What was the source of that serenity which shone on the face of his friend? Was it the light of faith? Faith in--what? Humanity, Mr. Bentley had told him on that first evening when they had met: faith in a world filled with cruelties, disillusionments, lies, and cheats! On what Authority was it based? Holder never asked, and no word of theology ever crossed Mr. Bentley"s lips; not by so much as a sign did he betray any knowledge he may have had of the drama taking place in Holder"s soul; no comment escaped him on the amazing anomalies of the life the rector was leading, in the Church but not of it.
It was only by degrees Holder came to understand that no question would be asked, and the frequency of his visits to Dalton Street increased. He directed his steps thither sometimes hurriedly, as though pursued, as to a haven from a storm. And a haven it was indeed! At all hours of the day he came, and oftener in the night, in those first weeks, and if Mr. Bentley were not at home the very sight of the hospitable old darky brought surging up within him a sense of security, of, relief; the library itself was filled with the peace of its owner. How many others had brought their troubles here, had been lightened on the very threshold of this sanctuary!
Gradually Hodder began to realize something of their numbers. Gradually, as he was drawn more and more into the network of the relationships of this extraordinary man,--nay, as he inevitably became a part of that network,--a period of bewilderment ensued. He found himself involved, and quite naturally, in unpremeditated activities, running errands, forming human ties on a human basis. No question was asked, no credentials demanded or rejected. Who he was made no difference--he was a friend of Horace Bentley"s. He had less time to read, less time to think, to scan the veil of his future.
He had run through a score of volumes, critical, philosophical, scientific, absorbing their contents, eagerly antic.i.p.ating their conclusions; filled, once he had begun, with a mania to destroy, a savage determination to leave nothing,--to level all....
And now, save for the less frequent relapsing moods, he had grown strangely unconcerned about his future, content to live in the presence of this man; to ignore completely the aspects of a life incomprehensible to the few, besides Mr. Bentley, who observed it.
What he now mostly felt was relief, if not a faint self-congratulation that he had had the courage to go through with it, to know the worst.
And he was conscious even, at times, of a faint reviving sense of freedom he had not known since the days at Bremerton. If the old dogmas were false, why should he regret them? He began to see that, once he had suspected their falsity, not to have investigated were to invite decay; and he pictured himself growing more unctuous, apologetic, plausible.
He had, at any rate, escaped the more despicable fate, and if he went to pieces now it would be as a man, looking the facts in the face,--not as a coward and a hypocrite.
Late one afternoon, when he dropped in at Mr. Bentley"s house, he was informed by Sam that a lady was awaiting Mr. Bentley in the library. As Hodder opened the door he saw a tall, slim figure of a woman with her back toward him. She was looking at the photographs on the mantel.
It was Alison Parr!
He remembered now that she had asked for Mr. Bentley"s number, but it had never occurred to him that he might one day find her here. And as she turned he surprised in her eyes a shyness he had never seen in them before. Thus they stood gazing at each other a moment before either spoke.
"Oh, I thought you were Mr. Bentley," she said.
"Have you been waiting long?" he asked.
"Three quarters of an hour, but I haven"t minded it. This is such an interesting room, with its pictures and relics and books. It has a soothing effect, hasn"t it? To come here is like stepping out of the turmoil of the modern world into a peaceful past."
He was struck by the felicity of her description.
"You have been here before?" he asked.
"Yes." She settled herself in the armchair; and Hodder, accepting the situation, took the seat beside her. "Of course I came, after I had found out who Mr. Bentley was. The opportunity to know him again--was not to be missed."
"I can understand that," he a.s.sented.
"That is, if a child can even be said to know such a person as Mr.
Bentley. Naturally, I didn"t appreciate him in those days--children merely accept, without a.n.a.lyzing. And I have not yet been able to a.n.a.lyze,--I can only speculate and consider."
Her enthusiasm never failed to stir and excite Hodder. Nor would he have thought it possible that a new value could be added to Mr. Bentley in his eyes. Yet so it was.
He felt within him, as she spoke, the quickening of a stimulus.
"When I came in a little while ago," Alison continued, "I found a woman in black, with such a sweet, sad face. We began a conversation. She had been through a frightful experience. Her husband had committed suicide, her child had been on the point of death, and she says that she lies awake nights now thinking in terror of what might have happened to her if you and Mr. Bentley hadn"t helped her. She"s learning to be a stenographer. Do you remember her?--her name is Garvin."
"Did she say--anything more?" Hodder anxiously demanded.
"No," said Alison, surprised by his manner, "except that Mr. Bentley had found her a place to live, near the hospital, with a widow who was a friend of his. And that the child was well, and she could look life in the face again. Oh, it is terrible to think that people all around us are getting into such straits, and that we are so indifferent to it!"
Hodder did not speak at once. He was wondering, now that she had renewed her friendship with Mr. Bentley, whether certain revelations on her part were not inevitable....
She was regarding him, and he was aware that her curiosity was aflame.
Again he wondered whether it were curiosity or--interest.
"You did not tell me, when we met in the Park, that you were no longer at St. John"s."
"Did Mr. Bentley tell you?"
"No. He merely said he saw a great deal of you. Martha Preston told me. She is still here, and goes to church occasionally. She was much surprised to learn that you were in the city.
"I am still living in the parish house," he said. "I am--taking my vacation."
"With Mr. Bentley?" Her eyes were still on his face.
"With Mr. Bentley," he replied.
He had spoken without bitterness. Although there had indeed been bitterness in his soul, it pa.s.sed away in the atmosphere of Mr.
Bentley"s house. The process now taking place in him was the same complication of negative and positive currents he had felt in her presence before. He was surprised to find that his old antipathy to agnosticism held over, in her case; to discover, now, that he was by no means, as yet, in view of the existence of Horace Bentley, to go the full length of unbelief! On the other hand, he saw that she had divined much of what had happened to him, and he felt radiating from her a sympathetic understanding which seemed almost a claim. She had a claim, although he could not have said of what it was const.i.tuted. Their personal relationship bore responsibilities. It suddenly came over him, in fact, that the two persons who in all the world were nearest him were herself and Mr. Bentley! He responded, scarce knowing why he did so, to the positive current.
"With Mr. Bentley," he repeated, smiling, and meeting her eyes, "I have been learning something about the actual conditions of life in a modern city."
She bent a little toward him in one of those spontaneous movements that characterized her.
"Tell me--what is his life?" she asked. "I have seen so little of it, and he has told me nothing himself. At first, in the Park, I saw only a kindly old gentleman, with a wonderful, restful personality, who had been a dear friend of my mother"s. I didn"t connect those boys with him.
But since then--since I have been here twice, I have seen other things which make me wonder how far his influence extends." She paused.
"I, too, have wondered," said the rector, thoughtfully. "When I met him, I supposed he were merely living in simple relationships with his neighbours here in Dalton Street, but by degrees I have discovered that his relationships are as wide as the city itself. And they have grown naturally--by radiation, as it were. One incident has led to another, one act of kindness to another, until now there seems literally no end to the men and women with whom he is in personal touch, who are ready to do anything in their power for him at any time. It is an inst.i.tution, in fact, wholly unorganized, which in the final a.n.a.lysis is one man. And there is in it absolutely nothing of that element which has come to be known as charity."
Alison listened with parted lips.
"To give you an example," he went on, gradually be coming fired by his subject, by her absorption, "since you have mentioned Mrs. Garvin, I will tell you what happened in that case. It is typical of many. It was a question of taking care of this woman, who was worn out and crushed, until she should recover sufficiently to take care of herself. Mr.
Bentley did not need any a.s.sistance from me to get the boy into the hospital--Dr. Jarvis worships him. But the mother. I might possibly have got her into an inst.i.tutional home--Mr. Bentley did better than that, far better. On the day of the funeral we went directly from the cemetery to the house of a widow who owns a little fruit farm beyond the Park.
Her name is Bledsoe, and it is not an exaggeration to say that her house, small as it is, contains an endowed room always at Mr. Bentley"s disposal.
"Mrs. Garvin is there now. She was received as a friend, as a guest--not as an inmate, a recipient of charity. I shall never forget how that woman ran out in the sun when she saw us coming, how proud she was to be able to do this thing, how she ushered us into the little parlour, that was all swept and polished, and how naturally and warmly she welcomed the other woman, dazed and exhausted, and took her hat and veil and almost carried her up the stairs. And later on I found out from Miss Grower, who lives here, Mrs. Bledsoe"s history. Eight or nine years ago her husband was sent to prison for forgery, and she was left with four small children, on the verge of a fate too terrible to mention. She was brought to Mr. Bentley"s attention, and he started her in life.
"And now Mrs. Garvin forms another link to that chain, which goes on growing. In a month she will be earning her own living as stenographer for a grain merchant whom Mr. Bentley set on his feet several years ago.
One thing has led to the next. And--I doubt if any neighbourhood could be mentioned, north or south or west, or even in the business portion of the city itself, where men and women are not to be found ready and eager to do anything in their power for him. Of course there have been exceptions, what might be called failures in the ordinary terminology of charity, but there are not many."
When he had finished she sat quite still, musing over what he had told her, her eyes alight.
"Yes, it is wonderful," she said at length, in a low voice. "Oh, I can believe in that, making the world a better place to live in, making people happier. Of course every one cannot be like Mr. Bentley, but all may do their share in their own way. If only we could get rid of this senseless system of government that puts a premium on the acquisition of property! As it is, we have to depend on individual initiative. Even the good Mr. Bentley does is a drop in the ocean compared to what might be done if all this machinery--which has been invented, if all these discoveries of science, by which the forces of an indifferent nature have been harnessed, could be turned to the service of all mankind.
Think of how many Mrs. Garvins, of how many Dalton Streets there are in the world, how many stunted children working in factories or growing up into criminals in the slums! I was reading a book just the other day on the effect of the lack of nutrition on character. We are breeding a million degenerate citizens by starving them, to say nothing of the effect of disease and bad air, of the constant fear of poverty that haunts the great majority of homes. There is no reason why that fear should not be removed, why the latest discoveries in medicine and science should not be at the disposal of all."
The genuineness of her pa.s.sion was unmistakable. His whole being responded to it.
"Have you always felt like this?" he asked.
"Like what?"
"Indignant--that so many people were suffering."