"I wish it would," said Mr. Plimpton.
"If it"s any comfort to you--to us," Langmaid went on, after a moment, "Eldon Parr owns the whole block above Thirteenth, on the south side--bought it three years ago. He thinks the business section will grow that way."
"I know," said Mr. Plimpton, and they looked at each other.
The name predominant in both minds had been mentioned.
"I wonder if Hodder really knows what he"s up against." Mr. Plimpton sometimes took refuge in slang.
"Well, after all, we"re not sure yet that he"s "up against anything,""
replied Langmaid, who thought the time had come for comfort. "It may all be a false alarm. There"s no reason, after all, why a Christian clergyman shouldn"t rescue women in Dalton Street, and remain in the city to study the conditions of the neighbourhood where his settlement house is to be. And just, because you or I would not be able to resist an invitation to go yachting with Eldon Parr, a man might be imagined who had that amount of moral courage."
"That"s just it. Hodder seems to me, now I come to think of it, just the kind of John Brown type who wouldn"t hesitate to get into a row with Eldon Parr if he thought it was right, and pull down any amount of disagreeable stuff about our ears."
"You"re mixing your heroes, Wallis," said Langmaid.
"I can"t help it. You"d catch it, too, Nelson. What in the name of sense possessed you to get such a man?"
This being a question the lawyer was unable to answer, the conversation came to another pause. And it was then that Mr. Plimpton"s natural optimism rea.s.serted itself.
"It isn"t done,--the thing we"re afraid of, that"s all," he proclaimed, after a turn or two about the room. "Hodder"s a gentleman, as I said, and if he feels as we suspect he does he"ll resign like a gentleman and a Christian. I"ll have a talk with him--oh, you can trust me! I"ve got an idea. Gordon Atterbury told me the other day there is a vacancy in a missionary diocese out west, and that Hodder"s name had been mentioned, among others, to the bishops for the place. He"d make a rattling missionary bishop, you know, holding services in saloons and knocking men"s heads together for profanity, and he boxes like a professional.
Now, a word from Eldon Parr might turn the trick. Every parson wants to be a bishop."
Langmaid shook his head.
"You"re getting out of your depths, my friend. The Church isn"t Wall Street. And missionary bishops aren"t chosen to make convenient vacancies."
"I don"t mean anything crude," Mr. Plimpton protested. "But a word from the chief layman of a diocese like this, a man who never misses a General Convention, and does everything handsomely, might count,--particularly if they"re already thinking of Hodder. The bishops would never suspect we wanted to get rid of him."
"Well," said Langmaid, "I advise you to go easy, all along the line."
"Oh, I"ll go easy enough," Mr. Plimpton a.s.sented, smiling. "Do you remember how I pulled off old Senator Matthews when everybody swore he was dead set on voting for an investigation in the matter of those coal lands Mr. Parr got hold of in his state?"
"Matthews isn"t Hodder, by a long shat," said Langmaid. "If you ask me my opinion, I"ll tell you frankly that if Hodder has made up his mind to stay in St. John"s a ton of dynamite and all the Eldon Parrs in the nation can"t get him out."
"Can"t the vestry make him resign?" asked Mr. Plimpton, uncomfortably.
"You"d better, go home and study your canons, my friend. Nothing short of conviction for heresy can do it, if he doesn"t want to go."
"You wouldn"t exactly call him a heretic," Mr. Plimpton said ruefully.
"Would you know a heretic if you saw one?" demanded Langmaid.
"No, but my wife would, and Gordon Atterbury and Constable would, and Eldon Parr. But don"t let"s get nervous."
"Well, that"s sensible at any rate," said Langmaid....
So Mr. Plimpton had gone off optimistic, and felt even more so the next morning after he had had his breakfast in the pleasant dining room of the Gore Mansion, of which he was now master. As he looked out through the open window at the sunshine in the foliage of Waverley Place, the prospect of his being removed from that position of dignity and influence on the vestry of St. John"s, which he had achieved, with others, after so much walking around the walls, seemed remote. And he reflected with satisfaction upon the fact that his wife, who was his prime minister, would be home from the East that day. Two heads were better than one, especially if one of the two were Charlotte Gore"s.
And Mr. Plimpton had often reflected upon the loss to the world, and the gain to himself, that she was a woman.
It would not be gallant to suggest that his swans were geese.
IV
The successful navigation of lower Tower Street, at noonday, required presence of mind on the part of the pedestrian. There were currents and counter-currents, eddies and backwaters, and at the corner of Vine a veritable maelstrom through which two lines of electric cars pushed their way, east and weft, north and south, with incessant clanging of bells; followed by automobiles with resounding horns, trucks and delivery wagons with wheels reverberating on the granite. A giant Irish policeman, who seemed in continual danger of a violent death, and wholly indifferent to it, stood between the car tracks and halted the rush from time to time, driving the people like sheep from one side to the other.
Through the doors of Ferguson"s poured two conflicting streams of humanity, and wistful groups of young women, on the way from hasty lunches, blocked the pavements and stared at the finery behind the plate-gla.s.s windows.
The rector, slowly making his way westward, permitted himself to be thrust hither and thither, halted and shoved on again as he studied the faces of the throng. And presently he found himself pocketed before one of the exhibits of feminine interest, momentarily helpless, listening to the admiring and envious chorus of a bevy of diminutive shop-girls on the merits of a Paris gown. It was at this moment that he perceived, pushing towards him with an air of rescue, the figure of his vestryman, Mr. Wallis Plimpton.
"Well, well, well!" he cried, as he seized Hodder by the arm and pulled him towards the curb. "What are you doing herein the marts of trade?
Come right along with me to the Eyrie, and we"ll have something, to eat."
The Eyrie was a famous lunch club, of limited membership, at the top of the Parr Building, where financial affairs of the first importance were discussed and settled.
Hodder explained that he had lunched at half-past twelve.
"Well, step into my office a minute. It does me good, to see you again, upon my word, and I can"t let you get by without a little pow-wow."
Mr. Plimpton"s trust company, in Vine Street, resembled a Greek temple.
Ma.s.sive but graceful granite columns adorned its front, while within it was part.i.tioned off with polished marble and ornamental grills. In the rear, guarded by the desks and flanked by the compartments of various subordinates, was the president"s private sanctum, and into this holy of holies Mr. Plimpton led the way with the simple, una.s.suming genial air of the high priest of modern finance who understands men. The room was eloquent almost to affectation of the system and order of great business, inasmuch as it betrayed not the least sign of a workshop. On the dark oak desk were two leather-bound books and a polished telephone.
The walls were panelled, there was a stone fireplace with andirons set, a deep carpet spread over the tessellated floor, and three leather-padded armchairs, one of which Mr. Plimpton hospitably drew forward for the rector. He then produced a box of cigars.
"You don"t smoke, Mr. Hodder. I always forget. That"s the way you manage to keep yourself in such good shape." He drew out a gold match box and seated himself with an air of gusto opposite his guest. "And you haven"t had a vacation, they tell me."
"On the contrary," said the rector, "McCrae has taken the services all summer."
"But you"ve been in the city!" Mr. Plimpton exclaimed, puffing at his cigar.
"Yes, I"ve been in the city."
"Well, well, I"ll bet you haven"t been idle. Just between us, as friends, Mr. Hodder, I"ve often wondered if you didn"t work too hard--there"s such a thing as being too conscientious, you know.
And I"ve an idea that the rest of the vestry think so. Mr. Parr, for instance. We know when we"ve got a good thing, and we don"t want to wear you out. Oh, we can appreciate your point of view, and admire it. But a little relaxation--eh? It"s too bad that you couldn"t have seen your way to take that cruise--Mr. Parr was all cut up about it. I guess you"re the only man among all of us fairly close to him, who really knows him well," said Mr. Plimpton, admiringly. "He thinks a great deal of you, Mr. Hodder. By the way, have you seen him since he got back?"
"No," Hodder answered.
"The trip did him good. I thought he was a little seedy in the spring--didn"t you? Wonderful man! And when I think how he"s slandered and abused it makes me hot. And he never says anything, never complains, lives up there all alone, and takes his medicine. That"s real patriotism, according to my view. He could retire to-morrow--but he keeps on--why? Because he feels the weight of a tremendous responsibility on his shoulders, because he knows if it weren"t for him and men like him upon whom the prosperity of this nation depends, we"d have famine and anarchy on our hands in no time. And look what he"s done for the city, without ostentation, mind you! He never blows his own horn-never makes a speech. And for the Church! But I needn"t tell you.
When this settlement house and chapel are finished, they"ll be coming out here from New York to get points. By the way, I meant to have written you. Have our revised plans come yet? We ought to break ground in November, oughtn"t we?"
"I intend to lay my views on that matter before the vestry at the next meeting, the rector said.
"Well," declared Mr. Plimpton, after a scarcely perceptible pause, "I"ve no doubt they"ll be worth listening to. If I were to make a guess," he continued, with a contemplative smile, blowing a thin stream of smoke towards the distant ceiling, "I should bet that you have spent your summer looking over the ground. I don"t say that you have missed your vocation, Mr. Hodder, but I don"t mind telling you that for a clergyman, for a man absorbed in spiritual matters, a man who can preach the sermons you preach, you"ve got more common-sense and business thoroughness than any one I have ever run across in your profession."
"Looking over the ground?" Hodder repeated, ignoring the compliment.
"Sure," said Mr. Plimpton, smiling more benignly than ever. "You mustn"t be modest about it. Dalton Street. And when that settlement house is built, I"ll guarantee it will be run on a business basis. No nonsense."