It was not until they got up from the table that her father turned to her.
"Did you have a good sermon?" he asked.
It was the underlying note of challenge to which she responded.
"The only good sermon I have ever heard."
Their eyes met. Langmaid looked down at the tip of his cigar.
"Mr. Hodder," said Eldon Parr, "is to be congratulated."
II
Hodder, when the service was over, had sought the familiar recess in the robing-room, the words which he himself had spoken still ringing in his ears. And then he recalled the desperate prayer with which he had entered the pulpit, that it might be given him in that hour what to say: the vivid memories of the pa.s.sions and miseries in Dalton Street, the sudden, hot response of indignation at the complacency confronting him.
His voice had trembled with anger.... He remembered, as he had paused in his denunciation of these who had eyes and saw not, meeting the upturned look of Alison Parr, and his anger had turned to pity for their blindness--which once had been his own; and he had gone on and on, striving to interpret for them his new revelation of the message of the Saviour, to impress upon them the dreadful yet sublime meaning of life eternal. And it was in that moment the vision of the meaning of the evolution of his race, of the Prodigal turning to responsibility--of which he once had had a glimpse--had risen before his eyes in its completeness--the guiding hand of G.o.d in history! The Spirit in these complacent souls, as yet unstirred....
So complete, now, was his forgetfulness of self, of his future, of the irrevocable consequences of the step he had taken, that it was only gradually he became aware that some one was standing near him, and with a start he recognized McCrae.
"There are some waiting to speak to ye," his a.s.sistant said.
"Oh!" Hodder exclaimed. He began, mechanically, to divest himself of his surplice. McCrae stood by.
"I"d like to say a word, first--if ye don"t mind--" he began.
The rector looked at him quickly.
"I"d like just to thank ye for that sermon--I can say no more now," said McCrae; he turned away, and left the room abruptly.
This characteristic tribute from the inarticulate, loyal Scotchman left him tingling.... He made his way to the door and saw the people in the choir room, standing silently, in groups, looking toward him. Some one spoke to him, and he recognized Eleanor Goodrich.
"We couldn"t help coming, Mr. Hodder--just to tell you how much we admire you. It was wonderful, what you said."
He grew hot with grat.i.tude, with thankfulness that there were some who understood--and that this woman was among them, and her husband... Phil Goodrich took him by the hand.
"I can understand that kind of religion," he said. "And, if necessary, I can fight for it. I have come to enlist."
"And I can understand it, too," added the sunburned Evelyn. "I hope you will let me help."
That was all they said, but Hodder understood. Eleanor Goodrich"s eyes were dimmed as she smiled an her sister and her husband--a smile that bespoke the purest quality of pride. And it was then, as they made way for others, that the full value of their allegiance was borne in upon him, and he grasped the fact that the intangible barrier which had separated him from them had at last been broken down: His look followed the square shoulders and aggressive, close-cropped head of Phil Goodrich, the firm, athletic figure of Evelyn, who had represented to him an entire cla.s.s of modern young women, vigorous, athletic, with a scorn of cant in which he secretly sympathized, hitherto frankly untouched by spiritual interests of any sort. She had, indeed, once bluntly told him that church meant nothing to her....
In that little company gathered in the choir room were certain members of his congregation whom, had he taken thought, he would least have expected to see. There were Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, an elderly couple who had attended St. John"s for thirty years; and others of the same unpretentious element of his parish who were finding in modern life an increasingly difficult and bewildering problem. There was little Miss Tallant, an a.s.siduous guild worker whom he had thought the most orthodox of persons; Miss Ramsay, who taught the children of the Italian mothers; Mr. Carton, the organist, a professed free-thinker, with whom Hodder had had many a futile argument; and Martha Preston, who told him that he had made her think about religion seriously for the first time in her life.
And there were others, types equally diverse. Young men of the choir, and others whom he had never seen, who informed him shyly that they would come again, and bring their friends....
And all the while, in the background, Hodder had been aware of a familiar face--Horace Bentley"s. Beside him, when at length he drew near, was his friend Asa Waring--a strangely contrasted type. The uncompromising eyes of a born leader of men flashed from beneath the heavy white eyebrows, the b.u.t.ton of the Legion of Honour gleaming in his well-kept coat seemed emblematic of the fire which in his youth had driven him forth to fight for the honour of his country--a fire still undimmed. It was he who spoke first.
"This is a day I never expected to see, Mr. Hodder," he said, "for it has brought back to this church the man to whom it owes its existence.
Mr. Bentley did more, by his labour and generosity, his true Christianity, his charity and his wisdom, for St. John"s than any other individual. It is you who have brought him back, and I wish personally to express my grat.i.tude."
Mr. Bentley, in mild reproof, laid his hand upon the t, shoulder of his old friend.
"Ah, Asa," he protested, "you shouldn"t say such things."
"Had it not been for Mr. Bentley," Hodder explained, "I should not be here to-day."
Asa Waring pierced the rector with his eye, appreciating the genuine feeling with which these words were spoken. And yet his look contained a question.
"Mr. Bentley," Hodder added, "has been my teacher this summer."
The old gentleman"s hand trembled a little on the goldheaded stick.
"It is a matter of more pride to me than I can express, sir, that you are the rector of this church with which my most cherished memories are a.s.sociated," he said. "But I cannot take any part of the credit you give me for the splendid vision which you have raised up before us to-day, for your inspired interpretation of history, of the meaning of our own times. You have moved me, you have given me more hope and courage than I have had for many a long year--and I thank you, Mr. Hodder. I am sure that G.o.d will prosper and guide you in what you have so n.o.bly undertaken."
Mr. Bentley turned away, walking towards the end of the room.... Asa Waring broke the silence.
"I didn"t know that you knew him, that you had seen what he is doing--what he has done in this city. I cannot trust myself, Mr. Hodder, to speak of Horace Bentley"s life... I feel too strongly on the subject.
I have watched, year by year, this detestable spirit of greed, this l.u.s.t for money and power creeping over our country, corrupting our people and inst.i.tutions, and finally tainting the Church itself. You have raised your voice against it, and I respect and honour and thank you for it, the more because you have done it without resorting to sensation, and apparently with no thought of yourself. And, incidentally, you have explained the Christian religion to me as I have never had it explained in my life.
"I need not tell you you have made enemies--powerful ones. I can see that you are a man, and that you are prepared for them. They will leave no stone unturned, will neglect no means to put you out and disgrace you. They will be about your ears to-morrow--this afternoon, perhaps.
I need not remind you that the outcome is doubtful. But I came here to a.s.sure you of my friendship and support in all you hope to accomplish in making the Church what it should be. In any event, what you have done to-day will be productive of everlasting good."
In a corner still lingered the group which Mr. Bentley had joined. And Hodder, as he made his way towards it, recognized the faces of some of those who composed it. Sally Grower was there, and the young women who lived in Mr. Bentley"s house, and others whose acquaintance he had made during the summer. Mrs. Garvin had brought little d.i.c.ky, incredibly changed from the wan little figure he had first beheld in the stifling back room in Dalton Street; not yet robust, but freckled and tanned by the country sun and wind. The child, whom he had seen constantly in the interval, ran forward joyfully, and Hodder bent down to take his hand....
These were his friends, emblematic of the new relationship in which he stood to mankind. And he owed them to Horace Bentley! He wondered, as he greeted them, whether they knew what their allegiance meant to him in this hour. But it sufficed that they claimed him as their own.
Behind them all stood Kate Marcy. And it struck him for the first time, as he gazed at her earnestly, how her appearance had changed. She gave him a frightened, bewildered look, as though she were unable to identify him now with the man she had known in the Dalton Street flat, in the restaurant. She was still struggling, groping, wondering, striving to accustom herself to the higher light of another world.
"I wanted to come," she faltered. "Sally Grower brought me..."
Hodder went back with them to Dalton Street. His new ministry had begun.
And on this, the first day of it, it was fitting that he should sit at the table of Horace Bentley, even as on that other Sunday, two years agone, he had gone to the home of the first layman of the diocese, Eldon Parr.
III
The peace of G.o.d pa.s.ses understanding because sorrow and joy are mingled therein, sorrow and joy and striving. And thus the joy of emanc.i.p.ation may be accompanied by a heavy heart. The next morning, when Hodder entered his study, he sighed as his eye fell upon the unusual pile of letters on his desk, for their writers had once been his friends. The inevitable breach had come at last.
Most of the letters, as he had antic.i.p.ated, were painful reading.
And the silver paper-cutter with which he opened the first had been a Christmas present from Mrs. Burlingame, who had penned it, a lady of signal devotion to the church, who for many years had made it her task to supply and arrange the flowers on the altar. He had amazed and wounded her--she declared--inexpressibly, and she could no longer remain at St. John"s--for the present, at least. A significant addition. He dropped the letter, and sat staring out of the window... presently arousing himself, setting himself resolutely to the task of reading the rest.
In the mood in which he found himself he did not atop to philosophize on the rigid yet sincere att.i.tude of the orthodox. His affection for many of them curiously remained, though it was with some difficulty he strove to reconstruct a state of mind with which he had once agreed.
If Christianity were to sweep on, these few unbending but faithful ones must be sacrificed: such was the law... Many, while repudiating his new beliefs--or unbeliefs!--added, to their regrets of the change in him, protestations of a continued friendship, a conviction of his sincerity.
Others like Mrs. Atterbury, were frankly outraged and bitter. The contents of one lilac-bordered envelope brought to his eyes a faint smile. Did he know--asked the sender of this--could he know the consternation he had caused in so many persons, including herself? What was she to believe? And wouldn"t he lunch with her on Thursday?
Mrs. Ferguson"s letter brought another smile--more thoughtful. Her incoherent phrases had sprung from the heart, and the picture rose before him of the stout but frightened, good-natured lady who had never accustomed herself to the enjoyment of wealth and luxury. Mr. Ferguson was in such a state, and he must please not tell her husband that she had written. Yet much in his sermon had struck her as so true. It seemed wrong to her to have so much, and others so little! And he had made her remember many things in her early life she had forgotten. She hoped he would see Mr. Ferguson, and talk to him....