The Christian Part 84

The Archdeacon drew himself up. "Because a clergyman is well connected--has high official connections indeed----But surely it is better that one man should be put under control, whoever he is, than that the whole Church and nation should be endangered and disgraced."

"Ah----H'm!----H'm! I think I've heard that sentiment before somewhere, Mr. Archdeacon. But I'll not detain you now. If a warrant is necessary----" and with vague promises and plausible speeches the Minister bowed the deputation out of the room. Then he pisht and pshawed, swung a field gla.s.s across his shoulder, and prepared to leave for the day.

"Confound them! How these Christians love each other! I leave it with you, Drake. When the matter was mentioned at Downing Street the Prime Minister told us to act without regard to his interest in the young priest. If there's likely to be a riot let the Commissioner get his warrant--Heigho! Ten-thirty! I'm off! Good-day!"

Some minutes afterward Drake himself, having written to Scotland Yard, followed his chief down the private staircase to the quadrangle, where Glory and Rosa were waiting in the carriage under the arch.

In honour of the event in which his horse was to play a part, Drake had engaged a coach to take a party of friends to the Downs. They a.s.sembled at a hotel in the Buckingham Palace Road. Lord Robert was there, dressed in the latest fas.h.i.+on, with boots of approved Parisian shape and a necktie of crying colours. Betty Bellman was with him, in a red and white dress and a large red hat. There was a lady in pale green with a light bonnet, another in gray and white, and another in brightest blue.

They were a large, smart, and even gorgeous company, chiefly theatrical.

Before eleven o'clock they were spinning along the Kennington Road on their way to Epsom.

Drake himself drove and Glory occupied the seat of honour by his side.

She was looking brighter now, and was smiling and laughing and making little sallies in response to her companion's talk. He was telling her all about the carnival. The Derby was the greatest race the world over.

It was run for about six thousand sovereigns, but the total turnover of the meeting was probably a million of money. Thus on its business side alone it was a great national enterprise, and the puritans who would abolish it ought to think of that. A race-horse cost about three hundred a year to keep, but of course n.o.body maintained his racing establishment on his winnings. Nearly everybody had to bet, and gambling was not so great an offence as some people supposed. The whole trade of the world was of the nature of a gamble, life itself was a gamble, and the race-course was the only market in the world where no man could afford to go bankrupt, or be a defaulter and refuse to pay.

They were now going by Clapham Common with an unbroken stream of vehicles of every sort--coaches with outriders, landaus, hansom cabs, omnibuses, costers' spring carts and barrows. Every coach carried its horn, and every horn was blown at the approach to every village. The sun was hot, and the roads were rising to the horses' fetlocks in dust.

Drake was pointing out some of their travelling companions. That large coach going by at a furious gallop was the coach of the Army and Navy Club; that barouche with its pair of grays and its postilion belonged to a well-known wine merchant; that carriage with its couple of leaders worth hundreds apiece was the property of a prosperous publican; that was the coach which usually ran between Northumberland Avenue and Virginia Water, and its seats were let out at so much apiece, usually to clerks who practised innocent frauds to escape from the city; those soldiers on the omnibus were from Wellington Barracks on "Derby leave"; and those jolly tars with their sweethearts, packed like herrings in a car, were the only true sportsmen on the road and probably hadn't the price of a gla.s.s of rum on any race of the day. Going by road to the Derby was almost a thing of the past; smart people didn't often do it, but it was the best fun anyway, and many an old sport tooled his team on the road still.

Glory grew brighter at every mile they covered. Everything pleased or amused or astonished her. With the charm born of a vivid interest in life she radiated happiness over all the company. Some glimpses of the country girl came back, her soul thrilled to the beauty of the world around, and she cried out like a child at sight of the chestnut and red hawthorn, and at the scent of spring with which the air was laden. From time to time she was recognised on the road, people raised their hats to her, and Drake made no disguise of his beaming pride. He leaned back to Rosa, who was sitting on the seat behind, and whispered, "Like herself to-day, isn't she?"

"Why shouldn't she be? With all the world at her feet and her future on the knees of the G.o.ds!" said Rosa.

But a shade of sadness came over Glory's face, as if the gay world and its amus.e.m.e.nts had not altogether filled a void that was left somewhere in her heart. They were drawing up to water the horses at the old "c.o.c.k" at Sutton, and a brown-faced woman with big silver earrings and a monster hat and feather came up to the coach to tell the "quality" their fortunes.

"Oh, let us, Glo," cried Betty. "I'd love it of all things, doncher know."

The gipsy had held out her hand to Glory. "Let me look at your palm, pretty lady."

"Am I to cross it with silver first?"

"Thank you kindly! But must I tell you the truth, lady?"

"Why yes, mother. Why not?"

"Then you're going to lose money to-day, lady; but never mind, you shall be fortunate in the end, and the one you love shall be yours."

"That's all right," cried the gentlemen in chorus. The ladies t.i.ttered, and Glory turned to Drake and said, "A pair of gloves against Ellan Vannin."

"Done," said Drake, and there was general laughter.

The gipsy still held Glory's hand, and looking up at Drake out of the corner of her eyes, she said: "I won't tell you what colour he is, pretty lady, but he is young and tall, and, though he is a gorgio, he is the kind a Romany girl would die for. Much trouble you'll have with him, and because of his foolishness and your own unkindness you'll put seven score miles between you. You like to live your life, lady, and as men drown their sorrows in drink, so do you drown yours in pleasure. But it will all come right at last, lady, and those who envy and hate you now will kiss the ground you walk on."

"Glo," said Betty, "I'm surprised at ye, dearest, listenin' to such clipperty clapper."

Glory did not recover her composure after this incident until they came near the Downs. Meantime the grooms had blown their horns at many villages hidden in the verdure of charming hollows, and the coaches had overtaken the people who had left London earlier in the day to make the journey afoot. Boy tramps, looking tired already--"Wish ye luck, gentlemen"; fat sailors and mutilated colliers playing organs--'Twas in Trafalgar Bay, and Come Whoam to thee Childer and Me; tatterdemalions selling the C'rect Card-"on'y fourpence, and I've slep' out on the Downs last night, s'elp me"--and all the ragged army of the maimed and the miserable who hang on the edge of a carnival.

Among this wreckage, as they skimmed over it on the coach, there was one figure more grotesque than the rest, a Polish Jew in his long kaftan and his worn Sabbath hat, going along alone, triddle-traddle, in his slippers without heels. Lord Robert was at the moment teasing Betty into a pet by christening her "The Elephant," in allusion to her stoutness.

But somebody called his attention to the Jew, and he screwed his gla.s.s to his eye and cried, "Father Storm, by Jove!"

The nickname was taken up by other people on the coach, and also by people on other coaches, and "Father Storm!" was thrown at the poor scarecrow as a missile from twenty quarters at once. Glory's colour was rising to her ears, and Drake was humming a tune to cover her confusion.

But Betty was asking, "Who was Father Storm, if you please?" and Lord Robert was saying, "Bless my stars, this is something new, don't you know! Here's somebody who doesn't know Father Storm! Father Storm, my dear Elephant, is the prophet, the modern Jonah, who predicts that Nineveh--that is to say, London--is to be destroyed this very day!"

"He must be balmy!" said Betty, and the lady in blue went into fits of laughter.

"Yes," said Lord Robert, "and all because wicked men like ourselves insist on enjoying ourselves on a day like this with pretty people like you."

"Well, he _is_ a cough-drop!" said Betty. The lady in blue asked what was "balmy" and a "cough-drop," and Lord Robert said:

"Betty means that the good Father is crazy--silly--stupid--cracked in the head in short----"

But Glory could bear no more. It was an insult to John Storm to be sat upon in judgment by such a woman. With a fiery jet of temper she turned about and said, "Pity there are not more heads cracked, then, if it would only let a little of the light of heaven into them."

"Oh, if it's like that----" began Betty, looking round significantly, and Lord Robert said, "It _is_ like that, dear Elephant, and if our charming hurricane will pardon me, I'm not surprised that the man has broken out as a Messiah, and if the authorities don't intervene----"

"Hold your tongue, Robert!" cried Drake. "Listen, everybody!"

They were climbing on to the Downs and could hear the deep hum of the people on the course. "My!" said Betty. "Well!" said the lady in blue.

"It's like a beehive with the lid off," said Glory.

As they pa.s.sed the railway station the people who had come by train poured into the road and the coach had to slow down. "They must have come from the four winds of heaven," said Glory.

"Wait, only wait!" said Drake.

Some minutes afterward everybody drew breath. They were on the top of the common and had a full view of the course. It was a vast sea of human beings stretched as far as the eye could reach--a black moving ocean without a glimpse of soil or gra.s.s. The race track itself was a river of people: the Grand Stand, tier on tier, was black from its lawns at the bottom to its sloping gallery on top; and the "Hill" opposite was a rocky coast of carriages, booths, carts, and cl.u.s.tering crowds. Glory's eyes seemed to leap out of her head. "It's a nation!" she said with panting breath. "An empire!"

They were diving into these breaking, plas.h.i.+ng, plunging waters of human life with their mult.i.tudinous voices of laughter and speech, and Glory was looking at a dark figure in the hollow below which seemed to stand up above the rest, when Drake cried:

"Sit hard, everybody! We'll take the hill at a gallop."

Then to the crack of the whip, the whoop of the driver, and the blast of the horn, the horses flew down like the wind. Betty screamed, Rosa groaned, and Glory laughed and looked up at Drake in her delight. When the coach drew up on the other side of the hollow, the bell was ringing at the Grand Stand as signal for another race, and the dark figure had disappeared.

III.

That morning, when John Storm went to take seven-o'clock celebration, the knocker-up with his long stick had not yet finished his rounds in the courts and alleys about the church, but the costers with their barrows and donkeys, their wives and their children, were making an early start for Epsom. There were many communicants, and it was eight o'clock before he returned to his rooms. By that time the postman had made his first delivery and there was a letter from the Prime Minister.

"Come to Downing Street as soon as this reaches you. I must see you immediately."

He ate his breakfast of milk and brown bread, said "Good-bye, Brother Andrew, I shall be back for evening service," whistled to the dog, and set out into the streets. But a sort of superst.i.tious fear had taken hold of him, as if an event of supreme importance in his life was impending, and before answering his uncle's summons he made a round of the buildings in the vicinity which were devoted to the work of his mission. His first visit was to the school. The children had a.s.sembled, and they were being marshalled in order by the Sisters and prepared for their hymn and prayer.

"Good-morning, Father."

"Good-morning, children."

Many of them had presents for him--one a flower, another a biscuit, another a marble, and yet another an old Christmas card. "G.o.d bless them, and protect them!" he thought, and he left the school with a full heart.

His last visit was to the men's shelter which he had established under the management of his former "organ man," Mr. Jupe. It was a bare place, a shed which had been a stable and was now floored and ceiled. Beds resembling the bunks in the foc's'le of a s.h.i.+p lined the walls. When these were full the lodgers lay on the ground. A blanket only was provided. The men slept in their clothes, but rolled up their coats for pillows. There was a stove where they might cook their food if they had money to buy any. A ha'p'orth of tea and sugar mixed, a ha'p'orth of bread, and a ha'p'orth of b.u.t.ter made a royal feast.