"Then you shall do so now," said the chairman, and he put his hand on the bell beside him, and the messenger appeared.
"You can not intend, sir, to examine the girl here," said John.
"And why not?"
"Before so many--and all of us men save one. Surely the matron----"
The canon rose to his feet again. "My young brother is naturally sensitive, my lord, but I a.s.sure him his delicate feelings are wasted on a girl like this. He forgets that the shame lies in the girl"s sin, not in her just and necessary punishment."
"Bring her in," said the chairman. The matron whispered to the messenger, and he left the room.
"Pardon me, sir," said John Storm; "if it is your expectation that I should question the nurse on her sin, as the canon says, I can not do so."
"Can not?"
"Well, I will not."
"And is that your idea of your duty as a chaplain?"
"It is the matron"s duty, not the chaplain"s, to----"
"The matron! The matron! This is your parish, sir--your parish. A great public inst.i.tution is in danger of a disgraceful scandal, and you who are responsible for its spiritual welfare--really, gentlemen----"
Again the canon rose with a conciliatory smile.
"I think I understand my young friend," he said, "and your lordship and the h.o.a.rd will appreciate his feelings, however you may disapprove of his judgment. What generous heart can not sympathize with the sensitive spirit of the youthful clergyman who shrinks from the spectacle of guilt and shame in a young and perhaps beautiful woman? But if it will relieve your lordship from an embarra.s.sing position, I am myself willing----"
"Thank you," said the chairman; and then the girl was brought into the room in charge of Sister Allworthy.
She was holding her head down and trying to cover her face with her hands.
"Your name, girl?" said the canon.
"Mary Elizabeth Love," she faltered.
"You are aware, Mary Elizabeth Love, that our excellent and indulgent matron" (here he bowed to a stout lady who sat in the open s.p.a.ce) "has been put to the painful duty of reporting you for suspension, which is equivalent to your immediate discharge. Now, I can not hold out a hope that the board will not ratify her recommendation, but it may perhaps qualify the terms of your "character" if you can show these gentlemen that the unhappy lapse from good conduct which brings you to this position of shame and disgrace is due in any measure to irregularities practised perhaps within this hospital, or to the temptations of any one connected with it."
The girl began to cry.
"Speak, nurse; if you have anything to say, the gentlemen are willing to hear it."
The girl"s crying deepened into sobs.
"Useless!" said the chairman.
"Impossible!" said the canon.
But some one suggested that perhaps the nurse had a girl friend in the hospital who could throw light on the difficult situation. Then Sister Allworthy whispered to the matron, who said, "Bring her in."
John Storm"s face had a.s.sumed a fixed and absent expression, but he saw a girl of larger size than Polly Love enter the room with a gleam, as it were, of sunshine on her golden-red hair. It was Glory.
There was some preliminary whispering, and then the canon began again:
"You are a friend and companion of Mary Elizabeth Love?"
"Yes," said Glory.
Her voice was full and calm, and a look of quiet courage lit up her girlish beauty.
"You have known her other friends, no doubt, and perhaps you have shared her confidence?"
"I think so."
"Then you can tell the board if the unhappy condition in which she finds herself is due to any one connected with this hospital."
"I think not."
"Not to any officer, servant, or member of any school attached to it?"
"No."
"Thank you," said the chairman, "that is quite enough," and down the tables of the governors there were nods and smiles of satisfaction.
"What have I done?" said Glory.
"You have done a great service to an ancient and honourable inst.i.tution," said the canon, "and the best return the board can make for your candour and intelligence is to advise you to avoid such companionship for the future and to flee such perilous a.s.sociations."
A certain desperate recklessness expressed itself in Glory"s face, and she stepped up to Polly, who was now weeping audibly, and put her arm about the girl"s waist.
"What are the girl"s relatives?" said the chairman.
The matron replied out of her book. Polly was an orphan, both her parents being dead. She had a brother who had lately been a patient in the hospital, but he was only a lay-helper in the Anglican Monastery at Bishopsgate Street, and therefore useless for present purposes.
There was some further whispering about the tables. Was this the girl who had been recommended to the hospital by the coroner who had investigated a certain notorious and tragic case? Yes.
"I think I have heard of some poor and low relations," said the canon, "but their own condition is probably too needy to allow them to help her at a time like the present."
Down to this moment Polly had done nothing but cry, but now she flamed up in a pa.s.sion of pride and resentment.
"It"s false!" she cried. "I have no poor and low relations, and I want n.o.body"s help. My friend is a gentleman--as much a gentleman as anybody here--and I can tell you his name, if you like. He lives in St. James"s Street, and he is Lord----"
"Stop, girl!" said the canon, in a loud voice. "We can not allow you to compromise the honour of a gentleman by mentioning his name in his absence."
John stepped to one of the tables of the governors and took up a pamphlet which lay there. It was the last annual report of Martha"s Vineyard, with a list of its governors and subscribers.
"The girl is suspended," said the chairman, and reaching for the matron"s book, he signed it and returned it.
"This," said the canon, "appears to be a case for Mrs. Callender"s Maternity Home at Soho, and with the consent of the board I will request the chaplain to communicate with that lady immediately."