The First Soprano Part 14

He looked at his son appealingly. Hubert's generous heart melted.

"Forgive me, father," he said humbly. "I have no right to judge anybody. Forget my tirade if you can. And I," he added with a faint smile, "will try to forget the Social."

CHAPTER XI

MR. BOND'S LECTURE

Hubert recovered from the cold bath into which he had been thrown like a Spartan babe by his first contact with church sociability. His, as a new creature, was a vigorous const.i.tution, and was destined to out-live many a shock incident to the earthly career of a heaven-born man. Both he and Winifred returned to their joy and calm, and were looking forward eagerly to Mr. Bond's lectures.

On the day of his arrival Mr. Gray came home to luncheon with an announcement.

"My dear," he said to his wife, "Mr. Selton tells me that his wife has unexpectedly been called to Chicago by her mother's illness, and they will be unable to entertain Mr. Bond. He suggested that we might like to do so."

Winifred and Hubert looked up with animation.

"Indeed! And you told him?" asked Mrs. Gray, with a housewifely instinct of defense against invasion.

"I told him," said Mr. Gray, "that I knew no reason why we could not do so, and that it would be a great pleasure. I told him, however, that I should ask you about it, and 'phone him if there were any arrangement to prevent it."

Mrs. Gray considered. The chief guest room stood ready, immaculate in yellow and white, since the spring cleaning. There was no reason why it should be denied, but she had hoped that its repose would not be broken until Miss Virginia White, her most aristocratic friend, should make her promised visit. However, it would be manifestly unreasonable to refuse to receive Mr. Bond, and she could not offer him another room while that stood empty. Yes, the yellow-and-white room must be sacrificed.

"No, Father," she said amiably, "there is no reason why we cannot take him. When will he come?"

"He arrives this evening by the eight o'clock train from New York.

Hubert, perhaps you would like to meet him?"

"I should," said Hubert. "I am glad he is coming here."

"So am I," said Winifred. "It will be lovely."

That afternoon Winifred "called up" her friend Adele, and the telephone transmitted a lively conversation. The result of it was that Adele promised to go with Winifred to Mr. Bond's Bible lectures; at least to one, to see if she liked it.

In the evening Hubert met Mr. Bond at the station. They were scarcely seated in the light trap and facing toward home when the young minister said:

"Well, Mr. Gray, have you found G.o.d demonstrable?"

"Yes!" Hubert almost shouted, and the two grasped each other's hands in the strong grip of a fraternity never formed by man.

"I thought so," said Mr. Bond.

"How did you know?" said Hubert.

"I thought it would be so," said the other, "and I saw it in your face as we met. Thank G.o.d for it."

"Amen," said Hubert fervently.

Mr. Bond led Hubert on with keen interest to tell of the process of his search after G.o.d, and of the illumination brighter than the light of day, that came to him when the Spirit shone with such clear l.u.s.ter on the Word. To Hubert it seemed the happiest hour of his life, as he conversed with a man who seemed to understand the processes of his own heart, and to be thoroughly at home in the new world into which he himself had entered.

The drive was all too brief, but later in the evening, when good-night had been spoken to the rest of the household, the two men sat in the unlighted veranda and talked until midnight of Christ and the matters of His realm.

The _tout ensemble_ of the company gathered to hear Mr. Bond's first lecture was somewhat curious. It was not a large congregation, but it was representative, being drawn from the interested or curious of nearly every kind of church or religious coterie in the city. Keen Bible students were there, notebooks in hand, prepared to capture any new suggestion which might help them. The critical were there, representing various shades of belief and prejudice, from the quiet repressionist, who, disdaining emotion, views with dispa.s.sionate coldness the great tenets of the faith, to the irrepressible enthusiast whose spiritual understanding is often lost beneath a foam of feeling; from the instructed brother who reads his t.i.tle clear with logical accuracy in the Scriptures and glories in his standing with belieing indifference to his state, to the anxious soul whose hope of heaven veers with every changing wind of fitful emotion. Each critic was bent on discovering if the stranger would hew faithfully to the line of his own demarcation.

There were Mr. Selton's friends, people of his own station, who responded to his personal invitation to come, prepared to listen courteously, to express polite thanks at the end for the pleasure conferred, and, for the most part, to find various lions in the way of attending again, profound as were their regrets!

Mr. Gray and Hubert both succeeded in getting the hour away from business, and the latter arrived at the hall just as his mother, with Winifred and Adele, was entering and joined them. Adele formed a singular figure in the midst of the a.s.sembly. No thought of unusual sobriety had toned down her usually stylish and somewhat striking costume, and a large red hat of the milliner's finest skill shaded becomingly her piquant face. Her keen, merry eyes studied the congregation, and she could not resist whispering a few impressions to Winifred before the lecture began.

"Isn't this a funny crowd?" she asked. "Such a combination! Look at that meek little body in the front row and the fat dowager behind her.

And do see that anarchist-looking man at the side who is looking at Mr.

Bond as though he would eat him up. Do you know who he is? I hope he hasn't a bomb in his pocket."

"I don't know him, but I'll ask Hubert," said Winifred, and she pa.s.sed the question along.

"Hubert, who is that man yonder--the one with the high shoulders.

Adele thinks he is an anarchist."

"I think so, too," said Hubert. "At least he is a socialist of a very virulent type. He has come as a critic, I suppose. He professes to study religionists, and writes scornful letters about them to a socialist paper."

Winifred communicated this intelligence to Adele, who was much pleased with her own ac.u.men. Presently she resumed:

"Do look at that woman ahead of us!--the one in the little bonnet, and so distressingly neat. She has been surveying us. She doesn't approve of me, but she commiserates me. That's plain enough. Well, I am a sinner, no doubt, and she has found me out! If she looks around again do see what you think of her."

Mrs. Bland did look around again, and both young ladies observed her.

A rather shapely mouth was settled in an expression of studied repose, and her eyes rested approvingly, or with patient toleration, on others who were minded to come to the Bible lecture. Her hair was parted with conscientious exactness, and upon her whole appearance there sat the picture of conscious piety.

"Oh, I can't stand her!" whispered Adele in an ecstasy of dislike. "I should fly if I had to look at her long! Sister Saint Serena--the Salubrious!"

Winifred choked down a laugh at Adele's suddenly inspired alliteration, while Hubert looked a dignified reproach. It was a poor preparation, certainly, for what was to follow. Adele's face straightened innocently, while Winifred still struggled to suppress her risibility.

There were few preliminaries before Mr. Bond proceeded to speak. His subject dealt with vital matters, with underlying truth upon which rests all lesser fact, and he spoke with a calm certainty, unlike "the Scribes." His lecture betrayed a familiarity with the Scriptures such as his auditors had seldom met with before, and a reverence for them born not of superst.i.tion but of some apprehension of their unfathomed depths. Our little party listened with fascinated interest.

Especially was Hubert delighted when from the portions that had been the favorite debating ground of his sceptical friends riches of meaning were discovered that stamped unmistakably the divine imprimatur upon them. Winifred and Adele forgot Mrs. Bland and every one else listening; the one with sweet content in hearing anything that concerned the One she loved, and the other with an awakened interest in lines of thought she had never pursued before.

"He is _splendid_!" said Adele at the close of the lecture. "I am coming every day. Unless--there's that bothersome card party Thursday!

Stupid affair! But I won't go. What's the use?"

And so Mr. Bond secured a regular attendant.

Many were the expressions of interest, some of them very genuine. Mrs.

Gray had listened to her guest with valorous attempts to resist the habitual afternoon nap, and told him later how very good indeed the lecture was and hoped he would quite understand how manifold were the cares of a household, and how unavoidable her hindrances, should she be unable to be present every day. And Mr. Bond did understand his gentle hostess very well, and often as he saw her in her home his meditative eye rested upon her fair mother-face with an expression of chivalrous pity and of earnest longing.

The second day's lecture found the audience sifted to some degree of the idly curious and of a part of the critics unto whose standards the speaker had failed to attain. As Mr. Bond's language was remarkably free from the current phraseology of the schools of teaching, it was difficult for theological birds to discover at once whether indeed he were of their feather, and a second hearing, at least, was needed. But no uncertain note was sounded to the alarm of any advocate of the most orthodox written creed or of the severest unwritten code of belief, in answer to the pivotal question of all theology: Jesus, the Son of Man--_Who is He_? None gave more ardent honor to that Mystery of G.o.dliness, who

"Was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of the angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory."

If some fell away from the gathering, there were new hearers, brought through the good report of those interested, and the company numbered rather more than before. Adele's "anarchist" was again there, fastening his pale, strange eyes upon the face of the lecturer whether he spoke or was quietly sitting; at times half crediting its look of candor, then relapsing into sneering hopelessness of finding an honest man among his cla.s.s. He determined to try his favorite test of a benevolent scheme before Mr. Bond should go away, and see if he would abide by the Sermon on the Mount.