A Lost Cause Part 12

It may soothe you."

"Read it," murmured the spinster, now lost in an ecstasy of luxurious grief, though she would have been puzzled to give a reason for it.

Gussie took up the paper once more. Now that her battle was so nearly won, she allowed herself more freedom in the reading. The Celtic love of drama stirred within her and she gave the pompous balderdash _ore rotundo_.

"'And in conclusion, what is our crying need in England to-day? It is this: It is the establishment of a great crusade for the crushing of the disguised Popery in our midst. One protest has been made in Hornham, protests should be made all over England. A mighty organisation should be called into existence which should make every "priest" tremble in his cope and ca.s.sock, tremble for the avalanche of public reprobation which will descend upon him and his.

"'I may be a visionary and no such idea as I have in my mind may be possible. But I think not. Who can say that our borough of Hornham may not become famous in history as the spot in which the second Reformation was born!

"'Much needs to be done before such a glorious movement can be inaugurated; that it will be inaugurated a band of earnest and determined men and women live in the liveliest hope.

"'I am confident that a movement having its seed in the borough, if widely published and made known to patriotic English people, would be supported with swift and overwhelming generosity by the country at large. The public response would appal the Ritualists and even astonish loyal sons of the Church of England. But, in order to start this crusade, help is required. Some n.o.ble soul must come forward to start the machine, to raise the Protestant Flag.

"'Where shall we find him or her? Is there no one in our midst willing to become the patron of Truth and to earn the praise of thousands and a place in history?

"'Once Joan of Arc led the forces of her country to victory. A Charlotte Corday slew the monster Marat, a Boadicea hurled herself against the legions of Rome! Who will be our Boadicea to-day, who will come forward to crush the tyranny of Rome in our own England? For such a n.o.ble lady, who will revive in her own person the undying deeds of antiquity, I can promise a fame worth more than all the laurels of the old British queen, the heartfelt thanks and love of her countrymen, and above all of her country-women--over whose more kindly and unsuspicious natures the deadly Upas-tree of Romanism has cast its poisonous shade. Where is the Jael who will destroy this Sisera?'"

Miss Davies ceased. Her voice sank. No sound was heard but the snuffle that came from the plush arm-chair opposite, where Miss Pritchett was audibly weeping. Mr. Hamlyn's purple prose had been skilfully introduced at the psychological moment. The woman's ill-balanced temperament was awry and smarting. Her egregious vanity was wounded as it had rarely been wounded before. She had been treated as of no account, and she was burning with spite and the longing for revenge.

Gussie said nothing more. She let the words of the newspaper do their work without a.s.sistance.

Presently Miss Pritchett looked up. She wiped her eyes and a grim expression of determination came out upon her face.

"I see it all!" she said suddenly. "My trusting nature has been terribly deceived; I have been led into error by evil counsellors; the power of the Jesuits has been secretly brought to bear upon one who, whatever her failings, has scorned suspicion!"

"Oh, Miss Pritchett, how _awful_!" said Gussie.

"Yes," continued the lady with a delighted shudder, "the net has been thrown over me and I was nigh to perish. But Providence intervenes! I see how I am to be the 'umble instrument of crushing error in the Church. I shall step into the breach!"

"Oh, Miss Pritchett, how _n.o.ble_!"

"Miss Davies, you will kindly put on your jacket and walk round to Mr.

Hamlyn's house. See Mr. Hamlyn and tell him that Miss Pritchett is too agitated by recent events to write personally, but she begs he will favour her with his company at supper to discuss matters of great public importance. Tell Jones to send up some sweetbreads at once, and inform cook as a gentleman will be here to supper, and to serve the cold salmon."

Gussie rose quickly. "Oh, Miss Pritchett," she cried, "what a great day for England this will be!"

CHAPTER VII

THE OFFICES OF THE "LUTHER LEAGUE"--AN INTERIOR

On the first floor of a building in the Strand, wedged in between a little theatre and a famous restaurant, the offices of the "Luther League" were established, and by late autumn were in the full swing of their activity.

Visitors to this stronghold of Protestantism mounted a short flight of stairs and arrived in a wide pa.s.sage. Four or five doors opening into it all bore the name of the a.s.sociation in large letters of white enamel.

The first door bore the legend:

"PUBLISHING AND GENERAL OFFICE INQUIRIES"

This room, the one by which the general public were admitted to the inner sanctuaries, was a large place fitted up with desks and gla.s.s compartments in much the same way as the ordinary clerks' office of a business house. A long counter divided the room, and upon it were stacked piles of the newly published pamphlet literature of the League.

Here could be seen that stirring narrative, _Cowed by the Confessional; or, The Story of an English Girl in the Power of the "Priests."_ This publication, probably the cheapest piece of p.o.r.nography in print at the moment, was published, with an ill.u.s.tration, at three pence. Upon the cover a priest--for some unexplained reason in full eucharistic vestments--was pointing sternly to the armour-plated door of a grim confessional, while a trembling lady in a large picture hat shrunk within.

This little book was flanked by what appeared to be a semi-jocular work called _Who Said Reredos?_ and bore upon its cover the already distinguished name of Samuel Hamlyn, Jr. The eye fell upon that popular pamphlet in a wrapper of vivid scarlet--now in its sixtieth thousand--known as _Bow to the "Altar" and Light b.l.o.o.d.y Mary's Torture Fires Again_.

_As Soon Pay the Devil as the Priest_ lay by the side of a more elaborately bound volume on which was the portrait of a lady. Beneath the picture appeared the words of the t.i.tle, _My Escape; or, How I Became a Protestant_, by Jane Pritchett.

Two clerks wrote in the ledgers on the desks, attended to visitors, and looked after what was known in the office as the "counter trade"--to distinguish it from the sale of Protestant literature in bulk, which was managed direct from the "Luther League Printing Works, Hornham, N."

A second room opening into the general office was tenanted by the a.s.sistant secretary of the League, Mr. Samuel Hamlyn, Junior. Here the walls were decorated with scourges, horribly knotted and thonged; "Disciplines," which were belts and armlets of sharp iron p.r.i.c.kles, designed to wear the skin of the toughest Ritualist into an open sore after three days' wear. There were also two hair shirts, apparently the worse for wear, and a locked bookcase of Ritualistic literature with a little _index expurgatorius_ in the neat, clerkly writing of Sam Hamlyn, and compiled by that gentleman himself.

In this chamber of horrors, the a.s.sistant secretary delighted to move and have his being, and three or four times a day it was his pleasing duty to show friends of the League and its yearly subscribers, the penitential machinery by which the priest-ridden public was secretly invited to hoist itself to heaven.

The innermost room of all was where Mr. Hamlyn, Senior, himself transacted the multifarious and growing business of his organisation.

The secretary sat at a large roll-top desk, and a substantial safe stood at his right hand. An air of brisk business pervaded this sanctum. The directories, almanacs, and account-books all contributed to it, and the end of a speaking-tube, which led to the outer office, was clipped to the arm of the revolving chair.

Three portraits adorned the wall. From a ma.s.sive gold frame the features of that fiery Protestant virgin, Miss Pritchett, stared blandly down into the room. Opposite it was a large photograph of Mr. Hamlyn himself, with upraised hand and parted lips--in the very act and att.i.tude of making one of his now familiar protests. The third in this trio of Protestant champions was a drawing of Martin Luther himself, "representing the Reformer," as Mr. Hamlyn was wont to say, "singing for joy at the waning power of Rome." The artist of this picture, however, being a young gentleman of convivial tastes, had portrayed the "Nightingale of Wittemberg" in a merry mood, remembering, perhaps, Carlyle's remark, "there is laughter in this Luther," or perhaps--as is indeed most probable--remembering little of the great man but his authorship of the ditty that concludes:

Who loves not women, wine, and song Will be a fool his whole life long.

Fortunately, Mr. Hamlyn, whose historical studies had been extremely restricted, did not know of this effort--just as he did not know that to the end of his life the student of Erfurt steadily proclaimed his belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

About ten o'clock on a grey, cold November morning, the two Hamlyns arrived at the offices of the Luther League together, walked briskly up the stairs, and, with a curt "good morning" to the clerks, entered the innermost room together.

People who had known the father and son six months ago, seeing them now, would have found a marked, though subtle, difference in both of them.

They were much better dressed, for one thing. The frock-coats were not made in Hornham, the silk hats were glossy and with the curly brims of the fashion. Both still suggested a more than nodding acquaintance with religious affairs in their costume, some forms of Christianity always preferring to evince themselves by the style of a cravat or the texture of a cloth.

Confidence had never been lacking in either of the two, but now the sense of power and success had increased it, and had also imposed a certain quietness and gravity which impressed people. Here, at any rate, were two men of affairs, men whose names were beginning to be known throughout the land, and Mr. Hamlyn's manner of preoccupation and thought was only natural after all in one who (as his son would remark to Protestant visitors) "practically held the fortunes of the Church in his hands, and was destroying the Catholic wolves with the sword of Protestant Truth."

The two men took off their overcoats and hung them up. Then Mr. Hamlyn, from mere force of old habit, pulled at his cuffs--in order to lay them aside during business hours. Finding that he could not withdraw them, for increasing position and emolument had seemed to necessitate the wearing of a white shirt, he sat down with a half sigh for the freedom and comfort of an earlier day and began to open the large pile of correspondence on the table before him.

"We'll take the cash first, Sam," he said, pulling a small paper-knife from a drawer.

Sam opened a note-book in which the first rough draughts of matter relating to this most important subject were entered, preparatory to being copied out into one of the ledgers in the outer office.

Hamlyn began to slit up the letters with a practised hand. Those that contained the sinews of war he read with a running comment, others were placed in a basket for further consideration.

"'Well-wisher,' five shillings; 'Well-wisher,' 2 0 0, by cheque, Sam.

'Ethel and her sisters,' ten and six--small family that, I should think!

'Protestant,' five pounds--a note, Sam, take the number. It's curious that 'Protestant' always gives most. Yesterday seven 'Protestants'

totalled up to fourteen, twelve, six, while five 'Well-wishers' worked out at slightly under three shillings a head. What's this? Ah! cheque for a guinea and a letter on crested paper! Enter up the address and make a note to send half a dozen _b.l.o.o.d.y Marys_, one Miss Pritchett's _Escape_, and a few _Pay the Devils_. During the last week or two, the upper cla.s.ses have been rallying to the flag. They're the people. I'll send this woman the ten-guinea subscription form and ask her to be one of the vice-presidents. Listen here:

MARGRAVINE HOUSE, LEICESTER

Lady Johnson begs to enclose a cheque for one guinea to aid Mr.

Hamlyn in his splendid Crusade against the Ritualists. She would be glad to hear full details of the "Luther League" and its objects.