The Christian Part 85

Going through the square in which his church stood he pa.s.sed a smart gig at the door of a public-house that occupied the corner of a street. The publican in holiday clothes was stepping up to the driver's seat, and a young soldier, smoking a cigarette, was taking the place by his side.

"Morning, Father, can you tip us the winner?" said the publican with a grin, while the soldier, with an impudent smile, cried "Ta-ta" over his shoulder to the second story of a tenement house, where a young woman with a bloated and serious face and a head mopped up in curl-papers was looking down from an open window.

It was nine o'clock when John Storm reached the Prime Minister's house.

A small crowd of people had followed him to the door. "His lordship is waiting for you in the garden, sir," said the footman, and John was conducted to the back.

In a shady little inclosure between Downing Street and the Horse Guards Parade the Prime Minister was pacing to and fro. His head was bent, his step was heavy, he looked hara.s.sed and depressed. At sight of John's monkish habit he started with surprise and faltered uneasily. But presently, sitting by John's side on a seat under a tree, and keeping his eyes away from him, he resumed their old relations and said:

"I sent for you, my boy, to warn you and counsel you. You must give up this crusade. It is a public danger, and G.o.d knows what harm may come of it! Don't suppose I do not sympathize with you. I do--to a certain extent. And don't think I charge you with all the follies of this ridiculous distemper. I have followed you and watched you, and I know that ninety-nine hundredths of this madness is not yours. But in the eye of the public you are responsible for the whole of it, and that is the way of the world always. Enthusiasm is a good thing, my boy; it is the rainbow in the heaven of youth, but it may go too far. It may be hurtful to the man who nourishes it and dangerous to society. The world cla.s.ses it with lunacy and love and so forth among the nervous accidents of life; and the humdrum healthy-minded herd always call that man a fool and a weakling or else a fanatic and a madman, in whom the grand errors of human nature are due to an effort--may I not say, a vain effort?--to live up to a great ideal." There were nervous twitchings over the muscles of John's face. "Come, now, come, for the sake of peace and tranquillity, lest there should be disorder and even death, let this matter rest. Think, my boy, think, we are as much concerned for the world's welfare as you can be, and we have higher claims and heavier responsibilities. I can not raise a hand to help you, John. In the nature of things I can not defend you. I sent for you because--because you are your mother's son. Don't cast on me a heavier burden than I can bear. Save yourself and spare me."

"What do you wish me to do, uncle?"

"Leave London immediately and stay away until this tumult has settled down."

"Ah, that is impossible, sir."

"Impossible?"

"Quite impossible, and though I did not make these predictions about the destruction of London, yet I believe we are on the eve of a great change."

"You do?"

"Yes, and if you had not sent for me I should have called on you, to ask you to set aside a day for public prayer that G.o.d may in his mercy avert the calamity that is coming or direct it to the salvation of his servants. The morality of the nation is on the decline, uncle, and when morality is lacking the end is not far off. England is given up to idleness, pomp, dissolute practices, and pleasure--pleasure, always pleasure. The vice of intemperance, the mania for gambling, these are the vultures that are consuming the vitals of our people. Look at the luxury of the country--a ludicrous travesty of national greatness!

Look at the tastes and habits of our age--the deadliest enemies of true religion! And then look at the price we are paying in what the devil calls 'the priestesses of society' for the tranquillity of the demon of l.u.s.t!"

"But my boy, my dear boy----"

"Oh, yes, uncle, yes, I know, I know, many humanitarian schemes are afloat and we think we are not indifferent to the condition of the poor.

But contrast the toiling women of East London with the idlers of Hyde Park in a London season. Other nations have professed well with their lips while their hearts have been set on wealth and pleasure. And they have fallen! Yes, sir, in ancient Asia as well as in modern Europe they have always fallen. And unless we unglue ourselves from the vanities which imperil our existence we shall fall too. The l.u.s.t of pleasure and the l.u.s.t of wealth bring their own revenges. In the nation as well as the individual the Almighty destroys them as of old."

"True--true!"

"Then how can I hold my peace or run away while it is the duty of Christians, of patriots, to cry out against this danger? On the soul of every one of us the duty rests, and who am I that I should escape from it? Oh, if the Church only realized her responsibility, if she only kept her eyes open----"

"She has powerful reasons for keeping them closed, my son," said the Minister, "and always will have until the Establishment is done away with. It is coming to that some day, but meantime have a care. The clergy are not your friends, John. Statesmen know too well the clerical cruelty which shelters itself behind the secular arm. It is an old story, I think, and you may find instances of that also in your ancient Palestine. But beware, my boy, beware----"

"'Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.'"

The exaltation of John's manner was increasing, and again the Prime Minister became uneasy, as if fearing that the young monk by his side would ask him next to kneel and pray.

"Ah, well," he said, rising, "I suppose there is no help for it, and matters must take their own course." Then he broke into other subjects, talked of his brother, John's father, whom he had lately heard from. His health was failing, he could not last very long; a letter from his son now might make all things well.

John was silent, his head was down, but the Prime Minister could see that his words took no effect. Then his bleak old face smiled a wintry smile as he said:

"But you are not mending much in one way, my boy. Do you know you've never once been here since the day you came to tell me you were to be married, and intended to follow in the footsteps of Father Damien?"

John flinched, and the muscles of his face twitched nervously again.

"That was an impossible enterprise, John. No wonder the lady couldn't suffer you to follow it. But she might have allowed you to see a lonely old kinsman for all that." John's pale face was breaking, and his breath was coming fast. "Well, well," taking his arm, "I'm not reproaching you, John. There are pa.s.sions of the soul which eat up all the rest, I know that quite well, and when a man is under the sway of them he has neither father nor uncle, neither kith nor kin. Good-bye! ... Ah, this way out--this way."

The footman had stepped up to the Minister and whispered something about a crowd in front of the house, and John was pa.s.sed out of the garden by the back door into the park.

Three hours afterward the frequenters of Epsom racecourse saw a man in a black ca.s.sock get up into an unoccupied wagonette and make ready to speak. He was on the breast of "The Hill," directly facing the Grand Stand, in a close pack of carriages, four-in-hands, landaus, and hansoms, filled with gaily dressed women in pink and yellow costumes, drinking champagne and eating sandwiches, and being waited upon by footmen in livery. It was the interval between two events of the race meeting, and beyond the labyrinth of vehicles there was a line of betting men in outer garments of blue silk and green alpaca, standing on stools under huge umbrellas and calling the odds to motley crowds of sweltering people on foot.

"Men and women," he began, and five thousand faces seemed to rise at the sound of his voice. The bookmakers kept up their nasal cries of "I lay on the field!" "Five to-one bar one!" But the crowd turned and deserted them. "It's the Father," "Father Storm," the people said, with laughter and chuckling, loose jests and some swearing, but they came up to him with one accord until the s.p.a.ce about, him, as far as to the roadway by which carriages climbed the hill, was an unbroken pavement of rippling faces.

"Good old Father!" and then laughter. "What abart the end of the world, old gel?" and then references to "the petticoats" and more laughter.

"'Ere, I'll 'ave five bob each way, Resurrection," and shrieks of wilder laughter still.

The preacher stood for some moments silent and unshaken. Then the quiet dignity of the man and the love of fair play in the crowd secured him a hearing. He began amid general silence:

"I don't know if it is contrary to regulations to stand here to speak, but I am risking that for the urgency of the hour and message. Men and women, you are here under false pretences. You pretend to yourselves and to each other that you have come out of a love of sport, but you have not done so, and you know it. Sport is a plausible pleasure; to love horses and take delight in their fleetness is a pardonable vanity, but you are here to practise an unpardonable vice. You have come to gamble, and your gambling is attended by every form of intemperance and immorality. I am not afraid to tell you so, for G.o.d has laid upon me a plain message, and I intend to do my duty. These race-courses are not for horse-racing, but for reservoirs of avarice and drunkenness and prost.i.tution. Don't think"--he was looking straight into the painted faces of the women in pink and yellow, who were trying to smile and look amused--"don't think I am going to abuse the unhappy girls who are forced by a corrupt civilization to live by their looks. They are my friends, and half my own life is spent among them. I have known some of them in whose hearts dwelt heavenly purity, and when I think of what they have suffered from men I feel ashamed that I am a man. But, my sisters, for you, too, I have an urgent message. It is full summer with you now, as you sit here in your gay clothes on this bright day; but the winter is coming for every one of you, when there will be no more sunshine, no more luxury and pleasure and flattery, and when the miry wallowers in troughs and stys, who are now taking the best years of your lives from you----"

"h.e.l.loa there! Whoop! Tarara-ra-ra-rara!"

A four-in-hand coach was dashing headlong up the hill amid clouds of dust, the rattling of wheels, the shouts of the driver and the blasts of the horn, and the people who covered the roadway were surging forward to make room for it.

"It's Gloria!" said everybody, looking up at the occupants of the coach and recognising one of them.

The spell of the preacher was broken. He paused and turned his head and saw Glory. She was sitting tall and bright and gay on the box-seat by the side of Drake; the rays of the sun were on her and she was smiling up into his face.

The preacher began again, then faltered, and then stopped. A bell at the Grand Stand was ringing. "Numbers goin' up," said everybody, and before any one could be conscious of what was happening, John Storm was only a cipher in the throng, and the crowd was melting away.

IV.

The great carnival completely restored Glory's spirits. She laughed and cried out constantly and lived from minute to minute like a child.

Everybody recognised her and nearly everybody saluted her. Drake beamed with pride and delight. He took her about the course, answered her questions, punctuated her jests, and explained everything, leaving Lord Robert to entertain his guests. Who were "those dwellers in tents"? They were the Guards' Club, and the service was also represented by artillery men, king's hussars, and a line regiment from Aldershot. This was called "The Hill," where jovial rascaldom, usually swarmed, looking out for stray overcoats and the lids of luncheon dishes left unprotected on carriages. Yes, the pickpocket, the card-sharper, the "lumberer,"

the confidence man, the blarneying beggar, and the fakir of every description laid his snares on this holy spot. In fact, this is his Sanctuary and he peddles under the eye of the police. "Holy Land?"

Ha, ha! "All the patriarchs out of the Bible here?" Oh, the vociferous gentlemen with patriarchal names in velveteen coats under the banners and canvas sign-boards--Moses, Aaron, and so forth? They were the "bookies," otherwise bookmakers, generally Jews and sometimes Welshers.

"Here, come along, some of you sportsmen! I ain't made the price of my railway fare, s'elp me!" "It's a dead cert, gents." "Can't afford to buy thick 'uns at four quid apiece!" "Five to one on the field!" "I lay on the field!"

A "thick un?" Oh, that was a sovereign, half a thick un half a sovereign, twenty-five pounds a "pony," five hundred a "monkey," flash notes were "stumers," and a bookmaker who couldn't pay was "a Welsher."

That? That was "the great Brockton," gentleman and tipster. "Amus.e.m.e.nt enough!" Yes, n.i.g.g.e.rs, harpists, Christy Minstrels, strong men, acrobats, agile clowns and girls on stilts, and all the ragam.u.f.fins from "the Burrer," bent on "making a bit." African Jungle? A shooting gallery with model lions and bears. Fine Art Exhibition? A picture of the hanging of recent murderers. Boxing Ring? Yes, for women--they strip to the waist and fight like fiends. Then look at the lady auctioneer selling bra.s.s sovereigns a penny apiece.

"Buy one, gentlemen, and see what they're like, so as the 'bookies'

can't pawse 'em on ye unawares!"

"Food enough!" Yes, at Margett's, Patton's, Hatton's, and "The Three Brooms," as well as the barrows for stewed eels, hard-boiled eggs, trotters, c.o.ker-nuts, winkles, oysters, c.o.c.kles, and all the luxuries of the New Cut. Why were they calling that dog "Cookshop"? Because he was pretty sure to go there in the end.

By this time they had ploughed over some quarter of a mile of the hillside, fighting their way among the carriages that stood six deep along the rails and through a seething ma.s.s of ruffianism, in a stifling atmosphere polluted by the smell of ale and the reeking breath of tipsy people.

"Whoo! I feel like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rolled into one,"

said Glory.

"Let us go into the Paddock," said Drake, and they began to cross the race track.