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Title: The Christian
       A Story

Author: Hall Caine

Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8407]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTIAN ***




Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Thomas Berger,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.




THE CHRISTIAN

_A STORY_

BY HALL CAINE

_Author of The Manxman_

       *       *       *       *       *

_The period of the story is the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
No particular years are intended. The time occupied by the incidents of
the first Book is about six months, of the Second Book about six months,
of the Third Book about six months; then there is an interval of half a
year, and the time occupied by the incidents of the Fourth Book is about
six weeks. An Author's Note will be found at the end._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE CHRISTIAN.




FIRST BOOK.

_THE OUTER WORLD_.




I.

On the morning of the 9th of May, 18--, three persons important to this
story stood among the passengers on the deck of the Isle of Man steamship
_Tynwald_ as she lay by the pier at Douglas getting up steam for the
passage to Liverpool. One of these was an old clergyman of seventy, with
a sweet, mellow, childlike face; another was a young man of thirty, also
a clergyman; the third was a girl of twenty. The older clergyman wore a
white neckcloth about his throat, and was dressed in rather threadbare
black of a cut that had been more common twenty years before; the younger
clergyman wore a Roman collar, a long clerical coat, and a stiff,
broad-brimmed hat with a cord and tassel. They stood amidships, and the
captain, coming out of his room to mount the bridge, saluted them as he
passed.

"Good morning, Mr. Storm."

The young clergyman returned the salutation with a slight bow and the
lifting of his hat.

"Morning to you, Parson Quayle."

The old clergyman answered cheerily, "Oh, good morning, captain; good
morning."

There was the usual inquiry about the weather outside, and drawing up to
answer it, the captain came eye to eye with the girl.

"So this is the granddaughter, is it?"

"Yes, this is Glory," said Parson Quayle. "She's leaving the old
grandfather at last, captain, and I'm over from Peel to set her off, you
see."

"Well, the young lady has got the world before her--at her feet, I ought
to say.--You're looking as bright and fresh as the morning, Miss Quayle."

The captain carried off his compliment with a breezy laugh, and went
along to the bridge. The girl had heard him only in a momentary flash of
consciousness, and she replied merely with a side glance and a smile.
Both eyes and ears, and every sense and every faculty, seemed occupied
with the scene before her.

It was a beautiful spring morning, not yet nine o'clock, but the sun
stood high over Douglas Head, and the sunlight was glancing in the
harbour from the little waves of the flowing tide. Oars were rattling up
the pier, passengers were trooping down the gangways, and the decks fore
and aft were becoming thronged.

"It's beautiful!" she was saying, not so much to her companions as to
herself, and the old parson was laughing at her bursts of rapture over
the commonplace scene, and dropping out in reply little driblets of
simple talk--sweet, pure nothings--the innocent babble as of a mountain
stream.

She was taller than the common, and had golden-red hair, and magnificent
dark-gray eyes of great size. One of her eyes had a brown spot, which
gave at the first glance the effect of a squint, at the next glance a
coquettish expression, and ever after a sense of tremendous power and
passion. But her most noticeable feature was her mouth, which was
somewhat too large for beauty, and was always moving nervously. When she
spoke, her voice startled you with its depth, which was a kind of soft
hoarseness, but capable of every shade of colour. There was a playful and
impetuous raillery in nearly all she said, and everything seemed to be
expressed by mind and body at the same time. She moved her body
restlessly, and while standing in the same place her feet were always
shuffling. Her dress was homely--almost poor--and perhaps a little
careless. She appeared to smile and laugh continually, and yet there were
tears in her eyes sometimes.

The young clergyman was of a good average height, but he looked taller
from a certain distinction of figure. When he raised his hat at the
captain's greeting he showed a forehead like an arched wall, and a large,
close-cropped head. He had a well-formed nose, a powerful chin, and full
lips--all very strong and set for one so young. His complexion was
dark--almost swarthy--and there was a certain look of the gipsy in his
big golden-brown eyes with their long black lashes. He was clean shaven,
and the lower part of his face seemed heavy under the splendid fire of
the eyes above it. His manner had a sort of diffident restraint; he stood
on the same spot without moving, and almost without raising his drooping
head; his speech was grave and usually slow and laboured; his voice was
bold and full.

The second bell had rung, and the old parson was making ready to go
ashore.

"You'll take care of this runaway, Mr. Storm, and deliver her safely at
the door of the hospital?"

"I will."

"And you'll keep an eye on her in that big Babylon over there?"

"If she'll let me, sir."

"Yes, indeed, yes; I know she's as unstable as water and as hard to hold
as a puff of wind."

The girl was laughing again. "You might as well call me a tempest and
have done with it, or," with a glance at the younger man, "say a
storm--Glory St---- Oh!"

With a little catch of the breath she arrested the name before it was
uttered by her impetuous tongue, and laughed again to cover her
confusion. The young man smiled faintly and rather painfully, but the old
parson was conscious of nothing.

"Well, and why not? A good name for you too, and you richly deserve
it.--But the Lord is lenient with such natures, John. He never tries them
beyond their strength. She hasn't much leaning to religion, you know."

The girl recalled herself from the busy scene around and broke in again
with a tone of humour and pathos mixed.

"There, call me an infidel at once, grandfather. I know what you mean.
But just to show you that I haven't exactly registered a vow in heaven
never to go to church in London because you've given me such a dose of it
in the Isle of Man, I'll promise to send you a full and particular report
of Mr. Storm's first sermon. Isn't that charming of me?"

The third bell was ringing, the blast of the steam whistle was echoing
across the bay, and the steamer was only waiting for the mails. Taking a
step nearer to the gangway, the old parson talked faster.

"Did Aunt Anna give you money enough, child?"

"Enough for my boat fare and my train."

"No more! Now Anna is so----"

"Don't trouble, grandfather. Woman wants but little here below--Aunt Anna
excepted. And then a hospital nurse----"

"I'm afraid you'll feel lonely in that great wilderness."

"Lonely with five millions of neighbours?"

"You'll be longing for the old island, Glory, and I half repent me
already----"

"If ever I have the blue-devils, grandpa, I'll just whip on my cape and
fly home again."

"To-morrow morning I'll be searching all over the house for my runaway."

Glory tried to laugh gaily. "Upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady's
chamber."

"'Glory,' I'll be crying, 'Where's the girl gone at all? I haven't heard
her voice in the house to-day. What's come over the old place to strike
it so dead?'"

The girl's eyes were running over, but in a tone of gentle raillery and
heart's love she said severely: "Nonsense, grandfather, you'll forget all
about Glory going to London before the day after to-morrow. Every morning
you'll be making rubbings of your old runes, and every night you'll be
playing chess with Aunt Rachel, and every Sunday you'll be scolding old
Neilus for falling asleep in the reading desk, and--and everything will
go on just the same as ever."

The mails had come aboard, one of the gangways had been drawn ashore, and
the old parson, holding his big watch in his left hand, was diving into
his fob-pocket with the fingers of the right.

"Here"--panting audibly, as if he had been running hard--"is your
mother's little pearl ring."

The girl drew off her slack, soiled glove and took the ring in her
nervous fingers.

"A wonderful talisman is the relic of a good mother, sir," said the old
parson.

The young clergyman bent his head.

"You're like Glory herself in that though--you don't remember your mother
either."

"No-no."

"I'll keep in touch with your father, John, trust me for that. You and he
shall be good friends yet. A man can't hold out against his son for
nothing worse than choosing the Church against the world. The old man
didn't mean all he said; and then it isn't the thunder that strikes
people dead, you know. So leave him to me; and if that foolish old Chalse
hasn't been putting notions into his head----"

The throbbing in the steam funnel had ceased and in the sudden hush a
voice from the bridge cried, "All ashore!"

"Good-bye, Glory! Good-bye, John! Good-bye both!"

"Good-bye, sir," said the young clergyman with a long hand-clasp.

But the girl's arms were about the old man's neck. "Good-bye, you dear
old grandpa, and I'm ashamed I--I'm sorry I--I mean it's a shame of me
to--good-bye!"

"Good-bye, my wandering gipsy, my witch, my runaway!"

"If you call me names I'll have to stop your mouth, sir.
Again--another----"

A voice cried, "Stand back there!"

The young clergyman drew the girl back from the bulwarks, and the steamer
moved slowly away.

"I'll go below--no, I won't; I'll stay on deck. I'll go ashore--I can't
bear it; it's not too late yet. No, I'll go to the stern and see the
water in the wake."

The pier was cleared and the harbour was empty. Over the white churning
water the sea gulls were wheeling, and Douglas Head was gliding slowly
back. Down the long line of the quay the friends of the passengers were
waving adieus.

"There he is, on the end of the pier! That's grandpa waving his
handkerchief! Don't you see it? The red-and-white cotton one! God bless
him! How _wae_ his little present made me! He has been keeping it all
these years. But my silk handkerchief is too damp--it won't float at all.
Will you lend me----Ah, thank you! Good-bye! good-bye! good----"

The girl hung over the stern rail, leaning her breast upon it and waving
the handkerchief as long as the pier and its people were in sight, and
when they were gone from recognition she watched the line of the land
until it began to fade into the clouds, and there was no more to be seen
of what she had looked upon every day of her life until to-day.

"The dear little island! I never thought it was so beautiful! Perhaps I
might have been happy even there, if I had tried. Now, if I had only had
somebody for company! How silly of me! I've been five years wishing and
praying to get away, and now! ... It _is_ lovely, though, isn't it? Just
like a bird on the water! And when you've been born in a place ... the
dear little island! And the old folks, too! How lonely they'll be, after
all! I wonder if I shall ever.... I'll go below. The wind's freshening,
and this water in the wake is making my eyes... Good-bye, little birdie!
I'll come back--I'll.... Yes, never fear, I'll----"

The laughter and impetuous talking, the gentle humour and pathos, had
broken at length into a sob, and the girl had wheeled about and
disappeared down the cabin stairs. John Storm stood looking after her. He
had hardly spoken, but his great brown eyes were moist.




II.

Her father had been the only son of Parson Quayle, and chaplain to the
bishop at Bishopscourt. It was there he had met her mother, who was
lady's maid to the bishop's wife. The maid was a bright young
Frenchwoman, daughter of a French actress, famous in her day, and of an
officer under the Empire, who had never been told of her existence.
Shortly after their marriage the chaplain was offered a big mission
station in Africa, and, being a devotee, he clutched at it without fear
of the fevers of the coast. But his young French wife was about to become
a mother, and she shrank from the perils of his life abroad, so he took
her to his father's house at Peel, and bade her farewell for five years.

He lived four, and during that time they exchanged some letters. His
final instructions were sent from Southampton: "If it's a boy, call him
John (after the Evangelist); and if it's a girl, call her Glory." At the
end of the first year she wrote: "I have shortened our darling, and you
never saw anything so lovely! Oh, the sweetness of her little bare arms,
and her neck, and her little round shoulders! You know she's red--I've
really got a red one--a curly red one! Such big beaming eyes, too! And
then her mouth, and her chin, and her tiny red toes! I don't know how you
can live without seeing her!" Near the end of the fourth year he sent his
last answer: "Dear Wife--This separation is bitter; but God has willed
it, and we must not forget that the probabilities are that we may pass
our lives apart." The next letter was from the English consul on the
Gaboon River, announcing the death of the devoted missionary.

Parson Quayle's household consisted only of himself and two maiden
daughters, but that was too much for the lively young Frenchwoman. While
her husband lived, she suffocated under the old-maid _régime_; and when
he was gone she made no more fight with destiny, but took some simple
ailment, and died suddenly.

A bare hillside frowned down on the place where Glory was born; but the
sun rose over it, and a beautiful river hugged its sides. A quarter of a
mile down the river there was a harbour, and beyond the harbour a bay,
with the ruins of an old castle standing out on an islet rock, and then
the broad sweep of the Irish Sea-the last in those latitudes to "parley
with the setting sun." The vicarage was called Glenfaba, and it was half
a mile outside the fishing town of Peel.

Glory was a little red-headed witch from the first, with an air of
general uncanniness in everything she did and said. Until after she was
six there was no believing a word she uttered. Her conversation was
bravely indifferent to considerations of truth or falsehood, fear or
favour, reward or punishment. The parson used to say, "I'm really afraid
the child has no moral conscience--she doesn't seem to know right from
wrong." This troubled his religion, but it tickled his humour, and it did
not disturb his love. "She's a perfect pagan--God bless her innocent
heart!"

She had more than a child's genius for make-believe. In her hunger for
child company, before the days when she found it for herself, she made
believe that various versions of herself lived all over the place, and
she would call them out to play. There was Glory in the river, under the
pool where the perches swam, and Glory down the well, and Glory up in the
hills, and they answered when she spoke to them. All her dolls were kings
and queens, and she had a gift for making up in strange and grand
disguises. It was almost as if her actress grandmother had bestowed on
her from her birth the right to life and luxury and love.

She was a born mimic, and could hit off to a hair an eccentricity or an
affectation. The frown of Aunt Anna, who was severe, the smile of Aunt
Rachel, who was sentimental, and the yawn of Cornelius Kewley, the clerk
who was always sleepy, lived again in the roguish, rippling face. She
remembered some of her mother's French songs, and seeing a street-singer
one day, she established herself in the market-place in that character,
with grown people on their knees around her, ready to fall on her and
kiss her and call her Phonodoree, the fairy. But she did not forget to go
round for the ha'pennies either.

At ten she was a tomboy, and marched through the town at the head of an
army of boys, playing on a comb between her teeth and flying the vicar's
handkerchief at the end of his walking-stick. In these days she climbed
trees and robbed orchards (generally her own) and imitated boys' voices,
and thought it tyranny that she might not wear trousers. But she wore a
sailor's blue stocking-cap, and it brightened existence when, for
economy's sake and for the sake of general tidiness, she was allowed to
wear a white woollen jersey. Then somebody who had a dinghy that he did
not want asked her if she would like to have a boat. Would she like to
have paradise, or pastry cakes, or anything that was heavenly! After that
she wore a sailor's jacket and a sou'wester when she was on the sea, and
tumbled about the water like a duck.

At twelve she fell in love--with love. It was a vague passion interwoven
with dreams of grandeur. The parson being too poor to send her to the
girls' college at Douglas, and his daughters being too proud to send her
to the dame's school at Peel, she was taught at home by Aunt Rachel, who
read the poetry of Thomas Moore, knew the birthdays of all the royal
family, and was otherwise meekly romantic. From this source she gathered
much curious sentiment relating to some visionary world where young girls
were held aloft in the sunshine of luxury and love and happiness. One day
she was lying on her back on the heather of the Peel hill, with her head
on her arms, thinking of a story that Aunt Rachel had told her. It was of
a mermaid who had only to slip up out of the sea and say to any man,
"Come," and he came--he left everything and followed her. Suddenly the
cold nose of a pointer rubbed against her forehead, a strong voice cried,
"Down, sir!" and a young man of two and twenty, in leggings and a
shooting-jacket, strode between her and the cliffs. She knew him by
sight. He was John Storm, the son of Lord Storm, who had lately come to
live in the mansion house at Knockaloe, a mile up the hill from Glenfaba.

For three weeks thereafter she talked of nobody else, and even began to
comb her hair. She watched him in church, and told Aunt Rachel she was
sure he could see quite well in the dark, for his big eyes seemed to have
the light inside of them. After that she became ashamed, and if anybody
happened to mention his name in her hearing she flushed up to the
forehead and fled out of the room. He never once looked at her, and after
a while he went away to Canada. She set the clock on the back landing to
Canadian time, so that she might always know what he was doing abroad,
and then straightway forgot all about him. Her moods followed each other
rapidly, and were all of them overpowering and all sincere, but it was
not until a year afterward that she fell in love, in the church vestry,
with the pretty boy who stood opposite to her in the catechism class.

He was an English boy of her own age, and he was only staying in the
island for his holidays. The second time she saw him it was in the
grounds at Glenfaba, while his mother was returning a call indoors. She
gave him a little tap on the arm and he had to run after her--down a bank
and up a tree, where she laughed and said. "Isn't it nice?" and he could
see nothing but her big white teeth.

His name was Francis Horatio Nelson Drake, and he was full of great
accounts of the goings-on in the outer world, where his school was, and
where lived the only "men" worth talking about. Of course he spoke of all
this familiarly and with a convincing reality which wrapped Glory in the
plumage of dreams. He was a wonderful being, altogether, and in due time
(about three days) she proposed to him. True, he did not jump at her
offer with quite proper alacrity, but when she mentioned that it didn't
matter to her in the least whether he wanted her or not, and that plenty
would be glad of the chance, he saw things differently, and they agreed
to elope. There was no particular reason for this drastic measure, but as
Glory had a boat, it seemed the right thing to do.

She dressed herself in all her Confirmation finery, and stole out to meet
him under the bridge where her boat lay moored. He kept her half an hour
waiting, having sisters and other disadvantages, but "once aboard her
lugger," he was safe. She was breathless, and he was anxious, and neither
thought it necessary to waste any time in kissing.

They slipped down the harbour and out into the bay, and then ran up the
sail and stood off for Scotland. Being more easy in mind when this was
done, they had time to talk of the future. Francis Horatio was for
work--he was going to make a name for himself. Glory did not see it quite
in that light. A name, yes, and lots of triumphal processions, but she
was for travel--there were such lots of things people could see if they
didn't waste so much time working.

"What a girl you are!" he said derisively; whereupon she bit her lip, for
she didn't quite like it. But they were nearly half an hour out before he
spoiled himself utterly. He had brought his dog, a she-terrier, and he
began to call her by her kennel name and to say what a fine little thing
she was, and what a deal of money they would make by her pups. That was
too much for Glory. She couldn't think of eloping with a person who used
such low expressions.

"What a girl you are!" he said again; but she did not mind it in the
least. With a sweep of her bare arm she had put the tiller hard aport,
intending to tack back to Peel, but the wind had freshened and the sea
was rising, and by the swift leap of the boat the boom was snapped, and
the helpless sail came napping down upon the mast. Then they tumbled into
the trough, and Glory had not strength to pull them out of it, and the
boy was of no more use than a tripper. She was in her white muslin dress,
and he was nursing his dog, and the night was closing down on them, and
they were wobbling about under a pole and a tattered rag. But all at once
a great black yacht came heaving up in the darkness, and a grown-up voice
cried, "Trust yourself to me, dear."

It was John Storm. He had already awakened the young girl in her, and
thereafter he awakened the young woman as well. She clung to him like a
child that night, and during the four years following she seemed always
to be doing the same. He was her big brother, her master, her lord, her
sovereign. She placed him on a dizzy height above her, amid a halo of
goodness and grandeur. If he smiled on her she flushed, and if he frowned
she fretted and was afraid. Thinking to please him, she tried to dress
herself up in all the colours of the rainbow, but he reproved her and
bade her return to her jersey. She struggled to comb out her red curls
until he told her that the highest ladies in the land would give both
ears for them, and then she fondled them in her fingers and admired them
in a glass.

He was a serious person, but she could make him laugh until he screamed.
Excepting Byron and "Sir Charles Grandison," out of the vicar's library,
the only literature she knew was the Bible, the Catechism, and the Church
Service, and she used these in common talk with appalling freedom and
audacity. The favourite butt of her mimicry was the parish clerk saying
responses when he was sleepy.

The parson: "O Lord, open thou our lips" (no response). "Where are you,
Neilus?"

The clerk (awakening suddenly in the desk below): "Here I am, your
reverence--and our mouth shall show forth thy praise."

When John Storm did laugh he laughed beyond all control, and then Glory
was entirely happy. But he went away again, his father having sent him to
Australia, and all the light of her world went out.

It was of no use bothering with the clock on the back landing, because
things were different by this time. She was sixteen, and the only tree
she climbed now was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that
tore her terribly. John Storm was the son of a lord, and he would be Lord
Something himself some day. Glory Quayle was an orphan, and her
grandfather was a poor country clergyman. Their poverty was sweet, but
there was gall in it, nevertheless. The little forced economies in dress,
the frocks that had to be turned, the bonnets that were beauties when
they were bought, but had to be worn until the changes of fashion made
them frights, and then the mysterious parcels of left-off clothing from
goodness knows where--how the independence of the girl's spirit rebelled
against such humiliations!

The blood of her mother was beginning to boil over, and the old-maid
_régime_, which had crushed the life out of the Frenchwoman, was
suffocating the Manx girl with its formalism. She was always forgetting
the meal times regulated by the sun, and she could sleep at any time and
keep awake until any hour. It tired her to sit demurely like a young
lady, and she had a trick of lying down on the floor. She often laughed
in order not to cry, but she would not even smile at a great lady's silly
story, and she did not care a jot about the birthdays of the royal
family. The old aunts loved her body and soul, but they often said,
"Whatever is going to happen to the girl when the grandfather is gone?"

And the grandfather--good man--would have laid down his life to save her
a pain in her toe, but he had not a notion of the stuff she was made of.
His hobby was the study of the runic crosses with which the Isle of Man
abounds, and when she helped him with his rubbings and his casts he was
as merry as an old sand-boy. Though they occupied the same house, and her
bedroom that faced the harbour was next to his little musty study that
looked over the scullery slates, he lived always in the tenth century and
she lived somewhere in the twentieth.

The imprisoned linnet was beating at the bars of its cage. Before she was
aware of it she wanted to escape from the sleepy old scene, and had begun
to be consumed with longing for the great world outside. On summer
evenings she would go up Peel Hill and lie on the heather, where she had
first seen John Storm, and watch the ships weighing anchor in the bay
beyond the old dead castle walls, and wish she were going out with
them--out to the sea and the great cities north and south. But existence
closed in ever-narrowing circles round her, and she could see no way out.
Two years passed, and at eighteen she was fretting that half her life had
wasted away. She watched the sun until it sank into the sea, and then she
turned back to Glenfaba and the darkened region of the sky.

It was all the fault of their poverty, and their poverty was the fault of
the Church. She began to hate the Church; It had made her an orphan; and
when she thought of religion as a profession it seemed a selfish thing
anyway. If a man was really bent on so lofty an aim (as her own father
had been) he could not think of himself; he had to give up life and love
and the world, and then these always took advantage of him. But people
had to live in the world for all that, and what was the good of burying
yourself before you were dead?

Somehow her undefined wishes took shape in visions of John Storm, and one
day she heard he was home again. She went out on the hill that evening
and, being seen only by the gulls, she laughed and cried and ran. It was
just like poetry, for there he was himself lying on the edge of the cliff
near the very spot where she had been used to lie. On seeing him she went
more slowly, and began to poke about in the heather as if she had seen
nothing. He came up to her with both hands outstretched, and then
suddenly she remembered that she was wearing her old jersey, and she
flushed up to the eyes and nearly choked with shame. She got better
by-and-bye and talked away like a mill-wheel, and then fearing he might
think it was from something quite different, she began to pull the
heather and to tell him why she had been blushing. He did not laugh at
all. With a strange smile he said something in his deep voice that made
her blood run cold.

"But I'm to be a poor man myself in future, Glory. I've quarrelled with
my father. I'm going into the Church."

It was a frightful blow to her, and the sun went down like a shot. But it
burst open the bars of her cage for all that. After John Storm had found
a curacy in London and taken Orders, he told them at Glenfaba that among
his honorary offices was to be that of chaplain to a great West End
hospital. This suggested to Glory the channel of escape. She would go out
as a hospital nurse. It was easier said than done, for hospital nursing
was fashionable, and she was three years too young. With great labour she
secured her appointment as probationer, and with greater labour still
overcame the fear and affection of her grandfather. But the old parson
was finally appeased when he heard that Glory's hospital was the same
that John Storm was to be chaplain of, and that they might go up to
London together.




III.

"Dear Grandfather Of Me, And Everybody At Glenfaba: Here I am at last,
dears, at the end of my Pilgrim's Progress, and the evening and the
morning' are the first day. It is now eleven o'clock at night, and I am
about to put myself to bed in my own little room at the hospital of
Martha's Vineyard, Hyde Park, London, England.

"The captain was quite right; the morning was as fresh as his flattery,
and before we got far beyond the Head most of the passengers were spread
out below like the three legs of Man. Being an old sea-doggie myself, I
didn't give it the chance to make me sick, but went downstairs and lay
quiet in my berth and deliberated great things. I didn't go up again
until we got into the Mersey, and then the passengers were on deck,
looking like sour buttermilk spilt out of the churn.

"What a glorious sight! The ships, the docks, the towers, the town! I
couldn't breathe for excitement until we got up to the landing-stage. Mr.
Storm put me into a cab, and for the sake of experience I insisted on
paying my own way. Of course he tried to trick me, but a woman's a woman
for a' that. As we drove up to Lime Street station there befell--a
porter. He carried my big trunk on his head (like a mushroom), and when I
bought my ticket he took me to the train while Mr. Storm went for a
newspaper. Being such a stranger, he was very kind, so I flung the
responsibility on Providence and gave him sixpence.

"There were two old ladies in the carriage beside ourselves, and the
train we travelled by was an express. It was perfectly delightful, and
for all the world like plunging into a stiff sou'wester off the rocks at
Contrary. But the first part of the journey was terrible. That tunnel
nearly made me shriek. It was a misty day too at Liverpool, and all the
way to Edge Hill they let off signals with a noise like battering-rams.
My nerves were on the rack; so taking advantage of the darkness of the
carriage, I began to sing. That calmed me, but it nearly drove the old
ladies out of their wits. _They_ screamed if I didn't; and just as I was
summoning the Almighty to attend to me a little in the middle of that
inferno, out we came as innocent as a baby. There was another of these
places just before getting into London. I suppose they are purgatories
through which you have to pass to get to these wonderful cities. Only if
I had been consulted in the making of the Litany ('from sudden death,
good Lord, deliver us') I should have made an exception for people in
tunnels.

"You never knew what an absolute ninny Glory is! I was burning with such
impatience to see London that when we came near it I couldn't see
anything for water under the brain. Approaching a great and mighty city
for the first time must be like going into the presence of majesty. Only
Heaven save me from such palpitation the day I become songstress to the
Queen!

"Mercy! what a roar and boom--a deep murmur as of ten hundred million
million moths humming away on a still evening in autumn! On a nearer view
it is more like a Tower-of-Babel concern, with its click and clatter. The
explosion of voices, the confused clamour, the dreadful disorder--cars,
wagons, omnibuses--it makes you feel religious and rather cold down the
back. What a needle in a haystack a poor girl must be here if there is
nobody above to keep track of her!

"Tell Aunt Rachel they are wearing another kind of bonnet in London--more
pokey in front--and say if I see the Queen I'll be sure to tell her all
about it.

"We didn't get to the hospital until nine, so I've not seen much of it
yet. The housekeeper gave me tea and told me I might go over the house,
as I wouldn't be wanted to begin duty before morning. So for an hour I
went from ward to ward like a female Wandering Jew. Such silence! I'm
afraid this hospital nursing is going to be a lockjaw business. And now
I'm going to bed--well, not homesick, you know, but just 'longing a lil
bit for all.' To-morrow morning I'll waken up to new sounds and sights,
and when I draw my blind I'll see the streets where the cars are forever
running and rattling. Then I'll think of Glenfaba and the birds singing
and rejoicing.

"Dispense my love throughout the island. Say that I love everybody just
the same now I'm a London lady as when I was a mere provincial girl, and
that when I'm a wonderful woman, and have brought the eyes of England
upon me, I'll come back and make amends. I can hear what grandfather is
saying: 'Gough bless me, what a girl, though!' Glory.

"P. S.--I've not said much about Mr. Storm. He left me at the door of the
hospital and went on to the house of his vicar, for that is where he is
to lodge, you know. On the way up I expended much beautiful poetry upon
him on the subject of love. The old girlies having dozed off, I chanced
to ask him if he liked to talk of it, but he said no, it was a
profanation. Love was too sacred, it was a kind of religion. Sometimes it
came unawares, sometimes it smouldered like fire under ashes, sometimes
it was a good angel, sometimes a devil, making you do things and say
things, and laying your life waste like winter. But I told him it was
just charming, and as for religion, there was nothing under heaven like
the devotion of a handsome and clever man to a handsome and clever woman,
when he gave up all the world for her, and his body and his soul and
everything that was his. I think he saw there was something in that, for
though he said nothing, there came a wonderful light into his splendid
eyes, and I thought if he wasn't going to be a clergyman--but no matter.
So long, dear!"




IV.

John Storm was the son of Lord Storm (a peer in his own right), and
nephew of the Prime Minister of England, the Earl of Erin. Two years
before John's birth the brothers had quarrelled about a woman. It was
John's mother. She had engaged herself to the younger brother, and
afterward fallen in love with the elder one. The voice of conscience told
her that it was her duty to carry out her engagement, and she did so.
Then the voice of conscience took sides with the laws of life and told
the lovers that they must renounce each other, and they both did that as
well. But the poor girl found it easier to renounce life than love, and
after flying to religion as an escape from the conflict between conjugal
duty and elemental passion she gave birth to her child and died. She was
the daughter of a rich banker, who had come from the soil, and she had
been brought up to consider marriage distinct from love. Exchanging
wealth for title, she found death in the deal.

Her husband had never stood in any natural affinity to her. On his part,
their marriage had been a loveless and selfish union, based on the desire
for an heir that he might found a family and cancel the unfair position
of a younger son. But the sin he committed against the fundamental law,
that marriage shall be founded only in love, brought its swift revenge.

On hearing that the wife was dead, the elder brother came to attend the
funeral. The night before that event the husband felt unhappy about the
part he had played. He had given no occasion for scandal, but he had
never disguised, even from the mother of his son, the motives of his
marriage. The poor girl was gone; he had only trained himself for the
pursuit of her dowry, and the voice of love had been silent. Troubled by
such thoughts, he walked about his room all night long, and somewhere in
the first dead gray of dawn he went down to the death chamber that he
might look upon her face again. Opening the door, he heard the sound of
half-stifled sobs. Some one was leaning over the white face and weeping
like a man with a broken heart. It was his brother.

From that time forward Lord Storm considered himself the injured person.
He had never cared for his brother, and now he designed to wipe him out.
His son would do it. He was the heir to the earldom, for the earl had
never married. But a posthumous revenge was too trivial. The earl had
gone into politics and was making a name. Lord Storm had missed his own
opportunities, though he had got himself called to the Upper House, but
his son should be brought up to eclipse everything.

To this end the father devoted his life to the boy's training. All
conventional education was wrong in principle. Schools and colleges and
the study of the classics were drivelling folly, with next to nothing to
do with life. Travel was the great teacher. "You shall travel as far as
the sun," he said. So the boy was taken through Europe and Asia and
learned something of many languages. He became his father's daily
companion, and nowhere the father went was it thought wrong for the boy
to go also. Conventional morality was considered mawkish. The chief aim
of home training was to bring children up in total ignorance, if
possible, of the most important facts and functions of life. But it was
_not_ possible, and hence suppression, dissimulation, lying, and, under
the ban of secret sin, one half the world's woe. So the boy was taken to
the temples of Greece and India, and even to Western casinos and dancing
gardens. Before he was twenty he had seen something of nearly everything
the world has in it.

When the time came to think of his career England was in straits about
her colonial empire. The vast lands over sea wanted to take care of
themselves. It was the moment of the "British North America Act," and
that gave the father his cue for action. While his brother the earl was
fiddling the country to the tune of limited self-government for Crown
colonies, the father of John Storm conceived the daring idea of breaking
up the entire empire, including the United Kingdom, into self-governing
states. They were to be the "United States of Great Britain."

This was to be John Storm's policy, and to work it out Lord Storm set up
a house in the Isle of Man where he might always look upon his plan in
miniature. There he established a bureau for the gathering of the data
that his son would need to use hereafter. Newspapers came to him in his
lonely retreat from all quarters of the globe, and he cut out everything
relating to his subject. His library was a dusty room lined all around
with brown-paper pockets, which were labelled with the names of colonies
and counties.

"It will take us two generations to do it, my boy, but we'll alter the
history of England."

At fifty he was iron-gray, and had a head like a big owl.

Meanwhile the object of these grand preparations, the offspring of that
loveless union, had a personality all his own. It seemed as if he had
been built for a big man every way, and Nature had been arrested in the
making of him. When people looked at his head they felt he ought to have
been a giant, but he was far from rivalling the children of Anak. When
they listened to his conversation they thought he might turn out to be a
creature of genius, but perhaps he was only a man of powerful moods. The
best strength of body and mind seemed to have gone into his heart. It may
be that the sorrowful unrest of his mother and her smothered passion had
left their red stream in John Storm's soul.

When he was a boy he would cry at a beautiful view in Nature, at a tale
of heroism, or at any sentimental ditty sung excruciatingly in the
streets. Seeing a bird's nest that had been robbed of its eggs he burst
into tears; but when he came upon the bleeding, broken shells in the
path, the tears turned to fierce wrath and mad rage, and he snatched up a
gun out of his father's room and went out to take the life of the
offender.

On coming to the Isle of Man he noticed as often as he went to church
that a little curly red-headed girl kept staring at him from the vicar's
pew. He was a man of two-and-twenty, but the child's eyes tormented him.
At any time of day or night he could call up a vision of their gleaming
brightness. Then his father sent him to Canada to watch the establishment
of the Dominion, and when he came back he brought a Canadian canoe and an
American yacht, and certain democratic opinions.

The first time he sailed the yacht in Manx waters he sighted a disabled
boat and rescued two children. One of them was the girl of the vicar's
pew, grown taller and more winsome. She nestled up to him when he lifted
her into the yacht, and, without knowing why, he kept his arms about her.

After that he called his yacht the _Gloria_, in imitation of her name,
and sometimes took the girl out on the sea. Notwithstanding the
difference of the years between them, they had their happy boy and girl
days together. In her white jersey and stocking-cap she looked every inch
a sailor. When the wind freshened and the boat plunged she stood to the
tiller like a man, and he thought her the sweetest sight ever seen in a
cockpit. And when the wind saddened and the boom came aboard she was the
cheeriest companion in a calm. She sang, and so did he, and their voices
went well together. Her favourite song was "Come, Lasses and Lads"; his
was "John Peel"; and they would sing them off and on for an hour at a
spell. Thus on a summer evening, when the bay was lying like a tired
monster asleep, and every plash of an oar was echoing on the hills, the
people on the land would hear them coming around the castle rock with
their--

  "D'ye ken John Peel, with his coat so gay?
  D'ye ken John Peel at the break of day?
  D'ye ken John P-e-e-l...."

For two years he amused himself with the child, and then realized that
she was a child no longer. The pity of the girl's position took hold of
him. This sunny soul with her sportfulness, her grace of many gifts, with
her eyes that flashed and gleamed like lightning, with her voice that was
like the warble of a bird, this golden-headed gipsy, this witch, this
fairy--what was the life that lay before her? Pity gave place to a
different feeling, and then he was aware of a pain in the breast when he
thought of the girl. As often as her eyes lasted upon him he felt his
face tingle and burn. He began to be conscious of an imprisoned side to
his nature, the passionate side, and he drew back afraid. This wild
power, this tempest, this raging fire within, God only knew whither it
was to lead him. And then he had given a hostage to fortune, or his
father had for him.

From his father's gloomy house at Knockaloe, where the winds were ever
droning in the trees, he looked over to Glenfaba, and it seemed to him
like a little white cloud lit up by the sunshine. His heart was forever
calling to the sunny spot over there, "Glory! Glory!" The pity of it was
that the girl seemed to understand everything, and to know quite well
what kept them apart. She flushed with shame that he should see her
wearing the same clothes constantly, and with head aside and furtive
glances she talked of the days when he would leave the island for good,
and London would take him and make much of him, and he would forget all
about his friends in that dead old place. Such talk cut him to the quick.
Though he had seen a deal of the world, he did not know much about the
conversation of women.

The struggle was brief. He began to wear plainer clothes--an Oxford
tweed coat and a flannel shirt--to talk about fame as an empty word, and
to tell his father that he was superior to all stupid conventions.

His father sent him to Australia. Then the grown-up trouble of his life
began.

He passed through the world now with eyes open for the privations of the
poor, and he saw everything in a new light. Unconsciously he was doing in
another way what his mother had done when she flew to religion from
stifled passion. He had been brought up as a sort of imperialist
democrat, but now he bettered his father's instructions. England did not
want more Parliaments, she wanted more apostles. It was not by giving
votes to a nation, but by strengthening the soul of a nation, that it
became great and free. The man for the hour was not he who revolved
schemes for making himself famous, but he who was ready to renounce
everything, and if he was great was willing to become little, and if he
was rich to become poor. There was room for an apostle--for a thousand
apostles--who, being dead to the world's glory, its money or its calls,
were prepared to do all in Christ's spirit, and to believe that in the
renunciation, which was the "secret" of Jesus, lay the only salvation
remaining for the world.

He tramped through the slums of Melbourne and Sydney, and afterward
through the slums of London, returned to the Isle of Man a Christian
Socialist, and announced to his father his intention of going into the
Church.

The old man did not fume and fly out. He staggered back to his room like
a bullock to its pen after it has had its death-blow in the shambles. In
the midst of his dusty old bureau, with its labelled packets full of
cuttings, he realized that twenty years of his life had been wasted. A
son was a separate being, of a different growth, and a father was only
the seed at the root that must decay and die.

Then he made some show of resistance.

"But with your talents, boy, surely you are not going to throw away your
chances of a great name?"

"I care nothing for a great name, father," said John. "I shall win a
greater victory than any that Parliament can give me."

"But, my boy, my dear boy! one must either be the camel or the
camel-driver; and then society----"

"I hate society, and society would hate me. It is only for the sake of
the few godly men that God spares it as he spared Sodom for Lot's sake."

Having braved this ordeal and nearly broken the heart of his old father,
he turned for his reward to Glory. He found her at her usual haunt on the
headlands.

"I was blushing when you came up, wasn't I?" she said. "Shall I tell you
why?"

"Why?"

"It was this," she said, with a sweep of her hand across her bosom.

He looked puzzled.

"Don't you understand? This old rag--it's the one I was wearing before
you went away."

He wanted to tell her how well she looked in it--better than ever now
that her bosom showed under its seamless curves, and her figure had grown
so lithe and shapely. But though she was laughing he saw she was ashamed
of her poverty, and he thought to comfort her.

"I'm to be a poor man myself in future, Glory. I've quarrelled with my
father. I'm going to take Orders."

Her face fell. "Oh, I didn't think anybody would be poor who could help
it. To be a clergyman is all right for a poor man, perhaps, but I hate to
be poor; it's horrid."

Then darkness fell upon his eyes and he felt sad and sick. Glory had
disappointed him. She was vain, she was worldly, she was incapable of the
higher things; she would never know what a sacrifice he had made for her;
she would think nothing of him now; but he would go on all the same, the
more earnestly because the devil had drawn a bow at him and the arrow had
gone in up to the feathers.

"With God's help I shall nail my colours to the mast," he said.

Thus he made up his mind to follow the unrolling of the scroll. He had
the strength called character. The Church had been his beacon before, but
now it was to be his refuge.

He found no difficulty in making the necessary preparations. For a year
he read the Anglican divines--Jeremy Taylor, Hooker, Butler, Waterland,
Pearson, and Pusey--and when the time came for his ordination his uncle,
the Earl of Erin, who was now Prime Minister, obtained him a title to a
curacy under the popular and influential Canon Wealthy of All Saints,
Belgravia. The Bishop of London gave letters dimissory to the Bishop of
Sodor and Man, by whom he was examined and ordained.

On the morning of his departure for London his father, with whom there
had in the meantime been trying scenes, left him this final word of
farewell: "As I understand that you intend to lead the life of poverty, I
presume that you do not need your mother's dowry, and I shall hold myself
at liberty to dispose of it elsewhere, _unless_ you require it for the
use of the young lady who is, I hear, to go up with you."




V.

"I will be a poor man among poor men," said John Storm to himself as he
drove to his vicar's house in Eaton Place, but he awoke next morning in a
bedroom that did not answer to his ideas of a life of poverty. A footman
came with hot water and tea, and also a message from the canon overnight
saying he would be pleased to see Mr. Storm in the study after breakfast.

The study was a sumptuous apartment immediately beneath, with soft
carpets on which his feet made no noise, and tiger-skins over the backs
of chairs. As he entered it a bright-faced man in middle life,
clean-shaven, wearing a gold-mounted _pince-nez_, and bubbling over with
politeness, stepped forward to receive him.

"Welcome to London, my dear Mr. Storm. When the letter came from the
Prime Minister I said to my daughter Felicity--you will see her
presently--I trust you will be good friends--I said, 'It is a privilege,
my child, to meet any wish of the dear Earl of Erin, and I am proud to be
in at the beginning of a career that is sure to be brilliant and
distinguished.'"

John Storm made some murmur of dissent.

"I trust you found your rooms to your taste, Mr. Storm?"

John Storm had found them more than he expected or desired.

"Ah, well, humble but comfortable, and in any case please regard them as
your own, to receive whom you please therein, and to dispense your own
hospitalities. This house is large enough. We shall not meet oftener than
we wish, so we can not quarrel. The only meal we need take together is
dinner. Don't expect too much. Simple but wholesome--that's all we can
promise you in a clergyman's family."

John Storm answered that food was an indifferent matter to him, and that
half an hour after dinner he never knew what he had eaten. The canon
laughed and began again.

"I thought it best you should come to us, being a stranger in London,
though I confess I have never had but one of my clergy residing with me
before. He is here now. You'll see him by-and-bye. His name is Golightly,
a simple, worthy young man, from one of the smaller colleges, I believe.
Useful, you know, devoted to me and to my daughter, but of course a
different sort of person altogether, and--er----"

It was a peculiarity of the canon that whatever he began to talk about,
he always ended by talking of himself.

"I sent for you this morning, not having had the usual opportunity of
meeting before, that I might tell you something of our organization and
your own duties.... You see in me the head of a staff of six clergy."

John Storm was not surprised; a great preacher must be followed by flocks
of the poor; it was natural that they should wish him to help them and to
minister to them.

"We have no poor in my parish, Mr. Storm."

"No poor, sir?"

"On the contrary, her Majesty herself is one of my parishioners."

"That must be a great grief to you, sir?"

"Oh, the poor! Ah, yes, certainly. Of course, we have our associated
charities, such as the Maternity Home, founded in Soho by Mrs.
Callender--a worthy old Scotswoman--odd and whimsical, perhaps, but rich,
very rich and influential. My clergy, however, have enough to do with the
various departments of our church work. For instance, there is the
Ladies' Society, the Fancy Needlework classes, and the Decorative Flower
Guild, not to speak of the daughter churches and the ministration in
hospitals, for I always hold--er----"

John Storm's mind had been wandering, but at the mention of the hospital
he looked up eagerly.

"Ah, yes, the hospital. Your own duties will be chiefly concerned with
our excellent hospital of Martha's Vineyard. You will have the spiritual
care of all patients and nurses--yes, nurses also--within its precincts,
precisely as if it were your parish. 'This is my parish,' you will say to
yourself, and treat it accordingly. Not yet being in full Orders, you
will be unable to administer the sacrament, but you will have one service
daily in each of the wards, taking the wards in rotation. There are seven
wards, so there will be one service in each ward once a week, for I
always say that fewer----"

"Is it enough?" said John. "I shall be only too pleased----"

"Ah, well, we'll see. On Wednesday evenings we have service in the
church, and nurses not on night duty are expected to attend. Some fifty
of them altogether, and rather a curious compound. Ladies among them?
Yes, the daughters of gentlemen, but also persons of all classes. You
will hold yourself responsible for their spiritual welfare. Let me
see--this is Friday--say you take the sermon on Wednesday next, if that
is agreeable. As to views, my people are of all shades of colour, so I
ask my clergy to take strictly _via media_ views--strictly _via media_.
Do you intone?"

John Storm had been wandering again, but he recovered himself in time to
say he did not.

"That is a pity; our choir is so excellent--two violins, a viola,
clarinet, 'cello, double bass, the trumpets and drums, and of course the
organ. Our organist himself----"

At that moment a young clergyman came into the room, making apologies and
bowing subserviently.

"Ah, this is Mr. Golightly--the-h'm--Hon. and Rev. Mr. Storm.--You will
take charge of Mr. Storm and bring him to church on Sunday morning."

Mr. Golightly delivered his message. It was about the organist. His wife
had called to say that he had been removed to the hospital for some
slight operation, and there was some difficulty about the singer of
Sunday morning's anthem.

"Most irritating! Bring her up." The curate went out backward. "I shall
ask you to excuse me, Mr. Storm. My daughter, Felicity--ah, here she is."

A tall young woman in spectacles entered.

"This is our new housemate, Mr. Storm, nephew of dear Lord Erin.
Felicity, my child, I wish you to drive Mr. Storm round and introduce him
to our people, for I always say a young clergyman in London----"

John Storm mumbled something about the Prime Minister.

"Going to pay your respects to your uncle now? Very good and proper. Next
week will do for the visits. Yes, yes. Come in, Mrs. Koenig."

A meek, middle-aged woman had appeared at the door. She was dark, and had
deep luminous eyes with the moist look to be seen in the eyes of a tired
old terrier.

"This is the wife of our organist and choir master. Good day! Kindest
greetings to the Prime Minister.... And, by the way, let us say Monday
for the beginning of your chaplaincy at the hospital."

The Earl of Erin, as First Lord of the Treasury, occupied the narrow,
unassuming brick house which is the Treasury residence in Downing Street.
Although the official head of the Church, with power to appoint its
bishops and highest dignitaries, he was secretly a sceptic, if not openly
a derider of spiritual things. For this attitude his early love passage
had been chiefly accountable. That strife between duty and passion which
had driven the woman he loved to religion had driven him in the other
direction and left a broad swath of desolation in his soul. He had seen
little of his brother since that evil time, and nothing whatever of his
brother's son. Then John had written, "I am soon to be bound by the awful
tie of the priesthood," and he had thought it necessary to do something
for him. When John was announced he felt a thrill of tender feeling to
which he had long been a stranger. He got up and waited. The young man
with his mother's face and the eyes of an enthusiast was coming down the
long corridor.

John Storm saw his uncle first in the spacious old cabinet room which
looks out on the little garden and the Park. He was a gaunt old man with,
meagre mustache and hair, and a face like a death's head. He held out his
hand and smiled. His hand was cold and his smile was half tearful and
half saturnine.

"You are like your mother, John."

John never knew her.

"When I saw her last you were a child in arms and she was younger than
you are now."

"Where was that, uncle?"

"In her coffin, poor girl."

The Prime Minister shuffled some papers and said, "Well, is there
anything you wish for?"

"Nothing. I've come to thank you for what you've done already."

The Prime Minister made a deprecatory gesture.

"I almost wish you had chosen another career, John. Still, the Church has
its opportunities and its chances, and if I can ever----"

"I am satisfied; more than satisfied," said John. "My choice is based, I
trust, on a firm vocation. God's work is great, sir; the greatest of all
in London. That is why I am so grateful to you. Think of it, sir----"

John was leaning forward in his chair with one arm stretched out.

"Of the five millions of people in this vast city, not one million cross
the threshold of church or chapel. And then remember their condition. A
hundred thousand live in constant want, slowly starving to death, every
day and hour, and a quarter of the old people of London die as paupers.
Isn't it a wonderful scene, sir? If a man is willing to be spiritually
dead to the world--to leave family and friends--to go forth never to
return, as one might go to his execution----"

The Prime Minister listened to the ardent young man who was talking to
him there with his mother's voice, and then said--

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry?"

"I'm afraid I've made a mistake."

John Storm looked puzzled.

"I've sent you to the wrong place, John. When you wrote, I naturally
supposed you were thinking of the Church as a career, and I tried to put
you in the way of it. Do you know anything of your vicar?"

John knew that fame spoke of him as a great preacher--one of the few who
had passed through their Pentecost and come out with the gift of tongues.

"Precisely!" The Prime Minister gave a bitter little laugh. "But let me
tell you something about him. He was a poor curate in the country where
the lord of the manor chanced to be a lady. He married the lady of the
manor. His wife died and he bought a London parish. Then, by the help of
an old actor who gave lessons in elocution, he--well, he set up his
Pentecost. Since then he has been a fashionable preacher and frequents
the houses of great people. Ten years ago he was made an honorary canon,
and, when he hears of an appointment to a bishopric, he says in a tearful
voice, 'I don't know what the dear Queen has got against me.'"

"Well, sir?"

"Well, if I had known you felt like that I should scarcely have sent you
to Canon Wealthy. And yet I hardly know where else a young man of your
opinions ... I'm afraid the Church has a good many Canon Wealthys in it."

"God forbid!" said John. "No doubt there are Pharisees in these days just
as in the days of Christ, but the Church is still the pillar of the
State----"

"The caterpillar, you mean, boy--eating out its heart and its vitals."

The Prime Minister gave another bitter little laugh, then looked quickly
into John's flushed face and said:

"But it's poor work for an old man to sap away a young man's enthusiasm."

"You can't do that, uncle," said John, "because God is the absolute ruler
of all things, good and bad, and he governs both to his glory. Let him
only give us strength to endure our exile----"

"I don't like to hear you talk like that, John. I think I know what the
upshot will be. There's a gang of men about--Anglican Catholics they
call themselves; well, remember the German proverb, 'Every priestling
hides a popeling.' ... And if you _are_ to be in the Church, John, is
there any reason why you shouldn't marry and be reasonable? To tell you
the truth, I'm rather a lonely old man, whatever I may seem, and if your
mother's son would give me a sort of a grandson--eh?"

The Prime Minister was pretending to laugh again.

"Come, John, come, it seems a pity--a fine young fellow like you, too.
Are there no sweet young girls about in these days? Or are they all dead
and gone since I was a young fellow? I could give you a wide choice, you
know, for when a man stands high enough ... in fact, you would find me
reasonable--you might have anybody you liked, rich or poor, dark or
fair.----"

John Storm had been sitting in torment, and now he rose to go. "No,
uncle," he said, in a thicker voice, "I shall never marry. A clergyman
who is married is bound to life by too many ties. Even his affection for
his wife is a tie. And then there is her affection for the world, its
riches, its praise, its honours.----"

"Well, well, we'll say no more. After all, it's better than running wild,
and that's what most young men seem to be doing nowadays. But then your
long education abroad--and your poor father left to look after himself!
Good-day to you. Come and see me now and then. How like your mother you
are sometimes! Good-day!"

When the door of the cabinet room closed on John Storm the Prime Minister
thought, "Poor boy, he's laying up for himself a big heartache one of
these fine days!"

And John Storm, going down the street with uncertain step, said to
himself: "How strange he should talk like that! But, thank God, he didn't
produce a flicker in me. I died to all that a year ago."

Then he lifted his head and his footstep lightened, and deep in some
secret place the thought came proudly, "She shall see that to renounce
the world is to possess the world--that a man may be poor and have all
the kingdom of the world at his feet."

He went back by the Underground from Westminster Bridge. It was midday,
and the train was crowded. His spirits were high and he talked with every
one near him. Getting out at Victoria, he came upon his vicar on the
platform and saluted him rather demonstratively. The canon responded with
some restraint and then stepped into a first-class carriage.

On turning into Eaton Place he came upon a group of people standing
around something that lay on the pavement. It was an old woman, a
tattered, bedraggled creature with a pinched and pallid face. "Is it an
accident?" a gentleman was saying, and somebody answered, "No, sir, she's
gorn off in a faint." "Why doesn't some one take her to the hospital?"
said the gentleman, and then, like the Levite, he passed by on the other
side. The butcher's cart drew up at the curb, and the butcher jumped
down, saying, "There never _is_ no p'lice about when they're wanted for
anythink."

"But they aren't wanted here, friend," said somebody from the outside. It
was John Storm, and he was pushing his way through the crowd.

"Will somebody knock at that door, please?" He lifted the old thing in
his arms and carried her toward the canon's house. The footman looked
aghast. "Let me know when the canon returns," said John, and then marched
up the carpeted stairs to his rooms.

An hour afterward the old woman opened her eyes and said: "Anythink gorn
wrong? Wot's up? Is it the work'us?"

It was a clear case of destitution and collapse. John Storm began to feed
the old creature with the chicken and milk sent up for his own lunch.

Some time in the afternoon he heard the voice and step of the vicar in
the room below. Going down to the study, he was about to knock; but the
voice continued in varying tones, now loud, now low. During a pause he
rapped, and then, with noticeable irritation, the voice cried, "Come in!"

He found the vicar, with a manuscript in hand, rehearsing his Sunday's
sermon. It was a shock to John, but it helped him to understand what his
uncle had said about the canon's Pentecost.

The canon's brow was clouded. "Ah, is it you? I was sorry to see you
getting out of a third-class carriage to-day, Mr. Storm."

John answered that it was the poor man's class, and therefore, he
thought, it ought to be his.

"You do yourself an injustice, Mr. Storm. Besides, to tell you the truth,
I don't choose that my assistant clergy----"

John looked ashamed. "If that is your view, sir," he said, "I don't know
what you'll say to what I've been doing since."

"I've heard of it, and I confess I'm not pleased. Whatever your old
_protégée_ may be, my house is no place for her. I help to maintain
charitable institutions for such cases, and I will ask you to lose no
time in having her removed to the hospital."

John was crushed. "Very well, sir, if that is your wish; only I thought
you said my rooms----Besides, the poor old thing fills her place as well
as Queen Victoria, and perhaps the angels are watching the one as much as
the other."

Next day John Storm called to see the old woman at Martha's Vineyard, and
he saw the matron, the house doctor, and a staff nurse as well. His
adventure was known to everybody at the hospital. Once or twice he caught
looks of amused compassion, and heard a twitter of laughter. As he stood
by the bed, the old woman muttered: "I knoo ez it wuzn't the work'us, my
dear. He spoke to me friendly and squeedged my 'and."

Coming through the wards he had looked for a face he could not see; but
just then he was aware of a young woman, in the print dress and white
apron of a nurse, standing in silence at the bed-head. It was Glory, and
her eyes were wet with tears.

"You mustn't do such things," she said hoarsely; "I can't bear it," and
she stamped her foot. "Don't you see that these people----"

But she turned about and was gone before he could reply. Glory was
ashamed for him. Perhaps she had been taking his part! He felt the blood
mounting to his face, and his cheeks tingling. Glory! His eyes were
swimming, and he dared not look after her; but he could have found it in
his heart to kiss the old bag of bones on the bed.

That night he wrote to the parson in the island: "Glory has left off her
home garments, and now looks more beautiful than ever in the white
simplicity of the costume of the nurse. Her vocation is a great one. God
grant she may hold on to it!" Then something about the fallacy of
ceremonial religion and the impossibility of pleasing God by such
religious formalities. "But if we have publicans and Pharisees now, even
as they existed in Christ's time, all the more service is waiting for
that man for whom life has no ambitions, death no terrors. I thank God I
am in a great measure dead to these things.... I will fulfil my promise
to look after Glory. My constant prayer is against Agag. It is so easy
for him to get a foothold in a girl's heart here. This great new world,
with its fashions, its gaieties, its beauty, and its brightness--no
wonder if a beautiful young girl, tingling with life and ruddy health,
should burn with impatience to fling herself into the arms of it. Agag is
in London, and as insinuating as ever."




VI.

On Sunday morning his fellow-curate came to his room to accompany him to
church. The Rev. Joshua Golightly was a little man with a hook nose,
small keen eyes, scanty hair, and a voice that was something between a
whisper and a whistle. He bowed subserviently, and made meek little
speeches.

"I do trust you will not be disappointed with our church and service. We
do all we can to make them worthy of our people."

As they walked down the streets he talked first of the church
officers--there were honorary wardens, gentlemen sidesmen, and lady
superintendents of floral decorations; then of the choir, which consisted
of organist and choir master, professional members, voluntary members,
and choir secretary. The anthem was sung by a professional singer,
generally the tenor from the opera; the canon could always get such
people--he was a great favourite with artistes and "the profession." Of
course, the singers were paid, and the difficulty this week had been due
to the exorbitant fee demanded by the Italian barytone from Covent
Garden.

Disappointment and disenchantment were falling on John Storm at every
step.

All Saints' was a plain, dark structure with a courtyard in front. The
bells were ringing, and a line of carriages was drawing up at the portico
as at the entrance to a theatre, discharging their occupants and passing
on. Vergers in yellow and buff, with knee-breeches, silk stockings, and
powdered wigs, were receiving the congregation at the doors.

"Let us go in by the west door--I should like you to see the screen to
advantage," said Mr. Golightly.

The inside of the church was gorgeous. As far up as the clerestory every
wall was frescoed, and every timber of the roof was gilded. At the
chancel end there was a wrought-iron screen of delicate tracery, and the
altar was laden with gold candlesticks. Above the altar and at either
side of it were stained glass windows. The morning sun was shining
through them and filling the chancel with warm splashes of light. Ladies
in beautiful spring dresses were following the vergers up the aisles.

"This way," the curate whispered, and John Storm entered the sacristy by
a low doorway like the auditorium entrance to a stage. There he met some
six others of his fellow-curates. They nodded to him and went on
arranging their surplices. The choir were gathering in their own
quarters, where the violins were tuning up and the choir boys were
laughing and behaving after their kind.

The bell slackened and stopped, and the organ began to play. When all
were ready they stepped into a long corridor and formed in line with
their faces to the chancel and their backs to a little door, at which a
verger in blue stood guard.

"The canon's room," whispered Mr. Golightly.

A prayer was said by some one, the choir sang the response, and then they
walked in procession to their places in the chancel, the choir boys
first, the canon last. Seen through the tracery of the screen, the
congregation appeared to fill every sitting in the church with a blaze of
light and colour, and the atmosphere was laden with delicate perfume.

The service was choral. An anthem was sung at the close of the sermon,
the collection being made during the hymn before it. The professional
singer looked like any other chorister in his surplice, save for his
swarthy face and heavy mustache.

The canon preached. He wore his doctor's hood of scarlet cloth. His
sermon was eloquent and literary, and it was delivered with elocutionary
power. There were many references to great writers, painters, and
musicians, including a panegyric on Michael Angelo and a quotation from
Browning. The sermon concluded with a passage from Dante in the original.

John Storm was dazed and perplexed. When the service was over he came out
alone, returning down the nave, which was now empty but still fragrant.
Among other notices pasted on a board in the porch he found this one:
"The vicar and wardens, having learned with regret that purses have been
lost on leaving the church, recommend the congregation to bring only such
money as they may need for the offertory."

Had he been to the house of God? No matter! God ruled the world in
righteousness and wrought out everything to his own glory.

Next morning he began duty as chaplain at the hospital, and when he had
finished the reading of his first prayers he could see that he had lived
down some of the derision due to his adventure with the old woman. That
poor old bag of bones was sinking and could not last much longer.

Going out by way of the dispensary, he saw Glory again, and heard that
she had been at church the day before. It was lovely. All those hundreds
of nice-looking people in gay colours, with the rustle of silk and the
hum of voices--it was beautiful--it reminded her of the sea in summer. He
asked her what she thought of the sermon, and she said, "Well, it wasn't
religion exactly--not what I call religion--not a 'reg'lar rousing
rampage for sowls,' as old Chalse used to say, but----"

"Glory," he said impetuously, "I'm to preach my first sermon on
Wednesday."

He did not ask her to come, but inquired if she was on night duty. She
answered No, and then somebody called her.

"She'll be there," he told himself, and he walked home with uplifted
head. He would look for her; he would catch her eye; she would see that
it was not necessary to be ashamed of him again.

And then close behind, very close, came recollections of her appearance.
He could reconstruct her new dress by memory--her face was easy to
remember. "After all, beauty is a kind of virtue," he thought. "And all
natural friendship is good for the progress of souls if it is built upon
the love of God."

He wrote nothing and learned nothing by heart. The only preparation he
made for his sermon was thought and prayer. When the Wednesday night came
he was very nervous. But the church was nearly empty, and the vergers,
who were in their everyday clothes, had only partially lit up the nave.
The canon had done him the honour to be present; his fellow-curates read
the prayers and lessons.

As he ascended the pulpit he thought he saw the white bonnets of a group
of nurses in the dim distance of one of the aisles, but he did not see
Glory and he dared not look again. His text was, "My kingdom is not of
this world." He gave it out twice, and his voice sounded strange to
himself--so weak and thin in that hollow place.

When he began to speak his sentences seemed awkward and difficult. The
things of the world were temporal and the nations of the world were out
of harmony with God. Men were biting and devouring each other who ought
to live as brothers. "Cheat or be cheated" was the rule of life, as the
modern philosopher had said. On the one side were the many dying of want,
on the other side the few occupied with poetry and art, writing addresses
to flowers, and peddling--in the portraiture of the moods and methods of
love, living lives of frivolity, taking pleasure in mere riches and the
lusts of the eye, while thousands of wretched mortals were grovelling in
the mire.... Then where was our refuge? ... The Church was the refuge of
God's people ... from Christ came the answer--the answer--the----

His words would not flow. He fought hard, threw out another passage, then
stammered, began again, stammered again, felt hot, made a fresh effort,
flagged, rattled out some words he had fixed in his mind, perspired, lost
his voice, and finally stopped in the middle of a sentence and said, "And
now to God the Father--" and came down from the pulpit.

His sermon had been a failure, and he knew it. On going back to the
sacristy the Reverend Golightly congratulated him with a simper and a
vapid smile. The canon was more honest but more vain. He mingled lofty
advice with gentle reproof. Mr. Storm had taken his task too lightly.
Better if he had written his sermon and read it. Whatever might serve for
the country, congregations in London--at All Saints' especially--expected
culture and preparation.

"For my own part I confess--nay, I am proud to declare--my watchword is
Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!"

As for the doctrine of the sermon it was not above question. It was
necessary to live in the _nineteenth_ century, and it was impossible to
apply to its conditions the rules of life that had been proper to the
first.

John Storm made no resistance. He slept badly that night. As often as he
dozed off he dreamed that he was trying to do something he could not do,
and when he awoke he became hot as with the memory of a disgrace. And
always at the back of his shame was the thought of Glory.

Next morning he was alone in his room and fumbling the toast on his
breakfast table, when the door opened and a cheery voice cried, "May I no
come in, laddie?"

An elderly lady entered. She was tall and slight and had a long, fine
face, with shrewd but kindly eyes, and nearly snow-white hair.

"I'm Jane Callender," she said, "and I couldna wait for an introduction
or sic bother, but must just come and see ye. Ay, laddie, it was a bonnie
sermon yon! I havena heard the match of it since I came frae Edinburgh
and sat under the good Doctor Guthrie. Now _he_ was nae slavish reader
neither--none of your paper preachers was Thomas. My word, but you gave
us the right doctrine, too! They're given over to the worship of
Beelzebub--half these church-going folks! Oh, these Pharisees! They are
enough to sour milk. I wish they had one neck and somebody would just
squeeze it. Now, where did ye hear that, Jane? But no matter! And the
lasses are worse than the men, with their fashions and foldololls. They
love Jesus, but they like him best in heaven, not bothering down in
Belgravia. But I must be going my ways. I left James on the street, and
there's nae living with the man if you keep his horses waiting.
Good-morning til ye! But eh, laddie, I'm afraid for ye! I'm thinking--I'm
thinking ... but come and see me at Victoria Square. Good-morning!"

She had rattled this off at a breath, and had hardly given time for a
reply, when her black silk was rustling down the stairs.

John Storm remembered that the canon had spoken of her. She was the good
woman who kept the home for girls at Soho.

"The good creature only came to comfort me," he thought. But Glory! What
was Glory thinking? That morning after prayers at the hospital he went in
search of her in the out-patient department, but she pretended to be
overwhelmed with work, and only nodded and smiled and excused herself.

"I haven't got a moment this morning either for the king or his dog. I'm
up to my eyes in bandages, and have fourteen plasters on my conscience,
and now I must run away to my little boy whose leg was amputated on
Saturday."

He understood her, but he came back in the evening and was resolved to
face it out.

"What did you think of last night, Glory?" Then she put on a look of
blank amazement.

"Why, what happened? Oh, of course, the sermon! How stupid of me! Do you
know I forgot all about it?"

"You were not there, then?"

"Don't ask me. Really, I'm ashamed; after my promise to grandfather, too!
But Wednesday doesn't count anyway, does it? You'll preach on Sunday--and
then!"

His feeling of relief was followed by a sense of deeper humiliation.
Glory had not even troubled herself to remember. Evidently he was nothing
to her, nothing; while she----

He walked home through St. James's Park, and under the tall trees the
peaceful silence of the night came down on him. The sharp clack of the
streets was deadened to a low hum as of the sea afar off. Across the
gardens he could see the clock in the tower of Westminster, and hear the
great bell strike the quarters. London! How little and selfish all
personal thoughts were in the contemplation of the mighty city! He had
been thinking only of himself and his own little doings. It was all so
small and pitiful!

"Did my shame at my failure in the pulpit proceed solely from fear of
losing the service of God, or did it proceed from wounded ambition, from
pride, from thoughts of Glory----"

But the peaceful stars were over him. It was a majestic night.




VII.

"Martha's Vineyard.

"Dear Auntie Rachel: Tell grandpa, to begin with, that John Storm
preached his first sermon on Wednesday last, and, according to programme,
I was there to hear it. Oh, God bless me! What a time I had of it! He
broke down in the middle, taking stage fright or pulpit fright or some
such devilry, though there was nothing to be afraid of except a
bandboxful of chattering girls who didn't listen, and a few old fogies
with ear-trumpets. I was sitting in the darkness at the back, effectually
concealed from the preacher by the broad shoulders of Ward Sister
Allworthy, who is an example of 'delicate femaleism' just verging on
old-maidenism. They tell me the 'discoorse' was a short one, but I never
got so many prayers into the time in all my born days, and my breath was
coming and going so fast that the Sister must have thought they had set
up a pumping-engine in the pew behind her. Our poor, heavy-laden Mr.
Storm has been here since then with his sad and eager face, but I hadn't
the stuff in me to tell him the truth about the sermon, so I told him I
had forgotten to go and hear it, and may the Lord have mercy on my soul!

"You want to know how I employ my time? Well, lest you should think I
give up my days to dreams and my nights to idleness, I hasten to tell
that I rise at 6, breakfast at 6.30, begin duty at 7, sup at 9.30 P.M.,
gossip till 10, and then go into my room and put myself to bed; and there
I am at the end of it. Being only a probationer, I am chiefly in the
out-patient department, where my duties are to collect the things wanted
at the dispensary, make the patients ready to see the surgeon, and pass
them on to the dressers. My patients at present are the children, and I
love them, and shall break my heart when I have to leave them. They are
not always too well looked after by the surgeon, but that doesn't matter
in the least, because, you see, they are constantly watched by the best
and most learned doctor in the world--that's me.

"Last Saturday I had my first experience of the operating theatre.
Gracious goodness! I thought I shouldn't survive it. Fortunately, I had
my dressings and sponges to look after, so I just stiffened my back with
a sort of imaginary six-foot steel bar, and went on 'like blazes.' But
some of these staff nurses are just 'ter'ble'; they take a professional
pleasure in descending to that inferno, and wouldn't miss a 'theatre' for
worlds. On Saturday it was a little boy of five who had his leg
amputated, and now when you ask the white-faced darling where he's going
to he says he's going to the angels, and he'll get lots of gristly pork
up there. He _is_ too.

"The _personnel_ of our vineyard is abundant, but there are various sour
grapes growing about. We have a medical school (containing lots of nice
boys, only a girl may not speak to them even in the corridors), and a
full staff of honorary and visiting physicians and surgeons. But the only
doctor we really have much to do with is the house surgeon, a young
fellow who has just finished his student's course. His name is Abery, and
since Saturday he has so much respect for Glory that she might even swear
in his presence (in Manx), but Sister Allworthy takes care that she
doesn't, having designs on his celibacy herself. He must have sung his
_Te Deum_ after the operation, for he got gloriously drunk and wanted to
inject morphia in a patient recovering from trouble of the kidney. It was
an old hippopotamus of a German musician named Koenig, and he was in a
frantic terror. So I whispered to him to pretend to go to sleep, and then
I told the doctor I had lost the syringe. But--'Gough bless me
sowl!'--what a dressing the Sister gave me!

"Yesterday was visiting-day, and when the friends of the patients come
even an hospital can have its humours. They try to sneak in little
dainties which may be delicious in themselves, but are deadly poison to
the people they are intended for. Then we have to search under the
bedclothes of the patients, and even feel the pockets of their visitors.
The mother of my little boy came yesterday, and I noticed such a large
protuberance at her bosom under her ulster that I began to foresee
another operation. It was only a brick of currant cake, paved with lemon
peel. I hauled it out and moved round like a cloud of thunder and
lightning. But she began to cry and to say she had made it herself for
Johnnie, and then--well, didn't I just get a wigging from the Sister,
though!

"But I don't mind what happens here, for I am in London, and to be in
London is to live, and to live is to be in London. I've not seen much of
it yet, having only two hours off duty every day--from ten to twelve--and
then all I can do is to make little dips into the park and the district
round about, like a new pigeon with its wings clipped. But I watch the
great new world from my big box up here, and see the carriages in the
park and the people riding on horseback. They have a new handshake in
London. You lift your hand to the level of your shoulder, and then waggle
horizontally as if you had put your elbow out; and when you begin to
speak you say, 'I--er--' as if you had got the mumps. But it is
beautiful! The sound of the traffic is like music, and I feel like a
war-horse that wants to be marching to it. How delightful it is to be
young in a world so full of loveliness! And if you are not very ugly it's
none the worse.

"All hospital nurses are just now basking in the sunshine of a
forthcoming ball. It is to be given at Bartimaeus's Hospital, where they
have a lecture theatre larger than the common, and the dancing there is
for once to be to a happier tune. All the earth is to be present--all the
hospital earth--and if I could afford to array myself in the necessary
splendour, I should show this benighted London what an absolute angel
Glory is! But then my first full holiday is to be on the 24th, when I
expect to be out from 10 A. M. until 10 P. M. I am nearly crazy whenever
I think of it, and when the time comes to make my first plunge into
London, I know I shall hold my breath exactly as if I were taking a
header off Creg Malin rocks.... Glory."




VIII.

On the morning of the 24th Glory rose at five, that she might get through
her work and have the entire day for her holiday. At that hour she came
upon a rough-haired nurse wearing her cap a little on one side and
washing a floor with disinfectants. Being in great spirits, Glory
addressed her cheerfully.

"Are you off to-day too?" she said.

The nurse gave her a contemptuous glance and answered: "I'm not one of
your paying probationers, Miss--playing probationers _I_ call them. We
nurses are hard-working women, whose life spells duty; and we've got no
time for sight-seeing and holiday-making."

"No, but you are one of those who ruin the profession altogether," said a
younger woman who had just come up. "They will expect everybody to do the
same. This is my day off, but I have to do the grate, and sweep the ward,
and make the bed, and tidy the Sister's room--and it's all through people
like you. Small thanks you get for it either, for a girl may not even
wear her hair in a fringe, and she is always expecting to hear the
matron's 'You're not fit for nursing, Miss.'"

Glory looked at her. She was an exquisitely pretty girl, with dark hair,
pink and ivory cheeks, and light-gray eyes; but her hands were coarse,
and her finger nails flat and square, and when you looked again there was
a certain blemished appearance about her beauty as of a Sèvres vase that
is cracked somewhere.

"Do you say you are off to-day?" said Glory,

"Yes, I am; are you?"

"Yes, but I'm strange to London. Could you take me with you--if you are
going nowhere in particular?"

"Certainly, dear. I've noticed you before and wanted to speak to you.
You're the girl with the splendid name--Glory, isn't it?"

"Yes; what is yours?"

"Polly Love."

At ten o'clock that morning the two girls set out for their long day's
jaunt.

"Now where shall we go?" said Polly.

"Let's go where we can see a great many people," said Glory.

"That's easy enough, for this is the Queen's birthday, and----"

Glory thought of Aunt Rachel and made a cry of delight.

"And now that I think of it," said Polly, as if by a sudden memory, "I've
got tickets for the trooping of the colours--the Queen's colours, you
know."

"Shall we see her?" said Glory.

"What a question! Why, no, but we'll see the soldiers, and the generals,
and perhaps the Prince. It's at ten-thirty, and only across the park."

"Come along," said Glory, and she began to drag at her companion and to
run.

"My gracious, what a girl you are, to be sure!"

But they were both running in another minute, and laughing and chattering
like children escaped from school. In a quarter of an hour they were at
the entrance to the Horse Guards. There was a crowd at the gates, and a
policeman was taking tickets. Polly dived into her pocket.

"Where are mine? Oh, here they are. A great friend gave me them," she
whispered. "He has a chum in one of those offices."

"A gentleman," said Glory with studied politeness; but they were crushing
through the gate by that time, and thereafter she had eyes and ears for
nothing but the pageant before her.

It was a beautiful morning, and the spring foliage of the park was very
green and fresh. Three sides of the great square were lined with
redcoats; the square itself was thronged with people, and every window
and balcony looking over it was filled. There were soldiers, sentries,
policemen, the generals in cocked hats, and the Prince himself in a
bearskin, riding by with the jingle of spurs and curb-chain. Then the
ta-ra-ta-ta-ra of the bugle, the explosive voice crying, "Escort for the
colour!" the officer carrying it, the white gloves of the staff
fluttering up the salute, the flash of bayonets, the march round, and the
band playing The British Grenadiers. It was like a dream to Glory. She
felt her bosom heaving, and was afraid she was going to cry.

Polly was laughing and prattling merrily. "Ha, ha, ha! see that soldier
chasing a sunshade? My! he has caught it with his sword."

"I suppose these are all great people," whispered Glory.

"I should think so," said Polly. "Do you see that gentleman in the window
opposite?--that's the Foreign Office."

"Which?" said Glory, but her eyes were wandering.

"The one in the frock-coat and the silk hat, talking to the lady in the
green lawn and the black lace fichu and the spring bonnet."

"You mean beside that plain girl wearing the jungle of rhododendrons?"

"Yes; that's the gentleman that gave my friend the tickets."

Glory looked at him for a moment, and something very remote seemed to
stir in her memory; but the band was playing once more, and she was
wafted away again. It was God save the Queen this time, and when it ended
and everybody cried "All over!" she took a long, deep breath and said,
"_Well!_"

Polly was laughing at her, and Glory had to laugh also. They set each
other off laughing, and people began to look at them, and then they had
to laugh again and run away.

"This Glory is the funniest girl," said Polly; "she is surprised at the
simplest thing."

They went to look at the shops, passing up Regent Street, across the
Circus and down Oxford Street toward the City, laughing and talking
nonsense all the time. Once when they made a little purchase at a shop
the shopwoman looked astonished at the freedom with which they carried
themselves, and after that they felt inclined to go into every shop in
the street and behave absurdly everywhere. In the course of two hours
they had accomplished all the innocent follies possible to the
intoxication of youth, and were perfectly happy.

By this time they had reached the Bank and were feeling the prickings of
hunger, so they looked out a restaurant in Cheapside and went in for some
dinner. The place was full of men, and several of them rose at once when
the two girls entered. They were in their out-door hospital costume, but
there was something showy about Polly's toilet, and the men kept looking
their way and smiling. Glory looked back boldly and said in an audible
voice, "What fun it must be to be a barmaid, and to have the gentlemen
wink at you, and be laughing back at them!" But Polly nudged, her and
told her to be quiet. She looked down herself, but nevertheless contrived
to use her eyes as a kind of furtive electric battery in the midst of the
most innocent conversation. It was clear that Polly had flown farthest in
the ways of the world, and when you looked at her again you could see
that the balance of her life had been deranged by some one.

After dinner the girls got into an omnibus and went still farther east,
sitting at opposite sides of the car, and laughing and talking loudly to
each other, amid the astonishment of the other occupants. But when they
came to mean and ugly streets with green-grocers' barrows by the
curbstone, and weird and dreary cemeteries in the midst of gaunt, green
sticks that were trying to look like trees, Glory thought they had better
return.

They went back by the Thames steamboat from some landing stage among the
docks. The steamer picked up passengers at every station on the river,
and at London Bridge a band came aboard. As they sailed under St. Paul's
the boat was crowded with people going west to see the celebrations in
honour of the birthday, and the band was playing And her Golden Hair was
hanging down her Back.

At one moment Glory was wild with delight, and at the next her gaiety
seemed to be suddenly extinguished. The sun was setting behind the towers
of Westminster in a magnificent lake of fire, and it seemed like the sun
going down at Peel, except that the lights beneath, which glistened and
flashed, were windows, not waves, and the deep hum was not the noise of
the mighty sea, but the noise of mighty millions.

They landed at Westminster Bridge and went to a tearoom for tea. When
they came out it was quite dark, and they got on to the top of an
omnibus. But the town was now ablaze with gas and electric lights that
were flinging out the initials of the Queen, and Whitehall was dense with
carriages going to the official receptions. Glory wanted to be in the
midst of so much life, so the girls got down and walked arm in arm.

As they passed through Piccadilly Circus they were laughing again, for
the oppression of the crowds made them happy. The throng was greatest at
that point and they had to push their way through. Among others there
were many gaily-dressed women, who seemed to be waiting for omnibuses.
Glory noticed that two of these women, who were grimacing and lisping,
had spoken to a man who was also lounging about. She tugged at Polly's
arm.

"That's strange! Did you see that?" she said.

"That! Oh, that's nothing. It's done every day," said Polly.

"What does it mean?" said Glory.

"Why, you don't mean to say--well, this, Glory---- Really your friends
ought to take care of you, my dear, you are so ignorant of the world."

And then suddenly, as by a flash of lightning, Glory had her first
glimpse of the tragic issues of life.

"Oh, my gracious! Come along," she whispered, and dragged Polly after
her.

They were panting past the end of St. James's Street when a man with an
eye-glass and a great shield of shirt-front collided with them and
saluted them. Glory was for forging ahead, but Polly had drawn up.

"It's only my friend," said Polly in another voice.--"This is a new
nurse. Her name is Glory."

The man said something about a glorious name and a glorious pleasure to
be nursed by such a nurse, and then both the girls laughed. He was glad
they had found his tickets useful, but sorry he could not see them back
to the hospital, being dragged away to the bally Foreign Office reception
in honour of the Queen's birthday.

"But I'm coming to the ball, you know, and," with a glance at Glory,
"I've half a mind to bring my chum along with me!"

"Oh, do," said Polly, partly covering the pupils of her eyes with her
eyelids.

The man lowered his voice and said something about Glory which Glory did
not catch, then waved his white-kid glove, saying "Ta-ta," and was gone.

"Is he married?" said Glory.

"Married! Good gracious, no; what ridiculous ideas you've got!"

It was ten minutes after ten as the girls turned in at a sharp trot at
the door of the hospital, still prattling and chattering and bringing
some of the gaiety and nonsense of their holiday into the quiet precincts
of the house of pain. The porter shook his finger at them with mock
severity, and a ward Sister going through the porch in her white silence
stopped to say that a patient had been crying out for one of them.

"It's me--I know it's me," said Polly. "I've got a brother here out of a
monastery, and he can't do with anybody else about him. It makes me tired
of my life."

But it was Glory who was wanted. The woman whom John Storm had picked up
out of the streets was dying. Glory had helped to nurse her, and the poor
old thing had kept herself alive that she might deliver to Glory her last
charge and message. She could see nobody, so Glory leaned over the bed
and spoke to her.

"I'm here, mammie; what is it?" she said, and the flushed young face bent
close above the withered and white one.

"He spoke to me friendly and squeedged my 'and, he did. S'elp me never,
it's true. Gimme a black cloth on the corfin, my dear, and mind yer tell
'im to foller."

"Yes, mammie, yes. I will-be sure I--I--Oh!"

It was Glory's first death.




IX.

John Storm had been through his first morning call that afternoon. For
this ordeal he had presented himself in a flannel shirt in the hall,
where the canon was waiting for him in patent-leather boots and kid
gloves, and his daughter Felicity in cream silk and white feathers. After
they had seated themselves in the carriage the canon, said: "You don't
quite do yourself justice, Mr. Storm. Believe me, to be well dressed is a
great thing to a young man making his way in London."

The carriage stopped at a house that seemed to be only round the corner.

"This is Mrs. Macrae's," the canon whispered. "An American lady-widow of
a millionaire. Her daughter--you will see her presently--is to marry into
one of our best English families."

They were walking up the wide staircase behind the footman in blue. There
was a buzz of voices coming from a room above.

"Canon--er--Wealthy, Miss Wealthy, and--er--the--h'm--Rev. Mr. Storm!"

The buzz of voices abated, and a bright-faced little woman, showily
dressed, came forward and welcomed them with a marked accent. There were
several other ladies in the room, but only one gentleman. This person,
who was standing, with teacup and saucer in hand, at the farther side,
screwed an eyeglass in his eye, looked across at John Storm, and then
said something to the lady in the chair beside him. The lady tittered a
little. John Storm looked back at the man, as if by an instinctive
certainty that he must know him when he saw him again. He was engulfed in
a high, stiff collar, and was rather ugly; tall, slender, a little past
thirty; fair, with soft, sleepy eyes, and no life in his expression, but
agreeable; fit for good society, with the stamp of good breeding, and
capable of saying little humorous things in a thin "roofy" voice.

"I was real sorry I didn't hear Mr. Storm Wednesday evening," Mrs. Macrae
was saying, with a mincing smile. "My daughter told me it was just too
lovely.--Mercy, this is your great preacher. Persuade him to come to my
'At Home' Tuesday."

A tall, dark girl, with gentle manners and a beautiful face, came slowly
forward, put her hand into John's, and looked steadily into his eyes
without speaking. Then the gentleman with the eyeglass said suavely,
"Have you been long in London, Mr. Storm?"

"Two weeks," John answered shortly, and half turned his head.

"How--er--interesting!" with a prolonged drawl and a little cold titter.

"Oh, Lord Robert Ure--Mr. Storm," said the hostess.

"Mr. Storm has done me the honour to become one of my assistant clergy,
Lord Robert," said the canon, "but he is not likely to be a curate long."

"That is charming," said Lord Robert. "It is always a relief to hear that
I am likely to have one candidate the less for my poor perpetual curacy
in Pimlico. They're at me like flies round a honey-pot, don't you know. I
thought I had made the acquaintance of all the perpetual curates in
Christendom. And what a sweet team they are, to be sure! The last of them
came yesterday. I was out, and my friend Drake--Drake of the Home Office,
you know--couldn't give the man the living, so he gave him sixpence
instead, and the creature went away quite satisfied."

Everybody seemed to laugh except John, who only stared into the air, and
the loudest laughter came from the canon. But suddenly an incisive voice
said:

"But why sharpen your teeth on the poor curates? Is there no a canon or a
bishop handy that's better worth a bite?"

It was Mrs. Callender.

"I tell ye a story too, only _mine_ shall be a true one."

"Jane! Jane!" said the hostess, shaking her fan as a weapon; and Lord
Robert stretched his neck over his collar and made an amiable smile.

"A girl of eighteen came to me this morning at Soho, and she was in the
usual trouble. The father was a wicked rector. He died last year leaving
thirty-one thousand pounds; and the mother of his unfortunate child--that
is to say, his mistress--is now in the Union."

It was the first sincere word that had been spoken, where every tone had
been wrong, every gesture false, and it fell on the company like a
thunderclap. John Storm drew his breath hard, looked up at Lord Robert by
a strange impulse, and felt himself avenged.

"What a beautiful day it has been!" said somebody. Everybody looked up at
the maker of this surprising remark. It was a lady, and she blushed until
her cheeks burned again.

A painful silence followed, and then the hostess turned to Lord Robert
and said:

"You spoke of your friend Drake, didn't you? Everybody is talking of him,
and as for the girls, they seem to be crazy about the man. So handsome,
they say; so natural, and such a splendid talker. But then, girls are so
quick to take fancies to people. You really must take care of yourself,
my dear." (This to Felicity.) "Who is he? Lord Robert will tell you--an
official of some kind, and son of Sir something Drake, of one of the
northern counties. He knows the secret of getting on in the world, though
he doesn't go about too much. But I've determined not to live any longer
without making the acquaintance of this wonderful being, so Lord Robert
must just bring him along Tuesday evening, or else----"

John Storm escaped at last, without promising to come to the "At Home."
He went direct to the hospital and learned that Glory was out for the
day. Where she could have gone, and what she could be doing, puzzled him
grievously. That she had not put herself under his counsel and direction
on her first excursion abroad hurt his pride and wounded his sense of
responsibility. As the night fell his anxiety increased. Though he knew
she would not return until ten, he set out at nine to meet her.

At a venture he took the eastward course, and passed slowly down
Piccadilly. The façade of nearly every club facing the park was flaming
with electric light. Young men in evening dress were standing on the
steps, smoking and taking the air after dinner, and pretty girls in showy
costumes were promenading leisurely in front of them. Sometimes, as a
girl passed, she looked sharply up and the corner of her mouth would be
raised a little, and when she had gone by there would be a general burst
of laughter.

John's blood boiled, and then his heart sank; he felt so helpless, his
pity and indignation were so useless and unnecessary. All at once he saw
what he had been looking for. As he went by the corner of St. James's
Street he almost ran against Glory and another nurse in the costume of
their hospital. They did not observe him; they were talking to a man; it
was the man he had met in the afternoon--Lord Robert Ure.

John heard the man say, "Your Glory is such a glorious----" and then he
lowered his voice, and appeared to say something that was very amusing,
for the other girl laughed a great deal.

John's soul was now fairly in revolt, and he wanted to stop, to order the
man off and to take charge of the two nurses as his duty seemed to
require of him. But he passed them, then looked back and saw the group
separate, and as the man went by he watched the girls going westward.
There was a glimpse of them under the gas-lamp as they crossed the
street, and again a glimpse as they passed into the darkness under the
trees of the park.

He could not trust himself to return to the hospital that night, and his
indignation was no less in the morning. But there was a letter from Glory
saying that his poor old friend was dead, and had begged that he would
bury her. He dressed himself in his best ("We can't take liberties with
the poor," he thought) and walked across to the hospital at once. There
he asked for Glory, and they went downstairs together to that still
chamber underground which has always its cold and silent occupant. It is
only a short tenancy that anybody can have there, so the old woman had to
be buried the same morning. The parish was to bury her, and the van was
at the door.

He was standing with Glory in the hall, and his heart had softened to
her.

"Glory," he said, "you shouldn't have gone out yesterday without telling
me, the dangers of London are so great."

"What dangers?" she asked.

"Well, to a young girl, a beautiful girl----"

Glory peered up under her long eyelashes.

"I mean the dangers from--I'm ashamed in my soul to say it--the dangers
from men."

She shot up a quick glance into his face and said in a moment, "You saw
us, didn't you?"

"Yes, I saw you, and I didn't like your choice of company."

She dropped her head demurely and said, "The man?"

John hesitated. "I was speaking of the girl. I don't like the freedom
with which she carries herself in this house. Among these good and
devoted women is there no one but this--this----?"

Glory's lower lip began to show its inner side. "She's bright and lively,
that's all I care."

"But it's not all _I_ care, Glory, and if such men as that are her
friends outside----"

Glory's head went up. "What is it to me who are her friends outside?"

"Everything, if you allow yourself to meet them again."

"Well," doggedly, "I am going to meet them again. I'm going to the
Nurses' Ball on Tuesday."

John answered with deliberation, "Not in that girl's company."

"Why not?"

"I say _not_ in that girl's company."

There was a short pause, and then Glory said with a quivering mouth: "You
are vexing me, and you will end by making me cry. Don't you see you are
degrading me too? I am not used to being degraded. You see me with a weak
silly creature who hasn't an idea in her head and can do nothing but
giggle and laugh and make eyes at men, and you think I'm going to be led
away by her. Do you suppose a girl can't take care of herself?"

"As you will, then," said John, with a fling of his hand, going off down
the steps.

"Mr. Storm--Mr. Storm--Jo--Joh----"

But he was out on the pavement and getting into the workhouse van.

"Ah!" said a mincing voice beside her. "How jolly it is when anybody is
suffering for your sake!" It was Polly Love, and again her eyelids were
half covering her eyes.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," said Glory. Her own eyes were
swimming in big tear-drops.

"Don't you? What a funny girl you are! But your education has been
neglected, my dear."

It was a combination van and hearse with the coffin under the driver's
box, and John Storm (as the only discoverable mourner) with the
undertaker on the seat inside.

"Will ye be willin' ter tyke the service at the cimitery, sir?" said the
undertaker, and John answered that he would.

The grave was on the paupers' side, and when the undertaker, with his
man, had lowered the coffin to its place, he said, "They've gimme abart
three more funerals this morning, so I'll leave ye now, sir, to finish
'er off."

At the next moment John Storm in his surplice was alone with the dead,
and had opened his book to read the burial service which no other human
ear was to hear.

He read "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," and then the bitter loneliness of
the pauper's doom came down on his soul and silenced him.

But his imprisoned passion had to find a vent, and that night he wrote to
the Prime Minister: "I begin to understand what you meant when you said I
was in the wrong place. Oh, this London, with its society, its worldly
clergy, its art, its literature, its luxury, its idle life, all built on
the toil of the country and compounded of the sweat of the nameless poor!
Oh, this 'Circe of cities,' drawing good people to it, decoying them,
seducing them, and then turning them into swine! It seems impossible to
live in the world and to be spiritually-minded. When I try to do so I am
torn in two."




X.

On the following Tuesday evening two young men were dining in their
chambers in St. James's Street. One of them was Lord Robert Ure; the
other was his friend and housemate, Horatio Drake. Drake was younger than
Lord Robert by some seven or eight years, and also beyond comparison more
attractive. His face was manly and handsome, its expression was open and
breezy; he was broad-shouldered and splendidly built, and he had the fair
hair and blue eyes of a boy.

Their room was a large one, and it was full of beautiful and valuable
things, but the furniture was huddled about in disorder. A large
chamber-organ, a grand piano, a mandolin, and two violins, pictures on
the floor as well as on the walls, many photographs scattered about
everywhere, and the mirror over the mantelpiece fringed with
invitation-cards, which were stuck between the glass and the frame.

Their man had brought in the coffee and cigarettes. Lord Robert was
speaking in his weary drawl, which had the worn-out tone of a man who had
made a long journey and was very sleepy.

"Come, dear boy, make up your mind, and let us be off."

"But I'm tired to death of these fashionable routs."

"So am I."

"They're so unnatural--so unnecessary."

"My dear fellow, of course they're unnatural--of course they're
unnecessary; but what would you have?"

"Anything human and natural," said Drake. "I don't care a ha'p'orth about
the morality of these things--not I--but I am dead sick of their
stupidity."

Lord Robert made languid puffs of his cigarette, and said, in a tearful
drawl: "My dear Drake, of course it is exactly as you say. Who doesn't
know it is so? It has always been so and always will be. But what refuge
is there for the poor leisured people but these diversions which you
despise? And as for the poor titled classes--well, they manage to make
their play their business sometimes, don't you know. Confess that they do
sometimes, now, eh?"

Lord Robert was laughing with an awkward constraint, but Drake looked
frankly into his face and said:

"How's that matter going on, Robert?"

"Fairly, I think, though the girl is not very hot on it. The thing came
off last week, and when it was over I felt as if I had proposed to the
girl and been accepted by the mother, don't you know. I believe this rout
to-night is expressly in honour of the event, so I mustn't run away from
my bargain."

He lay back, sent funnels of smoke to the ceiling, and then said, with a
laugh like a gurgle: "I'm not likely to, though. That eternal dun was
here again to-day. I had to tell him that the marriage would come off in
a year certain. That was the only understanding on which he would agree
to wait for his money. Bad? Of course it's bad; but what would you have,
dear boy?"

The men smoked in silence for a moment, and then Lord Robert said again:
"Come, old fellow, for friendship's sake, if nothing else. She's a decent
little woman, and dead bent on having you at her house to-night. And if
you're badly bored we'll not stay long. We'll come away early
and--listen--we'll slip across to the Nurses' Ball at Bartimaeus's
Hospital; there'll be fun enough there, at all events."

"I'll go," said Drake.

Half an hour later the two young men were driving up to the door of Mrs.
Macrae's house in Belgrave Square. There was a line of carriages in front
of it, and they had to wait their turn to approach the gate. Footmen in
gorgeous livery were ready to open the cab door, to help the guests
across the red baize that lay on the pavement, to usher them into the
hall, to lead them to the little marble chamber where they entered their
names in a list intended for the next day's _Morning Post_, and finally
to direct them to the great staircase where the general crush moved
slowly up to the saloon above.

In the well of the stairs, half hidden behind a little forest of palms
and ferns, a band in yellow and blue uniform sat playing the people in.
On the landing the hostess stood waiting to receive, and many of the
guests, by a rotary movement like the waters of a maelstrom, moved past
her in a rapid and babbling stream, twisted about her, and came down
again. She welcomed Lord Robert effusively, and motioned to him to stand
by her side. Then she introduced her daughter to Drake and sent them
adrift through the rooms.

The rooms were large ones with parquet flooring from which all furniture
had been removed, except the palms and ferns by the walls and the heavy
chandeliers overhead. It was not yet ten o'clock, but already the house
was crowded, and every moment there were floods of fresh arrivals. First
came statesmen and diplomatists, then people who had been to the
theatres, and toward the end of the evening some of the actors
themselves. The night was close and the atmosphere hot and oppressive. At
the farther end of the suite there was a refreshment-room with its
lantern lights pulled open; and there the crush was densest and the
commotion greatest. The click-clack of many voices cut the thick air as
with a thousand knives, and over the multitudinous clatter there was
always the unintelligible boom of the band downstairs.

Most of the guests looked tired. The men made some effort to be cheerful,
but the women were frankly jaded and fagged. Bedizened with diamonds,
coated with paint and powder, laden with rustling silks, they looked
weary and worn out. When spoken to they would struggle to smile, but the
smiles would break down after a moment into dismal looks of misery and
oppression.

"Had enough?" whispered Lord Robert to Drake.

Drake was satisfied, and Lord Robert began to make their excuses.

"Going already!" said Mrs. Macrae. "An official engagement, you say?--Mr.
Drake, is it? Oh, don't tell me! I know--_I_ know! Well, you'll be
married and settled one of these days--and then!"

They were in a hansom cab driving across London in the direction of
Bartimaeus's Hospital. Drake was bare-headed and fanning himself with his
crush hat. Lord Robert was lighting a cigarette.

"Pshaw! What a stifling den! Did you ever hear such a clitter-clatter? A
perfect Tower of Babel building company! What in the name of common sense
do people suppose they're doing by penning themselves up like that on a
night like this? What are they thinking about?"

"Thinking about, dear boy? You're unreasonable! Nobody wants to think
about anything in such scenes of charming folly."

"But the women! Did you _ever_ see such faded, worn-out dummies for the
display of diamonds? Poor little women in their splendid misery! I was
sorry for your _fiancée_, Robert. She was the only woman in the house
without that hateful stamp of worldliness and affectation."

"My dear Drake, you've learned many things, but there's one thing you
have not yet learned--you haven't learned how to take serious things as
trifles, and trifles as serious things. Learn it, my boy, or you'll
embitter existence. You are not going to alter the conditions of
civilization by any change in your own particular life; so just look out
the prettiest, wittiest, wealthiest little woman who is a dummy for the
display of diamonds----"

"Me? Not if I know it, old fellow! Give me a little nature and
simplicity, if it hasn't got a second gown to its back."

"All right--as you like," said Lord Robert, flinging out the end of his
cigarette. "You've got the pull of some of us--you can please yourself.
And here we are at old Bartimaeus's, and this is a very different pair of
shoes!"

They were driving out of one of London's main thoroughfares, through a
groined archway, into one of London's ancient buildings with its quiet
quadrangle where trees grow and birds sing. Every window of the square
was lighted up, and there was a low murmur of music being played within."

"Listen!" said Lord Robert. "I am here ostensibly as the guest of the
visiting physician, don't you know, but really in the interests of the
little friend I told you of."

"The one I got the tickets for last week?"

"Precisely."

At the next moment they were in the ballroom. It was the lecture theatre
for the students of the hospital school--a building detached from the
wards and of circular shape, with a gallery round its walls, which were
festooned with flags and roofed with a glass dome. Some two hundred girls
and as many men were gathered there; the pit was their dancing ring and
the gallery was their withdrawing room. The men were nearly all students
of the medical schools; the girls were nearly all nurses, and they wore
their uniform: There was not one jaded face among them, not one weary
look or tired expression. They were in the fulness of youth and the
height of vigour. The girls laughed with the ring of joy, their eyes
sparkled with the light of happiness, their cheeks glowed with the
freshness of health.

The two men stood a moment and looked on.

"Well, what do you think of it?" said Lord Robert.

Drake's wide eyes were ablaze, and his voice came in gusts.

"Think of it!" he said. "It's wonderful! It's glorious!"

Lord Robert's glass had dropped from his eye, and he was laughing in his
drawling way.

"What are you laughing at? Women like these are at least natural, and
Nature can not be put on."

The mazurka had just finished, and the dancers were breaking into groups.

"Robert, tell me who is that girl over there--the one looking this way?
Is it your friend?"

Lord Robert readjusted his glass.

"The pretty dark girl with the pink-and-white cheeks, like a doll?"

"Yes; and the taller one beside her--all hair, and eyes, and bosom. She's
looking across now. I've seen that girl before somewhere. Now, where have
I seen her? Look at her--what fire, and life, and movement! The dance is
over, but she can't keep her feet still."

"I see--I see. But let me introduce you to the matron and doctors first,
and then----"

"I know now--I know where I've seen her! Be quick, Robert, be quick!"

Lord Robert laughed again in his tired drawl. He was finding it very
amusing.




XI.

When Glory learned that all nurses eligible to attend the ball were to
wear hospital uniform, being on day duty she decided to go to it. But
then came John Storm's protest against the company of Polly Love, and she
felt half inclined to give it up. As often as she remembered his
remonstrance she was disturbed, and once or twice when alone she shed
tears of anger and vexation.

Meantime Polly was full of arrangements, and Glory found herself day by
day carried along in the stream of preparation. When the night came the
girls dressed in the same cubicle. Polly was prattling like a parrot, but
Glory was silent and almost sad.

By help of the curling tongs and a candle Polly did up her dark hair into
little knowing curls that went in and out on her temples and played
hide-and-seek around the pretty shells of her pink-and-white ears. Glory
was slashing the comb through her golden-red hair by way of preliminary
ploughing, when Polly cried: "Stop! Don't touch it any more, for
goodness' sake! It's perfect! Look at yourself now."

Glory stood off from the looking glass and looked. "Am I really so nice?"
she thought; and then she remembered John Storm again, and had half a
mind to tear down her glorious curls and go straight away to bed.

She went to the ball instead, and, being there, she forgot all about her
misgivings. The light, the colour, the brilliance, the perfume
transported her to an enchanted world which she had never entered before.
She could not control her delight in it. Everything surprised her,
everything delighted her, everything amused her--she was the very soul of
girlish joy. The dark-brown spot on her eye shone out with a coquettish
light never seen in it until now, and the warble in her voice was like
the music of a happy bird. Her high spirits were infectious--her
lighthearted gaiety communicated itself to everybody. The men who might
not dance with her were smiling at the mere sight of the sunshine in her
face, and it was even whispered about that the President of the College
of Surgeons, who opened the ball, had said that her proper place was not
there--a girl like that young Irish nurse would do honour to a higher
assembly.

In that enchanted world of music and light and bright and happy faces
Glory lost all sense of time; but two hours had passed when Polly Love,
whose eyes had turned again and again to the door, tugged at her sleeve
and whispered: "They've come at last! There they are--there--directly
opposite to us. Keep your next dance, dear. They'll come across
presently."

Glory looked where Polly had directed, and, seeing again the face she had
seen in the window of the Foreign Office, something remote and elusive
once more stirred in her memory. But it was gone in a moment, and she was
back in that world of wonders, when a voice which she knew and yet did
not know, like a voice that called to her as she was awakening out of a
sleep, said:

"Glory, don't you remember me? Have you forgotten me, Glory?"

It was her friend of the catechism class--her companion of the adventure
in the boat. Their hands met in a long hand-clasp with the gallop of
feeling that is too swift for thought.

"Ah, I thought you would recognise me! How delightful!" said Drake.

"And you knew me again?" said Glory.

"Instantly--at first sight almost."

"Really! It's strange, though. Such a long, long time--ten years at
least! I must have changed since then."

"You have," said Drake; "you've changed very much."

"Indeed now! Am I really so much changed for all? I've grown older, of
course."

"Oh, terribly older," said Drake.

"How wrong of me! But you have changed a good deal, too. You were only a
boy in jackets then."

"And you were only a girl in short frocks."

They both laughed, and then Drake said, "I'm so glad we've changed
together!"

"Are you?" said Glory.

"Why, yes," said Drake; "for if you had changed and I hadn't----"

"But what nonsense we're talking!" said Glory; and they both laughed
again.

Then they told each other what had happened in that infinite cycle of
time which had spun round since they parted. Glory had not much to
narrate; her life had been empty. She had been in the Isle of Man all
along, had come to London only recently, and was now a probationer-nurse
at Martha's Vineyard. Drake had gone to Harrow and thence to Oxford, and,
being a man of artistic leanings, had wished to take up music, but his
father had seen no career in it; so he had submitted--he had entered the
subterranean catacombs of public life, and was secretary to one of the
Ministers. All this he talked of lightly, as became a young man of the
world to whom great things were of small account.

"Glory," said Polly, at her elbow, "the waltz is going to begin."

The band was preluding. Drake claimed the dance, and Glory was astonished
to find that she had it free (she had kept it expressly).

When the waltz was over he gave her his arm and led her into the circular
corridor to talk and to cool. His manners were perfect, and his voice, so
soft and yet so manly, increased the charm. In passing out of the hot
dancing room she threw her handkerchief over her head, and, with the hand
that was at liberty, held its ends under her chin. She wished him to look
at her and see what change this had made; so she said, quite innocently:

"And now let me look at you again, sir!"

He recognised the dark-brown spot on her eye, and he could feel her arm
through her thin print dress.

"You've told me a good deal," he said, "but you haven't said a syllable
about the most important thing of all."

"And pray what is that?" said she.

"How many times have you fallen in love since I saw you last?"

"Good gracious, what a question!" said Glory.

His audacity was delightful. There was something so gracious and yet so
masterful about him.

"Do you remember the day you carried me off--eloped with me, you know?"
said Drake.

"I? How charming of me! But when was that, I wonder?" said Glory.

"Never mind; say, do you remember?"

"Well, if I do? What a pair of little geese we must have been in those
days!"

"I'm not so sure of that--_now_,'" said he.

"You didn't seem very keen about me _then_, as far as I can remember,"
said she.

"Didn't I?" said he. "What a silly young fool I must have been!"

They laughed again. She could not keep her arm still, and he could almost
feel its dimpled elbow.

"And do _you_ remember the gentleman who rescued us?" she said.

"You mean the tall, dark young man who kept hugging and kissing you in
the yacht?"

"Did he?"

"Do you forget that kind of thing, then?"

"It was very sweet of him. But he's in the Church now, and the chaplain
of our hospital."

"What a funny little romantic world it is, to be sure!"

"Yes; it's like poetry, isn't it?" she answered.

Lord Robert came up to introduce Drake to Polly (who was not looking her
sweetest), and he claimed Glory for the next dance.

"So you knew my friend Drake before?" said Lord Robert.

"I knew him when he was a boy," said Glory.

And then he began to sing his friend's praises--how he had taken a
brilliant degree at Oxford, and was now private secretary to the Home
Secretary, and would go into public life before long; how he could paint
and act, and might have made a reputation as a musician; how he went into
the best houses, and was a first-rate official; how, in short, he had the
promised land before him, and was just on the eve of entering it.

"Then I suppose you know he is rich--enormously rich?" said Lord Robert.

"Is he?" said Glory, and something great and grand seemed to shimmer a
long way off.

"Enormously," said Sir Robert; "and yet a man of the most democratic
opinions."

"Really?" said Glory.

"Yes," said Lord Robert; "and all the way down in the hansom he has been
trying to show me how impossible it is for him to marry a lady."

"Now why did you tell me that I wonder?" said Glory, and Lord Robert
began to fidget with his eye-glass.

Drake returned with Polly. He proposed that they should take the air in
the quadrangle, and they went off for that purpose, the girls arm-in-arm
some paces ahead.

"There's a dash of Satan himself in that red-headed girl," said Lord
Robert. "She understands a man before he understands himself."

"She's as natural as Nature," said Drake. "And what lips--what a mouth!"

"Irish, isn't she? Oh, Manx! What's Manx, I wonder?"

The night was very warm and close, and there was hardly more air in the
courtyard. The sound of the band came to them there, and Glory, who had
danced with nearly everybody within, must needs dance by herself without,
because the music was more sweet and subdued out there, and dancing in
the darkness was like a dream.

"Come and sit down on the seat, Glory," said Polly fretfully; "you are
getting on my nerves, dear."

"Glory," said Drake, "how do the Londoners strike you?"

"Much like other mortals," said Glory; "no better, no worse--only
funnier."

The men laughed at that description, and Glory proceeded to give
imitations of London manners--the high handshake, the "Ha-ha" of the
mumps, the mouthing of the canon, and the mincing of Mr. Golightly.

Drake bellowed with delight; Lord Robert drawled out a long owlish laugh;
Polly Love said spitefully, "You might give us your friend, the new
curate, next, dearest," and then Glory went down like a shot.

"Really," began Drake, "it's not hospital nursing, you know----"

But there were low murmurings of thunder and some large splashes of rain,
and they returned to the ballroom. The doctors and the matrons were gone
by this time; only the nurses and the students remained, and the fun was
becoming furious. One young student was pulling down a girl's hair, and
another was waltzing with his partner carried bodily in his arms.
Somebody lowered the lights, and they danced in a shadow-land; somebody
began to sing, and they all sang in chorus; then somebody began to fling
about paper bags full of tiny white wafers, and the bags burst in the air
like shells, and their contents fell like stars from a falling rocket,
and everybody was covered as with flakes of snow.

Meantime the storm had broken, and above the clash and clang of the
instruments of the band and the rhythmic shuffle of the feet of the
dancers and the clear, joyous notes of their happy singing, there was the
roar of the thunder that rolled over London, and the rattle of the rain
on the glass dome overhead.

Glory was in ecstasies; it was like a mist on Peel Bay at night with the
moon shining through it and the waves dancing to a northwest breeze. It
was like a black and stormy sea outside Contrary, with the gale coming
down from the mountains. And yet it was a world of wonder and enchantment
and beauty, and bright and happy faces.

It was morning when the ball broke up, and then the rain had abated,
though the thunder was still rumbling. The men were to see the girls back
to the hospital, and Glory and Drake sat in a hansom-cab together.

"So you always forget that kind of thing, do you?" he said.

"What kind of thing?" she asked.

"Never mind; _you_ know!"

She had put up the hood of her outdoor cape, but he could still see the
gleam of her golden hair.

"Give me that rose," he said; "the white one that you put in your hair."

"It's nothing," she answered.

"Then give it to me. I'll keep it forever and ever."

She put up her hand to her head.

"Ah! how sweet of you! And what a lovely little hand! But no; let me take
it for myself."

He reached one arm around her shoulder, put his hand under her chin,
tipped up her face, and kissed her on the lips.

"Darling!" he whispered.

Then in a moment she awoke from her world of wonder and enchantment, and
the intoxication of the evening left her. She did not speak; her head
dropped; she felt her cheeks burn red, and she hid her face in her hands.
There was a momentary sense of dishonour, almost of outrage. Drake
treated her lightly, and she was herself to blame.

"Forgive me, Glory!" he was saying, in a voice tremulous and intense. "It
shall never happen again--never--so help me God!"

The day was dawning, and the last raindrops were splashing on the wet and
empty pavement. The great city lay asleep, and the distant thunder was
rolling away from it.




XII.

The chaplain of Martha's Vineyard had not been to the hospital ball.
Before it came off he had thought of it a good deal, and as often as he
remembered that he had protested to Glory against the company of Polly
Love he felt hot and ashamed. Polly was shallow and frivolous, and had a
little crab-apple of a heart, but he knew no harm of her. It was hardly
manly to make a dead set at the little thing because she was foolish and
fond of dress, and because she knew a man who displeased him.

Then she was Glory's only companion, and to protest against Glory going
in her company was to protest against Glory going at all. That seemed a
selfish thing to do. Why should he deny her the delights of the ball? He
could not go to it himself--he would not if he could; but girls liked
such things--they loved to dance, and to be looked at and admired, and
have men about them paying court and talking nonsense.

There was a sting in that thought, too; but he struggled to be
magnanimous. He was above all mean and unmanly feelings--he would
withdraw his objection.

He did not withdraw it. Some evil spirit whispered in his heart that
Glory was drifting away from him. This was the time to see for certain
whether she had passed out of the range of his influence. If she
respected his authority she would not go. If she went, he had lost his
hold of her, and their old relations were at an end.

On the night of the ball he walked over to the hospital and asked for
her. She had gone, and it seemed as if the earth itself had given way
beneath his feet.

He could not help feeling bitterly about Polly Love, and that caused him
to remember a patient to whom her selfish little heart had shown no
kindness. It was her brother. He was some nine or ten years older, and
very different in character. His face was pale and thin--almost
ascetic--and he had the fiery and watery eyes of the devotee. He had
broken a blood-vessel and was threatened with consumption, but his case
was not considered dangerous. When Polly was about, his eyes would follow
her round the ward with something of the humble entreaty of a dog. It was
clear that he loved his sister, and was constantly thinking of her. But
she hardly ever looked in his direction, and when she spoke to him it was
in a cold or fretful voice.

John Storm had observed this. It had brought him close to the young man,
and the starved and silent heart had opened out to him. He was a
lay-brother in an Anglican Brotherhood that was settled in Bishopsgate
Street. His monastic name was Brother Paul. He had asked to be sent to
that hospital because his sister was a nurse there. She was his only
remaining relative. One other sister he had once had, but she was
gone--she was dead--she died---- But that was a sad and terrible story;
he did not like to talk of it.

To this broken and bankrupt creature John Storm found his footsteps
turning on that night when his own heart lay waste. But on entering the
ward he saw that Brother Paul had a visitor already. He was an elderly
man in a strange habit--a black cassock which buttoned close at the neck
and fell nearly to his feet, and was girded about the waist by a black
rope that had three great knots at its suspended ends. And the habit was
not more different from the habit of the world than the face of the
wearer was unlike the worldly face. It was a face full of spirituality, a
face that seemed to invest everything it looked upon with a holy peace--a
beautiful face, without guile or craft or passion, yet not without the
signs of internal strife at the temples and under the eyes; but the
battles with self had all been fought and won.

As John Storm stepped up, the old man rose from his chair by the
patient's bed.

"This is the Father Superior, sir," said Brother Paul.

"I've just been hearing of you," said the Father in a gentle voice. "You
have been good to my poor brother."

John Storm answered with some commonplace--it had been a pleasure, a
happiness; the brother would soon leave them; they would all miss
him--perhaps himself especially.

The Father resumed his chair and listened with an earnest smile. "I
understand you, dear friend," he said. "It is so much more blessed to
give than to receive! Ah, if the poor blind world only knew! How it
fights for its pleasures that perish, and its pride of life that passes
away! Yet to succour a weaker brother, or protect a fallen woman, or feed
a little child will bring a greater joy than to conquer all the kingdoms
of the earth."

John Storm sat down on the end of the bed. Something had gone out to him
in a moment, and he was held as by a spell. The Father talked of the love
of the world--how strange it was, how difficult to understand, how
tragic, how pitiful! The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye--how
mean, how delusive, how treacherous! To think of the people of that
mighty city day by day and night by night making themselves miserable in
order that they might make themselves merry; to think of the children of
men scouring the globe for its paltry possessions, that could not add one
inch to the stature of the soul, while all the time the empire of peace
and joy and happiness lay here at hand, here within ourselves, here in
the little narrow compass of the human heart! To give, not to get, that
was the great blessedness, and to give of yourself, of your heart's love,
was the greatest blessedness of all.

John Storm was stirred. "The Church, sir," he said, "the Church itself
has to learn that lesson."

And then he spoke of the hopes with which he had come up to London, and
how they were being broken down and destroyed; of his dreams of the
Church and its mission, and how they were dying or dead already.

"What liars we are, sir! How we colour things to justify ourselves! Look
at our sacraments--are they a lie, or are they a sacrilege? Look at our
charities--are we Pharisees or are we hypocrites? And our clergy,
sir--our fashionable clergy! Surely some tremendous upheaval will shake
to its foundations the Church wherein such things are possible--a Church
that is more worldly than the world! And then the woman-life of the
Church, see how it is thrown away. That sweetest and tenderest and
holiest power, how it goes to waste under the eye and with the sanction
of the Church in the frivolities of fashion--in drawing-rooms, in
gardens, in bazars, in theatres, in balls----"

He stopped. His last word had arrested him. Had he been thinking only of
himself and of Glory? His head fell and he covered his face with his
hand.

"You are right, my son," said the Father quietly, "and yet you are wrong,
too. The Church of God will not be shaken to its foundations because of
the Pharisees who stand in its public places, or because of the publicans
who haunt its purlieus. Though the axe be laid to the rotten tree, yet
the little seed will save its kind alive."

Then with an earnest smile and in a gentle voice he spoke of their little
brotherhood in Bishopsgate Street; how ten years ago they had founded it
for detachment from earthly cares and earthly aims, and for hiddenness
with God; how they had established it in the midst of the world's,
busiest highway, in the heart of the world's greatest market, to show
that they despised gold and silver and all that the blind and cheated
world most prizes, just as St. Philip and St. Ignatius had established
the severest of modern rules in a profane and self-indulgent century, to
show that they could stamp out every suggestion of the flesh as a spark
from the fires of hell.

And then he lifted his cord and pointed to the knots at the end of it,
and told what they were--symbols of the three bonds by which he was
bound--the three vows he had taken: the vow of poverty, because Christ
chose it for himself and his friends; the vow of obedience, because he
had said, "He that heareth you heareth Me"; and the vow of chastity,
because it was our duty to guard the gates of the senses, and to keep our
eyes and ears and tongue from all inordinateness.

"But the lawful love of home and kindred," said John; "what of that?"

"We convert it into what is spiritual," said the Father. "All human love
must be based on the love of God if it is to be firm and true and
enduring, and the reason of so much failure of love in natural friendship
is that the love of the creature is not built upon the love of the
Creator."

"But the love--say of mother and son--of brother and sister?"

"Ah, we have placed ourselves above the ordinary conditions of life that
none may claim our affections in the same way as Christ. Man has to
contend with two sets of enemies--those from within and those from
without; and no temptations are more subtle than those which come in the
name of our holiest affections. But the sword of the spirit must keep the
tempter away. There is the Judas in all of us, and he will betray us with
a kiss if he can."

John Storm's breast was heaving. He could scarcely conceal his agitation;
but the Father had risen to go.

"It is eight o'clock, and I must be back to Compline," he said. And then
he laughed and added: "We never ride in cabs; but I must needs walk
across the park to-night, for I have given away all my money."

At that the smile of an angel came into his old face, and lie said, with
a sweet simplicity:

"I love the park. Every morning the children play there, and then it is
the holy Catholic Church to me, and I like to walk in it and to lay my
hands on the heads of the little ones, and to ask a blessing for them,
and to empty my-self. This morning as I was coming here I met a little
boy carrying a bundle. 'And what is _your_ name, my little man?' I said,
and he told me what it was. 'And how old are you?' I asked. 'Twelve
years,' he answered. 'And what have you got in your bundle?' 'Father's
dinner, sir,' he said. 'And what is your father, my son?' 'A carpenter,'
said the boy. And I thought if I had been living in Palestine nineteen
hundred years ago I might have met another little Boy carrying the dinner
of his father, who was also a carpenter, in a little bundle which Mary
had made up for him. So I felt in my pocket, and all I had was my fare
home again, and I gave it to the little man as a thank-offering to God
that he had suffered me to meet a sweet boy of twelve whose father was a
carpenter."

John Storm's eyes were dim with tears.

"Good-bye, Brother Paul, and God send you back to us soon!--Good-bye to
you, dear friend; and when the world deals harshly with you come to us
for a few days in Retreat, that in the silence of your soul you may
forget its vanities and vexations and fix your thoughts above."

John Storm could not resist the impulse--he dropped to his knees at the
Father's feet.

"Bless me also, Father, as you blessed the carpenter's boy."

The Father raised two fingers of his right hand and said:

"God bless you, my son, and be with you and strengthen you, and when he
smiles on you may the frown of man affect you not!--Father in heaven,
look down on this fiery soul and succour him! Help him to cast off every
anchor that holds him to the world, and make him as a voice crying in the
wilderness, 'Come out of her, my people, saith our God.'"

When John rose from his knees the saintly face was gone, and all the air
seemed to be filled with a heavenly calm.

While he had been kneeling for the Father's blessing he had been aware of
a step on the floor behind him. It was his fellow-curate, the Reverend
Golightly, who was still waiting to deliver his message.

The canon had been disappointed in one of his preachers for Sunday, and
being himself engaged to preside over the annual dinner of a dramatic
benevolent fund to be held on the Saturday night, and therefore incapable
of extra preparation, he desired that Mr. Storm should take the sermon on
Sunday morning.

John promised to do so; and then his fellow-curate smiled, bowed,
coughed, and left him. A small room was kept for the chaplain on the
ground floor of the hospital, and he went down to it and wrote a letter.

It was to the parson at Peel.

"No doubt you hear from Glory frequently, and know all about her progress
as a probationer. She seems to be very well, and certainly I have never
seen her look so bright and so cheerful. At the moment of writing she is
out at a ball given by some of the hospital authorities. Well, it is a
perfectly harmless source of pleasure, and with all my heart I hope she
is enjoying herself. No doubt some form of amusement is necessary to a
young girl in the height of her youth and health and beauty, and he would
be only a poor sapless man who could not take delight in the thought that
a good girl was happy. Her fellow-nurses, too, are noble and devoted
women, doing true woman's work, and if there are some black sheep among
them, that is no more than might be expected of the purest profession in
the world.

"As for myself, I have tried to carry out-my undertaking to look after
Glory, but I can not say how long I may be able to continue the task. Do
not be surprised if I am compelled to give it up. You know I am
dissatisfied with my present surroundings, and I am only waiting for the
ruling and direction of the pillar of cloud and fire. God alone can tell
how it will move, but God will guide me. I don't go out more than I can
help, and when I do go I get humiliated and feel foolish. The life of
London has been a great and painful surprise. I had supposed that I knew
all about it, but I have really known nothing until now. Its cruelty, its
deceit, and its treachery are terrible. London is the Judas that is
forever betraying with a kiss the young, the hopeful, the innocent.
However, it helps one to know one's self, and that is better than lying
wrapped in cotton wool. Give my kindest greetings to everybody at
Glenfaba--my love to my father, too, if there are any means of conveying
it."

The letter took him long to write, and when it was written he went out
into the hall to post it. There he saw that a thunderstorm was coming,
and he concluded to remain until it had passed over. He stepped into the
library and selected a book, and returned to his room to read it. The
book was St. John Chrysostom on the Priesthood, and the subject was
congenial, but he could not keep his mind on the printed page:  He
thought of the Father Superior, of the little brotherhood in Bishopsgate,
and then of Glory at the hospital ball, and again of Glory, and yet again
and again of Glory. Do what he would, he could not help but think of her.

The storm pealed over his head, and when he returned to the hall two
hours later it was still far from spent. He stood at the open door and
watched it. Forks of lightning lit up the park, and floods of black rain
made the vacant pavements like the surface of the sea. A tinkling cab
slid past at intervals, with its driver sheeted in oilskins, and now and
then there was an omnibus, full within and empty without. Only one other
living thing was to be seen anywhere. An Italian organ-man had stationed
himself in front of a mansion to the left and was playing vigorously.

John Storm walked through the hospital. It was now late, and the house
was quiet. The house-doctor had made the last of his rounds and turned
into his chambers across the courtyard, and the night-nurses were boiling
little kettles in their rooms between the wards. The surgical wards were
darkened, and the patients were asleep already. In the medical wards
there were screens about certain of the beds, and weary moans came from
behind them.

It was after midnight when John Storm came round to the hall again, and
then the rain had ceased, but the thunder was still rumbling. He might
have gone home at length, but he did not go; he realized that he was
waiting for Glory. Other nurses returned from the ball, and bowed to him
and passed into the house. He stepped into the porter's lodge, and sat
down and watched the lightning. It began to be terrible to him, because
it seemed to be symbolical. What doom or what disaster did this storm
typify and predict? Never could he forget the night on which it befell.
It was the night of the Nurses' Ball.

He thought he must have slept, for he shook himself and thought: "What
nonsense! Surely the soul leaves the body while we are asleep, and only
the animal remains!"

It was now almost daylight, and two hansom-cabs had stopped before the
portico, and several persons who were coming up the steps were chattering
away like wakened linnets. One voice was saying:

"Mr. Drake proposes that we should all go to the theatre, and if we can
get a late pass I should like it above everything." It was Glory, and a
fretful voice answered her:

"Very well, if _you_ say so. It's all the same to _me_." It was Polly;
and then a man's voice said:

"What night shall it be, then, Robert?"

And a second man's voice answered, with a drawl, "Better let the girls
choose for themselves, don't you know."

John Storm felt his hands and feet grow cold, and he stepped out into the
porch. Glory saw him coming and made a faint cry of recognition.

"Ah, here is Mr. Storm! Mr. Storm, you should know Mr. Drake. He was in
the Isle of Man, you remember----"

"I do _not_ remember," said John Storm.

"But you saved his life, and you ought to know him----"

"I do _not_ know him," said John Storm.

She was beginning to say, "Let me introduce----" But she stopped and
stood silent for a moment, while the strange light came into her gleaming
eyes of something no word could express, and then she burst into noisy
laughter.

A superintendent Sister going through the hall at the moment drew up and
said, "Nurse, I am surprised at you! Go to your rooms this instant!" and
the girls whispered their adieus and went off giggling.

"What a glorious night it has been!" said Glory, going upstairs.

"I'm glad you think so," said Polly. "To tell you the truth, I found it
dreadfully tiresome."

The two men lit their cigarettes and got back into one of the hansoms and
drove away.

"What a bear that man is!" said Lord Robert.

"Rude enough, certainly," said Drake; "but I liked his face for all that;
and if the Fates put it into his head to stand between me and
death--well, I'm not going to forget it."

"Give him a wide berth, dear boy. The fellow is an actor--an affected
fop. I met him at Mrs. Macrae's on Thursday. He is a religious actor and
a poseur. He'll do something one of these days, take my word for it."

And meanwhile John Storm had buttoned his long coat up to his throat and
was striding home through the echoing streets, with both hands clinched
and his teeth set hard.




XIII.

"Martha's.

"Oh, Lord-a-massy! Oh, Gough bless me sowl! Oh, my beloved grandfather!
John Storm has done for himself at last! That man was never an author of
peace and a lover of concord; but, my gracious, if you had heard his
sermon in church on Sunday morning! Being a holy and humble woman of
heart myself, I altered the Litany the smallest taste possible, and
muttered away from beginning to end, 'O Lord, close thou our lips'; but
the Lord didn't heed me in the least, with the result that everybody on
earth is now screaming and snarling at our poor Mr. Storm exactly as if
he had been picking the pockets of the universe.

"It was all about the morality of men. The text was as innocent as a
baby: 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the
flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.' And when he began in the usual way,
the dear old goodies in glasses thought he had been wound up like the
musical box and had just turned on the crank, so they cuddled in
comfortably for forty winks before the anthem. There were two natures in
man, and man's body might be good or bad according as spiritual or
carnal affections swayed it, and all the rest of the good old
change-for-sixpence-and-a-ha'penny-out, you know. But the lesson had been
from Isaiah, where the unreasonable old prophet is indignant with the
ladies of Zion because they don't want to look like dowdies, you
remember: 'Tremble, ye women that are at ease, strip you and make you
bare and gird sackcloth upon your loins.' And off he went like a comet,
with the fashionable woman for his tail. If matrimony nowadays didn't
always mean monogamy, who was chiefly to blame? Men were generally as
pure as women required that they should be; and if the lives of men were
bad it was often because women did not demand that they should be good.
Tremble, ye women, that are at ease, and say why you allow your daughters
to marry men who in fact and effect are married already. Strip you, and
be ashamed for the poor women who were the first wives of your daughters'
husbands, and for the children whom such men abandon and forget! In
leading your innocent daughters to courts and receptions you are only
leading them to the auction-room; and in dressing and decorating them you
are preparing them for the market of base men. Last week some titled
philanthropist had hauled up a woman in the East End of London for
attempting to sell her daughter. How shocking! everybody said. What a
disgrace to the nineteenth century! But the wretched creature had only
been doing the best according to her light for the welfare of her
miserable child; while here--with their eyes open, with their cultured
consciences--the wives of these same philanthropists were doing the same
thing every day--the very same!

"Having gone for the mammies like this, he went for the dear girls
themselves one better. Let them gird sackcloth on their loins and hide
their faces. Why did they suffer themselves to be sold? The woman who
married a man for the sake of his title or his position or any worldly
advantage whatever was no better than an outcast of the streets. Her act
was the same, and in all reason and justice her name should be the same
also.

"Hey, nonny, nonny! I told you how he broke down before; but on Sunday
morning, in spite of mine own amended Litany, I had just as much hope of
the breakdown of the Falls of Niagara, or a nineteen-feet spring tide.
You would have said his face was afire, and those great eyes of his were
lit up like the red lamps on Peel pier.

"Pulpit oratory! I don't know what it is, only I never heard the like of
it in all my born days. I begin to think the real difference between
preachers is the difference of the fire beneath the crust. In some it
burns so low that it doesn't even warm the surface, and you couldn't get
up enough puff to boil the kitchen kettle; but in others--look out! It's
a volcano, and the lava is coming down with a rush.

"Mercy me, how I cried! 'Oh, my daughter, oh, my child, what a ninny you
are!' I told myself; but it was no use talking. His voice was as hoarse
as a raven's, and sometimes you would have thought his very heart was
breaking.

"But the congregation! You should have seen the transformation scene!
They had come in bowing and smiling and whispering softly until the
church was a perfect sheet of sunshine, an absolute aurora borealis; but
they went out like a northeast gale, with mutterings of thunder and one
man overboard.

"And John Storm having put his foot in it, of course Glory Quayle had to
get her toe in too. Coming down the aisle some of the dear ladies of
Zion, who looked as if they wanted to 'swear in their wrath,' were
mumbling all the lamentations of Jeremiah. Who was he, indeed, to talk to
people like that? Nobody had ever heard of him except his mother. And in
the porch they came upon a fat old dump in a velvet dollman who declared
it was perfectly scandalous, and she had come out in the middle.
Whereupon Glory, not being delivered that day from all evil and mischief,
said, 'Quite right, ma'am, and you were not the only one who had to leave
the church in the middle of that sermon.' 'Why, who else had to go?' said
this female Pharisee. 'The devil, ma'am!' said Glory, and then left her
with that bone to gnaw.

"It turns out that the old girlie in the dollman is a mighty patron of
this hospital, so everybody says I am in for nasty weather. But hoot! My
heart's in the Hielan's, my heart is not here; my heart's in the
Hielan's, sae what can I fear!

"John Storm is in for it too, and they say his vicar waited for him in
the vestry, but he looked like forked lightning coming out of the pulpit,
so the good man thought it better to keep his rod in pickle awhile. It
seems that the Lords of the Council and all the nobility were there, and
it is a point of religious etiquette in London that in the hangman's
house nobody speaks of the rope; but our poor John gave them the gibbet
as well. It was a fearful thing to do, but nobody will make me believe he
had not got his reasons. He hasn't been here since, but I am certain he
has his eye on some fine folks, and, whoever they are, I'll bet 'my
bottom dollar' they deserved all they got.

"But heigho! I haven't left myself breath to tell you about the ball. I
was there! You remember I was lamenting that I hadn't got the necessary
finery. In fact, I had put in a bit at the end of my prayers about it. 'O
God, be good to me this once and let me look nice.' And he _was_. He put
it into the heads of the nabobs of this vineyard that nurses should
'appear at the Nurses' Ball in regulation uniform only.' So my cloak and
my bonnet and my gray dress and my apron covered a multitude of sins.

"You should have seen Glory that night, grandfather. She was a redder
young lobster than ever somehow, but she put a white rose in her carroty
curls, and, Gough bless me, what a bogh [* Dear] she was, though! Of
course, she made the acquaintance of the 'higher ranks of society,' and
danced with all the earth. The great surgeon of something opened the ball
with the matron of Bartimaeus's, and she went round on his arm like a
dolly in a dolly-tub; but he soon saw what a marvellous and miraculous
being Glory was, and after I had waltzed so beautifully with the ancient
personage I had the hearts of all the young men flying round at the hem
of my white petticoat--it was a nice new one for the occasion.

"But the strangest thing was that somebody from the Isle of Man flopped
down on me there just as if he had descended from the blue. It was that
little English boy Drake, who used to come to the catechism class, only
now he is one of the smartest and handsomest young men in London. When he
came up and announced himself I am sure he expected me to expire on the
spot or else go crazy, and of course I was trembling all over, but I
behaved like a rational person and stood my ground. He looked at me as
much as to say, 'Do you know you've grown to be a very fine young woman,
and I admire you very much?' Whereupon I looked back as much as to reply,
'That's quite right, my dear young sir, and I should have a poor opinion
of you if you didn't.' So, being of the same opinion on the only subject
worth thinking about (that's me), I behaved charmingly to him, and even
forgave him when he carried off my white rose at the end.

"Mr. Drake has a friend who is always with him. He is a willowy person
who owns sixteen setters and three church livings, they say, and wears
(on week days) a thunder-and-lightning suit of clothes--_you_ know, a
pattern so large that one man can't carry the whole of it and somebody
else goes about with the rest. His name is Lord Robert Ure, and I intend
to call him Lord Bob, for, since he is such a frivolous person himself, I
must make a point of being severe. I danced with him, of course, and he
kept telling me what a wonderful future Mr. Drake had, and how the
Promised Land was before him, and even hinting that it wouldn't be a bad
thing to be Mrs. Joshua. Fancy Glory making a tremendous match with a
leader of society! And if I hadn't gone to that hospital ball no doubt
the history of the nineteenth century would have been different!

"They are going to take me next week to something far, far better than a
ball, only I must not tell you anything about it yet, except that I keep
awake all night sometimes to think of it. But thou sure and firmest
earth, hear not my steps which way they walk!

"It's late, and I'm just going to cuddle in. Good-night! My kisses for
the aunties, and my love to everybody! In fact, you can serve out my love
in ladles this time--being cheap at present, and plenty more where this
is coming from.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you what happened when we returned to the hospital!
It was shockingly late, and the gentlemen had brought us back, but there
was our John Storm with his sad and anxious face waiting up to see us
safely home. He was angry with me, and I didn't mind that in the least;
but when I saw that he liked me well enough to be rude to the gentlemen I
fell a victim to the crafts and assaults of the devil, and couldn't help
laughing out loud; and then Ward Sister Allworthy came along and lifted
her lip and showed me her tusk.

"It was a wonderful night altogether, and I was never so happy in my
life, but all the same I had a good cry to myself alone before going to
bed. Too much water hadst thou, poor Ophelia! Talk about two natures in
one; I've got two hundred and fifty, and they all want to do different
things! Ah me! the 'ould Book' says that woman was taken out of the rib
of a man, and I feel sometimes as if I want to get back to my old
quarters. Glory.

"P.S.--I'll write you a full and particular account of the great event of
next week after it is over. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
till thou applaud the deed. You see I don't want you to eat your meal in
fear--or your porridge either. But I am burning with impatience for the
night to come, and would like to run to it. Oh, if it were done, when
'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly! See? I am going in for
a course of Shakespeare!"




XIV.

A week later Glory made her first visit to the theatre. Her companions
were Drake, who was charmed with her _naïveté_; Lord Robert, who was
amused by it; and Polly Love, who was annoyed and ashamed, and uttered
little peevish exclamations.

As they entered the box which they were to occupy, the attendant drew
back the curtain, and at sight of the auditorium she cried, "Oh!" and
then checked herself and coloured deeply. With her eyes down she sat
where directed in one of the three seats in front, Polly being on her
right and Drake on her left, and Lord Robert at the back of the lace
curtain. For some minutes she did not smile or stir, and when she spoke
it was always in whispers. A great awe seemed to have fallen upon her,
and she was behaving as she behaved in church.

Drake began to explain the features of the theatre. Down there were the
stalls, and behind the stalls was the pit. The body? Well, yes--the body,
so to speak. And the three galleries were the dress circle, the family
circle, and the gallery proper. The organ loft? No, there was no organ,
but that empty place below was the well for the orchestra.

"And what is this little vestry?" she said.

"Oh, this is a private box where we can sit by ourselves and talk!" said
Drake.

At every other explanation she had made little whispered cries of
astonishment and delight; but when she heard that conversation was not
forbidden she was entirely happy. She thought a theatre was even more
beautiful than a church, and supposed an actor must have a wonderful
living.

The house was filling rapidly, and as the people entered she watched them
intently.

"What a beautiful congregation!" she whispered--"audience, I mean!"

"Do you think so?" said Polly; but Glory did not hear her.

It was delightful to see so many lovely faces and listen to the low hum
of their conversation. She felt happy among them already and quite kind
to everybody, because they had all come together to enjoy themselves.
Presently she bowed to some one in the stall with a face all smiles, and
then said to Polly:

"How nice of her! A lady moved, to me from the body. How friendly they
are in theatres!"

"But it was to Mr. Drake," said Polly; and then Glory could have buried
her face in her confusion.

"Never mind, Glory," said Drake; "that's a lady who will like you the
better for the little mistake.--Rosa," he added, with a look toward Lord
Robert, who smoothed his mustache and bent his head.

Polly glanced up quickly at the mention of the name; and Drake explained
that Rosa was a friend of his own--a lady journalist, Miss Rosa
Macquarrie, a good and clever woman. Then, turning back to Glory, he
said:

"She has been standing up for your friend Mr. Storm this week. You know
there have been attacks upon him in the newspapers?"

"Has she?" said Glory, recovering herself and looking down again. "Which
pew--stall, I mean----"

But the people were clapping their hands and turning their faces to the
opposite side of the theatre. Some great personage was entering the royal
box.

"My chief, the Home Secretary," said Drake; and, when the applause had
subsided and the party were seated, the great man recognised his
secretary and bowed to him; whereupon it seemed to Glory that every face
in the theatre turned about and looked at her.

She did not flinch, but bore herself bravely. There was a certain thrill
and a slight twitching of the head, such as a charger makes at the first
volley in battle--nothing more, not even the quiver of an eyelid. This
was the atmosphere in which Drake lived, and she felt a vague gratitude
to him for allowing her to move in it.

"Isn't it beautiful!" she whispered, turning toward Polly; but Polly's
face was hidden behind the curtain.

The orchestra was coming in, and Glory leaned forward and counted the
fiddles, while Drake talked with Lord Robert across her shoulder.

"I found him reading Rosa's article this morning, and it seems he was
present himself and heard the sermon," said Drake.

"And what's his opinion?" asked Lord Robert.

"Much the same as your own. Affectation--the man is suffering from the
desire to be original--more egotism than love of truth, and so forth."

"Right, too, dear boy. All this vapouring is as much as to say: 'Look at
me! I am the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Thingamy, nephew of the Prime Minister;
and yet----'"

"I don't at all agree with the chief," said Drake, "and I told him so.
The man has enthusiasm, and that's the very salt of the earth at present.
We are all such pessimists in these days! Thank God for anybody who will
warm us up with a little faith, say I!"

Glory's bosom heaved, and she was just about to speak, when, there was a
sudden clap as of thunder, and she leaped up in her seat. But it was only
the beginning of the overture, and she sat down laughing. There was a
tender passage in the music; and after it was over she was very quiet for
a while, and then whispered to Polly that she hoped little Johnnie wasn't
worse to-night, and it seemed wicked to enjoy one's self when any one was
so poorly.

"Who is that?" said Drake.

"My little boy whose leg was amputated," said Glory.

"This Glory is so funny!" said Polly. "Fancy talking of that here!"

"Hush!" said Lord Robert; "the curtain is going up." And at the next
moment Glory was laughing because they were all in the dark.

The play was Much Ado about Nothing, and Glory whispered to Drake that
she had never seen it before, but she had read Macbeth, and knew all
about Shakespeare and the drama. The first scene took her breath away,
being so large and so splendid. It represented the outside of a
gentleman's house, and she thought what a length of time it must have
taken to build it, considering it was to last only a single night. But
hush! The people were going indoors. No; they preferred to talk in the
street. Oh, we were in Italy? Yes, indeed, that was different.

Leonato delivered his first speeches forcibly, and was rewarded with
applause. Glory clapped her hands also, and said he was a very good actor
for such a very old gentleman.

Then Beatrice made her entrance, and was greeted with cheers, whereupon
Glory looked perplexed.

"It's Terry," whispered Polly; and Drake said, "Ellen Terry"; but Glory
still looked puzzled.

"They are calling her 'Beatrice,'" she said. Then, mastering the
situation, she looked wise and said: "Of course--the actress--I quite
understand; but why do they applaud her--she has done nothing yet?"

Drake explained that the lady playing Beatrice was a great favourite, and
that the applause of the audience had been of the nature of a welcome to
a welcome guest, as much as to say they had liked her before, and were
glad to see her again. Glory thought that was beautiful, and, looking at
the gleaming eyes that shone out of the darkness, she said:

"How lovely to be an actress!"

Then she turned back to the stage, where all was bright and brilliant,
and said, "What a lovely frock, too!"

"Only a stage costume, my dear," said Polly.

"And what beautiful diamonds!"

"Paste," said Lord Robert,

"Hush!" said Drake; and then Benedick entered, and the audience received
him with great cheering. "Irving," whispered Drake; and Glory looked more
perplexed than before and said:

"But you told me it was Mr. Irving's theatre, and I thought it would have
been his place to welcome----"

The vision of Benedick clapping his hands at his own entrance set Lord
Robert laughing in his cold way: but Drake said, "Be quiet, Robert!"

Glory, like a child, had ears for no conversation except her own, and she
was immersed in the play in a moment. The merry war of Beatrice and
Benedick had begun, and as she watched it her face grew grave.

"Now, that's very foolish of her," she said; "and if, as you say, she's a
great actress, she shouldn't do such things. To talk like that to a man
is to let everybody see that she likes him better than anybody else,
though she's trying her best to hide it. The silly girl--he'll find her
out!"

But the curtain had gone down on the first act, the lights had suddenly
gone up, and her companions were laughing at her. Then she laughed also.

"Of course, it's only a play," she said largely, "and I know all about
plays and about acting, and I can act myself, too."

"I'm sure you can," said Polly, lifting her lip. But Glory took no
notice.

Throughout the second act she put on the same airs of knowledge, watching
the masked ball intently, but never once uttering a laugh and hardly ever
smiling. The light, the colour, the dresses, the gay young faces
enchanted her; but she struggled to console herself. It was only her body
that was up there, leaning over the front of the box with lips twitching
and eyes gleaming; her soul was down on the stage, clad in a lovely gown,
and carrying a mask and laughing and joking with Benedick; but she held
herself in, and when the curtain fell she began to talk of the acting.

She was still of the opinion that Leonato was excellent for such an
elderly gentleman, and when Polly praised Claudio she agreed that he was
good too.

"But Benedick is my boy for all," she said. In some way she had
identified herself with Beatrice, and hardly ever spoke of her.

During the third act this air of wisdom and learning broke down badly. In
the middle of the ballad, "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more," she
remembered Johnnie, and whispered to Drake how ill he had been when they
left the hospital. And when it was over, and Benedick protested that the
song had been vilely sung, she sat back in her seat and said she didn't
know how Mr. Irving could say such a thing, for she was sure the boy had
sung it beautifully.

"But that's the author," whispered Drake; and then she said wisely:

"Oh, yes, I know--Shakespeare, of course."

Then came the liming of the two love-birds, and she declared that
everybody was in love in plays of that sort, and that was why she liked
them; but as for those people playing the trick, they were very simple if
they thought Beatrice didn't know she loved Benedick. Claudio fell
woefully in her esteem in other respects also, and when he agreed to spy
on Hero she said he ought to be ashamed of himself anyhow.

"How ridiculous you are!" said Polly. "It's the author, isn't it?"

"Then the author ought to be ashamed of himself, also, for it is unjust
and cruel and unnecessary," said Glory.

The curtain had come down again by this time, and the men were deep in an
argument about morality in art, Lord Robert protesting that art had no
morality, and Drake maintaining that what Glory said was right, and there
was no getting to the back of it.

But the fourth act witnessed Glory's final vanquishment. When she found
the scene was the inside of a church and they were to be present at a
wedding, she could not keep still on her seat for delight; but when the
marriage was stopped and Claudio uttered his denunciation of Hero, she
said it was just like him, and it would serve him right if nobody
believed him.

"Hush!" said somebody near them.

"But they are believing him," said Glory quite audibly.

"Hush! Hush!" came from many parts of the theatre.

"Well, that's shameful--her father, too----" began Glory.

"Hush, Glory!" whispered Drake; but she had risen to her feet, and when
Hero fainted and fell she uttered a cry.

"What a girl!" whispered Polly. "Sit down--everybody's looking!"

"It's only a play, you know," whispered Drake; and Glory sat down and
said:

"Well, yes; of course, it's only a play. Did you suppose----"

But she was lost in a moment. Beatrice and Benedick were alone in the
church now; and when Beatrice said, "Kill Claudio," Glory leaped up again
and clapped her hands. But Benedick would not kill Claudio, and it was
the last straw of all. That wasn't what she called being a great actor,
and it was shameful to "sit and listen to such plays. Lots of disgraceful
scenes happened in life, but people didn't come to the theatre to see
such things, and she would go.

"How ridiculous you are!" said Polly; but Glory was out in the corridor,
and Drake was going after her.

She came back at the beginning of the fifth act with red eyes and
confused smiles, looking very much ashamed. From that moment onward she
cried a good deal, but gave no other sign until the green curtain came
down at the end, when she said:

"It's a wonderful thing! To make people forget it's not true is the most
wonderful thing in the world!"

Lord Robert, standing behind the curtain at the back of Polly's chair,
had been laughing at Glory with his long owlish drawl, and making cynical
interjections by way of punctuating her enthusiasm; and now he said,
"Would you like to have a nearer view of your wonderful world, Glory?"

Glory looked perplexed, and Drake muttered, "Hold your tongue, Robert!"
Then, turning to Glory, he said shortly: "He only asked if you would like
to go behind the scenes; but I don't think----"

Glory uttered a cry of delight. "Like it? Better than anything in the
world!"

"Then I must take you to a rehearsal somewhere," said Lord Robert; "and
you'll both come to tea at the chambers afterward."

Drake made some show of dissent; but Polly, with her most voluptuous look
upward, said it would be perfectly charming, and Glory was in raptures.

The girls, by their own choice, went home without escort by the
Hammersmith omnibus. They sat on opposite sides and hardly talked at all.
Polly was humming idly. "Sigh no more, ladies."

Glory was in a trance. A great, bright, beautiful world had that night
swum into her view, and all her heart was yearning for it with vague and
blind aspirations. It might be a world of dreams, but it seemed more real
than reality, and when the omnibus passed the corner of Piccadilly Circus
she forgot to look at the women who were crowding the pavement.

The omnibus drew up for them at the door of the hospital, and they took
long breaths as they went up the steps.

In the corridor to the surgical ward they came upon John Storm. His head
was down and his step was long and measured, and he seemed to be trying
to pass them in his grave silence; but Glory stopped and spoke, while
Polly went on to her cubicle.

"You here so late?" she said.

He looked steadily into her face and answered, "I was sent for--some one
was dying."

"Was it little Johnnie?"

"Yes."

There was not a tear now, not a quiver of an eyelid.

"I don't think I care for this life," she said fretfully. "Death is
always about you everywhere, and a girl can never go out to enjoy herself
but----"

"It is true woman's work," said John hotly, "the truest, noblest work a
woman can have in all the world!"

"Perhaps," said Glory, swinging on her heel. "All the same----"

"Good-night!" said John, and he turned on his heel also.

She looked after him and laughed. Then with a little hard lump at her
heart she took herself off to bed.

Polly Love, in the next cubicle, was humming as she undressed:

  Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
  Men were deceivers ever.

That night Glory dreamed that she was back at Peel. She was sitting up on
the Peel hill, watching the big ships as they weighed anchor in the bay
beyond the old dead castle walls, and wishing she were going out with
them to the sea and the great cities so far away.




XV.

John Storm was sitting in his room next morning fumbling the leaves of a
book and trying to read, when a lady was announced. It was Miss Macrae,
and she came in with a flushed face, a quivering lip, and the marks of
tears in her eyes. She held his hand with the same long hand-clasp as
before, and said in a tremulous voice:

"I am ashamed of coming, and mother does not know that I am here; but I
am very unhappy, and if you can not help me----"

"Please sit down," said John Storm.

"I have come to tell you----" she said, and then her sad eyes moved about
the room and came back to his face. "It is about Lord Robert Ure, and I
am very wretched."

"Tell me everything, dear lady, and if there is anything I can do----"

She told him all. It was a miserable story. Her mother had engaged her to
Lord Robert Ure (there was no other way of putting it) for the sake of
his title, and he had engaged himself to her for the sake of her wealth.
She had never loved him, and had long known that he was a man of
scandalous reputation; but she had been taught that to attach weight to
such considerations would be girlish and sentimental, and she had fought
for a while and then yielded.

"You will reproach me for my feebleness," she said, and he answered
haltingly:

"No, I do not reproach you--I pity you!"

"Well," she said, "it is all over now, and if I am ruined, and if my
mother----"

"You have told her you can not marry him!"

"Yes."

"Then who am I to reproach you?" he said; and rising to his feet, he
threw down his book.

Her dark eyes wandered about the room, and came back to his face again
and shone with a new lustre.

"I heard your sermon on Sunday, Mr. Storm, and I felt as if there were
nobody else in the church, and you were speaking to me alone. And last
night at the theatre----"

"Well?"

He had been tramping the room, but he stopped.

"I saw him in a box with his friend and two--two ladies."

"Were they nurses from the hospital?"

She made a cry of surprise and said, "Then you know all about it, and the
sermon _was_ meant for me?"

He did not speak for a moment, and then he said with a thick utterance:

"You wish me to help you to break off this marriage, and I will try. But
if I fail--no matter what has happened in the past, or what awaits you in
the future----"

"Oh," she said, "if I had your strength beside me I should be brave--I
should be afraid of nothing."

"Good-bye, dear lady," said John Storm; and before he could prevent her
she had stooped over his hand and kissed it.

John Storm had returned to his book and was clutching it with nervous
fingers, when his fellow-curate came with a message from the canon to
request his presence in the study.

"Tell him I was on the point of going down," said John. And the Reverend
Golightly coughed and bowed himself out.

The canon had also had a visitor that morning. It was Mrs. Macrae
herself. She sat on a chair covered with a tiger skin, sniffed at her
scented handkerchief, and poured out all her sorrows.

Mercy had rebelled against her authority, and it was entirely the fault
of the new curate, Mr. Storm. She had actually refused to carry out her
engagement with Lord Robert, and it all came of that dreadful sermon on
Sunday. It was dishonourable, it was unprincipled, and it was a pretty
thing to teach girls to indulge their whims without regard to the wishes
of parents!

"Here have I been two years in London, spending a fortune on the girl and
trying to do my best for her, and the moment I fix her in one of the
first English families, this young man--this curate--this---- Upon my
honour, it's real wicked, it's shameful!" And the handkerchief steeped in
perfume went up from the nose to the eyes.

The canon swung his _pince-nez_. "Don't put yourself about, my dear Mrs.
Macrae. Leave the matter to me. Miss Macrae will give up her objections,
and----"

"Oh, you mustn't judge her by her quietness, canon. You don't know her
character. She's real stubborn when her mind's made up. But I'll be as
stubborn as she is--I'll take her back to America--I'll never spend
another penny----"

"And as for Mr. Storm," continued the canon, "I'll make everything smooth
in that quarter. You mustn't think too much about the unhappy sermon--a
little youthful _esprit fort_--we all go through it, you know."

When Mrs. Macrae had gone, he rang twice for Mr. Golightly and said,
"Tell Mr. Storm to come down to me immediately."

"With pleasure, sir," said the little man; and then he hesitated.

"What is it?" said the canon, adjusting his glasses.

"I have never told you, sir, how I found him the night you sent me to the
hospital."

"Well, how?"

"On his knees to a Catholic priest who was visiting a patient."

The canon's glasses fell from his eyes and his broad face broke into
strange smiles.

"I thought the Sorceress of Rome was at the bottom of it," he said. "His
uncle shall know of this, and unless I am sadly deceived--but fetch him
down."

John Storm was wearing his flannel shirt that morning, and he came
downstairs with a heavy tread and swung himself, unasked, into the chair
that had just before been occupied by Mrs. Macrae.

The perpendicular wrinkles came between the canon's eyebrows and he said:
"My dear Mr. Storm, I have postponed as long as possible a most painful
interview. The fact is, your recent sermon has given the greatest offence
to the ladies of my congregation, and if such teaching were persisted in
we should lose our best people. Now, I don't want to be angry with you,
quite the contrary, but I wish to put it to you, as your spiritual head
and adviser, that your idea of religion is by no means agreeable to the
needs and necessities of the nineteenth century. There is no freedom in
such a faith, and St. Paul says, 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty.' But the theory of your religion is not more unscriptural
than its application is unwholesome. Yours is a gloomy faith, my dear
Storm, and what did Luther say of a gloomy faith?--that the devil was
very apt to be lurking behind it. As for himself he married, you may
remember; he had children, he played chess, he loved to see young people
dancing----"

"I don't object to the dancing, sir," said John Storm. "I only object to
the tune."

"What do you mean?" said the canon, not without insolence, and the
perpendicular wrinkles became large and heavy.

"I mean, sir," said John Storm, "that half the young people nowadays--the
young women in the west of London especially--are asked to dance to the
Dead March."

And then he spoke of the infamous case of Mercy Macrae, how she was being
bought and sold, and how scandalous was the reputation of the man she was
required to marry.

"That was what I was coming down to speak about, sir--to ask you to save
this innocent girl from such a mockery of holy wedlock. She is not a
child, and the law can not help her, but you can do so, because the power
of the Church is at your back. You have only to set your face against
this infamy, and say----"

"My dear Mr. Storm," the canon was smiling condescendingly and swinging
his glasses, "the business of the Church is to solemnize marriages, not
to make them. But if the young lady comes to me I will say: 'My dear
young lady, the conditions you complain of are more common than you
suppose; put aside all foolish, romantic notions, make a nest for
yourself as comfortably as you can, and come back in a year to thank
me.'"

John Storm was on his feet; the blood was mounting to his face and
tingling in his fingers.

"And so these men are to make their wives of the daughters of the poor
first, and then ask the Church to solemnize their polygamy----"

But the canon had lifted his hand to silence him.

"My dear young friend, a policy like yours would decimate the House of
Commons and abolish the House of Lords. Practical religion has a sweet
reasonableness. We are all human, even if we are all gentlemen; and while
silly young things----"

But John Storm was out in the hall and putting on his hat to see Glory.

Glory had not yet awakened from her trance. While others were living in
to-day she was still going about in yesterday. The emotion of the theatre
was upon her, and the world of reality took the tone and colour of drama.
This made her a tender woman, but a bad nurse.

She began the day in the Outpatient Department, and a poor woman came
with a child that had bitten its tongue. Its condition required that it
should remain in the house a day or two. "Let me put the pore thing to
bed; she's allus used to me," said the woman piteously. "Are you the
mother?" said the Sister. "No, the grandmother." "The mother is the only
person who can enter the wards except on visiting day." The poor woman
began to cry. Glory had to carry the child to bed, and she whispered to
the grandmother, "Come this way," and the woman followed her. When they
came to the surgical ward, she said to the nurse in charge, "This is the
child's mother, and she has come to put the poor little thing to bed."

Later in the morning she was sent up to help in the same ward. A patient
in great pain called to her and said, "Loosen this bandage for me, nurse;
it is killing me!" And she loosened it.

But the glamour of the theatre was upon her as well as its sentiment and
emotion, and in the space before the bed of one of the patients, at a
moment when the ward Sister was away, she began to make imitations of
Beatrice and Benedick and the singer of "Sigh no more, ladies." The
patient was Koenig, the choirmaster of "All Saints'," a little fat German
with long mustaches, which he waxed and curled as he lay in bed. Glory
had christened him "the hippopotamus," and at her mimicry he laughed so
much that he rolled and pitched and dived among the bedclothes.

"Ach, Gott!" he cried, "vot a girl! Never--I haf never heard any one so
goot on de stage. Vot a voice, too! A leetle vork under a goot teacher,
and den, mein Gott! Vot is it de musicians say?--the genius has a Cremona
inside of him on which he first composes his immortal vorks. You haf the
Cremona, my dear, and I will help you to bring it out. Vot you tink?"

It was the hour of the morning when the patients who can afford it have
their newspapers brought up to them, but the newspapers were thrown
aside; every eye was on Glory, and there was much noisy laughter and even
some clapping of hands.

Ward Sister Allworthy entered with the house doctor.

"What's the meaning of this?" she demanded. Glory told the truth, and was
reproved.

"Who has loosened this bandage?" said the doctor. The patient tried to
prevaricate, but Glory told the truth again, and was reproved once more.

"And who permitted this woman to come into the ward?" said the nurse.

"I did," said Glory.

"You're not fit to be a nurse, miss, and I shall certainly report you as
unfit for duty."

Glory laughed in the Sister's face.

It was at this moment that John Storm arrived after his interview with
the canon. He drew Glory into the corridor and tried to pacify her.

"Oh, don't suppose I'm going to do hospital nursing all my life," she
said. "It may be good womanly work, but I want to be a human being with a
heart, and not a machine called Duty. How I hate and despise my
surroundings! I'll make an end of them one of these days. Sooner or later
it must come to that."

"Your life has been deranged, Glory, and that is why you disdain your
surroundings. You were at the theatre last night."

"Who told you that? Well, what of it? Are you one of those who think the
theatre----"

"I don't object to the theatre, Glory. It is the derangement of your life
I am thinking of; and if anybody is responsible for that he is your
enemy, not your friend."

"You will make me angry again, as you did before," and she began to bite
her quivering lip.

"I did not come to make you angry, Glory. I came to ask you--even to
entreat you--to break off this hateful connection."

"Because you know nothing of this--this connection, as you say--you call
it hateful."

"I know what I am talking about, my child. The life these men live is
worse than hateful; and it makes my heart bleed to see you falling a
victim to it."

"You are degrading me again; you are always degrading me. Other men try
to be agreeable to me, but you---- Besides, I can not hear my friends
abused. Yes, they _are_ my friends. I _was_ at the theatre with them last
night, and I am going to take tea at their chambers on my next holiday.
So please----"

"Glory!"

With one plunge of his arm he had gripped her by the wrist.

"You are hurting me."

"You are never to set foot in the rooms of those men!"

"Let me go!"

"You are as inexperienced as a child, Glory, and it is my duty to protect
you against yourself."

"Let go, I say!"

"Don't destroy yourself. Think while there's time--think of your good
name, your character!"

"I shall do as I please."

"Listen! If I have chosen to be a clergyman, it's not because I've lived
all my life in cotton wool. Let me tell you what the lives of such men
really are--the best of them, the very best. He gets up at noon, walks in
the park, takes tea with some one, grunts and groans that he must go to
somebody's dinner party, escapes to the Gaiety Theatre, sups at a
so-called club----"

"You mean Lord Robert. But what right have you to say----"

"The right of one who knows him to be as bad as this, and worse--ten
times worse! Such a man thinks he has a right to play with a girl if she
is poor. She may stake her soul, her salvation, but he risks nothing.
To-day he trifles with her; to-morrow he marries another, and flings her
to the devil!"

"There's something else in this. What is it?"

But John Storm had swung about and left her.

As soon as she was at liberty she went in search of Polly Love, expecting
to find her in her cubicle, but the cubicle was empty. Coming out of the
little room she saw a piece of paper lying on the floor. It was a letter,
carefully folded. She picked it up, unfolded it, and read it, hardly
knowing what she was doing, for her head was dizzy and her eyes were
swimming in unshed tears. It ran:

"You ask, Do I mean to adopt entirely? Yes; to bring up just the same as
if it were born to me. I hope yours will be a strong and healthy boy; but
if it is a girl----"

Glory could not understand what she was reading. Whose letter could it
be? It was addressed "X. Y. Z., Office of _Morning Post_."

There was a hurried footstep approaching, and Polly came in, with her
eyes on the ground as if looking for something she had dropped. At the
next moment she had snatched the letter out of Glory's hand, and was
saying:

"What are you doing in my room? Has your friend the chaplain told you to
spy upon me?"

The expression on her face was appalling, and Glory, who had flushed up
with shame, turned away without a word.

When John Storm got back to his room he found the following letter from
the canon on his table:


"Since our interview of this morning (so strangely abridged) I have had
the honour to visit your dear uncle, the Prime Minister, and he agrees
with me that the strain of your recent examinations and the anxieties of
a new occupation have probably disturbed your health, and that it will be
prudent of you to take a short vacation. I have therefore the greatest
pleasure in assuring you that you are free from duty for a week, a
fortnight, or a month, as your convenience may determine; and during your
much-regretted absence I will do my best to sustain the great loss of
your invaluable help."


On reading the message, John Storm flung himself into a chair and burst
into a long peal of bitter laughter. But when the laughter was spent
there came a sense of great loneliness. Then he remembered Mrs.
Callender, and went across to her little house in Victoria Square, and
showed her the canon's letter and told her everything.

"Lies, lies, lies!" she said. "Ah, laddie, laddie! to lie, to know you
lie, to be known to lie, and yet to go on lying--that is the whole art of
life with these fashionable shepherds and their fashionable flock. As for
that woman--ugh! She was separated from her husband for two years before
his death; and he died in a hotel abroad without kith or kin to comfort
him: and now she wears his hair in a gold locket on her bosom--that's
what she is! But all's well that ends well, laddie. The _holly_ will do
ye good, for you were killing yerself with work. You'll no be spending it
in your little island, now, eh?"

John Storm was sitting with one leg across the other, and his head on his
hand and his elbow on his knee.

"I shall spend it," he said, "in Retreat at the Brotherhood in
Bishopsgate."

"God bless me, man! is that the change of air ye'll be going to gie
yoursel'? It may be well enough for men with water in their veins; but
you have blood, laddie--blood! Tak' care, tak' care!"




XVI.

"Still at Martha's.

"Quite right, dear Aunt Anna, the terms 'authority' and 'obedience' must
be known and honoured. Only, when it is a case of put a penny in the slot
and out comes the word of command, you can't exactly feel that way. The
board of directors put the penny into the slot of this institution, and
the word of command, so far as I am concerned, comes out of the mouth of
Ward Sister Allworthy. I call her the White Owl. She is five feet ten,
and has big round cheeks which sometimes I should dearly love to slap--as
mothers slap their 'childers' when they administer a humiliating
punishment.

"So you think you notice 'a certain want of aptitude'? Well, I don't
think I am naturally a bad nurse, Aunt Anna. The patients like me, and
they don't die of the dumps when I am about. Only I can't practise
nursing by the rule of three, and as a consequence I get myself reported.
Sister Allworthy has reported me three times, bless her! Thrice the
brinded cat hath mewed, and now she threatens to have me up before the
matron. That dear soul has difficulties of locomotion, being buried under
the Pelion on Ossa of a mountain of fat. She inhabits a cave of Adullam
on the edge of the Inferno--i. e., the 'theatre'--below stairs, and has a
small dog with a bad heart and broken wind always nagging on her knee. I
call her the Chief Broker in Breakages and Head Dealer in Diseases, and
she is only seen once a day when she comes round to take stock. You have
to be nice with her Majesty,' for she can haul you up at the weekly
board, and put a score against you in the black book, and send you away
without a certificate. If that happens, a girl who expects to earn her
living as a nurse has never any particular need to pray, 'In all time of
our wealth, good Lord deliver us.'

"But, oh, my dear grandfather, what do you think of our John Storm now?
After uttering the lamentations of Jeremiah and predicting all the
plagues of Egypt, he has gone off to hold his peace--that is to say, he
has gone to make his 'Retreat,' which, being interpreted, means praying
without ceasing, and also without speaking, eighteen hours a day, six
days at a spell, and sometimes sixty. When he comes back reeking with all
that holiness I shall feel myself such a miserable sinner----

"Soberly, I could cry to think of it, though, and when I remember that
perhaps I was partly to blame----

"It was this way: In that 'ter'ble discoorse' I told you he had scotched
the snake, not killed it, and his vicar (I call him Mr. Worldly Wiseman),
finding that his ladies and nobility went out like the Pharisees, one by
one, told our poor John he was ill and stood in need of instant rest. It
looked like it certainly, and the trouble must have been a sort of human
rabies in which the poor victim bites at his best friends first. He came
here with his lower lip hanging like an old dog's, and I was so stupid as
not to see that he was being hunted like a dog too, and only told myself
how ugly and untidy he had grown of late. But the Sister had just before
been showing me her tusks again, and being possessed with a fury, I gave
it him world without end. He was very unreasonable though, and seemed to
say that I must have no friends and no amusements that were not of his
choosing, and that after spending my days walking through the inside of
this precious hospital I must spend my nights walking round the outside
of it. Being a woman of like passions with himself, I had a 'ter'ble
dust' with him on the subject, and the next I heard was that he was going
to make Retreat in a kind of English-church monastery somewhere in the
city, where he would 'try to disentangle' himself 'from the world' and
see what he 'ought to do next.' He sent me his blessing with this
message, and I sent him back mine--a less holy one, but he'll make it do.

"I thought you would remember Mr. Drake's mother, dear Auntie Rachel.
Yes, he is fair also, and wears his hair brushed across his forehead,
much as you see in the portraits of Napoleon. In fact, he is a sort of
fair-haired Napoleon in nature as well.

"He took me to the theatre the other evening, and that was the great
event I intended to tell you about. It was quite a proper sort of place,
and nobody behaved badly except Glory, who kept talking and preaching and
going silly with excitement all the evening through, with the result that
everybody was staring mewards and wanting to turn me out.

"Since then Mr. Drake's friend, Lord Bob, who knows all the actors on
earth seemingly, has taken us 'behind,' and we have seen a rehearsal.
Things don't look quite the same behind as before, but nothing in the
world does that, and I wasn't a bit disenchanted. In fact, I found
everything delightfully romantic and amusing, and really I do not think
it _can_ be so very wicked to be an actress. Do you?

"My friend Polly Love was with us. Polly is a probationer also, and
sleeps in the cubicle next to mine, and after the rehearsal we went to
the gentlemen's chambers to tea. I can hear what Aunt Anna is saying:
'Goodness gracious! you didn't do that, girl?' Well, yes, I did though.
In the interest of my sex I wanted to see how two boys could live in
rooms all by themselves, and it's perfectly shocking how well they get on
without a woman. Of course I wasn't such a silly as to let wit about
that, but after I had examined their sitting-room and cross-examined its
owners on its numerous photographs (chiefly feminine) and tried how it
feels to hold their big pipes between one's teeth, I whipped off my hat
at once and began to put things straight for them, and then I made the
tea.

"By this time the gentlemen had changed into their jackets, and I sent
them flying around for cups and saucers and sugar basins. It turned out
that they had only one teaspoon in the place, and when anybody wanted to
stir her tea she said, 'Will you oblige me with _spoon_ please?' What fun
it was! We laughed until we cried--at least one of us did--and eventually
we managed to break the teapot and a slop basin and to overturn a
standing lamp. It was perfectly delightful!

"But the best sport was after tea was over, and Glory was called on for
imitations of the people we had seen at the theatre. Of course she
couldn't imitate a man when she was in a woman's frock, so being as
bright as diamonds that night and twice 'as impudent as a white stone,'
[* A Manx proverb] she actually conceived the idea of dressing up in
man's clothes. Naturally the gentlemen were enchanted, so I hope Auntie
Rachel isn't terribly shocked. Mr. Drake lent me his knickerbockers and a
velvet jacket, and Polly and I went into the bedroom, where she helped me
to find the way to put them on. With my own blouse and my own hat (I am
wearing a felt one now with a broad brim and a feather), and _of course_
my own slippers and stockings, I made a bogh of a boy, I can tell you. I
thought Polly would have died of delight in the bedroom, but when we came
out she kept covering her face and crying, 'Glory, how _can_ you!'

"I'm afraid I sang and talked more than was good for the soul, but it was
all Mr. Drake's doing. He declared I was such a marvellous mimic that it
was simply a waste of time and the good gifts of God to go on hospital
nursing any longer. And I do believe that if anything happened, and the
need arose, he would----

"Only fancy Glory a public person, and all the world and his wife going
down on their knees to her! But then it's fearful to think of being an
actress, isn't it?

"After all such glorious 'outs' I have to go 'in' to the hospital, and
then comes my fit again. Do you remember my little boy who said he was
going to the angels, and he would get lots of gristly pork up there? He
has gone, and I don't think I like nursing children now. Oh, how I long
to go out into the world! I want to shine in it. I want to become great
and glorious. I could do it too, I know I could. I have got it in me, I
am sure I have. Yet here I am in a little dark corner crying for the
sunshine!

"How silly this is, isn't it? It sounds like madness. My dears, allow me
to introduce you to some one--

"Glory Quayle, 'March Hare and Madwoman.'"




XVII.

The board room of the hospital of Martha's Vineyard was a large and
luxurious chamber, with an oval window at its farther end, and its two
side walls panelled with portraits of former chairmen and physicians. In
great oaken armchairs, behind ponderous oaken tables, covered with green
cloth and furnished with writing pads, the Board of Governors sat in
three sides of a square, leaving an open space in the middle. This open
space was reserved for patients seeking admission or receiving discharge,
and for officers of the hospital presenting their weekly reports.

On a morning in August the matron's report had closed with a startling
item. It recommended the immediate suspension of a nurse on the ground of
gross impropriety of conduct. The usual course in such a case was for the
board of the hospital to depute the matron to act for them in private,
but the chairman in this instance was a peppery person, with a stern
mouth and a solid under-jaw.

"This is a most serious matter," he said. "I think--this being a public
institution--I really think the board should investigate the case for
itself. We ought to assure ourselves that--that, in fact, no other
irregularity is going on in the hospital."

"May it please your lordship," said a rotund voice from, one of the side
tables, "I would suggest that a case like this of grievous moral
delinquency comes directly within the dispensation of the chaplain, and
if he has done his duty by the unhappy girl (as no doubt he has) he must
have a statement to make to the board with regard to her."

It was Canon Wealthy.

"I may mention," he added, "that Mr. Storm has now returned to his
duties, and is at present in the hospital."

"Send for him," said the chairman.

When John Storm entered the board room it was remarked that he looked no
better for his holiday. His cheeks were thinner, his eyes more hollow,
and there was a strange pallor under his swarthy skin.

The business was explained to him, and he was asked if he had any
statement to make with regard to the nurse whom the matron had reported
for suspension.

"No," he said, "I have no statement."

"Do you mean to tell the board," said the chairman, "that you know
nothing of this matter--that the case is too trivial for your
attention--or perhaps that you have never even spoken to the girl on the
subject?"

"That is so--I never have," said John.

"Then you shall do so now," said the chairman, and he put his hand on the
bell beside him, and the messenger appeared.

"You can not intend, sir, to examine the girl here," said John.

"And why not?"

"Before so many--and all of us men save one. Surely the matron----"

The canon rose to his feet again. "My young brother is naturally
sensitive, my lord, but I assure him his delicate feelings are wasted on
a girl like this. He forgets that the shame lies in the girl's sin, not
in her just and necessary punishment."

"Bring her in," said the chairman. The matron whispered to the messenger,
and he left the room.

"Pardon me, sir," said John Storm; "if it is your expectation that I
should question the nurse on her sin, as the canon says, I can not do
so."

"Can not?"

"Well, I will not."

"And is that your idea of your duty as a chaplain?"

"It is the matron's duty, not the chaplain's, to----"

"The matron! The matron! This is your parish, sir--your parish. A great
public institution is in danger of a disgraceful scandal, and you who are
responsible for its spiritual welfare--really, gentlemen----"

Again the canon rose with a conciliatory smile.

"I think I understand my young friend," he said, "and your lordship and
the hoard will appreciate his feelings, however you may disapprove of his
judgment. What generous heart can not sympathize with the sensitive
spirit of the youthful clergyman who shrinks from the spectacle of guilt
and shame in a young and perhaps beautiful woman? But if it will relieve
your lordship from an embarrassing position, I am myself willing----"

"Thank you," said the chairman; and then the girl was brought into the
room in charge of Sister Allworthy.

She was holding her head down and trying to cover her face with her
hands.

"Your name, girl?" said the canon.

"Mary Elizabeth Love," she faltered.

"You are aware, Mary Elizabeth Love, that our excellent and indulgent
matron" (here he bowed to a stout lady who sat in the open space) "has
been put to the painful duty of reporting you for suspension, which is
equivalent to your immediate discharge. Now, I can not hold out a hope
that the board will not ratify her recommendation, but it may perhaps
qualify the terms of your 'character' if you can show these gentlemen
that the unhappy lapse from good conduct which brings you to this
position of shame and disgrace is due in any measure to irregularities
practised perhaps within this hospital, or to the temptations of any one
connected with it."

The girl began to cry.

"Speak, nurse; if you have anything to say, the gentlemen are willing to
hear it."

The girl's crying deepened into sobs.

"Useless!" said the chairman.

"Impossible!" said the canon.

But some one suggested that perhaps the nurse had a girl friend in the
hospital who could throw light on the difficult situation. Then Sister
Allworthy whispered to the matron, who said, "Bring her in."

John Storm's face had assumed a fixed and absent expression, but he saw a
girl of larger size than Polly Love enter the room with a gleam, as it
were, of sunshine on her golden-red hair. It was Glory.

There was some preliminary whispering, and then the canon began again:

"You are a friend and companion of Mary Elizabeth Love?"

"Yes," said Glory.

Her voice was full and calm, and a look of quiet courage lit up her
girlish beauty.

"You have known her other friends, no doubt, and perhaps you have shared
her confidence?"

"I think so."

"Then you can tell the board if the unhappy condition in which she finds
herself is due to any one connected with this hospital."

"I think not."

"Not to any officer, servant, or member of any school attached to it?"

"No."

"Thank you," said the chairman, "that is quite enough," and down the
tables of the governors there were nods and smiles of satisfaction.

"What have I done?" said Glory.

"You have done a great service to an ancient and honourable institution,"
said the canon, "and the best return the board can make for your candour
and intelligence is to advise you to avoid such companionship for the
future and to flee such perilous associations."

A certain desperate recklessness expressed itself in Glory's face, and
she stepped up to Polly, who was now weeping audibly, and put her arm
about the girl's waist.

"What are the girl's relatives?" said the chairman.

The matron replied out of her book. Polly was an orphan, both her parents
being dead. She had a brother who had lately been a patient in the
hospital, but he was only a lay-helper in the Anglican Monastery at
Bishopsgate Street, and therefore useless for present purposes.

There was some further whispering about the tables. Was this the girl who
had been recommended to the hospital by the coroner who had investigated
a certain notorious and tragic case? Yes.

"I think I have heard of some poor and low relations," said the canon,
"but their own condition is probably too needy to allow them to help her
at a time like the present."

Down to this moment Polly had done nothing but cry, but now she flamed up
in a passion of pride and resentment.

"It's false!" she cried. "I have no poor and low relations, and I want
nobody's help. My friend is a gentleman--as much a gentleman as anybody
here--and I can tell you his name, if you like. He lives in St. James's
Street, and he is Lord----"

"Stop, girl!" said the canon, in a loud voice. "We can not allow you to
compromise the honour of a gentleman by mentioning his name in his
absence."

John stepped to one of the tables of the governors and took up a pamphlet
which lay there. It was the last annual report of Martha's Vineyard, with
a list of its governors and subscribers.

"The girl is suspended," said the chairman, and reaching for the matron's
book, he signed it and returned it.

"This," said the canon, "appears to be a case for Mrs. Callender's
Maternity Home at Soho, and with the consent of the board I will request
the chaplain to communicate with that lady immediately."

John Storm had heard, but he made no answer; he was turning over the
leaves of the pamphlet.

The canon hemmed and cleared his throat. "Mary Elizabeth Love," he said,
"you have brought a stain upon this honourable and hitherto
irreproachable institution, but I trust and believe that ere long, and
before your misbegotten child is born, you may see cause to be grateful
for our forbearance and our charity. Speaking for myself, I confess it is
an occasion of grief to me, and might well, I think, be a cause of sorrow
to him who has had your spiritual welfare in his keeping" (here he gave a
look toward John), "that you do not seem to realize the position of
infamy in which you stand. We have always been taught to think of a woman
as sweet and true and pure; a being hallowed to our sympathy by the most
sacred associations, and endeared to our love by the tenderest ties, and
it is only right" (the canon's voice was breaking), "it is only right, I
say, that you should be told at once, and in this place--though tardily
and too late--that for the woman who wrongs that ideal, as you have
wronged it, there is but one name known among persons of good credit and
good report--a hard name, a terrible name, a name of contempt and
loathing--the name of _prostitute!_"

Crushing the pamphlet in his hand, John Storm had taken a step toward the
canon, but he was too late. Some one was there before him. It was Glory.
With her head erect and her eyes flashing, she stood between the weeping
girl and the black-coated judge, and everybody could see the swelling and
heaving of her bosom.

"How dare you!" she cried. "You say you have been taught to think of a
woman as sweet and pure. Well, _I_ have been taught to think of a _man_
as strong and brave, and tender and merciful to every living creature,
but most of all to a woman, if she is erring and fallen. But you are not
brave and tender; you are cruel and cowardly, and I despise you and hate
you!"

The men at the tables were rising from their seats.

"Oh, you have discharged my friend," she said, "and you may discharge me,
too, if you like--if you _dare_! But I will tell everybody that it was
because I would not let you insult a poor girl with a cruel and shameful
name, and trample upon her when she was down. And everybody will believe
me, because it is the truth; and anything else you may say will be a lie,
and all the world will know it!"

The matron was shambling up also.

"How dare you, miss! Go back to your ward this instant! Do you know whom
you are speaking to?"

"Oh, it's not the first time I've spoken to a clergyman, ma'am. I'm the
daughter of a clergyman, and the granddaughter of a clergyman, and I know
what a clergyman is when he is brave and good, and gentle and merciful to
all women, and when he is a man and a gentleman--not a Pharisee and a
crocodile!"

"Please take that girl away," said the chairman.

But John Storm was by her side in a moment.

"No, sir," he said, "nobody shall do that."

But now Glory had broken down too, and the girls, like two lost children,
were crying on each other's breasts. John opened the door and led them up
to it.

"Take your friend to her room, nurse: I shall be with you presently."

Then he turned back to the chairman, still holding the crumpled pamphlet
in his hand, and said calmly and respectfully:

"And now that you have finished with the woman, sir, may I ask what you
intend to do with the man?"

"What man?"

"Though I did not feel myself qualified to sit in judgment on the broken
heart of a fallen girl, I happen to know the name which she was forbidden
to mention, and I find it here, sir--here in your list of subscribers and
governors."

"Well, what of it?"

"You have wiped the girl out of your books, sir. Now I ask you to wipe
the man out also."

"Gentlemen," said the chairman, rising, "the business of the board is at
an end."




XVIII.

John Storm wrote a letter to Mrs. Callender explaining Polly Love's
situation and asking her to call on the girl immediately, and then he
went out in search of Lord Robert Ure at the address he had discovered in
the report.

He found the man alone on his arrival, but Drake came in soon afterward.
Lord Robert received him with a chilly bow; Drake offered his hand
coldly; neither of them requested him to sit.

"You are surprised at my visit, gentlemen," said John, "but I have just
now been present at a painful scene, and I thought it necessary that you
should know something about it."

Then he described what had occurred in the board room, and in doing so
dwelt chiefly on the abjectness of the girl's humiliation. Lord Robert
stood by the window rapping a tune on the window pane, and Drake sat in a
low chair with his legs stretched out and his hands in his trousers
pockets.

"But I am at a loss to understand why you have thought it necessary to
come here to tell that story," said Lord Robert.

"Lord Robert," said John, "you understand me perfectly."

"Excuse me, Mr. Storm, I do not understand you in the least."

"Then I will not ask you if you are responsible for the girl's position."

"Don't."

"But I will ask you a simpler and easier question."

"What is it?"

"When are you going to marry her?"

Lord Robert burst into ironical laughter and faced round to Drake.

"Well, these men--these curates--their assurance, don't you know... May I
ask your reverence what is _your_ position in this matter--your standing,
don't you know?"

"That of chaplain of the hospital."

"But you say she has been, turned out of it."

"Very well, Lord Robert, merely that of a man who intends to protect an
injured woman."

"Oh, I know," said Lord Robert dryly, "I understand these heroics. I've
heard of your sermons, Mr. Storm--your interviews with ladies, and so
forth."

"And I have heard of your doings with girls," said John. "What are you
going to do for this one?"

"Exactly what I please."

"Take care! You know what the girl is. It's precisely such girls---- At
this moment she is tottering on the brink of hell, Lord Robert. If
anything further should happen--if you should disappoint her--she is
looking to you and building up hopes--if she should fall still lower and
destroy herself body and soul----"

"My dear Mr. Storm, please understand that I shall do everything or
nothing for the girl exactly as I think well, don't you know, without the
counsel or coercion of any clergyman."

There was a short silence, and then John Storm said quietly: "It is no
worse than I expected. But I had to hear it from your own lips, and I
have heard it. Good-day."

He went back to the hospital and asked for Glory. She was banished with
Polly to the housekeeper's room. Polly was catching flies on the window
(which overlooked the park) and humming, "Sigh no more, ladies." Glory's
eyes were red with weeping. John drew Glory aside.

"I have written to Mrs. Callender, and she will be here presently," he
said.

"It is useless," said Glory. "Polly will refuse to go. She expects Lord
Robert to come for her, and she wants me to call on Mr. Drake."

"But I have seen the man myself."

"Lord Robert?"

"Yes. He will do nothing."

"Nothing!"

"Nothing, or worse than nothing."

"Impossible!"

"Nothing of that kind is impossible to men like those."

"They are not so bad as that though, and even if Lord Robert is all you
say, Mr. Drake----"

"They are friends and housemates, Glory, and what the one is the other
must be also."

"Oh, no. Mr. Drake is quite a different person."

"Don't be misled, my child. If there were any real difference between
them----"

"But there is; and if a girl were in trouble or wanted help in
anything----"

"He would drop her, Glory, like an old lottery ticket that has drawn a
blank and is done for."

She was biting her lip, and it was bleeding slightly.

"You dislike Mr. Drake," she said, "and that is why you can not be just
to him. But he is always praising and excusing you, and when any one----"

"His praises and excuses are nothing to me. I am not thinking of myself.
I am thinking----"

He had a look of intense excitement, and his speaking was abrupt and
disconnected.

"You were splendid this morning, Glory, and when I think of the girl who
defied that Pharisee, being perhaps herself the victim--The man asked me
what my standing was, as if that--But if I had really had a right, if the
girl had been anything to me, if she had been somebody else and not a
light, shallow, worthless creature, do you know what I should have said
to him? 'Since things have gone so far, sir, you must marry the girl
now, and keep to her and be faithful to her, and love her, or else I----"

"You are flushed and excited, and there is something I do not
understand----"

"Promise me, Glory, that you will break off this bad connection."

"You are unreasonable. I can not promise."

"Promise that you will never see these men again."

"But I must see Mr. Drake at once and arrange about Polly."

"Don't mention the man's name again; it makes my blood boil to hear you
speak it!"

"But this is tyranny; and you are worse than the canon; and I can not
bear it."

"Very well; as you will. It's of no use struggling--What is the time?"

"Six o'clock nearly."

"I must see the canon before he goes to dinner."

His manner had changed suddenly. He looked crushed and benumbed.

"I am going now." he said, turning aside.

"So soon? When shall I see you again?"

"God knows!--I mean--I don't know," he answered in a helpless way.

He was looking around, as if taking a mental farewell of everything.

"But we can not part like this," she said. "I think you like me a little
still, and----"

Her supplicating voice made him look up into her face for a moment. Then
he turned away, saying, "Good-bye, Glory." And with a look of utter
exhaustion he went out of the room.

Glory walked to a window at the end of the corridor that she might see
him when he crossed the street. There was just a glimpse of his back as
he turned the corner with a slow step and his head on his breast. She
went back crying.

"I could fancy a fresh herring for supper, dear," said Polly. "What do
you say, housekeeper?"

John Storm went back to the canon's house a crushed and humiliated man.
"I can do no more," he thought. "I will give it up." His old influence
with Glory must have been lost. Something had come between
them--something or some one. "Anyhow it is all over and I must go away
somewhere."

To go on seeing Glory would be useless. It would also be dangerous. As
often as he was face to face with her he wanted to lay hold of her and
say, "You must do this and this, because it is my wish and direction and
command, and it is _I_ that say so!" In the midst of God's work how
subtle were the temptations of the devil!

But with every step that he went plodding home there came other feelings.
He could see the girl quite plainly, her fresh young face, so strong and
so tender, so full of humour and heart's love, and all the sweet beauty
of her form and figure. Then the old pain in his breast came back again
and he began to be afraid.

"I will take refuge in the Church," he thought. In prayer and penance and
fasting he would find help and consolation. The Church was peace--peace
from the noise of life, and strength to fight and to vanquish. But the
Church must be the Church of God--not of the world, the flesh, and the
devil.

"Ask the canon if he can see me immediately," said John Storm to the
footman, and he stood in the hall for the answer.

The canon had taken tea that day in the study with his daughter Felicity.
He was reclining on the sofa, propped up with velvet cushions, and
holding the teacup and saucer like the wings of a butterfly in both
hands.

"We have been deceived, my dear" (sip, sip), "and we must pay the penalty
of the deception. Yet we have nothing to blame ourselves for--nothing
whatever. Here was a young man, from Heaven knows where, bent on entering
the diocese. True, he was merely the son of a poor lord who had lived the
life of a hermit, but he was also the nephew, and presumably the heir, of
the Prime Minister of England" (sip, sip, sip). "Well, I gave him his
title. I received him into my house. I made him free of my family--and
what is the result? He has disregarded my instructions, antagonized my
supporters, and borne himself toward me with an attitude of defiance, if
not disdain."

Felicity poured out a second cup of tea for her father, sympathized with
him, and set forth her own grievances. The young man had no conversation,
and his reticence was quite embarrassing. Sometimes when she had friends,
and asked him to come down, his silence--well, really----

"We might have borne with these little deficiencies, my dear, if the
Prime Minister had been deeply interested. But he is not. I doubt if he
has ever seen his nephew since that first occasion. And when I called at
Downing Street, about the time of the sermon, he seemed entirely
undisturbed. 'The young man is in the wrong place, my dear canon; send
him back to me.' That was all."

"Then why don't you do it?" said Felicity.

"It is coming to that, my child; but blood is thicker than water, you
know, and after all----"

It was at this moment the footman entered the room to ask if the canon
could see Mr. Storm.

"Ah, the man himself!" said the canon, rising. "Jenkyns, remove the
tray." Dropping his voice: "Felicity, I will ask you to leave us
together. After what occurred this morning at the hospital anything like
a scene----" Then aloud: "Bring him in, Jenkyns.--Say something, my dear.
Why don't you speak?--Come in, my dear Storm.--You'll see to that matter
for me, Felicity. Thanks, thanks! Sorry to send you off, but I'm sure Mr.
Storm will excuse you. Good-bye for the present."

Felicity went out as John Storm came in. He looked excited, and there was
an expression of pain in his face.

"I am sorry to disturb you, but I need not detain you long," he said.

"Sit down, Mr. Storm, sit down," said the canon, returning to the sofa.

But John did not sit. He stood by the chair vacated by Felicity, and kept
beating his hat on the back of it.

"I have come to tell you, sir, that I wish to resign my curacy."

The canon glanced up with a stealthy expression, and thought: "How clever
of him! To resign before he is told plainly that he has to go--that is
very clever."

Then he said aloud: "I am sorry, very sorry. I'm always sorry to part
with my clergy. Still--you see I am entirely frank with you--I have
observed that you have not been comfortable of late, and I think you are
acting for the best. When do you wish to leave me?"

"As soon as convenient--as early as I can be spared."

The canon smiled condescendingly. "That need not trouble you at all. With
a staff like mine, you see---- Of course, you are aware that I am entitled
to three months' notice?"

"Yes."

"But I will waive it; I will not detain you. Have you seen your uncle on
the subject?"

"No."

"When you do so please say that I always try to remove impediments from a
young man's path if he is uncomfortable--in the wrong place, for
example."

"Thank you," said John Storm, and then he hesitated a moment before
stepping to the door.

The canon rose and bowed affably. "Not an angry word," he thought. "Who
shall say that blood does not count for something?"

"Believe me, my dear Storm," he said aloud, "I shall always remember with
pride and pleasure our early connection. Perhaps I think you are acting
unwisely, even foolishly, but it will continue to be a source of
satisfaction to me that I was able to give you your first opportunity,
and if your next curacy should chance to be in London, I trust you will
allow us to maintain the acquaintance."

John Storm's face was twitching and his pulses were beating violently,
but he was trying to control himself.

"Thank you," he said; "but it is not very likely----"

"Don't say you are giving up Orders, dear Mr. Storm, or perhaps that you
are only leaving our church in order to unite yourself to another. Ah!
have I touched on a tender point? You must not be surprised that rumours
have been rife. We can not silence the tongues of busybodies and
mischief-makers, you know. And I confess, speaking as your spiritual head
and adviser, it would be a source of grief to me if a young clergyman,
who has eaten the bread of the Establishment, and my own as well, were
about to avow himself the subject and slave of an Italian bishop."

John Storm came back from the door.

"What you are saying, sir, requires that I should be plain spoken. In
giving up my curacy I am not leaving the Church of England; I am only
leaving you."

"I am so glad, so relieved!"

"I am leaving you because I can not live with you any longer, because the
atmosphere you breathe is impossible to me, because your religion is not
my religion, or your God my God!"

"You surprise me. What have I done?"

"A month ago I asked you to set your face as a clergyman against the
shameful and immoral marriage of a man of scandalous reputation, but you
refused; you excused the man and sided with him. This morning you thought
it necessary to investigate in public the case of one of that man's
victims, and you sided with the man again--you denied to the girl the
right even to mention the scoundrel's name!"

"How differently we see things! Do you know I thought my examination of
the poor young thing was merciful to the point of gentleness! And that, I
may tell you--notwithstanding the female volcano who came down on me--was
the view of the board and of his lordship the chairman."

"Then I am sorry to differ from them. I thought it unnecessary and
unmanly and brutal, and even blasphemous!"

"Mr. Storm! Do you know what you are saying?"

"Perfectly, and I came to say it."

His eyes were wild, his voice was hoarse; he was like a man breaking the
bonds of a tyrannical slavery.

"You called that poor child a prostitute because she had wasted the good
gifts which God had given her. But God has given good gifts to you
also--gifts of intellect and eloquence with which you might have raised
the fallen and supported the weak, and defended the downtrodden and
comforted the broken-hearted--and what have you done with them? You have
bartered them for benefices, and peddled them for popularity; you have
given them in exchange for money, for houses, for furniture, for things
like this--and this--and this! You have sold your birthright for a mess
of pottage, therefore _you_ are the prostitute!"

"You're not yourself, sir; leave me," and, crossing the room, the canon
touched the bell.

"Yes, ten thousand times more the prostitute than that poor fallen girl
with her taint of blood and will! There would be no such women as she is
to fall victims to evil companionship if there were no such men as you
are to excuse their betrayers and to side with them. Who is most the
prostitute--the woman who sells her body, or the man who sells his soul?"

"You're mad, sir! But I want no scene----"

"You are the worst prostitute on the streets of London, and yet you are
in the Church, in the pulpit, and you call yourself a follower of the One
who forgave the woman and shamed the hypocrites, and had not where to lay
his head!"

But the canon had faced about and fled out of the room.

The footman came in answer to the bell, and, finding no one but John
Storm, he told him that a lady was waiting for him in a carriage at the
door.

It was Mrs. Callender. She had come to say that she had called at the
hospital for Polly Love, and the girl had refused to go to the home at
Soho.

"But whatever's amiss with ye, man?" she said. "You might have seen a
ghost!"

He had come out bareheaded, carrying his hat in his hand.

"It's all over," he said. "I've waited weeks and weeks for it, but it's
over at last. It was of no use mincing matters, so I spoke out."

His red eyes were ablaze, but a great load seemed to be lifted off his
mind, and his soul seemed to exult.

"I have told him I must leave him, and I am to go, immediately. The
disease was dire, and the remedy had to be dire also."

The old lady was holding her breath and watching his flushed face with
strained attention.

"And what may ye be going to do now?"

"To become a religious in something more than the name; to leave the
world altogether with its idleness and pomp and hypocrisy and unreality."

"Get yoursel' some flesh on your bones first, man. It's easy to see ye've
no been sleeping or eating these days and days together."

"That's nothing--nothing at all. God can not take half your soul. You
must give yourself entirely."

"Eh, laddie, laddie, I feared me this was what ye were coming til. But a
man can not bury himself before he is dead. He may bury the half of
himself, but is it the better half? What of his thoughts--his wandering
thoughts? Choose for yoursel', though, and if you must go--if you must
hide yoursel' forever, and this is the last I'm to see of ye--ye may kiss
me, laddie--I'm old enough, surely.--Go on, James, man, what for are ye
sitting up there staring?"

When John Storm returned to his room he found a letter from Parson
Quayle. It was a good-natured, cackling epistle, full of sweet nothings
about Glory and the hospital, about Peel and the discovery of ancient
ruins in the graveyards of the treen chapels, but it closed with this
postscript:

"You will remember old Chalse, a sort of itinerant beggar and the
privileged pet of everybody. The silly old gawk has got hold of your
father and has actually made the old man believe that you are bewitched!
Some one has put the evil eye on you--some woman it would seem--and that
is the reason why you have broken away and behaved so strangely! It is
most extraordinary. That such a foolish superstition should have taken
hold of a man like your father is really quite astonishing, but if it
will only soften his rancour against you and help to restore peace we may
perhaps forgive the distrust of Providence and the outrage on common
sense. All's well that ends well, you know, and we shall all be happy."




XIX.

"Martha's.

"Lost, stolen, or strayed--a man, a clergyman, answers to the name of
John Storm. Or rather he does not answer, having allowed himself to be
written to twice without making so much as a yap or a yowl by way of
reply. Last seen six days ago, when he was suffering from the sulks,
after being in a de'il of a temper, with a helpless and innocent maiden
who 'doesn't know nothin',' that can have given him offence. Any one
giving information of his welfare and whereabouts to the said H. and I.
M. will be generously and appropriately rewarded.

"But, soberly, my dear John Storm, what has become of you? Where are you,
and whatever have you been doing since the day of the dreadful
inquisition? Frightful rumours are flying through the air like knives,
and they cut and wound a poor girl woefully. Therefore be good enough to
reply by return of post--and in person.

"Meantime please accept it as a proof of my eternal regard that after two
knock-down blows received in silence I am once more coming up smiling.
Know, then, that Mr. Drake has justified all expectations, having
compelled Lord Robert to provide for Polly, who is now safely ensconced
in her own country castle somewhere in St. John's Wood, furnished to hand
with servants and vassals complete. Thus you will be charmed to observe
in me the growth of the prophetic instinct, for you will remember my
positive prediction that if a girl were in trouble, and the necessity
arose, Mr. Drake would be the first to help her. Of course, he had a
great deal to say that was as sweet as syrup on the loyalty of my own
friendship also, and he expended much beautiful rhetoric on yourself as
well. It seems that you are one of those who follow the impulse of the
heart entirely, while the rest of us divide our allegiance with the head;
and if you display sometimes the severity of a tyrant of our sex, that is
only to be set down as another proof of your regard and of the elevation
of the pedestal whereon you desire us to be placed. Thus he reconciles me
to the harmony of the universe, and makes all things easy and agreeable.

"This being the case, I have now to inform you that Polly's baby has
come, having hastened his arrival (it is a man, bless it!) owing either
to the tears or the terrors of the crocodile. And being on night duty
now, and therefore at liberty from 6.30 to 8.30, I intend to pay him my
first call of ceremony this evening, when anybody else would be welcome
to accompany me who might be willing to come to his shrine of innocence
and love in the spirit of the wise men of the East. But, lest anybody
_should_ inquire for me at the hospital at the first of the hours
aforesaid, this is to give warning that the White Owl has expressly
forbidden all intercourse between the members of her staff and the
discharged and dishonoured mother. Set it down to my spirit of
contradiction that I intend to disregard the mandate, though I am only
too well aware that the poor discharged and dishonoured one has no other
idea of friendship than that of a loyalty in which she shares but is not
sharing. Of course, woman is born to such selfishness as the sparks fly
upward; but if I should ever meet with a man who isn't I will just give
myself up to him--body and soul and belongings--unless he has a wife or
other encumbrance already and is booked for this world, and in that event
I will enter into my own recognisances and be bound over to him for the
next. Glory."


At six-thirty that evening Glory stood waiting in the portico of the
hospital, but John Storm did not come. At seven she was ringing at the
bell of a little house in St. John's Wood that stood behind a high wall
and had an iron grating in the garden door. The bell was answered by a
good-natured, slack-looking servant, who was friendly, and even familiar
in a moment.

"Are you the young lady from the hospital? The missis told me about you.
I'm Liza, and come upstairs--Yes, doing nicely, thank you, both of 'em
is--and mind your head, miss."

Polly was in a little bandbox of a bedroom, looking more pink and white
than ever against the linen of her frilled pillow slips. By the bedside a
woman of uncertain age in deep mourning, with little twinkling eyes and
fat cheeks, was rocking the baby on her knee and babbling over it in
words of maudlin endearment.

"Bless it, 'ow it do notice! Boo-loo-loo!"

Glory leaned over the little one and pronounced it the prettiest baby she
had ever seen.

"Syme 'ere miss. There ain't sech another in all London! It's jest the
sort of baby you can love. Pore little thing, it's quite took to me
already, as if it wanted to enkirridge you, my dear."

"This is Mrs. Jupe," said Polly, "and she's going to take baby to nurse."

"Boo-loo-loo-boo! And a nice new cradle's awaiting of it afront of the
fire in my little back parlour. Boo-loo!"

"But surely you're never going to part with your baby!" said Glory.

"Why, what do you suppose, dear? Do you think I'm going to be tied to a
child all my days, and never be able to go anywhere or do anything or
amuse myself at all?"

"Jest that. It'll be to our mootual benefit, as I said when I answered
your advertisement."

Glory asked the woman if she was married and had any children of her own.

"Me, miss? I've been married eleven years, and I've allwiz prayed the
dear Lord to gimme childring. Got any? On'y one little girl; but I want
to adopt another from the birth, so as to have something to love when my
own's growed up."

Glory supposed that Polly could see her baby at any time, but the woman
answered doubtfully:

"Can she see baby? Well, I would rather not, certingly. If I tyke it I
want to feel it is syme as my very own and do my dooty by it, pore thing!
And if the mother were coming and going I should allwiz feel as she 'ad
the first claim."

Polly showed no interest in the conversation until Mrs. Jupe asked for
the name of her "friend," in lieu of eighty pounds that were to be paid
down on delivery of the child.

"Come, myke up your mind, my dear, and let me tyke it away at onct. Give
me 'is nyme, that's good enough for me."

After some hesitation Glory gave Lord Robert's name and address, and the
woman prepared the child for its departure.

"Don't tyke on so, my dear. 'Tain't sech a great crime, and many a laidy
of serciety 'as done worse."

At the street door Glory asked Mrs. Jupe for her own address, and the
woman gave her a card, saying if she ever wanted to leave the hospital it
would be easy to help such a fine-looking young woman as she was to make
a bit of living for herself.

Polly recovered speedily from the trouble of the child's departure, and
presently assumed an easy and almost patronizing tone toward Glory,
pretending to be amused and even a little indignant when asked how soon
she expected to be fit for business again, and able to do without Lord
Robert's assistance.

"To tell you the truth," she said, "I was as much to blame as he was. I
wanted to escape from the drudgery of the hospital, and I knew he would
take me when the time came."

Glory left early, vowing in her heart she would come no more. When she
changed her omnibus at Piccadilly the Circus was very full of women.

"Letter for you, nurse," said the porter as she entered the hospital. It
was from John Storm.


"Dear Glory: I have at length decided to enter the Brotherhood at
Bishopsgate Street, and I am to go into the monastery this evening. It is
not as a visitor that I am going this time, but as a postulant or novice
and in the hope of becoming worthy in due course to take the vows of
lifelong consecration. Therefore I am writing to you probably for the
last time, and parting from you perhaps forever.

"Since we came up to London together I have suffered many shocks and
disappointments, and I seem to have been torn in ribbons. My cherished
dreams have proved to be delusions; the palaces I had built up for myself
have turned out to be pasteboard, gilt, and rubbish; I have been robbed
of all my jewels, or they have shown themselves to be shingle stones. In
this condition of shame and disillusionment I am now resolved to escape
at the same time from the world and from myself, for I am tired of both
alike, and already I feel as if a great weight had been lifted off me.

"But I wish to speak of you. You must have thought me cantankerous, and
so I have been sometimes, but always by conviction and on principle. I
could not countenance the fashionable morality that is corrupting the
manhood of the laity, or endure the toleration that is making the clergy
thoroughly wicked; I could not without a pang see you cater to the
world's appetites or be drawn into its gaieties and frivolities; and it
was agony to me to fear that a girl of your pure if passionate nature
might perhaps fall a victim to a gamester in life's follies--an actor
indulging a pastime--a mere cheat.

"And what you tell me of your friend's altered circumstances does not
relieve me of such anxieties. The man who has deceived a girl once is
likely to deceive her again. Short of marriage itself, such connections
should be cut off entirely, whatever the price. When they are maintained
in relations of liberty the victim is sure to be further victimized, and
her last state is always worse than the first.

"However, I do not wish to blame anybody, least of all you, who have done
everything for the best, and especially now when I am parting from you
forever. You have never realized how much you have been to me, and I
doubt if I knew it myself until to-day. You know how I was brought
up--with a solitary old man--God be with him!--who tried to be good to me
for the sake of his ambitions, and to love me for the sake of his
revenge. I never knew my mother, I never had a sister, and I can never
have a wife. You were all three to me and yourself besides. There were no
women in our household, and you stood for woman in my life. I have never
told you this before, but now I tell it as a dying man whispers his
secret with his parting breath.

"I have written my letters of farewell--one to my father, asking his
forgiveness if I have done him any wrong; one to my uncle, with my love
and thanks; and one to your good old grandfather, giving up my solemn and
sacred trust of you. My conduct will of course be condemned as weak and
foolish from many points of view, but by my departure some difficulties
will be removed, and for the rest I have come to see that everything is
done by the spirit and nothing by the flesh, and that by prayer and
fasting I can help and protect you more than by counsel and advice. Thus
everything is for the best.

"The rule under which the Brothers live in community forbids them to
write and receive letters without special permission, or even to think
too constantly of the world outside; and now that I am on the eve of that
new life, memories of the old one keep crowding on me as on a drowning
man. But they are all of one period--the days when we were at Peel in
your sweet little island, before the vain and cruel world came in between
us, when you were a simple, merry girl, and I was little more than a
happy boy, and we went plunging and laughing through your bright blue sea
together.

"But earth's joys grow very dim and its glories are fading. That also is
for the best. I have my Koh-i-noor--my desire to depart and surrender my
life to God. John Storm."


"Anything wrong, nurse? Feeling ill, ain't ye? Only dizzy a bit?
Unpleasant news from home, perhaps?"

"No, something else. Let me sit in your room, porter."

She read the letter again and again, until the words seemed blurred and
the lines irregular as a spider's web. Then she thought: "We can not part
forever like this. I must see him again whatever happens. Perhaps he has
not yet gone."

It was now half-past eight and time to go on duty, but she went upstairs
to Sister Allworthy and asked for an hour's further leave. The request
was promptly refused. She went downstairs to the matron and asked for
half an hour, only that she might see a friend away on a long journey,
and that was refused too. Then she tightened her quivering lips, returned
to the porter's room, fixed her bonnet on before the scratched
pier-glass, and boldly walked out of the hospital.

It was now quite dark and the fashionable dinner hour of Belgravia, and
as she hurried through the streets many crested and coroneted carriages
drew up at the great mansions and discharged their occupants in evening
dress. The canon's house was brilliantly lighted, and when the door was
opened in answer to her knock she could see the canon himself at the head
of his own detachment of diners coming downstairs with a lady in white
silk chatting affably on his arm.

"Is Mr. Storm at home?"

The footman, in powdered wig and white cotton gloves, answered haltingly.
"If it is--er--anything about the hospital, miss, Mr.--er--Golightly will
attend."

"No, it is Mr. Storm himself I wish to see."

"Gorn!" said the footman, and he shut the door in her face.

She had an impulse to hammer on the door with her hand, and command the
flunky to go down on his knees and beg her pardon. But what was the good?
She had no time to think of herself now.

As a last resource she would go to Bishopsgate. How dense the traffic
seemed to be at Victoria! She had never felt so helpless before.

It was better in the city, and as she walked eastward, in the direction
indicated by a policeman, every step brought her into quieter streets.
She was now in that part of London which is the world's busiest
market-place by day, but is shut up and deserted at night. Her light
footsteps echoed against the shutters of the shops. The moon had risen,
and she could see far down the empty street.

She found the place at last. It was one of London's weather-beaten old
churches, shouldered by shops on either hand, and almost pushed back by
the tide of traffic. There was an iron gate at the side, leading by an
arched passage to a little courtyard, which was bounded by two high blank
walls, by the back wall of the church, and by the front of a large house
with a small doorway and many small windows. In the middle of the
courtyard there was a tree with a wooden seat round its trunk.

And being there, she felt afraid and almost wished she had not come. The
church was dimly lighted, and she thought perhaps the cleaners were
within. But presently there was a sound of singing, in men's voices only,
and without any kind of musical accompaniment. Just then the clock in the
steeple struck nine, and chimes began to play:

  Days and moments quickly flying.

The singing came to an end, and there was some low, inarticulate droning,
and then a general "Amen." The hammer of the bell continued to beat out
its hymn, and Glory stood under the shadow of the tree to collect her
thoughts.

Then the sacristy door opened and a line of men came out. They were in
long black cassocks, and they crossed the courtyard from the church to
the house with the measured and hasty step of monks, and with their hands
clasped at their breasts. Almost at the end of the line, walking with an
old man whose tread was heavy, there was a younger one who was
bareheaded, and who did not wear the cassock. The moon threw a light on
his face, which looked pale and worn. It was John Storm.

Glory gave a faint cry, a gasp, and he turned round as if startled.

"Only the creaking of the sycamore," said the Superior. And then the
mysterious shadows took them; they passed into the house, the door was
closed, and she was alone with the chimes:

  Days and moments quickly flying,
  Blend the living with the dead.

Glory's strength had deserted her, and she went away as she came. When
she got back to Victoria, she felt for the first time as if her own
little life had been swallowed up in the turmoil of London, and she had
gone down to the cold depths of an icy sea.

It was a quarter to ten when she returned to the ward, and the matron,
with her dog on her lap, was waiting to receive her.

"Didn't I tell you that you could not go out to-night?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Glory.

"Then how did you dare to go?"

Glory looked at her unwaveringly, with glittering eyes that seemed to
smile, whereupon the matron picked up her dog, gathered up her train, and
swept out of the ward, saying:

"Nurse, you can leave me at the end of your term; and you need never
cross the doors of this institution again."

Then Glory, who had all night wanted to cry, burst into laughter. The
ward Sister reproved her, but she laughed in the woman's fat face, and
would have given worlds to slap it.

There was not a nurse in the hospital who showed more bright and cheerful
spirits when the patients were being prepared for the night. But next
morning, in the gray dawn, when she had dragged herself to bed, and was
able at length to be alone, she beat the pillows with both hands and
sobbed in her loneliness and shame.




XX.

But youth is rich in hope, and at noon, when Glory awoke, the thought of
Drake flashed upon her like light in a dark place. He had compelled Lord
Robert to assist Polly in a worse extremity, and he would assist her in
her present predicament. How often he had hinted that the hospital was
not good enough for her, and that some day and somewhere Fate would find
other work for her and another sphere. The time had come; she would
appeal to him, and he would hasten to help her.

She began to revive the magnificent dreams that had floated in her mind
for months. No need to tell the people at home of her dismissal and
disgrace; no need to go back to the island. She would be somebody in her
own right yet. Of course, she would have to study, to struggle, to endure
disappointments, but she would triumph in the end. And when at length she
was great and famous she would be good to other poor girls; and as often
as she thought of John Storm in his solitude in his cell, though there
might be a pang, a red stream running somewhere within, she would comfort
herself with the thought that she, too, was doing her best; she, too, had
her place, and it was a useful and worthy one.

Before that time came, however, there would be managers to influence and
engagements to seek, and perhaps teachers to pay for. But Drake was rich
and generous and powerful; he had a great opinion of her talents, and he
would stop at nothing.

Leaping out of bed, she sat down at the table as she was and wrote to
him:


"Dear Mr. Drake: Try to see me to-night. I want your advice immediately.
What do you think? I have got myself 'noticed' at last, and as a
consequence I am to leave at the end of my term. So things are urgent,
you see. I 'wave my lily hand' to you. Glory.

"P.S.--save time I suggest the hour and the place: eight o'clock, St.
James's Park, by the bridge going down from Marlborough House."


Drake received this note as he was sitting alone in his chambers smoking
a cigarette after drinking a cup of tea, in that hour of glamour that is
between the lights. It seemed to bring with it a secret breath of passion
out of the atmosphere in which it had been written. At the first impulse
it went up to his lips, but at the next moment he was smitten by the
memory of something, and he thought: "I will do what is right; I will
play the game fair."

He dined that night with a group of civil servants at his club in St.
James's Street, but at a quarter to eight, notwithstanding some playful
bantering, he put on his overcoat and turned toward the park. The autumn
night was soft and peaceful; the stars were out and the moon had risen; a
fragrant mist came up from the lake, and the smoke of his cigar was
hardly troubled by the breeze that pattered the withered tassels of the
laburnums. Big Ben was striking eight as he reached the end of the little
bridge, and almost immediately afterward he was aware of soft and
hurrying footsteps approaching him.

Glory had come down by the Mall. The whispering of the big white trees in
the moonlight was like company, and she sang to herself as she walked.
Her heart seemed to have gone into her heels since yesterday, for her
step was light and sometimes she ran a few paces. She arrived out of
breath as the great clock was striking, and seeing the figure of a
gentleman in evening dress by the end of the bridge, she stopped to
collect herself.

Her hand was hot and a little damp when Drake took it, and her face was
somewhat flushed. She had all at once become ashamed that she had come to
ask him for anything, and she took out her pocket-handkerchief and began
to roll it in her palms. He misunderstood her agitation, and trying to
cover it he offered her his arm and took her across the bridge, and they
turned westward down the path that runs along the margin of the lake.

"Mr. Storm has gone," she said, thinking to explain herself.

"I know," he answered.

"Is it generally known, then?"

"I had a letter from him yesterday."

"Was it about me?"

"Yes."

"You must not mind if he says things, you know."

"I don't, Glory. I set them down to the egotism of the religious man. The
religious man can not believe that anybody can live a moral life and act
on principle except from the religious impulse.... I suppose he has
warned you against me, hasn't he?"

"Well--yes."

"I'm at a loss to know what I've done to deserve it. But time must
justify me. I am not a religious man myself, you know, though I hate to
talk of it. To tell you the truth, I think the religious idea a monstrous
egotism altogether, and the love of God merely the love of self. Still,
you must judge for yourself, Glory."

"Are we not wasting our time a little?" she said. "I am here; isn't that
proof enough of my opinion?" And then in an agitated whisper she added:
"I have only half an hour, the gates will be closing, and I want to ask
your advice, you know. You remember what I told you in my letter?"

He patted the hand on his arm and said, "Tell me how it happened."

She told him everything, with many pauses, expecting every moment that he
would break in upon her and say, "Why didn't you box the woman's ears?"
or perhaps laugh and assure her that it did not matter in the least, and
she was making too much of a mere bagatelle. But he listened to every
syllable, and after she had finished there was silence for a moment. Then
he said: "I'm sorry--very sorry; in fact, I am much troubled about it."

Her nerves were throbbing hard and her hand on his arm was twitching.

"If you had left of your own accord after that scene in the board room,
it would have been so different--so easy for me to help you!"

"How?"

"I should have spoken to my chief--he is a governor of many
hospitals--and said, 'A young friend of mine, a nurse, is uncomfortable
in her present place and would like to change her hospital.' It would
have been no sooner said than done. But now--now there is the black book
against you, and God knows if ... In fact, somebody has laid a trap for
you, Glory, intending to get rid of you at the first opportunity, and you
seem to have walked straight into it."

She felt stunned. "He has forgotten all he has said to me," she thought.
In a feeble, expressionless voice she asked:

"But what am I to do now?"

"Let me think."

They walked some steps in silence. "He is turning it over," she thought.
"He will tell me how to begin."

He stopped, as if seized by a new idea.

"Did you tell them where you had been?"

"No," she replied, in the same weak voice.

"But why not do so? There is hope in that. The chaplain was your
friend--your only friend in London, so far as they know. Surely that is
an extenuating circumstance so plausible----"

"But I cannot----"

"I know it is bitter to explain--to apologize--and if I can do it for
you----"

"I will not allow it!" she said. Her lips were set, and her breath was
coming through them in gusts.

"It is a pity to allow the hospitals to be closed against you. Nursing is
a good profession, Glory--even a fashionable one. It is true womanly
work, and----"

"That was what he said."

"Who? John Storm? He was right. Indeed, he was an entirely honourable and
upright man, and----"

"But _you_ always seemed to say there were other things more worthy of a
girl, and if she had a mind to---- But no matter. We needn't talk about
the hospitals any longer. I am not fit for them and shall never go back
to them, whatever happens."

He looked down at her. She was biting her lips, and the tears were
gathering in her eyes.

"Well, well, never mind, dear," he said, and he patted her hand again.

The moon had begun to wane, and out of the dark shadows they walked in
they could see the lines of houses lit up all around.

"Look," she said, with a feeble laugh, "in all this great busy London is
there nothing else I'm fit for?"

"You are fit for anything in the world, my dear," he answered.

Her nerves were throbbing harder than ever. "Perhaps he doesn't
remember," she thought. Should she tell him what he said so often about
her talents, and how much she might be able to make of them?

"Is there nothing a girl can do except go down on her knees to a woman?"

He laughed and talked some nonsense about the kneeling. "Poor little
woman, she doesn't know what she is doing," he thought.

"I shouldn't mind what people thought of me," she said, "not even my own
people, who have been brought up with such narrow ideas, you know. They
might think what they liked, if I felt I was in the right place at
last--the right place for me, I mean."

Her nervous fingers were involuntarily clutching at his coat sleeve.
"Now, any other man----" he thought.

She began to cry. "He _won't_ remember," she told herself. "It was only
his way of being agreeable when he praised me and predicted such
wonderful things. And now his good breeding will not allow him to tell me
there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of girls in London as
likely to----"

"Come, you mustn't cry, Glory. It's not so bad as that."

She had never seemed to him so beautiful, and he wanted to take her in
his arms and comfort her.

"I had no one but you to come to," she murmured in her confusion. But she
was thinking: "Why didn't you stop me before? Why have you let me go on
all these months?"

"I must try to think of something, and I'll speak to my friend Rosa--Miss
Macquarrie, you know."

"You are a man," said Glory, "and I thought perhaps----" But she could
not speak of her fool's paradise now, she was so deeply ashamed and
abased.

"That's just the difficulty, my dear. If I were not a man, I might so
easily help you."

What did he mean? The frogs kept croaking at the margin of the lake,
disturbed by the sound of their footsteps.

"Whatever you were to tell me to do I should do it," she said, in the
same confused murmur. She was ruining herself with every word she
uttered.

He drew up and stood before her, so close that she could feel his breath,
on her face. "My dear Glory," he said passionately, "don't think it isn't
terrible to me to renounce the happiness of helping you, but I must not,
I dare not, I will not take it."

She could scarcely breathe for the shame that took sudden hold of her.

"Heaven knows I would give anything to have the joy of looking after your
happiness, dear, but I should despise myself forever if I took advantage
of your circumstances."

Good God! What did he think she had been asking of him?

"I am thinking of yourself, Glory, because I want to esteem you and
honour you, and because your good name is above everything
else--everything else in the world."

Her shame was now abject. It stifled her, deafened her, blinded her. She
could not speak or hear or see.

He took her hand and pressed it.

"Let me go," she stammered.

"Stay--do not go yet!"

"Let me go, will you?"

"One moment----"

But with a cry like the cry of a startled bird she disappeared in the
shadow of the trees.

He stood a moment where she had left him, tingling in every nerve,
wanting to follow her, and overtake her, and kiss her, and abandon
everything. But he buttoned up his overcoat and turned away, telling
himself that whatever another man might have done in the same case he at
least had done rightly, and that men like John Storm were wrong if they
thought it was impossible to act on principle without the impulse of
religion.

Meanwhile Glory was flying through the darkness and weeping in the
bitterness of her disappointment and shame. The big trees overhead were
all black now and very gaunt and grim, and the breeze was moaning in
their branches.

"I had disgrace enough already," she thought; "I might have spared myself
a degradation like this!"

Drake had supposed that she came to plead for herself to-night as she had
pleaded for Polly a week ago. How natural that he should think so! How
natural and yet how hideous!

"I hate him! I hate him!" she thought.

John Storm had been right. In their heart of hearts these men of society
had only one idea about a girl, and she had stumbled on it unawares. They
never thought of her as a friend and an equal, but only as a dependent
and a plaything, to be taken or left as they liked.

"Oh, how shameful to be a woman--how shameful, how shameful!"

And Drake had renounced her! In the hideous tangle of his error he had
renounced her! For honour's sake, and her own sake, and for sake of his
character as a gentleman--renounced her! Oh, there was somebody who would
never have renounced her whatever had happened, and yet she had driven
him away, and he was gone forever!

"I hate myself! I hate myself!"

She remembered how often out of recklessness and daring and high spirits,
but without a thought of evil, she had broken through the barrier of
manners and given Drake occasion to think lightly of her--at the ball, at
the theatre, at tea in his chambers, and by dressing herself up as a man.

"I hate myself! I hate myself!"

John Storm was right, and Drake in his different way was right too, and
she alone had been to blame. But Fate was laughing at her, and the jest
was very, very cruel.

"No matter. It is all for the best," she thought. She would be the
stronger for this experience--the stronger and the purer too, to stand
alone and to face the future.

She got back to the hospital just as the great clock of Westminster was
chiming the half-hour, and she stood a moment on the steps to listen to
it. Only half an hour had passed, and yet all the world had changed!




XXI.

It was the last day of Glory's probation, and, dressed in the long blue
ulster in which she came from the Isle of Man, she was standing in the
matron's room waiting for her wages and discharge. The matron was sitting
sideways at her table, with her dog snarling in her lap. She pointed to a
tiny heap of gold and silver and to a foolscap paper which lay beside it.

"That is your month's salary, nurse, and this is your 'character.' The
'character' has given me a deal of trouble. I have done all I could for
you. I have said you were bright and cheerful, and that the patients
liked you. I trust I have not committed myself too far."

Glory gathered up the money, but left the "character" untouched.

"You need not be anxious, ma'am; I shall not require it."

"Have you got a situation?"

"No."

"Then where are you going next?"

"I don't know--yet."

"How much money have you saved?"

"About three months' wages."

"Only three pounds altogether!"

"It will be quite sufficient."

"What friends have you got in London?"

"None--that is to say--no, none whatever."

"Then why don't you go back to your island?"

"Because I don't wish to be a burden upon my people, and because earning
my living in London doesn't depend on the will or the whim of any woman."

"That's just like you. I might have dismissed you instantly, but for the
sake of the chaplain I've borne with your rudeness and irregularities,
and even tried to be your friend, and yet---- I dare say you've not even
told your people why you are leaving the hospital?"

"I haven't--I haven't told them yet that I'm leaving at all."

"Then I've a great mind to do it for you. A venturesome, headstrong girl
who flings herself on London is in danger of ruin."

"You needn't trouble yourself, ma'am," said Glory, opening the door to
go.

"Why so?" said the matron.

Glory stood at her full height and answered:

"Because if you said that of me there is nobody in the world would
believe you!"

Her box had been brought down to the hall, and the porter, who wished to
be friendly, was cording it.

"May I leave it in your care, porter, until I am able to call for it?"

"Certingly, nurse. Sorry you're goin'. I'll miss your face, too."

"Thank you. I'll call for my letters also."

"There's one just come."

It was from Aunt Anna, and was full of severe reproof and admonition.
Glory was not to think of leaving the hospital; she must try to be
content with the condition to which God had called her. But why had her
letters been so few of late? and how did it occur that she had never told
them about Mr. Storm? He had gone for good into that strange Brotherhood,
it seemed. Not Catholic, and yet a monastery. Most extraordinary! They
were all eagerly waiting to hear more about it. Besides, the grandfather
was anxious on Glory's account. If half they heard was true, the dangers
of London----

The house-surgeon came down to say good-bye. He had always been as free
and friendly as Sister Allworthy would allow. They stood a moment at the
door together.

"Where are you going to?" he asked.

"Anywhere--nowhere--everywhere; to 'all the airts the wind can blaw.'"

It was a clear, bright morning, with a light, keen frost. On looking out,
Glory saw that flags were flying on the public buildings.

"Why, what's going on?" she said.

"Don't you know? It's the ninth of November--Lord Mayor's Day."

She laughed merrily. "A good omen. I'm the female Dick Whittington! Here
goes for it! Good-bye, hospital nursing.--By-bye, doctor."

She dropped him a playful curtsy at the bottom of the steps, and then
tripped along the street.

"What a girl it is!" he thought. "And what is to become of her in this
merciless old London?"

She had taken less than a score of steps from the hospital when blinding
teardrops leaped from her eyes and ran down her cheeks; but she only
dropped her veil and walked on boldly.




SECOND BOOK.

_THE RELIGIOUS LIFE._




I.

The Society of the Holy Gethsemane, popularly called the Bishopsgate
Fathers, was one of the many conventual institutions of the English
Church which came as a sequel to the great upheaval of religious feeling
known as the Tractarian or Oxford movement. Most of them gave way under
the pressure of external opposition, some of them broke down under the
strain of internal dissension, and a few lived on as secret brotherhoods,
in obedience to a rule which was never divulged by their members, who
were said to wear a hair shirt next the skin and to scourge themselves
with the lash of discipline.

Of these conventual institutions the Society of the Holy Gethsemane had
been one of the earliest, and it was now quite the oldest, although it
had challenged not only the traditions of the Reformed Church but the
spirit of the age itself by establishing its place of prayer at the very
doors of the Stock Exchange--that crater of volcanic emotions, that
generating house for the electric currents of the world.

Its founder and first Superior had been a man of iron will, who had
fought his way through ecclesiastical courts and popular anger, and even
family persecution, which had culminated in an effort of his own brother
to shut him up as a lunatic. His first disciple and most stanch supporter
had been the Rev. Charles Frederic Lamplugh, a fellow of Corpus, newly
called to orders after an earlier career which had been devoted to the
world, and, according to rumour, nearly wrecked in an affair of the
heart.

When the community had proved its legal right to exist within the
Establishment and public clamour had subsided, this disciple was
despatched to America, and there he established a branch brotherhood and
became great and famous. At the height of his usefulness and renown he
was recalled, and this exercise of authority provoked a universal outcry
among his admirers. But he obeyed; he left his fame and glory in America
and returned to his cell in London, and was no more heard of by the outer
world until the founder of the society died, when he was elected by the
brothers to the vacant place of Superior.

Father Lamplugh was now a man of seventy, so gentle in his manner, so
sweet in his temper, so pious in his life, that when he stepped out of
his room to greet John Storm on his arrival in Bishopsgate Street it
seemed as if he brought the air of heaven in the rustle of his habit, and
to have come from the holy of holies.

"Welcome! welcome!" he said. "I knew you would come to us; I have been
expecting you. The first time I saw you I said to myself: 'Here is one
who bears a burden; the world can not satisfy the cravings of a heart
like that; he will surrender it some day.'"

Having been there before, though in "Retreat" only, he entered at once
into the life of the Brotherhood. It was arranged that he was to spend
some two or three months as postulant, then to take the vow of a novice
for one year, and finally, if he proved his vocation, to seal and
establish his calling by taking the three life vows of poverty, chastity,
and obedience.

The home of the Brotherhood was one of those old London mansions in the
heart of the city, which were built perhaps for the palaces of
dignitaries of the Church, and were afterward occupied as the houses and
offices of London merchants and their apprentices, and have eventually
descended to the condition of warehouses and stores and tenement
dwellings for the poor. Its structure remained the same, but the brothers
made no effort to support its ancient grandeur. Nothing more simple can
be imagined than the appointments of their monastery. The carved-oak
staircase was there, but the stairs wore carpetless, and the panelled and
parqueted hall was bare of ornament, except for a picture, in a pale
oaken frame, of the head of Christ in its crown of thorns. A plain clock
in a deal case was nailed up under the floral cornice, and beneath it
there hung the text: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle, or who
shall rest upon thy holy hill? Even he that leadeth an uncorrupt life."
The old dining-room was now the community room, the old kitchen was the
refectory, the spacious bedrooms were partitioned into cells, and the
corridors, which had once been covered with tapestry, were now coated
with whitewash, and bore the inscription, "Silence in the passages."

In this house of poverty and dignity, of past grandeur and present
simplicity, the brothers lived in community. They were forty in number,
consisting of ten lay brothers, ten novices, and twenty professed
Fathers. The lay brothers, who were under the special direction of their
own Superior, the Father Minister, and were rarely allowed to go into the
street, had to clean the house and bake the bread and cook and serve the
food which was delivered at the door, and thus, in that narrow circle of
duty, they proved their piety by their devotion to a lot which condemned
them to scour and scrub to the last day of life. The clerical brothers,
who were nearly all in full orders, enjoyed a more varied existence,
being confined to the precincts only during a part of their novitiate,
and then sent out at the will of the Superior to preach in the churches
of London or the country, and even despatched on expeditions to establish
missions abroad.

The lay brothers had their separate retiring room, but John Storm met his
clerical housemates on the night of his arrival. It was the hour of
evening recreation, and they were gathered in the community room for
reading and conversation. The stately old dining-room was as destitute as
the corridors of adornments or even furniture. Straw armchairs stood on
the clean, white floor; a bookcase, containing many volumes of the
Fathers, lined one of the panelled walls; and over the majestic fireplace
there was a plain card with the inscription, "There be eunuchs which have
made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."

The brothers gathered about him and examined him with a curiosity which
was more than personal. To this group of men, detached from life, the
arrival of some one from the outer world was an event of interest. He
knew what wars had been waged, what epidemics were raging, what
Governments had risen and fallen. He might not speak of these things in
casual talk, for it was against rule to discuss, for its own sake, what
had been seen or heard outside, but they were in the air about him, and
they were happening on the other side of the wall.

And he on his part also examined his housemates, and; tried to guess what
manner of men they were and what had brought them to that place. They
were men of all ages, and nearly every school of the Church had sent its
representatives. Here was the pale face of the ascetic, and there the
guileless eyes of the saint. Some were keen and alert, others were timid
and slow. All wore the long black cassock of the community, and many wore
the rope with three knots. They spoke little of the world outside, but it
was clear that they could not dismiss it from their thoughts. Their talk
was cheerful, and the Father told stories of his preaching expeditions
which provoked some laughter. They had no newspapers (except one
well-known High-Church organ) and no games, and there was no smoking.

The bell rang for supper, and they went down to the refectory. It was a
large apartment in the basement, and it still bore the emblems of its
ancient service. Over the great kitchen ingle there was yet another card
with the inscription, "Neither said any of them that aught of the things
which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common." A
table, scoured white, ran round three sides of the room, the seats were
forms without backs, and there was one chair--the Superior's chair--in
the middle.

The supper consisted of porridge and milk and brown bread, and it was
eaten out of plates and cans of pewter. While it lasted one of the
brothers, seated at a raised desk, read first a few passages of
Scripture, and then some pages, of a secular book which the religious
were thus hearing at their meals. The supper was hardly over when the
bell rang again. It was time for Compline, the last service of the day,
and the brothers formed in procession and passed out of the house, across
the courtyard, into the little church.

The old place was dimly lighted, but the brothers occupied the chancel
only. They sat in two companies on opposite sides of the choir, in three
rows of stalls, the lay brothers in front, the novices next, and the
Fathers at the back. Each side had its leader in the recitation of the
prayers. The Miserere was said kneeling, the Psalms were sung with
frequent pauses, each of the duration of the words "Ave Maria," producing
the effect of a broken wail. The service was short, and it ended with
"May the Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end." There
was another stroke of the bell, and the brothers returned to the house in
silence.

John Storm walked with the Superior, and passing through the courtyard,
in the light of the moon that had risen while they were at prayers, he
was startled by the sound of something.

"Only the creaking of the sycamore," said the Father.

He had thought it was the voice of Glory, but he had been hearing her cry
throughout the service, so he dismissed the circumstance as a dream. Half
an hour later the household had retired for the night, the lights were
put out, and the Society of the Gethsemane was at rest.

John's cell was on the topmost floor, next to the quarters of the lay
brothers. There was nothing above it but a high lead flat, which was
sometimes used by the religious as watch-tower and breathing place. The
cell was a narrow room with bare floor, a small table, one chair, a
prayingstool, a crucifix, and a stump bed, having a straw pillow and a
crimson coverlet marked with a large white cross.

"Here," he thought, "my journey is at an end. This is my resting-place
for life." The mighty hand of the Church was on him and he felt a deep
peace. He was like a ship that had been tossed at sea and was lying quiet
in harbour at last.

Without was the world, the fantastic world, forever changing; within were
gentle if strict rules and customs securely fixed. Without was the
ceaseless ebb and flow of the financial tide; within were content and
sweet poverty and no disturbing fears. Without were struggle and strife
and the fever of gain; within were peace and happiness and the grand
mysteries which God reveals to the soul in solitude.

He began to pass his life in review and to think: "Well, it is all over,
at all events. I shall never leave this place. Friends who forgive me,
good-bye! And foes who are unforgiving, good-bye to you too!

"And the world--the great, vain, cruel, hypocritical world--farewell to
it also! Farewell to its pomp and its glory! Farewell to life, and
liberty, and--love----"

The wind was rustling the leaves of the tree in the courtyard, and he
could not help but hear again the voice he had heard when crossing from
the church. His eyes were closed, but Glory's face, with its curling and
twitching lip and its laughing and liquid eyes, was printed on the
darkness.

"Ave Maria," he murmured; and saying this again and again, he fell
asleep.

Next morning the daylight had not quite dawned when he was awakened by a
knock at his door and a low voice saying, "Benedicamus Domino!"

It was the Father Superior, who made it his rule to rouse the household
himself, on the principle of "whosoever will be chief among you, let him
be your servant."

"Deo Gratias," he answered, and the voice went on through the corridor.
Then the bell rang for Lauds and Prime, and John left his cell to begin
his life as Brother Storm.




II.

Though it was against the rule of the Order to indulge in particular
friendships, yet in obedience to the rule of Nature he made friends among
the brothers. His feeling for the Superior became stronger than love and
approached to adoration, and there were certain of the Fathers to whom
his heart went out with a tender sympathy. The Father Minister was a man
of a hard, closed soul, very cantankerous and severe; but the rest were
gentle and timid men for the most part, with a wistful outlook on the
world.

It was due in part to the proximity of his cell to the quarters assigned
to the lay brothers that his two closest friendships were made among
them. One was with a great creature, like an overgrown boy, who kept the
door to the monastery by day, and alternated that duty with another by
night. He was called Brother Andrew--for the lay brothers were known by
their Christian names--and he was one of those characterless beings who
are only happy when they have merged their individuality in another's and
joined their fate to his. He attached himself to John from the first, and
as often as he was at liberty he was hanging about him, ready to fetch
and carry in his shambling gait, which was like the roll of an old dog.
The expression of his beardless face was that of a boy, and he had no
conversation, for he always agreed with everything that was said to him.

The other of John's friendships was with the lay brother whom he had
known outside--the brother of Polly Love--but this was a friendship of
slower growth, impeded by a tragic obstacle. John had seen him first in
the refectory on the night of his arrival, and observed in his face the
marks of suffering and exhaustion. At various times afterward he had seen
him in the church and encountered him in the corridors, and had sometimes
bowed to him and smiled, but the brother had never once given sign of
recognition. At length he had begun to doubt his identity, and one
morning, going upstairs from breakfast side by side with the Superior, he
said:

"Father, is the lay brother with the melancholy eyes and the pale face
the one whom I knew at the hospital?"

"Yes," said the Father; "but he is under the rule of silence."

"Ah! Does he know what has become of his sister?"

"No."

It was the morning hour of recreation, and the Father drew John into the
courtyard and talked of Brother Paul.

He was much tormented by thoughts of the world without, and being a young
man of a weak nervous system and a consumptive tendency, such struggles
with the evil one were hurtful to him. Therefore, though it was the rule
that a lay brother should not be consecrated until after long years of
service, it had been decided that he should take the vows immediately, in
order that Satan might yield up his hold of him and the world might drag
at him no more.

"Is that your experience?" said John; "when a religious has taken the
vows, are his thoughts of the world all conquered?"

"He is like the sailor making ready for his voyage. As long as he lies in
harbour his thoughts are of the home he has left behind him; but when he
has once crossed the bar and is out on the ocean he thinks only of the
haven where he would be."

"But are there no backward glances, Father? The sailor may write to the
friends he has parted from--surely the religious may pray for them."

"As brothers and sisters of the spirit, yes, always and at all times; as
brothers and sisters of the flesh, no, never, save in hours of especial
need. He is the spouse of Christ, my son, and all Christ's children are
his kindred equally."

As a last word the Father begged of John to abstain from reference to
anything that had happened at the hospital, lest Brother Paul might hear
of it and manifold evils be the result.

The warning seemed needless. From that day forward John tried to avoid
Brother Paul. In church and in the refectory he kept his eyes away from
him. He could not see that worn face, with its hungry look, and not think
of a captured eagle with a broken wing. It was with a shock that he
discovered that their cells were side by side. If they came near to each
other in the corridors he experienced a kind of terror, and was thankful
for the rule of silence which forbade them to speak. Under the
smouldering ashes there might be coals of fire which only wanted a puff
to fan them into flame.

They came face to face at last. It was on the lead flat of the tower
above their cells. John had grown accustomed to go there after Compline,
that he might look on London from that eminence and thank God that he had
escaped from its clutches. The stars were out, and the city lay like a
great monster around and beneath. Something demoniacal had entered into
his view of it. Down there was the river, winding like a serpent through
its sand, and here and there were the bridges, like the scales across it,
and farther west was the head of the great creature, just beginning to be
ablaze with lights.

"She is there," he thought, and then he was startled by a sound. Had he
uttered the words aloud? But it was some one else who had spoken. Brother
Paul was standing by the parapet with his eyes in the same direction.
When he became conscious that John was behind him he stammered something
in his confusion, and than hurried away as if he had been detected in a
crime.

"God pity him!" thought John. "If he only knew what has happened!"

Going back to his cell, he began to think of Glory. By the broken links
of memory he remembered for the first time, since coming into the
monastery, the condition of insecurity in which he had left her. How
uncertain her position at the hospital, how perilous her relations with
her friend!

The last prayer of the day for the brothers of the Gethsemane was the
prayer before the crucifix by the side of the bed: "Thanks be to God for
giving me the trials of this day!" To this he added another petition:
"And bless and protect her wheresoever she may be!"

He ceased to frequent the tower after that, and did not go up to it again
until the morning of the day on which he was to make his vows. By this
time his soul had spent itself so prodigally in prayer that he had almost
begun to regard himself as one already in another world. The morning was
clear and frosty, and he could see that something unusual was taking
place on the earth below. Traffic was stopped, the open spaces were
crowded, and processions were passing through the streets with bands of
music playing and banners flying. Then he remembered what day it was--it
was Lord Mayor's Day, the 9th of November--and once again he thought of
Glory. She would be there, for her heart was light and she loved the
world and all its scenes of gaiety and splendour.

It was the day of his final preparation, and he was under the rule of
silence, so he returned to his cell and shut the door. But he could not
shut out the sounds of the streets. All day long the bands were playing
and the horses prancing, and there was the tramp of many feet. And even
in the last hour before the ceremony, when he was on his knees in front
of the crucifix and the palms of his hands were pressed against his face,
he could see the gay spectacle and the surging throngs--the men, the
women, the children in every window, on every parapet, and Glory in the
midst of them with her laughing lips and her sparkling eyes.

Night brought peace with it at length, and then the bell rang and he went
down to service. The brothers were waiting for him in the hall, and they
formed into line and passed into the church: first, Brother Andrew with
the cross, then Brother Paul with the incense, and the other lay brothers
with the candles, then the religious in their cassocks, and the Superior
in his cope, and John Storm last of all.

The altar was decorated as for a feast, and the service was strange but
solemn. John had drawn up in writing a promise of stability and
obedience, and this he placed with his own hand on the altar. Down to
that moment he had worn his costume as a secular priest, but now he was
to be robed in the habit of the Order.

The Father stood on the altar steps with the habit lying at his feet. He
took it up and blessed it and then put it on John, saying as he bound it
with the cord, "Take this cord and wear it in memory of the purity of
heart wherewith you must ever hereafter seek to abide in the love and
service of our Lord Jesus."

At that moment a door was suddenly and loudly slammed, to signify that
the world was being shut out; the choir said the Gloria Patri, and then
sang a hymn beginning:

  Farewell, thou world of sorrow,
    Unrest, and schism and strife!
  I leave thee on the threshold
    Of the celestial life.

It was the occasion of Brother Paul's life vows also, and as John stood
back from the altar steps the lay brother was brought up to them. He was
very pale and nervous, and he would have stumbled but for the help of the
Father Minister and Brother Andrew, who walked on either side of him.

Then the same ceremony was gone through again, but with yet more solemn
accessories. The burial service was read, the De Profundis was sung, the
bell was tolled, the Ecce quam bonum was intoned, and finally the chant
was chanted:

  Dead to Him, then death is over,
  Dead and gone are death's dark fears.

John Storm was profoundly stirred. The heavens seemed to open and all the
earth to pass away. It was difficult to believe that he was still in the
flesh.

When he was able to collect himself he was on the tower again, but in his
cassock now and gripping the cord by which it was tied. The frosty air of
the morning had thickened to a fog, the fog-signals were sounding, and
the mighty monster below seemed to be puffing fire from a thousand
nostrils and bellowing from a thousand throats.

Some one had come up to him. It was Brother Paul. He was talking
nervously and even pretending to laugh a little.

"I am so happy to see you here. And I am glad the silence is at an end
and I am able to tell you so."

"Thank you," said John, and he tried to pass him.

"I always knew you would come to us--that is to say, after the night I
heard you at the hospital--the night of the Nurses' Ball, you remember,
and the Father's visit, you know. Still, I trust there was nothing
wrong--nothing at the hospital, I mean----"

John was fumbling for the door to the dormer.

"Everybody loved you too--the patients and the nurses and everybody! How
they will miss you there! I trust you left everybody well--and happy
and--eh?"

"Good-night," said John from the head of the stair.

There was silence for a moment, and then the brother said, in another
voice:

"Yes, I understand you. I know quite well what you mean. It is a fault to
speak of the outer world except on especial need. We have taken the vows,
too, and are pledged for life--I am, at all events. Still, if you could
have told me anything---- But I am much to blame. I must confess my
fault and do my penance."

John was diving down the stair and hurrying into his room.

"God help him!" he thought. "And me too! God help both of us! How am I to
live if I have to hide this secret? Yet how is he to live if he learns
it?"

He sat on the bed and tried to compose himself. Yes, Brother Paul was an
object for pity. In all the moral universe there was no spectacle more
pitiable than that of a man who had left the world while his heart was
still in it. What was he doing here? What had brought him? What business
had such a one in such a place? And then his pitiful helplessness for all
the uses of life and duty! Could it be right, could it be necessary,
could it be God's wish and will?

Here was a man whose sister was in the world. She was young and vain, and
the world was gay and seductive. Without a hand to guide and guard her,
what evils might not befall? She was sunk already in shame and
degradation, and he had put it out of his power to save her. Whatever had
happened in the past, whatever might happen in the future, he was lost to
her forever. The captured eagle with the broken wing was now chained to
the wall as well. But prayer! Prayer was the bulwark of chastity, and God
was in need of no man's efforts.

John fell on his knees before the crucifix. With the broken logic of
reverie he was thinking of Glory, and Brother Paul, and Polly and Drake.
They crossed his brain and weighed upon it and went out and returned. The
night was cold, but the sweat stood on his brow in beads. In the depths
of his soul something was speaking to him, and he was trying not to
listen. He was like a blind man who had stumbled to the edge of a
precipice, and could hear the waves breaking on the rocks beneath.

When he said his last prayer that night he omitted the petition for Glory
(as duty seemed to require of him), and then found that all life and soul
and strength had gone out of it. In the middle of the night he awoke with
a sense of fright. Was it only a dream that he was dead and buried? He
raised his head in the darkness and stretched out his hand. No, it was
true. Little by little he pieced together the incidents of the previous
day. Yes, it had really happened.

"After all, I am not like Paul--I am not bound for life," he told
himself, and then he lay back like a child and was comforted.

He was ashamed, but he could not help it; he was feeling already as if he
were a prisoner in a dungeon looking forward to his release.




III.

"5a Little Turnstile, High Holborn, London, W. C., November 9, 18--.

"Oh yiz, oh yiz, oh yiz! This is to announce to you with due pomp and
circumstance that I, Glory Quayle, am no longer at the hospital--for the
present. Did I never tell you? Have you never noticed it in the
regulations? Every half-year a nurse is entitled to a week's holiday, and
as I have been exactly six months to-day at Martha's Vineyard, and as a
week is too short a time for a trip to the 'oilan,' [* Island.] and as a
good lady whose acquaintance I have made here had given me a pressing
invitation to visit her---- See?

"Being the first day since I came up to London that I have been sole
mistress of my will and pleasure, I have been letting myself loose, like
Caesar does the moment his mad hoofies touch the grass. I must tell you
all about it. The day began beautifully. After a spell of laughing and
crying weather, and all the world sneezing and blowing its nose, there
came a frosty morning with the sun shining and the air as bright as
diamonds. I left the hospital between, eleven and twelve o'clock, and
crossing the park by Birdcage Walk I noticed that flags were flying on
Buckingham Palace and church bells ringing everywhere. It turned out to
be the birthday of the Prince of Wales, and the Lord Mayor's Day as well,
and by the time I got to Storey's Gate bands of music were playing and
people were scampering toward the Houses of Parliament. So I ran, too,
and from the gardens in front of Palace Yard I saw the Lord Mayor's Show.

"Do you know what that is, good people? It is a civic pageant. Once a
year the City King makes a royal procession through the streets with his
soldiers and servants and keepers and pipers and retainers, bewigged and
bepowdered and bestockinged pretty much as they used to be in the days
before the flood. There have been seven hundred of him in succession, and
his particular vanity is to show that he is wearing the same clothes
still. But it was beautiful altogether, and I could have cried with
delight to see those grave-looking signiors forgetting themselves for
once and pretending they were big boys over again.

"Such a sight! Flags were flying everywhere and festoons were stretched
across the streets with mottoes and texts, such as 'Unity is strength'
and 'God save the Queen,' and other amiable if not original ideas.
Traffic was stopped in the main thoroughfares, and the 'buses were sent
by devious courses, much to the astonishment of the narrow streets. Then
the crowds, the dense layers of potted people with white, upturned faces,
for all the world like the pictures of the round stones standing upright
at the Giant's Causeway--it was wonderful!

"And then the fun! Until the procession arrived the policemen were really
obliging in that way. The one nearest me was as fat as Falstaff, and a
slim young Cockney in front kept addressing intimate remarks to him and
calling him Robert. The young impudence himself was just as ridiculous,
for he wore a fringe which was supported by hair-oil and soap, and rolled
carefully down the right side of his forehead so that he could always
keep his left eye on it. And he did, too.

"But the pageant itself! My gracious! how we laughed at it! There were
Epping Forest verderers, and beef-eaters from the Tower, and pipers of
the Scots Guards, and ladies of the ballet shivering on shaky stools and
pretending to be 'Freedom' and 'Commerce,' and last of all the City King
himself, smiling and bowing to all his subjects, and with his liegemen
behind him in yellow coats and red silk stockings. Perhaps the most
popular character was a Highlander in pink tights, where his legs ought
to have been, walking along as solemnly as if he thought it was a sort of
religious ceremony and he was an idol out for an airing.

"And then the bands! There must have been twenty of them, both brass and
fife, and they all played the Washington Post, but no two had the luck to
fall on the same bar at the same moment. It was a medley of all the tunes
in music, an absolute kaleidoscope of sounds, and meantime there was the
clash of bells from the neighbouring belfries in honour of the Prince's
birthday, and the rattle of musketry from the Guards, so that when the
double event was over I felt like the man whose wife presented him with
twins--I wouldn't have lost either of them for a million of money, but I
couldn't have found it in my heart to give a bawbee for another one.

"The procession took half an hour to pass, and when it was gone,
remembering the ladies in lovely dresses who had rolled by in their
gorgeous carriages, looking not a bit cleverer or handsomer than other
people, I turned away with a little hard lump at my heart and a limp in
my left foot--the young Cockney with the fringe had backed on to my toe.
I suppose they are feasting with the lords and all the nobility at the
Guildhall to-night, and no doubt the crumbs that fall from the rich man's
table will go in pies and cakes to the alleys and courts where hunger
walks, and I dare say little Lazarus in the Mile End Road is dreaming at
this very moment of Dick Whittington and the Lord Mayor of London.

"It must have been some waking dream of that sort which took possession
of me also, for what do you suppose I did? Shall I tell you? Yes, I will.
I said to myself: 'Glory, my child, suppose you were nearly as poor as he
was in this great, glorious, splendid London; suppose--only suppose--you
had no home and no friends, and had left the hospital, or perhaps even
been turned away from it, and hadn't a good lady's door standing open to
receive you, what would you do first, my dear?' To all which I replied
promptly, 'You would first get yourself lodgings, my child, and then you
would just go to work to show this great, glorious London what a woman
can do to bring it to her little feet.'

"I know grandfather is saying, 'Gough bless me, girl! you didn't try it,
though?' Well, yes, I did--just for fun, you know, and out of the spirit
of mischief that's born in every daughter of Eve. Do you remember that
Manx cat that wouldn't live in the house, notwithstanding all the bribes
and corruption of Aunt Rachel's new milk and softened bread, but went off
by the backyard wall to join the tribe of pariah pussies that snatch a
living how they may? Well, I felt like Rumpy for once, having three
'goolden sovereigns' in my pocket and a mind superior to fate.

"It was glorious fun altogether, and the world is so amusing that I can't
imagine why anybody should go out of it before he must. I hadn't gone a
dozen yards in my new character as Dick Whittington _fille_ before a
coachman as fat as an elephant was shouting, 'Where d'ye think yer going
ter?' and I was nearly run down in the Broad Sanctuary by a carriage
containing two brazen women in sealskin jackets, with faces so thick with
powder and paint that you would have thought they had been quarrelling on
washing day and thrown the blue bag at each other's eyes. I recognised
one of them as a former nurse who had left the hospital in disgrace, but
happily she didn't see me, for the little hard lump at my heart was
turning as bitter as gall at that moment, so I made some philosophical
observations to myself and passed on.

"Oh, my gracious, these London landladies! They must be female Shylocks,
for the pound of flesh is the badge of all their tribe. The first one I
boarded asked two guineas for two rooms, and lights and fires extra. 'By
the month?' says I. 'Yus, by the month if ye like,' says she. 'Two
guineas a month?' says I. Marry come up! I was out of that house in a
twinkling.

"Then I looked out a group of humbler thoroughfares, not far from the
Houses of Parliament, where nearly every house had a card fixed up on a
little green blind. At last I found a place that would do--for my week,
only my week, you know. Ten shillings and no extras. 'I'll take them,'
said I with a lofty air, and thereupon the landlady, a grim person, with
the suspicion of a mustache, began to cross-examine me. Was I married?
Oh, dear, no! Then what was my business? Fool that I was, I said I had
none, being full of my Dick Whittingtonism, and not choosing to remember
the hospital, for I was wearing my private clothes, you know. But hoot!
She didn't take unmarried young ladies without businesses, and I was out
in the street once more.

"I didn't mind it, not I indeed, and it was only for fun after all; but
since people objected to girls without businesses, I made up my mind to
be a singer if anybody asked me the question again. My third landlady had
only one room, and it was on the second floor back, but before I got the
length of mounting to this eyry I went through my examination afresh. 'In
the profession, miss?' 'What profession?' 'The styge, of course.' 'Well,
ye--yes, something of that sort.' 'Don't tyke anybody that's on the
styge.'

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I could have screamed, it was so ridiculous; but
time was getting on, Big Ben was striking four, and the day was closing
in. Then I saw the sign, 'Home for Girls.' 'Wonder if it is a charity?'
thinks I; but no, it didn't look like that, so in I went as bold as
brass, and inquired for the manageress. 'Is it the matron you mean,
miss?' 'Very well, the matron then,' said I, and presently she came
up--no, not smiling, for she wasn't an amiable-looking Christian, but I
thought she would smother me with mysterious questions. 'Tired of the
life, are you, my dear? It _is_ a cruel one, isn't it?' I stood my ground
for some minutes, and then, feeling dreadfully thick in the throat, and
cold down the back, I asked her what she was talking about, whereupon she
looked bewildered and inquired if I was a good girl, and being told that
I hoped so, she said she couldn't take me in there, and then pointed to a
card oh the wall which, simpleton that I was, I hadn't read before: 'A
home and rescue is offered to women who desire to leave a life of misery
and disgrace.'

"I _did_ scream that time, the world was so nonsensical. At one place,
being 'on the styge' I was not good enough to be taken in, at another I
was not bad enough, and what in the name of all that was ridiculous was
going to happen next? But it was quite dark by this time, the air was as
black as a northwest gale, and I was 'aweary for all my wings,' so
forgetting Dick Whittington _fille_, and only remembering the good female
Samaritan who had asked me to stay with her, I made a dart for Victoria
Street and jumped into the first 'bus that came along, just as the hotels
and the clubs and the great buildings were putting' out the Prince of
Wales's feathers as sign and symbol of the usual rejoicings within.

"It was an 'Atlas' omnibus, and it took me to Piccadilly Circus, and that
being the wrong direction, I had to change. But a fog had come down in
the meanwhile, and lo, there I was in the middle of it!

"O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael! Do you know what a London fog is? It's
smoke, it's soot, it's sulphur. It is darker than night, for it
extinguishes the lights, and denser than the mist on the Curragh, and
filthier than the fumes of the brick-kiln. It makes you think the whole
round earth must be a piggery copper and that London has lifted the lid
off. In the midst of this inferno the cabs crawl and the 'buses creep,
and foul fiends, who turn out to be men merely, go flitting about with
torches, and you grope and croak and cough, and the most innocent faces
come puffing and snorting down on you like the beasts in the Apocalypse.

"I thought it good fun at first, but presently I could only keep from
crying by having a good laugh, and I was doing that, and asking somebody
the way to the Holborn omnibus, when a policeman pushed me and said:
'Come, move on; none of yer lyterin' abart here!'

"I could have choked, but remembering something I had seen on that very
spot on the night of my first day out, I dived across the street and ran
in spite of curses and collisions. But the 'somebody,' whoever he was,
had followed me, and he put me into the right 'bus, so I got here at
last. It took two mortal hours to do it, and after that spell of
purgatory this house is like a blessed paradise, peopled with angels of
mercy and grace, as paradise ought to be.

"The good Samaritan was very kind, and she made tea for me in a twinkling
and slaughtered the fatted calf in the shape of a pot of raspberry jam.
Her name is Mrs. Jupe, and her husband is something in a club, and she
has one child of eleven, whose bedfellow I am to be, and here I am now
with Miss Slyboots in our little bedroom feeling safe and sound and
monarch of all I survey.

"Good-night, good people! Half an hour hence I'll be going through a mad
march of the incidents of the day, turned topsy-turvy according to the
way of dreams. But wae's me! wae's me! If it had all been true--if I had
been really homeless and friendless and penniless, instead of having
three 'goolden' pounds in my purse, and Providence in the person of Mrs.
Jupe, to fall back upon! When I grow to be a wonderful woman and have
brought the eyes of all the earth upon me, I am going to be good to poor
girls who have no anchorage in London. John Storm was right: this great,
glorious, brilliant, delightful London can be very cruel to them
sometimes. It calls to them, beckons to them, smiles on them, makes them
think there must be joy in the blaze of so much light and luxury and love
by the side of so many palaces, and then----

"But perhaps the mischief lies deeper down; and though I'm not going to
cut my hair and wear a waistcoat and stand up for the equal rights of the
sexes, I feel at this moment that if I were only a man I should be the
happiest woman in the world, God bless me! Not that I am afraid of
London, not I indeed; and to show you how I long to take a header into
its turbulent tides, I hereby warn and apprize and notify you that
perhaps I may use my week's holiday to find a more congenial employment
than that of deputy White Owl at the hospital. I am not in my right place
yet, Aunt Anna, notwithstanding, so look out for revelations! 'To be or
not to be? that is the question.' Just say the word and I'll leave it to
Providence, which is always a convenient legatee, and in any case--but
wait, only wait and see what a week will bring forth!

"Greet the island for me to the inmost core of its being. The dear little
'oilan!' Now that I am so far away, I go over it in my mind's eye with
the idiotic affection of a mother who knows every inch of her baby's body
and would like to gobble it. The leaves must be down by this time, and
there can be nothing on the bare boughs but the empty nests where the
little birdies used to woo and sing. My love to them and three tremendous
kisses for yourselves!

"Glory.

"P.S.--Oh, haven't I given you the 'newses' about John Storm? There are
so many things to think about in a place like London, you see. Yes, he
has gone into a monastery--communication cut off--wires broken down by
the 'storm,' etc. Soberly, he has gone for good seemingly, and to talk of
it lightly is like picking a penny out of a blind man's hat. Of course,
it was only to be expected that a man with an upper lip like that should
come to grief with all those married old maids and elderly women of the
opposite sex. Canons to right of him, canons to left of him, canons in
front of him--but rumour says it was John himself who volleyed and
thundered. He wrote me a letter when he was on the point of going, saying
how London had shocked and disappointed him, and how he longed to escape
from it and from himself at the same time, that he might dedicate his
life to God. It was right and true, no doubt; but wherefore could not I
pronounce Amen? He also mentioned something about myself, how much I had
been to him; for he had never known his mother, and had never had a
sister, and could never have a wife. All which was excellent, but a mere
woman like Glory doesn't want to read that sort of thing in a letter, and
would rather have five minutes of John Storm the man than a whole
eternity of John Storm the saint. His letter made me think of Christian
on his way to the eternal city; but that person has always seemed to me a
doubtful sort of hero anyway, taking Mrs. Christian into account and the
various little Christians, and I can't pity him a pin about his bundle,
for he might just as well have left behind him what he couldn't enjoy of
God's providence himself.

"But this is like hitting a cripple with his crutch, John being gone and
past all defending himself, and when I think of it in the streets I have
to run to keep myself from doing something silly, and then people think
I'm chasing an omnibus, when I'm really only chasing my tears. I can't
tell you much about the Brotherhood. It looks like a cross between a
palace and a penitentiary, and it appears that ritualism has gone one
better than High-Churchmanship, and is trying to introduce the monastic
system, which, to an ordinary woman of the world, seems well enough for
the man in the moon, though the man in the moon might have a different
way of looking at things. They say the brothers are all celibates and
live in cells, but I think I've seen a look in John Storm's eyes that
warns me that he wasn't intended for 'the lek o' that' exactly. To tell
you the truth, I half blame myself for what has happened, and I am
ashamed when I remember how jauntily I took matters all the time our poor
John was fighting with beasts at Ephesus. But I am vexed with him too;
and if only he had waited patiently before taking such a serious step in
order to hear _my_ arguments---- But no matter. A jackdaw isn't to be
called a religious bird because it keeps a-cawing on the steeple, and
John Storm won't make himself into a monk by shutting himself up in a
cell. Good-night."




IV.

The house to which Glory had fled out of the fog was a little dingy
tobacconist's shop opening on a narrow alley that runs from Holborn into
Lincoln's-Inn Fields. It was kept by the baby farmer whom she had met at
the house of Polly Love, and the memory of the address thrust upon her
there had been her only resource on that day of crushing disappointment
and that night of peril. Mrs. Jupe's husband, a waiter at a West End
club, was a simple and helpless creature, very fond of his wife, much
deceived by her, and kept in ignorance of the darker side of her business
operations. Their daughter, familiarly called "Booboo," a silent child
with cunning eyes and pasty cheeks, was being brought up to help in the
shop and to dodge the inspector of the school board.

On coming downstairs next morning to the close and dingy parlour at the
back, Glory had looked about her as one who had expected something she
did not see, whereupon Mrs. Jupe, who was at breakfast with her husband,
threw up her little twinkling eyes and said:

"Now I know what she's a-lookin' for; it's the byeby."

"Where is it?" said Glory.

"Gorn, my dear."

"Surely you don't mean----"

"No, not dead, but I 'ad to put it out, pore thing!"

"Ye see, miss," said Mr. Jupe with his mouth full, "my missus couldn't
nurse the byeby and 'tend to the biziniss as well, so as reason was----"

"It brikes my 'eart to think it; but it made such a n'ise, pore darling!"

"Does the mother know?" said Glory.

"That wasn't necessary, my dear. It's gorn to a pusson I can trust to
tyke keer of it, and I'm trooly thenkful----"

"It jest amarnts to this, miss: the biziness is too much for the missus
as things is----"

"I wouldn't keer if my 'ealth was what it used to be, in the dyes when I
'ad Booboo."

"But it ain't, and she's often said as how she'd like a young laidy to
live with her and 'elp her with the shop."

"A nice-lookin' girl might 'ave a-many chawnces in a place syme as this,
my dear."

"Lawd, yus; and when I seen the young laidy come in at the door, 'Strike
me lucky!' thinks I, 'the very one!'"

"Syme 'ere, my dear. I reckkernized ye the minute I seen ye; and if ye
want to leave the hospital and myke a stawt, as you were saying--last
night----"

Glory stopped them. They were on the wrong trace entirely. She had merely
come to lodge with them, and if that was not agreeable----

"Well, and so ye shell, my dear; and if ye don't like the shop all at
onct, there's Booboo, she wants lessons----"

"But I can pay," said Glory, and then she was compelled to say something
of her plans. She wanted to become a singer, perhaps an actress, and to
tell them the truth she might not be staying long, for when she got
engagements----

"Jest as you like, my dear; myke yerself at 'ome. On'y don't be in a
'urry about engygements. Good ones ain't tots picked up by the childring
in the streets these dyes."

Nevertheless it was agreed that Glory was to lodge at the tobacconist's,
and Mr. Jupe was to bring her box from the hospital on coming home that
night from his work. She was to pay ten shillings a week, all told, so
that her money would last four or five weeks, and leave something to
spare. "But I shall be earning long before that," she thought, and her
resources seemed boundless. She started on her enterprise instantly,
knowing no more of how to begin than that it would first be necessary to
find the office of an agent. Mr. Jupe remembered one such place.

"It's in a street off of Waterloo Road," he said, "and the name on the
windows is Josephs."

Glory found this person in a fur-lined coat and an opera hat, sitting in
a room which was papered with photographs, chiefly of the nude and the
semi-nude, intermingled with sheafs of playbills that hung from the walls
like ballads, from the board of the balladmonger.

"Vell, vot's yer line?" he asked.

Glory answered nervously and indefinitely.

"Vot can you do then?"

She could sing and recite and imitate people.

The man shrugged his shoulders. "My terms are two guineas down and ten
per cent on salary."

Glory rose to go. "That is impossible. I can not----"

"Vait a minute. How much have you got?"

"Isn't that my business, sir?"

"Touchy, ain't ye, miss? But if you mean bizness, I'll tyke a guinea and
give you the first chawnce what comes in."

Reluctantly, fearfully, distrustfully, Glory paid her guinea and left her
address.

"Daddle doo," said the agent.

Then she found herself in the street.

"Two weeks less for lodgings," she thought, as she returned to the
tobacconist's. But Mrs. Jupe seemed entirely satisfied.

"What did I tell ye, my dear? Good engygements ain't chasing nobody abart
the streets these dyes, and there's that many girls now as can do a song
and a dance and a recitashing----"

Three days passed, four days, five days, six days, a week, and still no
word from Mr. Josephs. Glory called on him again. He counselled patience.
It was the dead season at the theatres and music halls, but if she only
waited----

She waited a week longer and then called again, and again, and yet again.
But she brought nothing back except her mimicry of the man's manner. She
could hit him off to a hair--his raucous voice, his guttural utterance,
and the shrug of his shoulders that told of the Ghetto.

Mrs. Jupe shrieked with laughter. That lady's spirits were going up as
Glory's came down. At the end of the third week she said, "I can't abear
to tyke yer money no longer, my dear, you not doing nothink."

Then she hinted at a new arrangement. She had to be much from home. It
was necessary; her health was poor--an obvious fiction. During her
absence she had to leave Booboo in charge.

"It ain't good for the child, my dear, and it ain't good for the shop;
but if anybody syme as yerself would tyke a turn behind the counter----"

Having less than ten shillings in her pocket, Glory was forced to submit.

There was a considerable traffic through the little turnstile. Lying
between Bedford Row and Lincoln's Inn, it was the usual course of lawyers
and lawyers' clerks passing to and fro from the courts. They were not
long in seeing that a fresh and beautiful face was behind the counter of
the dingy little tobacco-shop. Business increased, and Mrs. Jupe became
radiant.

"What did I tell ye, my dear? There's more real gentlemen a-mooching
rahnd here in a day than a girl would have a chawnce of meeting in a
awspital in a twelvemonth."

Glory's very soul was sickening. The attentions of the men, their easy
manners, their little liberties, their bows, their smiles, their
compliments--it was gall and wormwood to the girl's unbroken spirit.
Nevertheless she was conscious of a certain pleasure in the bitterness.
The bitterness was her own, the pleasure some one else's, so to speak,
who was looking on and laughing. She felt an unconquerable impulse to
sharpen her wit on Mrs. Jupe's customers, and even to imitate them to
their faces. They liked it, so she was good for business both ways.

But she remembered John Storm and felt suffocated with shame. Her
thoughts turned to him constantly, and she called at the hospital to ask
if there were any letters. There were two, but neither of them was from
Bishopsgate Street. One was from Aunt Anna. Glory was not to dream of
leaving the hospital. With tithes going down every year, and everything
else going up, how could she think of throwing away a salary and adding
to their anxieties? The other was from her grandfather:


"Glad to hear you have had a holiday, dear Glory, and trust you are
feeling the better for the change. Must confess to being a little
startled by the account of your adventure on Lord Mayor's Day, with the
wild scheme for cutting adrift from the hospital and taking London by
storm. But it was just like my little witch, my wandering gipsy, and I
knew it was all nonsense; so when Aunt Anna began to scold I took my pipe
and went upstairs. Sorry to hear that John Storm has gone over to Popery,
for that is what it comes to, though he is not under the Romish
obedience. I am the more concerned because I failed to make his peace
with his father. The old man seems to blame me for everything, and has
even taken to passing me on the road. Give my best respects to Mrs. Jupe,
when you see her again, with my thanks for taking care of you. And now
that you are alone in that great and wicked Babylon, take good care of
yourself, my dear one. To know that my runaway is well and happy and
prosperous is all I have left to reconcile me to her absence. Yes, the
harvest is over and threshed and housed, and we have fires in the parlour
nearly every day, which makes Anna severe sometimes, coals being so dear
just now, and the turf no longer allowed to us."


It was ten days overdue. That night, in her little bedroom, with its low
ceiling and sloping floor, Glory wrote her answer:


"But it isn't nonsense, my dear grandfather, and I really have left the
hospital. I don't know if it was the holiday and the liberty or what, but
I felt like that young hawk at Glenfaba--do you remember it?--the one
that was partly snared and came dragging the trap on to the lawn by a
string caught round its leg. I had to cut it away, I had to, I had to!
But you mustn't feel one single moment's uneasiness about me. An
able-bodied woman like Glory Quayle doesn't starve in a place like
London. Besides, I am provided for already, so you see my bow abides in
strength. The first morning after my arrival Mrs. Jupe told me that if I
cared to take to myself the style and title of teacheress to her little
Slyboots I had only to say the word and I should be as welcome as the
flowers in May. It isn't exactly first fiddling, you know, and it doesn't
bring an ambassador's salary, but it may serve for the present, and give
me time to look about. You mustn't pay too much attention to my
lamentations about being compelled by Nature to wear a petticoat. Things
being so arranged in this world I'll make them do. But it does make one's
head swim and one's wings droop to see how hard Nature is on a woman
compared to a man. Unless she is a genius or a jelly-fish there seems to
be only one career open to her, and that is a lottery, with marriage for
the prizes, and for the blanks--oh dear, oh dear! Not that I have
anything to complain of, and I hate to be so sensitive. Life is
wonderfully interesting, and the world is such an amusing place that I've
no patience with people who run away from it, and if I were a man--but
wait, only wait, good people!"




V.

John Storm had made one other friend at Bishopsgate Street--the dog of
the monastery. It was a half-bred bloodhound, and nobody seemed to know
whence he came and why he was there. He was a huge, ungainly, and most
forbidding creature, and partly for that reason, but chiefly because it
was against rule to fix the affections on earthly things, the brothers
rarely caressed him. Unnoticed and unheeded, he slept in the house by day
and prowled through the court by night, and had hardly ever been known to
go out into the streets. He was the strictest monk in the monastery, for
he eyed every stranger as if he had been Satan himself, and howled at all
music except the singing in the church.

On seeing John for the first time, he broadened his big flews and
stiffened his thick stern, according to his wont with all intruders, but
in this instance the intruder was not afraid. John patted him on the
peaked head and rubbed him on the broad nose, then opened his mouth and
examined his teeth, and finally turned him on his back and tickled his
chest, and they were fast friends and comrades forever after.

Some weeks after the dedication they were in the courtyard together, and
the dog was pitching and plunging and uttering deep bays which echoed
between the walls like thunder at play. It was the hour of morning
recreation, between Terce and Sext, and the religious were lolling about
and talking, and one lay brother was sweeping up the leaves that had
fallen from the tree, for the winter had come and the branches were bare.
The lay brother was Brother Paul, and he made sidelong looks at John, but
kept his head down and went on with his work without speaking. One by one
the brothers went back to the house, and John made ready to follow them,
but Paul put himself in his way. He was thinner than before, and his eyes
were red and his respiration difficult. Nevertheless, he smiled in a
childlike way, and began to talk of the dog. What life there was in the
old creature still! and nobody had known, there was so much play in it.

"You are not feeling so well, are you?" said John.

"Not quite so well," he answered.

"The day is cold, and this penance is too much for you."

"No, it's not that. I asked for it, you know, and I like it. It's
something else. To tell you the truth, I'm very foolish in some ways.
When I've got anything on my mind I'm always thinking. Day and night it's
the same with me, and even work----"

His breathing was audible, but he tried to laugh.

"Do you know what it is this time? It's what you said on the roof on the
night of the vows, you remember. What you didn't say, I mean--and that's
just the trouble. It was wrong to talk of the world without great
necessity, but if you had been able to say 'Yes' when I asked if
everybody was well you would have done it, wouldn't you?"

"We'll not talk of that now," said John.

"No, it would be the same fault as before. Still----"

"How keen the air is! And your asthma is so troublesome! You must really
let me speak to the Father."

"Oh, that's nothing. I'm used to it. But if you know yourself what it is
to be always thinking of anybody----"

John called to the dog, and it capered about him. "Good-morning, Brother
Paul." And he went into the house. The lay brother leaned on his besom
and drew a long sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his chest.

John had hastened away, lest his voice should betray him.

"Awful!" he thought. "It must be awful to be always thinking of somebody,
and in fear of what has happened to her. Poor little Polly! She's not
worthy of it, but what does that matter? Blood is blood and love is love,
and only God is stronger."

A few days afterward the air darkened and softened, and snow began to
fall. Between Vespers and Evensong John went up to the tower to see
London under its mantle of white. It was like an Eastern city now under
an Eastern moonlight, and he was listening to the shouts and laughter of
people snowballing in the streets when he heard a laboured step on the
stair behind him. It was Brother Paul coming up with a spade to shovel
away the snow. His features were pinched and contracted, and his young
face was looking old and worn.

"You really must not do it," said John. "To work like this is not
penance, but suicide. I'll speak to the Father, and he'll----"

"Don't; for mercy's sake, don't! Have some pity, at all events! If you
only knew what a good thing work is for me--how it drives away thoughts,
and stifles----"

"But it's so useless, Brother Paul. Look! The snow is still falling, and
there's more to come yet."

"All the same, it's good for me. When I'm very tired I can sleep
sometimes. And then God is good to you if you don't spare yourself. Some
day perhaps he'll tell me something."

"He'll tell us everything in his own good time, Brother Paul."

"It's easy to counsel patience. If I were like you I should be counting
the days until my time was over, and that would help me to bear things.
But when you are dedicated for life----"

He stopped at his work and looked over the parapet, and seemed to be
gazing into the weary days to come.

"Have you anybody of your own out there?"

"You mean any----"

"Any relative--any sister?"

"No."

"Then you don't know what it is; that's why you won't give me an answer."

"Don't ask me, Brother Paul."

"Why not?"

"It might only make you the more uneasy if I told you what----"

The lay brother let his spade fall, then slowly, very slowly, picked it
up again and said:

"I understand. You needn't say any more. I shall never ask you again."

The bell rang for Evensong, and John hurried away. "If it were only some
one who was deserving of it!" he thought--"some one who was worthy that a
man should risk his soul to save her!"

At supper and in church he saw Brother Paul going about like a man in a
waking dream, and when he went up to bed he heard him moving restlessly
in the adjoining cell. The fear of betraying himself was becoming
unbearable, and he leaped up and stepped out into the corridor, intending
to ask the Superior to give him another room elsewhere. But he stopped
and came back. "It's not brave," he thought, "it's not kind, it's not
human," and, saying this again and again, as one whistles when going by a
haunted house, he covered his ears and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, while it was still quite dark, he was
awakened by a light on his face and the sense of some one looking down on
him in his sleep. With a shudder he opened his eyes and saw Brother Paul,
candle in hand, standing by the bed. His eyes were red and swollen, and
when he spoke his voice was full of tears.

"I know it's a fault to come into anybody else's cell," he said, "but I
would rather do my penance than endure this torture. Something has
happened--I can see that quite well; but I don't know what it is, and the
suspense is killing me. The certainty would be easier to bear; and I
swear to you by Him who died for us that if you tell me I shall be
satisfied! Is she dead?"

"Not that," said John by a sudden impulse, and then there was an awful
silence.

"Not dead!" said Paul. "Then would to God that she were dead, for it must
be something worse, a thousand times worse!"

John felt as if the secret had been stolen from him in his sleep; but it
was gone, and he could say nothing. Brother Paul's lips trembled, his
respiration quickened, and he turned away and smote his head against the
wall and sobbed.

"I knew it all the time," he said. "Her sister went the same way, and I
could see that she was going too, and that was why I was so anxious. Oh,
my poor mother! my poor mother!"

For two days after that John saw no more of Brother Paul. "He is doing
his penance somewhere," he thought.

Meanwhile the snow was still falling, and when the brothers went out to
Lauds at 6 A.M. they passed through a cutting of snow which was banked up
afresh every morning, though the day had not then dawned. On the third
day John was the first to go down to the hall, and there he met Brother
Paul, with his spade in his hands, coming out of the courtyard. He looked
like a man who was melting before a fire as surely as a piece of wax.

"I am sorry now that I told you," said John.

Brother Paul hung his head.

"It is easy to see that you are suffering more than ever; and it is all
my fault. I will go to the Father and confess."

Between breakfast and Terce John carried out this intention. The Superior
was sitting before a handful of fire, in a little room that was darkened
by leather-bound books and by the flakes of snow which were falling
across the window panes.

"Father," said John, "I am a cause of offence to another brother, and it
is I who should be doing his penance." And then he told how he had broken
the observance which forbids any one to talk of his relations with the
world without

The Father listened with great solemnity.

"My son," he said, "your temptation is a testimony to the reality of the
religious life. Satan's rage against the home of consecrated souls is
terrible, and he would fain break in upon it if he could with worldly
thoughts and cares and passions. But we must conquer him by his own
weapons. Your penance, my son, shall be of the same kind with your
offence. Go to the door and take the place of the doorkeeper, and stay
there day and night until the end of the year. Thus shall the evil one be
made aware that you are the guardian of our house, to be tampered with no
more."

Brother Andrew was troubled when John took his place at the door that
night, but John himself was unconcerned. He was doorkeeper to the
household, so he began on the duties of his menial position. As the
brothers passed in and out on their mission-errands he opened the door
and closed it. If any one knocked he answered, "Praise be to God!" then
slid back the little grating in the middle panel of the door and looked
out at the stranger. The hall was a chill place, with a stone floor, and
he sat on a form that stood against one of its walls. His bed was in an
alcove which had formerly been the cloak-room, and a card hung over it
with the inscription, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." He had
no company except big Brother Andrew, who stole down sometimes to cheer
him with his speechless presence, and the dog, which was always hanging
about.




VI.

It was at least some comfort to be out of the proximity of Brother Paul.
The sounds of the lay brother in the neighbouring cell had brought back
recollections of Glory, and he had more than he could do to conquer his
thoughts of her. Since he had taken his vows and had ceased to mention
her in his prayers she had been always with him, and his fears for her
fate had been pricked and goaded by the constant presence of Brother
Paul's anxieties.

On the other hand, it was some loss that he could not go to the church,
and he remembered with a pang how happy he had been after a night of
terrors when he had gone into God's house in the morning and cast his
burden on him with one yearning cry of "God bless all women and young
children!"

It was now the Christmas season, and his heart tingled and thrilled as
the brothers passed through the door at midday and talked of the women
who attended the Christmas services. Were they really so calm as they
seemed to be, and had they conquered their natural affections?

Sometimes during the midday service he would slide back the grating and
listen for the women's voices. He heard one voice in all of them, but he
knew it was only a dream. Then he would watch the snow falling from the
little patch of dun-coloured sky crossed by bars, and tell himself that
that was all he was to see of the world henceforth.

The sky emptied itself at last, and Brother Paul came again to shovel
away the snow. He was weaker than ever, for the wax was melting away.
When he began to work, his chest was oppressed and his face was feverish.
John snatched the spade out of his hand and fell to doing his work
instead of him.

"I can't bear to see it, and I won't!" he said.

"But the Father----?"

"I don't care--you can tell him if you like. You are killing yourself by
inches, and you are a failing man any way."

"Am I really dying?" said Brother Paul, and he staggered away like one
who had heard his sentence.

John looked after, him and thought: "Now what should I do if I were in
that man's place? If the case were Glory's, and I fixed here as in a
vice?"

He was ashamed when he thought of Glory like that, and he dismissed the
idea, but it came back with mechanical obstinacy and he was compelled to
consider it. His vows? Yes, it would be death to his soul to break them.
But if she were lost who had no one but him to look to--if she went down
to wreck and ruin, then the fires of hell would be as nothing to his
despair!

Brother Paul came to him next day and sat on the form by his side and
said:

"If I'm really dying, what am I to do?"

"What would you like to do, Brother Paul?"

"I should like to go out and find her."

"What good would there be in that?"

"I could say something that would stop her and put an end to everything."

"Are you sure of it?"

A wild light came into his eyes and he answered, "Quite sure."

John played the hypocrite and began to counsel patience.

"But a man can't live without hope and not go mad," said Brother Paul.

"We must trust and pray," said John.

"But God never answers us. If it were your own case what would you do? If
some one outside were lost----"

"I should go to the Father and say, 'Let me go in search of her.'"

"I'll do it," said Brother Paul.

"Why not? The Father is kind and tender and he loves his children."

"Yes, I _will_ do it," said Paul, and he made for the Father's room.

He got to the door of the cell and then came back again. "I can't," he
said. "There's something you don't know. I can't look in his face and
ask."

"Stay here and I'll ask for you," said John.

"God bless you!" said Paul.

John made three hasty strides and then stopped.

"But if he will not----"

"Then--God's will be done!"

It was morning, and the Superior was reading in his room.

"Come in, my son," he said, and he laid his book on his lap. "This is a
book you must read some day--the Inner Life of Père Lacordaire. Most
fascinating! An inner life of intolerable horror until he had conquered
his natural affections."

"Father," said John, "one of our lay brothers has a little sister in the
world and she has fallen into trouble. She has gone from the place where
he left her, and God only knows where she is now! Let him go out and find
her."

"Who is it, my son?"

"Brother Paul--and she is all he has, and he can not help but think of
her."

"This is a temptation of the evil one, my son. Brother Paul has newly
taken the vows and so have you. The vows are a challenge to the powers of
evil, and it is only to be expected that he who takes them will be tested
to the uttermost"

"But, Father, she is young and thoughtless. Let him go out and find her
and save her, and he will come back and praise God a thousand times the
more."

"The temptations of Satan are very subtle; they come in the guise of
duty. Satan is tempting our brother through love, and you, also, through
pity. Let us turn our backs on him."

"Then it is impossible?"

"Quite impossible."

When John returned to the door Brother Paul was standing by the alcove
gazing with wet eyes on the text hanging above the bed. He saw his answer
in John's face, and they sat down on the form without speaking.

The bell rang for service and the religious began to pass through the
hall. As the Father was crossing the threshold Brother Paul flung himself
down at his feet and clutched his cassock and made a frantic appeal for
pity.

"Father, have pity upon me and let me go!"

The Father's eyes became moist but his will remained unshaken. "As a man
I ought to have pity," he said, "and as the Father of all of you I should
be kind to my children; but it is not I who refuse you, it is God, and I
should be guilty of a sin if I let you go."

Then Paul burst into mad laughter and the religious gathered round and
looked at him in astonishment. There was foam on his lips and fire in his
eyes, and he threw up his hands and fell back fainting.

The Father made the sign of the cross on his breast and his lips moved in
silence for a moment. Then he said to John, who had raised the lay
brother in his arms:

"Leave him there. Damp his forehead and hold his hands."

And turning to the religious he added: "I ask the prayers of the
community for our poor brother. Satan is fighting for his soul. Let us
wrestle in prayer that we may expel the spirit that possesses him."

At the next moment John was alone with the unconscious man, except for
the dog which was licking his forehead. And looking after the Superior,
he told himself that such unlimited power over the body and soul of
another the Almighty could have meant for no man. The love of God and the
fear of the devil had swallowed up the love of man and stifled all human
affections. Such religion must have hardened the best man ever born. As
for the poor broken creature lying there so still, his vows had been made
to heaven, and to heaven alone his obedience was due. The nature within
him had spoken too loudly, but there were laws of Nature which it was a
sin to resist. Then why should he resist them? The cry of blood was the
voice of God, or God had no voice and He could speak to no man. Then, why
should he not listen?

Brother Paul recovered consciousness and raised his head. The waves of
memory flowed back upon him and his eyes flamed and his lips trembled.

"I will go if I have to break my vows!" he said.

"No need for that," said John.

"Why so?"

"Because I will let you out at night and let you in again in the
morning."

"You?"

"Yes, I. Listen!"

And then these two crushed and fettered souls, bound by no iron bonds,
confined by no bolts and bars, but only under the shadow of the
supernatural, sat together like prisoners in a dungeon concocting schemes
for their escape.

"The Father locks the outer gate himself," said John. "Where does he keep
the key?"

"In his own room on a nail above his bed," said Paul.

"Who is the lay brother attending to him now?"

"Brother Andrew."

"Brother Andrew will do anything for me," said John.

"But the dog?" said Paul. "He is always in the court at night, and he
barks at the sound of a step."

"Not my step," said John.

"I'll do it," said Paul.

"I will send you to some one who can find your sister. You'll tell her
you come from me and she'll take you with her."

They could hear the singing in the church, and they paused to listen.

"When I come back in the morning I'll confess everything and do my
penance," said Paul.

"And I too," said John.

The sun had come out with a sudden gleam and the thawing snow was
dripping from the trees in drops like diamonds. The singing ceased, the
service ended, and the brothers came back to the house. When the Father
entered, Paul was clothed and in his right mind and sitting quietly on
the form.

"Thank God for this answer to our prayers!" said the Father. "But you
must pray without ceasing lest Satan should conquer you again. Until the
end of the year say your Rosary in the church every night alone from
Compline to midnight."

Then turning to John he said with a smile: "And you shall be like the
anchoret of old to this household, my son. We monks pray by day, but the
anchoret prays by night. Unless we know that in the dark hours the
anchoret guards the house, who shall rest on his bed in peace?"




VII.

At the end of the fourth week, after Glory had paid her fee to the agent,
she called on him again. It was Saturday morning, and the vicinity of his
office was a strange and surprising scene. The staircase and passages to
the house, as well as the pavement of the streets far as to the
public-house at the corner, were thronged with a gaudy but shabby army of
music-hall artistes of both sexes. When Glory attempted to pass through
them she was stopped by a cry of, "Tyke yer turn on Treasury day, my
dear," and she fell back and waited.

One by one they passed upstairs, came down again with cheerful faces,
shouted their adieus and disappeared. Meanwhile they amused themselves
with salutations, all more or less lively and familiar, told stories and
exchanged confidences, while they danced a step or stamped about to keep
away the cold. "You've chucked the slap [* Rouge.] on with a mop this
morning, my dear," said one of the girls. "Have I, my love? Well, I was a
bit thick about the clear, so I thought it would keep me warm." "It ain't
no use facing the doner of the casa with that," said a man who jingled a
few coins as he came downstairs, and away went two to the public-house.
Sometimes a showy brougham would drive up to the door and a magnificent
person in a fur-lined coat, with diamond rings on both hands, would sweep
through the lines and go upstairs. When he came down again his carriage
door would be opened by half a dozen "pros" who would call him "dear old
cully" and tell him they were "down on their luck" and "hadn't done a
turn for a fortnight." He would distribute shillings and half-crowns
among them, cry "Ta-ta, boys," and drive away, whereupon his pensioners
would stroke their cuffs and collars of threadbare astrakhan, tip winks
after the carriage, and say, "That's better than crying cabbages in
Covent Garden, ain't it?" Then they would all laugh knowingly, and one
would say, "What's it to be, cully?" and somebody would answer, "Come
along to Poverty Point then," and a batch of the waiting troop would trip
off to the corner.

One of the gorgeous kind was coming down the stairs when his eye fell on
Glory as she stood in a group of girls who were decked out in rose pink
and corresponding finery. He paused, turned back, reopened the office
door, and said in an audible whisper, "Who's the pretty young ginger
you've got here, Josephs?" A moment afterward the agent had come out and
called her upstairs.

"It's salary day, my dear--vait there," he said, and he put her into an
inner room, which was tawdrily furnished in faded red plush, with piano
and coloured prints of ballet girls and boxing men, and was full of the
odour of stale tobacco and bad whisky.

She waited half an hour, feeling hot and ashamed and troubled with
perplexing thoughts, and listening to the jingle of money in the
adjoining room, mingled with the ripple of laughter and sometimes the
exchange of angry words. At length the agent came back, saying, "Vell,
vat can I do for you to-day, my dear?"

He had been drinking, his tone was familiar, and he placed himself on the
end of the sofa upon which Glory was seated.

Glory rose immediately. "I came to ask if you have heard of anything for
me," she said.

"Sit down, my dear."

"No, thank you."

"Heard anything? Not yet, my dear. You must vait----"

"I think I've waited long enough, and if your promises amount to anything
you'll get me an appearance at all events."

"So I vould, my dear. I vould get you an extra turn at the Vashington,
but it's very expensive, and you've got no money."

"Then why did you take what I had if you can do nothing? Besides, I don't
want anything but what my talents can earn. Give me a letter to a
manager--for mercy's sake, do something for me!"

There was a shrug of the Ghetto as the man rose and said, "Very vell, if
it's like that, I'll give you a letter and velcome."

He sat at a table and wrote a short note, sealed it carefully in an
envelope which was backed with advertisements, then gave it to Glory, and
said, "Daddle doo. You'll not require to come again."

Going downstairs she looked at the letter. It was addressed to an acting
manager at a theatre in the farthest west of London. The passages of the
house and the pavements outside were now empty; it was nearly two
o'clock, and snow was beginning to fall. She was feeling cold and a
little hungry, but, making up her mind to deliver the letter at once, she
hastened to the Temple station.

There was a _matinée_, so the acting manager was "in front." He took the
letter abruptly, opened it with an air of irritation, glanced at it,
glanced at Glory, looked at the letter again, and then said in a
strangely gentle voice, "Do you know what's in this, my girl?"

"No," said Glory.

"Of course you don't--look," and he gave her the letter to read. It ran:


"Dear ----: This wretched young ginger is worrying me for a shop. She
isn't worth a ----. Get rid of her, and oblige Josephs."


Glory flushed up to the forehead and bit her lip; then a little nervous
laugh broke from her throat, and two great tears came rolling from her
eyes. The acting manager took the letter out of her hands and tapped her
kindly on the shoulder.

"Never mind, my child. Perhaps we'll disappoint him yet. Tell me all
about it."

She told him everything, for he had bowels of compassion. "We can't put
you on at present," he said, "but our saloon contractor wants a young
lady to give out programmes, and if that will do to begin with----"

It was a crushing disappointment, but she was helpless. The employment
was menial, but it would take her out of the tobacco shop and put her
into the atmosphere of the theatre, and bring fifteen shillings a week as
well. She might begin on Monday if she could find her black dress, white
apron, cap, and cuffs. The dress she had already, but the apron, cap, and
cuffs would take the larger part of the money she had left.

By Sunday night she had swallowed her pride with one great gulp and was
writing home to Aunt Anna:

"I'm as busy as Trap's wife these days; indeed, that goddess of industry
is nothing to me now; but Christmas is coming, and I shall want to buy a
present for grandfather (and perhaps for the aunties as well), so please
send me a line in secret saying what he is wanting most. Snow! snow!
snow! The snow it snoweth every day."

On the Monday night she presented herself at the theatre and was handed
over to another girl to be instructed in her duties. The house was one of
the best in London, and Glory found pleasure in seeing the audience
assemble. For the first half hour the gorgeous gowns, the beautiful
faces, and the distinguished manners excited her and made her forget
herself. Then little by little there came the pain of it all, and by the
time the curtain had gone up her gorge was rising, and she crept out into
the quiet corridor where her colleague was seated already under an
electric lamp reading a penny number.

The girl was a little, tender black and white thing, looking like a
dahlia. In a quarter of an hour Glory knew all about her. During the day
she served in a shop in the Whitechapel Road. Her name was Agatha
Jones--they called her Aggie. Her people lived in Bethnal Green, but
Charlie always came to the theatre to take her home. Charlie was her
young man.

In the intervals between the acts Glory assisted in the cloak-room, and
there the great ladies began to be very amusing. After the tinkle of the
electric bell announcing the second act she returned to the deserted
corridor, and before her audience of one gave ridiculous imitations in
dead silence of ladies using the puff and twiddling up their front hair.

"My! It's you as oughter be on the styge, my dear," said Aggie.

"Do you think so?" said Glory.

"I'm going on myself soon. Charlie's getting me on the clubs."

"The clubs?"

"The foreign clubs in Soho. More nor one has begun there."

"Really?"

"The foreigners like dancing best. If you can do the splits and shoulder
the leg it's the mykings of you for life."

When the performance was over they found Charlie waiting on the square in
front of the house. Glory had seen him before, and she recognised him
immediately. He was the young Cockney with the rolled fringe who had
bantered the policeman by Palace Yard on Lord Mayor's Day. They got into
the Underground together, and when Glory returned to the subject of the
foreign clubs Charlie grew animated and eloquent.

"They give ye five shillings a turn, and if yer good for anythink ye may
do six turns of a Sunday night, not ter speak of special nights, and
friendly leads and sech."

When Glory got out at the Temple Aggie's head was resting on Charlie's
shoulder, and her little gloved fingers were lightly clasped in his hand.

On the second night Glory had conquered a good deal of her pride. The
grace of her humour was saving her. It was almost as if somebody else was
doing servant's duty and she was looking on and laughing. After all it
was very funny that she should be there, and what delicious thoughts it
would bring later! Even Nell Gwynne sold oranges in the pit at first, and
then some day when she had risen above all this----

It must have been a great night of some sort. She had noticed red baize
and an awning outside, and the front of one of the boxes was laden with
flowers. When its occupants entered, the orchestra played the national
anthem and the audience rose to their feet. It was the Prince with the
Princess and their daughters. The audience was only less distinguished,
and something far off and elusive moved in her memory when a lady handed
her a check and said in a sweet voice:

"A gentleman will come for this seat."

Glory's station was in the stalls, and she did not go out when the lights
went down and the curtain rose. The play was a modern one--the story of a
country girl who returned home after a life of bitterness and shame.

It moved her and thrilled her, and stirred the smouldering fires of her
ambition. She was sorry for the actress who played the part--the poor
thing did not understand--and she would have given worlds to pour her own
voice through the girl's mouth. Then she was conscious that she was
making a noise with her hands, and looking down at them she saw the
crumpled programmes and her white cuffs, and remembered where she was,
and what, and she murmured, "O God, do not punish me for these vain
thoughts!"

All at once a light shot across her face as she stood in the darkness.
The door of the corridor had been opened, and a gentleman was coming in.
He stood a moment beside her with his eyes on the stage and said in a
whisper:

"Did a lady leave a seat?"

It was Drake! She felt as if she would suffocate, but answered in a
strained voice:

"Yes, that one. Programme, please."

He took the programme without looking at her, put his fingers into his
waistcoat pocket, and slid something into her hand. It was sixpence.

She could have screamed. The humiliation was too abject. Hurrying out,
she threw down her papers, put on her cloak and hat and fled.

But next morning she laughed at herself, and when she took out Drake's
sixpence she laughed again. With the poker and a nail she drove a hole
through the coin and then hung it up by a string to a hook over the
mantelpiece, and laughed (and cried a little) every time she looked at
it. Life was so funny! Why did people bury themselves before they were
dead? She wouldn't do it for worlds! But she did not go back to the
theatre for all that, and neither did she return to the counter.

Christmas was near, the shops became bright and gay, and she remembered
what beautiful presents she had meant to send home out of the money she
had hoped to earn. On Christmas Eve the streets were thronged with little
family groups out shopping, and there were many amusing sights. Then she
laughed a good deal; she could not keep from laughing.

Christmas Day opened with a rimy, hazy morning, and the business
thoroughfares were deserted. They had sucking pig for dinner, and Mr.
Jupe, who was at home for the holiday, behaved like a great boy. It was
afternoon before the postman arrived with a bag as big as a creel, and
full of Christmas cards and parcels. There was a letter for Glory. It was
from Aunt Anna.

"We are concerned about the serious step you have taken, but trust it is
for the best, and that you will give Mrs. Jupe every satisfaction. Don't
waste your savings on us. Remember there are post-office savings banks
everywhere, and that there is no friend like a little money."

At the bottom there was a footnote from Aunt Rachel: "Do you ever see the
Queen in London, and the dear Prince and Princess?"

She went to service that night at St. Paul's Cathedral. Entering by the
west door, a verger in a black cloak directed her to a seat in the nave.
The great place was dark and chill and half empty. All the singing seemed
to come from some unseen region far away, and when the preacher got into
the curious pulpit he looked like a Jack-in-the-box, and it seemed to be
a drum that was speaking.

Coming out before the end, she thought she would walk to the Whitechapel
Road, of which Aggie had told her something. She did so, going by
Bishopsgate Street, but turning her head away as she passed the church of
the Brotherhood. The motley crowd of Polish Jews, Germans, and Chinamen,
in the most interesting street in Europe, amused her for a while, and
then she walked up Houndsditch and passed through Bishopsgate Street
again.

At the Bank she took an omnibus for home. The only other fare was a
bouncing girl in a big hat with feathers.

"Going to the market, my dear? No? I hates it myself, too, so I goes to
the 'alls instead. Come from the country, don't ye? Same here. Father's a
farmer, but he's got sixteen besides me, so I won't be missed. Live? I
live at Mother Nan's dress-house now. Nice gloves, ain't they? My hat?
Glad you like the style. I generally get a new hat once a week, and as
for gloves, if anybody likes me----"

That night in her musty bedroom Glory wrote home while little Slyboots
slept: "'The best-laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft aglee.' Witness
me!

"I intended to send you some Christmas presents, but the snow has been so
industrious that not a mouse has stirred if he could help it. However, I
send three big kisses instead, and a pair of mittens for
grandfather--worked with my own hands, because I wouldn't allow any good
Brownie to do it for me. Tell Aunt Rachel I _do_ see the Prince and
Princess sometimes. I saw them at the theatre the other night. Yes, the
theatre! You must not be shocked--we are rather gay in London--we go to
the theatre occasionally. It is so interesting to meet all the great
people! You see I am fairly launched in fashionable society, but I love
everybody just the same as ever, and the moment the candle is out I shall
be thinking of Glenfaba and seeing the 'Waits,' and 'Oiel Verree,' and
'Hunting the Wren,' and grandfather smoking his pipe in the study by the
light of the fire, and Sir Thomas Traddles, the tailless, purring and
blinking at his feet. Merry Christmas to you, my dears! By-bye."




VIII.

"'Where's that bright young Irish laidy?' the gentlemen's allwiz sayin',
my dear," said Mrs. Jupe, and for very shame's sake, having no money to
pay for board and lodgings, Glory returned to the counter.

A little beyond Bedford Row, in a rookery of apartment houses in narrow
streets, there lives a colony of ballet girls and chorus girls who are
employed at the lighter theatres of the Strand. They are a noisy, merry,
reckless, harmless race, free of speech, fond of laughter, wearing false
jewellery, false hair, and false complexions, but good boots always,
which they do their utmost not to conceal.

Many of these girls pass through the Turnstile on their way to their
work, and toward seven in the evening the tobacconist's would be full of
them. Nearly all smoked, as the stained forefinger of their right hands
showed, and while they bought their cigarettes they chirruped and chirped
until the little shop was like a tree full of linnets in the spring.

Most of them belonged to the Frailty Theatre, and their usual talk was of
the "stars" engaged there. Chief among these were the "Sisters Bellman,"
a trio of singers in burlesque, and a frequent subject of innuendo and
rapartee was one Betty, of that ilk, whose name Glory could remember to
have seen blazing in gold on nearly every hoarding and sign.

"Says she was a governess in the country, my dear." "Oh, yus, I dare say.
Came out of a slop shop in the Mile End Road though, and learned 'er
steps with the organ man in the court a-back of the jam factory." "Well,
I never! She's a wide un, she is!" "About as wide as Broad Street, my
dear. Use ter sell flowers in Piccadilly Circus till somebody spoke to
'er, and now she rides 'er brougham, doncher know." Then the laughter
would be general, and the girls would go off with their arms about each
other's waists, and singing, in the street substitute for the stage
whisper, "And 'er golden 'air was 'anging dahn 'er back!"

This yellow-haired and yellow-fingered sisterhood saw the game of life
pretty clearly, and it did not take them long to get abreast of Glory.
"Like this life, my dear?" "Go on! Do she look as if she liked it?"

"Perhaps I do, perhaps I don't," said Glory.

"Tell that to the marines, my dear. I use ter be in a shop myself, but I
couldn't a-bear it. Give me my liberty, I say; and if a girl's got any
sort o' figure----Unnerstand, my dear?"

Late that night one of the girls came in breathless and cried: "Hooraa!
What d'ye think? Betty wants a dresser, and I've got the shop for ye, my
dear. Guinea a week and the pickings; and you go tomorrow night on trial.
By-bye!"

Glory's old infirmity came back upon her, and she felt hot and
humiliated. But her vanity was not so much wounded by the work that she
was offered as her honour was hurt by the work she was doing. Mrs. Jupe's
absences from home were now more frequent than ever. If the business that
took her abroad was akin to that which had taken her to Polly Love----

To put an end to her uneasiness, Glory presented herself at the stage
door.

"You the noo dresser, miss?" said the doorkeeper. "Collins has orders to
look after you.--Collins!"

A scraggy, ugly, untidy woman who was passing--through an inner door
looked back and listened.

"Come along of me then," she said, and Glory followed her, first down a
dark passage, then through a dusty avenue between stacks of scenery, then
across the open stage, up a flight of stairs, and into a room of moderate
size which had no window and no ventilation and contained three cheval
glasses, a couch, four cane-bottom chairs, three small toilet tables with
gas jets suspended over them, three large trunks, some boxes of
cigarettes, and a number of empty champagne bottles. Here there was
another woman as scraggy and untidy as the first, who bobbed her head at
Glory and then went on with her work, which was that of taking gorgeous
dresses out of one of the trunks and laying them on the end of the couch.

"She told me to show you her first act," said the woman called Collins,
and, throwing open another of the trunks, she indicated some of the
costumes contained in it.

It was a new world to Glory, and there was something tingling and
electrical in the atmosphere about her. There were the shouts and curses
of the scene-shifters on the stage, the laughing voices of the chorus
girls going by the door, and all the multitudinous noises of the theatre
before the curtain rises. Presently there was a rustle of silk, and two
young ladies came bouncing into the room. One was tall and pink and
white, like a scarlet runner, the other was little and dainty. They
stared at Glory, and she was compelled to speak.

"Miss Bellman, I presume?"

"Ye mean Betty, down't ye?" said the tall lady, and at that moment Betty
herself arrived. She was a plump person with a kind of vulgar comeliness,
and Glory had a vague sense of having seen her before somewhere.

"So ye've came," she said, and she took possession of Glory straightway.
"Help me off of my sealskin."

Glory did so. The others were similarly disrobed, and in a few moments
their three ladyships were busy before the toilet tables with their
grease and rose-pink and black pencils.

Glory was taking down the hair of her stout ladyship, and her stout
ladyship was looking at Glory in the glass.

"Not a bad face, girls, eh?"

The other two glanced at Glory approvingly. "Not bad," they answered, and
then hummed or whistled as they went on with their making-up.

"Oh, _thank_ you," said Glory, with a low courtesy, and everybody
laughed. It was really very amusing. Suddenly it ceased to be so.

"And what's it's nyme, my dear?" said the little lady.

A sort of shame at using in this company the name that was sacred to
home, to the old parson, and to John Storm, came creeping over Glory like
a goosing of the flesh, and by the inspiration of a sudden memory she
answered, "Gloria,"

The little lady paused with the black pencil at her eyebrows, and said:

"My! What a nyme for the top line of a bill!"

"Ugh! Mykes me feel like Sundays, though," said the tall lady with a
shudder.

"Irish, my dear?"

"Something of that sort," said Glory.

"Brought up a laidy, I'll be bound?"

"My father was a clergyman," said Glory, "but----"

A sudden peal of laughter stopped her, whereupon she threw up her head,
and her eyes flashed: but her stout ladyship patted her hands and said:

"No offence, Glo, but you re'lly mustn't--they're all clergymen's
daughters, doncher know?"

A sharp knock came to the door, followed by the first call of the
call-boy. "Half-hour, ladies." Then there was much bustle and some
irritation in the dressing-room and the tuning up of the orchestra
outside. The knock came again. "Curtain up, please." The door was thrown
open, the three ladies swept out--the tall one in tights, the little one
in a serpentine skirt, the plump one in some fancy costume--and Glory was
left to gather up the fragments, to listen to the orchestra, which was
now in full power, to think of it all and to laugh.

The ladies returned to the dressing-room again and again in the coarse of
the performance, and when not occupied with the changing of their dresses
they amused themselves variously. Sometimes they smoked cigarettes,
sometimes sent Collins for brandy and soda, sometimes talked of their
friends in front: 'Lord Johnny's 'ere again. See 'im in the prompt box?
It's 'is sixtieth night this piece, and there's only been sixty-nine of
the run--and sometimes they discussed the audience generally: "Don't
know what's a-matter with 'em to-night; ye may work yer eyes out and ye
can't get a 'and."

The curtain came down at length, the outdoor costumes were resumed, the
call-boy cried "Carriages, please," the ladies answered "Right ye are,
Tommy," her plump ladyship nodded to Glory, "You'll do middling, my dear,
when ye get yer 'and in"; and then nothing was left but the dark stage,
the blank house, and the "Good-night, miss," of the porter at the stage
door.

So these were favourites of the footlights! And Glory Quayle was dressing
and undressing them and preparing them for the stage! Next morning,
before rising, Glory tried to think it out. Were they so very beautiful?
Glory stretched up in bed to look at herself in the glass, and lay down
again with a smile. Were they so much cleverer than other people? It was
foolishness to think of it, for they were as empty as a drum. There must
be some explanation if a girl could only find it out.

The second night at the theatre passed much like the first, except that
the ladies were visited between the acts by a group of fellow-artistes
from another company, and then the free-and-easy manners of familiar
intercourse gave way to a style that was most circumspect and precise,
and, after the fashion of great ladies, they talked together of morning
calls and leaving cards and five-o'clock tea.

There was a scene in the performance in which the three girls sang
together, and Glory crept out to the head of the stairs to listen. When
she returned to the dressing-room her heart was bounding, and her eyes,
as she saw them in the glass, seemed to be leaping out of her head. It
was ridiculous! To think of all that fame, all that fuss about voices
like those, about singing like that, while she--if she could only get a
hearing!

But the cloud had chased the sunshine from her face in a moment, and she
was murmuring again, "O God, do not punish a vain, presumptuous
creature!"

All the same she felt happy and joyous, and on the third night she was
down at the theatre earlier than the other dressers, and was singing to
herself as she laid out the costumes, for her heart was beginning to be
light. Suddenly she became aware of some one standing at the open door.
It was an elderly man, with a bald head and an owlish face. He was the
stage manager; his name was Sefton.

"Go on, my girl," he said. "If you've got a voice like that, why don't
you let somebody hear it?"

Her plump ladyship arrived late that night, and her companions were
dressed and waiting when she swept into the room like a bat with
outstretched wings, crying: "Out o' the wy! Betty Bellman's coming! She's
lyte."

There were numerous little carpings, backbitings, and hypocrisies during
the evening, and they reached a climax when Betty said, "Lord Bobbie is
coming to-night, my dear." "Not if _I_ know it, my love," said the tall
lady. "We are goin' to supper at the Nell Gwynne Club, dearest."
"Surprised at ye, my darling." "_You_ are a nice one to preach, my pet!"

After that encounter two of their ladyships, who were kissing and hugging
on the stage, were no longer on speaking terms in the dressing-room, and
as soon as might be after the curtain had fallen, the tall lady and the
little one swept out of the place with mysterious asides about a "friend
being a friend," and "not staying there to see nothing done shabby."

"If she don't like she needn't, my dear," said the boycotted one, and
then she dismissed Glory for the night with a message to the friend who
would be waiting on the stage.

The atmosphere of the dressing-room had become oppressive and stifling
that night, and, notwithstanding the exaltation of her spirits since the
stage manager had spoken to her, Glory was sick and ashamed. The fires of
her ambition were struggling to burn under the drenching showers that had
fallen upon her modesty, and she felt confused and compromised.

As she stepped down the stairs the curtain was drawn up, the auditorium
was a void, the stage dark, save for a single gas jet that burned at the
prompter's wing, and a gentleman in evening dress was walking to and fro
by the extinguished footlights. She was about to step up to the man when
she recognised him, and turning on her heel she hurried away. It was Lord
Robert Ure, and the memory that had troubled her at the first sight of
Betty was of the woman who had ridden with Polly Love on the day of the
Lord Mayor's show.

Feeling hot and foolish and afraid, she was scurrying through the dark
passages when some one called her. It was the stage manager.

"I should like to hear your voice again, my dear. Come down at eleven in
the morning, sharp. The leader of the orchestra will be here to play."

She made some confused answer of assent, and then found herself in the
back seat, panting audibly and taking long breaths of the cold night air.
She was dizzy and was feeling, as she had never felt before, that she
wanted some one to lean upon. If anybody had said to her at that moment,
"Come out of the atmosphere of that hot-bed, my child, it is full of
danger and the germs of death," she would have left everything behind her
and followed him, whatever the cost or sacrifice. But she had no one, and
the pain of her yearning and the misery of her shame were choking her.

Before going home she walked over to the hospital; but no, there was
still no letter from John Storm. There was one from Drake, many days
overdue:


"Dear Glory: Hearing that you call for your letters, I write to ask if
you will not let me know where you are and how the world is using you.
Since the day we parted in St. James's Park I have often spoken of you to
my friend Miss Macquarrie, and I am angry with myself when I remember
what remarkable talents you have, and that they are only waiting for the
right use to be made of them.

"Yours most kindly,

"F. H. N. Drake."


"Many thanks, good Late-i'-th'-day," she thought, and she was crushing
the latter in her hand when she saw there was a postscript:


"P. S.--This being the Christmas season, I have given myself the pleasure
of sending a parcel of Yuletide goodies to your dear old grandfather and
his sweet and simple household; but as they have doubtless long forgotten
me, and I do not wish to embarrass them with, unnecessary obligations, I
will ask you not to help them to the identification of its source."


She straightened out the letter and folded it, put it in her pocket and
returned home. Another letter was waiting for her there. It was from the
parson:


"So you sent us a Christmas-box after all! That was just like my runaway,
all innocent acting and make-believe. What joy we had of it!--Rachel and
myself, I mean, for we had to carry on the fiction that Aunt Anna knew
nothing about it, she being vexed at the thought of our spendthrift
spending so much money. Chalse brought it into the parlour while Anna was
upstairs, and it might have been the ark going up to Jerusalem it entered
in such solemn stillness. Oh, dear! oh, dear! The bun-loaf, and the
almonds, and the cheese, and the turkey, and the pound of tobacco, and
the mull of snuff! On account of Anna everything had to be conducted in
great quietness, but it was a terrible leaky sort of silence, I fear, and
there were hot and hissing whispers. God bless you for your thought and
care of us! Coming so timely, it is like my dear one herself, a gift that
cometh from the Lord; and when people ask me if I am not afraid that my
granddaughter should be all alone in that great and wicked Babylon, I
tell them: 'No; you don't know my Glory; she is all courage and nerve and
power, a perfect bow of steel, quivering with sympathy and strength.'"




IX.

Christmas had come and gone at the Brotherhood, and yet the project was
unfulfilled. John himself had delayed its fulfilment from one trivial
cause after another. The night was too dark or not dark enough; the moon
shone or was not shining. His real obstacle was his superstitious fear.
The scheme was very easy of execution, and the Father himself had made it
so. This, and the Father's trust in him, had almost wrecked the
enterprise. Only his own secret anxieties, which were interpreted to his
consciousness by the sight of Brother Paul's wasting face, sufficed to
sustain his purpose.

"The man's dying. It can not be unpleasing to God."

He said this to himself again and again, as one presses the pain in one's
side to make sure it is still there. Under the shadow of the crisis his
character was going to ruin. He grew cunning and hypocritical, and could
do nothing that was not false in reality or appearance. When the Father
passed him he would drop his head, and it was taken for contrition, and
he was commended for humility.

It was now the last day of the year, and therefore the last of his duty
at the door.

"It must be to-night," he whispered, as Paul passed him.

Paul nodded. Since the plan of escape had been projected he had lost all
will of his own and become passive and inert.

How the day lingered! And when the night came it dragged along with feet
of lead! It seemed as if the hour of evening recreation would never end.
Certain of the brothers who had been away on preaching missions
throughout the country had returned for the Feast of the Circumcision,
and the house was bright with fresh faces and cheerful voices. John
thought he had never before heard so much laughter in the monastery.

But the bell rang for Compline, and the brothers passed into church. It
was a cold night, the snow was trodden hard, and the wind was rising. The
service ended, and the brothers returned to the house with clasped hands
and passed up to their cells in silence, leaving Brother Paul at his
penance in the church.

Finally the Father put up his hood and went out to lock the gate, and the
dog, who took this for his signal, shambled up and followed him. When he
returned he shuddered and shrugged his shoulders.

"A bitter night, my son," he said. "It's like courting death to go out in
it. Heaven help all homeless wanderers on a night like this!"

He was wiping the snow from his slippers.

"So this is the last day of your penance, Brother Storm, and to-morrow
morning you will join us in the community room. You have done well; you
have fought a good fight and resisted the assaults of Satan. Good-night
to you, my son, and God bless you!"

He took a few steps forward and then stopped. "By the way, I promised you
the Life of Père Lacordaire, and you might come to my room and fetch it."

The Father's room was on the ground floor to the left of the staircase,
and it was entered from a corridor which cut the house across the middle.
The rooms that opened out of this corridor to the front looked on the
courtyard, and those to the back looked across the City in the direction
of the Thames. The Father's room opened to the back. It was as bare of
ornament as any of the cells, but it had a small fire, and a
writing-table on which a lamp was burning.

As they entered the room together the Father hung the key of the gate on
one of many hooks above the bed. It was the third hook from the end
nearest the window, and the key was an old one with very few wards. John
watched all this, and even observed that there were books on the floor,
and that a man might stumble if he did not walk warily. The Father picked
up one of them.

"This is the book, my son. A most precious document, the very mirror of a
living human soul. What touched me most, perhaps, were the Father's
references to his mother. A monk may not have his mother to himself, and
if the love of woman is much to him he is miserable indeed until he has
fixed his eyes on the most blessed among women. But the religious life
does not destroy natural affection. It only kills in order to bring forth
new life. The corn of wheat dies that it may live again. That is the true
Christian asceticism, my son, and so it is with our vows. Goodnight!"

As John was coming out of the Father's room, he met Brother Andrew going
into it, with clean linen over one arm and a ewer of water in the other
hand. He threw on his bed in the alcove the book which the Father had
given him, and sat down on the form at the door and tried to strengthen
himself in his purpose.

"The man is dying for the sight of his sister. He can save her soul if he
can only see her. It can not be displeasing to the Almighty."

When he lifted his head the house was silent, except for the wind that
whistled outside its walls. Presently there was a scarcely perceptible
click, as of a door closing, and Brother Andrew came from the direction
of the Superior's room. John called to him and he stepped up on tip-toe,
for the monk hates noise as an evil spirit. The sprawling features of the
big fellow were all smiles.

"Has the Father gone to bed?" said John.

"Yes."

"Just gone?"

"No; half an hour ago."

"Then he will be asleep by this time."

"He was asleep before I left him."

"So he doesn't lock his door on the inside?"

"No, never."

"Does the Father sleep soundly?"

"Sometimes he does, and sometimes a cat would waken him."

"Brother Andrew----"

"Yes."

"Would you do something for me if I wanted, it very much?"

"You know I would."

"Even if you had to run some risk?"

"I'm not afraid of that"

"And if I got you into trouble, perhaps?"

"But you wouldn't. _You_ wouldn't get anybody into trouble."

John could go no further. The implicit trust in the simple face was too
much for him.

"What is it?" said Brother Andrew.

"Oh, nothing--nothing at all," said John. "I was only trying you, but you
are too good to be tempted, and I am ashamed. You must go to bed now."

"Can I put out the lights for you?"

"No, I'm not ready yet. Ugh! what a cruel wind! A cold night for Brother
Paul in the church."

"Tell me, Brother Storm, what is the matter with Brother Paul? He makes
me think of my mother, I don't know why."

John made no answer, and the lay brother began to go upstairs. Two steps
up he stopped and whispered:

"Won't you let me do something for you, then?"

"Not to-night, Brother Andrew."

"Good-night, Brother Storm."

"Good-night, my lad."

John listened to his footsteps until they stopped far overhead, and then
all was quiet. Only the whistling of the wind broke the stillness of the
peaceful house. He slid back the grating and looked out. All was darkness
except for the tiny gleam of coloured light that came from the church,
where Brother Paul sat to say his Rosary.

This fortified his courage, and he got up to put out the lamps in the
staircase and corridors. He began at the top, and as he came down he
listened on every landing and looked carefully around. There was no sound
anywhere except the light fall of his own deadened footstep. His
superstitious fears came back upon him, and his restless conscience
created terrors. The old London mansion, with its mystic cells, seemed
full of strange shadows, and the wind howled around it like a fiend. One
by one he extinguished the lamps. The last of them hung in the hall under
the picture of Christ in his crown of thorns. As he put it out he thought
the eyes looked at him, and he shuddered.

It was now half-past ten, and time to carry out his project. The back of
his neck was aching and his breath was coming quick. With noiseless steps
he walked to the door of the Father's room and listened again. Hearing
nothing, he opened the door wide and stepped into the room.

The fire was slumbering out, but it cast a faint red glow on the ceiling
and on the bed. A soft light rested on the Father's face, and he was
sleeping peacefully. There was no sound except the wind in the chimney
and a whistle sounding from a steamer in the river.

To reach the key, where it hung above the bed, it was necessary to step
between the fire and the sleeping man. As John did so his black shadow
fell on the Father's face. He stretched out his hand for the key and
found that a bunch of other keys were now hanging over it. When he
removed them they jingled slightly, and then his heart stood still, but
the Father did not stir, and he took the key of the gate off the hook,
put the other keys back in their place, and turned to go.

The dog began to howl--somebody was playing music in the street--and the
open door made the wind to roar in the chimney. The Father sighed, and
John stood with a quivering heart and looked over his shoulder. But it
was only a deep human sigh uttered in sleep.

At the next moment John had returned to the corridor and closed the door
behind him. His throat was parched, his eyelids were twitching, and his
temples were beating like drums. He went gliding along like a thief, and
as he passed the picture of Christ in the darkness the wind seemed to be
crying "Judas!"

Back in the hall he dropped on to the form, for his knees could support
him no longer. Love and conscience, humanity and religion clamoured loud
in his heart and tore him in pieces. "Traitor!" cried one. "But the man's
dying!" cried another. "Judas!" "She is hovering on the brink of hell and
he may save her soul from death and damnation!" When the struggle was
over, conscience and religion were worsted, and he was more cunning than
before.

Then the clock chimed the three quarters, and he raised his head. The
streets, usually so quiet at that hour, were becoming noisy with traffic.
There were the shuffling of many feet on the hard snow and the sharp
crack of voices.

He opened the great door of the house with as little noise as possible
and stepped out into the courtyard. The bloodhound started from its
quarters and began to growl, but he silenced it with a word, and the
creature came up and licked his hand. He crossed the court with quick and
noiseless footsteps, lifted the latch of the sacristy and pushed through
into the church.

There was a low, droning sound in the empty place. It ran a space and was
then sucked in like the sound of the sea at the harbour steps. Brother
Paul was sitting in the chancel with a lamp on the stall by his side. His
head leaned forward, his eyes were closed, and the light on his thin face
made it look pallid and lifeless. John called to him in a whisper.

"Paul!"

He rose quickly and followed John into the courtyard, looking wild and
weak and lost.

"But the lamp--I've forgotten it," he said. "Shall I go back and put it
out?"

"How simple you are!" said John. "Somebody may be lying awake in the
house. Do you want him to see that you've left your penance an hour too
soon?"

"True."

"Come this way--quietly."

They passed on tip-toe to the passage leading to the street, where some
flickering gleams of the light without fell over them.

"Where's your hat?" said John.

"I forgot that too--I left it in the church."

"Take mine," said John, "and put up your hood and button your
cassock--it's a cruel night."

"But I'm afraid," said Paul.

"Afraid of what?"

"Now that the time has come I'm afraid to learn the truth about her.
After all uncertainty is hope, you know, and then----"

"Tut! Be a man! Don't give way at the last moment. Here, tie my
handkerchief about your neck! How helpless you are, though! I've half a
mind to go myself instead."

"But you don't know what I want to say, and if you did you couldn't say
it."

"Then listen! Are you listening?"

"Yes."

"Go to the hospital where your sister used to be a nurse."

"Martha's Vineyard?"

"Ask for Nurse Quayle--will you remember?"

"Nurse Quayle."

"If she is on night duty she will see you at once. But if she is on day
duty she may be in bed and asleep, and in that case----"

"What?"

"Here, take this letter. Have you got it?"

"Yes."

"Give it to the porter. Tell him it comes from the former chaplain--you
remember. Say it concerns a matter of great importance, and ask him to
send it up to the dormitories immediately. Then----"

"Well?"

"Then _she_ must tell you what to do next."

"But if she is out?"

"She may be-this is New Year's Eve."

"Ah!"

"Wait in the porch till she comes in again."

John's impetuous will was carrying everything before it, and the helpless
creature began to overwhelm him with grateful blessings.

"Pooh! We'll not talk of that.... Have you any money?"

"No."

"Neither have I. I brought nothing here except the little in my purse,
and I gave that up on entering."

"I don't want any--I can walk."

"It will take you an hour then."

A clock was striking somewhere. "Hush! One, two, three ... eleven
o'clock. It will be midnight when you get there. Now go!"

The key was grating in the lock of the gate. "Remember Lauds at six in
the morning."

"I'll be back at five."

"And I'll open the gate at 5.30. Only six hours to do everything."

"Good-night, then."

"Wait!"

"What is it?"

Paul was in the street, but John was in the darkness of the passage.

"Very likely you'll cross London in a cab with her."

"My sister?"

"Your sister went to live somewhere in St. John's Wood, I remember."

"St. John's Wood?"

"Tell her"--John was striving to keep his voice firm--"tell her I am
happy--and cheerful--and looking strong and well, you know."

"But you're not. You're too good, and you're wearing away in my----"

"Tell her I am often thinking of her, and if she has anything to
say--anything to send--any word--any message ... it can't be displeasing
to the Almighty.... But no matter! Go, go!"

The key had grated in the lock again, the lay brother was gone, and John
was left alone.

"God pity and forgive me!" he muttered, and then he turned away.

The traffic in the streets was increasing every moment, and as he
stumbled across the courtyard a drunken man going by the gate stopped and
cried into the passage, "Helloa, there! I'm a-watchin' of ye!" The
bloodhound leaped up and barked, but John hurried into the house and
clashed the door.

He sat on the form and tried to compose himself. He thought of Paul as he
had seen him at the last moment--the captured eagle with the broken wing
scudding into the night, the night of London, but free, free!

In his mind's eye he followed him through the streets--down Bishopsgate
Street into Threadneedle Street and along Cheapside to St. Paul's
churchyard. Crowds of people would be there to-night waiting for the
striking of the clock at midnight that they might raise a shout and wish
each other a happy New Year.

That made him think of Glory. She would be there too, for she loved a
rich and abounding life. He could see her quite plainly in the midst of
the throng with her sparkling eyes and bounding step. It would be so new
to her, so human and so beautiful! Glory! Always Glory!

He thought he must have been dreaming, for suddenly the clocks were all
striking, first the clock in the hall, then the clocks of the churches
round about, and finally the great clock of the cathedral. Almost at the
same moment there was a distant sound like the rattle of musketry, and
then the church bells began to ring.

The noises in the street were now tumultuous. People were shouting and
laughing. Some of them were singing. At one moment it was the Salvation
chorus, at the next a music-hall ditty. First "At the Cross, at the
Cross," then "Mr. 'enry 'awkins," and then an unfamiliar ditty. With
measured steps over the hardened snow of the pavement there came tramping
along a line of boys and girls, crying:

  D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?
  D'ye ken John Peel at the break of day?
  D'ye ken John P-e-e-l----

Their shrill trebles broke like a rocket on the topmost note, and there
was loud laughter.

Glory again! Always, always Glory!

Then the scales fell from his eyes and he saw himself as he was, a
self-deluded man and a cheat. The impulses that had prompted him to this
night's work had really centred in Glory. It had been Glory first and
Glory last, and his pity for Brother Paul and his fear for the fate of
Polly had been only a falsehood and pretence.

The night wind was still howling about the house. Its noise mingled with
the peal of the church bells, and together they seemed to utter the
voices of mocking fiends: Judas! Traitor! Fool! Fool! Traitor! Judas!

He covered his ears with his hands and his head fell into his breast.




X.

"The Little Turnstile,

"New Year's Eve.

"Hooraa! hooraa!

"Feeling like bottled yeast this evening and liable to go off, I thank my
stars I have three old babies at home to whom I am bound to tell
everything. So lizzen, lizzen for all! Know ye then, all men (and women)
by these presents that there is a gentleman in London who predicts
wonderful things for Glory. His name is Sefton, and I came to know him
through three ladies--I call them the Three Graces--whose acquaintance I
have made by coming to live here. He is only an old mushroom with a bald,
white head; and if I believed everything their ladyships say I should
conclude that he is one of those who never sin except twice a year, and
that is all the time before Christmas and all the time after it. But
their Graces belong to that saintly sisterhood who would take away the
devil's character if they needed it (they don't), and though the
mushroom's honour were as scarce as the middle cut in salmon, yet in
common loyalty Glory would have to believe in it.

"It is all about my voice. Hearing it by accident when I was humming
about the house like a blue-bottle, he asked me to let him hear it again
in a place where he could judge of it to more advantage. That turned out
to be a theatre--yes, indeed, a theatre--but it was the middle of the
morning, and nobody was there except ourselves and a couple of cleaners,
so Aunt Anna needn't be afraid. Yes, the chief of the orchestra was
present, and he sat before a piano on the edge of the maelstrom, in what
we should call the High Bailiff's pews--but they call them the
stalls--while the mushroom himself went back to the cavernous depths of
the body, which in a theatre they have properly christened the pit, and
this morning it looked like the bottomless one.

"Lor'-a-massey! Ever see the inside of a theatre in the daytime? Of
course you've not, my dears. It is what the world itself was the day
before the first day--without form and void, and darkness is on the face
of the deep. Not a ray of daylight anywhere, except the adulterated kind
that comes mooching round corridors and prowling in at half-open doors,
and floating through the sepulchral gloom like the sleepy eyes of the
monsters that terrified me in the caves at Gob-ny-Deigan when I used to
play pirate, you remember.

"The gentlemen had left me alone on the stage with five or six
footlights--which they ought to call face-lights--flashing in my eyes,
and when the pianist began to vamp and I to sing it was like pitching my
voice into a tunnel, and I became so dreadfully nervous that I was forced
to laugh. That seemed to vex my unseen audience, who thought me 'rot'; so
I said, 'Let there be more light then.' and there was more light, 'and
let the piano cease from troubling,' and it was so. Then I just stiffened
my back and gave them one of mother's French songs, and after the first
verse I called out to the manager at the back," Can you hear me?' and he
called back, 'Go on; it's splendid!' So I did 'Mylecharaine' in the Manx,
and I suppose I acted both of my songs; but I was only beginning to be
aware that my voice in that great place was a little less like a
barrel-organ than usual when suddenly there came a terrific clatter, such
as comes with the seventh wave on the shingle, and my two dear men in the
dark were clapping the skin of their hands off!

"Oh, my dears! my dears! If you only knew how for weeks and weeks I had
been moaning and lamenting that it was because I wasn't clever that
people took no notice of me, you would forgive a vain creature when she
said to herself, 'My daughter, you are really somebody, after all--you,
you, you!' It was a beautiful moment, though, and when the old mushroom
came back to the stage saying: 'What a voice! What expression! What
nature!' I felt like falling on his bald head and kissing it, not being
able to speak for lumps in the throat and feeling like the Methodist lady
who poured out whisky for the class leaders after they had presented her
with a watch, and then told the reporters to say she had suitably
responded.

"Heigho! I have talked about the fashionable people I meet in London, but
I don't want to be one of them. They do nothing but rush about, dress,
gossip, laugh, love, and plunge into all the delights of life. That is
not my idea of existence. I am ambitious. I want to do something. I am
tired in my soul of doing nothing. Yes, it _has_ been that all along,
though I didn't like to tell you so before. There are people who are born
in the midst of greatness and they don't know how to use it. But to be
one of the world's celebrities, that is so different! To have won the
heart of the world, so that the world knows you and thinks of you and
loves you! Say it is by your voice you do it and that your world is the
concert hall, or even the music hall--what matter? You needn't _live_
music hall, whatever the life inside of it. And then that great dark void
peopled with faces; that laugh or cry just as you please to make
them--confess; that it would be magnificent, my dear ones!

"I am to go again to-night to hear what Mr. Sefton has to propose, but
already this dingy little bedroom smiles upon me, and even the broken
tiles in the backyard might be the pavement of paradise! If it is true
what he tells me---Well, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom, and if
my doings hereafter don't make your hair curl I will try to show the
inhabitants of this stupid old earth what a woman can do in spite of
every disadvantage. I shall not be sorry to leave this place either. The
rats in these old London houses (judging by their cries of woe) hold a
nightly carnival for the eating up of the younger members of the family.
And then Mrs. Jupe and Mr. Jupe--Mr. Dupe I call him--she deceives him so
dreadfully with her gadding about----But anon, anon, good people!

"It is New Year's Eve to-day, and nearly nine months since I came up to
London. _Tempus fugit!_ In fact _tempus_ is _fugit_-ing most fearfully,
considering that I am twenty-one on Sunday next, you know, and that I
haven't begun to do anything really. The snowdrops must be making a peep
at Glenfaba by this time, and Aunt Rachel will be cutting slips of the
rose trees and putting them in pots. Yandher place must he _urromassy_ [*
Out of mercy.]  nice though, with snow on the roof and the sloping lawn,
and the windows glistening with frost--just like a girl in her
confirmation veil as she stands hack to look at herself in the glass. I
intend to see the New Year in this time on the outside of St. Paul's
Cathedral, where people congregate in thousands as twelve o'clock
approaches to carry on the beautiful fiction that there is still only one
clock in London, and they have to hold their noses in the air to watch
for the moment when it is going to strike. But in the midst of the light
and life of this splendid city I know my heart will go back with a tender
twinge to the little dark streets on the edge of the sea, where the
Methodist choirs will be singing, 'Hail, smiling morn,' preparatory to
coffee and currant cake.

"Who will be your 'first foot' this year, I wonder? It was John Storm
last year, you remember, and being as dark as a gipsy, he made a perfect
_qualtagh_. [* Manx for "first foot."] And how we laughed when, disguised
in the snow that was falling at the time, he pretended to be a beggar and
came in just as grandfather was reading the bit about the Good Shepherd,
and how he loved his lambs--and then I found him out! Ah me!

"I am looking perfectly dazzling in a new hat to-day, having been going
about hitherto in one of those little frights that used to be cocked up
on the top of your hair like a hen on a cornstack. But now I am carrying
about the Prince of Wales's feathers, and if he could only see me himself
in them!----

"You see what a scatter-brained creature I am! Leaving the hospital has
made me grow so much younger every day that I am almost afraid I may come
to contemplate short frocks. But really it's the first time I've looked
nice for an eternity, and now I entirely retract and repent me of all I
said about wishing to be a man. Being a girl, I'll put up with it, and if
all the old mushroom says on that head also is true---- But then men are
such funny things, bless them! Glory.

"P.S.--No word from John Storm yet. Apparently he never thinks of us
now--of me at all events--and I suppose he has resigned himself and taken
the vows. That's one kind of religion, I dare say, but I can't understand
it; and I don't know how a dog, even, can be nailed up to a wall and not
go mad. In the night lying in bed I sometimes think of him. A dark cell,
a bench for a bed, a crucifix, and no other furniture, praying with
trembling limbs and chattering teeth--No; such things are too high for
me; I can not reach to them.

"It seems impossible that _he_ can be in London too. What a place this
London is! Such a mixture! Fashion, religion, gaiety, devotion, pride,
depravity, wealth, poverty! I find that for a girl to succeed in London
her moral colour must be heightened a little. _Pinjane_ [* Manx dish,
like Devonshire junket] alone won't do. Give her a slush of _pissaves_ [*
Preserves] and she'll go down sweeter. Angels are not wanted here at all.
The only angels there are in London are kept framed in the church
windows, and I half suspect that even they were women once, and liked
bread and butter. And then Nell Gwynne's flag floats from the steeple of
St. Martin's in the Fields, and now and again they ring the bells for
her!"




XI.

At eleven o'clock that night Glory was putting on her hat and cloak to
return home when the call-boy came to the dressing-room door to say that
the stage manager was waiting to see her. With a little catch, in her
breath, and then with a tightening of the heart-strings, she followed him
to the stage manager's office. It was a stuffy place over the porter's
lodge, approached by a flight of circular iron stairs and lumbered with
many kinds of theatrical property.

"Come in, my dear," said the stage manager, and pushing away some models
of scenery he made room for her on a sofa which stood by a fast-dying
fire. Then shutting the door, he bobbed his head at her and winked with
both eyes, and said in a familiar whisper:

"It's all right, my dear. I've settled that little matter for you."

"Do you mean----" began Glory, and then she waited with parted lips.

"It's as good as done, my dear. Sit down." Glory had risen in her
excitement. "Sit down and I'll tell you everything."

He had spoken to his management. "Gentlemen," he had said, "unless I'm
mistaken I've found a prize." They had laughed. He was always finding
prizes. But he knew what he was talking about, and they had given him
_carte blanche_.

"You think there is really some likelihood, then----" began Glory, with
the catch in her breath again, for her throat was thick and her breast
was heaving.

"Sit down, now do sit down, my dear, and listen."

He was suave, he was flattering, he was intimate, he was, coaxing. She
was to leave everything to him. Of course, there was much to be done yet.
She had a wonderful voice; it was finer than music. She had style as
well; it was astonishing how she had come by it. Only a dresser, too--not
even in the chorus. But stars were never turned out by Nature. She had
many things to learn, and would have to be coached up carefully before
she could be brought out. He had done it for others, though, and he could
do it for her; and if----

Glory's eyes were shining and her heart was beating like a drum.

"Then you think that eventually--if I work hard--after years perhaps----"

"You can't do it on your own, my dear, so leave yourself in my hands
entirely, and don't whisper a word about it yet."

"Ah!" It was like a dream coming true; she could scarcely believe in it.
The stage manager became still more suave and flattering and familiar. If
she "caught on," there was no knowing what he might not get for her--ten
pounds a week--fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, even fifty perhaps.

Glory's palpitation was becoming painful, and at the bottom of her heart
there was a certain fear of this sudden tide of fortune, as if Providence
had somehow made a mistake and would as suddenly find it out. To appease
her conscience she began to think of home and how happy she might make
everybody there if God was really going to be so good to her. They should
want for nothing; they should never know a poor day again.

Meantime the stage manager was painting another picture. A girl didn't go
a-begging if he once took her up. There was S----. She was only an
"auricomous" damsel, serving in a tobacconist's shop in the Haymarket
when he first found her, and now where was she?

"Of course, I've no interest of my own to serve, my dear--none whatever.
And there'll be lots of people to tempt you away from me when your name
is made."

Glory uttered some vehement protest, and then was lost in her dreams
again.

"Well, well, we'll see," said the stage manager. He was looking at her
with glittering eyes.

"Do you know, my dear, you are a very fine-looking young woman?"

Glory's head was down, her face was flushed, and she was turning her
mother's pearl ring around her finger. He thought she was overwhelmed by
his praises, and coming closer, he said:

"Dare say you've got a good stage figure too, eh? Pooh! Only business,
you know! But you mustn't be shy with me, my dear. And besides, if I am
to do all this for you, you must do something for me sometimes."

She hardly heard him. Her eyes were still glistening with the far-off
look of one who gazes on a beautiful vision.

"You are so good," she said. "I don't know what to say, or how to thank
you."

"This way," he whispered, and leaning over to her he lifted her face and
kissed her.

Then her poor dream of glory and grandeur and happiness was dispelled in
a moment, and she awoke with a sense of outrage and shame. The man's
praises were flattery; his predictions were a pretence; he had not really
meant it at all, and she had been so simple as to believe everything.

"Oh!" she said, with the feeble, childish cry of one who has received a
pistol wound in battle. And then she rose and turned to go. But the stage
manager, who was laughing noisily out of his hot red face, stepped
between her and the door.

"My dear child, you can't mean--a trifle like that--!"

"Open the door, please," she said in her husky voice.

"But surely you don't intend--In this profession we think nothing, you
know----"

"Open the door, sir!"

"Really--upon my word----"

When she came to herself again she was out in the dark back street, and
the snow was hard and dirty under foot, and the wind was high and cold,
and she was running along and crying like a disappointed child.

The bitterest part of it all was the crushing certainty that she had no
talents and no chances of success, and that the man had only painted up
his fancy picture as a means of deceiving her. Oh, the misery of being a
woman! Oh. the cruelty of this great, glorious, devilish London, where a
girl, if she was poor and alone, could live only by her looks!

With God knows what lingering remnant of expectation, but feeling broken
and beaten after her brave fight for life, and with the weak woman
uppermost at last, she had turned toward the hospital. It was nearly
half-past eleven when she got there, and Big Ben was chiming the half
hour as she ascended the steps. Bracing herself up, she looked in at the
porter's door with a face that was doing its best to smile.

"Any letters to-night, porter?"

"Not to-night, miss."

"No? Well--none to get, none to answer, you know. Happy New Year to you!"

But there was a sob in her laughter, and the man said: "I'd be sorry to
miss your face, nurse, but if you'll leave your address I'll send your
letters on and save you the journey so late at night."

"Oh, no-no, there'll be no more letters now, porter, and--I'll not come
again. Here!"

"No, no, miss."

"Yes, yes, you must."

She forced a shilling into the porter's hand in spite of his protests,
and then fled from the look in his face which seemed to her to say that
he would like to return her sixpence.

John Storm was lost to her. It was foolishness to go on expecting to hear
from him. Had he not told her that the rule under which the brothers
lived in community forbade them to write and receive letters except by
special permission? But she had expected that something would
happen--some accident, some miracle, she hardly knew what. That dream was
over now; she was alone; it was no use deceiving herself any longer.

She went home by the back streets, for people were peering into her face,
and she thought perhaps she had been crying. Late as it was, being New
Year's Eve, there were groups about every corner, and in some of the
flagged courts and alleys little girls were dancing to the music of the
Italian organ man or turning catherine-wheels. As she was going down Long
Acre a creachy voice saluted her.

"Evening, miss! Going home early, ain't ye?"

It was a miserable-looking woman in clothes that might have been stolen
from a scarecrow.

"Market full to-night, my dear? Look as if the dodgers had been at ye.
Live? I live off of the lane. But lor' bless ye, I've lived in a-many
places! Seen the day I lived in Soho Square. I was on the 'alls then. Got
a bit quisby on my top notes, you know, and took the scarlet
fever--soldier, I mean, my dear. But what's the use of frettin'?

"I likes to be jolly, and I allwiz is. Doing now? Selling flowers outside
the theatres--police is nasty if you've got nothink. Ain't I going home?
Soon as I get a drain of white satin. Wish you luck, my dear!"

As she came up to the shop in the Turnstile she could hear that it was
noisy with the voices of men and girls, so she turned back through
Lincoln's-Inn Fields and passed down to Fleet Street. It was approaching
twelve o'clock by this time, and streams of people were flowing in the
direction of St. Paul's Cathedral. Glory turned eastward also and allowed
herself to be carried along with the current which babbled and talked
like a river in the night.

Immediately in front of her there was a line of girls walking arm-in-arm
across the width of the pavement. They were factory girls in big hats
with ostrich feathers, and as they skipped along with their free step
they sang snatches of Salvation hymns and music-hall songs. All at once
they gave a shrill peal of laughter, and one of them cried, "Tell me what
it is and I'll give it a nyme." At the next moment a strange figure was
forging past their line, going westward with long strides. It was a man
in the habit of a monk, with long black cassock and broad-brimmed hat.
Glory caught a glimpse of his face as he passed her. It was a hungry,
eager face, with big, melancholy eyes, and it seemed to her that she must
have seen it before somewhere. The wind was very cold, and the great
cross on the dome of the cathedral stood out like a beacon against flying
clouds.

St. Paul's churchyard was thronged with noisy, happy people, and down to
the last minute before the hour they shouted and joked and laughed. Then
there was a hush, the great crowds seemed to hold their breath as if they
had been a single living creature, and every face was turned upward to
the clock. The clock struck, the bells of the cathedral began to ring,
the people cheered and saluted each other and shook hands on every side,
and then the dense mass broke up.

Glory could have cried for joy of it all--it was so simple, so human, so
childlike. But she listened to the laughter and salutations of the people
about her and felt more lonely than the Bedouin in the desert; she
remembered the bubbling hopes that had carried her through the day, and
her heart fell low; she thought of the letter which she had posted home
on her way to the theatre, and two great tears came rolling from her
eyes.

The face of the monk tormented her, and suddenly she bethought herself
whose face it must have been. It must have been the face of Polly Love's
brother. He belonged to the Bishopsgate Fathers, and had once been a
patient in the hospital, and perhaps he was going there now on some
errand or urgent message--to the doctors or to----

"It was foolish not to leave my address when the porter asked me," she
thought. She would go back and do so. There could be no harm in that; and
if anything had really happened, if John----

"Happy New Year to you, my dear!"

Somebody in the drifting crowd was standing before her and blocking the
way. It was Agatha Jones in a mock seal-skin coat and big black hat
surmounted by black feathers, and with Charlie Wilkes (with his
diminutive cap pushed back from his oily fringe and pimpled forehead)
leaning heavily on her arm.

"Well, I never! Who'd have thought of meeting you in St. Paul's
churchyawd!"

Glory tried to laugh and to return the salutation over the noises of the
people and the clangour of the bells. And then Aggie put her face close,
as women do who are accustomed to talking in the streets, and said:
"Thought we'd seen the lahst of you, my dear, when you went off that
night sudden. Selling programmes somewhere else now?"

"Something of that sort," said Glory.

"I'm not. I've been left the old red church this fortnight and more.
Charlie's got me on the clubs. But my word!" turning to Charlie, "it's
her as oughter be there, my dear!"

"She cheeks me out," said Charlie, "as you'll knock the stuffing out of
Betty Bellman 'erself if you once myke a stawt."

And Aggie said: "I might get you to do a turn almost any Sunday, if you
like, my dear. There's always somebody as down't come, and they're glad
of an extra turn to tyke the number if she's only clever enough to get a
few 'ands. Going 'ome, dear?"

"Yes," said Glory.

"Where d'ye live?" said Aggie, and Glory told her.

"I'll call for you Sunday night at eight, and if you down't tyke your
chawnce when you get it, you're a foolisher woman than I thought you
were, that's stright! By-bye!"




XII.

Always at half-past five in the morning the Father Superior began to
awaken the Brotherhood. It took him a quarter of an hour to pass through
the house on that errand, for the infirmities of his years were upon him.
During this interval John Storm had intended to open the gate to Paul and
then return the key to its place in the Father's room. The time was
short, and to lose no part of it he had resolved to remain awake the
whole night through.

There was little need to make a call on that resolution. With fear and
remorse he could not close his eyes, and from hour to hour he heard every
sound of the streets. At one o'clock, the voices singing outside were
strained and cracked and out of tune; at two, they were brutish and
drunken and mingled with shrieks of quarrelling; at three, there was
silence; at four, the butchers' wagons were rattling on the stones from
the shambles across the river to the meat markets of London, with the
carcasses of the thousands of beasts that were slaughtered overnight to
feed the body of the mammoth on the morrow; and at five, the postal vans
were galloping from the railway stations to the post-office with the
millions of letters that were to feed its mind.

At half-past five the Father had come out of his room and passed slowly
upstairs, and John Storm was in the courtyard opening the lock of the
outer gate. Although there was a feeling of morning in the freezing air
it was still quite dark.

"Paul," he whispered, but there was no answer.

"Brother Paul!" he whispered again, and then waited, but there was no
reply.

It was not at first that he realized the tremendous gravity of what had
occurred--that Brother Paul had not returned, and that he must go back to
the house without him. He kept calling into the darkness until he
remembered that the Father would be down in his room again soon and
looking for the key where he had left it.

Back in the hall, he reproached himself with his haste, and concluded to
return to the gate. There would be time to do it; the Father was still
far overhead; his "Benedicamus Domino" was passing from corridor to
corridor; and Paul might be coming down the street.

"Paul! Paul!" he cried again, and opening the gate he looked out. But
there was no one on the pavement except a drunken man and a girl, singing
themselves home in the dead waste of the New Year's morning.

Then the truth fell on him like a thundercloud, and he hurried back to
the house for good. By this time the Father was coming down the stairs,
and had reached the landing of the first story. Snatching up from the bed
in the alcove the book which had been lying there all night unregarded,
he crept into the Father's room. He was coming out of it when he came
face to face with the Father himself, who was on the point of going in.

"I have been returning the book you lent me," he said, and then he tried
to steal away in his shame. But the Father held him a while in playful
remonstrance. The hours were not all saved that were stolen from the
night, and his swelled eyes this morning were a testimony to the musty
old maxim. Still, with a book like that, his diligence was not to be
wondered at, and it would be interesting to hear what he thought of it.
He couldn't say as yet. That wasn't to be wondered at either. Somebody
had said that a great book was like a great mountain--not to be seen to
the top while you were still too near to it.

John's duplicity was choking him. His eyes were averted from the Father's
face, for he had lost the power of looking straight at any one, and he
could see the key of the gate still shaking from the hook on which his
nervous fingers had placed it. When he escaped at length, the Father
asked him to ring the bell for Lauds, as Brother Andrew, whose duty it
was, had evidently overslept himself.

John rang the bell, and then took his lamp and some tapers from a shelf
in the hall and went out to the church to light the candles, for that
also was Brother Andrew's duty. As he was crossing the courtyard on his
way back to the house, he passed the Father going to open the gate.

"But what has become of your hat?" said the Father, and then, for the
first time, John remembered what he had done with it.

"I've lent--that is to say, I've lost it," he answered, and then stood
with his eyes on the ground while the Father reproved him for
heedlessness of health, and so forth.

It is part of the perversity of circumstance that while an incident of
the greatest gravity is occurring, its ridiculous counterpart is usually
taking place by the side of it. When the religious had gathered in the
church it was seen that three of the stalls were vacant--Brother Paul's,
Brother Andrew's, and the Father Minister's. The service had hardly begun
when the bell was heard to ring again, and with a louder clangour than
before, whereupon the religious concluded that Brother Andrew had
awakened from his sleep, and was remembering with remorse his belated
duty.

But it was the Father Minister. That silent and severe person had
oftentimes rebuked the lay brother for his sleepiness, and this morning
he had himself been overcome by the same infirmity. Awakening suddenly a
little after six by the watch that hung by his bed, he had thought, "That
lazy fellow is late again--I'll teach him a lesson." Leaping to his feet
(the monk sleeps in his habit), he had hastened to the bell and rung it
furiously, and then snatched up a taper and hurried down the stairs to
light the candles in the church. When he appeared at the sacristy door
with a lighted taper in his hand and confusion on his face, the brothers
understood everything at a glance, and not even the solemnity of the
service could smother the snufflings of their laughter.

The incident was a trivial one, but it diverted attention for a time from
the fact of Paul's absence, and when the religious went back to the house
and found Brother Andrew returned to his old duty as doorkeeper, the
laughter was renewed, and there was some playful banter.

The monk is so far a child that the least thing happening in the morning
is enough to determine the temper of the day, and as late as the hour for
breakfast the house was still rippling with the humour of the Father
Minister's misadventure. There was one seat vacant in the
refectory--Brother Paul's--and the Superior was the first to observe it.
With a twinkle in his eye, he said:

"I feel like Boy Blue this morning. Two of my stray sheep have come home,
bringing their tails behind them. Will anybody go in search of the
third?"

John Storm rose immediately, but a lay brother was before him, so he sat
down again with his white cheeks and quivering lips, and made an effort
to eat his breakfast.

The reader for the week recited the Scripture for the day, and then took
up the book which the brothers were hearing at their meals. It was the
Life and Death of Father Ignatius of St. Paul, and the chapter they had
come to dealt with certain amusing examples of vanities and foibles. An
evil spirit might have selected it with special reference to the
incidents of the morning, for at every fresh illustration the Father
Minister squirmed on his seat, and the brothers looked across at him and
laughed with a spice of mischief, and even a touch of malice.

John's eyes were on the door, and his heart was quivering, but the
messenger did not return during breakfast, and when it was over the
Superior rose without waiting for him and led the way to the community
room.

A fire was burning in the wide grate, and the room was cheerful with
reflected sun-rays, for the sun was shining in the courtyard and
glistening on the frosty boughs of the sycamore. It was a beautiful New
Year's morning, and the Father began to tell some timely stories. In the
midst of the laughter that greeted them the lay brother returned and
delivered his message. Brother Paul could not be found, and there was not
a sign of him anywhere in the house.

"That's strange," said the religious.

"Perhaps he is in his cell," said the Father.

"No, he is not there," said the messenger, "and his bed has not been
slept in."

"Now, that explains something," said the Father. "I thought he didn't
answer when I knocked at his door in the morning, but my ears grow dull
and my eyes are failing me, and I told myself perhaps----"

"It's very strange'" said the religious, with looks of astonishment.

"But perhaps he staid all night at his penance in the church," said the
Father.

"Apparently his hat did so at all events," said one of the brothers. "I
saw it lying with his lamp on the stall in front of me."

There was silence for a moment, and then the Father said with a smile:

"But my children are so amusing in such matters! Only this morning I had
to reprove Brother Storm for losing his hat somewhere, and now Brother
Paul----"

By an involuntary impulse, obscure to themselves, the brothers turned
toward John, who was standing in the recess of one of the windows with
his pale face looking out on the sunshine.

John was the first to speak.

"Father," he said, "I have something to say to you."

"Come this way," said the Superior, and they passed out of the room
together.

The Father led the way to his room and closed the door behind them. But
there was little need for confession; the Father seemed to know
everything in an instant. He sat in his wicker chair before the fire and
rocked himself and moaned.

"Well, well, God's wrath comes up against the children of disobedience,
but we must do our best to bear our punishment."

John Storm made no excuses. He had stood by the Father's chair and told
his story simply, without fear or remorse, only concealing that part of
it which concerned himself in relation to Glory.

"Yes, yes," said the Father, "I see quite plainly how it has been. He was
like tinder, ready to take fire at a spark, and you were thinking I had
been hard and cruel and in-human."

It was the truth; John could not deny it; he held down his head and was
silent.

"But shall I tell you why I refused that poor boy's petition? Shall I
tell you who he was, and how he came to be here? Yes, I will tell you.
Nobody in this house has heard it until now, because it was his secret
and mine and God's alone--not given me in confession, no, or it would
have to be locked in my breast forever. But you have thrust yourself in
between us, so you must hear everything, and may the Lord pity and
forgive you and help you to bear your burden!"

John felt that a cold damp was breaking out on his forehead, but he
clinched his moist hands and made ready to control himself.

"Has he ever spoken of another sister?"

"Yes, he has sometimes mentioned her."

"Then perhaps you have been told of the painful and tragic event that
happened?"

"No," said John, but something that he had heard at the board meeting at
the hospital returned at that moment with a stunning force to his memory.

"His father, poor man, was one of my own people--one of the lay
associates of our society in the world outside. But his health gave way,
his business failed him, and he died in a madhouse, leaving his three
children to the care of a friend. The friend was thought to be a worthy,
and even a pious man, but he was a scoundrel and a traitor. The younger
sister--the one you know--he committed to an orphanage; the elder one he
deceived and ruined. As a sequel to his sin, she lived a life of shame on
the streets of London, and died by suicide at the end of it."

John Storm put up one hand to his head as if his brain was bursting, and
with the other hand he held on to the Father's chair.

"That was bad enough, but there was worse to follow. Our poor Paul had
grown to be a man by this time, and Satan put it into his heart to avenge
his sister's dishonour. 'As the whirlwind passeth, so the wicked are no
more.' The betrayer of his trust was found dead in his room, slain by an
unknown assassin. Brother Paul had killed him."

John Storm had fallen to his knees. If hell itself had opened at his feet
he could not have been stricken with more horror. In a voice strangled by
fear he stammered: "But why didn't you tell me this before? Why have you
hidden it until now?"

"Passions, my son, are the same in a monastery as outside of it, and I
had too much reason to fear that the saintliest soul in our Brotherhood
would have refused to live and eat and sleep in the same house with a
murderer. But the poor soul had come to me like a hunted beast, and who
was I that I should turn my back upon him? Before that he had tramped
through the streets and slept in the parks, under the impression that the
police were pursuing him, and thereby he had contracted the lung disease
from which he suffers still. What was I to do? Give him up to the law?
Who shall tell me how I could have held the balance level? I took him
into my house; I sheltered him; I made him a member of our community;
Heaven forgive me, I suffered myself to receive his vows. It was for me
to comfort his stricken body, for the Church to heal his wounded soul;
and as for his crime, that was in God's hands, and God alone could deal
with it."

The Father had risen to his feet, and he spoke the last words with
uplifted hand.

"Now you know why I refused that poor boy's petition. I loved him as a
son, but neither the disease of his body nor the weakness of his mind
could break the firmness of the rule by which I held him. I knew that
Satan was dragging him away from me, and I would not give him up to the
sufferings and dangers which the Evil One was preparing for him in the
world. But how subtle are the temptations of the devil! He found the weak
place in my armour at last. He found you, my son--you; and he tempted you
by all your love, by all your pity, by all your tenderness, and you fell,
and this is the consequence."

The Father clasped his hands at his breast and walked to and fro in the
little room.

"The bitterness of the world against religious houses is great already;
but if anything should happen now, if a crime should be committed, if our
poor brother, clad in the habit of our Order----"

He stopped and crossed himself and lifted His eyes, and said in a
tremulous whisper: "O God, whom have I in heaven but thee? My flesh and
my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever."

John had staggered to his feet like a drunken man. "Father," he said,
"send me away from you. I am not fit to live by your side."

The Father laid both hands on his shoulders. "And shall I lower my flag
to the enemy like that? There is only one way to defeat the devil, and
that is to defy him. No, no, my son, you shall remain with me to the
last."

"Punish me, then. Give me penance. Let me be the lowest of the low and
the meanest of the mean. Only tell me what I am to do and I will do it."

"Go back to the door and resume your duty as doorkeeper."

John looked at the Father with an expression of bewilderment.

"I thought you had done with it, my son, but Heaven knew better. And
promise that when you are there you will pray for our wandering brother,
that he may not be allowed to fulfil the errand on which you sent him
out; pray that he may never find his sister, or anybody who knows her and
can tell him where she is and what has become of her; pray that she may
never cross his path to the last hour of life and the first of death's
sundering; promise to pray for this, my son, night and day, morning and
evening, with all your soul and strength, as you would pray for God's
mercy and your soul's salvation."

John did not answer; he was like a man in a stupor. "Is it possible?" he
said. "Are you sending me back to the door? Can you trust me again?"

The Father stepped to the side of the bed and took the key of the gate
from its place under the shelf. "Take this key with you, too, because for
the future you are to be the keeper of the gate as well."

John had taken the key mechanically, hardly hearing what was being said.

"Is it true, then--have you got faith in me still?"

The Father put both hands on his shoulders again and looked into his
face. "God has faith in you, my child, and who am I that I should
despair?"

When John Storm returned to the door his mind was in a state of
stupefaction. Many hours passed during which he was only partly conscious
of what was taking place about him. Sometimes he was aware that certain
of the brothers had gathered around, with a tingling, electrical
atmosphere among them, and that they were asking questions about the
escape, and whispering together as if it had been something courageous
and almost commendable, and had set their hearts beating. Again,
sometimes he was aware that big Brother Andrew was sitting by his side on
the form, stroking his arm from time to time, and talking in his low
voice and aimless way about his mother and the last he saw of her. "She
followed me down the street crying," he said, "and I have often thought
of it since and been tempted to run away." Also he was aware that the dog
was with him always, licking the backs of his stiff hands and poking up a
cold snout into his downcast face.

All this time he was doing his duties automatically and apparently
without help from his consciousness, opening and closing the door as the
brothers passed in and out on their errands to the dead and dying, and
saying, "Praise be to God!" when a stranger knocked. It may be that his
body was merely answering to the habits of its intellect, and that his
soul, which had sustained a terrible blow, was lying stunned and swooning
within.

When it revived and he began to know and to feel once more, there was no
one with him, for the brothers were asleep in their beds and the dog was
in the courtyard, and the house was very quiet, for it was the middle of
the night. And then it came back to him, like a dream remembered in the
morning, that the Father had asked him to pray for Brother Paul that he
might fail in the errand on which he had sent him out into the world, and
though with his lips he had not promised, yet in his heart he had
undertaken to do so.

And being quite alone now, with no one but God for company, he went down
on his knees in his place by the door and clasped his hands together.

"O God," he prayed, "have pity on Paul, and on me, and on all of us! Keep
him from all danger and suffering and from the snares and assaults of the
Evil One! Grant that he may never find his sister--or anybody who knows
her--or anybody who can tell him where she is and what has become of
her----"

But having got so far he could get no farther, for suddenly it occurred
to him that this was a prayer which concerned Glory and himself as well.
It was only then that he realized the magnitude and awfulness of the task
he had undertaken. He had undertaken to ask God that Paul might not find
Glory either, and therefore that he on his part might never hear of her
again. When he put it to himself like that, the sweat started from his
forehead and he was transfixed with fear.

He rose from his knees and sat on the form, and for a long hour he
laboured in the thought of a thousand possibilities, telling himself of
the many things which might befall a beautiful girl in a cruel and wicked
city. But then again he thought of Paul and of his former crime and
present temptation, and remembered the shadow that hung over the
Brotherhood.

"O God, help me," he cried; "strengthen me, support me, guide me!"

He tried to frame another prayer, but the words would not come; he tried
to kneel as before, but his knees would not bend. How could he pray that
Glory also might be lost--that something might have happened to her--that
somewhere and in some way unknown to him----

No, no, a thousand times no! The prayer was impossible. Let come what
would, let the danger to Paul and to the Brotherhood be what it might,
let Satan and all his legions fall on him, yet he could not and would not
utter it.




XIII.

The stars were paling, but the day had not yet dawned, when there came a
knock at the door. John started and listened. After an interval the knock
was repeated. It was a timid, hesitating tap, as if made with the tips of
the fingers low down on the door.

"Praise be to God!" said John, and he drew the slide of the grating. He
had expected to see a face outside, but there was nothing there.

"Who is it?" he asked, and there came no answer.

He took up the lamp that was kept burning in the hall and looked out
through the bars. There was nothing in the darkness but an icy mist,
which appeared to be rising from the ground.

"Only another of my dreams," he thought, and he laid his hand on the
slide to close it.

Then he heard a sigh that seemed to rise out of the ground, and at the
same moment the dog uttered a deep bay. He laid hold of the door and
pulled it quickly open. At his feet the figure of a man was kneeling,
bent double and huddled up.

"Paul!" he cried in an excited whisper.

Brother Paul raised his head. His face was frightfully changed. It was
gray and wasted. His eyes wandered, his lips trembled, and he looked like
a man who had been flogged.

"Good Lord, what a wreck!" thought John. He helped him to rise and enter.
The poor creature's limbs were stiff with cold, and he stumbled from
weakness as he crossed the threshold.

"But, thank God, you are back and no harm done!" said John. "How anxious
we've been! You must never go out again--never! There, brother, sit
there."

The wandering eyes looked up with a supplicating expression. "Forgive me.
Brother Storm----"

But John would not listen. "Hush, brother! what have I to forgive? How
cold you are! Your hands are like ice. What can I do? There's no fire in
the house at this time of night--even in the kitchen it will be out now.
But wait, I can rub you with my hands. See, I'm warm and strong. There's
a deal of blood in me yet. That's better, isn't it? Tingling, eh? That's
right--that's good! Now for your feet--your feet will be colder still."

"No, brother, no. I ought to be kissing the feet of everybody in the
house and asking the prayers of the community, and yet you----"

"Tut! what nonsense! Let me take off this shoe. Dear me, how it sticks!
Why, you've worn it through and through. Look! What a mercy the snow was
hard! If there had been thaw, now! How far you must have walked!"

"Yes, I've wandered a long way, brother."

"You shall tell me all about it. I want to hear everything--every single
thing."

"There's nothing to tell. I've failed in my errand--that's all."

John, who was on his knees, drew back and looked up. "Do you mean,
then---Have you not seen your sister?"

"No, she's gone, and nobody knows anything about her."

"Well, perhaps it's for the best, brother. God's will be done, you know.
If you had found her--who knows?--you might have been tempted--But tell
me everything."

"I can not do that, I'm so weak, and it's not worth while."

"But I want to hear all that happened. See, your feet are all right
now--I've rubbed them warm again. Though I fast so much and look so thin
I've a deal of life in me. And I've been pouring it all into you, haven't
I? That's because I want you to revive and be strong and tell me
everything. Hush! Speak low; don't waken anybody! Did you find the
hospital?"

"Yes."

"Then Nurse Quayle sees nothing of your sister now? That's the pity of
the life she is leading, poor girl! No friends, no future----"

"It wasn' that, brother."

"What then?"

"The nurse was not there."

A silence followed, and then John said in another voice: "I suppose she
was on a holiday. It was very stupid of me; I didn't think of that. Twice
a year a hospital nurse is entitled to a week's holiday, and no
doubt----"

"But she was gone."

"Gone? You mean left the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Well," in a husky voice, "that isn't to be wondered at either. A
high-spirited girl finds it hard to be bound down to rule and regulation.
But the porter--he is an intelligent man--he would tell you where she had
gone to."

"I asked him; he didn't know. All he could say was that she left the
hospital on the morning of Lord Mayor's Show-day."

"That would be the 9th of November--the day we took our vows."

There was another pause; the big dark eyes were wandering vacantly.

"After all, he is only a porter; you asked for the matron, didn't you?"

"Yes; I thought she might know what had become of my sister. But she
didn't. As for Nurse Quayle, she had been dismissed also, and nobody knew
anything about her."

John had seated himself at Paul's side and the form itself was quivering.

"Now that's just like her," he said hoarsely. "That matron was always a
hard woman. And to think that in that great house of love and pity
nobody----"

"I'm forgetting something, brother."

"What is it?"

"The porter told me that the nurse called for her letters from time to
time. She had been there that night--not half an hour before."

"Then you followed her, didn't you? You asked which, way she had gone,
and you hurried after her?"

"Yes; but half an hour in London is a week anywhere else. Let anybody
cross the street and she is lost--more lost to sight than a ship in a
storm on the ocean. And then it was New Year's Eve, and the thoroughfares
were crowded, and thousands of women were coming and going--and--what
could I do?" he said helplessly.

John answered scornfully: "What could you do? Do you ask me what you
could do?"

"What would you have done?"

"I should have tramped every street in London and looked into the face of
every woman I met until I had found her. I should have worn my shoes to
the welt and my skin to the bone before I should have come crawling home
like a snail with my shell broken over my head!

"Don't be hard on me, brother, least of all now, when I have come home
like a snail, as you say, with my shell broken. I was very tired and ill
and did all I could. If I had been strong like you and brave-hearted I
might have struggled longer. Bid I _did_ tramp the streets and look into
the women's faces. She must have been among them, if she's living the
life you speak of; but God would not let me find her. Why was it that my
search was fruitless? Perhaps there was evil in my heart at first--I
don't mind telling you that now--but I swear to you by Him who died for
us that at last I only wanted to find my sister that I might save her.
But I am such a helpless creature, and----"

John put his arm about Paul's shoulders.

"Forgive me, brother. I was mad to talk to you like that--I who sent you
out on that cruel night and staid at home myself. You did what you
could----"

"You think that--really?"

"Yes, only at the moment it seemed as if we had changed places somehow,
and it was I who had lost a sister and been out to find her, and given up
the search too soon, and come home empty and useless and broken-spirited,
and----"

Paul was looking up at him with a face full of astonishment.

"Do you really think I did all I could to find her--the nurse, I mean?"

But John had turned his own face away, and there was no answer. Paul
tried to say something, but he could not find the words. At last in a
choked voice he murmured: "We must keep close together, brother; we are
in the same boat now."

And feeling for John's hand, he took it and held it, and they sat for
some minutes with bowed heads, as if a ghost were going by.

"There's nothing but prayer and penance and fasting left to us, is
there?"

Still John made no reply, and the broken creature began to comfort him.

"We have peace here at all events, and you wouldn't, think what
temptations come to you in the world when you've lost somebody, and there
seems to be nothing left to live for. Shall I tell you what I did? It was
in the early morning and I was standing in a doorway in Piccadilly. The
cabs and the crowds were gone, and only the nightmen were there swilling
up the dirt of the pavements with their hose-pipes and water. 'My poor
girl is lost,' I thought, 'We shall never see one another again. This
wicked city has ruined her, and our mother, who was so holy, was fond of
her when she was a little child.' And then my heart seemed to freeze up
within me... and I did it. You'll think I was mad--I went to the police
station and told them I had committed a crime. Yes, indeed, I accused
myself of murder, and began to give particulars. It was only when they
noticed my habit that I remembered the Father, and then I refused to
answer any more questions. They put me in a cell, and that was where I
spent the night, and next morning I denied everything, and they let me
go."

Then, dropping his voice to a hoarse whisper, he said: "That wasn't what
brought me back, though. It was the vow. You can't think what a thing the
vow is until you've broken it. It's like a hot iron searing your very
soul, and if you were dying and at the farthest ends of the earth, and
you had to crawl on your hands and knees, you would come back----"

He would have said more, but an attack of coughing silenced him, and when
it was over there was a sound of some one moving in the house.

"What is that?"

"It is the Father," said John. "Our voices have wakened him."

Paul struggled to his feet.

"It's only a life of penance and suffering you've come back to, my poor
lad."

"That's nothing--nothing at all--But are you sure you think I did
everything?"

"You did what you could. Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes, to the Father."

"God bless you, my lad!"

"And God bless you too, brother!"

Half an hour later, by the order of the Superior, John Storm, with the
help of Brother Andrew and the Father Minister, carried Brother Paul to
his cell. The bell had been rung for Lauds, and going up the stairs they
passed the brothers coming down to service. News of Paul's return had
gone through the house like a cutting wind, and certain of the brothers
who had gathered in groups on the landings were whispering together, as
if the coming back had been a shameful thing which cast discredit on all
of them. It wasn't love of rule that had brought the man home again, but
broken health and the want of a bed to die upon! Thus they talked under
their breath, unconscious of the secret operation of their own hearts. In
a monastery, as elsewhere, failure is the worst disgrace.

John Storm returned to the hall with a firm step and eyes full of
resolution. Hardly answering the brothers, who plied him with questions,
he pushed through them with long strides, and, taking the key of the
outer gate from the place in the alcove where he had left it, he turned
toward the Father's room.

The day had dawned, and through the darkness which was lifting in the
little room he could see the Father rising from his knees.

"Father!" he cried in an excited voice, and his words, like his breath,
came in gusts.

"What is it, my son?"

"Take this key back again. The world is calling me, and I can not trust
myself at the door any longer. Put me under the rule of silence and
solitude, and shut me up in a cell, or I shall break my obedience and run
away as sure as heaven is over us!"




XIV.

Glory awoke on New Year's morning with a little hard lump at her heart,
and thought: "How foolish! Am I to give up all my cherished dreams
because one man is a scoundrel?"

The struggle might be bitter, but she would not give in. London was the
mother of genius. If she destroyed she created also. It was only the weak
and the worthless she cast away. The strong she made stronger, the great
she made greater. "O God, give me the life I love!" she thought; "give me
a chance; only let me begin--no matter how, no matter where!"

She remembered her impulse of the night before to follow Brother Paul,
and the little hard lump at her heart grew bitter. John Storm had gone
from her, forgotten her, left her to take care of herself. Very well, so
be it! What was the use of thinking? "I hate to be sentimental," she
thought.

If Aggie called on Sunday night she would go with her, no matter if it
was beginning at the bottom. Others had begun there, and what right had
she to expect to begin anywhere else? For the future she would take the
world on its own terms and force it to give way. She would conquer this
great cruel London, and yet remain a good girl in spite of all.

Such was the mood in which she came down to breakfast, and the first
thing that met her eyes was a letter from home. At that her face burned
for a moment and her breath came in gusts, but she put the letter into
her pocket unopened and tossed her head a little and laughed. "I hate to
be so sensitive," she thought, and then she began to tell Mrs. Jupe what
she intended to do.

"The clubs!" cried Mrs. Jupe. "I thought you didn't tyke to the shop
because you fancied yerself above present company. But the foreign clubs!
My gracious!"

The hissing of Mrs. Jupe's taunting voice followed her about all that
day, and late at night, when they were going to bed and the streets were
quiet, and there was only the jingle of a passing hansom or a drunken
shout or the screech of a concertina, she could hear it again from the
other side of the plaster partition, interrupted occasionally by the
sound of Mr. Jupe's attempts to excuse and apologize for her. No matter!
Anything to escape from the atmosphere of that woman's house, to be free
of her and quit of her forever!

Toward eight o'clock on Sunday evening she went up to her bedroom to put
on her hat and ulster, and being alone there, and waiting for Aggie, she
could not help but open her letter from home.

"Sunday next is your birthday, my dear one," wrote the parson, "so we
send you our love and greetings. This being the first of your twenty-one
that you have spent from home, I will be thinking of you all the day
through, and when night comes, and I smoke a pipe by the study fire, I
know I shall be leaving the blind up that I may see the evening star and
remember the happy birthdays long ago, when somebody, who was so petted
and spoiled, used to say she had just come down from it, having dressed
herself in some strange and grand disguises, and told us she was
Phonodoree the fairy. You will be better employed than that, Glory, and
as long as my dear one is well and happy and prosperous in the great city
where she so loves to be----"

The candle was shaking in Glory's hands, and the little half-lit bedroom
seemed to be blinking in and out.

Aunt Anna had added a postscript: "Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself
in London, but rather alarmed at your frequent mention of theatres. Take
care you don't go too often, child, and mind you send us the name of the
vicar of the parish you are living in, for I certainly think grandfather
ought to write to him."

To this again there was a footnote by Aunt Rachel: "You say nothing of
Mr. Drake nowadays. Is he one of Mrs. Jupe's visitors? And is it he who
takes you to theatres?"

Then there was a New Year's card enclosed, having a picture of an Eastern
shepherd at the head of his flock of sheep and bearing the inscription,
"Follow in his footsteps."

But the hissing sound of Mrs. Jupe's voice came up from below, and
Glory's tears were dried in an instant. On going downstairs, she found
Aggie in her mock sealskin and big black feathers sitting in the parlour
at the back of the shop, and Mrs. Jupe talking to her in whispers, with
an appearance of knowledge and familiarity. She caught the confused look
of the one and the stealthy glances of the other, and the hard lump at
her heart grew harder.

"Come on," said Glory, and a few minutes afterward the girls were walking
toward Soho. The little chapels in the quieter streets were dropping out
their driblets of people and the lights in the church windows were being
extinguished one by one. Aggie had recovered her composure, and was
talking of Charlie as she skipped along with a rapid step, swinging her
stage-box by her side. Charlie was certain to be at one of the clubs, and
he would be sure to see them home. He wasn't out of his time yet, and
that was why her father wouldn't allow him about. But he was in an office
at a foundry, and his people lived in a house, and perhaps one of these
days----

"Did you say that some of the people who are on the stage now began at
the clubs?" said Glory.

"Plenty, my dear. There's Betty Bellman for one. She was at a club in Old
Compton Street when Mr. Sefton found her out."

Aggie had to "work a turn" at each of three clubs that night, and the
girls were now at the door of the first of them. It stood at the corner
of a reputable square, and was like any ordinary house on the outside.
But people were coming and going constantly, and the doorkeeper was kept
opening and closing the door. In the middle of the hall a clerk stood at
a desk, having a great book in front of him, and making a show of
challenging everybody as he entered. He recognised Aggie as an artiste,
but passed Glory also on the payment of twopence and the signing of her
name in the book.

The dining-room of the house had been converted into a bar, with counter
and stillage, and after the girls had crushed through the crowds that
stood there they came into a large and shabby chamber, which had the
appearance of having been built over the space which had once been the
backyard. This room had neither windows nor skylights; its walls were
decorated with portraits of Garibaldi and Victor Emanuel in faded
colours, and there was a stage and proscenium at its farther end.

It was an Italian club that met there on Sunday nights, and some two or
three hundred hairdressers and restaurant-keepers of swarthy complexion
sat in groups at little round tables with their wives and sweethearts
(chiefly English women), smoking and drinking and laughing at the
performance on the stage.

Aggie went down to her dressing-room under the floor, and Glory sat at a
table with a yellow-haired lady and a dark-eyed man. A negro without the
burnt cork was twanging a banjo and cracking the jokes of the corner-man.

"That's my style--a merry touch-and-go," said the lady. And then glancing
at Glory, "Singing to-night, my dear?"

Glory shook her head.

"Thort you might be a pro' p'rhaps. Use ter be myself when I was in the
bally at the Lane. Married now, my dear; but I likes to come of a Sunday
night when the kids is got to bed."

Then Aggie danced a skirt dance, and there were shouts of applause for
her, and she came back and danced again. When she reappeared in jacket
and hat, and with her stage-box in her hand, the girls crushed their way
out. Going through the bar they were invited to drink by several of the
men who were standing there, but they got into the streets at last.

"They're rather messy, those bars," said Aggie; "but managers like you to
come round and tyke something after you've done your turn--if it's only a
cup of cawfy."

"Do you like this life?" said Glory, taking a long breath.

"Yes, awfully!" said Aggie.

Their next visit was to a Swiss club, which did not greatly differ from
the Italian one, except that the hall was more shabby, and that the
audience consisted of French and Swiss waiters and skittish young English
milliners. The girls had taken their hats and cloaks off and sat dressed
like dolls in white muslin with long streamers of bright ribbon. A
gentleman sang the "Postman's Knock," with the character accompaniment of
a pot hat and a black-edged envelope, a lady sang "Maud" in silk tights
and a cloak, Aggie danced her skirt dance, and then the floor was cleared
for a ball.

"They're going to dance the Swiss dance," said Aggie, and the M. C. wants
me to tyke a place; but I hate these fellows to be hugging me. Will you
be my partner, dear?"

"Well--just for a minute or two," said Glory, with nervous gaiety. And
then the dance began.

It proved to be a musical version of odd man out, and Glory soon found
herself being snapped up by other partners and addressed familiarly by
the waiters and their women. She could feel the moisture of their hands
and smell the oil of their hair, and a feeling like a spasm of physical
pain came over her.

"Let us go," she whispered.

"Yes, it's getting lyte," said Aggie, and they crushed through the
crowded bar and out into the street.

The twanging of the fiddles, the thud of the dancing, and the peals of
coarse laughter followed them from the stifling atmosphere within, and
Glory felt sick and faint.

"Do you say that managers of good places call at these clubs sometimes?"

"Often," said Aggie, and she hummed a music-hall tune as she skipped and
tripped along.

The streets, which had been dark and quiet when they arrived in Soho,
were now ablaze with lights in every window, and noisy with people on
every pavement. The last club they had to visit was a German one, and as
they came near it they saw that a man was standing at the door bareheaded
and looking out for somebody.

"It's Charlie," said Aggie with a little jump of joy. But when they came
up to him a scowl darkened his dark face, and he said:

"Lyte as usyal! Two of the bloomin' turns not come, and me looking up and
dahn the bloomin' street for you every minute and more!"

The girl's eyes blinked as if he had struck her, but she only tossed her
head and stiffened her under lip, and said: "Jawing again, are ye? I'd
chuck it for once, Charlie, if it was only for sake of company."

With that she disappeared to the dressing-room, and Charlie took charge
of Glory, crushed a way for her through the refreshment room, offered her
a "glaws of somethink," and with an obvious pride of possession
introduced her to admiring acquaintances as "a friend o' mine." "Like yer
style, Charlie," said one of them. "Oh, yus! Dare say!" said Charlie.

The proscenium was surmounted by the German and English flags
intertwined, the walls were adorned with oleograph portraits of the
Kaiser, his father and grandfather, Bismarck and Von Moltke, and the
audience consisted largely of lively young German Jews and Jewesses in
evening dress, some Polish Jews, and a sprinkling of other foreigners.

During Aggie's turn Glory was conscious that two strangers out of another
world altogether had entered the club and were standing at the back.

"Toffs," said Charlie, looking at them over her shoulder, and then,
answering to himself the meaning of their looks, "No, my luds! 'Tain't
the first we've seen of sech!"

Then Aggie came up with an oily person in a flowered waistcoat and said,
"This is my friend, guv'nor, and she wouldn't mind doing a turn if you
asked her."

"If de miss vill oblige," began the oily one, and then the blood rushed
to Glory's face, and before she knew what else had happened, her hat and
ulster were in Aggie's hands and she was walking up the steps to the
stage.

There was some applause when she went on, but she was in a dazed
condition and it all seemed to be taking place a hundred miles away. She
heard her own voice saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, with your kind
permission I will endeavour to give you an imitation----" and something
more. Down to that moment her breath had been coming and going in hot
gasps, and she had felt a dryness in her throat; but every symptom of
nervousness suddenly disappeared, and she threw up her head like a
charger in battle.

Then she sang. It was only a common street song, and everybody had heard
it a thousand times. She sang "And her golden hair was hanging down her
back" after the manner of a line of factory girls going home from work at
night. Arm-in-arm, decked in their Vandyke hats, slashed with red ribbons
and crowned with ostrich feathers, with their free step, their shrill
voices--they were there before everybody's eyes, everybody could see
them, everybody could recognise them, and before the end of the first
verse there were shouts and squeals of laughter.

Glory felt dizzy yet self-possessed; she gave a little audible laugh
while she stood bowing between the verses. In a few minutes the song was
finished and the people were stamping, whistling, uttering screeching
cat-calls, and shouting "Brayvo!" But Glory was sitting at the foot of
the stage by this time with a face contorted as in physical pain. After
the first thrill of success the shame of it all came over her and she saw
how low she had fallen, and felt horrified and afraid. The clamour, the
clapping of hands, the vulgar faces, the vulgar laughter, the vulgar
song, Sunday night, her own birthday! It all passed before her like the
incidents in some nightmare, and at the back of it came other
memories--Glenfaba, the sweet and simple household, the old parson
smoking by the study fire and looking up at the evening star, and then
John Storm and the church chimes at Bishopsgate! One moment she sat there
with her burning face, staring helplessly before her, while people
crowded round to shake hands with her and cried into her ears above the
deafening tumult, "You'll have to tyke another turn, dear"; and then she
burst into passionate weeping.

"Stand avay! De lady's not fit to sing again," said some one, and she
opened her eyes.

It was one of the two gentlemen who had been standing at the back.

"Ach Gott! Is it you? Don't you know me, nurse?"

It was Mr. Koenig, the organist.

"My gracious! Vot are you doing here, my child? Two monts ago I haf ask
for you at de hospital, and haf write to de matron, but you vere gone.
Since den I haf look for you all over London. Vhere do you lif?"

Glory told him, and he wrote down the address.

"Ugh! A genius, and lif in a tobacco shop! My vife vill call on you and
fetch you avay. She is a goot woman, and vhatever she tell you to do you
must do it; but not musical and clever same like as you. Bless mine soul!
Singing in a Sunday club! Do you know, my child, you haf a voice, and
talents, great talents! Vants training--yes. But vhat vould you haf? Here
am I, Carl Koenig! I speak ver' bad de Englisch, but I know ver' goot to
teach music. I vill teach you same like I teach oder ladies who pay me
many dollare. Do you know vhat I am?"

Yes, she knew what he was--he was the organist at All Saints', Belgravia.

"Pooh! I am a composer as veil. I write songs, and all your countrymen
and countryvomen sing dem. I haf a choral company, too, and it is for dat
I vant you. I go to de first houses in de land, de lords, de ministers,
de princes. You shall come vith me. Your voice is soprano--no,
mezzo-soprano--and it vill grow. I vill pitch it, and vhen it is ready I
vill bring you out. But now get away from dis place and naivare come
back, or I vill be more angry as before."

Then Glory rose, and he led her to the door. Her heart felt big and her
eyes were glistening. Aggie was in the refreshment-room. Having finished
for the night, the girl had resumed her outdoor costume without removing
her make-up, and was laughing merrily among a group of men and playing
them off against Charlie, who was still in the sulks and drinking at the
bar. When Glory appeared, Aggie fidgeted with her glove and said, "Aren't
you going to see us home, Charlie?"

"No," said Charlie.

"Where are you going to?"

"Nowhere as you can come."

Aggie's eyes watered, and she wrenched a button off, but she only laughed
and answered, "Don't think as we're throwing ourselves at _your_ head, my
man! We only wanted to _know_. Ta-ta!"

It was now midnight, and the streets were thin of people, but sounds of
music and dancing came from nearly every open window and door.

Aggie was crying. "That's the worst of the clubs," she said, "they lead
'em to the gambling hells. And then a young man always knows when he can
tyke advantage."

As they returned past the Swiss club somebody who was being thrown out
into the street was shouting in a gurgling voice, "Let go o' my throat or
I'll corpse ye!" And farther on two or three girls in their teens, with
their arms about the necks of twice as many men, were reeling along the
pavement and singing in a tuneless wail.




XV.

Toward the middle of Lent the Society of the Holy Gethsemane was visited
by its ecclesiastical Visitor. This was the Bishop of the diocese, a
liberal-minded man and not a very rigid ecclesiastic, abrupt, brusque,
businesslike, and a good administrator. When the brothers had gathered in
the community room, he took from the Superior the leathern-bound volume
containing the rule of the Brotherhood and read aloud the text of it.

"And now, gentlemen," he said, "whether I approve of your rule or not is
a matter with which we have no concern at present. My sole duty is to see
that it is lawfully administered. Are you satisfied with the
administration of it and willing to remain under its control?"

There was only one response from the brothers--they were entirely
satisfied.

The Bishop rose with a smile and bowed to the brothers, and they began to
leave the room.

"There are two of my people whom you have not yet seen," said the Father.

"Where are they?"

"In their cells."

"Why in their cells?"

"One of them is ill; the other is under the rule of silence and
solitude."

"Let us visit them," said the Bishop, and they began to ascend the
stairs.

"I may not agree with your theory of the religious life, Father, but when
I see your people giving up the world and its comforts, its joys and
possessions, its ties of blood and affection----"

They had reached the topmost story, and the Father had paused to recover
breath. "This cell to the right," said he, "is occupied by a lay brother
who was tempted by the Evil One to a grievous act of disobedience, and
the wrath of God has fallen on him. But Satan has overreached himself for
once, and by that very act grace has triumphed. Not a member of our
community rejoices more in the blessed sacrament, and when I place the
body of our Lord----"

"May we go in to him?"

"Certainly; he is dying of lung disease, but you shall see with what
patience he possesses his soul."

Brother Paul was sitting before a small fire in an arm-chair padded with
pillows, holding in his dried-up hands a heavy crucifix which was
suspended from his heck.

"How lightsome and cosy we are up here!" said the Bishop. "A long way up,
certainly, but no doubt you get everything you require."

"Everything," said Paul.

"I dare say the brothers are very good to you--they usually are so to the
weak and ailing in a monastery."

"Too good, my lord."

"Of course you see a doctor occasionally?"

"Three times a week, and if he would only let me escape from an evil and
troublesome world----"

"Hush! It's not right to talk like that, my son. Whatever happens, it is
our duty to live, you know."

"I've lost all there was to live for, and besides----"

"Then there is nothing you wish for?" said the Bishop.

"Nothing but death," said Paul, and lifting the crucifix he carried it to
his lips.

"Thank God we are born to die!" said the Bishop, and they stepped back to
the corridor and closed the door.

"This next cell," said the Father, "is occupied by such a one as you were
thinking of--one who was born to possess the world and to achieve its
sounding triumphs, but----"

"Has he given it up entirely?"

"Entirely."

"Is he young?"

"Quite young, and he has left the world, not as Augustine did, after
learning by bitter experience the deceitfulness of sin----"

"Then why is he here?"

"He can not trust himself yet. He feels the inward strivings and
struggles of our rebellious nature and----"

"Then his solitude and silence are voluntary?"

"Now they are. See," said the Father, and stooping to the floor he picked
up a key that lay at his feet.

"What does that mean?"

"He locks himself in and pushes the key under the door."

When they entered the cell John Storm was standing by the window in a
stream of morning sunlight, looking out on the world below with fixed and
yearning eyes.

"This is our Visitor," said the Father. "The rule of silence is relaxed
in his case."

"Have I not seen you before?" said the Bishop.

"I think not, Father," said John.

"What is your name, and where did you live before you came here?"

John told him.

"Then I have both seen and heard you. But I perceive that the world has
gone on a little since you left it--your canon is an archdeacon now, and
one of the chaplains to the Queen as well. How long have you been in the
Brotherhood?"

"Since the 14th of August."

"And how long have you kept your cell?"

"Since the octave of Epiphany."

"But this is Lent--rather a long penance, Father."

"I have often urged our dear brother----" began the Father.

"You carry your fastings and prayers too far, Mr. Storm," said the
Bishop. He was picking up one by one some black-letter books that were
lying on the table and on the bed. "I know that divines in all ages tell
us that the body is evil, and that its desires and appetites must be
eradicated. But they also teach us that the perfect Christian character
is the blending of the two lives, the life of Nature and the life of
grace. Don't despise your humanity, my son. Your Master did not despise
it. He came down from heaven that he might live and work among the sinful
brotherhood of man. And don't pray for death, or fast as if you wished
for it. You would have no right to do that even if you were like your
poor neighbour next door, whom Death smiles on and beckons to repose. But
you are young and you are strong. Who knows what good work your heavenly
Father keeps waiting for you yet?"

John had returned to the window and was looking out with vacant eyes.

"But all this is beside my present business," said the Bishop. "There is
nothing you wish to complain of?"

"Nothing whatever."

"You are content to live in this house, under the laws and statutes of
this society and in voluntary obedience to its Superior?"

"Yes."

"That is enough."

The Bishop was leaving the cell, when his eye was arrested by some
writing in pencil on the wall. It ran, "9th of November--Lord Mayor's
Day"; and under it were short lines such as a prisoner makes when he
keeps a reckoning.

"What is the meaning of this date?" said the Bishop.

John was silent, but the Father answered with a smile: "That is the date
of his vow, my lord. It is part of the discipline of his life of grace to
keep count of the days of his novitiate, so eager is he for the time when
he may dedicate his whole life to God."

Back at the head of the stairs the Father paused again and said,
"Listen!"

There was the sound as of a trembling hand turning the key in the lock of
the door they had shut behind them, and at the next moment the key itself
came out of the aperture under it.

When the door closed on the Bishop and John Storm was alone in his cell,
one idea was left with him--the idea of work. He had tried everything
else, and everything had failed.

He had tried solitude. On asking to be shut up in a cell, he had said to
himself: "The thought of Glory is a temptation of my unquickened and
unspiritual nature. It has already betrayed me into an act of cowardice
and inhumanity, and it will drive me out into the world and fling me back
again, as it drove out and flung back Brother Paul." But the result of
his solitude was specious and deceitful. As pictures seem to float before
the eyes after the eyelids are closed, so his past life, now that it was
over, seemed to rise up before him with awful distinctness. Sitting alone
in his cell, every event of his life with Glory passed before him in
review, and harassed him with pitiless condemnation. Why had he failed to
realize the essential difference of temperament between himself and that
joyous creature? Why had he hesitated to gratify her natural and innocent
love of mere life? Why had he done this? Why had he not done that? If
Glory were lost, if the wicked and merciless world had betrayed her, the
fault was his, and God would surely punish him. Thus did solitude
enervate his soul by frightening it, and the temptation he had hoped to
vanquish became the more strong and tyrannical.

He had tried reading. The Fathers told him that God allowed ascetics to
keep the keys of their nature in their own hands; that they had only to
think of woman as more bitter than death, and of her beauty as a cause of
perdition, and that if any woman's face tormented them they were to
picture it to the eye of the mind as old and wrinkled, defaced by
disease, and even the prey of the worm. He tried to think of Glory as the
Fathers directed, but when darkness fell and he lay on his bed, with the
first dream of the night the strong powers of Nature that had no mind to
surrender swept down the pitiful bulwarks of religion, and Glory was
smiling upon him in her youth, her beauty, her sweetness, her humour, and
all the grace of her countless gifts.

He had tried fasting. Three times a day Brother Andrew brought him his
food, and twice a day, when the lay brother had left him, he opened the
window and spread the food on the sill for the birds to take. But the
results of his fasting were the reverse of his expectations. At one
moment he was uplifted by strong emotions, at the next moment he was in
collapse. Visions began to pass before him. His father's face tormented
him constantly, and sometimes he was conscious of the face of his mother,
though he had never known her. But above all and through all there came
the face of Glory. Fasting had only extended his dreams about her. He was
dreaming both by day and by night now, and Glory was with him always.

He had tried prayer. Hitherto he had said his Offices regularly, but now
he would say special prayers as well. To get the victory over his lawless
and rebellious nature he would turn his eyes to the mother of the Lord.
But when he tried to fix his mind on Mary there was nothing to answer to
it. All was shadowy and impalpable. There was only a vague, empty cloud
before his eyes, until suddenly a luminous face glided into the vacant
place, and it was full of tenderness, of sweetness, of charm, of pity and
womanly love--but it was the face of Glory.

Despair laid hold of him. His attempts to overcome Nature were clearly
rejected by the Almighty. Winter passed with its foggy days. The Father
wished him to return to the ordinary life of the community, yet he begged
to be allowed to remain.

But the spring came and diffused its joy throughout all Nature. He
listened to the leaves, he watched the birds threading their way in the
clear air, he caught glimpses of the yellow flowers, and strained his
eyes for the green country beyond. The young birds began to take wing,
and one little sparrow came hopping into his room as often as he opened
his window in the morning and played about his feet like a mouse, and
then was gone to the mother bird that called to it from the tree.

Little by little hope grew to impatience, and impatience rose to fever
heat; but he remembered his vow, and, to put himself out of temptation,
he locked the door of his cell and pushed the key through the aperture
under it. But he could not lock the door of his soul, and his old trouble
came up again with the throb of a stronger and fresher life. Every
morning when he awoke he thought of Glory. Where was she now? What had
become of her by this time? He wrote on the wall the date of her
disappearance from the hospital--"9th of November; Lord Mayor's
Day"--and tried to keep pace in his mind with the chances of her fate. "I
am guilty of a folly," he thought. The pride of his reason revolted
against what he was doing. Nevertheless, he knew full well it would be
the same to-morrow, and the next day, and the next year, for his human
passions would not yield, and his vow still clutched him as with fangs.

He was standing one morning by the window looking through an opening
between high buildings to the river, with its hay barges gliding down the
glistening water-way, and its little steamers with their spirals of smoke
ascending, when everything in the world began in a moment to bear another
moral interpretation. The lesson of life was work. Man could not exist
without it. If he departed from that condition, no matter how much he
fasted and meditated and prayed, he was useless and miserable and
depraved.

Then the lock turned in the door of his cell and the Father and the
Bishop entered. When they were gone he felt suffocated by their praises
of his piety, and asked himself, "What am I doing here?" He was a
hypocrite. Ten thousand other men whom the Church called saints had been
hypocrites before him, and as they paced their cloisters they had asked
themselves the same question. But the mighty hand of the Church was over
him still, and with trembling fingers he turned the key again and pushed
it under the door. Then he knew that he was a coward also, and that
religion had deprived him of his will, of his manhood, and enervated his
soul itself.

Brother Paul was moving about in the adjoining cell. The lay brother had
become very weak; his step was slow, his feet dragged along the floor;
his breath was audible and sometimes his cough was long and raucous. John
had heard these sounds every day and had tried not to listen, but now he
strained his ears to hear. A new thought had come to him: he would ask to
be allowed to nurse Brother Paul; that should be his work, for work alone
could save him.

Next morning he leaped up from sleep at the first syllable of
"Benedicamus Domino," and cried, "Father!" But when the door opened in
answer to his call it was the Father Minister who entered. The Superior
had gone to give a Retreat to a sisterhood in York, and would be absent
until the end of Lent. John looked at the hard face of the deputy, the
very mirror of its closed and frozen soul, and he could say nothing.

"Is it anything that I can do for you?" said the Father Minister.

"No--that is to say--no, no," said John.

When he opened his window that day he could hear the Lenten services in
the church. The prayers, the responses, the psalms, and the hymns woke to
fresh life the memory of things long past, and for the first time he
became oppressed with a great loneliness. The near neighbourhood of
Brother Paul intensified that loneliness, and at length he asked for an
indulgence and spoke to the Father Minister again.

"Brother Paul is ill; let me attend to him," he said.

The Father Minister shook his head. "The brother gets all he wants. He
does not wish for constant attendance."

"But he is a dying man, and somebody should be with him always."

"The doctor says nothing can be done for him. He may live months. But if
he is dying, let us leave him to meditate on the happiness and glory of
another world."

John made no further struggle. Another door had closed on him. But it was
not necessary to go to Brother Paul that he might be with him always. The
spiritual eye could see everything. Listening to the sounds in the
adjoining cell, it was the same at length as if the wall between them had
fallen down and the two rooms were one. Whatever Brother Paul did John
seemed to see, whatever he said in his hours of pain John seemed to hear,
and when he lifted his scuttle of coal from the place at the door where
the lay brother left it, John's hand seemed to bear up the weight.

It was a poor, pathetic folly, but it brought the comfort of company, and
John thought with a pang of the time when he had wished to be separated
from Paul, and had all but asked for a cell elsewhere. Paul had a fire,
and John could hear him build and light and stir it; and sometimes when
this was done he could sit down himself before his own empty grate on his
own side of the wall and fancy they were good comrades sitting side by
side.

As the day passed he thought that Brother Paul on his part also was
touched by the same sense of company. His silence at certain moments, his
half-articulate salutations, his repetition of the sounds that John
himself made, seemed to be the dumb expression of a sense that, in spite
of the wall that divided them, and the rule of silence and solitude that
separated them on John's side, they were, nevertheless, together.

Brother Paul's cough grew rapidly worse, and at last it burst into a fit
so long and violent as to seem as if it would never end. John held his
breath and listened. "He'll suffocate," he thought; "he'll never live
through it!" But the spasm passed, and there was a prolonged hush, a dead
stillness, that was not broken by so much as the sound of a breath. Was
he gone? By a sudden impulse, in the agony of his suspense, John
stretched out his hand and knocked three times on the wall.

There was a short silence, and then faintly, slowly, and irregularly
three other knocks came back to him.

Paul had understood, and John shouted in his joy. But even on top of his
relief came his religious fears. Had he broken the rule of silence? Were
they guilty of a sin?

Nevertheless, for many days thereafter, though they knew it was a fault,
in this vague and dumb and feeble fashion they communicated constantly.
On going to bed they rapped "Good-night": on rising for the day they
rapped "Good-morning." They rapped when the bell rang for midday service,
and again when the singing came up through the courtyard. And sometimes
they rapped from sympathy and sometimes from pity, and sometimes from
mere human loneliness and the love of company.

Thus did these exiles from life, struggling to live under the eye of God
in obedience to their earthly vow, try to cheer their crushed and
fettered souls, and to comfort each other like imprisoned children.




XVI.

"The Priory, St. John's Wood, London.

"Behold, all men and women at Glenfaba, I have made one further change in
my rôle of female Wandering Jew! You have to think of Glory now, dear
people, in a nice house in St. John's Wood, though there is no wood
anywhere visible except the park, where they keep all the wild beasts in
London--all that go on four legs, you know. The master of the mansion is
Mr. Carl Koenig, a dear old hippopotamus who is five-feet-nothing in his
boots, and has piercing black eyes and an electroplated mustache. He is a
sort of an English-German-Dutch-Polish musician. When he talks of himself
as an organist he is always a little John Bull, being F. R. C. O. and
lots of things besides; when he speaks of 'Vaterland' he is a German;
when he mentions the sea he is a Dutchman; and when he is in good spirits
(or they are in him) he sings 'Poland is not lost forever!' all over the
house until you sometimes wish it were.

"His wife is an Englishwoman, about forty or more, with big, moist, doggy
eyes that give you an idea of slave-humility, and an unappreciated and
undeveloped soul. There never were two married folk less alike, she being
one of those silent creatures who come into a room and sit and listen and
never speak, except to give instructions to the maids, while he is always
cackling like an old hen who can never lay an egg without letting the
whole world know all about it. They have two female servants--both
beautiful Cockneys--besides a boy in the garden, and a parrot that holds
forth all over the place; and their house is the rendezvous of all kinds
and conditions of great people, for Mr. Koenig himself is a sort of
Gideon's lamp among 'pros' of nearly every order.

"And now you want to know how I come to be here. You are to learn then
that Mr. Koenig happened to be one of my patients in the hospital, he
having gone there for a slight operation, and I having helped to nurse
him through what he calls his 'operatic cure.' In the course of that
ordeal he had music of a less excruciating kind sometimes, it seems, and
after his return home he searched for me all over London on account of my
voice, and finding me unexpectedly at last he sent his wife to Mrs.
Jupe's to fetch me, and--and here I am in a dainty little dimity room,
whose walls are covered with portraits of well-known singers, violinists,
pianists, and composers, with their affectionate inscriptions underneath.

"But you want to learn why I am here. Well, you must know that Mr. Koenig
(although a foreign musician) is organist of All Saints', Belgravia,
where they sing a solo anthem at nearly every Sunday morning service; and
having had various disappointments at the hands of vocal soloists from
the Opera, whose 'professional engagements suddenly intervened,' he
conceived the audacious idea of 'intervening' a woman to do their duty
permanently. So this is my position in the church at which John Storm
used to be curate, and once a week I pipe that his old enemy the canon
may play. But as that good man is of St. Paul's opinion about women
holding their tongues in the synagogue, and is blest with just enough ear
to know a contralto from a corn-crake, I have to be hidden away behind a
screen in order that his reverence may have all the fun to himself of
believing me to be a boy.

"So you see, my dearies, you needn't be anxious about me, 'at all at
all', seeing that I am living in this atmosphere of art and the odour of
sanctity, and that I have kept only one tiny little thing back, and I am
going to tell you that now. You were afraid that I might go too often to
the theatre, Aunt Anna. Never mind, auntie, I shall not be going so very
often now, and in proof thereof permit me to introduce myself in my
future style and character--Miss Glory Quayle, the eminent social
entertainer! You don't know what that is, dear people? It is quite simple
and innocent, nevertheless. I am to go to the houses of smart people when
they give their grand parties and sing and recite, and so forth. Nothing
wrong, you see--only what I used to do at Glenfaba.

"You must know that, just as in the country the men go to the smithy when
they have nothing more pressing on hand than to settle the affairs of the
universe, and the women to the mangle-house when they have to mangle
other things besides clothes, so in the towns the poor rich people have
their own particular diversion, which they call their 'At Homes.' Mr.
Drake used to tell me they were terrible Tower-of-Babel concerns, at
which everybody talked at once, and all the tongues in the place went
'click-clack, world without end.' But they must be perfectly charming for
all that; and when I think of the dresses and the diamonds and the titles
as long as your breath--oh, dear! oh, dear!

"I shall see it all soon, I suppose, for to supply the place of the
hammer and the anvil the smart folks always add musical accompaniment to
the confusion of tongues, and Mr. Koenig, who has a choral company, goes
to the cream of the cream of such gatherings, and sings and plays from
Grieg and Schumann, and Liszt and Wagner, and Chopin and Paderewski, and
the place intended for me in this grand organization would appear to be
that of jester to my lords and ladies. '_Ach Gott!_' says Mr. Koenig, who
'speaks ver' bad de Englisch,' 'your great people vant de last new ting.
One lady she say to me, "Dear Mr. Koenig, I tink I shall not ask you dis
season. I hear you everyvheres I go to, and I get so tired of peoples."
But vhen I takes anoder wis me I am a new beesness. You shall sing and
recite your leetle funny tings. Your great people tink dey loof music,
but dey loof better to laugh. "For mercy's sake make dem laugh, Mr.
Koenig"--dat's vhat a great man say to me. But, my gootness, how can I? I
am a musician, I am a composer, I am an arteeste!'

"For this high and noble office I have been going through a purgatory of
preparation in which I have sometimes hardly known whether I was a
hurdy-gurdy or an explosion of cats, and the future female jester has
even been known to lie down on the floor and cry in her dumps of despair
or some such devilry. However, Mr. Koenig begins to believe that I am
passable, and my first appearance is to be made immediately after Lent,
at the house of the Home Secretary, where it is not improbable, dear Aunt
Rachel, that I may meet Mr. Drake, although that is no part of my
programme.

"Of course, I shall have to look charming in any case, and I am already
busy with my dress. It is a black silk gown with a tight-fitting bodice.
The bodice has windbag sleeves, formed of shawl pieces of guipure lace,
and some lilies of the valley on the breast, finished with a waistband of
heliotrope velvet, and I am going to wear long black gloves all the way
up my arms, which are growing round and plump, and lovely enough for
anything. The skirt is my old one, and I got the lace for three-and-six,
so I am not ruining myself, you see; and though my hair is getting redder
than ever, red is the fashionable colour in London now, therefore I
sha'n't waste much money on dyes.

"But for all this brave exterior, when the time comes I know that down in
my heart I shall be terrified. It will be like the first dive of the
year. 'One plunge, Glory, my child,' and then over I'll go! I partly
realize already what it will be like by my experiences on Sunday evenings
when the celebrities come here after church, and Mr. Koenig exhibits me
to admiring friends and tells them how I brought him 'goot look,' and I
overhear them say, 'That girl will show them all something yet.' Oh, this
London is adorable, my dears, with its wit and fashion, and gaiety and
luxury! and I have concluded that to live in the world is the best thing
one can do, after all. Some people say hard things about it, and want to
reform it, or even to leave it altogether; but I love it! I love it! and
think it just charming!

"And now spring is here, and the world is lovely in its yellow and green.
It must be _urromassy_ nice over yandher in the 'oilan' too, with the
primroses and the violets and the gorse in the glen. Oh, dear! oh, dear!
I can smell it all three hundred miles away! The lilacs will be out at
Glenfaba now, and Aunt Anna will be collecting her Easter eggs.
Well--wait a whilley, and I'll come to thee, my dears!

"Not a word from John Storm, of course. No doubt he is fighting with
shadows while other people are struggling with realities. They tell me
these Brotherhoods are common in the Church now, though most of them are
secret societies; but the more I think of that kind of religion the more
it looks like setting tasks to try faith, as if God were a coquettish
woman. That reminds me that Mr. Worldly-Wealthy-Wiseman is no longer a
canon, having got himself made archdeacon, and as such he looks more than
ever like a black Spanish cock, being clad, of course, in those funny
clothes, like the bishops, which always make one think their lordships
must be in doubt on getting up in the morning whether they ought to wear
a schoolboy's knickerbockers or a ballet-girl's skirt, so they settle the
difficulty by putting on both. For this reason I try to avoid him when on
duty at the church, lest I should be suddenly possessed of a devil and
behave badly to his face. But this being Lent, and there being special
preachers every day, it chanced on Sunday morning that I came upon three
of him all in a row, and oh, my gracious, Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these!

"It is too bad, though, to think that men like John Storm can't find room
in the Church for the sole of their foot, while this archdemon is
flourishing in it like a green bay tree. Forgive me, grandfather; I can't
help it. But then the Church in the country doesn't seem the same as in
town. _There_ you are somehow made to feel that man does a little and God
does all the rest, while _here_ we reverse that order of things, with the
result that this seed of the Amalekite--but never mind!

"I went to the Zoo this morning. There was a lion shut up in a cage all
by himself. Such a solemn, splendid, silent fellow; I could have cried.

"But it is the witching hour of night, my daughter, and you must put
yourself to bed. 'Goot look!'

"Glory."




XVII.

In the middle of the night of Good Friday, John Storm was wakened by
noises in the adjoining cell. There seemed to be the voices of two men in
angry and violent altercation, the one threatening and denouncing, the
other protesting and supplicating.

"The girl is dead--isn't that proof enough?" said one voice. "It's a lie!
It's a false accusation!" said the other voice. "Paul, what are you going
to do?" "Put this bullet in your brain." "But I'm innocent--I take the
Almighty to witness that I'm innocent. Put the pistol down. Help! help!"
"No use calling--there's nobody in the house." "Mercy! mercy! I
haven't much money about me, but you shall have it all. Take
everything--everything--and if there's anything I can do to start you in
life--I'm rich, Paul--I have influence--only spare me!" "Scoundrel, do
you think you can buy me as you bought my sister?" "And if I did I was
not the only one." "Liar! Tell that to herself when you meet her at the
judgment!" "As-sassin!" "Too late--you've met her!"

John Storm listened and understood. The two voices were one voice, which
was the voice of Brother Paul. The lay brother was delirious. His poor
broken brain was rambling in the ways of the past. He was re-enacting the
scene of his crime.

John hesitated. His impulse was to fly into Paul's room and lay hold of
him, that he might prevent him from doing himself any injury. But he
remembered the law of the community, that no member of it should go into
the cell of another under pain of grievous penance. And then there was
the rule of silence and solitude which had not yet been lifted away.

But monks are great sophists, and at the next moment John Storm had told
himself that it was not Brother Paul who was in the adjoining room, but
only his poor perishing body, labouring through the last sloughs of the
twilight land of death. Paul himself, his soul, his spirit, was far away.
Hence it could be no sin to go into the cell of one whose senses were not
there.

His own door was locked, but he scraped back the key and lit his candle,
and stepped into the passage. The voices were still loud in Paul's room,
but no one seemed to hear them. Not another sound broke the silence of
the sleeping house. The cell beyond Paul's was empty. It was Brother
Andrew's cell, and Andrew was at the door downstairs.

When John Storm entered the dark room, candle in hand, Brother Paul was
standing in the middle of the floor with one hand outstretched and a
ghastly and appalling smile upon his face. He was pale as death, his eyes
were ablaze, his forehead was streaming with perspiration, and he was
breathing from the depths of his chest. He wiped the dews from his brow
and said in a choking voice, "He has died as he lived--a liar and a
scoundrel!"

John took him by the hand and drew him to the bed, and, putting him to
sit there, he tried to soothe and comfort him. He was terrified at first
by the sound of his own voice, but the sophism that had served to bring
him, served to support him also, and he told himself it could be no
breach of the rule of silence to speak to one who was not there. The
delirium of the lay brother spent itself at length, and he fell into a
deep sleep.

Next day, when Brother Andrew came to John's cell with the food, he began
to sing as if to himself while he bustled about the room.

"Brother Paul is sinking--he is sinking rapidly--Father Jerrold has
confessed him--he has taken the sacrament--and is very patient."

This, as if it had been a Gregorian chant, the great fellow had hit upon
as a means of communicating with John without breaking the rule and
committing sin.

John did not lock his door on the following night. On going to bed he
listened for the noises he had heard before, half fearing and yet half
wishing that he might hear them again. But he heard nothing, and toward
midnight he fell asleep. Something made him shudder, and he awoke with
the sensation of moonlight on his face. The moon was indeed shining, and
its sepulchral light was on a figure that stood by the foot of the bed.
It was Paul, with a livid face, murmuring his name in a voice almost as
faint as a breath.

John leaped up and put his arms about him.

"You are ill, brother--very ill."

"I am dying."

"Help! help!" cried John, and he made for the door.

"Hush, brother, hush!"

"Oh, I don't care for rule. Rule is nothing in a case like this. And,
besides, it is an understood thing---- Help!"

"I implore you, I conjure you!" said Paul in a voice strangled by
weakness. "Let them leave us together a little longer. It was by my own
wish that I was left alone. I have something to say to you--something to
confess. I have to ask your pardon."

In two strides John had reached the door, but he came back without
opening it.

"Why, my poor lad, what have you done to me?"

"When you let me out of the house to go in search of my sister----"

"That was long ago; we'll not talk of it now, brother."

"But I can not die in peace without telling you. You remember that I had
something to say to her?"

"Yes."

"It was a threat. I was going to tell her that unless she gave up her way
of life I should find the man who had been the cause of it and follow him
up and kill him."

"It was only a temptation of the devil, brother, and it is past; and
now----"

"Don't you see what I was going to do? I was going to bring trouble and
disgrace upon you also as my comrade and accomplice. That's what a man
comes to when Satan----"

"But God willed it otherwise, brother; let us say no more about it."

"You forgive me, then?"

"Forgive? It is I who ought to ask for your forgiveness, and perhaps if I
told you everything----"

"There is something else. Listen! The Almighty is calling me; I have no
time to lose."

"But you are so cold, brother! Lie on the bed, and I'll cover you with
the bedclothes. Oh, never fear; they sha'n't separate us again. If the
Father were at home--he is so good and tender-hearted--but no matter.
There, there!"

"You will despise and hate me--you who are so holy and brave, and have
given up everything and conquered the world, and even triumphed over love
itself!"

"Don't say that, brother."

"It's true, isn't it? Everybody knows what a holy life you live."

"Hush!"

"But I have never lived the religious life at all, and I only came to it
as a refuge from the law and the gallows; and if the Father hadn't----"

"Another time, brother."

"Yes, the story I told the police was true, and I had really----"

"Hush, brother, hush! I won't hear you. What you are saying is for God's
ear only, and, whatever you have done, God will judge your soul in mercy.
We have only to ask him----"

"Quick, then; the last sands are running out!" and he strove to rise and
kneel.

"Lie still, brother: God will accept the humiliation of your soul."

"No, no, let me up; let me kneel beside you. The prayer for the
dying--say it with me, Brother Storm; let us say it together. 'O Lord,
save----'"

_"'O Lord, save thy servant,

"'Which putteth his trust in thee.

"'Send him help from thy holy place.

"'And ... evermore ... mightily defend him.

"'Let the enemy have no advantage over him.

"'Nor the ... wicked----

"'Be unto him, O Lord, a strong tower.

"'From the----

"'O Lord, hear our prayers.

"'And----'"_

"Paul! Paul! Speak to me! Speak! Don't leave me! We shall console and
support each other. You shall come to me, I will go to you. No matter
about the religious life. One word! My lad, my lad!"

But Brother Paul had gone. The captured eagle with the broken wing had
slipped its chain at last.

In the terrible peace which followed the air of the room seemed to become
empty. John Storm felt chill and dizzy, and a great awe fell upon him.
The courage which he had built up in sight of Brother Paul's sufferings
ebbed rapidly away, and his old fear of rule flowed back. He must carry
the lay brother to his cell; he must be ignorant of his death; he must
conceal and cover up everything. The moon had gone by this time, for it
was near to morning, and the shadows of night were contending with the
leaden hues of dawn.

He opened the door and listened. The house was still quite silent. He
walked on tip-toe to the end of the corridor, pausing at every cell.
There was no sound anywhere, except the sonorous breathing of some heavy
sleeper and the ticking of the clock in the hall.

Then he returned to the chamber of death, and, lifting the dead man in
his arms, he carried him back to the room which he had left as a living
man. The body was light, and he scarcely felt its weight, for the limbs
under the cassock had dried up like withered twigs. He stretched them out
on the bed that they might be fit for death's composing hand, and then
closed the eyes and laid the hands together on the breast, and took the
heavy cross that hung about the neck and put it as well as he could into
the nerveless fingers. By this time the daylight had overcome the shadows
of the fore-dawn, and the ruddy glow of morning was gliding into the
room. Traffic was beginning to stir in the sleeping city, and a cart was
rattling down the street.

One glance more he gave at the dead brother's face, and going down on his
knees beside it he said a prayer and crossed himself. Then he rose and
stole back to his room and shut the door without a sound.

There was a boundless relief when this was done, and partly from relief
and partly from exhaustion he fell asleep. He slept for a few minutes
only, but sleep knows no time, and a moment in its garden of
forgetfulness will wipe out the bitterness of a life. When he awoke he
stretched out his hand as he was accustomed to do and rapped three times
on the wall. But the tide of consciousness returned to him even as he did
so, and in the dead silence that followed his very heart grew cold.

Then the Father Minister began to awaken the household. His deep call and
the muffled answer which followed it rose higher and higher and came
nearer and nearer, and every step as he approached seemed to beat upon
John Storm's brain. He had reached the topmost story--he was coming down
the corridor--he was standing before the door of the dead man's cell.

"Benedicamus Domino!" he called, but no answer came back to him. He
called again, and there was a short and terrible silence.

John Storm held his breath and listened. By the faint click of the lock
he knew that the door had been opened, and that the Father Minister had
entered the room. There was a muttered exclamation and then another short
silence, and after that there came the click of the lock again. The door
had been closed, and the Father Minister had resumed his rounds. When he
called at the door of John Storm's cell not a tone of his voice would
have told that anything unusual had taken place.

The bell rang, and the brothers trooped down the stairs. Presently the
low, droning sound of their voices came up from the chapel where they
were saying Lauds. But the service had scarcely ended when the Father
Minister's step was on the stair again. This time another was with him.
It was the doctor. They entered the brother's room and closed the door
behind them. From the other side of the wall John Storm followed every
movement and every word.

"So he has gone at last, poor soul!"

"Is he long dead, doctor?"

"Some hours, certainly. Was there nobody with him then?"

"He didn't wish for anybody. And then you told us that nothing could he
done, and that he might live a month."

"Still, a dying man, you know---- But how strangely composed he looks!
And then the cross on his breast as well!"

"He was very devout and penitent. He made his last devotion yesterday
with an intensity of joy such as I have rarely witnessed."

"His eyes closed, too! You are sure there was nobody with him?"

"Nobody whatever."

There was a moment's silence and then the doctor said, "Well, he has
slipped his anchor at last, poor soul!"

"Yes, he has launched on the ocean of the love of God. May we all be as
ready when our call comes!"

They came back to the corridor, and John heard their footsteps going
downstairs. Then for some minutes there were unusual noises below. Rapid
steps were coming and going, the hall bell was ringing, and the front
door was opening and shutting.

An hour later Brother Andrew came with the breakfast. He was obviously
excited, and putting down the tray he began to busy himself in the room
and to sing, as before, in, his pretence of a Gregorian chant:

"Brother Paul is dead--he died in the night--there was nobody with
him--we are sorry he has left us, but glad he is at peace-God rest the
soul of our poor Brother Paul!"

It was Easter Day. At midday service in the church the brothers sang the
Easter hymn, and a mighty longing took hold of John Storm for his own
resurrection from his living grave.

Next day there was much coming and going between the world outside and
the adjoining cell, and late at night there were heavy and shambling
footsteps, and even some coarse and ribald talk.

"Bear a 'and, myte."

"Well, they won't have their backs broke as carry this one downstairs. He
ain't a Danny Lambert, anyway."

"No, they don't feed ye on Bovril in plyces syme as this. I'll lay ye
odds yer own looking-glass wouldn't know ye arter three months 'ard on
religion and dry tommy."

"It pawses me 'ow people tyke to it. Gimme my pint of four-half, and my
own childring to follow me."

Early on the following morning a stroke rang out on the bell, then
another stroke, and again another.

"It is the knell," thought John.

A group of the lay brothers came up and passed into the room. "Now!" said
one, as if giving a signal, and then they passed out again with the
measured steps of men who bear a burden. "They are taking him away," he
thought.

He listened to their retreating footsteps. "He has gone," he murmured.

The passing bell continued to ring out minute by minute, and presently
there was the sound of singing. "It is the service for the dead," he told
himself.

After a while both the bell and the singing ceased, and then there was no
sound anywhere except the dull rumble of the traffic in the city
outside--the deep murmur of the mighty sea that flows on forever.

"What am I doing?" he asked himself. "What bolts and bars are keeping me?
I am guilty of a folly. I am degrading myself."

At midday Brother Andrew came with his food. "Brother Paul is buried," he
sang, "the coffin was beautiful--it was covered with flowers--we buried
him in his cassock, with his beads and psalter--we left the cross on his
breast--he loved it and died with it in his hands--the Father has come
home--he said mass this morning."

John Storm could bear no more. He pushed the lay brother aside and made
straight for the Superior's room.

The Father was sitting before the fire, looking sad and low and weary. He
rose to his feet with a painful smile, as John broke into his cell with
blazing eyes, and cried in a choking voice:

"Father, I can not live the religious life any longer! I have tried
to--with all my soul and strength I've tried to, but I can not, I can
not! This life of prayer and penance and meditation is stifling me, and
corrupting me, and crushing the man out of me, and I can not bear it."

"What are you saying, my son?"

"I have been deceiving you and myself and everybody."

"Deceiving me?"

"It was for my own ends and not Brother Paul's that I helped him to break
obedience, and so injure his health and hasten his death."

"Your own?"

"I, too, had a sister in the world, and my heart was hungry for news of
her."

"A sister?"

"Some one nearer than a sister--and all my spiritual life has been a
sham."

"My son, my son!"

"Forgive me, Father. I shall love you and honour you and revere you
always; but I must break my obedience and leave you, or I shall be a
hypocrite and a liar and a cheat."




XVIII.

The dinner party at the Home Secretary's took place on Wednesday, in the
week after Easter. It had rained during the day, but cleared up toward
night. Glory and Koenig had taken an omnibus to Waterloo Place, and then
walked up the wide street that ends with the wide steps going down to the
park. Two lines of lofty stone houses go off to right and left, and the
house they were going to was in one of them.

A footman received them with sombre but easy familiarity. The artistes?
Yes. They were shown into the library, and light refreshments were
brought in to them on a tray. Three other members of the choral company
were there already. Glory was seeing it all for the first time, and
Koenig was describing and explaining everything in broken whispers.

A band was playing in the well of the circular staircase, and a second
footman stood in an alcove behind an outwork of hats and overcoats. The
first footman reappeared. Were the artistes ready to go to the
drawing-room?

They followed him upstairs. The band had stopped, and there was the
distant hum of voices and the crackle of plates. Waiters were coming and
going from the dining-room, and the butler stood at the door giving
instructions. At one moment there was a glimpse within of ladies in
gorgeous dresses, and a table laden with silver and bright with
fairy-lamps. When the door opened the voices grew louder, when it closed
the sounds were deadened.

The upper landing opened on to a _salon_ which had three windows down to
the ground, and half of each stood open. Outside there was a wide terrace
lit up by Chinese and Moorish lanterns. Beyond was the dark patch of the
park, and farther still the towers of the Abbey and the clock of
Westminster, but the great light was not burning to-night.

"De House naivare sits on Vednesday night," said Koenig.

They passed into the drawing-room, which was empty. The standing lamps
were subdued by coverings of yellow-silk lace. There was a piano and an
organ.

"Ve'll stay here," said Koenig, opening the organ, and Glory stood by his
side.

Presently there were ripples of laughter, sounds of quick,
indistinguishable voices, waves of heliotrope, and the rustle of silk
dresses on the stairs. Then the ladies entered. Two or three of them who
were elderly leaned their right hands on the arms of younger women, and
walked with ebony sticks in their left. An old lady wearing black satin
and a large brooch came last. Koenig rose and bowed to her. Glory
prepared to bow also, but the lady gave her a side inclination of the
head as she sat in a well-cushioned chair under a lamp, and Glory's bow
was abridged.

The ladies sat and talked, and Glory tried to listen. There were little
nothings, punctuated by trills of feminine laughter. She thought the
conversation rather silly. More than once the ladies lifted their
lorgnettes and looked at her. She set her lips hard and looked back
without flinching.

A footman brought tea on a tray, and then there was the tinkle of cup and
saucer, and more laughter. The lady in satin looked round at Koenig, and
he began to play the organ. He played superbly, but nobody seemed to
listen. When he finished there was a pause, and everybody said: "Oh,
thank you; we're all--er----" and then the talk began again. The vocal
soloist sang some ballad of Schumann, and as long as it lasted an old
lady with an ear-trumpet sat at the foot of the piano, and a young girl
spoke into it. When it was over, everybody said, "Ah, that dear old
thing!" Then there was an outbreak of deeper voices from the stairs, with
lustier laughter and heavier steps.

The gentlemen appeared, talking loudly as they entered. Koenig was back
at the organ and playing as if he wished it were the 'cello and the drum
and the whole brass band. Glory was watching everything; it was beginning
to be very funny. Suddenly it ceased to be so. One of the gentlemen was
saying, in a tired drawl: "Old Koenig again! How the old boy lasts! Seem
to have been hearing--him since the Flood, don't you know."

It was Lord Robert Ure. Glory caught one glimpse of him, then looked down
at her slipper and pawed at the carpet. He put his glass in his eye,
screwed up the left side of his face, and looked at her.

An elderly man with a leonine head came up to the organ and said: "Got
anything comic, Mr. Koenig? All had the influenza last winter, you know,
and lost our taste for the classical."

"With pleasure, sir," said Koenig, and then turning to Glory he touched
her wrist. "How's de pulse? Ach Gott! beating same like a child's! Now is
your turn."

Glory made a step forward, and the talk grew louder as she was observed.
She heard fragments of it. "Who is she?" "Is she a professional?"
"Oh, no--a lady." "Sing, does she, or is it whistling?" "No, she's a
professional; we had her last year; she does conjuring." And then the
voice she had heard before said, "By Jove, old fellow, your young friend
looks like a red standard rose!" She did not flinch. There was a nervous
tremor of the lip, a scarcely perceptible curl of it, and then she began.

It was Mylecharaine, a Manx ballad in the Anglo-Manx, about a farmer who
was a miser. His daughter was ashamed of him because he dressed shabbily
and wore yellow stockings; but he answered that if he didn't the stocking
wouldn't be yellow that would be forthcoming for her dowry.

She sang, recited, talked, acted, lived the old man, and there was not a
sound until she finished, except laughter and the clapping of hands. Then
there was a general taking of breath and a renewed outbreak of gossip.
"Really, really! How--er--natural!" "Natural--that's it, natural. I
never--er----" "Rather good, certainly; in fact, quite amusing." "What
dialect is it?" "Irish, of course." "Of course, of course," with many
nods and looks of knowledge, and a buzz and a flutter of understanding.
"Hope she'll do something else." "Hush! she's beginning."

It was Ny Kiree fo Niaghtey, a rugged old wail of how the sheep were lost
on the mountains in a great snowstorm; but it was full of ineffable
melancholy. The ladies dropped their lorgnettes, the men's glasses fell
from their eyes and their faces straightened, the noisy old soul with the
ear-trumpet sitting under Glory's arm was snuffling audibly, and at the
next moment there was a chorus of admiring remarks. "'Pon my word, this
is something new, don't you know!" "Fine girl too!" "Fine! Irish girls
often run to it." "That old miser--you could see him!"

"What's her next piece?--something funny, I hope."

Koenig's pride was measureless, and Glory did not get off lightly. He
cleared the floor for her, and announced that with the indulgence, etc.,
the young artiste would give an imitation of common girls singing in the
street.

The company laughed until they screamed, and when the song was finished
Glory was being overwhelmed with congratulations and inquiries,
"Charming! All your pieces are charming! But really, my dear young lady,
you must be more careful about our feelings. Those sheep now--it was
really quite too sad." The old lady with the ear-trumpet asked Glory
whether she could go on for the whole of an afternoon, and if she felt
much fatigued sometimes, and didn't often catch cold.

But the lady in satin came to her relief at last. "You will need some
refreshment," she said. "Let me see now if I can not----" and she lifted
her glass and looked round the room. At the next moment a voice that made
a shudder pass over her said:

"Perhaps _I_ may have the pleasure of taking Miss Quayle down."

It was Drake. His eyes were as blue and boyish as before, but Glory
observed at once that he had grown a mustache, and that his face and
figure were firmer and more manlike. A few minutes afterward they had
passed through one of the windows on to the terrace and were walking to
and fro.

It was cool and quiet out there after the heat and hubbub of the
drawing-room. The night was soft and still. Hardly a breath of wind
stirred the leaves of the trees in the park below. The rain had left a
dewy moistness in the air, and a fragrant mist was lying over the grass.
The stars were out, and the moon had just risen behind the towers of
Westminster.

Glory was flushed with her success. Her eyes sparkled and her step was
light and free. Drake touched her hand as it lay on his arm and said:

"And now that I've got you to myself I must begin by scolding you."

They looked at one another and smiled. "Have I displeased you so much
to-night?" she said.

"It's not that. Where have you been all this time?"

"Ah, if you only knew!" She had stopped and was looking into the
darkness.

"I _want_ to know. Why didn't you answer my letter?"

"Your letter?" She was clutching at the lilies of the valley in her
bosom.

He tapped her hand lightly and said, "Well, we'll not quarrel this time,
only don't do it again, you know, or else----"

She recovered herself and laughed. Her voice had a silvery ring, and he
thought it was an enchanting smile that played upon her face. They
resumed their walk.

"And now about to-night. You have had a success, of course."

"Why of course?"

"Because I always knew you must have."

She was proud and happy. He began to be grave and severe.

"But the drawing-room after dinner is no proper scene for your talents.
The audience is not in the right place or the right mood. Guests and
auditors--their duties clash. Besides, to tell you the truth, art is a
dark continent to people like these."

"They were kind to me, at all events," said Glory.

"To-night, yes. The last new man--the last new monkey----"

She was laughing again and swinging along on his arm as if her feet
hardly touched the ground.

"What is the matter with you?"

"Nothing; I am only thinking how polite you are," and then they looked at
each other again and laughed together.

The mild radiance of the stars was dying into the brighter light of the
moon. A bird somewhere in the dark trees below had mistaken the moonlight
for the dawn, and was making its early call. The clock at Westminster was
striking eleven, and there was the deep rumble of traffic from the unseen
streets round about.

"How beautiful!" said Glory. "It's hard to believe that this can be the
same London that is so full of casinos and clubs and-monasteries."

"Why, what does a girl like you know about such places?"

She had dropped his arm and was looking over the balcony. The sound of
voices came from the red windows behind them. Then the soloist began to
sing again. His second ballad was the Erl King:

  Du liebes Kind, komm' geh' mit mir!
  Gar schöne Spiele spiel' ich mit dir.

"Any news of John Storm?" said Drake.

"Not that I know of."

"I wonder if you would like him to come out again--now?"

"I wonder!"

At that moment there was a step behind them, and a soft voice said, "I
want you to introduce me, Mr. Drake."

It was a lady of eight or nine and twenty, wearing short hair brushed
upward and backward in the manner of a man.

"Ah, Rosa--Miss Rosa Macquarrie," said Drake. "Rosa is a journalist, and
a great friend of mine, Glory. If you want fame, she keeps some of the
keys of it, and if you want friendship---- But I'll leave you together."

"My dear," said the lady, "I want you to let me know you."

"But I've seen you before--and spoken to you," said Glory.

"Why, where?"

Glory was laughing awkwardly. "Never mind now! Some other time perhaps."

"The people inside are raving about your voice. 'Where does it come
from?' they are saying--'from a palace or Ratcliffe Highway?' But I think
_I_ know. It comes from your heart, my dear. You have lived and and loved
and suffered--and so have I. Here we are in our smart frocks, dear, but
we belong to another world altogether and are the only working women in
the company. Perhaps I can help you a little, and you have helped me
already. I may know you, may I not?"

There was a deep light in Glory's eyes and a momentary quiver of her
eyelids. Then without a word she put her arms about Rosa's neck and
kissed her,

"I was sure of you," said Rosa. Her voice was low and husky. "Your name
is Glory, isn't it? It wasn't for nothing you were given that name. God
gave it you!"

The party was breaking up and Koenig came for "his star." "I vill give
you an engagement for one, two, tree year, upon my vord I vill," he said
as they went downstairs. While the butler took him back to the library to
sign his receipt and receive his cheque, Glory stood waiting by the
billiard table in the hall and Drake and Lord Robert stepped up to her.

"Until when?" said Drake with a smile, but Glory pretended not to
understand him. "I dare say you thought me cynical to-night, Glory. I
only meant that if you are to follow this profession I want you to make
the best of it. Why not look for a wider scene? Why not go directly to
the public?"

"But de lady is engaged to me for tree year," said Koenig, coming up.

Drake looked at Glory, who shook her head, and then Koenig made an effort
at explanation. It was an understood thing. He had taught her, taken her
into his house, found her in a Sunday----

But Drake interrupted him. If they could help Miss Quayle to a better
market for her genius Mr. Koenig need be no loser by the change. Then
Koenig was pacified, and Drake handed Glory to a cab.

"We're good friends again, aren't we?" he said, touching her hand
lightly.

"Yes," she answered.

There was a letter from Aunt Rachel waiting for her at the Priory. Aunt
Anna didn't like these frequent changes, and she had no faith in music or
musicians either, but the Parson thought Anna too censorious, and as for
Mr. Koenig's Sunday evening companies, he had no doubt they were of
Germans chiefly, and that they came to talk of Martin Luther and to sing
his hymn. Sorry to say his infirmities were increasing; the burden of his
years was upon him, and he was looking feeble and old.

Glory slept little that night. On going to her room she threw up t