It was then she grasped the truth that this sudden renewed intimacy was the result of the impression Hodder had left upon the minds of both.
"He gave me everything," Bedloe Hubbell replied. "I am willing to acknowledge it freely. In his explanation of the parable of the Prodigal Son, he gave me the clew to our modern times. What was for me an inextricable puzzle has become clear as day. He has made me understand, at last, the force which stirred me, which goaded me until I was fairly compelled to embark in the movement which the majority of our citizens still continue to regard as quixotic. I did not identify that force with religion, then, and when I looked back on the first crazy campaign we embarked upon, with the whole city laughing at me and at the obscure and impractical personnel we had, there were moments when it seemed incomprehensible folly. I had nothing to gain, and everything to lose by such a venture. I was lazy and easy-going, as you know. I belonged to the privileged cla.s.s, I had sufficient money to live in comparative luxury all my days, I had no grudge against these men whom I had known all my life."
"But it must have had some beginning," said Alison.
"I was urged to run for the city council, by these very men." Bedloe Hubbell smiled at the recollection. "They accuse me now of having indulged once in the same practice, for which I am condemning them.
Our company did accept rebates, and we sought favours from the city government. I have confessed it freely on the platform. Even during my first few months in the council what may be called the old political practices seemed natural to me. But gradually the iniquity of it all began to dawn on me, and then I couldn"t rest until I had done something towards stopping it.
"At length I began to see," he continued, "that education of the ma.s.ses was to be our only preserver, that we should have to sink or swim by that. I began to see, dimly, that this was true for other movements going on to-day. Now comes Hodder with what I sincerely believe is the key. He compels men like me to recognize that our movements are not merely moral, but religious. Religion, as yet unidentified, is the force behind these portentous stirrings of politics in our country, from sea to sea. He aims, not to bring the Church into politics, but to make her the feeder of these movements. Men join them to-day from all motives, but the religious is the only one to which they may safely be trusted.
He has rescued the jewel from the dust-heap of tradition, and holds it up, shining, before our eyes."
Alison looked at her companion.
"That," she said, "is a very beautiful phrase."
Bedloe Hubbell smiled queerly.
"I don"t know why I"m telling you all this. I can"t usually talk about it. But the sight of that congregation this morning, mixed as it was, and the way he managed to weld it together."
"Ah, you noticed that!" she exclaimed sharply.
"Noticed it!"
"I know. It was a question of feeling it."
There was a silence.
"Will he succeed?" she asked presently.
"Ah," said Bedloe Hubbell, "how is it possible to predict it? The forces against him are tremendous, and it is usually the pioneer who suffers.
I agree absolutely with his definition of faith, I have it. And the work he has done already can never be undone. The time is ripe, and it is something that he has men like Phil Goodrich behind him, and Mr. Waring.
I"m going to enlist, and from now on I intend to get every man and woman upon whom I have any influence whatever to go to that church...." A little later Alison, marvelling, left him.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE CURRENT OF LIFE
I
The year when Hodder had gone east--to Bremerton and Bar Harbor, he had read in the train a magazine article which had set fire to his imagination. It had to do with the lives of the men, the engineers who dared to deal with the wild and terrible power of the western hills, who harnessed and conquered roaring rivers, and sent the power hundreds of miles over the wilderness, by flimsy wires, to turn the wheels of industry and light the dark places of the cities. And, like all men who came into touch with elemental mysteries, they had their moments of pure ecstasy, gaining a tingling, intenser life from the contact with dynamic things; and other moments when, in their struggle for mastery, they were buffeted about, scorched, and almost overwhelmed.
In these days the remembrance of that article came back to Hodder. It was as though he, too, were seeking to deflect and guide a force--the Force of forces. He, too, was buffeted, scorched, and bruised, at periods scarce given time to recover himself in the onward rush he himself had started, and which he sought to control. Problems arose which demanded the quick thinking of emergency. He, too, had his moments of reward, the reward of the man who is in touch with reality.
He lived, from day to day, in a bewildering succession of encouragements and trials, all unprecedented. If he remained at St. John"s, an entire new organization would be necessary.... He did not as yet see it clearly; and in the meantime, with his vestry alienated, awaiting the bishop"s decision, he could make no definite plans, even if he had had the leisure. Wholesale desertions had occurred in the guilds and societies, the activities of which had almost ceased. Little Tomkinson, the second a.s.sistant, had resigned; and McCrae, who worked harder than ever before, was already marked, Hodder knew, for dismissal if he himself were defeated.
And then there was the ever present question of money. It remained to be seen whether a system of voluntary offerings were practicable. For Hodder had made some inquiries into the so-called "free churches," only to discover that there were benefactors behind them, benefactors the Christianity of whose lives was often doubtful.
One morning he received in the mail the long-expected note from the bishop, making an appointment for the next day. Hodder, as he read it over again, smiled to himself... He could gather nothing of the mind of the writer from the contents.
The piece of news which came to him on the same morning swept completely the contemplations of the approaching interview from his mind. Sally Grover stopped in at the parish house on her way to business.
"Kate Marcy"s gone," she announced, in her abrupt fashion.
"Gone!" he exclaimed, and stared at her in dismay. "Gone where?"
"That"s just it," said Miss Grover. "I wish I knew. I reckon we"d got into the habit of trusting her too much, but it seemed the only way. She wasn"t in her room last night, but Ella Finley didn"t find it out until this morning, and she ran over scared to death, to tell us about it."
Involuntarily the rector reached for his hat.
"I"ve sent out word among our friends in Dalton Street," Sally continued. An earthquake could not have disturbed her outer, matter-of-fact calmness. But Hodder was not deceived: he knew that she was as profoundly grieved and discouraged as himself. "And I"ve got old Gratz, the cabinet-maker, on the job. If she"s in Dalton Street, he"ll find her."
"But what--?" Hodder began.
Sally threw up her hands.
"You never can tell, with that kind. But it sticks in my mind she"s done something foolish."
"Foolish?"
Sally twitched, nervously.
"Somehow I don"t think it"s a spree--but as I say, you can"t tell. She"s full of impulses. You remember how she frightened us once before, when she went off and stayed all night with the woman she used to know in the flat house, when she heard she was sick?"
Hodder nodded.
"You"ve inquired there?"
"That woman went to the hospital, you know. She may be with another one.
If she is, Gratz ought to find her... You know there was a time, Mr.
Hodder, when I didn"t have much hope that we"d pull her through. But we got hold of her through her feelings. She"d do anything for Mr.
Bentley--she"d do anything for you, and the way she stuck to that embroidery was fine. I don"t say she was cured, but whenever she"d feel one of those fits coming on she"d let us know about it, and we"d watch her. And I never saw one of that kind change so. Why, she must be almost as good looking now as she ever was."
"You don"t think she has done anything--desperate?" asked Hodder, slowly.
Sally comprehended.
"Well--somehow I don"t. She used to say if she ever got drunk again she"d never come back. But she didn"t have any money--she"s given Mr.
Bentley every cent of it. And we didn"t have any warning. She was as cheerful as could be yesterday morning, Mrs. McQuillen says."
"It might not do any harm to notify the police," replied Hodder, rising.
"I"ll go around to headquarters now."
He was glad of the excuse for action. He could not have sat still. And as he walked rapidly across Burton Street he realized with a pang how much his heart had been set on Kate Marcy"s redemption. In spite of the fact that every moment of his time during the past fortnight had been absorbed by the cares, responsibilities, and trials thrust upon him, he reproached himself for not having gone oftener to Dalton Street.
And yet, if Mr. Bentley and Sally Grower had been unable to foresee and prevent this, what could he have done?
At police headquarters he got no news. The chief received him deferentially, sympathetically, took down Kate Marcy"s description, went so far as to remark, sagely, that too much mustn"t be expected of these women, and said he would notify the rector if she were found. The chief knew and admired Mr. Bentley, and declared he was glad to meet Mr.
Hodder... Hodder left, too preoccupied to draw any significance from the nature of his welcome. He went at once to Mr. Bentley"s.