  A NAME TO CONJURE WITH. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  WHOSO FINDETH A WIFE. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  THE SECRET OF THE DEAD. By L. T. MEADE.
+  AUNT JOHNNIE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  STREET DUST. By OUIDA.
+  THE MEMOIRS OF AN INSPECTOR. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  TURF TALES. By NATHANIEL GUBBINS.
+  STORIES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL. By HUME NISBET.
+  A SWEET SINNER. By HUME NISBET.
+  A RISE IN THE WORLD. By ADELINE SERGEANT.
+  IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  THE BLACK DROP. By HUME NISBET.
+  BROTHERS OF THE CHAIN. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  THE OTHER MAN'S WIFE. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  JOHN AMES, Native Commissioner. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  A MAGNIFICENT YOUNG MAN. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  BROUGHT TO BAY. By R. H. SAVAGE.
+  LITTLE MISS PRIM. By FLORENCE WARDEN.
+  THE JUSTICE OF REVENGE. By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
+  QUEEN SWEETHEART. By Mrs. C. N. WILLIAMSON.
+  IN WHITE RAIMENT. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.
+  A BORN SOLDIER. By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
+  ALETTA. By BERTRAM MITFORD.
+  THE EMPIRE MAKERS. By HUME NISBET.
+  A RATIONAL MARRIAGE. By FLORENCE MARRYAT.
+  THE SECRET OF LYNNDALE. By FLORENCE WARDEN.
+  NEW NOVEL. By GUY BOOTHBY.
+
+  _Other Stories by the most Popular Authors of the day will follow in
+  succession._
+
+
+
+
+  MISCELLANEOUS.
+
+  GOOD FORM: a Book of Every Day Etiquette. By MRS. ARMSTRONG, Author of
+  "Modern Etiquette in Public and Private." _Limp Cloth, 2s._
+
+  LETTERS TO A BRIDE, Including Letters to a Debutante. By MRS.
+  ARMSTRONG. _Cloth Gilt, 2s. 6d._
+
+
+
+
+  14, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+Alternative spellings and hyphenation have been retained as they appear
+in the original publication. Other punctuation, including quotation
+marks, has been standardized.
+
+In chapter XVII, in the sermon headline beginning with "WEIGHTY WORDS TO
+RICH AND POOR," the name "Maxwell Vane" has been changed to "Vane
+Maxwell."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Missionary, by George Griffith
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSIONARY ***
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