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diff --git a/40539-0.txt b/40539-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a23242 --- /dev/null +++ b/40539-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6863 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40539 *** + + A LOST CAUSE + + BY GUY THORNE + + AUTHOR OF "WHEN IT WAS DARK," ETC. + + + G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + The Knickerbocker Press + 1905 + + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +PREFACE + + +A few words are necessary in preface to this story. After _When It Was +Dark_ made its appearance, the writer received a great number of letters +from his readers, and up to the present moment he still continues to +receive them. + +Out of nearly two hundred communications, a large proportion are +concerned not so much with the main issue of the tale, as with +controversial matters in the Church of England arising from it. + +The definitely Catholic[1] tone of the first book aroused, as might be +expected, vigorous protest, and no less vigorous commendation. The five +or six Bishops--and many other dignitaries--who preached or lectured +about the story avoided the controversial sides of it. But the writer +has received innumerable letters from the clergy and others to the +following effect. + +[Footnote 1: The term "Catholic" is here, and throughout the book, used +in the sense in which it is employed by a certain division of the Church +of England and of the Episcopal Church of America.--The PUBLISHERS.] + +It was pointed out to him that while the extreme "Protestant" party was +constantly employing fiction as a method of propaganda, churchmen were +almost unrepresented in this way. The Catholic Faith has been bitterly +assailed over and over again in books which are well enough written, and +have sufficient general interest to appeal to the man of the world, who +is often indifferent to the points debated. + +After considerable discussion, the writing of _A Lost Cause_ was +resolved upon. The author desires to thank those priests who have +assisted him with their counsel and experience, and begs leave to +explain here something of his aims in publishing the tale. + +At no period in modern Church history has the Church been assailed with +such malignance, slander, and untruth as at the present. "Protestantism" +within the Church is a lost cause, it is dying, and for just this reason +the clamour is loudest, the misrepresentation more furious and +envenomed. Shrewd opportunists are taking their last chance of emerging +from obscurity by an appeal to the ignorance of the general public on +Church matters. Looking round us, we see dozens of uneducated and noisy +nobodies who have elected themselves into a sort of irregular prelacy +and dubbed themselves "Defenders of the Faith," with about as much right +as Napoleon crowned himself emperor. + +Church people do not take them very seriously. Their voices are like the +cries of hedge-birds by the road, on which the stately procession of the +Church is passing. But the man in the street is more attentive and he +enjoys the colour and movement of iconoclasm. He believes also that the +brawlers have right on their side. + +But there is an inherent fairness in the man in the street, and, if this +story reaches him, he will have his opportunity to hear the Catholic +side of the argument. + +The author begs to state that no single character in this tale is a +"portrait" of any living person, or of any real person whatever. The +imaginary folk are designed to be merely typical, their methods are +analogous to much that is going on to-day under the pretences of +patriotism and love for religious liberty, but that is all. + +There will probably be the usual nonsense written, and the braves of +"Protestantism" will give the usual war-whoops. Whether this is to be +so or not, the author is profoundly indifferent. + +He attacks those of the extreme "Protestants" whom he believes to be +insincere and who rebel against the Truth for their own ends. He does +not say or think that all "Protestants"--even the extremists--are +insincere. He has endeavoured to point out that there is as much +difference between the street-corner "Protestants" and the pious +Evangelical Party within the Church as there is between Trinitarians and +Unitarians. + +The incident in the tale where the Archbishop of Canterbury compels a +"Protestant" publicist to give up the Blessed Sacrament, which he has +stolen from a church for purposes of propaganda, is founded on fact. It +has not before been made public, except in a short letter to the _Church +Times_ a few months ago, which was written with the design of preparing +Church readers for the detailed publication of such a painful incident. +The facts, however, have been supplied to the writer to make such use of +in the story as he thinks fit. The authors of this disgraceful +profanation have, naturally, been silent on the matter. It is not an +isolated instance. But it is not to be thought that the imaginary +characters concerned in the affair in the story, are intended to +represent, or do in any way, the real heroes of this great blow struck +for "Protestant" truth. + +Finally, the noisiest "Protestants" are hitting the Church as hard as +they can. The author has endeavoured to hit back as hard as _he_ can--of +course, in that spirit of Christian love in which the "Protestants" +themselves tell us these controversies are always conducted. + +The brawlers have enjoyed an astonishing immunity hitherto, and it is +only fair that battle should be joined now. And, however inadequate his +forces and generalship, that is the writer's aim. He is, of course, a +_franc-tireur_, but he fires his musket on the right side, and with a +perfect assurance of the justice of his Cause. + + +G. T. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I.--THE INTERRUPTED EUCHARIST 1 + +II.--MR. HAMLYN AND SON AT HOME 19 + +III.--LORD HUDDERSFIELD AND THE GUESTS AT SCARNING COURT 38 + +IV.--LUCY BLANTYRE AT THE CLERGY-HOUSE 69 + +V.--WEALTHY MISS PRITCHETT AND POOR GUSSIE DAVIES ENTER THE VICARAGE +GARDEN 108 + +VI.--BOADICEA, JOAN OF ARC, CHARLOTTE CORDAY, JAEL, AND MISS PRITCHETT +OF HORNHAM 127 + +VII.--THE OFFICES OF THE "LUTHER LEAGUE"--AN INTERIOR 146 + +VIII.--A PRIVATE CONFERENCE AT MIDNIGHT A YEAR LATER 166 + +IX.--A UNION OF FORCES 182 + +X.--LOW WATER AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS 214 + +XI.--THE NEWS THAT CARR BROUGHT 241 + +XII.--THE REPARATION OF JANE PRITCHETT EX-PROTESTANT 281 + +XIII.--THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE HAMLYNS 302 + + + + +A LOST CAUSE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE INTERRUPTED EUCHARIST + + +The Church of St. Elwyn was a building of brick that went up to a great +height. + +In the crowded district between Hornsey and Wood Green, it was one of +the largest buildings, and, though not externally beautiful, acquired +dignity and impressiveness from its setting of small villa houses, which +made an interminable brick wilderness all round it. + +It was nearing the time of the High Celebration on a Sunday morning in +summer. Matins had been said in a side chapel, to a scanty congregation, +at half-past nine, and now the central act of the day was to take place. + +The interior of St. Elwyn's was severe but beautiful, save for one or +two minor blemishes here and there. + +The eye was caught and carried away down the aisles till it found its +focus on the high altar which was set like a throne, above many marble +steps, in the curve of the distant apse. The sanctuary was lighted from +the sides and so the eye was not disturbed and distracted by hideous +windows of stained glass with their clamorous coal-tar colours, but +could rest quietly upon the altar with its green and gold, its flowers +and central cross. + +The organ was hidden away in a side gallery and the pulpit was a stone +bracket high in the sweep of the chancel arch, to which it clung like +the nest of a bird on a cliff side. + +All this was as it should be. In so many English churches the object of +the builders appears to have been to destroy all the dignity and beauty +possible in a service. The organ and the pulpit are elevated to the +importance of shrines, and dominate everything like Gog and Magog in the +Guildhall. Everything is done to minimise the place and office of the +altar, to exalt the less important functions of worship, and to prevent +comfortable consciences from being uneasy in the realisation of the +presence of God. + +Only one tawdry note could be detected in this beautiful church. The +pictures which hung on the walls round the aisles, and represented the +stations of the cross, were ill-drawn, and stiff in colour and design. +These pictures, which were said by the ignorant and unimaginative to be +idolatrous, or at least "Roman"--a little understood but very +efficacious term of reproach in the parish--were sufficiently like the +hideous stained-glass figures in the Evangelical Church of St. Luke hard +by to have satisfied the most pious lover of ugliness. But those folk, +who so vehemently preferred the medallion portraits of their respectable +ancestors on the walls of a church to any other form of symbol or +decoration, did not see this. They spoke bitterly of the pictures as +being "high," suggesting to outsiders unfamiliar with the parrot cry of +the partisan that they had been kept too long in a warm place. + +Since Father Blantyre had been appointed vicar of St. Elwyn's, the +congregation had increased until few of the rush-bottomed chairs were +empty, and on days of great festivals, people would be found kneeling in +the aisles. The opposition party in the parish frequently commented on +this custom, which was thought to savour of heathenism or worse. One or +two people who had spent holidays in continental towns, and had made +excursions into foreign cathedrals in much the same spirit as they went +into the chamber of horrors in the wax-work exhibition, had brought back +news that this habit was in vogue among "the Catholics." It was felt +that real salvation could only be found in a pew, with one's name +legibly written on an ivory tablet at the end and the vestry-clerk +calling for the rent once a quarter in the decent old-fashioned way. Any +one who knelt on the uncushioned stone showed an anxiety to worship and +a superstitious abasement quite unworthy of a bluff, honest, British +Christian; and his doings must be displeasing to a Deity who, the +objectors were persuaded, was--though they did not say so in actual +words--a great _English_ God. + +The single bell that summoned the people to Mass--that word which +church-people are becoming less afraid to use in this century--had +ceased. The server was lighting the Eucharistic candles with a long +taper. + +As the people came in, it was noticeable that they proceeded to their +places without side-looks at each other, or muttered social greetings. +They went to their seats, young and old, men and women, and began to +kneel and pray. + +No one, apparently, had come there to be seen by his fellows. + +Since the Catholic Revival in the English Church, no fact has been more +obvious and easily determined than this. It is one which the bitterest +opponent of churchmanship has never been able to deny and has never +attempted to deny. The most prejudiced observer paying an alternate +visit to a church where the Faith is taught and to another which is +confessedly "Protestant" cannot fail to observe the difference. At the +celebration of the Eucharist in a church of the former type, there is an +absolute stillness and reverence. The congregation kneels, it worships. + +In the latter, there is an unrest. People do not show marked +consciousness of being in the presence of mysteries. Whatever they may +think, they do not give the observer the impression that they think God +is there. They sit rather than kneel, they notice the clothes of other +people, there is a certain sense that they are doing the right thing in +"patronising" the church, and the Sunday dinner looms large over all. + +The man lit the candles. A moment afterwards Father Blantyre entered +with the servers and the service began. + +The singing was simple but harmonious. There was nothing especially +noticeable in the hymn or the chanting of the Kyries after the +commandments. + +The priest went into the pulpit, kissed the white stole, and placed it, +as a yoke, upon his shoulders. Over his head was a crucifix. He was a +small man, dark of hair, and swarthy of complexion. The nose was +prominent and aquiline, the eyes bright, with a net-work of fine +wrinkles round them, the mouth large and mobile. There was almost a +suggestion of the comedian in his face, that is, in its extreme mobility +and good-humour. One could imagine him as a merry man in his private +life. But mingled with this, one saw at once the lines of an unalterable +purpose, and of conviction. Any strong belief stamps itself upon a man's +face in an unmistakable way. When that belief is purely holy and good, +then we say that the man has the face of a saint. + +For a moment or two, Mr. Blantyre looked round the church. The eyes, so +puckered at the corners, very much resembled the eyes of a sailor, who +is ever gazing out towards a vast horizon and through furious winds. Men +who are much occupied with the Unseen and Invisible sometimes have this +look, which is the look of a man who is striving to see God. + +The subject-matter of the sermon itself was not very remarkable. It was +a sermon dealing with the aids to worship that symbol gives, showing how +a proper use of material objects may focus the brain upon the reality +behind them. During the last week or two, the local paper had been +printing some violent attacks upon the services at St. Elwyn's, for +there was a by-election in progress and one of the candidates was +seizing the opportunity afforded by a "No Popery" cry. + +The local writer, the vicar pointed out, was obviously alarmed lest +people should worship too much. He spoke of the attacks with sincere +good humour and more than once his words provoked a smile. The +journalist, with the sublime ignorance of lesser local scribes, had +spoken of Queen Elizabeth and expressed a fervent desire that the times +of "good Queen Bess" would come again and that the Royal Spinster could +descend on the purlieus of Hornsey and sternly order all Romish toys to +be removed. Father Blantyre quoted Elizabeth's letter to Sandys: + + The queen's majesty considered it not contrary to the Word of + God--nay, rather for the advantage of the church--that the image + of Christ crucified,--together with Mary and John, should be placed + as heretofore in some conspicuous part of the church, where they + may the more readily be seen by all the people. + +The last few words of the sermon were preparatory for the mystery that +was about to begin, an earnest exhortation to all there to make +themselves ready to receive the Lord, who was presently coming among +them. + +There was nothing in the short discourse that was remarkable, but its +delivery was extraordinary. The words were uttered with a great +tenderness and solemnity, but quite without any formal note. There was +almost a gaiety in them now and then, a spiritual gaiety that was very +impressive. Father Blantyre leaned over the rail and talked to his +people. The voice, which sank into a whisper at times, and at others +rang out with a sharpness that echoed up in the lofty roof, never once +lost its suggestion of confidential intimacy with those to whom it +spoke. In the entire absence of the usual "preaching" note, the sermon +gained immensely in value with this particular audience. Anything +academic would have been endured, but it would not have gone home. + +While the offertory sentences were being sung, the congregation saw +that a small group of people had entered the church, presumably to hear +Mass. + +One of the churchwardens was able to find seats for the party about +half-way down the central aisle. The new-comers were four in number. All +of them were men. + +It is perhaps strange to speak of one of their number as being the +"leader" of the party, but that was the impression he gave to those +members of the congregation immediately around him. At the close of the +service, moreover, several worshippers agreed with each other that this +person had suggested that to them. + +He was a shortish, thick-set man of some five and forty years of age. +His large, intelligent face was clean-shaved. The eyes were small and +very bright, shifting hither and thither in a constant flicker of +observation. The mouth was large, and though the lips were thick and +loose, there was nevertheless a certain resolution in them. They were +frequently curved into a half-smile which had something indescribably +sinister and impudent about it. One saw that, in whatever situation he +might find himself, this person would not easily be abashed or unready. + +He wore a frock-coat of shining broadcloth. The waistcoat was cut low, +not as well-dressed people would wear it, showing a large expanse of +imitation shirt-front through which a black stud was thrust. A small bow +of black ribbon served as necktie. In some nameless way, he suggested a +peculiarly unpleasing type of irregular dissenting minister in his +appearance, and this was enhanced by the fact that under one arm he +carried a large Bible of limp leather, secured by an india-rubber band. + +Yet, with all this, the new-comer had a remarkable and even arresting +personality. Wherever he went, he would not easily escape notice. + +By his side sat a tallish youth with sufficient likeness to him to +proclaim a near relationship. + +The young fellow's complexion was somewhat muddy, his hair was smooth +and mouse-coloured, his mouth resembled his father's, except that it had +not the impudent good-humour of the elder man's, and was altogether more +furtive and sly. + +The two remaining members of the party were men apparently of the +prosperous small-tradesman type, pursy, flabby with good living, who +had added mutton-chop whiskers to their obvious self-esteem. + +To one or two members of the congregation there, the father and son were +not unknown. The thick-set, clean-shaved man was Mr. Samuel Hamlyn, the +editor and proprietor of a small local journal,--the _Hornham +Observer_,--and the youth was his son, who acted as reporter to the +paper and signed himself S. Hamlyn, Junior. + +Both were well known in local affairs; Hamlyn was a member of the +school-board and held one or two kindred positions. His religious +sympathies had hitherto been supposed to lie with the numerous +dissenting sects in the parish, all of whom had their bills and other +announcements printed at his office. + +The momentary interest and stir created by the entrance of the party +died away almost immediately and Mass continued. Certainly no one in the +church realised that in a few short weeks the fat man with the smile +would be notorious all over England, and that they were to be present at +the very first step in the career of one of the shrewdest of vulgar +opportunists the country had ever known. + +The seats reserved for the churchwardens were on the opposite side of +the aisle, but almost upon a level with those in which the new-comers +were seated--perhaps some two rows of chairs behind. + +Accordingly Doctor Hibbert, the vicar's warden, had a clear view of the +four men just in front. + +Hibbert was an upright, soldierly-looking man, who had, in fact, been an +army surgeon, and had now bought a practice in the parish. He was a +skilful doctor, and a man of considerable mental strength, who had made +himself indispensable in the district and was in the way of becoming a +wealthy man. His earnest churchmanship had not militated against his +success, even among the most extreme Protestants and Dissenters of +Hornham. He was known to be a first-class doctor, and he was too strong +a man for any one to take a liberty with, and of such superior power and +mould to the mass of lower-class people whom he attended that his +opinions were respected. + +But going about as he did, among every one in the parish, the Doctor +knew far more of its internal state than any one else. Nothing is +concealed from a medical man in general practice. Confession is +compulsory to him; he sees the secrets of men's lives, knows the +tarnished story of the "respectable" person, as sometimes the heroism of +the outcast. Hibbert had his finger on the public pulse of Hornham in a +measure that Father Blantyre himself could hardly achieve. + +It was therefore with some little uneasiness and a good deal of +conjecture that the doctor had noticed the advent of Hamlyn and his +party. + +The disturbances to public worship which are so familiar to-day were +quite unknown at that time. Hibbert anticipated nothing of what actually +occurred, but his eye was watchful nevertheless. + +The Mass went on. + +The servers knelt on the altar steps in cotta and cassock, the priest +moved above them in his stiff, flowered chasuble, robed in the garments +of the Passion of our Lord. + +The Comfortable Words were said, and the Sursum Corda began. + +A deep throbbing sound came from the organ, and, in one great outburst +of solemn avowal, the congregation lifted up their hearts to God. + + SURSUM CORDA! + HABEMUS AD DOMINUM + GRATIAS AGAMUS DOMINO DEO NOSTRO! + +Ever since the days of the Apostles, the Mass had been said thus, the +most solemn part of the service had begun with these profound words of +adoration. The doctor forgot all else as he worshipped. + +Let it be remembered, in the light of what follows, that the vast +majority of the people there believed this, were waiting for +_this_--they believed that when the priest said the Prayer of +Consecration, our Lord Himself had come suddenly among them. + +Throughout the rite there was a growing sense and assurance of One +coming. Most of them were quite sure of it. + +Human hearts, worn with the troubles of the week, sick to death, it may +be, of a hard material lot, now bowed in contrition and repentance, or +were filled with a certain Hope. Everything in this world was as +nothing, because, upon the altar before which the priest was bending so +low, they believed that God had come. + +In what way, or how, they did not know and could not have explained. Did +they _imagine_ it week after week as they knelt in church? Most of them +_knew_ that it was no imagination or delusion that caught at their +hearts, that changed the air of the building in a swift moment, that +caught up heart and soul and spirit in one great outpouring of love and +faith and adoration. + +Was _this_ a fable, as folks sometimes told them? This which dissolved +and broke the chains of bodily sense, banished the world, and enfolded +them with its awful sweetness, its immeasurable joy? What else in life +had power to do this, power to hurry away clogging, material things as +in a mighty spiritual wind, to show them once more the stupendous +sacrifice of the Saviour--what else but the indubitable presence of our +Lord? + +The priest held up the Host. + +At that supreme moment, Doctor Hibbert, whose state of mind may be taken +as typical of many others there, bent in humble adoration and +contrition. + +An absolute silence lay over the church; there was not the slightest +sound or movement in it. + +A chair was pushed harshly over the tiles, there was a heavy shuffling +of feet. Such sounds in that holy moment affected some of the +worshippers as a physical blow might have done. + +But few people looked up. Many of them did not hear the sound, their +ears being tuned to harmonies that were not of this world. + +The doctor heard the noise with his ears, but for a merciful moment it +did not penetrate to his brain. And then with a horrid clangour the +visible things of the world came rushing back to him. + +He looked up. + +The four men just in front of him had risen in their places. The two +tradesmen were red in the face and manifestly uneasy. They breathed +hard, a breath of ostentatious defiance. + +Young Hamlyn was glancing round the church with swift, malevolent +movements of his head. His eyes flickered hither and thither until they +finally settled on the motionless figure at the altar, the figure with +the upstretched arm. + +The elder Hamlyn held a paper in his hand, from which he began to read +in a loud, unsteady voice: + +"_I, Samuel Hamlyn, a lawful parishioner of St. Elwyn's parish, Hornham, +do hereby rise and protest against the illegal and blasphemous fable of +the Mass as performed in this church. And as a member of the Protestant +Church of England I give notice----_" + +Every one had risen to his feet. In a distant corner of the church, a +woman began to shriek. A murmur broke into shouts, there was a crash of +some heavy body falling. + +A horrid tumult seemed broken loose, as if it had been confined till now +and had broken its bars with one great effort. + +In a second, the four men were surrounded by a pushing crowd of men, +beside themselves with horror and anger. Sticks began to quiver in the +air, the crash of the chairs as they were overturned was like the +dropping rattle of musketry fire. + +The hard voice of the brawler had gone up a full tone. In its +excitement, it dominated an abominable chorus of shouting. + +In half a minute, the doctor and other members of the congregation had +Hamlyn and his son gripped by the arms and were hurrying them towards +the west door without any answer to their frantic threats and menaces. +The other two men followed stolidly. + +Nearly every face was turned away from the altar. + +The one or two people who had fallen trembling upon their knees when the +riot was at its height saw that the vicar was also kneeling in adoration +of the Blessed Sacrament. + +A loud metallic _clang_ resounded through the church. The door was +barred, the brawlers were shut out. + +When the maimed, polluted rite was at last concluded, amid deep sobs +from men and women alike, Father Blantyre gave the blessing. They saw +with deep sympathy that the tears were rolling down his cheeks also. + +But the doctor saw, with a sudden quickening of the pulses, that the +first finger and the thumb were joined still. It is the custom of the +priest, after he has broken the bread, that the finger and thumb are +never parted till Mass is said. + +They were not parted now. + +The fact comforted and cheered the doctor. He had been on battle-fields +and had not known the fear and horror he had known to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MR. HAMLYN AND SON AT HOME + + +Mr. Hamlyn lived in Alexandra Road, Hornham. The actual name of his +house was "Balmoral," and it was one of seven or eight other residences +gathered together under the generic title of "Beatrice Villas." + +The father and son turned into the little path which led up to the +imitation satin-wood door some twenty minutes after the gate of St. +Elwyn's had been barred to them. Their companions, Mr. Burgoyne and Mr. +Moffatt, had left them at the corner of the street, very flustered at +what they had done, and with a dull remorse flitting about their thick +skulls, that they had joined in "Hamlyn's little game." Nor did the +repeated assurances of the journalist, that Mr. Herbert--the Liberal +candidate--would "see them through it," help them to recover their peace +of mind. Visions of police-court proceedings and an unenviable notoriety +in the daily papers were very vivid, and they parted with their chief +in mingled sorrow and anger. + +Mr. Hamlyn let himself and his son into the little hall of his villa. A +smell of roast meat gave evidence that dinner would soon be ready. Both +men turned into the parlour on the left of the passage. It was a room +which showed signs of fugitive rather than regular use. Two or three +long boxes bearing the name of a local draper stood upon the round table +in the centre. The contents showed that Miss Hamlyn, the agitator's only +daughter, had been occupied in the choice of corsets. + +The walls of the parlour were covered with a rich mauve and gold paper, +which gave a dignity to the cut-glass lustres of the chandelier. The +pictures, heavily framed in gold, were spirited representations of +scenes from the Old Testament. On the rack of the rosewood piano--which +stood open--was a song called "Roses that Bloomed in my Heart." + +The chairs, arranged around the wall with commendable regularity, were +upholstered in plum-coloured plush. On one of them was a card-box of a +vivid green, containing several clean collars of the particular sort +Hamlyn Junior wore; on another stood the wooden box where his father's +silk hat was kept when not in use on Sundays and other important days. + +Mr. Hamlyn took off his frock coat and removed the reversible cuffs that +were attached to the sleeves of his flannel shirt by means of an +ingeniously contrived clip. He then put on a loose coat of black alpaca. +His son, having gone through something of the same process, followed his +father to the sitting-room next the little kitchen. + +As the parlour was not often used for ceremonial occasions, the Hamlyns +not being very hospitable people, it served as an occasional +dressing-room also, and saved running up-stairs. + +The sitting-room window looked out into the backyard, immediately by the +kitchen door, which led into it. As the Hamlyns came in, they were able +to see their servant throwing some hot liquid--the water in which the +cabbage had been boiled, as a matter of fact--into the grid in the +centre of the yard. + +The table was already laid for the meal. As, however, it was rather a +long table and the Hamlyns were only three in family,--Hamlyn being a +widower,--the white cloth was laid only on half of it. One or two +volumes of the Heartsease Novelettes and some artificial flowers, with +which a hat was to be trimmed by Miss Hamlyn, were thus left +undisturbed. + +"Dinner didn't ought to be long," Mr. Hamlyn remarked. + +"'Ope not," said his son shortly. "I'll holler to Maud." + +Miss Hamlyn came in soon afterwards, followed by the maid with a joint +of roast beef. The editor's daughter was a tall girl with sulky lips, +bold eyes, and a profusion of dark hair. This last was now screwed round +her forehead in curling-pins. + +The two men attacked their dinner in silence. Both of them had tucked a +handkerchief round their necks, in order to preserve the Sunday +waistcoat from droppings of food, a somewhat wise precaution, as both of +them ate very rapidly. + +"Maud," said Hamlyn at length, "can you do a bit of typing for me this +afternoon?" + +"No, then, I can't, Pa," she replied resentfully, "and it's like you to +ask it. On the Sabbath, too! I'm going out with Gussie Davies for a +walk." + +"Touch the 'arp lightly, my dear," he replied, "no need to get your +feathers up." + +"Well, Pa," she answered, "I'm sure I'm ready to spank the beastly +machine for you all the week, you know I am. But Sundays is different." + +Hamlyn made no reply. Both he and his son were thinking deeply, and as +yet no reference had escaped them as to the doings of the morning. +Although the girl knew there was something special afoot, she was not +much interested in the details, being at all times a person much +occupied with her own affairs. + +During the pudding, she had a short and slangy conversation with her +brother, and directly the meal was over she went up-stairs to "dress." + +The servant removed the plates and dishes, and Hamlyn and his son sat +down at the table. The father drew a large portfolio of papers towards +him. The son lighted a cheap cigarette. + +Both of the Hamlyns spoke fairly correctly in public, though with the +usual cockney twang. In the seclusion of Balmoral, neither of them +thought it necessary to be very particular about the aspirates which +they emphasised so carefully elsewhere. + +"When will Mr. Herbert pay up?" said Sam. + +"To-morrow. I shall see him in the committee room during the afternoon, +and it's five and twenty pound earned as easy as I ever earned anything +in my life. It'll come in very 'andy too. There's the rent on the +linotype machine just due." + +"The money's all right," answered the younger man, "and, of course, +we're guaranteed against fines and anything of that sort. But do you +think the game's worth the candle? How will opinion in the parish go?" + +"Like a house on fire. Wait till you see my leader in Wednesday's issue. +Mr. Herbert has put me up to the whole thing. We're carrying out a +patriotic Henglish duty. Public sympathy will all be with us. Rome is +creeping in among us!" + +Sam grinned. "Well, you know best, Father, of course. And we're bound to +support Mr. Herbert." + +"I've been thinking a great deal," Hamlyn answered slowly. "I've always +been an ambitious man and I've always meant to come out on top somehow +or other. But I've never had a big chance yet. I think,--I'm not +sure,--but I _think_ I see that chance waiting now." + +His shrewd face was lighted up with a curious excitement. The eyes +glowed and the impudent merriment on the lips became more pronounced +than before. + +"What is it then?" + +"Listen quietly to me for a few minutes. The idea came gradual to me. I +got on the track six months ago. First of all, it was the ten gross of +religious books I had down in the shop. They were of all sorts. Which +was the one that went best? Why, it was _The Adventures of Susan +Lefever, the Captive Nun_. I sold 'em all out in no time. The next best +seller was _The Revelations of Pastor Coucherrousset, the Converted +Catholic Priest_. Anything against Rome! Mr. Leatherbarrow, of the New +Connection Methodists, preached three times on those books. He had all +the congregation fair shaking with indignation against the Scarlet +Woman. You see it's like this. People want a cock-shy. They don't much +care about what it is, as long as they've got it--see the way they're +down on the Sheenies in France. Now a religious cock-shy is the best of +all. It gives people a feeling that they're in real earnest, and they +can kid themselves and other people that it's more disinterested than +politics, for instance. They've nothing to get by it--except the fun of +doing it--and that flatters 'em because they're always on the grab in +every other way. See?" + +Sam nodded. He was not one of those youths who despise the words of +parental wisdom. He was not himself a fool, and so he did not fall into +the mistake of underrating his father's capacity and knowledge of life. +The small and vulgar triumphs of Hamlyn's career were all appreciated +and noted by his son, who had a sincere respect for him. + +"Very well, then," Hamlyn continued. "It's a sure draw, all over +England, to raise the anti-popery cry. The wholesale trade tell me that +the business done in Fox's _Book of Martyrs_ is a perfect knock-out year +by year, and there's a sure sale for the smaller books about the priests +larking with the girls in the confessional and so forth. Anything with +'Secret History' or 'Jesuit' on the title-page 'll sell like the +_Evening News_ on Derby Day. Now, I've been reading all the publications +of the regular Protestant societies during the last few weeks. Plenty of +cuts at the Ritualists, lots of little sixpennies bound in cloth to +prove as there isn't no such thing as apostolic succession, that wafers +is illegal, and the Eastern position rather worse than arson. They're +all very well in their way, but they're written by D.D.'s and M.A.'s and +such like, who don't care to go too far. I have a list in my portfolio +here of the regular Protestant writers--nearly all _class_, my boy. +Listen here: + +"_Transubstantiation and the Invocation of Saints._ Rev. J. Cummer, +Canon Residentiary of Ironpool. + +"_Popery the Work of 'the Adversary,'--the Roman Clergy under Satanic +Influence._ Rev. R. S. Blanken, LL.D., incumbent of Christ Church, +Oxton. + +"_Ritualism in the English Church: A Word of Warning._ Rev. Joshua Cafe, +D.D., prebendary of Bath and Wells. + +"There's dozens of others like this. They're all very well in their way, +but they don't strike the really _popular_ note. They've broken the +ground and sowed the seed, but they're not going to reap the harvest." + +"Who is, then, Father? And what'll it be worth when it is reaped?" + +"Us, my boy. As to the worth of it, go on listening to me and you'll see +things gradually getting clearer. I want you to see how I've worked it +all out. If we _do_ strike oil, all I'm telling you now will be +valuable. During my local work for the Protestant cause down here, I've +been brought in touch with members of the old-established societies and +I've taken the length of their foot. They're too dignified altogether. +Real live methods don't appeal to them. Financially they don't do badly, +but nothing like what they _might_ do if they adopted the right methods. +All their subscriptions come from the upper classes, and there's a whole +goldmine lying at their doors which is quite untouched! _abso-lute-ly_ +unworked, Sam! The middle classes and the lower classes haven't _begun_ +to give to the Protestant cause. Why? Because it hasn't been put +prominently before them in the way they'll understand. Bang the +field-piece! twang the lyre! thump the tub! rattle the tambourine! +That's the way. Look at the Salvation Army! The time is ripe for new +methods and for a new man who isn't a canon residentiary or a D.D. I've +got all the ritualistic statistics. Day by day the Ritualists are trying +it on, getting nearer and nearer to Rome. Everything is ready." + +"I see all that, Father. All you say is clear enough. What I _don't_ see +yet is what you mean to do." + +"I'm coming to that. For several years now, I've been prominent in +Hornham affairs. I'm known as a platform speaker in all the +denominations. What do you suppose I did this for six months ago?" he +touched the lapel of his coat, looking down on it as he did so. + +"Oh!" he said, "I forgot I'd changed into my old jacket. I was alluding +to the temperance non-smoking ribbon. It's in my frock-coat. Well, I +mentioned it just to point out that I'm known as a man associated with +all good causes." + +"But only locally, Pa." + +"Exactly. That is all I need to start with. Now, to-day I began: 'Mr. +Hamlyn, a prominent resident in Hornham and a staunch supporter of the +Henglish Protestant Church, has at last felt it his duty to protest +against the illegal practices at St. Elwyn's in as public a manner as +possible.' I've struck a new note, see? What I've done to-day has hardly +ever been done before. Now, why shouldn't this inaugurate a big public +movement all over the country? Why shouldn't offices be taken in the +Strand and a new League started, 'Hamlyn's Protestant Crusade' or +something of that sort? To begin with, subscriptions are invited for +the circulation of real fighting Protestant literature, hot stuff, +giving accounts of the illegal and Romish doings all over the country. I +know where to get the pamphlets written for a mere song, and startlers, +too. Of course, we have all the printing done at the works here in +Hornham,--that'll be worth something considerable. Meanwhile, mark what +happens. The 'silly season' comes on and the newspapers haven't got much +to write about. Our little London concern is established and then we +begin touring round to all the Ritualistic churches and protesting +against their aims. If I know what I'm talking about, in a fortnight or +three weeks one of the biggest booms of the century will begin! +Everything we do will be in the papers, rows in the churches, +police-court proceedings--everything. Whenever I write a letter of +protest to the Bishop of London or the Archbishop of Canterbury it will +appear in all the papers. It don't matter what they say as long as they +mention the Crusade! Then'll come the moment when we really launch out +and become a national Institution. We'll get half a dozen parsons and +fifth-rate M.P.'s to form a committee, and some one to be a treasurer: +he's easy found. Then I become secretary and you assistant-secretary: +we are _salaried_ officials, of course, and we start a little magazine +as the Society's official organ--to be printed at the works. I've many +more ideas for the extension of the plan,--brilliant ideas some of them, +too. But I won't go into them now. I've only given you the roughest +outline of the scheme as yet. Meanwhile, as a preliminary, I'm going to +flimsy out a dozen short reports of to-day's proceedings at St. Elwyn's, +and I want you to run up to Fleet Street with them, about five this +evening. All the dailies will print it." + +He chuckled. "That's the chief beauty of the scheme," he continued; "you +get the majority of your advertisements free, and in the best papers, +too! It's about the only scheme I ever heard of that could." + +He stopped at last and sank back in his chair, exhausted. He had spoken +long and with great animation, with all the tricks and mannerisms of +rough-and-tumble platform oratory, in which he was a master. The +pantomime of his expressive gestures, the indescribable impudence of the +smile as he sought to prove some depth of folly in the public, the quick +inflections of the voice, gave great force to his words. They sounded +convincing to the younger Hamlyn, into whose muddy pallor a deep red +flush had gradually come. + +"It's a big thing, Pa," he said at length, "a very big thing. I see +that, and you're the one to make it go. But there's a lot to be done +first. 'Ave we the ready money to start it? Even in a small way, to get +it once before the public will cost four or five hundred pounds." + +"That's the difficulty, Sam, I admit it. We are pretty low down at +present. The business just keeps its head above water, that's all. The +money from Mr. Herbert is a help, but it's all gone as soon as we get +it. I was thinking that if to-day's little protest makes a stir and we +can do ditto round-abouts during the next week or two, we could get +Moffatt and Burgoyne to advance a hundred each, p'r'aps. As a personal +loan. Mr. Herbert would be good for fifty now, but as soon as he's +elected you'll see he won't bother any more. When we've made the whole +thing hum, he'll come to us and offer to be our Parliamentary +representative. I'm reserving him for that. He'll be useful to ask +questions and help the fizz-up generally. It'll suit him because he'll +have a chance of getting his name in the papers, and it's about the +only chance he will have of getting prominent in the House. But, as far +as the preliminary stages are concerned, my opinion is that he's N.G. +The worst of it is that with a scheme of this sort one can't very well +put it on the market. That's the one drawback of a religious scheme. +There's lots of men who'd see the money in it, but who'd see that if +they joined they couldn't touch a cent. There can't be more than one or +two salaried officials. No, we must depend upon ourselves entirely. I'm +not afraid. It's what Napoleon did, and I'm going to be the Protestant +Napoleon! There's a lot in catchwords--speaking on a side issue--'The +Luther League!' 'Smithfield Soldiers!' or Bunyan's 'Holy War' might be +revived." + +"No, Pa, that wouldn't do now. 'Holy' is a regular Ritualistic word." + +"Well, so it is, Sam. I hadn't thought of it. I'm glad to see that +you've got a good grip of the thing." + +There was a silence in the mean little room. In the adjacent kitchen, +the servant could be heard singing, "Ower lod geris anoice yeng men, ow +dear, ow dear naow!" A big green-bellied fly sung and drummed on the +window-pane in the afternoon sunlight. Hamlyn, replete with enthusiasm +and beef, had taken off his alpaca coat and unloosed his collar. The air +was heavy with the odour of food and the acrid smell of Sam's +"ten-for-threepence" cigarettes, while a penetrating smell of new +calico, proceeding from some of Maud's dressmaking operations, dominated +it all. + +A church bell, ringing for afternoon service, was heard not far away. + +Suddenly Hamlyn struck the table a sounding blow with his fist. + +"It _is_ a good thing," he shouted in a wild burst of enthusiasm. + +The voice was so full, and confident, that it rang out in the place like +a trumpet. + +It had the true accent of an enthusiast, of a leader. There was +mesmerism in it. Hearing it, one would have said that this man would +succeed. + +He could influence others, he had energy, resource, and temperamental +force. It was true. The man was gifted. He had power, and to whatever +end that might be directed it would not lose its efficacy. The +conviction of success, its trumpet note, was to become familiar in vast +hysterical assemblies. It was to be mistaken for a deep and earnest +wish to purify the Church, to scatter the wolves from the environs of +the fold. Greed can be sonorous. Tartuffe can always find his Orgon, and +to hawk a battle-cry among the ignorant and dull has ever been a +profitable game. + +"I've a word to say, Pa," the son echoed; "I've an idea where the first +cash is to come from." + +"Good, my boy. Let's have it." + +"What about Miss Pritchett?" + +Hamlyn looked reproachfully at his son. "What about the monument!" he +answered with a sneer. "She's got the cash, she's got tons of it. But +she's a red-hot Ritualist and Romaniser. Ask me another, Sam." + +Samuel smiled slyly. "Wait a mo, Pa," he said. "I know a good deal more +about Miss Pritchett than you do. I've been walkin' out with Augusta +Davis lately. She's a friend of Maud's." + +"The companion, you mean? Miss Pritchett's companion? Oh, you've been +smelling round in that quarter, have you?" + +"And I've learnt a bit. I know all that goes on. Gussie tells me and +Maud everything. Miss Pritchett's getting tired of St. Elwyn's. She +can't boss the new vicar like she used the old one. As for the Roman +business, she doesn't really care for it. She's nothing to amuse herself +with except that and her ailments. It's the old cat's vanity, that's +all. She likes to be a patroness." + +"That's the sort of woman we want," answered Mr. Hamlyn, obviously +struck by the the word. "There are a lot of rich, single old judies only +fit to be patronesses. They're cut out for it. Do you really think +anything could be done." + +"I do most certainly, Pa. I 'appen to know that Miss Pritchett is +getting on very bad terms with Blantyre. He won't stand her meddling. +I've one or two ideas in my head to help it along. Gussie'll do anything +I tell her." + +"Well, Sam, you do all you can. We won't talk about the matter any more +now. I've got a lot of strings to pull, and I've got a lot of matters in +my mind. We shall get a summons for brawling to-morrow, I expect. I'm +done up now, and I'm going to have a nap. Wake me up in an hour if I'm +asleep, and I'll get out the flimsies for to-morrow's papers." + +Hamlyn possessed that faculty of sleeping at any moment, and of waking +when it suited him, that so often goes with any marked executive +capacity. + +He stretched himself upon the little horsehair sofa and covered his face +with his handkerchief. + +Samuel picked up one of the "Heartsease" novelettes and tried to read in +it. But his brain was alight with the splendour of the new project, and +he could not concentrate his thought upon _Joyce Heathcote's Lover_. + +It was thus that the seeds of the new movement were sown, in the back +parlour at Balmoral, Beatrice Villas, Alexandra Road. Historians tell us +that even greater and more epoch-making movements than Mr. Hamlyn's was +destined to be, have originated in even less pretentious dwellings. + +Many of us have seen the little house in the Brede Kirk Street of the +old Dutch town, on which is written, _Haec est parva domus natus qua +magnus Erasmus_. + +Mr. Hamlyn, Junior, had never heard of Erasmus, but he saw visions of +greatness on that afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LORD HUDDERSFIELD AND THE GUESTS AT SCARNING COURT + + +From April until the beginning of August, Lord Huddersfield generally +lived at his house at Scarning, the famous old Tudor mansion on the +river, below Pangbourne. + +Peers who are something more than merely "in society" are generally +known to the public at large by reason of some cause which they benefit, +defend, or are associated with. When it is not a cause, it is a business +that gives such an one his label for the man in the street. + +Lord _So-and-so_ is, of course, the great banker or brewer; Lord _This_ +is the famous picture collector, who has all the Holbeins; Lord _That_ +is known to be the best amateur actor, billiard player, or breeder of +bloodhounds in England. In an age when all celebrities are easily +distinguished thus, Lord Huddersfield, was perfectly familiar to +everyone as the great organising churchman. The ordinary person would +say, "Lord Huddersfield? Oh, yes, the great Ritualistic Johnny," +imagining that he had summed up his man with completeness. Yet, saving +only to churchmen and their antagonists--a very small proportion of the +public to-day--Lord Huddersfield was personally quite unknown. He was +hardly ever caricatured in the comic papers or pictured in the more +serious illustrated journals. His face was wholly unfamiliar; the +details of his private life formed no portion of the gossip papers. To +the vast army of English folk, who are utterly indifferent to religious +questions, he was nothing more than a name. + +He had only once excited a really general flicker of interest. On the +occasion of a visit to Italy, like many other distinguished visitors to +the capital, he had been received in audience by the Bishop of Rome. As +usual, the evening papers had published "rumours." + + "LORD HUDDERSFIELD AND THE POPE. + WILL HE BECOME A CATHOLIC?" + +had appeared as a scare head-line in one enterprising sheet, and the +peer's telegram, stating that he had been one for many years had been +hastily printed as a startling revelation--until some charitable person +had stepped round to the office and explained the joke to a bewildered +Scotch editor, and the paragraph was excised from later editions. + +This much for the figure he cut to the outside world. In the English +Church, he was looked upon as one of the leading laymen, if not the +chief of all of them. He was the proprietor of the great weekly paper +known as the _Church Standard_. He was the chairman of many church +societies, the friend and patron of all Anglican movements and +institutions, and a man whose word carried enormous weight and power. + +In private life, his two children and his intimate friends found him +true, devout, diligent, winning all hearts by opening his own, where one +found a singular freshness and simplicity. He went as little into +general society as he could, for all his thoughts and aims were occupied +in one endeavour. + +On the Monday after the events in Hornham, Agatha Poyntz and her brother +James were in the lovely private backwater of Scarning. Their punt was +moored to the side of a tiny island, set like a gem in the clear brown +water, the red silk cushions of the boat making a vivid splash of colour +on the bank. With these two was Miss Poyntz's great friend and +confidante, Lucy Blantyre, the only sister of the vicar of St. Elwyn's. + +Lucy was a girl of medium height, not at all the willowy modern heroine +of pictures and romance. Her hair was of a deep, dead black, coiled on a +small Greek head. Her complexion was dark, like that of her brother, the +priest, but quite without a certain sallowness that was noticeable in +him. It had the dusky paleness, the pearl-like _morbidezza_ of some +southern types, and, despite the lack of colour, showed a perfect and +happy health. The mouth was rather large. Mockery lurked there, and in +the dark eyes a lambent and somewhat scornful humour was wont to play. + +Agatha Poyntz was a tall and merry girl--"a nut-brown maid" her father +called her. Her round, plump face showed a sheer light-heartedness and +joy in life that was always refreshing to people who found this life +rather a drab and ordinary affair. The care-worn priests and churchmen +who were her father's friends, men who were always too painfully aware +of the great stream of human tears which is for ever falling through the +shadows of the world, were all fond of her freshness and sparkle. And, +so the wisest of them thought that since she took nothing seriously, and +was quite untouched by the vexing problems in which they were +submerged, it was perhaps a good thing that so gay and bright a creature +should come into their lives for a space, realising that, after all, God +made the butterflies which hovered so daintily over the Scarning +water-flowers upon their painted fans. + +James Poyntz, Lord Huddersfield's only son, was a very different type. +He resembled his dead mother, a daughter of the Duke of St. Just. He was +tall, slender, and muscular. His face was clean-shaved, lean, and with a +heavy jaw, not the heaviness that signals sensuality and dulness, but +purpose and resolution. His eyes were grey, and glittered when he became +animated, and his clear, cold voice grew emphatic. + +Not long before, he had come down from Oxford, where he had +distinguished himself in the history schools, and also by availing +himself of the little-used permission to absent himself from chapel and +the examination known as "Divinity Moderations," granted to men who have +come of age, and who sign a declaration of their absolute and sincere +disbelief in the supernatural. It had been a piquant spectacle to the +sceptic undergraduates and younger dons, to see the son and heir of +Lord Huddersfield openly scornful and protesting against all that his +father held so dear, and quietly taking the much severer tests that the +University statutes impose upon those who would dispense with the +puerile divinity examination. + +James Poyntz was on rather bad terms with his father. There was no +confidence between them, and perhaps but little love--though that had +never been tested. The young man had a sufficient fortune from his +mother, and his father was prepared to supplement his income in any way +he might wish, being far too sensible and just a man to endeavour to +make his son suffer financially for his opinions. But James Poyntz +refused money which, as he said, would have been purely superfluous to +him, and was occupied in carving a career for himself at the common-law +bar, where he was already a not inconspicuous figure among the junior +men. + +His knowledge of ecclesiastical law was good, and in the wrangles +between diocesan chancellors and recalcitrant clergy which were becoming +more and more frequent, he was frequently retained. He was a very +familiar figure in Dr. Tristram's Consistory Court, and his familiarity +with ecclesiastical litigation only increased a contempt for those who +professed and called themselves Christians, which was as profound as it +was sincere, and as fundamentally the result of ignorance as it was +both. + +For, brilliant as he was, the young man had not the slightest +acquaintance with modern religious thought. He saw everything through +the spectacles of temperamental distaste, and still believed that +Professor Huxley had dealt the final blow to Christianity in 1876! Lord +Huddersfield had often pressed his son to read the question as it at +present stood, to see what Gore and the philosophic apologists were +saying, or even to note the cautious but inevitable conclusions that +prominent scientists like Lord Kelvin and Sir Oliver Lodge were arriving +at. But the young man always refused. The ancient indictment of the +Gadarene swine represented the last word in the controversy for him, and +a brain keen and finely furnished with facts on all other questions, on +this was not only content to be forty years behind the conclusions of +theological science, but imagined that it was in the van of contemporary +thought. + +Of late, Lord Huddersfield had given up the attempt to influence his +son's opinions. "It is impossible," he had said, "to explain that the +sky is blue to a man who has blindfolded himself all his life, and one +cannot build a basis in a vacuum." So, while both men respected each +other's attainments on all subjects but religious ones, on these James +thought his father a fool, and Lord Huddersfield knew that his son was. + +Despite all this difference, the younger man was a frequent and welcome +visitor at his father's various houses, and between him and his sister +Agatha there was a real and deep affection. Agatha was conventionally +indifferent to religious things, James was profoundly antagonistic to +them, and thus, if they did not meet quite on common ground, they were +never likely to disagree. + +And Lucy Blantyre, the third member of that gay young trio on the summer +morning, was a combination of both of them. She was very well off in the +affairs of this world, as indeed was her brother, Bernard Blantyre of +St. Elwyn's. But, while he had early devoted his life and money to the +service of God, Lucy had refused to identify herself with his interests. +She lived with her aunt, Lady Linquest, a gay old dame of Mayfair, and +it was only at rare intervals that she paid a duty visit to her +brother. Yet, though she was, from a surface point of view, purely a +society girl, popular, and happy in a bright and vivid life, there were +temperamental depths in her, unsounded as yet, which showed her +sometimes--to her own wonder and discomfort--that she was a true +blood-sister to the priest in north-east London. At times, a wave of +scorn for the Church possessed her. She saw the worst side of religious +externals and poured bitter fun upon their anomalies. This is, of +course, a very easy thing to do. Any one can ridicule the unseen and its +ministers: it requires no special talent to be rude to God! At other +times, the girl saw this very clearly and was ashamed. She had a good +brain and despised all that was cheap and vulgar at the bottom; and when +her moods of wilfulness had passed, she stood upon the brink of devotion +and belief. + +Nothing serious animated any of the three. The day was wonderful. In a +sky like a hard, hollow sapphire the sun burned like a white-hot disc of +platinum. The island was deliciously cool; the murmur of a near river +mingled with the bourdon of the bees. The smooth turf on which they lay +was starred with chaste and simple flowers. + +"Isn't it _perfect_ to-day!" Agatha said. "Bee, go away from my face! +'Pleasant it is when the woods are green and the winds are soft and low, +to lie amid some sylvan scene'--Lucy, dear, what are you thinking +about?" + +"I was wondering if we were really reclining in what the poets of last +century called 'bosky shade.' Is this bosky, Mr. Poyntz?" + +"Decidedly bosky, I should say. But surely both of you can put the +island to a better use than merely to illustrate quotations from the +poets? It's far too fine for that." + +"Oh, do let me have 'bosky'," Lucy replied. "It's such a dear, comic +word. I've always loved it. It always seems a fat word to me. I'm sure +it's fat and it waddles--in the word world!" + +"Then what does Agatha's 'sylvan' do?" + +"Oh, sylvan?--well, I should think it was a slim, graceful, and very +young-ladyish kind of word. It wears a neat grey tailor-made coat and +skirt, and says, 'Papa is of opinion that,' or, 'Mamma has frequently +told me.'" + +They all laughed, pleased with themselves, the hour, and the charm that +perfectly absurd talk has for young and happy people. + +"Oh, don't talk of words, Miss Blantyre," Poyntz said, "I'm tired of +them. The long vacation draws near, when I want to forget all about +them. My words, the words I live by, or for, are beasts." + +"Quote, dearest," Agatha said. + +"Well, this is the sort of thing I see more often than anything else at +present," he replied: "'The humble petition of the vicar and +churchwardens of St. Somebody sheweth that, it being considered +desirable to make certain alterations and improvements in the church of +the said Parish, a meeting in Vestry duly convened for considering the +same, was held on the first of June, at which it was resolved that the +alterations shown in the plan annexed hereto and there produced, should +be carried out, a copy of which resolution is also hereto annexed.'" + +Both the girls cried out to him to stop. + +"What musty words, dry and rusty words!" Lucy said. "And, please, what +are they all about, and what do they mean?" + +"They mean this--some worthy parson has badgered his congregation for +money. It is the desire of his soul to have a rood-screen in his +chancel, with a gilt and splendid crucifix upon the top. So, armed with +a mouthful of words like that, he gets him to a sort of cellar near St. +Paul's, where a dear old gentleman, named the Right Worshipful T. H. +Tristram, K. C., D.C.L., sits, in a big wig and a red robe. The parson +eloquently explains his wishes, and the Right Worshipful tells him to go +and be hanged--or polite words to that effect. Then I and other young +legal 'gents' get up and talk and argue, and the Right Worshipful +listens until he's tired, and then says no again. The parson goes back +to his roodless temple and preaches against Erastianism, and I and the +other young legal 'gents' pouch a few guineas, and go and play pool at +the Oxford and Cambridge Club." + +"And then," Agatha went on,--"then father makes a speech and writes a +letter to the _Times_ and gets fearfully excited and worried for about a +week, neglects his meals, passes sleepless nights, and behaves in a +perfectly foolish manner generally. Then he goes down to the parish and +has a convivial meat tea with the poor parson, and before he goes gives +him a cheque for fifty pounds to go and have a holiday with after all +the strain!" + +"Exactly," said Lucy, "I will take up the parable. I have seen our +friend, the parson, in the unutterable north London slum, where my poor +dear brother Bernard spends all his time and money. He goes, as you +say, for a holiday, to recover from the scene in the cellar near St. +Paul's. He goes to Dieppe or Boulogne, where he attends the cathedral +three times a day, and tries to fraternise with the priests, who regard +him as a layman masquerading in borrowed plumes. In revenge, he goes and +makes things uncomfortable for the local English chaplain, who, in most +continental towns, is an undersized person with a red nose and an +enormous red moustache and a strong flavour of Chadband at home. So +'all's well that ends well.' But, really, what fearful nonsense it all +is! Isn't it wonderful that people should waste their energies so!" + +"If it amuses them it doesn't matter in the least," Agatha said. "Look +how happy it makes poor dear father. And I daresay he does good in his +way, don't you know. It's far better than racing or anything like that. +Poor dear Hermione Blackbourne was staying here not long ago, and she +was telling me what a wretched time they have at home. Lord Saltire +hardly ever pays the girls' allowances unless he's won a race, and the +poor dears have to study the sporting papers to know if they'll be able +to afford new frocks for Goodwood. Father's fads are at least harmless, +or, at any rate, no one has to suffer for what he gives away." + +"The old type of clergyman seems to have quite died out," Lucy said. +"When I was a little girl, the rector at home was a dear old man, who +dressed just like an ordinary person, and went otter-hunting three days +a week. Yet I'm sure he was just as earnest as any of these new faddy +people. We had a delightful old pew, with a fireplace and chairs, and +poor dear father used to get his nap. And as for altar lights and copes +and incense, I don't suppose dear old Mr. Jenkyns had ever heard of such +things. The amount of money that Bernard spends on his church in that +way is ridiculous." + +"The only good I can see in it," James Poyntz said, "is that it brings a +certain colour element into drab and dull lives. The people in your +brother's parish, who never see any thing artistic, must gain in that +way, I suppose. After all, Miss Blantyre, 'it's an ill wind that blows +nobody any good.' All this Church nonsense gives pleasure, however much +we may laugh at it. Take myself, for example. I'm intensely amused at +all the squabbles that go on between Christians. More evil passions are +stirred up and let loose over half a yard of green silk or the precise +manner in which half an ounce of flour and water is baked than the +politics of a century excite! It's perfectly true. There's a spirit of +bitter hatred in it all that is intensely interesting to the student of +character. There are hundreds of thousands of people in England who +would burn my poor father in front of St. Paul's to-morrow if they +could--good, respectable, honest British folk!" + +"Well," Lucy said, with affected gloom, "all this only reminds me of my +coming penance. In a day or so now, I must dive into Hornham for my +yearly stay with Bernard. I shall emerge quite thin and crushed. I +always do. The 'clergy-house,' as they call the vicarage, is a +lugubrious place that suggests a rather superior workhouse. When I go, +the drawing-room is solemnly opened by the housekeeper. Bernard gives a +couple of dinner parties and a garden party to a set of the most +extraordinary people you ever saw in your life. I have to be hostess and +chatter to weird people, with whom I haven't a single idea in common. +Lady Linquest drove down from Park Lane to the garden party last year. I +shall never forget it. She gave Bernard such a talking to, told him to +'dress like a gentleman,' and exchange to a nice country parish with +some county people close by, and marry. I wish he would, too! He's +wasting his life, his money, and his health in that awful place. I don't +wonder at aunt's being angry. Why can't he do as she says? He could have +high jinks in a nice little country church in one of the home counties +just as well as where he is now." + +"Beastly life, I should think," James Poyntz said. "Does he live all +alone?" + +"Oh, the two curates live with him, Father Stephens and Father +King--they're all 'fathers,' it seems. These are two intense youths, who +dress in cassocks and tippets all day long, and wear their berrettas +everywhere. I think it's positively indecent to sit down to a meal +dressed like that. But the worst of it is, that there's always some fast +day or other, and I feel an awful pig to be having chicken and claret +while the other three have oatmeal and apples. But I insisted on proper +meals last year, much to the disgust of a gaunt old cat of a +housekeeper, whom Bernard thinks the whole world of." + +She stopped, laughing at her own volubility, and lay back upon the +cushions, staring up at the green-leaf canopy above her head. All these +questions seemed very trivial and unreal at that moment, in that +pleasant place of sunshine, soft breezes, and the murmur of falling +water. She thought of the long, mean, suburban streets of Hornham with +humorous dismay. Thank goodness that she was only going to spend a +fortnight there, and then would be away in a gay continental +watering-place with Lady Linquest. But the few days were imperative. She +was fond of her brother and knew how bitterly disappointed he would be +if she were to withdraw from her promise to stay at St. Elwyn's. It was +a duty which must be done, and it was an unkind fate indeed that had +placed her brother in surroundings which were so uncongenial to her, and +endowed him with opinions so alien to her own. + +James Poyntz had lighted a cigarette. The smoke curled upwards in +delicate grey spirals, and he could see his sister's friend through +them, surrounded by a shifting frame which cut off the striking and +clever face from its immediate surroundings, giving it a vivid and +independent individuality. He could survey it more completely so. There +was something in Lucy Blantyre that had begun to appeal to the young +man with great and greater strength as the days went on. She was close +upon beauty, and she had all the charm of a high-spirited and well-bred +girl in perfect health, and knowing no trouble in life. But in the life +to which he had been born, girls like her were not uncommon. Despite the +fiction-mongers who fulminate against the vices of "society," and would +have their readers believe that the flower of English girlhood is to be +found in the middle class alone, Poyntz knew many gracious girls who +were worthy to stand by any man's side throughout life. But in Lucy +Blantyre he was beginning to discern something deeper and stronger. He +thought that he saw in her a wonderful capacity for companionship, a +real talent for wifehood. He could imagine that she would be more to her +husband than an ordinary wife, identified with his hopes and career with +all her soul's power, one for whom Milton's epithalamium itself would +not be unworthy, with its splendid "Hail, wedded love!" + +But, though such thoughts had been in and out of his mind for some time, +he was hardly in love with her as yet. His temperament was honest and +sincere, but cool and judicial also. He was the last man to take any +definite step without a full weighing of the chances and results. + +But the two had become great friends. Agatha Poyntz had her own thoughts +about the matter, and they were very pleasant ones. Nothing would have +pleased her more than the marriage of her brother and her friend, and +she had made _tête-à-têtes_ for them in the adroit, unobtrusive manner +that girls know. + +In all his conversations with Lucy, Poyntz had found a keen, resilient +brain that answered to his thoughts in precisely the way he wished. The +tinge of cynicism in her corresponded to the flavour of it in him, and +there was sometimes real wit and understanding in her mockery. + +She "suited" him--that is how he would have put it--and he was now +beginning to ask and examine himself if love were not being born, a love +which might make their union a perfect and lasting thing upon his way +through life. Of her sentiments towards him he knew no more than that +she sincerely liked him and that they were friends. + +The regular throbbing pant of a steam launch on the silver Thames +outside was heard, and Lucy turned suddenly in Poyntz's direction. She +saw that he was looking at her gravely and steadily. A very faint flush +came into her cheeks, almost imperceptible indeed, and then she smiled +frankly at him. + +He smiled also, pleased with himself and her, and with a sense that a +new intimacy was suddenly established between them, an odd sense of +which he was quite certain. + +Agatha looked at the little watch in a leather bracelet on her wrist. +"It's nearly lunch time!" she said; "I don't know how you people feel, +but the word has a very welcome sound to me. Jim, get up and punt us +home. You'll be able to argue with Father Saltus; I've asked him to +lunch with us to-day. I didn't know you were coming down." + +She spoke of Lord Huddersfield's domestic chaplain, a wise and courtly +elderly man, whom they all liked, without in the least realising the +part he played in Church affairs, regarding him, indeed, as a harmless +student and a pleasant companion, but no more. + +In fact, as the light and careless conversation of all of them showed, +not one of the three young people had the remotest idea of what they +were discussing. And though each one of them had a sense of humour, they +were not able to see the humorous side of their airy patronage of the +Catholic Church! This Mr. Saltus was known as one of the most profound +metaphysicians of the day. The greatest modern brains were influenced by +his writings in Christian apologetics; bishops, statesmen, great +scientists knew of him as one to whom it was given to show how all +thought and all philosophy were daily proving the truth of the +Incarnation. His work in the life of the Church was this, and he was +Lord Huddersfield's chaplain because that position gave him leisure and +freedom for his work, and kept him in touch with the very centre of +things. + +James Poyntz had arrived from London by an early train, and had joined +the girls at once. + +In a moment or two, the young man was propelling the long mahogany punt +with easy strokes towards the artificial cutting which led to the +Seaming boathouse. Then, laughing and talking together, the three +strolled over the wonderful lawns, pneumatic to the tread, brilliant as +emerald to the eye, towards the old house with its encircling oaks and +elms. + +The tall red chimneys rose up between the leaves, that triumph of the +Tudor style, which alone of all architectural systems has shown how +chimneys may aid and complete the beauty of a building. The house rested +upon the lawns as if it might float away at any moment, as they passed +round an ancient grey dove-cot and some formal box-trees, and came in +sight of the beautiful place. James Poyntz gave a quick breath of +pleasure as he saw it, the old riverside palace of his ancestors. There +were other houses which would one day be his--a great, grim Yorkshire +fortress, the gay villa at Nice by the old citadel of Mont-Albano, where +the Paglion sings its song of the mountain torrent, the decorous London +mansion in Berkeley Square. But of all, he loved the old Tudor house by +the river best. + +How well Lucy walked! her carriage was a pleasure to watch. Yes! she +harmonised with her background, she was in correspondence with her +environment, she would be a fit mistress of Scarning in some dim future +day. + +They sat down to lunch in an ancient, mellow room, panelled in oak, with +Tudor roses everywhere. It was beautifully cool and fresh after the +glare outside. Father Saltus was a tall and very portly elderly man. His +head was large, formed on a grand scale, and his mouth powerful but +good-humoured. His eyebrows were very bushy and extremely white, and +they overhung eyes which were of a dark grey, deep but not sombre, with +much that was latent there. + +The meal was progressing merrily when the butler entered and spoke to +the footman who had been waiting on them. Then he went up to Agatha. +"His Lordship has returned, Miss," he said, "and will be down to lunch +in a moment." + +Lord Huddersfield had been away for several days. The family house in +London was let, as the Baron did not entertain largely since his wife's +death. Agatha's season was spent under the wing of the St. Justs, her +mother's people. But Lord Huddersfield had chambers in Piccadilly, and +no one ever quite knew whether or not he would be at Scarning at any +given time. + +He entered in a moment, a slim, spectacled man, with a short beard, very +quietly dressed, a man who did not, at first glance, in any way suggest +the power he wielded or the strenuous personality he was. + +He kissed his daughter, shook hands with his son, Lucy, and the +chaplain, and sat down. They noticed that he was pale and worried. + +"Have any of you seen the papers?" he said in a strong, resonant voice, +which came oddly from a man so ordinary and undistinguished in +appearance. + +"I saw the _Times_ this morning, Father," Poyntz said, "but that is +all." The girls confessed that they had not touched the pile of journals +in the library, and Mr. Saltus said he had been writing letters all the +morning and so had not yet been able to see the news. + +"I am sorry," said Lord Huddersfield sadly. "I had hoped that you would +have seen the thing that has happened. I had hoped that I should not +have had to tell you, Miss Blantyre." + +His voice was so charged with meaning that Lucy shivered. Her eyes +became full of apprehension. "Why me, Lord Huddersfield?" she said, +"what has happened?" + +Agatha, who was thoroughly frightened, laid a sympathetic hand upon her +friend's arm. James, who was gazing anxiously at the girl, suddenly +turned to his father. + +"I think you had better tell your news right out," he said quietly. +"Don't keep Miss Blantyre in suspense, Father; it is mistaken kindness. +I am sure that she will be brave." + +Every one looked at Lord Huddersfield; the air was tense with +expectation. "Your good brother, Miss Blantyre," the peer began--Lucy +gave a quick gasp and the colour faded from her lips--"your good +brother, yesterday in church, was saying Mass when suddenly some local +residents rose in their places and made an open protest, shouting and +brawling at the very moment of the Prayer of Consecration!" + +Lucy gazed steadfastly at him, waiting. He said nothing more. "Go on, +please," she managed to whisper at last. + +"They were at once ejected, of course," Lord Huddersfield said. + +"And Bernard?" + +"Although his state of mind must have been terrible, despite his pain, I +learn from a private telegram that he continued the service to the end." + +The three young people stared incredulously; only Father Saltus suddenly +looked very grave. + +"But--why--is that all, Lord Huddersfield?" Lucy said with a gasp of +half-relief. "I thought you meant that something dreadful had happened +to Bernard." + +"Yes," he said, very surprised, "I have told you." + +James picked up his knife and fork, and continued his lunch without a +word. He was very angry with his father. + +Agatha shrugged her shoulders slightly. + +"Oh, that wasn't quite fair, Lord Huddersfield," Lucy said tremulously. +"You really made me think some awful thing had happened. Only a brawl in +church?" + +"I am very sorry, my dear," he answered quickly; "I fear I have shown a +great want of tact. I did not know. I forgot, that is, that you don't +quite see these things as we do. You don't realise what it means." + +"Shall I give you some chicken, Father?" Agatha said, looking at a dish +of mayonnaise before her. She thought that there had been quite a fuss +made about nothing. + +Lord Huddersfield sighed. He felt that he was in a thoroughly +uncongenial atmosphere, though he was sorry for the alarm he had caused. +Once his eye fell in mild wonder upon his guest. How unlike her brother +she was, he thought. + +There was an awkward silence, which James broke at length. + +"I always thought," he said, "that there would be trouble soon. The days +for locking clergymen up have passed by, but Protestant feeling is bound +to have its outlet." + +His quick brain had seized upon the main point at once. + +"Well, there will be more work for the lawyers," he continued. + +Lord Huddersfield frowned a little. "Of course, I can't expect you to +see the thing as I do, James," he said. "To me such a public insult to +our Lord is terrible. It almost frightens one. What poor Blantyre must +have felt, what every Catholic there must have felt, is most painful to +imagine." + +"I'm sure Mr. Poyntz has sympathy with any body of people whose most +sacred moment has been roughly disturbed," the chaplain said. "Whatever +a man's convictions may be, he must feel that. But the thing is over and +nothing can put it right. What I fear is, that this is only the +beginning of a series of sacrilegious acts which may do the Church +incalculable harm." + +"The newspaper report, which appeared everywhere but in the _Times_," +Lord Huddersfield replied, "stated that it was only the beginning of a +campaign. All the reports were identical and apparently supplied to the +papers by the same person, probably the brawlers themselves--who appear +to be people of no consequence whatever." + +"There will be a service of reparation?" asked the chaplain. + +"Yes, to-morrow," answered Lord Huddersfield. "I am going down to +Hornham and shall be present. We must discuss everything with Blantyre +and settle exactly what lines the _Church Standard_ will take up." + +"Of course, Mr. Blantyre will prosecute?" James said. + +"Oh, yes. My telegram told me that the summons had already been issued. +The law is quite clear, I suppose, on the point, James?" + +"Quite. Brawling in church is a grave offence. But these people will, of +course, pose as martyrs. Public opinion will be with them, a nominal +fine will be inflicted, and they'll find themselves heroes. I'm afraid +the Ritualists are going to have a bad time. In '68, the Martin _v._ +Mackonochie judgment was very plain, and in '71 the judicial committee +of the Privy Council was plainer still in the case of Herbert _v._ +Punchas. Then, after the Public Worship Regulation Act, the Risdale +judgment clinched the whole thing. That was at the beginning of it all. +Now, though prosecutions have been almost discontinued, the few cases +that have been heard before the ecclesiastical courts are all the same. +So far as I can see, if this pleasant little habit of getting up and +brawling protests in church becomes popular, a big fire will be lighted +and the advanced men will have to draw in their horns." + +Lord Huddersfield smiled. He attempted no argument or explanation. He +had thrashed out these questions with his son long ago. Father Saltus +spoke instead. + +"If this really spreads into a movement, as it may," he said, "ignorant +public opinion will be with the protestors for a month or two. But that +is all. The man in the street will say that every one has a right to +hold whatever religious opinions he pleases, and to convert others to +his views--if he can--by the ordinary methods of propagandism. But he +will also say that no one has a right to air his opinions by disturbing +the devotions of those who don't happen to agree with him. And what is +more, no religious cause was ever advanced by these means. I have no +doubt that these people will boast and brag that they are vindicating +the cause of law in the Church of England. But if they knew anything of +the history of that Protestantism they champion--which, of course, they +_don't_, for they know nothing whatever--they would know that the law is +the most impotent of all weapons to crush a religious movement." + +James nodded. "It is a truism of history," he agreed. + +"Exactly. To call in the aid of the law to counteract the spread of any +religious doctrine or ceremonial is to adopt the precise means that sent +the Oxford martyrs to the stake and lighted the Smithfield fires. From +the days when the High Priests called in the law's aid to nip +Christianity in the bud, the appeal to the law has never been anything +but an appeal to the spirit of intolerance and persecution against the +freedom of religious belief and worship." + +Agatha rose from the table. "Come along, Lucy dear," she said; "'all's +well that ends well,' and your brother's not going to have a bomb thrown +at him just yet. You will be in the thick of the disturbance in a few +days; meanwhile, make the most of the river and the sunshine! Jim, come +and punt us to the Eyot." + +She kissed her father and fluttered away singing happily a snatch of an +old song, _Green Grow the Rushes O!_ + +The others followed her. The two elder men were left alone, and for a +minute or two neither spoke. + +Then Saltus said: "They are all young, they have made no contact with +real life yet. God does not always call in early life. To some people, +the cross that is set so high over the world is like a great star,--it +is not seen until the surrounding sky is darkened and the sun grows +dim." + +"I am going into the chapel," Lord Huddersfield said, "to be alone for +an hour. There must be many prayers going up to-day to God for the wrong +these poor ignorant men have done." + +"Pray that they may be forgiven. And then, my dear Lord," he continued, +"suppose we have a talk over the situation that has been created--if any +situation beyond the purely local one _has_ been created." A fighting +look came into his face. "We shall be wise to be prepared, to have our +guns loaded." + +"Yes, Father," Lord Huddersfield said rather grimly, "we are not without +power and influence, I am happy to think." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LUCY BLANTYRE AT THE CLERGY-HOUSE + + +Lucy Blantyre left Scarning Court on Thursday morning. James Poyntz +travelled up to town with her. She was to go home to Park Lane for an +hour or two, make one of the guests at a lunch party with Lady Linquest, +and then, in the afternoon, drive down to Hornham. + +She was alone in a first-class carriage with James during the whole of +the journey to London. The last three days had marked a stage in their +intercourse. Both of them were perfectly aware of that. Intimacy between +a young man and a girl is very rarely a stationary thing. It progresses +in one direction or another. James began to talk much of his ambitions. +He told her how he meant to carve his way in the world, the place he +meant to take. The Poyntz family was a long-lived one; Lord Huddersfield +himself was only middle-aged, and might live another thirty years. James +hoped that it would be so. + +"I want to win my own way by myself," he said. "I hope the title will +not come for many years. It would mean extinction if it came now. You +sympathise with that, don't you?" + +She was very kind to him. Her answers showed a real interest in his +confidences, but more than that. There was acumen and shrewdness in +them. + +"You know," he said, "I do hate and detest the way the ordinary young +man in my position lives. It is so futile and silly. I recognised it +even at Oxford. Because of one's father, one was expected to be a silly +fool and do no work. Of course, there were some decent fellows,--Dover, +the Duke of Dover, was quiet and thought about things. But all my +friends were drawn from the social class which people suppose to be just +below our own, the upper middle class. It's the backbone of England. Men +in it take life seriously." + +He stopped after a time, and gazed out of the window at the flying +landscape. Suddenly he turned to her. "I'm so glad you are my sister's +great friend, Lucy," he said. + +It was the first time that he had spoken her first name to her. His tone +was charged with meaning. + +She looked up quickly, and saw that his eyes were fixed upon her. + +"You are all very kind to me," she said. + +"Every one would be kind to you. I have been very happy since you have +let me be your friend. Do you know that my work and my hopes seem dearer +than ever to me now that I have told you so much of them. We have got to +know each other very well, haven't we?" + +"Very well." + +"We shall know each other better. It is my hope. I wonder if I might +write to you now and then, and tell you some of my thoughts and how +things are with me? Would such letters bore you?" + +"I should value them, and think them a privilege. A woman is always +gratified when a man confides his thoughts to her. So many men never +allow a woman friend to see below the surface, and so many men--at any +rate, men that I am in the way of meeting--have no thoughts to tell one +even if they would." + +The train began to go more slowly as it rumbled through the dingy +environs, and shook over the myriad points of Waterloo Station. Neither +of them spoke again. There was no doubt in the mind of either as to the +meaning of the situation. + +The girl had gathered all his thoughts from his tone. It was very +pleasant to be with him, this sane and brilliant young man with a great +name and such powers. It made her happy to know how he regarded +her--that out of all the girls he knew he had chosen her for a friend. +He would some day ask her to be something more; that also she knew, and +knew that he was conveying it to her. She did not love him, love was a +word not very real to her as yet. Her mental eyes had never visualised +it, it was an abstraction. But she liked and admired him more than any +other man of her set: he was a _man_. Well, there was time enough yet to +think of all that. Meanwhile his deference was sweet; her heart warmed +to him as his, she knew, was warm to her at that moment. + +He saw her to the door of the waiting victoria, and stood chatting for a +moment in the hurry of the station, making the footman mount his box +again. + +Then he gave the signal to start, and stood upon the platform by his +hansom as she was driven rapidly away. Once she turned and waved a hand +to him. + +Lucy lay back in the carriage, pleased with herself and all the world. +She had come on to Victoria, instead of getting out at Vauxhall, +specially to enjoy the longer drive. It was a brilliant day, and as the +carriage came upon Waterloo Bridge, the wonderful panorama of riverside +London was uplifting. Away to her right, the purple dome of St. Paul's +shone white-grey in the sun. The great river glittered in the morning +air, and busy craft moved up and down the tide. The mammoth buildings of +the embankment, Somerset House with its noble façade, the Savoy, the +monster Cecil, the tiled roofs of Scotland Yard all came to the eye in +one majestic sweep of form and colour. And far away to the left, dim in +a haze of light, the towers of Westminster rose like a fairy palace, +tipped with flame as the sun caught the gold upon the vanes and spires. + +London! yes! it was, after all, the most beautiful city in the world, +seen thus, at this hour, from this place. How the heart quickened and +warmed to it. + +Suddenly the thought of Hornham came to her. She made a little +involuntary movement of disgust. For a whole fortnight she would be +there. It would be intolerable. Why could not Bernard come to Park Lane +for a fortnight? How much more sensible that would be. + +Well, it was no good thinking of it. The thing must be done. Yet, from +one point of view how curious it was. How strange that a drive of two +hours would plunge her into a world entirely foreign and alien in every +way to her world. + +She was driving up Grosvenor Place now, by the long walls of the King's +Palace Garden, over which the trees showed fresh and green. The stately +street, with the Park gates at the end of its vista, only accentuated +the contrast. She utterly failed to understand how any one could do what +her brother did. There was not the slightest reason for the endurance of +these horrors. His personal income was large, his family connections +were influential. He could obtain a fashionable West End living without +any trouble. She was still scornfully wondering as the carriage stopped +at Lady Linquest's house in Park Lane. + +Lucy found her aunt in a little room of china-blue and canary-yellow +which looked out over the Park. + +She was a tall woman, of full figure. The face was bright and animated, +though somewhat sensual, inasmuch as it showed that its owner +appreciated the good material things that life has to offer. At +sixty-two, when dames of the middle classes have silver hair and are +beginning to assume the gentle manners of age, Lady Linquest wore the +high curled fringe of the fashion, a mass of dark red hair that had +started life upon the head of a Bréton peasant girl. Art had been at +work upon her face and she was pleasant to look on, an artificial +product indeed, but with all the charm that a perfect work of art has. + +She made no secret of it to her intimate friends, and no one thought any +the worse of her in a society where nearly every one who has need of +aids to good looks buys them in Bond Street. Indeed, she was quite +unable to understand what she called "the middle class horror of paint." +"Why on earth," she would say, "any one can possibly object to an old +woman making herself look as pleasant as possible for the last few years +of her life, I can't make out. It's a duty one owes to one's friends. It +sweetens life. At any rate, _I_ don't intend to go about like old Mother +Hubbard or the witch in whatshername." + +"Lucy, my dear," said this vivacious dame as her niece entered, "you're +looking your best this morning. And when you look your best my +experience generally tells me that you've been up to some wickedness or +other! How's Agatha, and has James Poyntz been at Scarning, and how's +that poor dear man, Huddersfield, who always reminds me of a +churchwarden? He is the king of all the churchwardens in England, I +think." + +Lucy sat down and endeavoured to answer the flood of questions as +satisfactorily as might be, while Lady Linquest took her mid-morning +pick-me-up of Liebig and cognac. + +The good lady gave her niece a rapid _précis_ of the news of their set +during the few days she had been away. "So that you'll know," she said, +"what to talk about at General Pompe's lunch--your last decent meal, by +the way, for a fortnight! I shall give orders to the cook to put a +hamper in the carriage for you to take with you to Bernard's. All those +poor young men starve themselves." + +She rattled away thus while Lucy went to her own room to dress. For some +reason or other, why she could not exactly divine, she was dissatisfied +and ill at ease. The exhilaration of the railway journey, of the +wonderful drive through sunlit London, had gone. Her aunt, kind +creature as she was, jarred upon her this morning. How terribly shallow +the good lady seemed, after all! She was like some gaudy fly dancing +over a sunlit brook--or even circling round malodorous farmyard +stuff--brilliant, useless, and with nothing inside but the mere muscles +of its activity. James Poyntz's words recurred to her, his deep scorn of +a purely frivolous, pleasure-loving life was present in her brain. + +Lucy was genuinely fond of Lady Linquest, but somehow on this bright +morning to hear a woman with one foot in the grave talking nothing but +scandal and empty catchwords of Vanity Fair, struck with a certain chill +to her heart. + +To see her sitting there, curled, painted, scented, sipping her tonic +drink, ready for a smart party of people as empty and useless as +herself, was to see a thing that hurt, after the experiences of the +morning. + +Lucy had not taken her maid to Scarning. She had wanted to live as +simply as possible there, to live the outdoors riverside life. And she +was not going to take Angelique to Hornham either--where the girl would +be miserable and a nuisance to the grave little community there. She +felt very glad, as the chattering little French woman helped her to +dress, that she was not coming with her. The maid's voluble boulevard +French got on her nerves; the powder on her face, which showed violet in +the sunlight, the strong scent of verbena she wore, the expression of +being abnormally "aware"--all these were foreign to Lucy's mood, and she +noticed them with an almost physical sense of disapproval that she had +never before felt so strongly. + +The drive to the smart hotel near Piccadilly only took five or six +minutes, and the two ladies were soon shaking hands with old General +Pompe, their host. General the Hon. Reginald Pompe was an old creature +who was only kept from senile decay by his stays. He was unmarried, +extremely wealthy, and the fashion. In his younger days, his life had +been abominable; now, his age allowed him to do nothing but lick the +chops of vicious memories and prick his ears for scandals in which he +could not share. People said, "Old General Pompe is really _too_ bad, +but where one sees the Duke of ---- and the Prince of ---- we may be +sure that people like ourselves cannot be far wrong." + +The other guests comprised Lord Rollington, of whom there was nothing to +be said save that he was twenty-four and a fool; Gerald Duveen, who was +a fat man of good family, and more or less of a success upon the stage; +and his beautiful, bold-looking wife, a judge's daughter, who played +under the name of Miss Mary Horne, and of whom much scandal was +whispered. + +After a moment or two in the palm room, waiting for the Duveens, who +were a minute or two late, the six people went in to lunch. The special +table General Pompe always used was reserved for them, decorated with a +triumphant scheme of orchids and violets. Lumps of ice were hidden among +the masses of flowers, diffusing an admirable coolness round the table. + +The host drew attention to the menu, which he had composed. He mumbled +over it, and as he bent his head Lucy saw that his ears were quite +pointed, and that the skin upon his neck lay in pachydermatous folds, +dry and yellowish. + +"Baked red snapper, red wine sauce," said Mr. Duveen, with the purring +and very distinct voice of high comedy. "Hm--turtle steaks +_miroton_--sweetbreads--_Tadema_, quite the best way to do sweetbreads." + +Mrs. Duveen was talking in a low, rapid voice to Lady Linquest. Her +eyes were very bright, and malice lurked in the curves of a lovely mouth +as she retailed some story of iniquity in high places, one of these +private and intimate scandals in which the half-life of the stage is so +rich--actors and actresses more than most people being able to see +humanity with the mask off. How greedy the three men looked, Lucy +thought, as they devoured the lunch in prospect. "Pigs!" she said to +herself with a little inward shudder. + +Why was this? She had been at dozens of these functions before now and +had thought none of these thoughts. To-day a veil seemed removed from +her eyes: she saw things as they really were. And as they really were, +these people were abominable. + +Any of them would + + "Buy a minute's mirth to wail a week, + And sell eternity to gain a toy." + +They had the manners of organ-grinders and the morals of monkeys. She +caught some words of what Mrs. Duveen was saying now and again. Lord +Rollington began to tell her, with affected disgust, how he had been at +a burlesque theatre the night before, and the musical-comedy heroine of +the hour had been so intoxicated that she could hardly sing her song. + +"Too bad, you know, Miss Blantyre. I spotted it at once. It's always +disgustin' to see a girl take too much to drink, but when she's caperin' +about the stage like that one really has a right to complain. Don't you +think so? Now, if it had been a poor little chorus girl, she'd have been +fired out of the theatre in a second. For my part, I--" and so on for an +interminable five minutes. + +General Pompe began to flirt with Lucy in that elderly +"you-are-only-a-little-girl" sort of manner, that is so difficult to +repel and which is so offensive. She saw his horny eyes roving over her +person with appreciation. + +A great many of Lady Linquest's particular set were like this. Not all +of them, thank goodness, but so very many! And the worst of it was that +society mingled and overlapped so strangely. The sheep and the goats +were not separated in any way. People like the Huddersfields stood +almost alone, and even Agatha, when she was with the St. Justs--her +mother's family--constantly met this sort of people. But, then, Agatha +didn't seem to care, she didn't realise. She laughed at everything and +thought it "awfully good fun." In fact, Lucy realised Agatha was +exactly the same as she herself had always been--with the very slightest +intervals--until this moment. It was startling to think that the words +of Lord Huddersfield's son had worked this revolution in her point of +view. For she was quite persuaded that they were the reason of it. She +could find no other reason. + +She did not realise then, as she was to realise with humble thankfulness +and awe in the future, the august influence that was at work within her. + +She was not gay at lunch. Usually she was a most welcome member of any +such gathering as this. Her sayings were pointed, she entered fully into +the spirit of the hour, her wit adorned the charm of her personality, +and she was universally popular and voted "good fun" in the +comprehensive epitome of her associates. This was the highest praise +they knew, and they gave it her without stint. + +To-day the party fell flat--there was no doubt about it. The radiance of +the early morning had given place to a heat which became terribly +oppressive, and the sky was overclouded. Thunder was in the air, and +London awaited a storm. + +The electric lights began to glow in the restaurant. + +Lady Linquest did her best to rouse her niece to gaiety, but her efforts +were futile. The old man who was entertaining them grew sulky, and Lord +Rollington drank glass after glass of champagne. The beautiful actress +was frankly bored, and became more cynical and bitter with every +scandalous story she told. + +Only Mr. Duveen preserved his equanimity. He ate and drank and purred +with secure complaisance. It was his rôle in life. Ever since he had +been a little lick-trencher fag at Eton he had been thus. It was said by +his friends in society--after his back was turned--that on one occasion, +having discovered the Earl of ---- kissing his wife, he had murmured an +apology, saying that he had come to find his cigarette case, and +hurriedly retired from the room. This, no doubt, was scandal and untrue, +but it showed the estimation in which he was generally held. + +Lucy knew this unpleasant story--Lady Linquest had told her. She thought +of it as she watched the man pouring _mandarin_ into his coffee. Once +more she felt the shrinking and repulsion that had come over her more +than three hours ago. + +She knew, or once had known, her Dante. She had had but little time for +anything but frothy reading during the last year or two, but once she +had kept up her Italian. A passage from the _Inferno_ came into her +brain now,--a long-forgotten passage: + + "Quest i non hanno speranza di morte, + E la lor cicca vita è tanto bassa + Che invidiosi son d'ogni altra sorte." + +She saw the people of whom the Florentine spoke before her now, the +people for whom the bitterest fate of all had been reserved,--these who +"have no hope of death, and whose blind life so meanly drags that they +are envious of every other fate." + +Before she left Park Lane, it had been arranged that the small brougham +should call for her at the restaurant, and take her on to Hornham. Her +luggage was small. This smart society girl was going to take her plunge +into the great London _Hinterland_ with a single trunk, like any little +governess driving to her new situation, where she would learn how bitter +the bread of another may taste, and how steep are the stairs in the +house of a stranger. + +The carriage arrived just as lunch was over, and she left all of them +with immeasurable relief. + +Driving up Shaftesbury Avenue to find her northward route was like +driving into a black curtain. It was terribly hot and dark, the horses +were uneasy, and the people moving on the pavements seemed like phantoms +in some city of dreadful night. + +London began to grip and hold her then as it had never done before. Seen +under this pall, its immensity and the dignity it gained by that was +revealed in a new aspect. _Her_ London, her corner of the town, the mere +pleasure-city, became of no consequence, its luxury, its parks and +palaces, shrank and dwindled to nothing in her consciousness. + +She was attuned to thoughts more solemn than were wont to have their way +with her. Her eyes and ears were opened to the reality of life. + +She had lost her dislike for the visit she was going to pay. Below her +frequent irritation at her brother's way of life there had always been a +strong affection for him. And more than that, she had always respected +him, though often enough she would not admit it even to herself. As the +brougham turned into the surging arcana at Islington her curiosity +about the next few days was quickened: the thought of personal +discomfort--discomfort of a physical kind--had quite gone. She felt that +she was about to have experience of something new, her pulses quickened +to it. + +The vicarage of St. Elwyn's was one of those stately old red-brick +houses, enclosed in a walled garden of not inconsiderable extent, that +are still to be found here and there in north London. They date from the +florid Georgian times, when that part was a spacious countryside where +wealthy merchants withdrew from commerce in the evening of their days +and lived a decorous life among the fields and trees. Here and there, in +the vast overgrown and congested districts, one or another of these old +freeholds has been preserved inviolate--as may be seen in the ride from +Hackney to Edmonton--and becomes an alien in a wilderness of mean little +houses and vulgar streets. + +Father Blantyre had bought one of these few remaining mansions in +Hornham, at a high price, and had presented it to the parish of St. +Elwyn's as its vicarage. Here he lived with his two curates and a staff +of four servants,--a housekeeper, two maids, and a man-of-all-work. The +personal wants of the three clergymen were very simple, but the servants +were useful in many parochial affairs. In times when work was scarce, +the vicarage staff boiled soup, like any cheap restaurant-keeper. The +house was open at all times of the day or night to people who wanted to +be quiet and alone for a time; social clubs and guilds had their +headquarters there. + +Indeed, the place was the centre of a diversified and complex life--how +complex, neither Lucy, nor any outsider, had the least conception. + +The carriage stopped at the heavy square porch with its flight of steps, +and the footman ran up them and rang the bell. + +Lucy noticed with amusement that the man's face expressed a mild wonder +at the neighbourhood in which he found himself, and that he winked +solemnly at the coachman on his box. + +Lucy stood on the steps for a moment. The sky was quite dark, and the +little side street in which she was, showed in a dim and sulphurous +half-light--like the light round the House of Usher. A piano-organ close +by was beating out its vibrant mechanical music with an incongruous and +almost vulgar disregard of the menace of the heavens. + +The housekeeper opened the front door, and Lucy entered a big panelled +hall, now in a gloom that was almost profound, and with a tiled floor +that clicked and echoed as the high heels of her shoes struck upon it. + +"The vicar is in his study, Miss," the housekeeper said. She was a tall, +gaunt, elderly woman, with a face that always reminded Lucy of a horse, +and her voice was dry and hesitating. + +Lucy crossed the hall, opened a door of oak and another of green baize, +and entered her brother's room. + +It was a large, lofty place. The walls were covered with books in sober +bindings,--there must have been several thousands there. A soft carpet +covered the floor, in the centre of which stood an enormous +writing-table crowded with books and papers. + +Hardly any light came into the place through the long window, and two +candles in massive silver holders stood upon the writing-table, throwing +a soft radiance around. + +The light fell upon a tall crucifix of silver that stood upon the table, +a beautiful specimen of English Pre-Reformation work. A small couch had +been drawn up close to the table, and on it the priest lay asleep. The +face was lined and drawn with worry and with work, and all its secrets +were told as the man slept. One hand lay hanging from the side of the +sofa--a lean, strong hand, with a coil of muscle upon the back. Seen +thus in an abandonment of repose, Lucy's brother showed as a man worn +and weary with battle, scarred and battered, bruised, but how +irrevocably rich! + +A rush of tenderness came over the girl as she looked at him. Here was +the man who had not winced or cried aloud, whose spirit was unbowed +beneath the bludgeonings of life. + +A high serenity lay over the pain upon the face. It was a face vowed, a +saint's face, and even as he slept the great soul which shone like a +monstrance within him, irradiated the mask that hid it. + +Lucy saw all this, received some such impressions as those in two or +three moments. Some attraction drew her eyes from the sleeper to the +shining symbol of God's pain upon the table. Then they went back to +Bernard Blantyre. To her excited fancy there seemed some subtle sympathy +between them, an invisible shuttle that was flying to and fro. + +Then Blantyre awoke and saw her. He did not come from the kingdom of +sleep gradually, as most people do, loath to leave those silent halls. +He sprang suddenly into full consciousness, as soldiers upon fields of +battle, as old veterans used to sudden drums and tramplings are known to +do. + +His eyes lighted up with merriment and triumph, his mobile face was one +great smile. He caught her by the arms and kissed her repeatedly. "It's +splendid to have you again, me darling," he said, with a slight Irish +accent that came to both of them when they were excited. "Ye little +wretch, staying away so long! Why, ye're prettier than ever! Ye'll have +all the Hornham boys waiting for ye outside the church door after Mass, +for we don't see your sort down our humble way--the rale West End +product!" + +Laughing and chattering, putting on the most exaggerated brogue, the +brother and sister moved out into the hall. Father Blantyre called +loudly, "King! Stephens! where are ye? she's come!--I don't know where +my boys are at all, mavourneen--We'll dress um down for not being in to +welcome the new clergywoman. Now, come up to your room, sweetheart, and +Bob'll bring your box up. Bob! bring me sister's trunk up-stairs." + +The little man ran up the wide stairway, an odd, active figure in his +black cassock, laughing and shouting in an ecstasy of pleasure and +excitement. No schoolboy could have been more merry, more full of simple +joy. + +Lucy followed him, half laughing, half inclined to sob at this happy +welcome. She was carried off her feet by it all, by this strange arrival +under lurid skies at the dingy old house which suddenly seemed so +home-like. + +Reproach filled her heart at her long neglect as she heard her brother's +joy. Simplicity!--yes, that was it. He was utterly simple. The thought +of the people she had left so short a time ago was more odious than +ever. + +She found herself alone in her bedroom, a big, gloomy place with solid +mahogany furniture in the old style. There was nothing modern there save +a little _prie-dieu_ of oak by the bedside. But the sober colours and +outmoded massiveness of it all no longer troubled her. She did not give +a single thought to her own luxurious nest in Park Lane--as she had done +so often during her first visit to St. Elwyn's a year ago. + +When she went down-stairs once more, both the assistant priests had come +in and were waiting with the vicar in the study, where some tea was +presently brought. + +Stephens was a tall, youthful-looking man, rather slangy perhaps, with a +good deal of the undergraduate about him still, but obviously in +earnest. King was square-faced; the clean-shaved jaw showed powerful and +had a flavour of the prize-fighter about it, while his general +expression was grim and somewhat forbidding. He was much the elder of +the two. His expression, the outward shell, was no index to the man +within. A tenderer heart never beat in a man; a person more +temperamentally kind never lived. But he had more capacity for anger, +righteous anger, than either the vicar or Stephens. There were moments +when he could be terrible, and some savage strain in him leaped to the +surface and was only curbed by a will which had long been sanctified to +good. + +The two men seemed glad to see Lucy again. She had seen little of them +on her first visit; neither of them had made any impression on her. Now +they interested her at once. + +"Now, then, Bernard," Lucy said as she began to pour out the tea, "what +is all this I hear about a scene in church? Lord Huddersfield was full +of it. He was most distressed." + +"He has been awfully good about it," Blantyre said. "He was down here on +Tuesday morning going into the matter. A man named Hamlyn, the editor of +a little local paper, threw the church into a miserable state of +confusion during Mass last Sunday, just after I had said the Prayer of +Consecration. He read a document protesting against the Blessed +Sacrament. We had him ejected, and yesterday he was fined ten shillings +in the local police court. The magistrate, who is a pronounced +Protestant in his sympathies, said that though the defendant had +doubtless acted with the best intentions, one must not combat one +illegality with another, and that the law provided methods for the +regulation of worship other than protests during its process!" + +"Pompous old ass!" said Stephens. + +"Well, I'm glad they fined him," Lucy said. + +"'All's well that ends well!' You won't have the services disturbed +again." + +"On the contrary, dear, we are all very much afraid that this is the +first spark of a big fire. We hear rumours of an organised movement +which may be widely taken up by the enemies of the Church. All through +the ranks there's a feeling of uneasiness. Lord Huddersfield is working +night and day to warn the clergy and prepare them. We cannot say how it +will end." + +He spoke with gravity and seriousness. Lucy, who privately thought the +whole thing a ridiculous storm in a teacup, and was utterly ignorant of +the points at issue, looked sympathetic, but said nothing. She was not +in a flippant mood; she realised she was quite an outsider in the +matter, which seemed so momentous to the three intelligent men she was +with, and, unwilling to betray her lack of comprehension or to say +anything that would jar, she kept a discreet silence. + +"We all get shouted after already, when we go into the worst parts of +the parish," said Stephens cheerfully. "They've been rousing the +hooligan element. It's an old trick. Lazy bounders, who don't know a +Christian from a Jew and have never been in a church in their lives, +shout 'papist' after us as we go into the houses. Just before I came in, +I was walking up the street when a small and very filthy urchin put his +head round the corner of a house and squeaked out, 'Oo kissed ve Pope's +toe?' Then he turned and ran for dear life. As yet, I haven't been +assaulted, but King has! Haven't you, King?" + +Mr. King looked rather like a bashful bulldog, and endeavoured to change +the subject. + +"Do you mean any one actually struck you, Mr. King?" Lucy said, +absolutely bewildered. "How awful! But why should any one want to do +that?" + +The vicar broke in with a broad grin that made his likeness to a +comedian more apparent than ever. + +"Oh, King was splendid!" he said with a chuckle. "That ended very well. +A big navvy chap was coming out of a public-house just as King was +passing. He looked round at his friends and called out something to the +effect that here was another monkey in petticoats--we wear our cassocks +in the streets--and see how he'd do for um! So he gave poor King a clout +on the side of the head." + +"Oh, I _am_ sorry," Lucy said, looking with interest upon the priest, +and realising dimly that to be a clergyman in Hornham apparently ranked +as one of the dangerous trades. "What did you do, Mr. King?" + +King flushed a little and looked singularly foolish. He was a bashful +man with ladies,--they did not come much into his pastoral way. + +Lucy thought that the poor fellow had probably run away and wished that +she had not asked such an awkward question. + +"Oh, he won't tell ye, my dear!" Blantyre said, "but I will. When the +gentleman smacked um on the cheek, he turned the other to him and kept's +hands behind's back. Then the hero smacked that cheek too. 'Hurroo!' +says King, or words to that effect, 'now I've fulfilled me duty to me +religion and kept to the words of Scripture. And now, me friend, I'm +going to do me duty to me neighbour and thrash ye till ye can't see out +of your eyes.' With that he stepped up to um and knocked um down, and +when he got up, he knocked um down again!" + +Mr. King fidgeted uneasily in his seat. "I thought it was the wisest +thing to do," he said, apologetically. "You see, it would stop anything +of the sort for the future!" + +"And the fun of the whole thing, Miss Blantyre," Stephens broke in, "was +that I came along soon after and found the poor wretch senseless--King's +got a fist like a hammer. So we got him up and refused to charge him to +the policeman who turned up after it was all over, and we brought him +here. We sponged him and mended him and fed him, and he turned out no +end of a good sort when the drink was out of him. Poor chap gets work +when he can, hasn't a friend in the world; hadn't any clothes or +possessions but what he stood up in, and was utterly a waster and +uncared for. We asked him if he knew what a papist was, and found he +hadn't an idea, only he thought that they made love to workingmen's +wives when their husbands were at work! He'd been listening to our +friend, Mr. Hamlyn, who called a mass-meeting after the police-court +proceedings and lectured on the three men of sin at the vicarage!" + +A flood of strange and startling ideas poured into the girl's brain. A +new side of life, a fourth dimension, was beginning to be revealed to +her. She looked wonderingly at the three men in their long cassocks; she +felt she was in the presence of power. She had felt that when James +Poyntz was talking to her in the train, in the fresh, sunlit morning, +which seemed a thing of the remotest past now. Yet this afternoon she +felt it more poignantly than before. Things were going on down here, in +this odd corner of London, that were startling in their newness. + +"And what happened to the poor man?" she said at length. + +"Oh," answered the vicar, "very fortunately we are without a man of all +work just now, so we took him on. He carried your trunk up-stairs. He's +wearing Stephen's trousers, which are much too tight for um! and an old +flannel tennis coat of King's--till we can get his new clothes made. He +was in rags!" + +"But surely that's rather risky," Lucy said in some alarm. "And what +about the other servants? I shouldn't think Miss Cass liked it much!" + +Miss Cass was the housekeeper, the woman with the face like a horse. She +always repelled Lucy, who, for no reason than the old, stupid "Dr. Fell" +reason, disliked her heartily. + +To her great surprise, she saw three faces turned towards her suddenly. +On each was an expression of blank surprise, exactly the same +expression. Lucy wanted to laugh; the three men were as alike as +children are when a conjuror has just made the pudding in the hat or +triumphantly demonstrated the disappearing egg. + +The taciturn King spoke first. "I forgot," he said; "of course you don't +know anything about Miss Cass. How should you, indeed! Miss Cass is a +saint." + +He said it quite simply, with a little pride, possibly, that the +vicarage which housed him housed a saint, too, but that was all. + +"Yes," the vicar said, his brogue dropping away from him, as it always +did when he was serious, "Miss Cass is a saint. I'll tell you her story +some time while you're here, dear. It is a noble story. But don't you be +alarmed about our new importation. Bob will be all right. We know what +we are doing here." + +"It's wonderful, Miss Blantyre," Stephens broke out, his boyish face all +lighted up with enthusiasm. "You know, Bob'd actually never been in +church before yesterday morning, when he came to Mass." + +He stopped for a moment, out of breath in his eagerness. Lucy saw that +he--indeed, all of them--took it quite for granted that these things +they spoke of had supreme interest for her as for them. There was such +absolute _conviction_ that these things were the only important things, +that no excuse or apology was necessary in speaking of them. She found +she liked that, she liked it already. There was a magnetism in these +men that drew her within their circle. She saw that, whatever else they +were, they were absolutely consistent. They did not have one eye on +convention and the world, like the West End clergymen she knew,--some of +them at least. These men lived for one aim, one end, with tremendous +force and purpose. They simply disregarded everything else. Nothing else +occurred! Yes, this was a fourth dimension indeed. She bent herself to +listen to the boy's story, marking, with a pleasure that had something +maternal in it, the vividness and reality of his interest and hopes. + +"Before he went," the young man said, "I explained the Church's teaching +exactly to him. Don't forget that the poor chap hadn't the slightest +idea of anything of the sort. He was astounded. A mystery that I could +not explain to him, a mystery for which there were no _material_ +evidences at all, came home to him at once. _I saw faith born._ And they +say this is not an age of miracles! Think of the tremendous revolution +in the man's mind. He talked to me after the service. It was all +wonderfully real to him. He was absolutely convinced of the coming of +our Lord. There isn't a rationalist in London that could shake the +man's belief. I asked him why he was so sure--was it merely because I +had told him, because I believed in it? His answer was singularly +touching. 'Nah,' he said, scratching his head,--they all do when they +try to think,--'It wasn't wot you said, guvnor, it was wot I _felt_. I +_knowed_ as 'E wos there. Why, I ses to myself, _It's true!_'" + +"It is very wonderful," Lucy said. "It's more wonderful by far than a +man at a Salvation Army meeting or a revival. One can understand that +the sudden shouts and the trumpets and banners and things would +influence any one. But that a service which is inexplicable even to the +people who conduct it should influence this poor uneducated man is +strange." + +"Now, I don't think it strange, Lucy, dear," the vicar said; "it's far +more natural to me than the other. The wonderful power of the Church +lies in this, _that her mysteries appeal to quite simple people whose +minds are a blank on religious questions. They appeal to the simple +instantly and triumphantly._ They feel the power of the Blessed +Sacrament. And _only_ Catholicism can do this in full and satisfying +measure. We find that over and over again. The jam-and-glory teas, the +kiss-in-the-ring revivals, have a momentary and hysterical influence +with the irreligious. But it doesn't last, there is no system or +discipline, and above all, _there is no dignity_. Only priests realise +thoroughly how the poorer and less-educated classes crave for the proper +dignity and beauty of worship. It has always been so. It is the secret +of the power that the Roman Church has over the minds of men." + +"Then why are there so many Salvationists and Dissenters?" Lucy asked. + +"For a multitude of reasons. A dislike to discipline chiefly. People +don't go to church because the novelties of thirty or forty years ago +have filtered down into the omnibuses and people who are naturally +irreligious prefer to make a comfortable little code for themselves. The +Church says you _must not_ do this or that; its rules are thoroughly +well defined. Folk are afraid to come as near to God as the Church +brings them. Their cry is always that the Church comes between them and +God. Often that is a malevolent cry, and more often still it's pure +ignorance. The silly people haven't an idea what they're talking about. +It would be just as reasonable for me to say, 'I hate and abominate +Nicaragua, which is a pernicious and soul-destroying place,' when I've +never been nearer to Nicaragua than Penzance." + +"There is one thing that we do see," King continued in his slow, +powerful way. "Whenever we have open-minded men or women come to church +to pray and find help, they find it. Dozens and dozens of people have +come to me after they have become members of the Church and said that +they could not understand the anti-Church nonsense they themselves had +joined in before. '_We never knew_,' that is the cry always." + +"The thunder's beginning!" Father Blantyre said suddenly, realising +apparently that the talk was straying into channels somewhat alien to a +young society lady presiding at afternoon tea. + +"Lucy, me dear, it's tired you'll be of sitting with three blathering +old priests talking shop in a thunderstorm--there's a flash for ye!" + +A sheet of brilliant steel-blue had flashed into the room as he spoke, +showing every detail of it clear and distinct as in some lurid day of +the underworld. The books, the writing table, the faces of the three +clergymen, and the tall silver crucifix between the candles, which had +momentarily faded to a dull and muddy yellow, all made a sudden tableau +which burned itself upon the retina. Then came darkness once more and +the giant stammer of the thunder far overhead. + +The thunder ceased and they waited, expectant of the next explosion, +when the penetrating and regular beating of an adjacent bell was heard. + +"There's the bell for evensong!" Blantyre said; "I did not know it was +so late." He put on his berretta and left the room, the other men +following him. Lucy rose also. She felt that she would make one of them, +and going up-stairs to get a hat, she presently found herself in the +long, covered passage that connected the vicarage with the church. + +The idea of a house which was but an appanage of the church was new to +her. The passage had been built since her last visit. And as she entered +the huge, dim building, she saw clearly how powerful in the minds of her +brother and his friends its nearness must be. All their life, their +whole life, centred in this church. Its services were as frequent and +natural as their daily food. How strangely different it all was to the +life of the outside world! She herself had not been to church for six +weeks or more. Even people who "called themselves Christians" only +entered a pew and enjoyed a hebdomadal siesta in church. But these men +could not get on without it. Every thought and action was in communion +with the Unseen. And she was forced to acknowledge it to herself,--if +one actually did believe in a future life, in eternity, then this was +the only logical way in which to prepare for it. If life was really like +a sojourn of one night in an inn, then the traveller who made no +preparation for the journey, and spent the night in careless disregard +of the day, was an utter fool. But no one called worldly people +fools!--it was all very puzzling and worrying, and common-sense did not +seem like common-sense in Hornham. + +And was James Poyntz a fool? + +It was the last question she asked herself as she turned into the side +chapel where evensong was to be said. Some twenty kneeling figures were +there. The place was dimly lighted save for the tall gas standards by +the priests' seats in front of the altar. + +High up before the painted reredos hung a single lamp that burned with a +dull red glow. There were many sick folk in the parish of St. Elwyn's: +at all hours of the day and night, the clergy were sent for to help a +departing soul upon its way hence, and the Blessed Sacrament was +reserved upon this altar in the side chapel. + + * * * * * + +The simple and stately service was nearly over. The girl had listened to +the sonorous words as if she heard them now for the first time. As she +knelt, her heart seemed empty of the hopes, fears, and interests of +daily life. It seemed as a vessel into which something was steadily +flowing. And the fancy came to her that all she experienced was flowing +to her from the dim tabernacle upon the altar. It was almost a +_physical_ sense, it was full of awe and sweetness. She trembled +exceedingly as the service ended and her brother prayed for the +fellowship of the Holy Ghost. + +For a time after the echoing footsteps of the clergy had died away, she +remained upon her knees. She was praying, but without words; all her +thoughts were caught up into one voiceless, wordless, passionate +ejaculation. + +When at length she bowed low,--it was the first time she had ever done +such a thing,--before the altar, and left the church, it was by the west +door. + +She had a fancy for the street, and she found that the thunder had all +passed away and that a painted summer's evening sky hung over the garish +town. + +As she finally turned into the vicarage, she cast one look back at the +church. It rose among the houses high into the air. The sunset fired the +wet tiles of the roof and gilded the cross upon the lantern. She thought +of That which was within. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WEALTHY MISS PRITCHETT AND POOR GUSSIE DAVIES ENTER THE VICARAGE GARDEN + + +"Todgers," Mr. Stephens remarked to Lucy, as they went down into the +garden after lunch on Saturday, "could do it when it chose." + +The last preparations for the garden party were being made. The big +marquee was erected, the tennis lawns were newly marked, there was a +small stand for the string band. + +Waiters, looking oddly out of their element in the brilliant sunshine, +which showed dress-coats, serviceable enough at night, tinged with a +metallic green like a magpie's wing, were moving about with baskets of +strawberries and zinc boxes of ice. + +The old-fashioned garden, an oasis in the wilderness of brick all +around, was brilliant with sunflowers, stocks, and geraniums; the lawns +were fresh and green. The curate was in tennis flannels and an Oxford +blazer, and Lucy meditated upon the influence of clothes, as her +betters had done before her. Stephens seemed to have put off his +priesthood with his tippet and cassock, and the jaunty cap covered a +head which seemed as if it had never worn a berretta. Lucy found, to her +own surprise, that she liked the man less so. It was a total inversion +of her ordinary ideas. She began to think that a priest should be robed +always. + +Miss Cass, the housekeeper, in a new cap, came up to them. Lucy had +talked to the woman for more than an hour on Friday afternoon, and the +prejudice caused by her appearance was removed. + +"I hope everything is satisfactory, Miss," she said. "It all seems to be +going on well. The men from Whiteley's know their business." + +"It all seems splendid, Miss Cass," Lucy said. "I'm sure it couldn't be +better. Have the band people come?" + +"Yes, Miss, and the piano-entertainer too. They're having some +refreshment in the library. His Reverence is telling them funny stories, +Miss." + +She hurried away to superintend further arrangements. + +"The vicar is always so fine," the young man said, with a delighted +enthusiasm in his chief that was always pleasant for Lucy to hear. "He +gets on with men so well; such a lot of parsons don't. There's nothing +effeminate about the vicar. He's a man's man. I'll bet every one of +those fellows in there will go away feeling they've made a friend, and +that parsons aren't such scalawags after all." + +A burst of laughter came from the door leading into the garden, as if to +confirm his words, and Father Blantyre descended the steps with a little +knot of men dressed in something between livery and uniform, carrying +oddly shaped cases of black waterproof in their hands. + +Laughing and joking, the men made their way towards the music stands. + +The vicar came up to Lucy. "How will it do?" he said. "It seems all +right. Just walk round with me, my dear, and I'll give ye a few tips how +to play hostess in Hornham." + +They strolled away together. "Now, ye'll be careful, won't ye, +mavourneen?" he said rather anxiously. "The folk coming this afternoon +require more management and tact than any I've ever met. They'll all +have what they think is the high society manner--and ye mustn't laugh at +um, poor dears. I love 'em all, and I won't have you making fun of +them. I like them better in church than in society, I'm quite free to +admit to you, and their souls are more interesting than their bodies! +Perhaps half a dozen people here this afternoon will be what you'd call +gentlefolk--the doctor, Dr. Hibbert, and a few others. The rest of them +will be fearfully genteel. The young gentlemen will be back early from +the city, and they'll come in flannels and wear public-school ribbons +round their hats, roses in their button-holes and crimson silk +cummerbunds!" + +"Good heavens!" Lucy said. + +"Yes, and they'll all want to flirt with ye, in a very superfine, polite +sort of way, and mind ye let um! They'll ask if they might 'assist you +to a little claret cup,' and say all sorts of strange things. But +they're good enough at heart, only they will be so polite!" + +"And the women?" + +Father Blantyre shrugged his shoulders. "You'll find them rather +difficult," he said. "You bet they see your name in the papers--they all +read the 'Fashionable Intelligence'--confound um!--and the attitude will +be a little hostile. But be civil for my sake, dear. I hate all this +just as much as you do. I can get in touch with them spiritually, but +socially I find it hard. But I think it's the right thing to do, to +entertain them all once or twice a year, and they do enjoy themselves! +And I owe them a deep, deep debt of gratitude for their loyalty during +this trying week. I have had dozens and dozens of letters and calls. +Every one has rallied to the church in a wonderful and touching way +since the Sunday affair. God bless them all!" + +Lucy squeezed his arm with sympathy. In an hour, the guests began to +arrive. + +Lucy and her brother met them by the garden door of the house. It was a +gay scene enough. A brilliant flood of afternoon sunshine irradiated +everything; the women were well and fashionably dressed, the band +played, and every one seemed happy. + +Lucy found it much easier than she expected. The guests were suburban, +of course, and not of the "classic suburbs" at that. But, she reflected, +there was hardly a man there who had not better manners than Lord +Rollington or General Pompe. And if they wore Carthusian or Zingari +ribbons, that meant no more than that they were blessed with a +colour-sense; while a slight admixture of "i" in the pronunciation of +the first vowel was certainly preferable to the admixture of looseness +and innuendo that she was sometimes forced to hear in much more exalted +circles. So she received tea and strawberries at the hands of gallant +and debonair young gentlemen engaged in the minor walks of commerce; she +chatted merrily with fluffy young ladies who, when they had gotten over +their first distrust of a girl who went to the drawing-room and stayed +with lords, finding that she wasn't the "nasty, stuck-up thing" they +expected, were somewhat effusively affectionate. She talked gravely +about the "dear vicar and those dreadful men" to ample matrons who for a +moment had forgotten the cares of a small suburban villa and a smaller +income, in the luxury of fashion, the latest waltz tunes, the champagne +cup, and a real social event. Indeed, everything went "with a snap," as +one young gentleman remarked to Lucy. She became popular almost at once, +and was surrounded by assiduous young bloods of the city "meccas." + +Father Blantyre, as he went about from group to group, was in a state of +extreme happiness, despite his somewhat gloomy anticipations. It was an +hour of triumph for him. His people, for whom he prayed and laboured and +gave his life and fortune, were one and all engaged to show him how +they would stand by him in the anticipated trouble. Everywhere he was +greeted with real warmth and affection, and before long the quick Celtic +temperament was bringing a mist before the merry grey eyes and a riot +and tumult of thankfulness within. + +On all sides, he heard praises of his sister. "The pretty dear," one +good lady, the wife of a cashier in a small Mincing Lane firm, said to +him. "I had quite a long talk with her, Father Blantyre. And a sweet +girl she is. We're not in the way of meeting with society folk, though +we read of all the gay goings-on in the _Mail_; but I said to Pa, 'Pa,' +I said, 'if all the society girls are like that, then there's nothing +much the matter with the aristocracy, and _Modern Society_ is a +catchpenny rag.' And Pa quite agreed. He was as much struck by her as I +was." + +And so on. Every one seemed pleased with Lucy. The guests began to +arrive less and less frequently, until at length the gardens were +crowded and no one else appeared to be coming. All the various games and +entertainments were in full swing, and Lucy was about to accept the +invitation of a tall boy in a frock coat and a silk hat to sit down and +watch a set of tennis with him, when there was a slight stir and +commotion at the garden door of the house. + +Miss Cass came hurriedly down the steps, as a sort of advance guard for +two ladies who were ushered into the garden by a waiter. The housekeeper +dived into the crowd and found the vicar, who turned and went with her +at once to meet the late-comers. + +"There's Miss Pritchett and Gussie Davies," said the young man to Lucy +in rather an awed voice, and then, as if to banish some unwelcome +impression, relieved his feelings by the enigmatic remark of "Pip, pip," +which made Lucy stare at him, wondering what on earth he meant. + +She noticed that nearly every one at this end of the garden was +watching, more or less openly, the meeting between the vicar and his +guests. She did not quite understand why, but guessed that some local +magnate had arrived, and looked with the rest. + +The elder of the two women was expensively dressed in mauve silk, and +wore a small bonnet with a white aigrette over a coffee-coloured fringe +of hair that suggested art. Her face was plump and pompous, a +parrot-like nose curved over pursy lips that wore an expression of +arrogant ill-temper, and the small eyes glanced rapidly hither and +thither. In one white-gloved hand, the lady held a long-handled +lorgnette of tortoise-shell and gold. Every now and then she raised +these glasses and surveyed the scene before her, in exactly the manner +in which countesses and duchesses do upon the stage. + +Her companion was young, a large, blonde girl, not ill-looking, but +without character or decision in her face or walk. She was dressed very +simply. + +Lucy turned to her companion. "Do you know them, then?" she said. + +"Rather," he replied. "I should think I did. That's Miss Pritchett, old +Joseph Pritchett's daughter, old Joseph, the brewer. He left her all his +money, she's tons of stuff--awfully wealthy, I mean, Miss Blantyre." + +"Does she live here, then?" + +"Oh, yes. In spite of all her money she's always been an unappropriated +blessing. She's part of Hornham, drives a pair in a landau. The girl is +Gussie Davies, her companion. She's not half a bad sort. All the Hornham +boys know Gussie. Nothing the matter with Gussie Davis! The old cat sits +on her fearfully, though. She can't call her soul her own. It's bally +awful, sometimes, Gussie says." + +Lucy gasped. These revelations were startling indeed. She was moving in +the queerest possible set of people. She hadn't realised that such folk +existed. It took her breath away, like the first plunge into a bath of +cold water. + +The artless youth prattled on, and Lucy gathered that the lady with +the false front was a sort of female _arbiter elegantarium_ +to Hornham, indubitably the richest person there, a leading light. +She saw her brother talking to the woman in an eager way. He seemed +afraid of her,--as, indeed, the poor man was, under the present +circumstances,--and Lucy resented it. With a quick feminine eye, she saw +that Miss Pritchett was assuming an air of tolerance, of patronage even, +to the vicar. + +At last, Bernard caught sight of her. His face became relieved at once +and he led the spinster to the place where she was sitting. + +Every instinct of the girl rose up in dislike and rebellion as the woman +drew near. She had felt nothing of the sort with the other people. In +this case, it was quite different. She prepared to repel cavalry, to use +the language of the military text-books. + +On the surface, the incident was simple and commonplace enough. A +well-bred girl felt a repulsion for an obviously unpleasant and +patronising woman of inferior social rank. That was all. It is a trite +and well-worn aphorism that no event is trivial, yet it is +extraordinarily true. Who could have said that this casual meeting was +to be fraught with storm and danger for the Church in England; that out +of a hostile handshake between two women a mighty scandal and tumult was +to rise? + +Miss Pritchett came up to Lucy, and Father Blantyre introduced her. +Then, with an apologetic murmur, he hurried away to another part of the +garden. + +"Won't you sit down?" Lucy said, looking at the chair that had been left +vacant by her late companion. + +"Thank you, Miss Blantyre, but I've been sitting in my carriage. I +should prefer to stand, if it's the same to you," said Miss Pritchett. + +Lucy rose. "Perhaps you would like to walk round the grounds?" she +asked. + +"Probably I know the grounds better than you," the elder woman answered +with a patronage which was bordering on the purely ludicrous. "This +residence was one of my dear father's houses, as were many of the +Hornham houses. When the vicar acquired the property, the brewery +trustees sold it to him, though I think it far from suitable for a +parish clergyman." + +"Well, yes," Lucy answered. "It certainly is a dingy, gloomy old place, +but what else can you expect down here?" + +Miss Pritchett flushed and tossed her head till the aigrette in her +smart little bonnet shook like a leaf. + +"One is liable to be misunderstood," she said. "Your brother's small +private means enable him to live in a house which the next vicar or any +ordinary clergyman could hardly hope for." + +"It _is_ very good of Bernard to come down here and spend his life in +such an impossible place," Lucy said. She was thoroughly angry now and +quite determined to give the woman a lesson. Her impertinence was +insufferable. To hear this creature speak of Bernard's income of three +thousand a year--every penny of which he gave away or spent for good--in +this way was unendurable. + +Miss Pritchett grew redder than ever. She was utterly incapable of +bearing rebuff or contradiction. Her local eminence was unquestioned. +She had never moved from Hornham, where her wealth and large interests +secured for her that slavish subserviency that a vain and petty spirit +loves. For months past, she had been gradually gathering up cause for +quarrel and bitterness with the clergy of St. Elwyn's. She had found +that once within the portals of the church she was just as anyone else. +She could not lord it over the priests as she wished to do. For once, +she was beginning to find that her money was powerless, there was no +"high seat in the synagogue" that it could buy. + +"The place has been good enough for _me_," she said angrily, never +doubting that this was final. + +"Ah, yes," Lucy answered. "That, Miss Pritchett, I can quite +understand." The Hornham celebrity was a stupid woman. Her brain was as +empty as a hen's, and she was not adroit enough to seize upon the real +meaning of this remark. She had an uneasy suspicion that it was +offensive, and that was all. + +"What you may mean by 'impossible' I am not aware," she continued. "I +speak plain English myself. But those that don't know of a place didn't +ought to speak unfavourable of it. As for your brother, I've always said +that he was a worthy person and acted as well as he might, until late +months, when I've felt it my duty to say a word or two in season as to +some of the church matters." + +"I hope he profited, Miss Pritchett." + +"I fear that he did not receive my words as he should, coming from a +lady of standing in the place--and him only here three years. I'm +beginning to think that there's something in the popular agitation. Upon +my word! Priests do take a good deal on themselves nowadays. It wouldn't +have been allowed when I was a girl." + +"Things have altered very much for the better during the last fifty +years," Lucy said pointedly. + +This the lady did immediately apprehend. She lifted the lorgnette and +stared at her companion in speechless anger. The movement was meant to +be crushing. It was thus, Miss Pritchett knew from her reading, that +women of the aristocracy crushed inferiors. + +It was too much for Lucy. She endeavoured to control her feelings, but +they were irresistible. She had not seen anything so funny as this +vulgar and pompous old thing for years. A smile broadened out upon her +face, and then, without further ado, she burst out into peal after peal +of laughter. + +The flush on Miss Pritchett's face died away. It grew perfectly white +with passion. + +She turned round. Her companion had been walking some three yards behind +them in a listless and dejected fashion, looking with greedy eyes at the +allurements on every side, and answering the furtive greetings of +various male friends with a pantomime, expressive of contempt, +irritation, and hopeless bondage in equal parts. + +Miss Pritchett stepped up to her, and caught hold of her arm. Her +fingers went so deep into the flesh that the girl gasped and gave a +half-smothered cry. + +"Take me to the carriage," Miss Pritchett said. "Let me leave this place +of Popery and light women!" + +The obedient Gussie Davies turned and, in a moment or two, both women +had disappeared. + +Lucy sought her brother. She found him eating a large pink ice in +company with a florid, good-humoured matron in maroon, with an avalanche +of lace falling from the edges of her parasol. "Hallo, dear!" he said. +"Let me introduce you to Mrs. Stiffe, Dr. Hibbert's sister. And where's +Miss Pritchett?" + +"She's gone," Lucy answered. "And, I'm very much afraid, in a towering +rage. But really she was so insolent that I could _not_ stand it. I +would do most things for you, Ber, but, really, that woman!" + +"Well, it can't be helped, I suppose," the vicar said with humorous +resignation. "It was bound to come sooner or later, and I'm selfish +enough to be glad it's you've given me lady the _congé_ and not me. Mrs. +Stiffe here knows her, don't you, Mrs. Stiffe?" + +"I do, Mr. Blantyre," the stout lady said. "I've met the woman several +times when I've been staying down here with my brother. A fearful old +cat _I_ call her! I wonder that you put up with her so long!" + +"Policy, Mrs. Stiffe--ye know we're all Jesuits here, the local paper +says so in yesterday's issue--policy! You see, when I first came here +Miss Pritchett came to church. She's a leading person here and I made no +doubt others would follow her. Indeed, they did, too! and when they saw +what the Catholic Church really was they stayed with us. And then, +again, Miss Pritchett was always ready to give us a cheque for any good +work, and we want all the money we can get! Oh, there's a lot of good in +Miss Pritchett!" + +"I fail to see it on a short acquaintance," Lucy remarked; "if she gave +generously, it was only to flatter her vanity. I'm sure of that." + +"It's a great mistake to attribute unworthy motives to worthy deeds," +the vicar said. "We've no right to do it, and it's only giving ourselves +away when we do, after all!" + +"Oh, it's all very well, Vicar," said good Mrs. Stiffe; "we know you +never say anything against any one. But if Miss Pritchett is such an +angel, what's the reason of her behaviour now? My brother told me that +things were getting very strained." + +"Ah, that's a different matter entirely," Blantyre said. "She began to +interfere in important things. And, of course, we couldn't have that. +I'd have let her manage the soup-kitchens and boss the ladies' guilds +till the sky fell. But she wanted to do more than that. Poor dear King +offended her in some way--he's not what ye'd call a ladies' man--and she +wrote to me to send him away at once! And there were other incidents. +I've been doing my best to meet her views and to keep in with her, but +it's been very difficult and I felt the storm would burst soon. I wanted +to keep her in the Faith for her own silly sake! She's not a very +strong-minded person beneath her manner, and she's just the sort of +woman some spiritualistic quack or Christian Science gentleman would get +hold of and ruin her health and happiness. I did hope she'd find peace +in the Church. Well, it can't be helped," he ended with a rather sad +smile, for his heart was tender for all his flock and he saw far down +into the human soul and loved it. Then he changed suddenly. "What am I +doing!" he cried, "talking parochial politics at a garden party! Shame +on me! Come on, Mrs. Stiffe, come on, Lucy, Mr. Chaff, the +piano-entertainer, is going to give his happy half-hour at Earl's +Court." + +They went merrily away with him. As they approached the rows of chairs +in front of the piano, he turned suddenly to his sister. + +"Why didn't ye knock her down?" he said suddenly, with an exaggerated +brogue and real comic force. Both ladies burst out laughing. + +"You ought to have been on the music-hall stage, Vicar," Mrs. Stiffe +said, "you're wasted in Hornham." + +"So I've been told," he said. "I shall think seriously of it. It's a +pity to waste a talent." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BOADICEA, JOAN OF ARC, CHARLOTTE CORDAY, JAEL, AND MISS PRITCHETT OF +HORNHAM + + +People of taste are never without wonder at the extraordinary lack of it +that many well-to-do folk display. It was but rarely that a person of +taste entered Malakoff Lodge, where Miss Pritchett dwelt, but when such +an event did happen, the impression was simply that of enormous +surprise. The drawing-room into which visitors were shown was an immense +place and full of furniture. In each of the corners stood a life-sized +piece of statuary painted in "natural colours." Here one saw an immense +negro, some six feet high, with coffee-coloured skin, gleaming red lips, +and a gaudy robe of blue and yellow. This monster supported a large +earthenware basket on his back, painted, of course, in correct +straw-colour, from which sprang a tall palm that reached to the ceiling. +In other corners of the room were an Egyptian dancing-girl, a Turk, and +an Indian fakir, all of which supported ferns, which it was part of +Miss Gussie Davies' duty to water every morning. + +The many tables, chiefly of circular or octagonal form, which stood +about the room, bore a multitude of costly and hideous articles which +should have been relegated to a museum, to illustrate the deplorable +taste of the middle classes during the early and mid-Victorian era. +Here, for example, was a model of the leaning tower of Pisa done in +white alabaster, some two feet in height, and shielded from harm by a +thick glass case. There, the eye fell upon a bunch of very purple grapes +and a nectarine or two, made of wax, with a waxen bee settling upon +them, all covered with glass also. Literary tastes were not forgotten. +Immense volumes of Moore's poems, the works of Southey or Robert +Montgomery lay about on the tables. These were bound in heavy leather +boards, elaborately tooled in gold representations of Greek lyres and +golden laurel crowns. The shining gilt edges were preserved from the +profanation of a casual opening by two or three immense brass clasps +which imprisoned the poet's thoughts within. + +The time in which these things were made was a sentimental age, and it +was well reflected in its _bijouterie_. Innumerable nymphs and +shepherdesses stood about offering each other hearts, madrigals, and +other dainties. But they had none of the piquant grace that Watteau +would have given them, or the charm the white-hot fires of Dresden might +have burnt into them. They were solid, very British nymphs, whose +drapery was most decorously arranged that one thick ankle might be +visible, but no more;--nymphs and shepherdesses who, one might imagine, +sat happily by the bank of some canal, singing the pious ditties of Dr. +Watts as the sun went down,--nymphs, in short, with a moral purpose. The +hangings of Miss Pritchett's room, the heavy window curtains that +descended from baldachinos of gleaming gold, were all of a rich crimson, +an extraordinary colour that is not made now, and the wall-paper was a +heavy pattern in dark ultramarine and gold. Indeed, there was enough +gold in this mausoleum to have satisfied Miss Killmansegg herself. + +One merit the place had in summer, it was cool, and when the barouche +that was the envy of Hornham drove up at Malakoff gates, Miss Pritchett +rushed into the drawing-room, and, sinking into an arm-chair of purple +plush, fanned a red and angry face with her handkerchief. + +The companion followed her meekly. + +"Wait there, Miss Davies," said the spinster sharply; "stand there for a +moment, please, till I can get my breath." + +Miss Davies remained standing before her patroness in meek obedience. +After a minute or two, Miss Pritchett motioned with her hand towards an +adjacent chair. Gussie Davies sat down. + +It was part of the spinster's life to subject her companion to a kind of +drill in this way. The unfortunate girl's movements were regulated +mathematically, and in her more genial and expansive moments Miss +Pritchett would explain that her "nerves" required that this should be +so--that she should have absolute control over the movements of any one +who was in the room with her. + +There had been spirited contests between Miss Pritchett and a long +succession of girls who had refused to play the part of automaton, but +in Gussie Davies, the lady had found a willing slave. She paid her well, +and in return was served with diligence and thorough obsequiousness. +Gussie was adroit, more adroit than her somewhat lymphatic appearance +would have led the casual observer to suppose. Properly trained, she +might almost have made a psychologist, but her opportunities had been +limited. However, for several years, she had directed a sharp brain to +the study of one person, and she knew Miss Pritchett as Mr. Sponge knew +his Mogg. Her influence with that lady was enormous, the more so in that +it was not at all suspected by the object, who imagined that the girl +was hers, body and soul. But, nevertheless, Miss Davies, who hailed from +Wales and had a large share of the true Cymric cunning, could play upon +her mistress with sure fingers, and, while submitting to every form of +petty tyranny, and occasionally open insult, she ruled the foolish woman +she was with. + +Gussie sat down. Miss Pritchett did not speak at once, and the girl +judged, correctly enough, that she was meant to open the ball. + +"O Miss Pritchett!" she said with a little shudder, "what a relief it +must be to you to be back in your own mansion!" + +Nothing pleased the spinster more than the word mansion as applied to +her house. Gussie used the term with discretion, employing it only on +special occasions, unwilling to be prodigal of so sure a card. + +"You may well say that, child," Miss Pritchett answered faintly. + +"Now you must let me ring for a glass of port for you," the young lady +continued. "You need it, indeed you do. I'll take the responsibility on +myself." + +She rose and rang the bell. "Two glasses," said Miss Pritchett when the +answering maid had received her order. "You shall have a glass, Gussie, +for I feel I am to blame in taking you to such a place. I have seen the +world, and I have met women of that class before, I am sorry to say. But +hitherto I have managed to shield you from such contamination." + +Gussie sighed the sigh of innocence, a sigh which the young men with +whom she larked about in Alexandra Gardens never heard. + +"I wish I had your knowledge of the world," she said. "But, of course, +I've never mixed in society, not like you." + +The port arrived and in a minute or two the experienced damsel saw that +her patroness was settling down for a long and confidential chat. The +moment promised a golden opportunity, of which she meant to take +advantage if she possibly could. She had a big scheme in hand; she was +primed with it by minds more subtle than her own. The image of Sam +Hamlyn was before her and she burned to deserve that gentleman's +commendation. + +"Yes," said Miss Pritchett, "as a girl, when I used to go to the Lord +Mayor's balls at the Mansion House with papa and mamma, I saw what +society really was. And it's worse now! That abandoned hussy at the +vicarage is an example of what I mean. I must not go into details before +you, child, but I know what I know!" + +"How _awful_, Miss Pritchett! I saw her making eyes at all the gentlemen +before you went up to her." + +"All's fish that comes to the net of such," replied Miss Pritchett. "An +earl's toy, the giddy bubble floating on the open sewer of a London +season, or the sly allurer of an honest young city gentleman. Anything +in trousers, child, is like herrings to a cat!" + +"How _awful_! Miss Pritchett," repeated Gussie, wondering what it would +be like to be an earl's toy, and rather thinking she would enjoy it. "I +suppose you'll go to the vicarage just as usual, though,--on parish +business, I mean." + +This, as the girl expected, provoked a storm, which she patiently +endured, certain that she was in a way to gain her ends. At length, the +flow of voluble and angry words grew less. Miss Pritchett was enjoying +herself too much to risk the girl's non-compliance with her mood. + +"There, there," she said eventually, "it's only your ignorance I know, +Gussie, but you do aggravate me. You don't understand society. Never +shall I set foot in that man's house again!" + +Gussie gasped. Her face expressed fervent admiration at such a daring +resolve, but slight incredulity as well. + +The bait took again. "Never, as I'm a living lady!" said Miss Pritchett, +"and I don't know as I shall ever drive up to the church doors in my +carriage on a Sunday morning more! Opinions may change. I _may_ have +been--I don't say I _have_ been, yet, mind you--I _may_ have been led +away by the false glitter of Roman doctrine and goings on." + +The idea seemed to please the lady. She saw herself picturesque in such +a situation. + +Gussie started suddenly. + +"What's the matter, child?" she was asked tartly; "do you think no +one's got any nerves? Keep still, do!" + +"I'm very sorry, Miss Pritchett, but when you said that, I remembered +something I was reading last night in the _Hornham Observer_." + +"I was keeping it for Sunday afternoon," said Miss Pritchett. "I did +mean to go to morning service and then read Mr. Hamlyn's side of last +Sunday's proceedings at home, comfortable like. But what's in the +paper?" + +"A great deal that will interest you, dear Miss Pritchett, though I do +not know if you will be pleased." + +"Pleased? What do you mean?" + +"Your name is mentioned several times." + +"Is it, indeed! We'll soon see about that! Fetch the paper at once and +read what it says. If Mr. Hamlyn's been foolish enough to talk about his +betters, I'll very soon have him turned neck and crop out of the place. +He's a man I've never spoken to more than twice, and he must be taught +his place in Hornham." + +Gussie went out to fetch the paper. She smiled triumphantly as she came +into the hall. All was going well and, moreover, her quick ear had +caught the slight trace of wavering and alarm in the concluding words +of her mistress. Miss Pritchett, like many other people, was never able +to rid herself of a superstitious reverence for print. She devoutly +believed the cheap romances that formed her literary food, and even a +small local newspaper was not without a strong influence on one whose +whole sympathies and interests were local. + +Gussie came back with the paper. "There's two whole pages about the St. +Elwyn's business," she said, "column after column, with great big +letters at the top. Shall I begin at the beginning?" + +"No, no; read the bits about me, of course. Read what it was that made +you jump like a cat in an oven just now." + +"That particular bit did not mention your name, Miss Pritchett, but it +chimed in so with what you said just now. I wonder if I can find +it?--ah, here it is-- + +"'And so I think I have accounted for the reason of the popularity of +such services as go on at St. Elwyn's among the poorer classes. A +wealthy clergyman can buy attendance at any idolatry, and who would +blame a starving brother, desperate for food, perhaps, for attendance at +a mummery which is nothing to him but the price of a much-needed meal? +Not I. Tolerance has ever been the watch-word of the _Observer_, and, +however much I may regret that even the poorest man may be forced to +witness the blasphemous and hideous mockery of Truth that takes place at +St. Elwyn's, I blame not the man, but the cunning of a priesthood that +buys his attendance and then points to him as a convert to thinly veiled +Romanism.'" + +Gussie stopped for a moment to take breath. Miss Pritchett's face was +composed to pleasure. This was hot and strong indeed! She wondered how +Father Blantyre liked this! + +Worthy Mr. Hamlyn, indeed, had heard of the little incident of the navvy +and Father King, and knew that the erstwhile antagonist was now housed +in the vicarage. Hence the preceding paragraph. Gussie went on: + +"'But what shall we say when we find rank and fashion, acute +intelligence and honoured names bowing down in the House of Rimmon? How +shall we in Hornham regard such a strange and--so it seems to +us--unnatural state of affairs? + +"'The Scarlet Woman is powerful indeed! It would be idle to attempt to +deny it. The drowsy magic of Rome has permeated with its subtle +influence homes where we should have hoped it would never enter. And why +is this? I think we can understand the reason in some measure. Let us +take an imaginary case. Let us suppose that there is among us a woman of +high station, of intellect, wealth, and charm. She sees a struggling +priesthood establish itself in a Protestant neighbourhood. The sympathy +that woman will ever have for the weak is enlisted; she visits a church, +not realising what its sham and ceremony leads to, under what Malign +Influence it is carried on. And then a gracious nature is attracted by +the cunning amenities of worship. The music, the lights, the flowers, +the gorgeous robes, appeal to a high and delicate nature. For a time, it +passes under the sway of an arrogant priesthood, and, with that sweet +submission which is one of the most alluring of feminine charms, bows +before a Baal which it does not realise, a golden calf that it would +abhor and repudiate were it not blinded by its own charity and +unsuspicious trust! Have I drawn a picture that is too strong? I think +not. It is only by analogy that we can best present the Truth. + +"'Nevertheless we do not hesitate to assert, and assert with absolute +conviction, that, if such a clouding of a fine nature were temporarily +possible, it would be but transient. Truth will prevail. In the end, we +shall see all those who are now the puppets and subjects of a Romanising +attempt come back to the clear sunlight of Protestantism, away from the +stink-pots and candles, the toys of ritual, the poison of a painted +lie.'" + +Gussie read the paragraphs with unction. She read them rather well. As +she made an end, her guilty conscience gave her a fear that the unusual +emphasis might have awakened some suspicion in Miss Pritchett's mind. +But with great relief she saw that it was not so. That lady was +manifestly excited. Her eyes were bright and there was a high flush on +the cheek-bones. Truth to tell, Miss Pritchett had always suspected that +there were depths of hidden gold in her nature. But they had never been +so vividly revealed to her before. + +"Give me the paper," she said in a tremulous voice; "let me read it for +myself!" + +Her unguarded words showed Miss Davies how completely the fortress was +undermined. The spinster read the words through her glasses and then +handed the paper back to her companion. + +"The man that wrote that," she said, "is a good and sincere man. He +knows how the kind heart can be imposed upon and deceived! I shall take +an early opportunity of meeting Mr. Hamlyn. He will be a great man some +day, if I am any judge." + +"He must have had his eye on the Malakoff," Gussie said. "Why, dear Miss +Pritchett, he has described you to a T. There is no one else in Hornham +to whom it could apply." + +"Hush, child! It may be as you say. This worthy man may have been +casting his eye over the parish and thought that he saw in me something +of which he writes. It is not for me to deny it. I can only say that in +his zeal he has much exaggerated the humble merits of one who, whatever +her faults, has merely tried to do her duty in the station to which she +has been called. And if Providence has placed that station high, it is +Providence's will, and we must not complain!" + +"How beautifully you put it, Miss Pritchett!" + +The chatelaine of Malakoff wiped a tear from her eye. The excitement of +the afternoon, the glass of port, the periods of Mr. Hamlyn's prose, +had all acted upon nerves pampered by indulgence and tightened with +self-irritation. + +"I believe you care for me, child," said Miss Pritchett with a sob. + +"How it rejoices me to hear you say so, Miss Pritchett," Gussie replied, +seeing that her opportunity had now come. "But your generous nature +gives way too easily. You are unstrung by the wanton insults of that +woman! Let me read you the concluding portion of Mr. Hamlyn's article. +It may soothe you." + +"Read it," murmured the spinster, now lost in an ecstasy of luxurious +grief, though she would have been puzzled to give a reason for it. + +Gussie took up the paper once more. Now that her battle was so nearly +won, she allowed herself more freedom in the reading. The Celtic love of +drama stirred within her and she gave the pompous balderdash _ore +rotundo_. + +"'And in conclusion, what is our crying need in England to-day? It is +this: It is the establishment of a great crusade for the crushing of the +disguised Popery in our midst. One protest has been made in Hornham, +protests should be made all over England. A mighty organisation should +be called into existence which should make every "priest" tremble in his +cope and cassock, tremble for the avalanche of public reprobation which +will descend upon him and his. + +"'I may be a visionary and no such idea as I have in my mind may be +possible. But I think not. Who can say that our borough of Hornham may +not become famous in history as the spot in which the second Reformation +was born! + +"'Much needs to be done before such a glorious movement can be +inaugurated; that it will be inaugurated a band of earnest and +determined men and women live in the liveliest hope. + +"'I am confident that a movement having its seed in the borough, if +widely published and made known to patriotic English people, would be +supported with swift and overwhelming generosity by the country at +large. The public response would appal the Ritualists and even astonish +loyal sons of the Church of England. But, in order to start this +crusade, help is required. Some noble soul must come forward to start +the machine, to raise the Protestant Flag. + +"'Where shall we find him or her? Is there no one in our midst willing +to become the patron of Truth and to earn the praise of thousands and a +place in history? + +"'Once Joan of Arc led the forces of her country to victory. A Charlotte +Corday slew the monster Marat, a Boadicea hurled herself against the +legions of Rome! Who will be our Boadicea to-day, who will come forward +to crush the tyranny of Rome in our own England? For such a noble lady, +who will revive in her own person the undying deeds of antiquity, I can +promise a fame worth more than all the laurels of the old British queen, +the heartfelt thanks and love of her countrymen, and above all of her +country-women--over whose more kindly and unsuspicious natures the +deadly Upas-tree of Romanism has cast its poisonous shade. Where is the +Jael who will destroy this Sisera?'" + +Miss Davies ceased. Her voice sank. No sound was heard but the snuffle +that came from the plush arm-chair opposite, where Miss Pritchett was +audibly weeping. Mr. Hamlyn's purple prose had been skilfully introduced +at the psychological moment. The woman's ill-balanced temperament was +awry and smarting. Her egregious vanity was wounded as it had rarely +been wounded before. She had been treated as of no account, and she was +burning with spite and the longing for revenge. + +Gussie said nothing more. She let the words of the newspaper do their +work without assistance. + +Presently Miss Pritchett looked up. She wiped her eyes and a grim +expression of determination came out upon her face. + +"I see it all!" she said suddenly. "My trusting nature has been terribly +deceived; I have been led into error by evil counsellors; the power of +the Jesuits has been secretly brought to bear upon one who, whatever her +failings, has scorned suspicion!" + +"Oh, Miss Pritchett, how _awful_!" said Gussie. + +"Yes," continued the lady with a delighted shudder, "the net has been +thrown over me and I was nigh to perish. But Providence intervenes! I +see how I am to be the 'umble instrument of crushing error in the +Church. I shall step into the breach!" + +"Oh, Miss Pritchett, how _noble_!" + +"Miss Davies, you will kindly put on your jacket and walk round to Mr. +Hamlyn's house. See Mr. Hamlyn and tell him that Miss Pritchett is too +agitated by recent events to write personally, but she begs he will +favour her with his company at supper to discuss matters of great public +importance. Tell Jones to send up some sweetbreads at once, and inform +cook as a gentleman will be here to supper, and to serve the cold +salmon." + +Gussie rose quickly. "Oh, Miss Pritchett," she cried, "what a great day +for England this will be!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE OFFICES OF THE "LUTHER LEAGUE"--AN INTERIOR + + +On the first floor of a building in the Strand, wedged in between a +little theatre and a famous restaurant, the offices of the "Luther +League" were established, and by late autumn were in the full swing of +their activity. + +Visitors to this stronghold of Protestantism mounted a short flight of +stairs and arrived in a wide passage. Four or five doors opening into it +all bore the name of the association in large letters of white enamel. +The first door bore the legend: + + "PUBLISHING AND GENERAL OFFICE INQUIRIES" + +This room, the one by which the general public were admitted to the +inner sanctuaries, was a large place fitted up with desks and glass +compartments in much the same way as the ordinary clerks' office of a +business house. A long counter divided the room, and upon it were +stacked piles of the newly published pamphlet literature of the League. +Here could be seen that stirring narrative, _Cowed by the Confessional; +or, The Story of an English Girl in the Power of the "Priests."_ This +publication, probably the cheapest piece of pornography in print at the +moment, was published, with an illustration, at three pence. Upon the +cover a priest--for some unexplained reason in full eucharistic +vestments--was pointing sternly to the armour-plated door of a grim +confessional, while a trembling lady in a large picture hat shrunk +within. + +This little book was flanked by what appeared to be a semi-jocular work +called _Who Said Reredos?_ and bore upon its cover the already +distinguished name of Samuel Hamlyn, Jr. The eye fell upon that popular +pamphlet in a wrapper of vivid scarlet--now in its sixtieth +thousand--known as _Bow to the "Altar" and Light Bloody Mary's Torture +Fires Again_. + +_As Soon Pay the Devil as the Priest_ lay by the side of a more +elaborately bound volume on which was the portrait of a lady. Beneath +the picture appeared the words of the title, _My Escape; or, How I +Became a Protestant_, by Jane Pritchett. + +Two clerks wrote in the ledgers on the desks, attended to visitors, and +looked after what was known in the office as the "counter trade"--to +distinguish it from the sale of Protestant literature in bulk, which was +managed direct from the "Luther League Printing Works, Hornham, N." + +A second room opening into the general office was tenanted by the +assistant secretary of the League, Mr. Samuel Hamlyn, Junior. Here the +walls were decorated with scourges, horribly knotted and thonged; +"Disciplines," which were belts and armlets of sharp iron prickles, +designed to wear the skin of the toughest Ritualist into an open sore +after three days' wear. There were also two hair shirts, apparently the +worse for wear, and a locked bookcase of Ritualistic literature with a +little _index expurgatorius_ in the neat, clerkly writing of Sam Hamlyn, +and compiled by that gentleman himself. + +In this chamber of horrors, the assistant secretary delighted to move +and have his being, and three or four times a day it was his pleasing +duty to show friends of the League and its yearly subscribers, the +penitential machinery by which the priest-ridden public was secretly +invited to hoist itself to heaven. + +The innermost room of all was where Mr. Hamlyn, Senior, himself +transacted the multifarious and growing business of his organisation. +The secretary sat at a large roll-top desk, and a substantial safe stood +at his right hand. An air of brisk business pervaded this sanctum. The +directories, almanacs, and account-books all contributed to it, and the +end of a speaking-tube, which led to the outer office, was clipped to +the arm of the revolving chair. + +Three portraits adorned the wall. From a massive gold frame the features +of that fiery Protestant virgin, Miss Pritchett, stared blandly down +into the room. Opposite it was a large photograph of Mr. Hamlyn himself, +with upraised hand and parted lips--in the very act and attitude of +making one of his now familiar protests. The third in this trio of +Protestant champions was a drawing of Martin Luther himself, +"representing the Reformer," as Mr. Hamlyn was wont to say, "singing for +joy at the waning power of Rome." The artist of this picture, however, +being a young gentleman of convivial tastes, had portrayed the +"Nightingale of Wittemberg" in a merry mood, remembering, perhaps, +Carlyle's remark, "there is laughter in this Luther," or perhaps--as is +indeed most probable--remembering little of the great man but his +authorship of the ditty that concludes: + + Who loves not women, wine, and song + Will be a fool his whole life long. + +Fortunately, Mr. Hamlyn, whose historical studies had been extremely +restricted, did not know of this effort--just as he did not know that to +the end of his life the student of Erfurt steadily proclaimed his belief +in the Real Presence in the Eucharist. + +About ten o'clock on a grey, cold November morning, the two Hamlyns +arrived at the offices of the Luther League together, walked briskly up +the stairs, and, with a curt "good morning" to the clerks, entered the +innermost room together. + +People who had known the father and son six months ago, seeing them now, +would have found a marked, though subtle, difference in both of them. + +They were much better dressed, for one thing. The frock-coats were not +made in Hornham, the silk hats were glossy and with the curly brims of +the fashion. Both still suggested a more than nodding acquaintance with +religious affairs in their costume, some forms of Christianity always +preferring to evince themselves by the style of a cravat or the texture +of a cloth. + +Confidence had never been lacking in either of the two, but now the +sense of power and success had increased it, and had also imposed a +certain quietness and gravity which impressed people. Here, at any rate, +were two men of affairs, men whose names were beginning to be known +throughout the land, and Mr. Hamlyn's manner of preoccupation and +thought was only natural after all in one who (as his son would remark +to Protestant visitors) "practically held the fortunes of the Church in +his hands, and was destroying the Catholic wolves with the sword of +Protestant Truth." + +The two men took off their overcoats and hung them up. Then Mr. Hamlyn, +from mere force of old habit, pulled at his cuffs--in order to lay them +aside during business hours. Finding that he could not withdraw them, +for increasing position and emolument had seemed to necessitate the +wearing of a white shirt, he sat down with a half sigh for the freedom +and comfort of an earlier day and began to open the large pile of +correspondence on the table before him. + +"We'll take the cash first, Sam," he said, pulling a small paper-knife +from a drawer. + +Sam opened a note-book in which the first rough draughts of matter +relating to this most important subject were entered, preparatory to +being copied out into one of the ledgers in the outer office. + +Hamlyn began to slit up the letters with a practised hand. Those that +contained the sinews of war he read with a running comment, others were +placed in a basket for further consideration. + +"'Well-wisher,' five shillings; 'Well-wisher,' £2 0 0, by cheque, Sam. +'Ethel and her sisters,' ten and six--small family that, I should think! +'Protestant,' five pounds--a note, Sam, take the number. It's curious +that 'Protestant' always gives most. Yesterday seven 'Protestants' +totalled up to fourteen, twelve, six, while five 'Well-wishers' worked +out at slightly under three shillings a head. What's this? Ah! cheque +for a guinea and a letter on crested paper! Enter up the address and +make a note to send half a dozen _Bloody Marys_, one Miss Pritchett's +_Escape_, and a few _Pay the Devils_. During the last week or two, the +upper classes have been rallying to the flag. They're the people. I'll +send this woman the ten-guinea subscription form and ask her to be one +of the vice-presidents. Listen here: + + + MARGRAVINE HOUSE, + LEICESTER + + Lady Johnson begs to enclose a cheque for one guinea to aid Mr. + Hamlyn in his splendid Crusade against the Ritualists. She would be + glad to hear full details of the "Luther League" and its objects. + She wonders why Mr. Hamlyn has confined his protests against + _Romanism_ in the guise of _English Churchmanship_ to the London + district, and would point out that in her own neighbourhood there + is a hot-bed of Ritualism which should be exposed." + +Sam went to the book shelf and took down a Peerage. "She's the wife of a +knight," he said, "one of the city knights." + +"Probably very well off," said Mr. Hamlyn. "We'll nail her for the +Cause! See that the books go off at once, and I'll write her a personal +letter during the day." + +He rubbed his hands together with a movement of inexpressible +satisfaction. His keen face was lighted up with the pleasures of power +and success. + +"She's got her own axe to grind," remarked Sam. "Had a flare-up with the +local parson, I expect." + +"Shouldn't wonder," replied his father indifferently. "Here's two +p.o.'s, one for seven bob and one for three. From a Wesleyan minister at +Camborne in Cornwall. I'll put him down to be written to under the local +helpers' scheme. His prayers'll be with us, he says!" Mr. Sam sniffed +impatiently as he wrote down the sum in his book. + +In a few more minutes, the contributions were all booked up and the +Church of England--as represented by these two eminent laymen--was +bulwarked against the enemies to the extent of some seventeen pounds. + +"Now," said Mr. Hamlyn, "let's take the press-cuttings next." He opened +a large envelope. + +A day or two before Mr. Hamlyn had varied his pleasant little habit of +turning up during the most solemn moments of a church service and +brawling until he was ejected with more or less force, being brought up +at a police-court a day or two afterwards and paying the fine imposed +upon him with a cheque from Miss Pritchett. During the blessing of a new +peal of bells in a provincial cathedral, he had risen and read a paper +of protest. He had read the paper in a low, hurried voice, and the +disturbance had been purely local and attracted but little attention in +the huge building. In a moment, almost, the secretary of the Luther +League had been conducted to the door of the building by vigilant +vergers. + +But the commotion in the press next morning had been enormous. Lurid +reports of this great protest appeared in leaded type, comment of every +kind filled the papers, and their editors were inundated with letters on +the subject. As an editor himself, Mr. Hamlyn well understood the +interior machinery of a newspaper office, and was perfectly well +acquainted with the various methods by which things get into print. He +began to examine the cuttings from the weekly papers that Durrant's had +sent him. + +"All goes on well," he said at length. "It really is astonishing the +space they give us! Who'd have thought it six months ago! Don't they go +for the League in some of them! Just listen to this, it's the finish of +a column in _Vigilance_: + +"'... and I shall therefore await the publication of the promised +balance-sheet of this precious "League" with more than usual interest. +Such an indecent and futile campaign as this deserves to be thoroughly +scrutinised.'" + +"That's nasty, Pa," said Sam. + +"It don't matter in the least. Our League is perfectly honest and +above-board, thank goodness! We shall publish the balance-sheet, of +course. We are doing a great and glorious work for Hengland, and the +labourer is worthy of his hire. We are perfectly justified in taking our +salaries. What does a parson do? And, besides no one reads _Vigilance_ +that's likely to give Protestant campaigns a penny. It's a society +paper. Religious people don't see it." + +"Quite so. And all the Protestant papers are with us; that's the great +thing." + +"Exactly, even the old established evangelical papers like the _Church +Recorder_ daren't say anything against us. You see our advertisements +are worth such a lot to 'em! Half the Low Church papers can't pay their +way, the big advertisers won't look at them. All the money goes to the +_Church Standard_ and the other Ritualistic rags. The _Standard's_ one +of the best paying properties in London. So the Low Church papers +_can't_ do without us. Wait a year, Sam, and we'll have our own paper, +put in some Fleet Street hack as editor, publish at a separate office, +and charge the account what we like for our own articles." + +"Our position is practically unassailable, as far as I can see." + +"It's just that, my boy--as long as people send in the money. But +gradually we shall find London getting dry. It's all right now that the +boom's on, but the novelty of the thing will wear off after a bit. And +what we want is to get ourselves so strong that the League will go on +_for ever_! Now, I look on it in this way: Much as I 'ate the Ritualists +and love true Henglish Protestantism"--Mr. Hamlyn's face grew full of +fervour as he said this--"much as I 'ate Romanising tricks and such, I'm +jolly well certain that neither we nor any one else is going to make +much difference to them! They're too strong, Sam. You'll find a red-hot +Ritualist would give up his arms and legs for his carryings-on. +Ritualism's getting stronger and stronger. _They've got the best men for +parsons_, and you see those chaps aren't in it for their own game, as a +rule. They live like paupers and give all they've got away. Well, that +gives 'em grip." + +"Silly fools," said Sam contemptuously. + +"Poor deluded tools of Rome," said Mr. Hamlyn, who, now that his great +mission was an accomplished fact, was really beginning to believe in it +himself. "Well, my point is this: Ritualism will never stop. It's too +well organised, and the clergy are too well educated. And most of 'em +are 'class' too. It all tells." + +"Well, then, if our efforts aren't going to do any good, in a year or so +the public will notice that, and the public will stop subscribing." + +"Not a bit of it, Sam, you don't see as deep as I do. As long as we keep +the question prominent, it will be all right. First of all, we shall +always get the Nonconformist contribution. In every town, the +Nonconformist minister can be trusted to stir up people against a +Ritualistic 'priest,' especially if he's vowed to celibacy. Married ones +get on better. But what I'm coming to is this: All over Hengland there +are parishes where the vicar is more or less of a Romaniser. But he's +personally liked, perhaps, or no one makes the protest. But in every +parish, experience shows there's two or three prominent folk who hate +the vicar. Now, where there's a spark a flame can be got. It's all very +well to go and protest in a parish where there's a strong feeling +against Ritualism--like St. Elwyn's, for example. But think of the +hundreds of parishes where people jog along quite content, not knowing +the darkness in which they're groping! Now, we'll stir these places up, +we'll raise the flag of the League in places which have been going along +quiet and peaceable for years. There won't be a church from which we +can't get some people away. The Luther League shall become a household +word from John o' Groat's to Land's End." + +"Good scheme, Father, if you can do it. But think of the work, and think +of the risks of letting any one else into the League. We might find +ourselves in the second place some day." + +"Not at all, Sam. Not as I've worked it out. You ought to know that I +never start anything without going careful into the details." + +"Sorry, Father. Let's have the plan." + +"I'm going to start a band of 'Luther Lecturers' to carry Protestant +Truth into the 'idden places. I'm beginning with six young fellows I've +got. They'll travel all over the country, holding open-air meetings of +agitation, with a collection for the League--making public protests in +such churches as I give the order to be gone for, and lecturing on what +Ritualism really is. Now, these chaps will have two lectures. I've had +'em written already. One's on the Mass, another's on the +confessional,--hot Protestant stuff. They'll go like wild fire. The +young men'll learn these lectures off by heart and deliver 'em with +local allusions to the vicars of the parishes as they come to. I've got +a supply of the illegal wafers as the Ritualists use for the Lord's +Supper. Each lecture'll have one or two to show in the meetings. He'll +pull it out and show the poor deluded people the god of flour and water +their priests tell 'em to worship. There's lots of real humour in the +lectures. They'll fire the popular imagination. Every crowd likes to +hear a parson abused. I got the idea of humour and fun in the lectures +from the Salvation Army. You see, we want to reach the class of folk as +don't mind standing round a street-corner meeting and listening. The +Army makes it pay wonderfully! But they only attack sin. They don't +bother what a man does as long as he's good. We're attacking Rome in the +Henglish Church, and it's remarkable what a lot of ridiculous things and +points I've got into these lectures. There's one thing, for instance, +that'll keep all a crowd on the grin--I mean the directions to a +'priest' if an insect gets into the 'consecrated' wine. It has to be +burnt. Can't you see the lecturer with his 'Now, my friends, I ask you +what a poor little spider's done to be used like that?' It's all an +unworked mine! And you see there's no answer to it! A Ritualist 'priest' +who comes to argue--of course, discussion will be invited--is bound to +get left. He'll be so solemn and that, that the ordinary man in the +street won't understand a word he's driving at. My men'll win every +time. You'll see." + +"As usual, Pa," said Sam, "you've hit on a good thing. It'll extend the +League wonderful. But what about your men--where'll you get 'em? and +what guarantee will you have that they won't rob the League?" + +"Oh, that's all thought out. I shall have quite young chaps and pay them +about eighteen shillings a week and travelling expenses. Each two or +three days they'll have to send in reports as to the work, and each week +forward the collection. I shall try, eventually, to get real earnest +young men who believe in our glorious Henglish Protestant 'eritage. +_They_ won't rob us. I shall get smart young chaps with plenty of bounce +and go, but not much education. It's not _wanted_ for popular +street-corner work. You get a Ritualist parson coming to try and answer +one of my chaps--take the crucifix question, now. My man will talk about +Popish idols and that--it's all in the lecture--and all the parson will +say is that a crucifix is legal in the Church of Hengland--I believe, as +a strict matter of fact, it _is_. Then my man turns round and tells the +crowd that a crucifix is nothing but a dolly on a stick--he gets the +laugh, see? The 'priest' can't explain all his humbugging reverence and +that in an open-air meeting, with one of my chaps ready with a joke +every time he speaks. I've got four out of my six men already, and if +the thing hums as I expect, I'll put twenty or thirty in the field at +once. They're easy found! There's lots of young chaps connected with +chapels that would far rather tour the country attracting attention +wherever they go, and do nothing but agitate, than work hard! There's +young Moffatt, Peter Moffatt's son. He's a plumber, but he 'ates work. +He's got cheek for twenty, and he'll do no end of good. As for the cost, +why, the men will pay for themselves over and over again. They'll be +well supplied from the central office--extracts from the papers and so +on--they'll take local halls and advertise in local papers. I shall +expect that each man, if he's any good _at all_, will pay all his own +expenses each week and forward a clear two pounds to me! A man that +can't do that, at least, with such backing as we can give him and such a +splendid war-cry--well, I wouldn't give twopence for him." + +"I see it all clear now," answered Sam, a flush of excitement coming +into his face. "And besides the money and extension of the League there +will be splendid opportunities for you and me to run down now and then +to support our men and get an 'oliday--take Brighton, for instance! It's +full of Ritualists. A couple of men could spend a month there." + +"And take from two to three hundred pounds, I should think," said the +secretary, thoughtfully, "besides dealing an 'orrid blow to the wolves +in the fold of the Protestant Henglish Church. We'll have some good +protests in Brighton! Then, when our lecturers are fined for brawling, +we'll instruct them _not to pay the fine_, but to go to prison for a +fortnight instead! Of course, it'll be considered 'andsomely in their +salaries. Then we'll send them round the country with a magic lantern +and a rousing lecture. 'Imprisoned by the Romanisers,' 'In Gaol for the +Protestant Faith!' or something like that." + +"That's _fine_," said Sam, in an ecstasy of enjoyment. "Why, Father, the +whole thing grows like a snowball! It _must_ grow." + +"Didn't I tell you, six months ago?" said Mr. Hamlyn. "Look at us then +and now! What were we then? Nothing, 'ardly. What are we now? Directors +of a big concern, becoming known all over Hengland, drawing good +salaries, and with all the pleasure of bossing a big show. Look at the +printing account the works have against the League, look at our expenses +when we've got thirty or more Luther lecturers all over the country! And +yet there's nothing risky in it. Nothing at all. No bogus-company +promoting, no snide article to sell. We've no limited-liability company +act to fear, no treasury investigations. We stand upon solid rock and +nobody can't touch us! And why? Because we are championing the freedom +of the people's religion, we are fighting for glorious Protestantism!" + +"Fancy no one thinking of it before!" said Sam. + +Mr. Hamlyn's shrewd, able face beamed with merriment. "Providence," he +said, "chooses its own instruments. Now, then, send me in the shorthand +clerk; I shall be at work all day. To-night I address a public meeting +in the 'Olborn Town Hall, and before ten I'm due to sup with Miss +Pritchett. She wants something definite done in St. Elwyn's, and I must +think out a slap in the face for Blantyre." + +"I'll run round to the bank," said Sam, "and pay this morning's little +lot into the general fund, and post the statement to the treasurer." + +"Right, my son. What was it?" + +"Seventeen pounds odd, Pa." + +"Protestants are waking up," said Mr. Hamlyn, "our work for the Cause +has a blessing upon it." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A PRIVATE CONFERENCE AT MIDNIGHT A YEAR LATER + + +It was late at night in Father Blantyre's study at Hornham. King and +Stephens had gone to bed, but the vicar sat with Dr. Hibbert, his +churchwarden. + +Both men were smoking. By the side of the doctor stood a modest peg of +whiskey; the priest contented himself with a glass of soda-water. The +candles by which the room was lighted showed that Mr. Blantyre's face +was very worn and weary. He seemed a man who was passing through a time +of stress and storm. The bronzed countenance of the doctor wore its +usual aspect of serenity and strength. Both men had been talking +together earnestly for a great part of the night. A true and intimate +friendship obtained between them, and it was a plan that fortnightly +they should meet thus and make confidences to each other about that +which they held so dear. + +"It is just a year," Blantyre said, "since Hamlyn committed his first +sacrilege in our own church." + +"The time goes very fast," Hibbert answered, "yet look at the changes! +The man has become almost a power in the land, or at least he seems to +be. It is his talent for organisation. It's supreme. Look how this +wretched 'League' has grown. It has its spies and agents everywhere, its +committee has names of importance among its members, the amount of money +that rolls into Hamlyn's coffers must be very large." + +"I'm afraid so. But think of the turmoil and unrest one man can +create--the misery and pain churchmen feel every day now as they see the +jocose blasphemies of these people and see the holiest things held up to +an utterly vulgar and soulless ridicule. It's a wrong thought, Hibbert, +perhaps, but I do sometimes long to be out of it all, to start afresh on +such new work as God may give one in another life!" + +"Such a thought comes to all of us at times, of course. But it's +physical mainly. It's merely a languor of overstrain and a weak nervous +state. You know yourself how such thoughts come chiefly at night, and +how after your tub, in the morning light and air they all go." + +"Materialist! But you're right, Hibbert, quite right." + +"You go on taking the physic I've sent you and you'll pick up soon. But, +of course, this _is_ a very trying time. The parish is in a constant +turmoil. These Sunday evening Protestant meetings when folk are coming +out of church are a bad nuisance. That's a new move, too." + +"Yes. They found that the hooligan riot-provoking business was very +simply dealt with, and so they are trying this. It is that poor, silly +old creature, Miss Pritchett. The Hamlyns are hand and glove with her. I +suppose she is sincere, poor old lady! I hope so. She was an ardent +Catholic, and I hope she does honestly believe in the new substitute for +the Faith. I am very sorry for her." + +"I'm less charitable, Blantyre; she's a spiteful old cat. I am not +violating any professional confidence in telling _you_ that she won't +live long if she goes on living in the thick of this noisy Protestant +agitation. I do my best for her, of course, but she won't do as she's +told." + +"She's a nuisance," the vicar said, "but I hope she won't go yet. I +should like to make friends with her before she dies. And I should like +her to die in the Faith." + +"She won't do that, I'm afraid, Blantyre. She has gone too far away from +the Church. But, now, what do you honestly think the effect of this +Luther crusading business has been on the Church." + +"Well, I think there can be no doubt of that. I was talking it over with +Lord Huddersfield last week and we both agreed. The _Church_ has gained +enormously. People who were simply attracted by ceremonial and what was +novel to them have gone out, in a restless endeavour to find some new +thing. But that is all. Our congregations here, our communicants, have +grown very much. There is a deeper spiritual fervour among us, I am sure +of it. No churchman has taken Hamlyn seriously for a moment. He has +failed in every attempt he has made to interfere with our teaching or +our ceremonial, failed absolutely. All his legal cases have fallen +through, or proved abortive, or are dragging on towards extinction. The +days of ritual prosecutions are utterly dead. All the harm Hamlyn has +done the Church itself is to weary our ears and hearts with a great +noise and tumult, with floods of empty talk. He has stung our nerves, +he hasn't penetrated to any vital part." + +"Yes, that is so. It needs more than the bellowings of such a man, more +than the hostility of people who are not members of the Church, to hurt +her in any serious degree. The man and his friends have a large rabble +behind them, but they can only parade through the streets of England +beating their drums and rattling their collecting boxes. The Church is +safe." + +"It is. And yet in another way, all this business is doing fearful harm +to the _morale_ of the country, limited though it may be. The mass of +non-Christian people who might be gathered into the Church are looking +down upon these unseemly contests with a sneer. They feel that there can +be little good or truth in a system of philosophy which seems to them to +be nothing but an arena of brawling fools. Therein comes the harm. +Hamlyn isn't injuring church people, he is giving contraband of war to +infidelity. And just at this particular moment in the world's history +this is extremely dangerous. In thirty years, the danger will have +passed away; to-day, it is great." + +"And why particularly at this moment?" + +"Why, because the world is utterly changing with extraordinary rapidity. +That world which once adjusted itself so sweetly to our faith is +vanishing, is gone. The new world which is arriving is unassimilated, +unsorted, unexplained. The light hasn't entered it yet, it doesn't know +how to correspond. The trouble lies in that. The new politics, science, +philosophy, art, are only social habits. And these will not talk our +language yet, or confess Christ. And this squabble and turmoil will +retard the new adjustment for years, because outsiders won't even +trouble to examine our claims or make experience of our system. _And +people are glad of any excuse to ignore or at least avoid Christianity._ +You see, a new religion has sprung up." + +"Yes--go on." + +"It is the religion of pleasure, excitement, nervous thrill bought at +any cost. Renan, who had eyes and used them, saw that. He has given us +the hint in his _Abbess of Jouarre_. 'Were the human race quite +certain,' he says, 'that in two or three days the world would come to an +end, the instinct of pleasure'--_l'amour_ is his word--'would break out +into a sort of frenzy; in the presence of death, sure and sudden, +nature alone would speak, and very strange scenes would follow. The +social order is preserved by restraint; but restraint depends upon a +belief in a hereafter.' And already, 'If a man dies, shall he live +again?' is the burden of a new soliloquy on the lips of a new Hamlet. +Faith is becoming more and more an act, a habit, of heroism. So you see +the harm Hamlyn and his gang are indirectly doing. But do you know where +it seems to me the great counteracting influence to his work lies at the +moment?" + +"Where?" + +"You will wonder to hear me say so, but I firmly think for the moment it +lies in the ranks, and true love of our Lord, of the pious Evangelical +Party in the Church! They are Catholic without knowing it. They think, +and think sincerely, that the forms the Church has appointed, some of +her Sacraments even, obscure the soul's direct communion with God. They +are not in line with us yet. But there is a sterling and vivid +Christianity among them. There is a personal adoration of Jesus which is +strong and sweet, a living, wonderful thing. And, you see, all this +section of the Church is exempt from the attacks of the _extreme_ +Protestants--who seem themselves to have hardly any Christianity at all. +Nor do the really pious Evangelicals approve of this civil war. They +won't be mixed up in it. They are far too busy doing good works and +preparing themselves for the next world to join in these rowdy +processions of the shallow, the ill-informed, or the malevolent. They +don't approve of _us_, of course, but they have no public quarrel with +what they see is substantially powerful for good. Since Hamlyn's brigade +has been throwing mud at us, and we, of course, have defended ourselves +to the best of our ability, the minds of those who are eager to justify +their adhesion to the religion of pleasure cannot, at least if they have +any logic or sincerity, avoid a consideration of the quiet +Evangelicals." + +"It is a new idea to me," said the doctor, refilling his pipe, "but I +suppose you are right. They despise the whole business of agitation, and +yet don't make it a pretext as the rationalists are glad to do. The +whole thing is a miserable business! What annoys _me_, Vicar, is the +facility with which a rowdy, ignorant man of the lower classes has been +able to make himself a force." + +"It is hard. But one must remember that however sincere he is--and I +know nothing against his personal character--he only appeals to the +ignorant and rowdy. Have you seen his new leaflet?" + +"No, I think not. What is it?" + +"It came by post last night; apparently the whole district is being +circularised. Really, the thing is quite a curiosity. I will read you a +few paragraphs." + +He opened a drawer and took a small pamphlet from it, which was headed +"THE HORNHAM SCANDAL." "Listen to this: + +"'At St. Elwyn's, Hornham,' writes a lady member of the Luther League, +'I recently attended the so-called "High Mass." There were three priests +in vestments; there were eight candles burning at eleven o'clock on the +altar; there was incense and all the appurtenances of a Roman Mass; the +men bore that ignorant and unwashed appearance which is commonly to be +seen at any time in an Italian church. At times they crossed themselves, +but often they seemed to forget, and then suddenly to remember. I stayed +as long as I could, but it was not long, for I was sick at heart at the +thought of what our country is being mercilessly dragged into, and that +it is for services of this description that we hear from time to time +our foolish girls exclaim, "How I hate the name of Protestant."'" + +"Elegant style," said the doctor dryly, "but to call our congregation +'unwashed' is not only perfectly untrue, but a little touch of feminine +spite that shows the spirit in which these crusades are carried on. I +wonder how many of the five thousand were unwashed when our Lord fed +them!" + +"That is a quotation," said the vicar, "now hear the robuster prose of +the great Hamlyn himself: + +"'It appears that there are literally no lengths of lawlessness, +ecclesiastical insubordination, blasphemous poperies, or unscriptural +profanation of places of worship to which Ritualistic innovators will +not proceed. Among other Romanising acts of the vicar of St. Elwyn's, +the notorious "Father" Blantyre, is a direction to some of his +congregation who attend the Lord's Supper. These members have taken the +bread from him--or rather the superstitious wafer which is substituted +for bread--with the thumb and finger. "Oh, no," says our priest, "you +must hold out your hand for it." These are the "instructions" of +"Father" Blantyre to those about to attend the Lord's Supper for the +first time after confirmation: + +"'_As soon as the priest comes up to you, hold up your hands as high as +the chin, so that he may place the Blessed Sacrament in your hand while +he says the words, The Body of our Lord._ + +"'But we ask our Protestant brethren how, if the minister--falsely +called "priest"--places the bread in the hand of the communicant, how +the latter can comply with the direction "take this"? Let England awake +to this "priestly" and insidious Popish plan.'" + +"Well!" said the doctor, "of all the--" Words failed him. + +"Isn't it vulgar and childish!" said the vicar, "but how admirably +adapted to suit the ignorant folk who will read it. The adroit +substitution of a colloquial use of the word 'take' for its real meaning +of 'receive'! And then the continual effort to degrade the Mass, to rob +it of its mystery and holy character--it's clever, it's subtle. Hamlyn +is a man of parts!" + +"Is there any more?" + +"Oh, yes, plenty. So far I have only read the mildest parts. Here is a +distorted simile which I should hardly have thought even Hamlyn would +have printed. It is painful to read: + +"'One of our Luther Lecturers recently asked a poor, deluded young +female who is in the habit of attending the pantomime at St. Elwyn's why +she went there. The poor, deluded creature replied--doubtless with words +put into her mouth by her "Father Confessor"--that its "spirituality" +and "devotion" attracted her. Ah! Rome and Ritualism have ever known how +to appear as a pure and modest virgin, even when rotting (to use the +image of the Holy Spirit in the Word) with fornication. O foolish young +woman! How have you been bewitched with these sorceries? A clean thing +is to be got of an unclean thing!'" + +The doctor ground his teeth. "I wish we'd had the man in the regiment!" +he said. "Unclean! I'd have cleaned the brute!" + +The vicar sighed. "Of course it doesn't really matter," he said. "This +sort of stuff carries its own condemnation with it. Still it is most +distressing. It does wound one deeply to hear the highest and holiest +things spoken of in this way. All my people feel it. Some of them--poor +things--have come to me weeping to hear such words--weeping for shame +and sorrow. Here is the last paragraph. The pamphlet concludes with a +fine flow of rhetoric, and an invitation to me: + +"'The late Dr. Parker said: "Popery is the vilest blasphemy out of hell. +It is the enemy of liberty; it is the enemy of intelligence; it is the +enemy of individuality, of conscience, and responsibility; it is the +supreme wickedness of the world, the master effort of the devil." + +"'And so say we. Therefore, honest, English, Protestant people of +Hornham, look to it that these doings in your midst are put down with a +stern hand. A great meeting of ratepayers will shortly be held in the +Victoria Hall under the auspices of the Luther League. A lecture, with +lime-light views, will be delivered on the cloaked and hooded Popery +that stalks in our midst. An invitation will be extended to "Fathers" +Blantyre, King, and Stephens, the "Priests" of St. Elwyn's church, who +will be accommodated with seats upon the platform if they care to come. +We of the Luther League invite them to public controversy, to an open +debate upon the great questions at issue. Will they be present? Time +will show.'" + +Hibbert rose. "Well, it's time we were in bed," he said. "Good-night. I +should think over that sporting offer of Hamlyn's if I were you. A +public appearance might do good. I like a fight." + +"I doubt it," the vicar answered; "still, it may be worth considering. +One never knows. One doesn't want people to say that one is afraid." + +"Good-night, Vicar." + +"Good-night, Hibbert. Forget all about these surface worries and sleep +well." + +The vicar was left alone. + +He took a letter from his pocket. It was from Lucy, who wrote from Park +Lane. In the letter, she said that she purposed--if he would care to +have her--to come down to Hornham at once and spend some months at the +clergy-house. + +"If you can put up with a girl for a time in your bachelor stronghold! +I'm sick to death of this life; it has lost all its attractions for me. +I want to _live_, not play, and you, my dear old boy, will show me the +way. A letter is no way--for me--to tell you of my thoughts. But higher +things than of old are working in me. St. Elwyn's calls me, it seems +home; I so often think of the big quiet church and the ceaseless +activity that centres round it. I long for the peace there! I have much +to tell you, much to consult you about, and I am beginning to wonder why +I have left you alone so long. Good-night, dear." + +Putting down the letter, he looked at the clock. It was now far after +midnight, and he stayed the hand that was about to raise the glass that +stood on the table beside him. + +In a few hours it would be dawn, the dawn when in the dim hour he daily +went to meet the Lord in the Eucharist. How wonderful that was! What +unending joy the break of day had for this good man, as he began the +ancient and mysterious rite of the Church! There, there, beside the +altar, there was peace! In this desert world, that was so far from Home, +there was always that daily glimpse into the Unseen, that Communion in +which dead friends and great angels joined, when the Paraclete came to +the weary, sinful hearts of men like fire, when our Lord in his risen +majesty came to the world to hearten his soldiers, to fill his toiling +saints with power to continue to the end. + +If only the whole world _knew_ and realised this! Sometimes the priest +thought with simple wonder, that if only men knew, all trouble and +sorrow would be over. To him the material world was the unreal place, +the dream, the fable. Daily he _knew_ that the Unseen was ever near, +close, close!--how blind and sorrowful the world was, that did not know +or care for Jesus. + +He knelt down now to say his prayers. He prayed for the Church, his +congregation, for his sister, and his friends. Then he prayed that he +might be worthy to receive the Blessed Sacrament at dawn. + +And then, happy, comforted, and at peace, with the certainty of an +unseen glory all round him, with august watchers to shield him through +the night, he sought his couch and slept a deep, dreamless sleep with +crossed hands. + +"_From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks +of the Lord Jesus._" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A UNION OF FORCES + + +In Hornham, the vast majority of a poor and teeming population was quite +without interest in any religious matter. The chapels of the various +sects were attended by the residuum, the congregations at St. Elwyn's +were large--to the full holding capacity of the mother church and the +smaller mission building--and a fair proportion of people worshipped at +St. Luke's, the only other church in the neighbourhood. + +Mr. Carr, the vicar of St. Luke's, was a man of about thirty-five. He +had taken a good degree at Cambridge, spent a few years in various +curacies, and had been appointed vicar of St. Luke's, Hornham, which was +in the gift of an Evangelical body known as Simon's Trustees, about four +years before Mr. Hamlyn had thrown Hornham into its present state of +religious war. + +The vicar of St. Luke's was a man of considerable mental power. He was +unmarried, had no private means, and lived a lonely, though active, +life in his small and ill-built vicarage. In appearance, he was tall, +somewhat thin, and he wore a pointed, close-cropped beard and moustache. +His face was somewhat melancholy, but when he was moved or interested, +the smile that came upon it was singularly sweet. In the ordinary +business of life, he was reserved and shy. He had none of the genial +Irish _bonhomie_ of Blantyre, the wholesome breezy boyishness of +Stephens, or the grim force of King. He had a "personality"--to the +eye--but he failed to sustain the impression his appearance made in +talk. He was of no use in a drawing-room and very nearly a failure in +any social gathering. Those few members of his flock with whom, now and +again, he had to enter into purely social relations, said of him: "Mr. +Carr is a thorough gentleman, but the poor fellow is dreadfully shy. He +wants a wife; perhaps she'd liven him up a bit." + +Such was the man in private life. In his clerical duties, as a +priest--or, as he would have put it, a pastor--his personal character +was sunk and merged in his office as completely as that of Father +Blantyre himself. His sermons were full of earnest exhortation, his +private ministrations were fervent and helpful, and there was a power in +his ministry that was felt by all with whom he came in contact. + +He was distinctly and entirely what is known as an "Evangelical," using +that fine word in the best and noblest sense. He belonged to a school of +thought which is rapidly becoming merged in and overlapped by others, +sometimes to its betterment, but more frequently to its destruction, but +which standing by itself is a powerful force. + +He did not realise the state of transition in which he and other men of +his school must necessarily stand to-day. Their position, admirable as +it often is, is but a compromise. He did not as yet realise this. + +Of Blantyre and the people at St. Elwyn's he knew little or nothing. He +had met the clergy there once or twice upon official occasions, but that +was all. He was too busy with his own work to have much time to attend +to that of other people, but he had the natural distaste of his school +and bringing-up for ceremonial and teaching of which he had no +experience, and merely regarded as foreign, anti-English, and on the +whole dangerous. + +He was not a bigot, and the leading feature in his religion was this: He +assigned an absolute supremacy to Holy Scripture as the only rule of +faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of +controversy. He did not think that there was any guide for man's soul +co-equal or co-ordinate with the Bible. He did not care to accept such +statements as "the Church says so," "primitive antiquity says so," or +"the Councils and the Fathers also say so,"--unless it could be shown to +his satisfaction that what is said is in harmony with Scripture. + +Disregarding as superfluous all external and "vicarious" form in +religion, he attached paramount importance to the work and office of our +Lord, and the highest place to the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the +heart of man. And he attached tremendous importance to the outward and +visible work of the Holy Ghost in the heart of man. His supreme belief +was that the true grace of God is a thing that will always make itself +manifest in the behaviour, tastes, ways, and choices, of him who has it. +He thought, therefore, that it was illogical to tell men that they are +"children of God, and members of Christ, and heirs of the kingdom of +Heaven" unless they had really overcome the world, the flesh, and the +devil. But he could not be stern or menacing in his dealings with +souls. The mercy of God was more in his thoughts, always and at all +times, than the wrath and judgment of God. + +His attitude toward the pressing questions that were agitating the +Church of England, all over England, was in logical correspondence with +his beliefs. There was much within the Church that he had not understood +or realised as yet, but he was no Hamlyn, to break down and destroy all +that has made the Church of England what it is. + +He neither undervalued the Church nor thought lightly of her privileges. +In sincere and loyal attachment to her, he would give place to none. His +apprehension of churchmanship was limited, that was all. + +Nor did he--as far as he knew--under-value the Christian ministry. He +looked upon it as a high and honourable office instituted by Christ +Himself, and on priests as God's ambassadors, God's messengers, God's +stewards and overseers. Nevertheless he looked upon what he knew as +"sacerdotalism" and "priestcraft" with unfeigned dislike and uneasiness. + +He believed in baptism as the appointed means of regeneration and that +it conveyed grace _ex opere operato_; a position in which he was a +little in advance of some of his school. His views on the Eucharist were +hardly so sound, though there was nothing in them absolutely +antagonistic to the truths which he had not yet realised. He certainly +did not regard Holy Communion as the chief service in the Church, its +central point. + +On outward things, he was sane enough. He liked handsome churches, good +ecclesiastical architecture, a well-ordered ceremonial, and a +well-conducted service. If any one had told Mr. Carr that he was as +nearly as possible "Catholic" in his views, that if they were logically +pushed forward to their proper development he would be practically one +with the St. Elwyn's people, he would first have been startled somewhat +unpleasantly, and then he would have laughed incredulously. + +And if some one had gone to Blantyre and told him that Carr was thus, he +would have smiled rather sadly to think that his informant had realised +the truths taught by the Anglican Church in a very limited way. + +This mutual misunderstanding between the only two schools of thought in +the Church of England that have enduring value is very common. The +_extreme_ Protestants are not church-people at all in any right sense +of the word. The "Broad" party are confused with their own shifting +surmises from day to day, and make too many "discoveries" to have real +and lasting influence. But the "High Church" people and the pious +"Evangelicals" are extraordinarily close to one another, and neither +party realises the fact, while both would repudiate it. Yet both schools +of opinion are, after all, occupied with one end and aim to the +exclusion of all others--the attaining of personal holiness. + +It was on a bright morning that Mr. Carr came down-stairs and +breakfasted, after he had read prayers with his two servants. There was +no daily service in St. Luke's, though evensong was said on Wednesdays +and Saturdays. He read his morning paper for a few moments, then put it +down and pushed his plate away. He was unable to eat, this morning. + +He got up and walked uneasily about the room. His face was troubled and +sad. Then he pulled a letter from his pocket and read it with a doubtful +sigh. This was the letter: + + "LUTHER LODGE, + "HORNHAM, N. + + "DEAR SIR: + + "Your letter duly to hand. I note that you are desirous of having a + private conversation with me, and shall be pleased to grant + facilities for same. I shall not be leaving for the Strand till + mid-day, and can therefore see you at eleven. + + "Faithfully yours, + "SAMUEL HAMLYN. + + "_Secretary of the Luther League,_ + "_Chairman of The New Reformation Association._" + +The clergyman read and reread the letter, hardly knowing what to make of +it. He had done so many times. The infinite condescension of it annoyed +him; the recapitulation of the writer's position seemed a piece of +impudent bravado, and reminded the vicar of St. Luke's of the unhappy +state that religious life was in at Hornham. + +Some days before, shocked and distressed beyond measure at the growing +turmoil in Hornham, startled by the continued evidences of it that he +met with in his pastoral life, he had written to Mr. Hamlyn asking for a +private interview. He had shrunk from doing anything of the sort for +weeks. His whole nature revolted against it. But he had dimly recognised +that in some measure he might be said to be in a middle position between +the two conflicting parties, and thought that his mediation might be of +some avail. Repugnant as it was to him, he resolved that he must do +what he thought to be his duty, and after he had made it the subject of +anxious and fervent prayer he had made up his mind to see if he could +not prevail with the leader of the "New Reformation" to cease his +agitation, in Hornham at any rate. He imagined that Hamlyn could hardly +realise the harm he was doing to the true religious life in the place. +It was not his business to argue with the reformer about his work +elsewhere. He knew nothing of that. But in Hornham, at any rate, he did +see that the civil war provoked nothing but the evil passions of hatred +and malice, had no effect upon either party, and prevented the steady +preparation for heaven which he thought was the supreme business of +Christians. + +Hamlyn's letter certainly didn't seem at all conciliatory. It disturbed +him. He had hardly ever spoken to the man in the past, but he had known +of him, as he necessarily knew of every tradesman in the borough. Social +considerations hardly ever entered his mind, but he had not thought of +Hamlyn as a potentate in any way when he had written to him. He knew him +for a plump, shrewd, vulgar man, who dropped his aspirates and said +"paiper" for "paper," and, indeed, had thought none the worse of him +for that. But the letter surprised him. It was almost offensive, and he +was as near anger as a gentle-minded man may be. + +At half-past ten o'clock, he sighed, realising that a most distasteful +duty had to be done, and prepared to leave the house. Before he left his +study, he knelt down and prayed for a blessing in his mission. He always +prayed before any event of any importance in life. An enormous number of +people still do, and it is a very great pity that some people do not +believe or realise the fact. Prayer is not the anachronism many +publicists would have us believe. If among all classes, Christians by +open profession, and people who make no profession at all, save only +contempt for Christianity, a census of prayers prayed during one day +could be taken, the result would be very remarkable indeed. It would +certainly startle the rationalists. Statistics show that every second a +child is born and a person dies. It is during the approach of such +occasions that even people who call themselves "atheists" generally +pray. Ask hospital nurses, doctors, or parish priests! There is no +greater humbug than the pretence that prayer as a general necessity and +practice is dead. There is more irreligion visible to-day than at any +other time in English history, perhaps. But that does not mean that +people do not pray. The majority live a jolly, godless life till they +are frightened. Then they pray. The minority pray always. + +Mr. Carr left his house with a more vigorous step after his petition. As +so many folk know, the help that comes from prayer is only +self-hypnotism--of course. But it is certainly odd what power some of +the least gifted and most ordinary people have of this self-hypnotism. +One had always thought it rather a cryptic science, the literature of +India, for example, regarding it as a supreme achievement. But it must +be very simple after all! And if the help that comes to the human heart +after prayer _is_ a result of this magnetic power, all we can say is +that in the depths of a Whitechapel slum, the outcast, forgotten, and +oppressed have each and all the most remarkable, delicate, and cultured +temperaments, not in the least seared or spoilt by privation and want. +The only point that one quite fails to understand is, why are the +leading reviews and scientific publications still discussing this art, +or talent, as something rare, abnormal, and as yet little understood? + +Mr. Carr drew near to "Luther Lodge." "Balmoral" had been deserted for +some time by the Hamlyn family, who very properly felt that it was +beneath the dignity of its celebrated head, and would also be harmful to +the glorious Protestant cause, if they remained among the +undistinguished inhabitants of Beatrice Villas. + +About the time that this decision had been arrived at, a substantial +square house, unornamental but sound--like Protestantism itself--was +vacated by its former inhabitant, the Mayor of Hornham, a +leather-dresser in a large way, who had sold his business to a company +and was retiring to the country. Mr. Hamlyn looked over the place--then +known as Hide-side House--and saw that it would exactly suit him and his +altered fortunes. He changed the name to "Luther Lodge," made some +extensive purchases of furniture, and established himself there with his +son and daughter. + +Carr drew near to the iron gates before the circular sweep of gravel +known to the past and present inhabitants of the house as the "drive." +The gates were hung from two stone pilasters, each surmounted by a small +but extremely rampant lion, fiercely Protestant of aspect and painted a +dull purple. The whole aspect of the place was chilling, as the +clergyman walked up to the door. The formal lace curtains in the +windows, the brilliant black-leaded boot-scraper which reflected the +sunlight in a dozen facets of vicious leaden fire, the great apple of +shining brass which was the bell-pull--all these affected him in an +unpleasant manner. He was supremely unconscious of any artistic likings +or knowledge, but the seeds of them were latent in him nevertheless, and +the place hurt his senses in a strange way. + +A trim maid came to the door, the extreme antithesis of the +filibustering "general" of a year ago, and showed him into the hall. + +"I'll see if master's disengaged," she said; "are you the gentleman as +has an appointment with master for eleven?" + +Mr. Carr confessed to being that gentleman and the girl left him +standing there. From some room in the upper part of the house, so it +seemed, the tinkling notes of a piano came down to him. Some one--it was +Miss Hamlyn herself--was singing fervently of "violets, violets, I will +wear for thee." + +After a considerable interval, the maid came back. "Master will see you +now, sir," she said, and ushered the visitor into Mr. Hamlyn's study. + +It was a fair-sized room with a long French window opening upon a lawn +in the centre of a small, walled garden. Many book-shelves filled with +grave and portly tomes lined the walls, a large writing-table stood in +the middle of the carpet. Some months before, a struggling firm of +"religious publishers" had failed, and their stock of theology was +thrown upon a flooded market as "Remainders." Mr. Hamlyn, as being in +the trade himself, was enabled to acquire a library suited to his +position at remarkably cheap rates. + +Mr. Hamlyn rose from his chair. + +"Glad to see you," he said hastily, and with great condescension and +good humour. "Fortunate I happened to have a morning free. Now, what can +I do for you? No spiritual trouble, I hope? Ritualists been prowling +round St. Luke's? If so, say the word, give me the facts, and I'll see +you are protected!" + +"It is on a question connected with the state of affairs in the district +that I called to see you, Mr. Hamlyn." + +"Quite so, Mr. Carr, just what I expected. Well, I've always heard good +accounts of you as a loyal Protestant minister--though I can't approve +of your using that pestilential book, _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, in +your church--and I will do what I can for you. Providence has placed a +scourge in my hand to drive the idolaters from the Temple, so tell me +your trouble." + +Carr had listened to this, which was delivered in a loud, confident +voice, with growing amazement. He hardly knew how to take the man. + +"I deplore very much," he said, making a great effort, "the state into +which Hornham has been thrown. I cannot, of course, approve of much that +I understand takes place at St. Elwyn's. Yet I am beginning to fear that +the remedy is worse than the disease. I am sure, Mr. Hamlyn, that your +great desire must be to see the people led to love the Lord Jesus and to +live godly, sober lives. Well, I find that the crusade of the Luther +League is unsettling the minds of weaker brethren. They are becoming +excited, forgetful of duty, carried away by the flood of a popular +movement. All this is hurtful to souls. Men should have peace to make +themselves right with God. Strife and anger hurt the soul and wound it. +Now I have no concern with any other place but this, in which my +ministry is set. But in Hornham, at least, I have come to ask you to +moderate your attacks upon the High Church party, to extend to them the +same tolerance they extend to us." + +Hamlyn stared at the speaker. + +"To moderate MY methods?" he shouted in a coarse voice. "Do you know +what you're asking? Do you realise who I am?" + +"Perfectly, Mr. Hamlyn," the clergyman answered with considerable +dignity. "I am speaking, I hope, to a brother Christian, and as such, in +the name of our dear Lord, I ask you to cease this strife and discord +among us. God will show his desires in his own way; prayer is a more +powerful weapon than public invective. And it is idle to deny that the +vicar of St. Elwyn's and his curates are doing good. I believe their +teaching on fundamental truths is wrong, I deprecate the ceremonial with +which they veil and cover the simple beauties of the Christian faith. +But Mr. Blantyre is a good and noble-hearted man. He gives his life and +his large income--it is a matter of common knowledge--to the service of +the poor and needy. He is utterly unselfish, he loves Jesus. Let him +work in his own way in peace." + +Mr. Hamlyn's face grew very red. The man was mentally bloated by +prosperity and success. Daily he was hailed by fools as the saviour of +his country, his name was on many lips, and his sense of proportion was +utterly gone. + +"Really!" he said, "of all the mad requests as was ever made me this is +the maddest! Are you in your senses, Mr. Carr--you a Protestant minister +of the Word? You can't be. You come to me, me, who Providence has set at +the head of Henglish Protestantism, and ask me to join a base conspiracy +to silence the clarion of Truth! to leave my 'igh ground of Principle +and grovel before a petticoated 'priest'! Why, you're asking me to let +the Pope and the devil into Hornham. Have you ever cast your eye upon +the works of the immortal John Bunyan? What about Mr. Facing-both-ways?" + +Mr. Carr kept his temper. He was there upon an important issue. What did +it matter if the man was rude? "But don't you think, as a Christian," he +said mildly, "that it is hard enough to fight the devil, the world, and +the flesh without private differences in the Christian camp?" + +"Who's speaking of Christians?" Hamlyn cried; "not I. Blantyre is no +Christian; he is doing the devil's work, which is the work of Rome. He +gives away his money because the devil showed him that it was a good +move, to win souls to Rome. As for his goodness, how do we know what +goes on in the confessional? I've heard----" + +Carr stood up. "Let me tell you at once, sir," he said in a hard voice +and with flashing eyes, "that any scandal and slander you make before me +about a man I know to be pure and good I will at once repeat to him, and +you will have to take the consequences." + +"Ah!" said the agitator sharply and suddenly and with his impudent smile +flashing over his face, mingled with a sneer, "I see now! I ought to +have seen it before. You are a wolf in sheep's clothing! While we all +thought you a faithful Protestant, you have secretly joined causes with +the enemy. The cloven 'oof 'as peeped out! You come as a sneaking +ambassador of Rome in the garb of a Protestant. The Jesuits have been +having a go at you, Mr. Carr, and they've got you! I shouldn't wonder if +you've got your 'air-shirt on now! Go back to them as sent you and say +that I've scourged 'em with whips in the past and I'll give 'em +scorpions now. This will make a fine story at our next meeting in the +public 'all!" + +Carr turned on his heel without a word and left the room. He crossed the +hall in a couple of strides, opened the door, and walked quickly over +the gravel sweep. As his hand was on the latch of the gate, the +reformer's voice hailed him. Mr. Hamlyn was looking round the corner of +the door; a genial grin--a clown's grin--lay upon his face. "Mr. Carr!" +he bawled with unabashed and merry impudence, "been to Mass yet?" + +Then, with a final chuckle, he closed the door. + +The peacemaker walked sadly away. He saw at once the sort of man he had +been dealing with, and recognised how futile any protest would be in the +case. He saw clearly how unassailable Hamlyn's position was, while the +country was full of people who would pay him to keep them in a state of +pleasurable excitement. It was better than the theatre to which Hamlyn's +subscribers loudly protested that their consciences would not allow them +to go! It was a sort of bull-baiting revived; the lust of the public at +seeing some one hunted was satisfied. + +How infinitely better the sober methods of the old-established +Protestant societies were! Legitimate propaganda, a dignified and +scholarly controversy, these were right and sane. But this clown's +business, this noise and venom, was utterly disgusting. He had caught a +glimpse into the machinery of the whole movement that sickened him. + +He went home to his lonely house and made a frugal lunch. Something +ought to be done, but what? He was not a man to fail in any efforts he +made in a good cause. He did not propose to cease his attempts to +restore Hornham to decent calm, even now. But he could not see, at the +moment, what was the next move he should make. + +During the afternoon he set out on a round of parochial visiting. He sat +by the bedsides of the sick, the querulous, the ungrateful, and told his +message of comfort. He heard much of Hamlyn's campaign. The new leaflet +with its violent language was thrust into his hand. Every one wondered +what would happen next. Would Mr. Blantyre face the Luther Lecturers in +the public hall? One old bedridden dame Carr found all agog with +excitement and spite. "It'd come to a fight," she expected, and "wot an +awful thing it was to have them wicked monsters the Papists so close. +She could 'ardly sleep o' nights thinking of it all." Carr found that +the poor old creature had not the remotest idea of what "Papist" meant, +of what anything meant, indeed; but she would hardly listen to his +prayers and Bible-reading nevertheless, so eager was she to discuss the +"goings on." + +About four, as he left the last house he purposed to visit just then, a +strange thought came to him suddenly. He was at the extreme end of his +parish, not far from St. Elwyn's. Would it not be a good thing to go and +visit Blantyre, to express his sympathy and to discuss whether some way +out of the present trouble could not be found? + +The idea strengthened and grew. He knew Blantyre was a decent +fellow--every one said so. But, nevertheless, he had the sense of +venturing into the lion's den! He should feel strange among these +priests with their foreign ways, their cassocks and berrettas; there +would be discomfort in the visit. + +It is curious how, in the minds of the least prejudiced, the dislike to +the definite and outward symbols that a priest wears still lingers. In +another generation, it will have been swept away, but it still survives +as a relic of the dark, secularising influences of the eighteenth +century. And, again, the man in the street does not like to be reminded +that there is a God and a class of men vowed to His service, and the +complete distinction of a priest's costume is too explicit a reminder. + +Carr thought the matter out for a minute or two and then made up his +mind. He would go and talk over the situation with Blantyre. With a +vivid sense of how his host of the morning would call his action "bowing +down in the house of Rimmon," a sense that only quickened his steps and +sent a contemptuous curl to his lip, he turned and walked towards the +clergy-house. + +He rang the bell, and a tall and rather hulking man in livery showed him +into a large drawing-room. This was the navvy, Mr. King's former +assailant, who had been promoted, at his own request, to a distinctive +costume, which he wore with pride and diligence. His only grief was that +he was not allowed to "wipe the floor with that there Hamlyn," but he +lived in hope that some fresh outrage would provide him with the +necessary permission. + +Carr looked round the room. There was nothing ecclesiastical about it, +no flavour of the monk at home. It had been newly papered; the walls +were covered with pictures so fresh and new in treatment that they might +have come from the Academy of that year. The vicar of St. Luke's +suddenly awoke to the fact that he was in a very charming room indeed. +There was a Steinway grand piano there, a beautiful instrument; he saw +that the Twelfth Nocturne of Chopin stood open upon it. Everywhere he +saw a multitude of photographs in frames of silver, copper, ivory, +peacock leather--every imaginable sort of frame. A great many of these +photographs were signed in the corner, and looking at some of them he +was surprised to see that they were of very well-known people. Here was +a well-known general, there a judge, again the conscious features of a +society actor beamed out at him. His eye, unobservant at first, began to +take in the details of the room more rapidly. There were a hundred +luxurious little trifles scattered about, numerous contrivances for +comfort. He was wondering to whom this room could belong, when the door +opened and his doubts were resolved. + +A girl came in, a girl with a beautifully modelled face, healthy and yet +without crimson in it. A pair of frank, dark eyes looked at him from +beneath an overshadowing mass of dead black hair. + +"How do you do, Mr. Carr," she said,--he had given the man his card,--"I +am Mr. Blantyre's sister; I've only just pitched my tent in Hornham. +Bernard will be in for tea in half an hour." + +Rather nervously, Carr explained that he had called on a matter of +parochial business. He remained standing, a little at a loss. This girl +was not like the young ladies of Hornham. + +"Well, you must have some tea," Lucy said with decision as she rang the +bell. Carr sat down. He anticipated a somewhat trying half hour until +the vicar should arrive. He was a gentleman, well bred in every way, but +his life, from the time of his school days, had been lonely and without +much feminine companionship. + +In five minutes he found, to his own great surprise, that he was talking +vividly and well, that he was quite pleased to be where he was. And the +girl seemed to be interested and pleased with him. It was a very new +sensation, this feeling of mutual liking, to the lonely man. The +conversation turned naturally to the unrest around them. Carr said +nothing as yet of his morning's experience. + +"Well, I must confess, frankly, Mr. Carr," Lucy said, "that until lately +I never took any interest at all in these things. They seemed humbug to +me. Now, of course, I know better. It's a _shame_! a black shame, that +Bernard and the others should be treated so by this disgusting man. If +he only knew what their life was! how self-denying, how full of +unceasing labour and worry, how devoted. Take Mr. Stephens, for +instance: he's only a boy, yet he's killing himself with work and +enthusiasm. He was up all last night with a man that has delirium +tremens, yet he said Mass at half-past seven, came to breakfast as merry +as a sand-boy, and was teaching in the national schools at nine. And +he'll be on his feet to-day until nearly midnight without a word of +complaint. He'll spend nearly the whole evening in the boys' club, +boxing and playing billiards with them--oh, you can't think how the +three of them work!" + +She went on with a series of anecdotes and explanations, told with great +vividness and power, in her new enthusiasm for the men among whom she +had come. And throughout all her talk, the clergyman heard frequent +references to the services that went on almost unceasingly in the great +church hard by. He heard names, strange and yet familiar, startling to +his ear, and yet which seemed quite natural and fitting in the place +where he was. One thing he began to see clearly, and with interest: +whatever these men were in opinion, a life of real and active holiness +went on among them. And he noticed also, with wonder, how everything +seemed to draw its inspiration from the church, how constantly the +clergy were there, hearing confessions, saying services, praying, and +preaching. The whole thing was new to him. + +They were the best of friends, talking brightly together, when the door +burst open and the impetuous priest rushed in. "Well, I'm glad to see +you!" he said with a broad grin of welcome. "Had tea?--that's right. I +see you've made friends with my clergywoman! I've been in church hearing +confessions, or I'd have been in sooner." + +His manner was extremely genial. He seemed genuinely glad to see his +brother vicar and not in the least surprised or puzzled. + +Carr looked attentively at him. So this merry Irishman, with the lined, +powerful face, the grey hair, and eyes which sometimes blazed out like +lamps--this was the great Ritualist, the Jesuit, the thief of English +liberty! + +He had a wonderful magnetic power, that was evident at once. His +sympathy for everything and everybody poured from him; he was "big," big +in every way. + +He chatted merrily away on a variety of topics while taking his tea. +Asking his sister for another cup, he suddenly turned to Carr. "That +reminds me," he said, "of a good story I heard yesterday. Father +Cartwright was here to lunch, he is one of the St. Clement Fathers at +the Oxford monastery. Not long ago a young nobleman--rather a _bon +vivant_, by the way--went down to spend a few days with the Fathers. He +made his arrival, very unfortunately for him, poor fellow! on a Friday, +when the fare's very frugal indeed. He had very little to eat, poor +chap, and went to bed as hungry as a hunter, quite unable to sleep he +was. Now, it's the custom for one of the Fathers to go round in the +night with a benediction, 'The Lord be with you.' They always say it in +Latin, _Dominus tecum_. The young man heard some one rapping at the +door. 'Who's there?' says he. '_Dominus tecum_,' was the answer. +'Thanks, very much,' said the nobleman, 'please put it down outside'!" + +While they were laughing at the story, Lucy rose and, shaking hands +with Carr, went away. + +The two clergymen were left alone. "You'll not mind talking in here?" +Father Blantyre said. "I've got a poor chap in me study I don't want to +disturb. I found um after lunch making a row in the street with a crowd +round him, a poor half-clothed scarecrow, beastly drunk--never saw a man +in such a state. I asked one of the crowd who he was and he said he was +a stranger, a ship's fireman, who'd been about the place for a day or +two, spending all his money in drinks, and he hadn't a friend in the +world. A policeman came along and wanted to lock um up, but I managed to +get him in here and he's sleeping it off. I shall give um egg in milk +when he comes round: his poor stomach's half poisoned with bad liquor +and no food. I always find egg and milk the best thing in these cases. I +wish he wasn't so dirty! We shall have to give 'm a hot tub before he +can go to bed." + +"What will you do with him?" + +"Oh, keep him here for a day or two to pull round, give um some clothes, +and pack 'm off to sea again where he can't get any drink." + +"Don't such men ever rob you?" + +"Hardly ever. It's not your real outcast who steals much. They're +generally so astonished to find a parson isn't as black as he's painted +that they don't think of anything else. They go away feeling they've got +a _pal_, made a friend! That's the awful want in their lives. A lot of +them come back, and write to me while they're away, too, queer letters +full of gratitude and bad language! But ye came to see me, my friend. +I'm so glad you've found your way here. Now, what can I do for you, or +are ye going to do anything for me?" + +His manner had changed. His tone was indescribably sympathetic and +gentle. If ever the wisdom of charity and the light of holiness shone +out on a man's face, Carr thought that he saw it now. + +He was entirely dominated by the man. In a burst of nervous words, he +poured out his thoughts. He told of his futile visit to Hamlyn, his keen +distress at the result, the misery the agitation gave him, and the harm +he believed it to be doing. + +Blantyre listened with few words. Now and then he made a warm and +penetrating remark. + +"It will pass," he said at length; "God will give us peace again. He is +trying the faith of the poor and ignorant among us. Our prayers will +avail. But we will concert together that we may take such measures to +stop the local evil as we properly can. I have been loath to move in the +matter, but now that you have come to me we will join forces and take +action. There are ways and means. I hate pulling wires and using +influence, but one must sometimes. I had hoped it wouldn't be necessary. +But something must be done. Lord Huddersfield will take action for us. +The street meetings can be stopped at once. Then we can inaugurate a +real press campaign and let the leader-writers loose. Hitherto it's been +our policy to say nothing much, except in the religious papers, of +course. But the time has come when we must fight, too. I was talking to +Sir Michael Manicho about it the other day. A word or two from him and +the country will be ringing with warnings. We can rob this Luther League +of its powers in a week. It will _go on_, of course, but with its fangs +drawn. The people who support it will, many of them, cease their +subscriptions. And there is the law also. The magistrates of London are +quite ready to take a strong stand. That is settled. And a word from +the Archbishop, perhaps, would be a help. Public opinion is very easily +turned." + +He spoke calmly, but with conviction and a quiet sense of power. Carr +began to see dimly what great forces were behind this man and others of +his kind. The tremendous organising machinery of the Catholic Church was +laid bare for a moment. + +A most confidential talk followed. Blantyre gave the other details and +names. He made it plain to Carr's astonished ears that those in high +places were waiting to act, waiting to see if the Church needed them. +The depth and force of it all astonished him. + +A bell began to ring. "There's evensong," said Blantyre, "I must be off. +It's my turn to say it to-night." + +"I will come, too," Carr answered. + +"Do, do! and take some food with us all afterwards, and we'll have a +longer talk. You can't think how happy I am that we have come together. +What? You've never seen our church? Why, then, you've a treat in front +of ye! Every one says it's beautiful. We all love it, we're all proud of +it!" + +He took him by the arm and led him away. + +Not a word of the differences that separated them, no suspicion, or +distrust, nothing but welcome and brotherhood! + +The tall, bearded man and the quick, shaven Celt in his cassock went +into the church together to pray-- + +"Give peace in our time, O Lord." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LOW WATER AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS + + +In a couple of months after the meeting between Carr and Blantyre, +public opinion had spoken in no uncertain way about the "Luther League." +Public opinion in these days is very easily led in this or that +direction--but only for a time. There is a vast stratum of common-sense, +of love of justice, of wholesome sanity, in England, and it can always +be reached by a little boring. In the end, especially upon any question +which is in its essence sociological, a proper balance is found and the +truth of a matter firmly established. + +And Hamlyn's agitation was treated as a social question rather than a +religious one, at any rate by a secular press. Whether the doings of the +High Church party were legal or illegal according to the prayer-book +(such was the line the papers took) was a question to be decided by +experts in history and the authorities of the Church; a question, in +fact, that ought to be decided in a legitimate way. What was, however, +quite certain, was that the proceedings of Hamlyn and his party were +improper, vulgar, and indecent. It was simply misleading nonsense to +cover the Ritualistic party, a body of high-minded and earnest men, with +the noisy and venomous vituperation of the streets. Freedom of thought +was the heritage of every Englishman, and Hamlyn had simply elected +himself a grand inquisitor of matters that did not concern him and which +he was unable to understand. No dishonesty on the man's part was +alleged. But his history was unearthed by one or two enterprising +journalists, following the popular lead. It was shown that while nothing +had ever been said against his personal character--and nothing was said +now--he had risen from the position of a struggling local newspaper man +to comparative affluence and the control of a large and costly +organisation. The cash accounts of the League were scrutinised, and +unkind remarks were made upon the constant advertisements of the League, +with their cry for increased income and fresh subscribers. It was +pointed out that people who supported a crusade made without authority +by a self-constituted Peter the Hermit, over whom no proper control +could be exercised and whose methods of prosecuting it were a mixture of +buffoonery, uncharitable malice, and untruth, were incurring a serious +responsibility. + +In short, public opinion was told in plain language exactly how it ought +to regard the campaign. Great newspapers spoke out during one fortnight +with singular unanimity. Street meetings were promptly broken up by the +police, and after some of the Luther Lecturers had been to prison, +finding that public interest in their "martyrdom" was languishing, they +subsided into quiet, devotional meetings on the sands at popular +watering-places. Whenever Mr. Hamlyn hired a hall and lectured on the +iniquities of the local clergy, he was confronted by the spectacle of a +sharp-faced man who took down every word of his utterances with +scrupulous fidelity. It was always the same machine-like man, in +Liverpool or in Plymouth, in Bath or Dundee--there he was. The +agitator's eloquence was considerably checked. He was in no condition to +sustain an action for slander or libel in which, he well knew, some poor +clergyman would somehow be able to brief all the great hawk-faced +leaders of the bar, gentlemen with whom Mr. Hamlyn wished to have as +little as possible to do. + +At such open-air meetings as were permitted, some unobtrusive stranger +was generally to be found distributing leaflets among the crowd, which +resembled nothing so much as the literature of the Luther League itself +in its general "get-up" and appearance. On perusal, however, it proved +to be of quite a different tenor, being nothing else than extracts from +the best-known English newspapers on Mr. Hamlyn and his mission. This +was very trying and disturbed the harmony of many meetings. + +In the assemblies convened at halls hired for the occasion,--admission +by ticket only,--it frequently happened that some well-known local +resident, who could not be denied, made his appearance, and with a few +weighty words entirely changed the character of the meeting. The reports +from his myrmidons all over the country, which reached Mr. Hamlyn in the +Strand, showed a series of counter-moves which alarmed him in their +neatness and ingenuity. + +It had been for months a pleasing habit of the peripatetic Protestants +under the Hamlyn banner to visit churches and make notes of the +ornaments therein, afterwards lecturing on them in their own inimitable +and humorous manner to crowds in back streets. + +Mr. Moffatt, indeed--the young gentleman who had forsaken the plumbing +and gas-fitting industry to become incandescent and watery on the +Protestant war-path--had more than once broken a small crucifix with an +umbrella. The lecturers found, however, that, as if by some concerted +action, church doors were locked wherever they might go. The poor +fellows' hunger for the sight of candlesticks and sanctuary lamps was +hardly ever gratified now, and they were compelled to the somewhat +ignominious expedient of nailing the bulls of Mr. Hamlyn to the doors of +sacred buildings and going gloomily away. + +On one occasion, Mr. Moffatt, who was a young fellow of considerable +hardihood, arrived at a well-known sink of ritual during the week, where +the incense used in church cost, it was reported, as much as _eight +shillings a pound_! Failing in every effort to penetrate the building, +one Sunday morning he mingled with a group of worshippers and made an +attempt to enter the church. Being a somewhat tubby youth of no great +height, he followed closely on the footsteps of a ponderous gentleman +quite six feet high, and congratulated himself he was escaping +observation, just as one has seen a small dog slink nearer and nearer to +the tempting joint upon the dinner-table. His hopes were doomed to +failure. He was almost inside the porch when two stalwart church wardens +barred the way and read him a paper, which stated that, as he was a +known brawler who had been convicted of other illegal disturbances in +God's house, entry was refused him. + +At the moment, in his chagrin and surprise, Mr. Moffatt could think of +no better retort than an injunction to the reader of the document to +"keep his hair on." Then, gathering his faculties together, he commenced +a vigorous protest as to his rights as a "baptized, confirmed +communicant member of the Church of England" to make one of the +congregation. No answer whatever was vouchsafed him, and he was +compelled to stand meekly by while the usual members of the congregation +were admitted. + +He bethought himself of an appeal to the majesty of the law! "Very well, +then," he said, "I shall go and fetch a policeman. That's all." + +One of the church wardens opened the inner door of the church and +beckoned to some one. A sergeant of police, in his uniform, emerged +quietly. Mr. Moffatt started, muttered something about "writing to the +Bishop," and left the vicinity of the church without further ado. + +And it was thus all over the country. Hamlyn and his son realised that a +strong and powerful organisation was arrayed against them. Their tactics +were counter-checked at every turn. + +As a natural consequence of all this, the subscriptions to the League +fell away at a most alarming rate. The street and public hall +collections of the lecturers dwindled until they could hardly pay +themselves their own modest emoluments. The general subscriptions and +special donations to the head office were in a no less unsatisfactory +condition. + +A very great number of people, with an honest dislike and distrust of +practices which seemed to them against the law of the Church of England +(as they understood it), had hitherto sent Hamlyn considerable sums of +money. His campaign seemed to them a real and efficacious method of +dealing with the question, and his methods had not been very clear to +them in their actual detail. + +But when the most influential part of the press began to speak with no +uncertain voice, these people began to hurriedly repudiate any +connection with the Luther League and to tie their purse-strings in a +very tight knot indeed. Then, again, there was a second not +inconsiderable class of people whose support was withdrawn. These were +more or less of the Miss Pritchett order. They had some real or fancied +grievance against the vicar of the parish in which they lived, and the +machinery of Hamlyn's League was found to be at their service for the +purposes of revenge. Under the cover of religious truth they were able +to gratify a private spite--a method of campaign as old as history +itself. The aims of these people had been achieved. That is to say, Mr. +Hamlyn or his friends had made themselves more or less a thorn in the +sides of the local clergy, had "banged the field-piece, twanged the +lyre," and departed with as much money as they were able to collect in +the cause of Protestant Truth. + +And those people who had first moved in the matter saw that, after all, +the _status ante quo_ had not been altered in the least, that nothing +had happened at all! One or two people of no importance whatever might +have left the Church, but the general result was, as a rule, an +increase of the attacked congregation and, inevitably, an enormous +increase of personal popularity of the priest and of loyalty to him and +his teachings. + +So this second class of worthies also became hard-hearted to the +perfervid advertisements of the League, buttoned up their pockets, and +tried to behave as though the names of those twin greatnesses, Martin +Luther and Samuel Hamlyn, had never crossed their lips. + +In the offices in the Strand, all these causes were thoroughly +appreciated and understood. The prosperity, or rather the consciousness +of it, which had seemed to ooze from Mr. Hamlyn's features, was no more +to be seen. The countenance of the Protestant Pope wore an anxious and +harassed expression when he was alone with his son, and their talks +together were frequent and of long duration. + +One disastrous morning the post brought nothing in the way of fuel for +the Protestant fire except a single miserable little post-office order +for seven shillings and sixpence, a donation from "A Baptist Friend." + +Protestant Truth was in a bad way. Both the Hamlyns thought so as they +sat down gloomily for a private conference in the inner room. + +"There's a good balance in the bank, of course," Hamlyn said. "We've got +staying power for some time yet, and the salaries are safe. But it's the +future we've got to look to. The righteous cause can't go on nothing." + +"Don't you worry, Father," said Sam, "that Exeter Hall speaking has +pulled you down a bit. You're not your real self. I haven't a doubt that +you'll think of something to wake things up in a day or two." + +"Hope so, I'm sure, though I can't think of anything at present. But +seven and six! It's the first day Protestantism's dropped below a matter +of two pound odd." + +"There's plenty of other posts during the day, Pa." + +"That's true. One day or three days don't matter. But it shows how +things are going. The Romans have been too cunning for us, Sam. The +wiles of the Scarlet Woman are prevailing; honest, straightforward +Protestants are being undermined." + +"But think of the letters of sympathy we've 'ad since the great +Ritualistic conspiracy has come up. The real hearty Protestants are as +faithful as they ever were." + +"Yes, they are," said Mr. Hamlyn reflectively; "we can always fall back +on them, and we've got some thousands of names and addresses on the +books. The League'll _go on_ safe enough, there'll always be labourers +in the vineyard and them as will pay the overseer his just dues. But +it's 'ard, after the splendid success we've had, to sink down into a +small commonplace affair with just a bare living. The real red-hot +Protestants, who are really _afraid_ of Rome and that, are so few! These +disgusting newspapers been showing up everything and the lukewarm people +have been falling away. All the real money is flowing back into Roman +channels. If there were more really earnest Protestants we might keep on +as good as ever. But there's not. We haven't sold a gross of _Bloody +Marys_ during the month. It's a pity we had to suppress the +_Confessional_; that was a real seller--and did a lot of good," Mr. +Hamlyn added as an afterthought. + +"We couldn't well do no other after the 'int we got from the _Vigilance_ +people," said Sam. + +"I suppose not. But it was a great pity." + +"You're due at Malakoff House to-night, aren't you, Pa?" + +"Yes, at seven. I'm very uneasy in my mind about Miss P., Sam." + +"Gussie says she's worse than she knows herself. She hasn't been out of +bed for a fortnight now." + +"She's not long for this world, I'm afraid," Hamlyn answered. "While +she's alive we are fairly safe. But when she's in Glory where shall we +be?" + +"That's the question, Father. Gussie knows nothing and can't find out +anything, neither. A really handsome legacy invested in some good stock +would put us right again whatever might happen." + +"It would. But just at present the old lady's awful to deal with. You +see, I'm in an awkward position, Sam. I'm not such a fool as to tell her +how we've been bested lately--that's to say, I can't bring myself to +wound a faithful Protestant heart by stories of persecution of them as +is doing the Lord's work against Rome. Miss P. don't know anything about +the checks we've received of late. Well, then, she's always bothering me +to know why we aren't keeping it up in Hornham, why we aren't going for +Blantyre and that lot. She hears everything that goes on in the parish, +though Gussie Davies does her best to stop it. But she don't seem to +trust Gussie as she did, which is a pity. Miss P. quite sees that, for +some reason or other, things have gone quiet in the parish, and she's +getting restive. Something must be done soon, that's quite evident. Some +big thing to wake her up--and everyone else, too." + +"It doesn't matter much how far we go now." + +"Not a bit. The further the better, as a matter of fact. The lecturers' +hands are so tied now, what with all these cunning moves of the +Romanists, that _they_ can't do anything. It seems we've alienated all +the moderate people and we've only the extreme ones to rely on. Well, +then, we must wake _them_ up, that's all. The papers can't well say +worse of us than they do already, so it really is the best policy to +give the whole country a regular startler. I can't think of anything new +at present, but I shall. I expect a bit of inspiration'll come before +long. Anyway, I shall tell Miss Pritchett to-night to wait and have +patience a little longer, as there's something in the wind that will do +all she wants. It's her illness. She _must_ have continual bits of +excitement to keep her going, it's a regular disease with her now. If I +can think of a good scheme to liven up things generally, in the first +flush of it she'll be so pleased that we might venture a word or two +upon her testamentary dispositions. I should feel so much happier about +the Cause if I knew the League was down in her will for a thumping sum. +Of course, anything of the sort would have to be said most careful. +She'd get up and be healthy again in a week if she thought we thought +she was going to peg out!" + +Mr. Hamlyn concluded his remarks with a somewhat resentful sigh, and, +whistling down the speaking-tube for the correspondence clerk, began to +dictate his morning's letters. + +It was about seven o'clock when the secretary arrived at Malakoff House, +tired and dispirited. The whole day had gone unsatisfactorily. An +evening paper had come out with a leaded column about the League which +was far from complimentary. The various callers at the office were all +more or less disagreeable, and even the volatile Samuel had been plunged +into a state of furtive gloom that radiated mis-ease upon all who came +near him. + +Mr. Hamlyn was shown into the drawing-room and in a minute or two, +Gussie Davies came to him. The girl was white and tired of feature. +Dark semicircles were under her eyes, but her manner had a nervous +excitement that was infectious. + +Both of them spoke in that agitated whisper that some people affect in +the neighbourhood of those who are seriously ill and whom they think +like to die. It is a whisper in which there is a not unpleasurable note, +a self-congratulation at being near to the Great Mystery, as spectators +merely. + +"How is she?" whispered Hamlyn. + +"Bad," answered Gussie. "Dr. Hibbert's been and I had a chat with him +afterwards. He daren't speak as plain as he'd like, for fear of +frightening her. But he says she must _not_ keep on exciting herself. It +will be fatal if she does. Another two months of this St. Elwyn's +excitement will kill her, Mr. Hamlyn. I'm sure of that." + +"What's she been saying?" + +"Oh, the same old thing: Why doesn't Mr. Hamlyn do something decisive? +Why doesn't he strike these proud priests some crushing blow? You know +she's heard that Miss Blantyre has come to live at the vicarage, and +that makes her keener than ever." + +"Well, I must think of something, that's all," said the secretary in a +decisive whisper. "I'll promise her a new move almost at once. I +suppose you've had no chance to get in a word about the will?" + +"Not a chance. I can't find out anything either. All I know is that her +solicitor hasn't been here since she joined the League. So that looks as +if there isn't anything done _yet_." + +"I don't suppose there is, my dear. But if I can keep her quiet _now_, +and do something big in the parish in a few days, then I suppose we +might broach it?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Hamlyn, I should say so." + +"Good. One more question, Gussie, before I go up. Do you think it wise +to mention a contribution to the working fund just now? One can never be +too zealous in the cause of Protestant Truth, but I want to deal wisely +with her." + +"Oh, I think you'll be safe enough for a hundred or two," Gussie said, +"as long as you promise her a good rumpus soon! She ain't mean, I will +say that for her." + +Mr. Hamlyn nodded in a brisk, business-like way, rang for the maid, and +was shown up to the sick-room. + +Gussie remained in the drawing-room. She wondered how successful her +friend and lover's father would be. She had immense faith in his +abilities and already looked forward to the time when, released for ever +from her duties at Malakoff House, she would, as Mrs. Hamlyn, Junior, +become a leading lady of True Protestantism. Not that the girl hated her +employer. She had no affection for Miss Pritchett--and it would have +been wonderful if she had--but her feeling was not stronger than that. +As for the money question, the money that the rich old lady was giving +to the Luther League, Gussie saw no harm in that. The money was for a +good cause, so she believed, and the Hamlyns, _père et fils_, had much +better have the handling of it than any one else! + +Mr. Hamlyn was a considerable time. The girl wandered about the room, +agog to hear his news, thinking with a certain terror of the grim old +woman up-stairs. For what had been tartness and acerbity had become +grimness now, in the pompous old-fashioned bed-chamber, where she lay +waiting the beating of those great black wings which all, save she, knew +were drawing near. + +Although Gussie Davis knew all the foibles of her mistress and could +play upon them with adroitness and success, she felt, nevertheless, a +fear of the old woman. Miss Pritchett, with all her absurdities, her +petty jealousies, her greed for flattery, was a woman with a +personality. She was very rich, and she had chosen to remain among the +surroundings of her youth and be great among the small. Yet even a petty +supremacy awes the petty, and the sly Welsh girl was indubitably awed. +She was not wholly bad, not unfeeling in her way, but she was weak. In +the hands of the Hamlyns, she had been as putty from the very first. +They were strong men. There was no doubt about that. With all the +temperamental vulgarity and greed of both father and son, there was +indubitable strength--and, in the case of the elder, considerable +magnetic power. + +They had been kind to her also. She was genuinely fond of Sam, and he +was fond of her. The accident of her position, that she was able to help +and forward their plans, made no difference as to that. Hamlyn, Senior, +liked her. He would, she knew, be kind and fatherly to her when she was +married to Sam. He was that now. + +For, if Hamlyn had been able to employ his cleverness to good advantage +in the exploitation of any other thing save of religion, he would have +been counted as a shrewd business man and nothing more. Nothing worse +than that at any rate. He had no personal vices. He did not in the least +realise that he was living a life that was shameful. Religion meant no +more to him than any other way of making money would have meant. That +was all. And, oddly enough, Blantyre himself shrewdly suspected this, +while Carr looked upon the agitator as infamous. + +Hamlyn was perfectly aware that he was a humbug, but he thought that his +humbug was perfectly legitimate in the war of life. + +The priest at St. Elwyn's whom he had so bitterly attacked and wounded +was a psychologist. Most priests are. Men who sit in churches and hear +the true story of men's lives learn an infinite tenderness. Men come to +them for comfort, to hear the comfortable words that our Lord has spoken +for the sinful who are penitent, to receive from them that absolution +which is nothing more than the confirmation, in a concrete and certain +way, of the promise of God. It is only the people who have never +confessed their sins, not to a priest, but to God through a priest, who +speak against the Sacrament of Penance. + +They do not know they are tilting at windmills. And the bitter shame +that sometimes comes to a man as he tells another man the true story of +his life is in itself the truest evidence that he means to amend it. No +one would do that without penitence. There is a motive for every action; +the motive would be wanting if confession were made without a resolve to +lead a new life. If those who fulminate against the Church's method, and +sneer at the members of the Church who follow it, as dupes and fools, +could understand that it is discipline that purifies and exalts, they +would sneer no longer. It is all very well to be a _franc-tireur_, no +doubt. But it is better to be a member of the regular forces. It is not +so jolly for a time, perhaps, but in event of capture, the former is +shot at sight, the latter becomes a prisoner of war with all the rights +and traditions of his lot. + +Simile was one of Mr. Hamlyn's pet weapons, but in his noisy syllogisms, +he left out the first two premises and confined himself to the +conclusion--generally an emphatic epithet. + +Mr. Hamlyn came down-stairs at last. His face was grave, but peaceful. +Perspiration showed upon it. He had been having a hard time. + +"I say, my dear," he whispered, "I wonder if you've got a cup of tea +handy. I've had a thick time!" + +It is better to take the stimulant of tea than the more usual brandy and +soda. Hamlyn was a strong teetotaller, and that counted to his credit at +a moment like this. For the man had obviously been through an unnerving +experience. He was not his ready and impudent self. + +The tea was brought. It revived him. + +"Well!" he said in a low voice, "I don't want to go through many scenes +like that again, Gussie! She's getting worse and worse. Her brain can't +last much longer if she goes on like this! However, I managed to calm +her down. She's going off to sleep now. I told her I'd wake Hornham up +in a few days--and I'll _have_ to do it, what's more!" + +"Did you get a cheque?" said the practical Gussie. + +"Yes," said Mr. Hamlyn in a slightly more relieved voice. "She gave me a +couple of hundred in the end. At heart, she's devoted to the cause of +Protestant Truth. But she's getting horribly restive, my dear. I'm sorry +for her. She's a wreck of what she used to be--but she's a wreck that +wants a lot of salvage!" + +The colour came back into the plump, clean-shaven face as the tea did +its work. + +"I forgot, my dear," he said; "I brought you a box of chocolates. It +clean went out of my 'ead," he waved an exhausted hand towards his small +brown leather bag, which stood on the table between a plaster model of +the leaning tower of Pisa and a massive volume entitled _Every Young +Lady's Vade Mecum_. + +Gussie smiled her thanks and opened the bag, while Mr. Hamlyn poured out +another cup of tea. + +Gussie felt in the bag. It was full of papers, but there were two +parcels there. She took them out. They were of much the same size. Each +was neatly tied up in white paper. + +She pulled the string from one of them. A number of thin +semi-transparent white wafers fell out upon the table. + +"Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried, "I thought this was the box of chocolates." + +Hamlyn looked up wearily. To his immeasurable surprise, he saw that the +girl's face had grown very pale. She shrunk away from the table. + +"What's the matter, my dear?" he said, thoroughly alarmed. + +She suddenly flushed a deep scarlet. + +"What are these?" she said, pointing with a shaking finger to the things +on the table. + +"Them?" said Mr. Hamlyn in cheerful surprise. "Mass wafers, my dear. I +buy them in a shop in Covent Garden. We distribute them among the Luther +Lecturers, for object lessons to the poor deluded Ritualists." + +The girl had crouched to the wall of the room. Hamlyn was seriously +alarmed. Her face was almost purple, her eyes started out of her head. + +"They're not con--_consecrated_?" she gasped. + +Hamlyn could not understand her emotion. "No," he said; "why, Gussie, +what a superstitious little thing you are. And if they were, what then?" +Frank amazement showed on his face. + +"Oh, nothing, Mr. Hamlyn," the girl said at length, becoming more normal +in her manner. + +In a few minutes, Hamlyn left the house, leaving the girl in her +ordinary manner, eating the chocolates that he had brought her. + +His able mind was busily at work. He knew that during Miss Pritchett's +adhesion to St. Elwyn's Gussie had, perforce, been one of the +congregation there and had been taught and trained by the clergy. + +"No wonder," he thought bitterly to himself; "no wonder that they can +win along the line, when they can sow seeds like that in a girl's mind. +Why, she's a thorough little Protestant at heart. To think that those +things should have startled her so! It's a lingering prejudice, I +suppose. They _are_ a queer lot--the Romanists!" + +As he communed thus with himself, a swift thought came to him. At the +moment of its arrival in his brain, he almost staggered. Then, pulling +himself together, he walked rapidly to his own house. + +He thought he saw his way to a _coup_ that would make all his previous +efforts as nothing. How wonderfully simple it was! Why had he never +thought of it before--_what_ a fool he had been! Here was the solution +of all the difficulties he was in. The answer seemed to have come to his +conversation with Samuel in the morning. + +He went to his study and fortunately found that Sam was already there. +Miss Maud Hamlyn sat in the room also, but when she saw her father's +face, she left the room at once. It wore the "business look" she knew +well, and, though she but dimly understood what her brother and father +were engaged in, she knew it had brought great prosperity and honour to +all of them, and was loath to intrude upon any profitable confabulation. + +"Have you got it, Pa?" said Samuel, eagerly. + +"Yes, I _'ave_," answered the secretary, "and very fine it is too!" + +"How much?" asked Sam. + +"What do you mean?" + +"The cheque, Miss Pritchett's latest." + +"Oh, _that_," said Hamlyn. "Two hundred, what we expected. I meant +something else. I've got the new scheme to wake things up! The best +thing we've done yet, my boy!" + +Sam rubbed his hands. "What did I say this morning? I knew you'd do it, +Pa. Well, let's have it." + +Mr. Hamlyn sat back in his chair, willing to dally a moment with his +triumph and enjoy the full savour of it. + +"Why we never thought of it before," he said, "beats me entirely! +Something suggested it to me to-night, and I've been wondering at our +neglecting such a move." + +"What _is_ it then?" + +"What about one of us going to the Mass and bringing away the +consecrated wafer? Then a big public meeting's called and I _show_ the +people what we've got! The 'flour-and-water god' of the Romanists! Not +the usual plan of producing a wafer we've bought from a shop, but the +_real thing_, Sam! Then they'll all be able to see that there's no +difference between before and after! It'll explode the whole thing and +give the League an advertisement better than anything that's gone +before!" + +Sam looked very grave indeed. "It's a little bit _too_ much, I'm afraid, +Father," he said. + +"What do you mean, my son?" answered the secretary in extreme and real +surprise. + +"Well, I don't know," Sam said doubtfully, "but I shouldn't like to +meddle with it myself." + +Mr. Hamlyn leaned forward. "Sam," he said, "you're a fool. You're as bad +as Gussie Davies! Leave the matter to me. Who's awakened Protestantism +in Hengland? ME! Who knows how to work a popular cause? ME! Who's going +to boom the Luther League up to the top again? ME!" + +"Have it your own way, Father," Sam said, "you generally do come out on +top." + +"Ring the bell for some tea," said Mr. Hamlyn, "and let's talk out the +details. We'll 'ave to get it where we aren't known by sight." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NEWS THAT CARR BROUGHT + + +As the days wore on, and Lucy Blantyre became accustomed to her +surroundings, she found that she was in thorough tune with them. During +the year she had been away from St. Elwyn's, she had spent most of the +time abroad, at first with Lady Linquest, afterwards with friends. The +old life of fashionable people and "smart" doings palled horribly. +Travelling was a diversion from that, and, in some sense, a preparation +for the more useful life that she determined to live in the future. + +She had quite made up her mind to that. Nothing would induce her to go +back to live in Park Lane once more. Life offered far more than the West +End of London could offer; so much was plain. She kept up a regular +correspondence with her brother and was fully informed of all that took +place in Hornham. Her thoughts turned more and more affectionately +towards the dingy old house, centre of such ceaseless activities, the +old house with the great church watching over it. + +Down there it seemed as if provision was made for all one's needs of the +mind. Stress and storm beat upon it in vain, and it combined the joys of +both the cloister and the hearth. + +In her limited experience, there had been nothing like it. A year or two +ago, she would have smiled incredulously if any one had told her that +she would like going to church twice or three times on a week-day. But +during her stay at St. Elwyn's how natural and helpful it had seemed, +how much a part of the proper order of things. The morning Eucharist +while day in the outside world was beginning, the stately and beautiful +evensong as men ceased their toil, these coloured all the day, were +woven into its warp and woof. She knew that the _abnormal_ life was the +life of the majority, the life of those who lived in a purely secular +way, who never worshipped or prayed. + +When any mind, in its settling of its attitude towards the Unseen, gets +as far as this; when it realises that, despite the laughter of fools and +the indifference of most people, the _logical_ use of life is to make +it in constant touch with God, then, as a rule, the personal religious +conviction will come in due time. It had not come to Lucy yet in full +and satisfying measure, it had not come even when she determined to make +her home with her brother for a time and help in any way she could. + +During the year of travel, she was also in regular communication with +James Poyntz. Insensibly his letters to her had become the letters of a +lover. He told her all his thoughts and the details of his work and +hopes, and, mingling with what were in fact a series of brilliant +personal confessions, there began to be a high note of personal devotion +to her. One does not need the simple alphabet of lover's words to write +love letters. Poyntz used no terms of endearment, and as yet had made +her no definite proposal of marriage. But the girl knew, quite +certainly, exactly how he felt towards her. There was no disguise in his +letters, and the time was drawing near when he would definitely ask her +to share his life. + +She had not yet definitely summed up her attitude towards him. She was +at the crossing of the roads; new influences, new ideas were pouring +into her brain from every side. It was necessary to readjust herself to +life completely before she could settle upon any course. + +She knew that to be Lady Huddersfield was to take a high seat in Vanity +Fair. The Huddersfields belonged to the old order of society, to that +inner circle of the great who never open their door indiscriminately to +the Jew and the mining millionaire. People laughed at them and called +them pompous and dull, but there was a high serenity among them +nevertheless. She might have married half a dozen times had she so +chosen. Her income was large enough to make her a small heiress, at any +rate to be an appreciable factor in the case, besides which her birth +was unexceptionable. It was known that when Lady Linquest fluttered away +to another world, the old lady's money would come to her niece. But +position merely, rank rather, did not attract a girl who already went +wherever she chose. And among the men in society who had offered her +marriage, or were prepared to do so, she found no one capable of +satisfying her brain. Poyntz did this. She found power in him, strength, +purpose. She knew that, in whatever station of life he was, the man was +finely tempered, high in that aristocracy of intellect which some people +say is the only aristocracy there is. + +She was conscious of all this, but, especially since she had been +settled in the vicarage as a home, she was becoming conscious of many +other influences at work upon her. Religion, the personal giving of +one's self to God, was tinging all her life and actions now. Hour by +hour, she found herself drawing nearer to the Cross. Her progress had +become a matter of practical experience. It was impossible to live with +the people she was among, to watch every detail of their lives, to find +_exactly where the motive power and the sustaining power came from_, +without casting in her lot with them in greater or less degree. Every +day she found some hold upon the outside world was loosened, something +she had imagined had great value in her eyes suddenly seemed quite +worthless! Looked at in the light that was beginning to shine upon her, +she was frequently surprised beyond measure to find how worthless most +things were! Her brain was keen, cool, and logical. Hitherto she had +refused to draw an inference--no proof, by the way, of any want of +logical skill;--now she was drawing it. + +She was great and intimate friends with the two assistant priests, +Stephens and King. Stephens was engaged to a girl in the country, King +belonged to some confraternity of celibates. Both were high-minded men, +who appreciated to the full the charm of cultured feminine society and +found her drawing-room a most pleasant oasis now and then. And every one +at the clergy-house began to see a great deal of Mr. Carr. The lonely +man found companionship and sympathy there. He found intellectual men, +university men like himself, with whom he could talk. He had been +intellectually starving in Hornham, and good brains rust unless they +have some measure of intercourse with their kind. + +He was constantly with his new friends. One Sunday Father Blantyre +preached at St. Luke's. The church was crowded, to hear a man whom a +great many there believed capable of almost any form of casuistry and +sly dealing. But when the little Irishman got into the pulpit he gave +them a simple, forcible discourse on some points of conduct, delivered +with all his personal charm, his native raciness and wit; many wagging +tongues were silenced in the parish. Carr's experiment was a bold one, +but it succeeded. An ounce of fact is worth a pound of hearsay. +Blantyre was so transparently honest, so obviously incapable of any of +the things imputed to him by the Luther Leaguers, that the most +prejudiced folk at St. Luke's said no more than that it was a pity such +a decent fellow, who could preach such a good sermon, wasted so much of +his time over unnecessary fads! + +For some reason or other,--she could not quite explain it to +herself,--Lucy looked on Carr with different eyes from those with which +she viewed Stephens or King. He seemed less set apart from the ordinary +lot of men than they were. His ordinary clerical costume may have had +something to do with it, the contrast between his clothes and those of +the laymen not being so marked as in the case of the High Church clergy. +And his manner also was different in a subtle way. Lucy liked the manner +of King and she liked the manner of Carr, but they were markedly unlike +each other. The former spoke of everything from the Church's point of +view, the latter more from the point of view of an ordinary layman who +loves and serves our Lord. + +Lucy had no fault to find with the ecclesiastical attitude. She had long +before realised what were the spiritual results of rebellion and +schism; they were too patent in Hornham. She was definitely Catholic. +Therefore she approved of King as a priest and liked him as a man. But +Carr seemed to be more upon her own level, not set apart in any way. She +knew he was just as much a priest as the other, but he came into her +consciousness from a purely human standpoint, while the other did not. + +Viewing him thus, she had come to find she liked him very much indeed. +He was a very "manly" man, she found, with a virile intellect which had +had too little play of late years. She came to know of his life and +found it as full of good works as her brother's. The methods differed, +the Church and its services took an altogether secondary place in these +ministrations; the charities of a poor man were necessarily more +circumscribed than those of his rich neighbour, but the spiritual +fervour was as great. + +Lucy could not help wondering why a man who had such abundant means to +his hand of holding and influencing his people used so few of them. Why +was his church not beautiful? How did he exist spiritually without the +sacramental grace so abundantly vouchsafed at St. Elwyn's? + +She had a glimpse deep down into the man once. One evening at St. +Elwyn's, when Carr had come to supper, the conversation turned upon a +rather serious epidemic of typhoid fever that had only just been +overcome in Hornham and which had caused a widespread distress among the +poorer classes. + +"I'm getting up a fund," Father Blantyre said, "to relieve some of the +worst cases and to send as many as possible of the convalescents off to +the seaside. Now, Lucy, my dear, what will you stump up? This girl's +rolling in money, Carr! She's more than she knows what to do with!" + +Lucy noticed--no one else did--that Mr. Carr flushed a little and +started as Blantyre finished speaking. + +She turned to her brother. "I'll give you a hundred pounds, dear," she +said. + +"Good girl!" he shouted in high good humour. + +Lucy turned to Carr. "I suppose you've a great many destitute cases in +St. Luke's?" she asked. + +"Very many, I'm sorry to say," he answered sadly. "I've done what I +could, but I've hardly any money myself until next quarter-day, and our +people are nearly all of them poor." He thought with gentle envy of +these wealthy folk who were able to do so much, while he, alas! could do +so little. + +"I'll subscribe something to St. Luke's, too," Lucy said. "I'll give you +the same, Mr. Carr. I'll write you a cheque after supper." + +"That's a sportswoman!" said Father Blantyre; "good for you, Lucy!" + +Carr flushed up. The destitution in his parish had been a constant grief +to him during the last few weeks. He had not known where to turn to +relieve it. He had prayed constantly that help might be forthcoming. He +broke out into a nervous torrent of thanks which came from his very +heart, becoming eloquent as he went on and revealing, unconsciously +enough, much of his inward self to them. They were all touched and +charmed by the man's simplicity and earnestness. He showed a great love +for the poor as he talked. Sympathy for suffering and kindness towards +it are not rare things in England. We are a charitable folk, take us in +the mass. But this quality of personal love for the outcast and +down-trodden is not so often met with. It is a talent, and Carr +possessed it in a high degree. + +A step in their intimacy was marked that night; all felt drawn more +closely to the Evangelical vicar. He stood alone; his life seemed +cheerless to them all and their sympathy was his--though he had never +made the least parade of his troubles. Moreover, the three clergy of St. +Elwyn's were beginning to find out, with pleased surprise, how near he +was to them in the great essentials, how Catholic his views were. +Already much of Carr's dislike to the ceremonial of St. Elwyn's was +fading away. He had witnessed it, found that there was absolutely no +harm in it, that it did _not_ stand between the soul and God, but even +sometimes assisted in the journey upwards. He did not endorse it as yet, +he did not contemplate anything of the sort for himself or his people, +but he saw the good there and found nothing to disgust or harm. + +Later on that evening, Dr. Hibbert came in, and there was music. Lucy +played and sang to them, and Carr, who had a fine baritone, sang an old +favourite or two, college songs, _Gaudeamus Igitur_, _John Peel_, and +the like. + +Then, while the four other men took a hand at whist--if only Mr. Hamlyn +could have seen the "devil's picture books" upon the table!--Carr had a +long, quiet talk with Lucy Blantyre. He found himself telling her much +of his work and hopes, of his early life in a bleak Northumberland +vicarage, of Cambridge, and the joyous days when he rowed three in the +King's boat and all the skies were fair. + +Now and then, when he would have withdrawn into himself again, fearing +that he was boring her, she encouraged him to go on. With her cheque in +his pocket, he went home in a glow that night. He thought constantly of +her, and when he went to bed, he looked curiously in the mirror, turning +away from it with a sigh, a shake of the head, and the chilling memory +that the girl was rich, allied to great families, a personage in London +society, and that a poor gentleman toiling in Hornham could never be a +mate for such as she was. + +Three or four days after the incident of the subscription, Lucy received +a letter from Agatha Poyntz, who was staying with the St. Justs in +Berkeley Square. The letter begged Lucy to "come up to town" for an +afternoon. A theatre party had been formed, which was to consist of +Agatha herself, Lady Lelant, a young married cousin of hers, and James +Poyntz. Lucy was begged to come and complete the party. They were to go +to tea afterwards at the Savoy or somewhere, and Lucy could drive home +in the evening. The letter was quite imperative in its demand for Lucy's +presence, and the girl had a shrewd suspicion who it was that had +inspired it. Her last few letters from Poyntz had been almost, so she +fancied, leading up to just some such occasion as this which was now +proposed. + +She thought it all over during the morning of that day. Her mind +wavered. A few weeks ago she knew that she would not have hesitated for +a moment. Whatever her answer might eventually be to what James Poyntz +had to say, she would have gone to the tryst and listened to him. To +hear him pleading, to see this scion of an ancient and honourable house, +this big-brained man, pleading for her, would be sweet. Every woman +would feel that. But now she hesitated very much. She hardly owned it to +herself, but a very different figure was coming to have a continual +place in her thoughts. A graver figure, a less complex figure, and one +invested with a dignity that was not of this world, a dignity that the +peer's son had not. + +For now, most indubitably, a new element was coming into her life, one +that had not been there before. + +And there was yet another cause for her hesitation. She had come to see +that the supremely important thing in life was religion; she knew that +it was going to be so for her. She wasn't bigoted, she realised the +blameless life that many people who did not believe in our Lord appeared +to live. But that was not the point. Works were good, they were a +necessary concomitant of any life that was to be bound up with hers. But +faith was a paramount necessity also. She had no illusions about James +Poyntz. She did not think, as less keen-sighted girls have thought of +atheist lovers, that she could ever bring him to the Faith. She knew +quite well that it would be impossible, that he was one of those folk to +whom the "talent" of faith does not seem to have been given, and who +will have to begin all over again in the next world, learning the truths +of Christianity like children. + +While she was thinking out the question of acceptance or refusal, her +eye caught a date on her tablets. It was the date of the theatre party +and also of a meeting to be held during the afternoon in the public +hall at Hornham, at which Father Blantyre had consented to hold public +argument upon the legalities of ritual and the truth of Catholic dogma +with some of the Luther Lecturers. + +Hamlyn had intended that this meeting should take place in the evening, +for two reasons. In the first place, during the afternoon he was himself +to address a great meeting in London, to which all the "red-hot +Protestants" on the lists of the League had been specially invited by +ticket, and at which a great sensation was hinted at, in much the same +way as music-hall managers announce the forthcoming appearance of some +entirely new spectacle, trick, or performer. + +Mr. Hamlyn had hoped to arrive in Hornham from the Strand flushed with a +great victory, the news of which would have preceded him during the +afternoon. + +Moreover, in the evening an audience would assemble with which the +Luther Lecturers would be thoroughly at home--Mr. Sam Hamlyn would have +seen to that--and the place would be packed by rowdy non-churchgoers who +would come with the intention of witnessing a row, even if they +themselves had to create it. Thus a "great Protestant demonstration of +North London" would be absolutely assured. + +Unfortunately, Mr. Hamlyn received the plainest of plain hints from the +local chief of police that he would get himself into particularly hot +water if he proceeded with his little scheme, and that the words of one +of his men--the ingenuous Mr. Moffatt indeed, who, locked out of every +church in England, had lately returned to his parental roof for a +holiday--to a certain rough section of the community, in connection with +this very meeting, would be brought up against him. + +The police had no objection to a meeting during the afternoon. The +dangerous element would still be pushing their barrows of plums and +pears through the city streets, and though the meeting would, no doubt, +be skilfully packed with partisans, many women would be present and +nothing more than a wordy war would be likely to result. + +Lucy saw the date and considered that the question of the matinée was +decided for her. She mentioned the invitation at lunch, and was very +much surprised to find that her brother strongly deprecated her +intention of being present at the discussion and welcomed this +invitation. + +"I don't want you to go, dear," he said; "I beg of you not. It will be +rough and bitter. I know it. I shrink from it myself, but I must show +them that we are not afraid to meet them openly. But it would do nothing +but distress you. Write to Miss Poyntz this afternoon and say you'll go. +Then you can hear all about the meeting in the evening when you get +back." He was so obviously in earnest that Lucy could not but agree. + +It seemed fate sent her to meet James. Well, it must be, that was all. +Circumstances must be faced, and if she did not know her own mind now, +it was possible that the event itself would decide it for her. + +But she addressed the letter with marked nervous excitement, and the +"Hon. Agatha Poyntz" was more tremulous than her writing was wont to be. + +There were two days more to wait, a Sunday intervened, and she hardly +left the church during the whole day, seeking counsel and help where +only they are to be found. + +On Monday, she arrived at the theatre at about two. She had refused to +lunch with her friends and drove from Hornham in a hansom cab, meeting +them at the door of the building. + +They went at once to their box and found that there were some five +minutes to wait before the rise of the curtain. + +The theatre was curious after the glare of the sun outside, fantastic +and unreal. Hardly anybody talked, though there was a good house, and +the strange quiet of a matinée audience seemed to pervade the four +people in the box also. + +Lucy leaned back in her chair with the sensation of dreaming. This +morning she had knelt in the side chapel at St. Elwyn's! A moment before +she had been alone in the cab, among the roar and bustle of Trafalgar +Square. Now she was in a dream. Agatha and Adelaide Lelant smiled at her +without speaking--just like odd dream people. James Poyntz sat just +behind her. She was acutely conscious of his presence. Now and then he +bent forward and made some remark or other in a low voice. That also +seemed to come from a distance. She seemed to have left all the real +things behind in Hornham. + +The scents, the dresses of the fashionable people in the stalls, the +dim, apricot light, seemed alien to her life now, a reminder of +experiences and days long since put away and forgotten. + +The little band below had been playing a waltz of Weber's, a regret +which was strangled into a sob as the curtain rose suddenly upon the +first act of the play. + +How acutely conscious one was at first of the artificial light! The big +frame of the proscenium enclosed a rich garden scene, beautifully +painted. But it was full of hot yellow light, until the eye forgot the +outside day it had lately quitted. Lucy thought that for the sake of +illusion it was a mistake to come to the play in the afternoon. She said +so to James. + +"Well," he whispered, "for my part, there is never any illusion in the +stage for me. It is a way of passing an idle hour now and then. That is +all. I came here not to see the play, but to see you." + +She turned towards the stage again with a slight flush. + +Behind the footlights the perfectly dressed men and women went through +their parts. All appeared as if they had put on for the first time the +clothes they wore; both men and women had the complexion of young +children--peaches and cream--unless the light fell on the face at an +awkward angle. Then it glistened. + +And all the people on the stage talked alike, too. They did not speak +quite like ladies or gentlemen, but imitated the speech of ladies and +gentlemen wonderfully! The play did not interest Lucy. It was a +successful play, it was played by people who were celebrated actors, but +she was out of tune with the whole thing. It wasn't amusing. Between the +acts, Lady Lelant chatted merrily, of such news as there was to be +gleaned during a passage through town. She spoke of the movements of +this or that acquaintance, whom this girl was engaged to, why Lord +Dawlish had quarrelled with the Duke of Dover. Lucy had no interest in +these matters any more. She realised that with astonished certainty. She +didn't care a bit. After all, these smart people and their doings were +not, as she had thought in the past, any more interesting than the group +of church people at St. Elwyn's. Indeed they were less so. Dr. Hibbert, +one or two of the nursing sisters, some of the choir men, King, +Stephens, Carr--all these people had more individuality, _lived, +thought, felt, prayed_ more intensely than Lady Lelant's set, Lady +Linquest's set, any purely fashionable set. There was not a doubt that +in the mere worldly economy of things, in the state politic, every one +of these Hornham people _mattered more_ than those others. And, where +hearts and wills are weighed, to the critical Unseen eyes, their value +was greater still. Lucy was glad when the play began again, and she was +relieved of the necessity for a simulated interest in things she had +long since put away from her. + +The last act of the mimic story dragged on. Agatha and Lady Lelant were +absorbed in it. Lucy withdrew a little from the front of the box. She +cared nothing for the play, nor did her companion. Both of them knew of +things imminent in their twin lives greater than any mimic business +could suggest to them. + +He began to tell her in a low voice of his joy in seeing her again. It +thrilled her to hear the lover-like tones creeping into a voice so +clear, cold, and self-contained in all the ordinary affairs of life. It +was an experience that disturbed and swayed all the instincts of her +sex. For she knew that this was no ordinary conquest that she had made, +no ordinary tribute to her mind and person. She might have received the +highest compliment that he was about to pay her from many a man as +highly placed and socially fortunate as he. There was no exhilaration, +no subtle flattery of her pride and the consciousness of her womanhood +in that. But she knew him for what he was. She had learned of the +intellect and power of the man--herein lay an exquisite pleasure in his +surrender. And she liked him immensely. Physically, he pleased her eye, +and her sense of what was fitting in a man. Mentally he compelled her. +And now and again in their intimacy, an intimacy that had grown +enormously during the last year, fostered on their mutual epistolary +confidences, she had found a sudden surrender, a boyish leaning on her, +a waiting for her approving or helpful word, that was sweet to her. + +At last the curtain fell. + +"Now, then," Poyntz said, "we'll go and have tea on the terrace at the +Sardinia. There will be a band, a really good band, and the embankment +will look beautiful just now. Come along, young ladies; we'll walk, +shall we? It won't take us five minutes." They left the theatre. + +"Ah!" Lucy said with a sudden gasp of relief, "how good the air is after +that dark place and the stage. My eyes feel as if they had been actually +burnt." + +The long lights of the summer afternoon irradiated everything. There +are moments in summer when the busiest London street seems like a street +in fairy-land. It was so now as they walked to the great riverside +hotel; a tender haze of gold lay over all the vast buildings, the sky +began to be as if it were hung with banners. + +They passed from the roar of the street to the great courtyard, with its +gay awnings of white and red, its palms and tree-ferns in green tubs, +its little tables like the tables of a continental café. Little groups +of people of all nationalities sat about there. The party heard the +twanging accent of the United States, the guttural German, the purring, +spitting Russian. + +They entered the hotel, walked down a corridor, descended some steps, +and came out upon the terrace. + +Lucy had a finely developed social instinct. She knew what was going on +instinctively, and it was plain to her at once that the moment had come. +Agatha Poyntz and her cousin had disappeared as she sat down at a small +table with James, hidden by shrubs from the rest of the terrace. + +Below and beyond were gardens in which children were playing, the wide +embankment, and the silver Thames itself, all glowing under the +lengthening sun rays. + +What did she feel at that moment? She found that she was calm, her +pulses were quiet, her breathing untroubled and slow. + +He leaned forward and took her hands strongly in both of his. At first, +his words came haltingly to him, but then, gathering courage, he made +her a passionate declaration. + +Her heart cried out vaguely to some outside power for guidance; her +inarticulate appeal was hardly a prayer, it was the supreme expression +of perplexity and doubt. + +"For months, all my work and life have been coloured by thoughts of you, +have had reference to you. I can conceive, since I have been writing to +you, and you to me, I have had hopes and dreams that have become part of +my life! If you could accept this, this devotion, this strong feeling of +love which has grown up in me, I feel that our companionship would be a +beautiful thing. Lucy, I am not eloquent in love as some men are said to +be, I can only tell you that I love and admire you dearly and have no +greater hope than to share everything with you, my lady, my love!" + +The strong, self-contained young man was deeply moved. He continued, in +a monologue of singular delicacy and high feeling, to pour out the +repressed feelings of the past year, to offer her a life that was more +stainless--she knew it well--than that of most young men. + +She was deeply touched, interested, and rather overawed. But there was +no thrill of passion in her that could answer to the notes of it that +were coming into his voice and shaking it from its firmness, sending +tremulous waves quivering through it. + +Her hand shook in his hold, but it was passive. Emotion rushed over her, +but it was a cool emotion, so to say; she was touched, but her blood did +not race and leap at his touch, she felt no wish to rest in his arms, to +find her home there! + +At last she was able to speak. There was a pause in his pleading, his +eyes remained fixed upon her face in anxious scrutiny. + +She withdrew her hand gently. + +"You have touched me very deeply," she said. "But I can't, oh, I _can't_ +answer you now. This is such a great thing. There is so much to think +over, so much self-examination. It might all look quite different to +one to-morrow! Let me wait, give me time. I will write to you." + +His ear found the lack of what he sought in her voice. Even to herself +her tones sounded cold and conventional after his impassioned pleading. +But she found herself mistress neither of reason nor of feeling as she +spoke. She was bewildered, though not taken by surprise. + +He seemed to understand something of her state of mind. If his +disappointment was keen, he showed nothing of it, realising with the +pertinacity of a strong, vigorous nature that nothing really worth +having was won easily, thankful, perhaps, that he had won as much as he +had--her consideration. + +"You know how great a thing this is to me," he said. "You would never be +unkind or hard to me and it would be an unkindness to prolong my +suspense. When will you give me my answer?" + +"Oh, soon, soon! But I must have time. I will write to you soon, in a +fortnight I will write." + +"That is so long a time!" + +"It will pass very swiftly." + +"Then I accept your decree. But I shall write to you, even if you don't +answer me until I get the letter, oh, happy day! on which you tell me +what my whole heart longs to hear. You will read my letters during the +time of waiting? Promise me that, Lucy." + +"Yes, yes, I promise," she said hastily, seeing that Agatha and Adelaide +Lelant were coming towards them. + +Her brain was whirling; James himself was agitated and unstrung by the +vehemence of feeling, the nerve storm, that he had just passed through. +And in the minds of Miss Poyntz and Lady Lelant the liveliest curiosity +and interest reigned, as it naturally would reign, under such +circumstances, in the minds of any normal young women, gentle or simple, +with blue blood or crimson. + +But the four people had learned the lessons their life-long environment +had taught. Their faces were masks, their talk was trivial. + +When at length Lucy rose to go, declining to drive home with Lady +Lelant, they all came into the big, quiet courtyard of the hotel, "to +help her choose her hansom." Every unit of the little party felt her +departure would be a relief, she felt it herself. The two girls did not +know what had happened and were eager to know. James wanted to be +alone, to go through the interview step by step in his brain, +reconstructing it for the better surveyal of his chances, and to plan an +epistolary campaign, or bombardment rather. + +Lucy felt the desire, a great and pressing desire, for home and rest. +She arrived at the vicarage an hour or so after. As the cab had turned +into the familiar, sordid streets she had felt glad! She smiled at her +own sensations, but they were very real. This place, this "unutterable +North London slum," as she used to call it, was more like home than Park +Lane had ever been. + +How tired she felt as she went up-stairs to her room! Her face was pale, +dark circles had come out under her eyes, she bore every evidence of +having passed through some mental strain. + +After a bath she felt better, more herself, after these experiences of +the afternoon. And to change every article of clothing was in itself a +restorative and a tonic. It was an old trick of hers, and she had always +found it answer. When she went down-stairs again she was still pale, but +had that freshness and dainty completeness that have such enormous +charm, that she always had, and that her poorer sisters are so unable +to achieve in the _va et vient_ of a hard, work-a-day life. + +She wanted to see Bernard, she hungered for her brother. With a pang of +self-reproach, she remembered, as she came down-stairs, that this had +been the afternoon of the public debate with Hamlyn's people. It was an +important event in the parish. And from her start from the clergy-house +to her arrival back at its doors, she had quite forgotten the whole +thing! In the absorption with her own affairs, it had passed completely +from her brain and she was sorry. Of late, she had identified herself so +greatly with the affairs and hopes of the little St. Elwyn's community, +that she felt selfish and ashamed as she knocked at the door of the +study. She waited for a moment to hear the invitation to enter. It was +never safe to go into Bernard's room without that precaution. Some +tragic history might be in the very article of relation, some weary soul +might be there seeking ghostly guidance in its abyss of sorrow and +despair. + +Some one bade her enter. She did so. The room was dark, filled with the +evening shadows. For a moment or two, she could distinguish nothing. + +"Are you here, Ber?" she said. + +"The vicar is up-stairs, Miss Blantyre," came the answer in King's +voice, as he rose from his seat. "I'm here with Stephens." + +"Well, let me sit down for a little while and talk," Lucy said. "May +I?--please go on smoking. I can stand Bob's pipe, so I can certainly +stand _yours_. I want to hear all about the meeting in the Victoria +Hall." + +They found a chair for her; she refused to have lights brought, saying +that she preferred this soft gloom that enveloped them. + +Her question about the meeting was not immediately responded to. The men +seemed collecting their thoughts. By this time, she was really upon +something that resembled a true sisterly footing with these two. Both +were well-bred men, incapable of any slackening of the cords of +courtesy, but there was a mutual understanding between them and her +which allowed deliberation in talk, which, in fact, dispensed with the +necessity of conventional chatter. + +King spoke at length. "Go on, young 'un," he said to Stephens, waving +his pipe at him, as Lucy could see by the red glow in the bowl. "You +tell her." + +"No, _you_ tell her, old chap." + +Lucy wanted to laugh at the odd pair with whom she was in such sympathy. +They were just like two boys. + +King sighed. Conversation of any sort, unless it was actually in the +course of his priestly ministrations, was always painful to him. He was +a man who _thought_. But he could be eloquent and incisive enough when +he chose. + +"Well, look here, Miss Blantyre," he said, "to begin with, the whole +thing has been an unqualified success for the other side! That is to say +that the people in the hall--and it was crammed--have gone away in the +firm conviction and belief that the Luther Lecturers have got the best +of the priests, that, in short, the Protestants have won all along the +line." + +"Good gracious! Mr. King, do you really mean to say that one of these +vulgar, half-educated men was able to beat Bernard in argument, to +enlist the sympathies of the audience against _Bernard_?" + +"That's exactly what has happened," King answered. "The vicar is +up-stairs now, utterly dejected and worn out, trying to get some sleep." + +"But I don't understand how it could be so." + +"It is difficult to understand for a moment, Miss Blantyre. But it's +easily explained. One good thing has happened: Every priest in the +kingdom will have his warning now----" + +"Of what?" + +"Never to engage in public controversy with any man of the type sent out +to advertise the Luther League. I'll try and explain. You'll know what I +mean. The controversy upon any sacred and religious subjects, subjects +that are very dear to and deeply felt by their defender, is only +possible if their attacker pursues legitimate methods. What happened to +day is this: + +"The audience was mostly Protestant, with a strong sprinkling of people +who cared nothing one way or the other, but had come to be amused, or in +the expectation of a row. And even if the meeting wasn't 'packed,'--and +I've my doubts of that,--you see Catholics don't like to come much to +anything of the sort. It is so terribly painful to a man or woman whose +whole life is bound up in the Sacraments, who draws his or her 'grace of +going on' and hope of heaven from them, to sit and hear them mocked and +derided by the coarse, the vulgar, the irreligious. It's an ordeal one +can hardly expect any one to go through without a burning indignation +and a holy wrath, which may, in its turn, give place to action and words +that our Lord has expressly forbidden. One remembers Peter, who cut off +the ear of the High Priest's servant, and how he was rebuked. That's why +there were not many Catholics present, and besides, the chief had asked +many of the congregation to stay away. He wouldn't let Dr. Hibbert go; +he knew that he'd lose his temper and that there would be a row." + +Lucy listened eagerly. "And what did happen?" she cried. + +"Tell Miss Blantyre, Stephens," King answered. "I'm not lazy, but +Stephens has got colour in his descriptions! It's like his sermons, all +poetry and fervour and no sound discipline! And besides, he's got the +'varsity slang of the day. It's nasty, but it's expressive. When I was +up, we talked English--go on, young 'un." + +His voice sank, his pipe glowed in the gloom. Stephens took up the +parable. "Well, I can't go into all the details," he said. "But the +first thing that happened was that the lecturer stood upon the platform, +shut his eyes, and prayed that Hornham might be delivered from the +curse of priesthood and the blasphemy of the Mass!--this while the vicar +was on the platform. The man was going to begin right away, after this, +when Mr. Carr stopped him and said that he wished to offer up a prayer +also. The fellow frowned, but he dare not stop him. So Carr prayed for a +quiet and temperate conduct of the meeting! Then the man began. It was +the usual thing, mocking blasphemy delivered in the voice of a +cheap-jack, with a flavour of the clown. + +"The man had two sacramental wafers and he kept producing them out of a +Bible, like a conjuring trick! They were of different sizes, and he +said: 'Now, here you see what the Ritualists worship, a biscuit god! And +you'll notice there's a little one for the people and a big one for the +priest--priests always want the biggest share!' Roars of laughter from +every one, of course. Then the fellow went on to speak of the fasting +communion. 'For my part,' he said, with a great grin, 'I like to have my +breakfast comfortable in the morning before I go to church, and I +honestly pity the poor priests who have to starve themselves till +mid-day. I shouldn't wonder if the Reverend Blantyre'--with a wink +towards the vicar--'often has visions of a nice bit of fried bacon or an +'addock, say, about eleven o'clock in the morning.'" + +Lucy gasped. "How utterly revolting," she said, "and people really take +that sort of thing seriously?" + +"Oh, yes, the sort of people to whom these Luther Leaguers appeal. You +see it's their only weapon. They can't argue properly, because they are +utterly without education, and they only supplement the parrot lectures +they've been taught with their own native low comedy. Our friend this +afternoon wound up his oration by inviting the vicar to ask +questions--he didn't want him to speak at length, of course. 'Now,' he +said, 'I call upon the Reverend Blantyre to ask me any questions he +chooses. And I'll just ask him one myself--if God had meant him to wear +petticoats, wouldn't He have made him a woman?' This was rather too +much, and there were some hisses. The vicar was in his cassock. But the +vicar laughed himself, and so every one else did. It seemed to restore +the good humour of the meeting, which was just what the lecturer didn't +want. + +"Well, to cut a long story short, every question the vicar put was the +question of a cultured man, that is to say, it assumed _some_ knowledge +of the point at issue. Each time he was answered with buffooneries and a +blatant ignorance that gave the whole thing away at once to any one that +_knew_. But there was hardly any one there that did, that was the point. +The whole audience imagined that we were being scored off tremendously. +They got noisy, cheered every apish witticism of the lecturer--oh! it +was a disgusting scene. I'll give you an instance of what was said +towards the end. The vicar was appealing to the actual words of the +Gospel in one instance. 'The Greek text says,' he was beginning, when +the man jumps up--'Greek!' he shouted, 'will Greek save a man's soul? +_Do you suppose Jesus of Nazareth understood foreign tongues?_' + +"There was a tremendous roar of applause from the people at this. They +thought the lecturer had made a great point! They actually _did_! Well, +of course, there was hardly any answer to that. In the face of such +black depths of ignorance, what _could_ any one do? It would be as easy +to explain the theory of gravity to a hog as to explain the Faith to a +grinning, hostile mob like that. The vicar sat down. The clown always +has the last word in argument before an audience of fools or children. +It must be so." + +"How did it all end up?" + +"Oh, the lecturer got upon his hind legs again and made a speech in +which he claimed to have triumphantly refuted the sophistry of the vicar +and to have shown what Ritualism really was. Then, encouraged by the +general applause, he was beginning to be very personal and rude, when +there was a startling interruption. Bob got up from the back of the +hall--we didn't know he was there--and began to push his way towards the +platform, with a loudly expressed intention of wringing the lecturer's +neck there and then. I got hold of him, but he shook me off like a fly. +'Let me be, sir!' he said, 'let me get at the varmin, I'll give him a +thick ear, I will!' Then King saw what was going on and rushed up. Bob +remembered what King gave him last year and he tried to dodge. By this +time, the whole place was in an uproar, sticks were flying about, people +were struggling, shouting, swearing, and it looked like being as nasty a +little riot as one could wish to see." + +"How _horrible_!" Lucy said with a shudder. "I wish Bernard had never +been near the place." + +"Well, then, all of a sudden," the curate continued, "a mighty voice was +heard from the platform. It was Carr! I never heard a man with such a +big, arresting voice. He was in a white rage, his eyes flashed, he +looked most impressive. He frightened every one, he really did, and in a +minute or two he got every one to leave the hall quietly and in order." + +"How splendid!" Lucy said. She thought that she could see the whole +scene, the squalid struggle, the strong man dominating it all. Her hands +were clenched in sympathy. Her teeth were locked. + +"He's a big man," the young fellow replied, "a bigger man than any one +knows. He'll be round here this evening, I expect. You must get him to +tell you all about it, Miss Blantyre." + +A few minutes afterwards every one went to church. It was a choral +evensong that night, and sung somewhat later than the usual service was. +Blantyre did not appear. Lucy would not have him wakened. She knew that +sleep was the best thing for over-tired nerves, that he would view the +futile occurrences of the afternoon less unhappily after sleep. + +It was after nine o'clock when the vicar eventually made his appearance. +He was worn and sad in face, his smile had lost its merriment. Lucy had +made them all come into her room for music. They wanted playing out of +their depression, and in ministering to them she forgot her own quandary +and perplexities. At last the light, melodious numbers of _Faust_ and +_Carmen_ had some influence with them, and about ten the three men were +visibly brighter. They were in the habit of taking a cup of tea before +going to bed; to-night Lucy made them have soup instead. + +It was a few minutes after the hour, when the bell rang; in a moment or +two, Bob--extremely anxious to efface himself as much as possible after +the event of the afternoon--showed Mr. Carr into the drawing-room. + +His face was very white and set. "I am extremely sorry," he said, "to +call on you so late, but have you seen the evening papers, any of you?" +No one had seen them. + +"I'm afraid there is something that will give you great pain, a great +shock. It has grieved me deeply, it must be worse for you, my +friend--thinking as you do of the Eucharist." + +"What is it?" Father Blantyre said. + +Carr held out an evening paper. "Briefly," he said, "while we were at +the meeting down here, Hamlyn, Senior, had a special gathering of +extreme Protestants in Exeter Hall. He produced a _consecrated wafer_ +and exhibited it, stating that he had purloined it from the Holy +Communion service the day before. This was corroborated by two men who +went with him and were witnesses of the act." + +Every vestige of colour left the faces of the three priests of St. +Elwyn's. Suddenly Blantyre gave a little moan and fainted, sinking on to +a couch behind him. + +They brought him round without much trouble, and King helped him +up-stairs to bed, refusing to let him go into the church as he wished. +Lucy saw that tears were falling silently over the grim, heavy face of +King. + +When the vicar was safely bestowed in his room, Stephens and King, +saying nothing to each other, but acting with a common impulse, went +into the church. In the side chapel, where the dim red glow of the +sanctuary-lamp was the only light, they remained on their knees all +night, praying before the Blessed Sacrament. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE REPARATION OF JANE PRITCHETT, EX-PROTESTANT + + +On the following morning, Blantyre went away. He was absent from Hornham +for two days, and it was understood that he had gone to visit Lord +Huddersfield. Hamlyn and his doings were not in any way mentioned by the +two other clergy. + +The days of his absence were a time of great unrest and mental debate +for Lucy. + +She was at a crisis in her life. She had definitely come to a moment +when she must choose between one thing or another. It is a commonplace +of some preachers to say that this moment of definite choice comes to +every one at least once in their lives. But the truth of the assertion +is at least doubtful. Many people are spared the pain of what is more or +less an instantaneous decision. They merge themselves gradually, in this +or that direction, the right or the wrong. And they are the more +fortunate. + +For Lucy, however, the tide was at the flood. She must push out upon it +and hoist her sail, but whether she should go east or west, run before +the wind or beat up into the heart of it--that she must now decide. + +She had no illusions about her position. To marry James Poyntz meant one +thing, to refuse him meant another. In the first place, she wanted to be +married. Physically, socially, mentally, she was perfectly aware that +she would be happier. Her nature needed the complement of a husband. She +was pure, but not virginal, in temperament. She put it to herself +that--as she believed--she had a talent for wifehood. + +Here was a young man who satisfied all her instincts of what was fitting +in a man she could marry. She did not love him, but she admired, liked, +and respected him. Something of the not unhealthy cynicism--the sane +cynicism--of a woman of the world had entered into her. She wasn't a +sentimentalist, she didn't think that the "love" of the poet and +story-teller was the only thing in the relation of a wife to a husband. +She had seen many marriages, she had watched the firm, strong affection +that came after marriage, and she saw that it was a good, worthy, and +constant thing. + +She had been much in France. Lady Linquest had friends and relatives +among the stately families of the Faubourg St. Germain. Those weddings +in France that were decorously arranged by papa and mamma, how did they +turn out? On the whole well enough, happily enough. It was only the +ignorant lower middle-class of England that thought France was a mighty +_lupanar_ and adultery a joke. + +And in marrying Poyntz she would marry a man whom she was worthy of +intellectually. He would satisfy every instinct she possessed--_every +instinct but one_. + +And here, she knew, here lay the root of the whole question. + +The very strongest influence that can direct and urge any soul towards a +holy life is the society and companionship, even the distant +contemplation, of a saintly man or woman. + +The force of example acts as a lens. It focuses all the impulses towards +good and concentrates them. In making clear the beauty of holiness, it +shows that it is not a vague beauty, but an ideal which may be realised +by the observer. + +Lucy had been living with saintly folk. Bernard was saintly--if ever a +man was; the bulldog, King, was a saint and walked with God. Stephens +was a schoolboy, full of slang and enthusiasm, blunders and love of +humanity, but he was saintly too. Miss Cass, the housekeeper with the +face of a horse, who called "day" "dy" and the Mass "Mess," she was a +holy woman. Before the ugly, unlettered spinster, the society girl, with +all her power and charm, had learned to bow in her mind. + +That was Lucy's great virtue. She was frank with herself. She glossed +over nothing, she pretended nothing. It is the person who postures and +poses before himself who is in the chiefest danger. And Carr, well, Carr +was a saintly man also. He hadn't got the more picturesque trimmings +that the others had. His spiritual life was not so vividly expressed in, +and witnessed to, by his clothes and daily habit of life. But he was a +saintly man. As she thought of him Lucy thought of him as man _and_ +saint. + +All these people lived for one thing, had one aim, believed one thing. + +They lived to serve our Lord, to do His work, to adore Him. + +Why, even Bob, the navvy, whom Father King had knocked down as a beery +blackguard and set up again as a butler, even Bob was feeling a slow +and ponderous way towards sainthood! He could not boast a first-rate +intelligence, but, he _loved_ our Lord. + +Yes!--ah, that was the most beautiful thing of all. To _love_ Him. + +"Do I _love_ Him?" Lucy asked herself during those two days. + +And the answer that came to her was a very strange one. It was this. She +loved our Lord, but she could not make up her mind to give up everything +earthly and material for Him. She wanted a compromise. + +In fact, she was near the gates of the spiritual life, but she had not +entered them. + +She did not disguise one fact from herself. If she married Poyntz she +would immediately be withdrawn, and withdrawn for ever, from the new +influences which were beginning to permeate her, to draw her towards the +state of a Christian who is vowed and militant. + +She knew the influence that as her husband James would have. His ideals +were noble and high, his life was pure and worthy. But it was not the +life that Christ had made so plain and clear. The path the Church showed +was not the path James would follow, or one which as his wife she could +well follow. + +She believed sincerely, as her brother himself would have told her, that +a man like Poyntz was only uneducated in spiritual things, not lost to +them for ever. + +But she was also sure that he would make no spiritual discoveries in +this world. + +Marriage with him meant going back. It meant turning away from the +Light. + +The struggle with the training of years, the earthly ideals of nearly +all her life, was acute. But hour by hour, she began to draw nearer and +nearer to the inevitable solution. + +Now and again, she went into the silent church. Then, kneeling before +the Blessed Sacrament, she saw the path quite clear. + +Afterwards, back in her room again, the voices of the material world +were heard. But they became weaker and more weak as the hours went on. + +On the day that Bernard was to return, she received a long and +passionate letter from her lover. + +He had the wonderful gift of prose. He understood, as hardly any of us +understand, how to treat words (on certain occasions of using them) as +if they were almost notes in some musical composition. His letter was +beautiful. + +She read it page by page, with a heart that had begun to beat with +quickened interest, until she came to a passage which jarred and hurt. +James had made an end of his most impassioned and intimate passages, and +was making his keen satiric comment upon general affairs--quite as he +had done in his letters before his actual avowal. + +"I saw my father to-day in St. James, and we went to his club and +lunched together. I respect him more and more, for his consistency, +every time I meet him. And I wonder more and more at his childishness at +the same time. It seems he had just left your brother. As you are in the +thick of all the mumbo-jumbo, perhaps you will have heard of the +business that seems to be agitating my poor dear sire into a fever. It +seems that, a day or two ago, an opposition hero who has consecrated his +life to the Protestant cause--none other than the notorious Hamlyn +himself--purloined a consecrated wafer from some church and has been +exhibiting it at public meetings to show that it is just as it ever +was--a pinch of flour and no more. My father has made himself utterly +miserable over the proceedings of this merry-andrew. As you know, I take +but little interest in the squabbles of the creeds, but the spectacle +of a sane and able man caught up in the centre of these phantasies makes +me pause and makes my contempt sweeten into pity." + +As Lucy read the letter, she thought of the scene on the night when Carr +had brought the news. She thought of her own quick pain as she heard it, +of how her brother was struck down as with a sword. And especially there +came to her the vision of the two priests, King and Stephens, praying +all night long before the Host. + +She pushed the letter away from her, nor did she read it again. It +seemed alien, out of tune with her life. + +She went into the church to pray. + +When she came away, her resolution was nearly taken. + +Bernard came home about three in the afternoon. His manner was quiet. He +was sad, but he seemed relieved also. + +Lucy was walking in the garden with him, soon after his return, when +Stephens and Dr. Hibbert came down from the house and walked quickly up +to them. + +"Vicar," the doctor said, "Miss Pritchett is dying." + +Blantyre started. "Oh, I didn't know it was as bad as that," he said. +"Is it imminent?" + +"A matter of twenty hours I should say," the doctor replied; "I bring +you a message from her." + +Blantyre's face lighted up. Great tenderness came over it as he heard +that the woman who had injured him and sought to harm the Church had +sent him a message. + +"Poor woman," he said; "what is it--God bless her!" + +"She has asked for you and the other clergy to come to her. She wishes +me to bring you and such other members of the congregation as will come. +She wishes to make a profession of Faith." + +"But when, how--" the vicar asked, bewildered. + +The doctor explained. "The Hamlyns are with her; she is frightened by +them, but not only that, she bitterly repents what she has done. Poor +soul! Blantyre, she is very penitent, she remembers the Faith. She +asks--" He drew the vicar aside. Lucy could hear no more. But she saw +deep sympathy come out upon her brother's face. + +The three men--Stephens had remained with the doctor--came near her +again. + +"My motor is outside," the doctor said hurriedly. + +"How long would it take?" asked the vicar. + +"----if the Bishop is in--back in an hour and a half----" + +The vicar took Stephens aside and spoke earnestly with him for a few +moments. The young man listened gravely and then hurried away. Before +the vicar and the doctor joined Lucy again--they stood in private talk a +moment--she heard the "toot" of the motor-car hum on the other side of +the garden wall. + +Wondering what all this might mean, she was about to cross the lawn +towards the two men, when she saw Father King and Mr. Carr coming out of +the house. These two joined the vicar and Dr. Hibbert. The four men +stood in a ring. Blantyre seemed to be explaining something to the +new-comers. Now and then the doctor broke in with a burst of rapid +explanation. + +Lucy began to be full of wonder. She felt ignored, she tried not to feel +that. Something was afoot that she did not quite understand. + +In the middle of her wonder the men came towards her. + +Bernard took her arm. "Mavourneen," he said, "will you come with us to +poor Miss Pritchett? She's been asking if you'll come and forgive her +and part good friends. She may die to-night, the doctor says. You'll +come?" + +"Of course I'll come, dear." + +"She has repented of her hostility to the Church, and desires to make a +public statement of her faith before she dies. And she has asked for the +Sacrament of Unction.... Stephens has gone to the Bishop of Stepney on +the doctor's motor-car. In an hour we will go to Malakoff." + +The doctor took King by the arm and led him away. They talked earnestly +together. + +Blantyre turned to Carr. + +"Will ye come with us all to the poor soul's bedside?" he asked. + +"Yes," Carr answered. "I don't know what you purpose exactly--and I +don't care! I trust you as a brother now, Blantyre, I am learning every +day. I'm a conservative, you know, new things are distasteful to me. But +I am learning that there are medicines, _pro salute animæ_." + +"New things!" Blantyre said; "ye're an old Protestant at heart still. +Did they teach ye _no_ history at Cambridge except that the Church of +England began at the Reformation? Now, listen while I tell you what the +service is. You remember St. James v. 14, 15?" + +Carr nodded. He began to quote from memory, for his knowledge of the +Scriptures was profound, a knowledge even more accurate and full than +perhaps any of the three priests of St. Elwyn's could claim, though they +were scholars and students one and all. + +"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and +let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of our Lord; +and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise +him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." + +"Well, I suppose that is fairly explicit?" Blantyre said. "Mr. Hamlyn +would tell us that Unction is a conjuring trick invented by the Jesuits. +And you have always thought it Popish and superstitious. Now, haven't +you, Carr, be honest!" + +"Yes." + +"Well, you will see the service to-day. We follow the ancient order of +the Church of England. Why did you object, Carr? I'd like to get at +your mental attitude. What is there unscriptural, bad, or unseemly about +Unction? Here's a poor woman who has strayed from the fold. She wishes +to die at peace with every one, she wishes that the inward unction of +the Holy Spirit may be poured into the wounds of her soul, she wants to +be forgiven for the sake of our Lord's most meritorious Cross and +Passion! If it is God's will, she may be cured." + +He spoke with great fervour and earnestness. + +Carr bowed his head and thought. "Yes," he said, "I have been very +prejudiced and hard, sometimes. It is so easy to condemn what one does +not know about, so hard to have sympathy with what one has not +appreciated." + +Blantyre caught him by the arm and they walked the lawn for a long time +in fraternal intercourse. + +Lucy sat down with the doctor, but her eyes often turned to the tall, +grave figure, whose lengthening shadow sometimes reached to her feet and +touched them. + +At last they heard the panting of the returning motor-car. Stephens had +arrived with the oil that the Bishop had blessed. + +The whole party got into the car, which was a large one, and they set +off rapidly through the streets towards Malakoff House. + +How strange it was, Lucy thought, this swift career of moderns in the +wonderful machine of their age, this rush to the bedside of a dying +woman with the last consolation of the Church! It was full of awe, but +full of sweetness also. It seemed to show--and how plainly--the divine +continuity of the Faith, the harmonic welding of the order and +traditions of our Lord's own time with the full vivid life of the +nineteenth century. + +They were shown into the grim house. Truly the shadow of death seemed to +lie there, was exhaled from the massive funereal furniture of a bygone +generation, with all its faded pomp and circumstance. + +The mistress of it all was going away from it for ever, would never hold +her tawdry court in that grim drawing-room any more. + +Dr. Coxe, Hibbert's assistant, came down-stairs and met them. + +"I have got the two Hamlyns out of the house at last," he whispered. +"They were distressing the patient greatly. I insisted, however. We had +a row on the stairs--fortunately, I don't think the patient could hear +it. I'm sorry, doctor, but I had to use a little physical persuasion to +the young one." + +"Never mind, Coxe," Hibbert answered. "I'll see that nothing comes of +it. They won't dare to do anything. I will see to that. Is Miss +Pritchett ready? Can we go up?" + +"Yes," the young man answered, looking curiously at the four priests and +the grave girl who was with them in her gay summer frock. "Miss Davies +is there." + +He was a big, young Scotsman, with a profound contempt for religion, but +skilled and tender in his work, nevertheless. + +"Will you come up?" Hibbert whispered, taking him a little apart from +the others. + +"I'd rather be excused, old man," he answered. "Call me if I'm wanted. I +can't stand this mumbo-jumbo, you know!" + +Hibbert nodded curtly. He understood the lad very well. "Will you follow +me, Father?" he said to Blantyre. + +Blantyre put on his surplice and stole. Then they all went silently up +the wide stairs, with their soft carpet and carved balusters, into the +darkened chamber of death. + +The dying woman was propped up by pillows. Her face was the colour of +grey linen, the fringes of hair she wore in health were gone. + +A faint smile came to her lips. Then, as she saw Lucy, she called to her +in a clear, thin voice that seemed as if it came from very far away. + +"Kiss me, my dear," she said; "forgive me." + +Lucy kissed the old, wrinkled face tenderly. Her tears fell upon it in a +sacrament of forgiveness and holy amity. + +"I want just to say to all of you," Miss Pritchett said, "that I have +been untrue to what I really believed, and I have helped the enemies of +the Faith. I never forgot your teaching, Father, I knew all the time I +was doing wrong. I ask all of you to forgive me as I believe Jesus has +forgiven me." + +A murmur of kindliness came from them all. + +"Then I can go in peace," she gasped. Then with a faint and pathetic +shadow of her old manner she turned to Gussie. "Hush!" she said. "Stop +sniffling, Miss Davies! I am very happy. Now, Father----" + +Her eyes closed and her hands remained still. They saw all earthly +thoughts die out of the wrinkled old face, now turned wholly to God. + +They all knelt save the vicar, who had placed the oil in an ampulla upon +a table. + +Then he began the 71st Psalm. "In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust, let +me never be put to confusion: but rid me, and deliver me, in Thy +righteousness, incline Thine ear unto me, and save me." + +There was no sound in the chamber save that of the ancient Hebrew song. + +"Forsake me not, O God, in mine old age, when I am grey-headed: until I +have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to all them +that are yet for to come. + +"Thy righteousness, O God, is very high: and great things are they that +Thou hast done; O God, who is like unto Thee?" + +Then, all together, they said the antiphon: "_O Saviour of the world, +who by Thy Cross and precious Blood hast redeemed us, save us and help +us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord._" + +The central figure in the huge four-post bed lay still and waxen. But +when the priest came up to it with the oil, the eyes opened and looked +steadfastly into his face. + +He dipped his thumb into the silver vessel and made the sign of the +Cross on the eyes, the ears, the lips, the nostrils, and the hands, +saying each time as he did so: + +"_Through this unction, and of His most tender mercy, may the Lord +pardon thee whatever sins thou hast committed._" + +The whispering words that brought renewal of lost innocence to the dying +woman sank into Lucy's heart, never to leave it. In the presence of +these wondrous mysteries, death, and death vanquished by Christ, sin +purged and forgiven in the Sacrament, her resolution was made. She knew +that she would fix her eyes upon the Cross, never to take them from it +more. + +She saw her brother bending over the still figure, his white surplice +ghostlike in the gloom of the hangings, as he wiped the anointed parts +with wool. + +Then Stephens brought him a basin of clear water and he washed his +hands. + +Raising his arm, he said: + +"_In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, may +this anointing with oil be to thee for the purification of thy mind and +body, and may it fortify and defend thee against the darts of evil +spirits._ Amen." + +Two more prayers were said and then came the Blessing. + +All rose from their knees. As Lucy slipped from the room, she saw the +doctor was bending over the waxen figure in the bed. + +She heard her brother and his two assistant priests beginning other +prayers, in a louder voice, a sort of litany, it seemed. + +She found Carr was beside her descending the stairs. + +"What is that?" she whispered. + +"The prayers for the commendation of a departing soul; she is going. God +rest her and give her peace." + +"Amen," said Lucy. + +They came down into the hall, where they stood for a moment quite alone. +Both were greatly agitated, both felt drawn together by some great +power. + +"How beautiful it is!" Carr said at length. "Our Lord is with her. May +we all die so." + +"Poor, dear woman!" + +"In a few moments she will be in the supreme and ineffable glory of +Paradise. I want to see trees and flowers, to think happily of the +wonderful mercy and goodness of God among the things He has made. I +should like to walk in the park for an hour, to hear the birds and see +the children play. Will you come with me?" + +"Yes, I will come." + +He took her hand and bowed low over it. + +"I have a great thing to ask of you," he said. + +They walked soberly together until they came to the railed-in open +space. To each the air seemed thick with unspoken thoughts. + +The park was a poor place enough. But flowers grew there, the grass was +green, it was not quite Hornham. They sat upon a bench and for a minute +or two both were silent. Lucy knew a serenity at this moment such as she +had hardly ever known. She was as some mariner who, at the close of a +long and tempestuous voyage, comes at even-tide towards harbour over a +still sea. The coastwise lights begin to glimmer, the haven is near. + +In her mind and heart, at that moment, she was reconciled to and in tune +with all that is beautiful in human and Divine. + +She sat there, this well-known society girl, who, all her life, had +lived with the great and wealthy of the world, in great content. In the +"park" of Hornham, with the poor clergyman, she knew supreme content. + +In a low voice that shook with the intensity of his feeling and yet was +resolute and informed with strength, Carr asked Lucy to be his wife. + +She gave him her hand very simply and happily. A river that had long +been weary had at last wound safe to sea. That she should be the wife of +this man was, she knew, one of the gladdest and most merciful ordinances +of God. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE HAMLYNS + + +"Gussie Davies says that she's sure that Miss Pritchett hasn't added a +codicil," said Mr. Sam Hamlyn, coming into the inner room at the offices +of the Luther League. + +Mr. Hamlyn, Senior, had been at work for some hours, but his son had +only just arrived in the Strand. It was the day after Miss Pritchett's +death, and Sam had remained in North London to make a few inquiries. + +"What a blessing of Providence," said the secretary. "There's something +to be said for a ritualistic way of dying, after all! If it 'adn't been +for her messing about with the oil and that, she'd have sent for her +solicitor and cut the League out of her will! The priests have been +'oist with their own petard this time." + +"I wonder how much it'll be," Sam said reflectively. + +"I don't anticipate a penny less than two thousand pound," said Mr. +Hamlyn, triumphantly. "P'raps a good bit over. You see, we got 'er just +at the last moment. It was me taking the consecrated wafer did it. She +woke up as pleased as Punch, it gave her strength for the afternoon, and +had the lawyer round at once. I never thought she'd go off so sudden, +though." + +"Nor did I, Pa. Well, it's a blessing that she was able to contribute +her mite towards Protestant Truth before she went." + +"What?" said Mr. Hamlyn sharply; "mite?--has Gussie Davies any idea of +'ow much the legacy is, then?" + +"I only spoke figuratively like, Father." + +"How you startled me, Sam!" said the secretary, his face resuming its +wonted expression of impudent good humour. + +"How's the cash list to-day?" Sam asked. + +"Pretty fair," answered his father, "matter of five pound odd. It's me +getting hold of that wafer, it's sent the subscriptions up wonderful. I +wouldn't part----" + +Sam, who was sitting with his back to the door of the room, saw his +father's jaw drop suddenly. His voice died away with a murmur, his face +went pale, his eyes protruded. + +The younger man wheeled round his chair. Then he started up, with an +exclamation of surprise and fear. + +Both the Protestant champions, indeed, behaved as if they had been +discovered in some fraud by an agent of the law. + +Two people had come suddenly into the room, without knocking or being +announced. The secretaries saw the blanched face of a clerk behind them. + +During its existence, the Luther League had welcomed some fairly +well-known folk within its doors. + +This afternoon, however, a most unexpected honour had been paid to +it--probably the reason of Hamlyn's extreme uneasiness. + +A broad, square man of considerable height, with a stern, furrowed face, +wearing an apron and gaiters, stood there, with a thunder-cloud of anger +on his face. + +It was His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury. + +Lord Huddersfield was with him. + +The Archbishop looked steadfastly at Hamlyn for a few seconds. His face +was terrible. + +In the presence of the great spiritual lord who is next to the royal +family in the precedence of the realm, the famous scholar, the caustic +wit, the utter force and _power_ of intellect, the two champions were +dumb. Hamlyn had never known anything like it before. The fellow's +bounce and impudence utterly deserted him. + +The Archbishop spoke. His naturally rather harsh and strident voice was +rendered tenfold more penetrating and terrifying by his wrath. + +"Sir," he said, in a torrent of menacing sound, "you have profaned the +Eucharist, you have mocked the holy things of God, you have made the +most sacred ordinance of our Lord a mountebank show. You boast that you +have purloined the Consecrated Bread from church, you have exhibited it. +Restore it to me, wretched man that you are. By the authority of God, I +demand you to restore it; by my authority as head of the English Church, +I order you." + +Hamlyn shrank from the terrible old man clothed in the power of his +great office and the majesty of his holy anger, shrank as a man shrinks +from a flame. + +With shaking hands he took a bunch of keys from his pocket. He dropped +them upon the floor, unable to open the lock of the safe. + +Young Hamlyn picked them up. He turned the key in the wards with a loud +click and pulled at the massive door until it slowly swung open. + +Lord Huddersfield knelt down. + +Hamlyn took from a shelf a little box that had held elastic bands. + +The Archbishop started and flushed a deep crimson. + +He took a pyx from his pocket and reverently took out the desecrated +Host from the box, placing it in the pyx. + +Then, with a face that was suffused to a deep purple, he touched the +kneeling peer upon the shoulder. Lord Huddersfield rose with a deep sob +of relief. + +The Archbishop looked _once_ at Hamlyn, a look the man never forgot. + +Then the two visitors turned and went away as swiftly and silently as +they had come. + +It was a long time before either father or son spoke a word. + +At last Hamlyn cleared his throat and mouthed a sentence. It would not +come. All that Sam could catch were the words + + "PROTESTANT TRUTH!" + + * * * * * + +_A Selection from the Catalogue of_ + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + +Complete Catalogues sent on application + + * * * * * + +When It Was Dark + +The Story of a Great Conspiracy + +By GUY THORNE + +Author of "A Lost Cause" + +"The most enthralling and interest-compelling work of fiction this +reviewer has ever encountered."--_The American, Nashville._ + +"It is in its wonderful tonic effect upon Christianity in England that +the book is showing its most remarkable effects. It has become the theme +of hundreds of sermons, and long extracts are being printed in the +secular press as well as in the religious publications. It is known to +have been the cause of a number of revivals throughout England, and its +strange effect is increasing daily."--_N. Y. American._ + +THE BISHOP OF LONDON preaching at Westminster Abbey said: "I wonder if +any of my hearers have read that remarkable work of fiction 'When It Was +Dark.' The author paints in wonderful colors what would be the condition +of the world if (as in the story is supposed to be the case) a +conviction had come upon the people that the resurrection had never +occurred." + +"A critical handling of current journalism, ecclesiasticalism, and +liberalism. A novel written from the inside as well as from observation; +and from the heart as well as from the head."--_Congregationalist._ + + * * * * * + +The Scarlet Pimpernel + +By Baroness Orczy + +_Author of "The Emperor's Candlesticks," etc._ + +A dramatic romance of the French Revolution and the Émigré Nobles. The +"Scarlet Pimpernel" was the chief of a daring band of young Englishmen +leagued together to rescue members of the French nobility from the +Terrorists of France. The identity of the brilliant and resourceful +leader is sacredly guarded by his followers and eagerly sought by the +agents of the French Revolutionary Government. Scenes of intrigue, +danger, and devotion, follow close one upon another. The heroine is a +charming, fearless woman who in the end shares the honors with the +"Scarlet Pimpernel." In a stage version prepared by the author _The +Scarlet Pimpernel_ was one of the dramatic successes of the last London +season, Mr. Fred Terry and Miss Julia Neilson acting the leading rôles. + +"Something distinctly out of the common, well conceived, vividly told, +and stirring from start to finish."--_London Telegraph._ + + * * * * * + +At the Sign of The Jack o' Lantern + +_By_ MYRTLE REED + +Author of "Lavender and Old Lace," "The Master's Violin," etc. + +A genial story of the adventures of a New York newspaper man and his +young wife, who, at the end of their honeymoon, go to an unexplored +heirloom in the shape of a peculiar old house, where many strange and +amusing things happen. There is a mystery in the house, as well as a +significant portrait of an uncanny cat. A vein of delicate humor, and a +homely philosophy runs through the story. + +"Miss Reed is delightfully witty, delightfully humorous, delightfully +cynical, delightfully sane, and above all, delightfully +spontaneous."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._ + + * * * * * + +Love Alone is Lord + +_By_ F. Frankfort Moore + +_Author of "The Jessamy Bride," etc._ + +This latest story by the author of _The Jessamy Bride_ has for its theme +the only really ideal love affair in the romantic life of Lord Byron. +The story opens during the poet's boyhood and tells of his early +devotion to his cousin, Mary Chaworth. Mr. Moore has followed history +very closely, and his descriptions of London society when Byron was the +rage are as accurate as they are dramatic. Lady Caroline Lamb figures +prominently in the story, but the heroine continues to be Byron's early +love, Mary Chaworth. His attachment for his cousin was the strongest and +most enduring of his life, and it failed of realization only by the +narrowest of chances. + +_A Fascinating Romance_ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Lost Cause, by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40539 *** |