His agitation still hampered him. He made a gesture of a.s.sent.
"It was inevitable," he said.
"Yes, it" was inevitable," she a.s.sented, and walked slowly to the mantel, resting her hand on it and bending her head. "I felt that you would not shirk it, and yet I realize how painful it must be to you."
"And to you," he replied quickly.
"Yes, and to me. I do not know what you know, specifically,--I have never sought to find out things, in detail. That would be horrid. But I understand--in general--I have understood for many years." She raised her head, and flashed him a glance that was between a quivering smile and tears. "And I know that you have certain specific information."
He could only wonder at her intuition.
"So far as I am concerned, it is not for the world," he answered.
"Oh, I appreciate that in you!" she exclaimed. "I wished you to know it. I wished you to know," she added, a little unsteadily, "how much I admire you for what you are doing. They are afraid of you--they will crush you if they can."
He did not reply.
"But you are going to speak the truth," she continued, her voice low and vibrating, "that is splendid! It must have its effect, no matter what happens."
"Do you feel that?" he asked, taking a step toward her.
"Yes. When I see you, I feel it, I think."...
Whatever answer he might have made to this was frustrated by the appearance of the figure of Nelson Langmaid in the doorway. He seemed to survey them benevolently through his spectacles.
"How are you, Hodder? Well, Alison, I have to leave without seeing anything of you--you must induce your father not to bring his business home with him. Just a word," he added to the rector, "before you go up."
Hodder turned to Alison. "Good night," he said.
The gentle but unmistakable pressure of her hand he interpreted as the pinning on him of the badge of her faith. He was to go into battle wearing her colours. Their eyes met.
"Good night," she answered....
In the hall the lawyer took his arm.
"What"s the trouble, Hodder?" he asked, sympathetically.
Hodder, although on his guard, was somewhat taken aback by the directness of the onslaught.
"I"m afraid, Mr. Langmaid," the rector replied, "that it would take me longer to tell you than the time at your disposal."
"Dear me," said the lawyer, "this is too bad. Why didn"t you come to me? I am a good friend of yours, Hodder, and there is an additional bond between us on my sister"s account. She is extremely fond of you, you know. And I have a certain feeling of responsibility for you,--I brought you here."
"You have always been very kind, and I appreciate it," Hodder replied.
"I should be sorry to cause you any worry or annoyance. But you must understand that I cannot share the responsibility of my acts with any one."
"A little advice from an old legal head is sometimes not out of place.
Even Dr. Gilman used to consult me. I hope you will bear in mind how remarkably well you have been getting along at St. John"s, and what a success you"ve made."
"Success!" echoed the rector.
Either Mr. Langmaid read nothing in his face, or was determined to read nothing.
"a.s.suredly," he answered, benignly. "You have managed to please everybody, Mr. Parr included,--and some of us are not easy to please.
I thought I"d tell you this, as a friend, as your first friend in the parish. Your achievement has been all the more remarkable, following, as you did, Dr. Gilman. Now it would greatly distress me to see that state of things disturbed, both for your sake and others. I thought I would just give you a hint, as you are going to see Mr. Parr, that he is in rather a nervous state. These so-called political reformers have upset the market and started a lot of legal complications that"s why I"m here to-night. Go easy with him. I know you won"t do anything foolish."
The lawyer accompanied this statement with a pat, but this time he did not succeed in concealing his concern.
"That depends on one"s point of view," Hodder returned, with a smile. "I do not know how you have come to suspect that I am going to disturb Mr.
Parr, but what I have to say to him is between him and me."
Langmaid took up his hat from the table, and sighed.
"Drop in on me sometime," he said, "I"d like to talk to you--Hodder heard a voice behind him, and turned. A servant was standing there.
"Mr. Parr is ready to see you, sir," he said.
The rector followed him up the stairs, to the room on the second floor, half office, half study, where the capitalist transacted his business when at home.
III
Eldon Parr was huddled over his desk reading a typewritten doc.u.ment; but he rose, and held out his hand, which Hodder took.
"How are you, Mr. Hodder? I"m sorry to have kept you waiting, but matters of some legal importance have arisen on which I was obliged to make a decision. You"re well, I hope." He shot a glance at the rector, and sat down again, still holding the sheets. "If you will excuse me a moment longer, I"ll finish this."
"Certainly," Hodder replied.
"Take a chair," said Mr. Parr, "you"ll find the evening paper beside you."
Hodder sat down, and the banker resumed his perusal of the doc.u.ment, his eye running rapidly over the pages, pausing once in a while to scratch out a word or to make a note on the margin. In the concentration of the man on the task before him the rector read a design, an implication that the affairs of the Church were of a minor importance: sensed, indeed, the new att.i.tude of hostility, gazed upon the undiscovered side, the dangerous side before which other men had quailed. Alison"s words recurred to him, "they are afraid of you, they will crush you if they can." Eldon Parr betrayed, at any rate, no sign of fear. If his mental posture were further a.n.a.lyzed, it might be made out to contain an intimation that the rector, by some act, had forfeited the right to the unique privilege of the old relationship.
Well, the fact that the banker had, in some apparently occult manner, been warned, would make Hodder"s task easier--or rather less difficult.
His feelings were even more complicated than he had antic.i.p.ated. The moments of suspense were trying to his nerves, and he had a shrewd notion that this making men wait was a favourite manoeuvre of Eldon Parr"s; nor had he underrated the benumbing force of that personality.
It was evident that the financier intended him to open the battle, and he was--as he had expected--finding it difficult to marshal the regiments of his arguments. In vain he thought of the tragedy of Garvin.... The thing was more complicated. And behind this redoubtable and sinister Eldon Parr he saw, as it were, the wraith of that: other who had once confessed the misery of his loneliness....
At last the banker rang, sharply, the bell on his desk. A secretary entered, to whom he dictated a telegram which contained these words: "Langmaid has discovered a way out." It was to be sent to an address in Texas. Then he turned in his chair and crossed his knees, his hand fondling an ivory paper-cutter. He smiled a little.
"Well, Mr. Hodder," he said.
The rector, intensely on his guard, merely inclined his head in recognition that his turn had come.
"I was sorry," the banker continued, after a perceptible pause,--"that you could not see your way clear to have come with me on the cruise."
"I must thank you again," Hodder answered, "but I felt--as I wrote you--that certain matters made it impossible for me to go."
"I suppose you had your reasons, but I think you would have enjoyed the trip. I had a good, seaworthy boat--I chartered her from Mr. Lieber, the president of the Continental Zinc, you know. I went as far as Labrador.