""These men talk a different language from mine; they belong to another world. They are such jolly good fellows that they are prepared to accept me as a comrade without question, but as for my message, I might as well be trying to cure smallpox by mouthing sonorous Virgil--only it is worse than that, for they no longer even believe that the diagnosis is what I say. And what gets over me is that they are, on the whole, decent chaps.
There"s Harold--he"s probably immoral and he certainly drinks too much, but he"s as unselfish as possible, and I feel in my bones he"d do anything to help a friend.
""Of course, I hate their vices. The sights in the streets make me feel positively sick. I wouldn"t touch what they touch with a stick. When I think of you, so honest and upright and clean...." Oh, but I needn"t read that, Uncle Bob." She turned over a page or so. "I think that"s all.
No, just this:
""I"ve been made mess secretary, and I serve out coffee in the canteen for a couple of hours every other day. That"s about all there is to do. I wish to Heaven I had an ordinary commission!"
The girl"s voice ceased with a suspicious suddenness, and the man"s hand tightened on her arm. For a minute they remained so, and then, impulsively and unrestrained, she half-turned and sobbed out against his knees:
"Oh, Uncle Bob, I"m so unhappy! I feel so sorry for him. And--and--the worst is, I don"t really understand.... I don"t see what worries him. Our religion is good enough, I"m sure. Oh, I _hate_ those beasts of men out there! Peter"s too good for them. I wish he"d never gone. I feel as if he"d never come back!"
"There, there, my dear," said the old soldier, uncomfortably. "Don"t take on so. He"ll find his feet, you know. It"s not so bad as that. You can trust him, can"t you?"
She nodded vigorously. "But what do _you_ think of it all?" she demanded.
Sir Robert Doyle cleared his throat. "Well," he began, but stopped. To him it was an extraordinarily hard thing to speak of religion, partly because he cherished so whole-heartedly what he had got, and partly because he had never formulated it, probably for that very reason. Sir Robert could hardly have told his Maker what he believed about Him. When he said the Creed he always said it with lowered voice and bowed head, as one who considered very deeply of the matter, but in fact he practically never considered at all....
"Well," he began again, "you see, dear, it"s a strange time out there, and it is a d.a.m.ned unpleasant age, if you"ll excuse me. People can"t take anything these days without asking an infernal number of questions. Some blessed Socialist"ll begin to ask why a man should love his mother next, and, not getting a scientific answer, argue that one shouldn"t. As for the men, they"re all right, or they used to be. "Love the Brotherhood.
Fear G.o.d. Honour the King"--that"s about enough for you and me, I take it, and Graham"ll find it"s enough for him. And he"ll play the game, and decent men will like him and get--er--helped, my dear. That"s all there is to it. But it"s a pity," added the old Victorian Regular, "that these blessed labour corps, and rest camps, and all the rest of it, don"t have parade services. The boy"s bound to miss that. I"m hanged if I don"t speak about it!... And that reminds me.... Good Lord, it"s ten o"clock!
I must go."
He started up, Hilda rose, smiling a little.
"That"s better," said the old fellow; "must be a man, what? It"s all a bit of the war, you know."
"Oh, Uncle Bob, you _are_ a dear. You do cheer one up, somehow. I wish men were more like you."
"No, you don"t, my dear, don"t you think it. I"m a back number, and you know it, as well as any."
"You"re not, Uncle Bob. I won"t have you say it. Give me a kiss and say you don"t mean it."
"Well, well, Hilda, there is life in the old dog yet, and I must be off and show it. No, I won"t have another, not before duty. Good-night, dear, and don"t worry."
Hilda saw him off, and waved her hand from the door. Then she went back slowly to the study and looked round. She stood a few moments and then switched off the lights, and went out and slowly upstairs. The maid was in the bedroom, and she dismissed her, keeping her face turned away. In front of her gla.s.s, she held her letter irresolutely a moment, and then folded it and slipped it into a drawer. She lifted a photo from the dressing-table and looked at it for a few minutes earnestly. Then she went to her window, threw it up, and leaned on the sill, staring hard over the dark and empty park.
Outside, the General walked some distance before he found a taxi. He walked fast for a man of his age, and ruminated as he went. It was his way, and the way of his kind. Most of the modern sciences left him unmoved, and although he would vehemently have denied it, he was the most illogical of men. He held fast by a few good, sound, old-fashioned principles, and the process of thought, to him, meant turning over a new thing until he had got it into line with these principles. It was an excellent method as far as it went, and it made him what he was--a thoroughly sound and dependable servant of the State in any routine business.
At the War Office he climbed more slowly up the steps and into the lobby.
An officer was just coming out, and they recognised each other under the shaded lights. "Hullo, Chichester, what are you doing here?" demanded Doyle heartily. "Thought you were in France."
"So I was, up to yesterday. I"ve just arrived. Orders."
"Where have you been?"
"Rouen. It"s a big show now. Place full of new troops and mechanics in uniform. To tell you the truth, Doyle, the Army"s a different proposition from what it was when you and I were in Egypt and India. But that"s a long time ago, old friend."
"Rouen, eh? Now, that"s a coincidence. A young chap I know has just gone there, in your department. Graham--Peter Graham. Remember him?"
"Oh, quite well. A very decent chap, I thought. Joined us ten days ago or so. What about it? I forget for the moment where we put him."
"Oh, nothing, nothing. He"ll find his feet all right. But what"s this about no parade services these days?"
"No parade services? We have "em all right, when we can. Of course, it depends a bit on the O.C., and in the Labour Corps especially it isn"t usually possible. It isn"t like the line, old fellow, and even the line isn"t what we knew it. You can"t have parade services in trenches, and you can"t have them much when the men are off-loading bully beef or mending aeroplanes and that sort of thing. This war"s a big proposition, and it"s got to go on. Why? Young Graham grousing?"
"No, no--oh, no," hastily a.s.serted Doyle, the soul of honour. "No, not at all. Only mentioned not getting a parade, and it seemed to me a pity.
There"s a lot in the good old established religion."
"Is there?" said the other thoughtfully. "I"m not so sure to-day. The men don"t like being ordered to pray. They prefer to come voluntarily."
Doyle got fierce. "Don"t like being ordered, don"t they? Then what the deuce are they there for? Good Lord, man! the Army isn"t a debating society or a mothers" meeting. You might as well have voluntary games at a public school!"
The A.C.G. smiled. "That"s it, old headstrong! No, my boy, the Army isn"t a mothers" meeting--at any rate, Fritz doesn"t think so. But times have changed, and in some ways they"re better. I"d sooner have fifty men at a voluntary service than two hundred on a parade."
"Well, I wouldn"t," exploded Doyle. "I know your voluntary services--Moody and Sankey hymns on a Sunday night. The men had better be in a decent bar. But turn "em out in the morning, clean and decent on parade, and give "em the old service, and it"ll tighten "em up and do "em good. Voluntary service! You"ll have volunteer evangelists instead of Army chaplains next!"
Colonel Chichester still smiled, but a little grimly. "We"ve got them,"
he said. "And no doubt there"s something in what you say; but times change, and the Church has got to keep abreast of the times. But, look here, I must go. What about a luncheon? I"ve not got much leave."
"So must I; I"ve an appointment," said Doyle. "But all right, old friend, to-morrow at the club. But you"re younger than I, Chichester, or perhaps you parsons don"t get old as quickly!"
They shook hands and parted. Sir Robert was busy for an hour, and came out again with his head full of the proposed plans for the aerial defence of London. "Taxi, sir?" he was asked at the door. "No," he replied; "I"ll walk home."
"Best way to think, walking at night," he said to himself as he turned down Whitehall, through the all but empty streets, darkened as they were.
The meaning of those great familiar s.p.a.ces struck him as he walked.
Hardly formulating it, he became aware of a sense of pride and responsibility as he pa.s.sed scene after scene of England"s past glory.
The old Abbey towered up in the moonlight, solemn and still, but almost as if animate and looking at him. He felt small and old as he pa.s.sed into Victoria Street. There the Stores by night made him smile at the contrast, but in Ashley Gardens Westminster Cathedral made him frown. If he hated anything, it was that for which it stood. Romanism meant to him something effeminate, sneaking, monstrous.... That there should be Englishmen to build such a place positively angered him. He was not exactly a bigot or a fanatic; he would not have repealed the Emanc.i.p.ation Acts; and he would have said that if anyone wanted to be a Romanist, he had better be one. But he would not have had time for anyone who did so want, and if he should have had to have by any chance dealings with a priest, he would have been so frigidly polite that the poor fellow would probably have been frozen solid. Of course, Irishmen were different, and he had known some capital fellows, Irish priests and chaplains....
And then he saw two men ahead of him. They were privates on leave and drunk, but not hopelessly drunk. They were trying to negotiate the blank of the entrance to the Catholic Soldiers" Hut in the protecting wall which guarded the pavement just beyond the cathedral. As Sir Robert came within earshot, one of them stumbled through it and collapsed profanely.
He halted for a second irresolutely, with the officer"s hesitancy at meddling with a drunken man.
The fellow on the ground tried to raise himself, and got one elbow on the gravel. This brought him into such a position that he stared straight at the illuminated crucifix across the path, and but little farther in.
"Lor", blimey, Joe," he said, "I"m blasted drunk, I am! Thought I was in old Wipers, I did, and see one of them blessed cru-crushifixes!"
The other, rather less away, pulled at his arm. "So yer did, ole pal," he said. "It"s there now. This "ere"s some Cartholic place or other. Come _hon_."
"Strike me dead, so it is, Joe, large as life! Christ! oo"d "ave thought it? A b.l.o.o.d.y cru-cru-chifix! Wat"s old England comin" to, Joe?" And with drunken solemnity he began to make a sign of the cross, as he had seen it done in Belgium.
The other, in the half-light, plainly started. "Shut your b.l.o.o.d.y jaw, "Enery," he said, "It"s bad luck to swear near a cruchifix. I saw three chaps blotted out clean next second for it, back behind Lar Basay. Come on, will yer? We carn"t stay "ere all the blasted night."
"You are down on a chap, you are," said the other. "_Hi_ don"t mean no "arm. "_E_ ought to know that, any"ow." He got unsteadily to his feet.
""E died to save us, "E did. I "eard a Y.M.C.A. bloke say them very words, "E died on the cru-cru-chifix to save us."
""Ere, cheese it, you fool! We"ll have somebody out next. Come away with yer. I"ve got some Ba.s.s in my place, if we git there."
At this the other consented to come. Together they staggered out, not seeing Sir Robert, and went off down the street, ""Enery" talking as they went. The General stood and listened as the man"s voice died down.
"Good for yer, old pal. But "E died to save us _hall_, "E did. Made a bloomer of it, I reckon. Didn"t save us from the b.l.o.o.d.y trenches--not as I can see, any"ow. If that chap could "ave told us "ow to get saved from the blasted rats an" bugs an"...."