clearlysettling
down
into
another
period
of
pessimistic
quietism
such
as
that
which
had
followed
upon
his
first
young
efforts
at
self-assertion
years
before
.
But
this
second
period
bore
the
marks
of
an
even
profounder
depression
of
all
the
vital
forces
than
the
first
,
and
as
Elsmere
,
with
a
deep
sigh
,
half-angry
,
half-relenting
,
put
down
the
letter
,
he
felt
the
conviction
that
no
fresh
influence
from
outside
would
ever
again
be
allowed
to
penetrate
the
solitude
of
Langham
's
life
.
In
comparison
with
the
man
who
had
just
addressed
him
,
the
tutor
of
his
undergraduate
recollections
was
a
vigorous
and
sociable
human
being
.
The
relenting
grew
upon
him
,
and
he
wrote
a
sensible
affectionate
letter
in
return
.
Whatever
had
been
his
natural
feelings
of
resentment
,
he
said
,
he
could
not
realise
,
now
that
the
crisis
was
past
,
that
he
cared
less
about
his
old
friend
.
'
As
far
as
we
two
are
concerned
,
let
us
forget
it
all
.
I
could
hardly
say
this
,
you
will
easily
imagine
,
if
I
thought
that
you
had
done
serious
or
irreparable
harm
.
But
both
my
wife
and
I
agree
now
in
thinking
that
by
a
pure
accident
,
as
it
were
,
and
to
her
own
surprise
,
Rose
has
escaped
either
.
It
will
be
some
time
,
no
doubt
,
before
she
will
admit
it
.
A
girl
is
not
so
easily
disloyal
to
her
past
.
But
to
us
it
is
tolerably
clear
.
At
any
rate
,
I
send
you
our
opinion
for
what
it
is
worth
,
believing
that
it
will
and
must
be
welcome
to
you
.
'
Rose
,
however
,
was
not
so
long
in
admitting
it
.
One
marked
result
of
that
new
vulnerableness
of
soul
produced
in
her
by
the
shock
of
that
February
morning
was
a
great
softening
towards
Catherine
.
Whatever
might
have
been
Catherine
's
intense
relief
when
Robert
returned
from
his
abortive
mission
,
she
never
afterwards
let
a
disparaging
word
towards
Langham
escape
her
lips
to
Rose
.
She
was
tenderness
and
sympathy
itself
,
and
Rose
,
in
her
curious
reaction
against
her
old
self
,
and
against
the
noisy
world
of
flattery
and
excitement
in
which
she
had
been
living
,
turned
to
Catherine
as
she
had
never
done
since
she
was
a
tiny
child
.
She
would
spend
hours
in
a
corner
of
the
Bedford
Square
drawing-room
,
pretending
to
read
,
or
play
with
little
Mary
,
in
reality
recovering
,
like
some
bruised
and
trodden
plant
,
under
the
healing
influence
of
thought
and
silence
.
One
day
,
when
they
were
alone
in
the
firelight
,
she
startled
Catherine
by
saying
with
one
of
her
old
odd
smiles
—
'
Do
you
know
,
Cathie
,
how
I
always
see
myself
nowadays
?
It
is
a
sort
of
hallucination
.
I
see
a
girl
at
the
foot
of
a
precipice
.
She
has
had
a
fall
,
and
she
is
sitting
up
,
feeling
all
her
limbs
.
And
,
to
her
great
astonishment
,
there
is
no
bone
broken
!
'
And
she
held
herself
back
from
Catherine
's
knee
lest
her
sister
should
attempt
to
caress
her
,
her
eyes
bright
and
calm
.
Nor
would
she
allow
an
answer
,
drowning
all
that
Catherine
might
have
said
in
a
sudden
rush
after
the
child
,
who
was
wandering
round
them
in
search
of
a
playfellow
.
In
truth
,
Rose
Leyburn
's
girlish
passion
for
Edward
Langham
had
been
a
kind
of
accident
unrelated
to
the
main
forces
of
character
.
He
had
crossed
her
path
in
a
moment
of
discontent
,
of
aimless
revolt
and
longing
,
when
she
was
but
fresh
emerged
from
the
cramping
conditions
of
her
childhood
and
trembling
on
the
brink
of
new
and
unknown
activities
.
His
intellectual
prestige
,
his
melancholy
,
his
personal
beauty
,
his
very
strangenesses
and
weaknesses
,
had
made
a
deep
impression
on
the
girl
's
immature
romantic
sense
.
His
resistance
had
increased
the
charm
,
and
the
interval
of
angry
resentful
separation
had
done
nothing
to
weaken
it
.
As
to
the
months
in
London
,
they
had
been
one
long
duel
between
herself
and
him
—
a
duel
which
had
all
the
fascination
of
difficulty
and
uncertainty
,
but
in
which
pride
and
caprice
had
dealt
and
sustained
a
large
proportion
of
the
blows
.
Then
,
after
a
moment
of
intoxicating
victory
,
Langham
's
endangered
habits
and
threatened
individuality
had
asserted
themselves
once
for
all
.
And
from
the
whole
long
struggle
—
passion
,
exultation
,
and
crushing
defeat
—
it
often
seemed
to
her
that
she
had
gained
neither
joy
nor
irreparable
grief
,
but
a
new
birth
of
character
,
a
soul
!
It
may
be
easily
imagined
that
Hugh
Flaxman
felt
a
peculiarly
keen
interest
in
Langham
's
disappearance
.
On
the
afternoon
of
the
Searle
House
rehearsal
he
had
awaited
Rose
's
coming
in
a
state
of
extraordinary
irritation
.
He
expected
a
blushing
fiancée
,
in
a
fool
's
paradise
,
asking
by
manner
,
if
not
by
word
,
for
his
congratulations
,
and
taking
a
decent
feminine
pleasure
perhaps
in
the
pang
she
might
suspect
in
him
.
And
he
had
already
taken
his
pleasure
in
the
planning
of
some
double-edged
congratulations
.
Then
up
the
steps
of
the
concert
platform
there
came
a
pale
tired
girl
,
who
seemed
specially
to
avoid
his
look
,
who
found
a
quiet
corner
and
said
hardly
a
word
to
anybody
till
her
turn
came
to
play
.
His
revulsion
of
feeling
was
complete
.
After
her
piece
he
made
his
way
up
to
her
,
and
was
her
watchful
unobtrusive
guardian
for
the
rest
of
the
afternoon
.
He
walked
home
after
he
had
put
her
into
her
cab
in
a
whirl
of
impatient
conjecture
.
'
As
compared
to
last
night
,
she
looks
this
afternoon
as
if
she
had
had
an
illness
!
What
on
earth
has
that
philandering
ass
been
about
?
If
he
did
not
propose
to
her
last
night
,
he
ought
to
be
shot
—
and
if
he
did
,
à
fortiori
,
for
clearly
she
is
miserable
.
But
what
a
brave
child
!
How
she
played
her
part
!
I
wonder
whether
she
thinks
that
I
saw
nothing
,
like
all
the
rest
!
Poor
little
cold
hand
!
'
Next
day
in
the
street
he
met
Elsmere
,
turned
and
walked
with
him
,
and
by
dint
of
leading
the
conversation
a
little
discovered
that
Langham
had
left
London
.
Gone
!
But
not
without
a
crisis
—
that
was
evident
.
During
the
din
of
preparations
for
the
Searle
House
concert
,
and
during
the
meetings
which
it
entailed
,
now
at
the
Varleys
'
,
now
at
the
house
of
some
other
connection
of
his
—
for
the
concert
was
the
work
of
his
friends
,
and
given
in
the
town
house
of
his
decrepit
great-uncle
,
Lord
Daniel
—
he
had
many
opportunities
of
observing
Rose
.
And
he
felt
a
soft
indefinable
change
in
her
which
kept
him
in
a
perpetual
answering
vibration
of
sympathy
and
curiosity
.
She
seemed
to
him
for
the
moment
to
have
lost
her
passionate
relish
for
living
,
that
relish
which
had
always
been
so
marked
with
her
.
Her
bubble
of
social
pleasure
was
pricked
.
She
did
everything
she
had
to
do
,
and
did
it
admirably
.
But
all
through
she
was
to
his
fancy
absent
and
distraite
,
pursuing
through
the
tumult
of
which
she
was
often
the
central
figure
some
inner
meditations
of
which
neither
he
nor
any
one
else
knew
anything
.
Some
eclipse
had
passed
over
the
girl
's
light
self-satisfied
temper
;
some
searching
thrill
of
experience
had
gone
through
the
whole
nature
.
She
had
suffered
,
and
she
was
quietly
fighting
down
her
suffering
without
a
word
to
anybody
.
Flaxman
's
guesses
as
to
what
had
happened
came
often
very
near
the
truth
,
and
the
mixture
of
indignation
and
relief
with
which
he
received
his
own
conjectures
amused
himself
.
'
To
think
,
'
he
said
to
himself
once
with
a
long
breath
,
'
that
that
creature
was
never
at
a
public
school
,
and
will
go
to
his
death
without
any
one
of
the
kickings
due
to
him
!
'
Then
his
very
next
impulse
,
perhaps
,
would
be
an
impulse
of
gratitude
towards
this
same
'
creature
,
'
towards
the
man
who
had
released
a
prize
he
had
had
the
tardy
sense
to
see
was
not
meant
for
him
.
Free
again
—
to
be
loved
,
to
be
won
!
There
was
the
fact
of
facts
after
all
.
His
own
future
policy
,
however
,
gave
him
much
anxious
thought
.
Clearly
at
present
the
one
thing
to
be
done
was
to
keep
his
own
ambitions
carefully
out
of
sight
.
He
had
the
skill
to
see
that
she
was
in
a
state
of
reaction
,
of
moral
and
mental
fatigue
.
What
she
mutely
seemed
to
ask
of
her
friends
was
not
to
be
made
to
feel
.
He
took
his
cue
accordingly
.
He
talked
to
his
sister
.
He
kept
Lady
Charlotte
in
order
.
After
all
her
eager
expectation
on
Hugh
's
behalf
,
Lady
Helen
had
been
dumfoundered
by
the
sudden
emergence
of
Langham
at
Lady
Charlotte
's
party
for
their
common
discomfiture
.
Who
was
the
man
?
—
why
,
what
did
it
all
mean
?
Hugh
had
the
most
provoking
way
of
giving
you
half
his
confidence
.
To
tell
you
he
was
seriously
in
love
,
and
to
omit
to
add
the
trifling
item
that
the
girl
in
question
was
probably
on
the
point
of
engaging
herself
to
somebody
else
!
Lady
Helen
made
believe
to
be
angry
,
and
it
was
not
till
she
had
reduced
Hugh
to
a
whimsical
penitence
and
a
full
confession
of
all
he
knew
or
suspected
,
that
she
consented
,
with
as
much
loftiness
as
the
physique
of
an
elf
allowed
her
,
to
be
his
good
friend
again
,
and
to
play
those
cards
for
him
which
at
the
moment
he
could
not
play
for
himself
.
So
in
the
cheeriest
daintiest
way
Rose
was
made
much
of
by
both
brother
and
sister
.
Lady
Helen
chatted
of
gowns
and
music
and
people
,
whisked
Rose
and
Agnes
off
to
this
party
and
that
,
brought
fruit
and
flowers
to
Mrs.
Leyburn
,
made
pretty
deferential
love
to
Catherine
,
and
generally
,
to
Mrs.
Pierson
's
disgust
,
became
the
girls
'
chief
chaperon
in
a
fast-filling
London
.
Meanwhile
,
Mr.
Flaxman
was
always
there
to
befriend
or
amuse
his
sister
's
protégés
—
always
there
,
but
never
in
the
way
.
He
was
bantering
,
sympathetic
,
critical
,
laudatory
,
what
you
will
;
but
all
the
time
he
preserved
a
delicate
distance
between
himself
and
Rose
,
a
bright
nonchalance
and
impersonality
of
tone
towards
her
which
made
his
companionship
a
perpetual
tonic
.
And
,
between
them
,
he
and
Helen
coerced
Lady
Charlotte
.
A
few
inconvenient
inquiries
after
Rose
's
health
,
a
few
unexplained
stares
and
'
humphs
'
and
grunts
,
a
few
irrelevant
disquisitions
on
her
nephew
's
merits
of
head
and
heart
,
were
all
she
was
able
to
allow
herself
.
And
yet
she
was
inwardly
seething
with
a
mass
of
sentiments
,
to
which
it
would
have
been
pleasant
to
give
expression
—
anger
with
Rose
for
having
been
so
blind
and
so
presumptuous
as
to
prefer
some
one
else
to
Hugh
;
anger
with
Hugh
for
his
persistent
disregard
of
her
advice
and
the
duke
's
feelings
;
and
a
burning
desire
to
know
the
precise
why
and
wherefore
of
Langham
's
disappearance
.
She
was
too
lofty
to
become
Rose
's
aunt
without
a
struggle
,
but
she
was
not
too
lofty
to
feel
the
hungriest
interest
in
her
love
affairs
.
But
,
as
we
have
said
,
the
person
who
for
the
time
profited
most
by
Rose
's
shaken
mood
was
Catherine
.
The
girl
coming
over
,
restless
under
her
own
smart
,
would
fall
to
watching
the
trial
of
the
woman
and
the
wife
,
and
would
often
perforce
forget
herself
and
her
smaller
woes
in
the
pity
of
it
.
She
stayed
in
Bedford
Square
once
for
a
week
,
and
then
for
the
first
time
she
realised
the
profound
change
which
had
passed
over
the
Elsmeres
'
life
.
As
much
tenderness
,
between
husband
and
wife
as
ever
—
perhaps
more
expression
of
it
even
than
before
,
as
though
from
an
instinctive
craving
to
hide
the
separateness
below
from
each
other
and
from
the
world
.
But
Robert
went
his
way
,
Catherine
hers
.
Their
spheres
of
work
lay
far
apart
;
their
interests
were
diverging
fast
;
and
though
Robert
at
any
rate
was
perpetually
resisting
,
all
sorts
of
fresh
invading
silences
were
always
coming
in
to
limit
talk
,
and
increase
the
number
of
sore
points
which
each
avoided
.
Robert
was
hard
at
work
in
the
East
End
under
Murray
Edwardes
's
auspices
.
He
was
already
known
to
certain
circles
as
a
seceder
from
the
Church
who
was
likely
to
become
both
powerful
and
popular
.
Two
articles
of
his
in
the
Nineteenth
Century
,
on
disputed
points
of
Biblical
criticism
,
had
distinctly
made
their
mark
,
and
several
of
the
veterans
of
philosophical
debate
had
already
taken
friendly
and
flattering
notice
of
the
new
writer
.
Meanwhile
Catherine
was
teaching
in
Mr.
Clarendon
's
Sunday
school
,
and
attending
his
prayer-meetings
.
The
more
expansive
Robert
's
energies
became
,
the
more
she
suffered
,
and
the
more
the
small
daily
opportunities
for
friction
multiplied
.
Soon
she
could
hardly
bear
to
hear
him
talk
about
his
work
,
and
she
never
opened
the
number
of
the
Nineteenth
Century
which
contained
his
papers
.
Nor
had
he
the
heart
to
ask
her
to
read
them
.
Murray
Edwardes
had
received
Elsmere
,
on
his
first
appearance
in
R
—
—
,
with
a
cordiality
and
a
helpfulness
of
the
most
self-effacing
kind
.
Robert
had
begun
with
assuring
his
new
friend
that
he
saw
no
chance
,
at
any
rate
for
the
present
,
of
his
formally
joining
the
Unitarians
.
'
I
have
not
the
heart
to
pledge
myself
again
just
yet
!
And
I
own
I
look
rather
for
a
combination
from
many
sides
than
for
the
development
of
any
now
existing
sect
.
But
supposing
,
'
he
added
,
smiling
,
'
supposing
I
do
in
time
set
up
a
congregation
and
a
service
of
my
own
,
is
there
really
room
for
you
and
me
?
Should
I
not
be
infringing
on
a
work
I
respect
a
great
deal
too
much
for
anything
of
the
sort
?
'
Edwardes
laughed
the
notion
to
scorn
.
The
parish
,
as
a
whole
,
contained
20
,
000
persons
.
The
existing
churches
,
which
,
with
the
exception
of
St.
Wilfrid
's
,
were
miserably
attended
,
provided
accommodation
at
the
outside
for
3000.
His
own
chapel
held
400
,
and
was
about
half
full
.
'
You
and
I
may
drop
our
lives
here
,
'
he
said
,
his
pleasant
friendliness
darkened
for
a
moment
by
the
look
of
melancholy
which
London
work
seems
to
develop
even
in
the
most
buoyant
of
men
,
'
and
only
a
few
hundred
persons
,
at
the
most
,
be
ever
the
wiser
.
Begin
with
us
—
then
make
your
own
circle
.
'
And
he
forthwith
carried
off
his
visitor
to
the
point
from
which
,
as
it
seemed
to
him
,
Elsmere
's
work
might
start
,
viz.
a
lecture-room
half
a
mile
from
his
own
chapel
,
where
two
helpers
of
his
had
just
established
an
independent
venture
.
Murray
Edwardes
had
at
the
time
an
interesting
and
miscellaneous
staff
of
lay-curates
.
He
asked
no
questions
as
to
religious
opinions
,
but
in
general
the
men
who
volunteered
under
him
—
civil
servants
,
a
young
doctor
,
a
briefless
barrister
or
two
—
were
men
who
had
drifted
from
received
beliefs
,
and
found
a
pleasure
and
freedom
in
working
for
and
with
him
they
could
hardly
have
found
elsewhere
.
The
two
who
had
planted
their
outpost
in
what
seemed
to
them
a
particularly
promising
corner
of
the
district
were
men
of
whom
Edwardes
knew
personally
little
.
'
I
have
really
not
much
concern
with
what
they
do
,
'
he
explained
to
Elsmere
,
'
except
that
they
get
a
small
share
of
our
funds
.
But
I
know
they
want
help
,
and
if
they
will
take
you
in
,
I
think
you
will
make
something
of
it
.
'
After
a
tramp
through
the
muddy
winter
streets
,
they
came
upon
a
new
block
of
warehouses
,
in
the
lower
windows
of
which
some
bills
announced
a
night-school
for
boys
and
men
.
Here
,
to
judge
from
the
commotion
round
the
doors
,
a
lively
scene
was
going
on
.
Outside
,
a
gang
of
young
roughs
were
hammering
at
the
doors
,
and
shrieking
witticisms
through
the
keyhole
.
Inside
,
as
soon
as
Murray
Edwardes
and
Elsmere
,
by
dint
of
good
humour
and
strong
shoulders
,
had
succeeded
in
shoving
their
way
through
and
shutting
the
door
behind
them
,
they
found
a
still
more
animated
performance
in
progress
.
The
schoolroom
was
in
almost
total
darkness
;
the
pupils
,
some
twenty
in
number
,
were
racing
about
,
like
so
many
shadowy
demons
,
pelting
each
other
and
their
teachers
with
the
'
dips
'
which
,
as
the
buildings
were
new
,
and
not
yet
fitted
for
gas
,
had
been
provided
to
light
them
through
their
three
R
's
.
In
the
middle
stood
the
two
philanthropists
they
were
in
search
of
,
freely
bedaubed
with
tallow
,
one
employed
in
boxing
a
boy
's
ears
,
the
other
in
saving
a
huge
inkbottle
whereon
some
enterprising
spirit
had
just
laid
hands
by
way
of
varying
the
rebel
ammunition
.
Murray
Edwardes
,
who
was
in
his
element
,
went
to
the
rescue
at
once
,
helped
by
Robert
.
The
boy-minister
,
as
he
looked
,
had
been
,
in
fact
,
'
bow
'
of
the
Cambridge
eight
,
and
possessed
muscles
which
men
twice
his
size
might
have
envied
.
In
three
minutes
he
had
put
a
couple
of
ringleaders
into
the
street
by
the
scruff
of
the
neck
,
relit
a
lamp
which
had
been
turned
out
,
and
got
the
rest
of
the
rioters
in
hand
.
Elsmere
backed
him
ably
,
and
in
a
very
short
time
they
had
cleared
the
premises
.
Then
the
four
looked
at
each
other
,
and
Edwardes
went
off
into
a
shout
of
laughter
.
'
My
dear
Wardlaw
,
my
condolences
to
your
coat
!
But
I
do
n't
believe
if
I
were
a
rough
myself
I
could
resist
"
dips
.
"
Let
me
introduce
a
friend
—
Mr.
Elsmere
—
and
if
you
will
have
him
,
a
recruit
for
your
work
.
It
seems
to
me
another
pair
of
arms
will
hardly
come
amiss
to
you
!
'
The
short
red-haired
man
addressed
shook
hands
with
Elsmere
,
scrutinising
him
from
under
bushy
eyebrows
.
He
was
panting
and
beplastered
with
tallow
,
but
the
inner
man
was
evidently
quite
unruffled
,
and
Elsmere
liked
the
shrewd
Scotch
face
and
gray
eyes
.
'
It
is
n't
only
a
pair
of
arms
we
want
,
'
he
remarked
drily
,
'
but
a
bit
of
science
behind
them
.
Mr.
Elsmere
,
I
observed
,
can
use
his
.
'
Then
he
turned
to
a
tall
affected-looking
youth
with
a
large
nose
and
long
fair
hair
,
who
stood
gasping
with
his
hands
upon
his
sides
,
his
eyes
,
full
of
a
moody
wrath
,
fixed
on
the
wreck
and
disarray
of
the
schoolroom
.
'
Well
,
Mackay
,
have
they
knocked
the
wind
out
of
you
?
My
friend
and
helper
—
Mr.
Elsmere
.
Come
and
sit
down
,
wo
n't
you
,
a
minute
.
They
've
left
us
the
chairs
,
I
perceive
,
and
there
's
a
spark
or
two
of
fire
.
Do
you
smoke
?
Will
you
light
up
?
'
The
four
men
sat
on
chatting
some
time
,
and
then
Wardlaw
and
Elsmere
walked
home
together
.
It
had
been
all
arranged
.
Mackay
,
a
curious
morbid
fellow
,
who
had
thrown
himself
into
Unitarianism
and
charity
mainly
out
of
opposition
to
an
orthodox
and
bourgeois
family
,
and
who
had
a
great
idea
of
his
own
social
powers
,
was
somewhat
grudging
and
ungracious
through
it
all
.
But
Elsmere
's
proposals
were
much
too
good
to
be
refused
.
He
offered
to
bring
to
the
undertaking
his
time
,
his
clergyman
's
experience
,
and
as
much
money
as
might
be
wanted
.
Wardlaw
listened
to
him
cautiously
for
an
hour
,
took
stock
of
the
whole
man
physically
and
morally
,
and
finally
said
,
as
he
very
quietly
and
deliberately
knocked
the
ashes
out
of
his
pipe
,
—
'
All
right
,
I
'm
your
man
,
Mr.
Elsmere
.
If
Mackay
agrees
,
I
vote
we
make
you
captain
of
this
venture
.
'
'
Nothing
of
the
sort
,
'
said
Elsmere
.
'
In
London
I
am
a
novice
;
I
come
to
learn
,
not
to
lead
.
'
Wardlaw
shook
his
head
with
a
little
shrewd
smile
.
Mackay
faintly
endorsed
his
companion
's
offer
,
and
the
party
broke
up
.
That
was
in
January
.
In
two
months
from
that
time
,
by
the
natural
force
of
things
,
Elsmere
,
in
spite
of
diffidence
and
his
own
most
sincere
wish
to
avoid
a
premature
leadership
,
had
become
the
head
and
heart
of
the
Elgood
Street
undertaking
,
which
had
already
assumed
much
larger
proportions
.
Wardlaw
was
giving
him
silent
approval
and
invaluable
help
,
while
young
Mackay
was
in
the
first
uncomfortable
stages
of
a
hero-worship
which
promised
to
be
exceedingly
good
for
him
.
CHAPTER
XXXVIII
There
were
one
or
two
curious
points
connected
with
the
beginnings
of
Elsmere
's
venture
in
North
R
—
—
,
one
of
which
may
just
be
noticed
here
.
Wardlaw
,
his
predecessor
and
colleague
,
had
speculatively
little
or
nothing
in
common
with
Elsmere
or
Murray
Edwardes
.
He
was
a
devoted
and
orthodox
Comtist
,
for
whom
Edwardes
had
provided
an
outlet
for
the
philanthropic
passion
,
as
he
had
for
many
others
belonging
to
far
stranger
and
remoter
faiths
.
By
profession
he
was
a
barrister
,
with
a
small
and
struggling
practice
.
On
this
practice
,
however
,
he
had
married
,
and
his
wife
,
who
had
been
a
doctor
's
daughter
and
a
national
schoolmistress
,
had
the
same
ardours
as
himself
.
They
lived
in
one
of
the
dismal
little
squares
near
the
Goswell
Road
,
and
had
two
children
.
The
wife
,
as
a
Positivist
mother
is
bound
to
do
,
tended
and
taught
her
children
entirely
herself
.
She
might
have
been
seen
any
day
wheeling
their
perambulator
through
the
dreary
streets
of
a
dreary
region
;
she
was
their
Providence
,
their
deity
,
the
representative
to
them
of
all
tenderness
and
all
authority
.
But
when
her
work
with
them
was
done
,
she
would
throw
herself
into
charity
organisation
cases
,
into
efforts
for
the
protection
of
workhouse
servants
,
into
the
homeliest
acts
of
ministry
towards
the
sick
,
till
her
dowdy
little
figure
and
her
face
,
which
but
for
the
stress
of
London
,
of
labour
,
and
of
poverty
,
would
have
had
a
blunt
fresh-coloured
dairymaid
's
charm
,
became
symbols
of
a
divine
and
sacred
helpfulness
in
the
eyes
of
hundreds
of
straining
men
and
women
.
The
husband
also
,
after
a
day
spent
in
chambers
,
would
give
his
evenings
to
teaching
or
committee
work
.
They
never
allowed
themselves
to
breathe
even
to
each
other
that
life
might
have
brighter
things
to
show
them
than
the
neighbourhood
of
the
Goswell
Road
.
There
was
a
certain
narrowness
in
their
devotion
;
they
had
their
bitternesses
and
ignorances
like
other
people
;
but
the
more
Robert
knew
of
them
the
more
profound
became
his
admiration
for
that
potent
spirit
of
social
help
which
in
our
generation
Comtism
has
done
so
much
to
develop
,
even
among
those
of
us
who
are
but
moderately
influenced
by
Comte
's
philosophy
,
and
can
make
nothing
of
the
religion
of
Humanity
.
Wardlaw
has
no
large
part
in
the
story
of
Elsmere
's
work
in
North
R
—
—
.
In
spite
of
Robert
's
efforts
,
and
against
his
will
,
the
man
of
meaner
gifts
and
commoner
clay
was
eclipsed
by
that
brilliant
and
persuasive
something
in
Elsmere
which
a
kind
genius
had
infused
into
him
at
birth
.
And
we
shall
see
that
in
time
Robert
's
energies
took
a
direction
which
Wardlaw
could
not
follow
with
any
heartiness
.
But
at
the
beginning
Elsmere
owed
him
much
,
and
it
was
a
debt
he
was
never
tired
of
honouring
.
In
the
first
place
,
Wardlaw
's
choice
of
the
Elgood
Street
room
as
a
fresh
centre
for
civilising
effort
had
been
extremely
shrewd
.
The
district
lying
about
it
,
as
Robert
soon
came
to
know
,
contained
a
number
of
promising
elements
.
Close
by
the
dingy
street
which
sheltered
their
schoolroom
rose
the
great
pile
of
a
new
factory
of
artistic
pottery
,
a
rival
on
the
north
side
of
the
river
to
Doulton
's
immense
works
on
the
south
.
The
old
winding
streets
near
it
,
and
the
blocks
of
workmen
's
dwellings
recently
erected
under
its
shadow
,
were
largely
occupied
by
the
workers
in
its
innumerable
floors
,
and
among
these
workers
was
a
large
proportion
of
skilled
artisans
,
men
often
of
a
considerable
amount
of
cultivation
,
earning
high
wages
,
and
maintaining
a
high
standard
of
comfort
.
A
great
many
of
them
,
trained
in
the
art
school
which
Murray
Edwardes
had
been
largely
instrumental
in
establishing
within
easy
distance
of
their
houses
,
were
men
of
genuine
artistic
gifts
and
accomplishment
,
and
as
the
development
of
one
faculty
tends
on
the
whole
to
set
others
working
,
when
Robert
,
after
a
few
weeks
'
work
in
the
place
,
set
up
a
popular
historical
lecture
once
a
fortnight
,
announcing
the
fact
by
a
blue
and
white
poster
in
the
schoolroom
windows
,
it
was
the
potters
who
provided
him
with
his
first
hearers
.
The
rest
of
the
parish
was
divided
between
a
population
of
dock
labourers
,
settled
there
to
supply
the
needs
of
the
great
dock
which
ran
up
into
the
south-eastern
corner
of
it
,
two
or
three
huge
breweries
,
and
a
colony
of
watchmakers
,
an
offshoot
of
Clerkenwell
,
who
lived
together
in
two
or
three
streets
,
and
showed
the
same
peculiarities
of
race
and
specialised
training
to
be
noticed
in
the
more
northerly
settlement
from
which
they
had
been
thrown
off
like
a
swarm
from
a
hive
.
Outside
these
well-defined
trades
there
was
,
of
course
,
a
warehouse
population
,
and
a
mass
of
heterogeneous
cadging
and
catering
which
went
on
chiefly
in
the
riverside
streets
at
the
other
side
of
the
parish
from
Elgood
Street
,
in
the
neighbourhood
of
St.
Wilfrid
's
.
St.
Wilfrid
's
at
this
moment
seemed
to
Robert
to
be
doing
a
very
successful
work
among
the
lowest
strata
of
the
parish
.
From
them
at
one
end
of
the
scale
,
and
from
the
innumerable
clerks
and
superintendents
who
during
the
daytime
crowded
the
vast
warehouses
of
which
the
district
was
full
,
its
Lenten
congregations
,
now
in
full
activity
,
were
chiefly
drawn
.
The
Protestant
opposition
,
which
had
shown
itself
so
brutally
and
persistently
in
old
days
,
was
now
,
so
far
as
outward
manifestations
went
,
all
but
extinct
.
The
cassocked
monk-like
clergy
might
preach
and
'
process
'
in
the
open
air
as
much
as
they
pleased
.
The
populace
,
where
it
was
not
indifferent
,
was
friendly
,
and
devoted
living
had
borne
its
natural
fruits
.
A
small
incident
,
which
need
not
be
recorded
,
recalled
to
Elsmere
's
mind
—
after
he
had
been
working
some
six
weeks
in
the
district
—
the
forgotten
unwelcome
fact
that
St.
Wilfrid
's
was
the
very
church
where
Newcome
,
first
as
senior
curate
and
then
as
vicar
,
had
spent
those
ten
wonderful
years
into
which
Elsmere
at
Murewell
had
been
never
tired
of
inquiring
.
The
thought
of
Newcome
was
a
very
sore
thought
.
Elsmere
had
written
to
him
announcing
his
resignation
of
his
living
immediately
after
his
interview
with
the
bishop
.
The
letter
had
remained
unanswered
,
and
it
was
by
now
tolerably
clear
that
the
silence
of
its
recipient
meant
a
withdrawal
from
all
friendly
relations
with
the
writer
.
Elsmere
's
affectionate
sensitive
nature
took
such
things
hardly
,
especially
as
he
knew
that
Newcome
's
life
was
becoming
increasingly
difficult
and
embittered
.
And
it
gave
him
now
a
fresh
pang
to
imagine
how
Newcome
would
receive
the
news
of
his
quondam
friend
's
'
infidel
propaganda
,
'
established
on
the
very
ground
where
he
himself
had
all
but
died
for
those
beliefs
Elsmere
had
thrown
over
.
But
Robert
was
learning
a
certain
hardness
in
this
London
life
which
was
not
without
its
uses
to
character
.
Hitherto
he
had
always
swum
with
the
stream
,
cheered
by
the
support
of
all
the
great
and
prevailing
English
traditions
.
Here
,
he
and
his
few
friends
were
fighting
a
solitary
fight
apart
from
the
organised
system
of
English
religion
and
English
philanthropy
.
All
the
elements
of
culture
and
religion
already
existing
in
the
place
were
against
them
.
The
clergy
of
St.
Wilfrid
's
passed
them
with
cold
averted
eyes
;
the
old
and
fainéant
rector
of
the
parish
church
very
soon
let
it
be
known
what
he
thought
as
to
the
taste
of
Elsmere
's
intrusion
on
his
parish
,
or
as
to
the
eternal
chances
of
those
who
might
take
either
him
or
Edwardes
as
guides
in
matters
religious
.
His
enmity
did
Elgood
Street
no
harm
,
and
the
pretensions
of
the
Church
,
in
this
Babel
of
20
,
000
souls
,
to
cover
the
whole
field
,
bore
clearly
no
relation
at
all
to
the
facts
.
But
every
little
incident
in
this
new
struggle
of
his
life
cost
Elsmere
more
perhaps
than
it
would
have
cost
other
men
.
No
part
of
it
came
easily
to
him
.
Only
a
high
Utopian
vision
drove
him
on
from
day
to
day
,
bracing
him
to
act
and
judge
,
if
need
be
,
alone
and
for
himself
,
approved
only
by
conscience
and
the
inward
voice
.
'
Tasks
in
hours
of
insight
willed
Can
be
in
hours
of
gloom
fulfilled
;
'
and
it
was
that
moment
by
the
river
which
worked
in
him
through
all
the
prosaic
and
perplexing
details
of
this
new
attempt
to
carry
enthusiasm
into
life
.
It
was
soon
plain
to
him
that
in
this
teeming
section
of
London
the
chance
of
the
religious
reformer
lay
entirely
among
the
upper
working
class
.
In
London
,
at
any
rate
,
all
that
is
most
prosperous
and
intelligent
among
the
working
class
holds
itself
aloof
—
broadly
speaking
—
from
all
existing
spiritual
agencies
,
whether
of
Church
or
Dissent
.
Upon
the
genuine
London
artisan
the
Church
has
practically
no
hold
whatever
;
and
Dissent
has
nothing
like
the
hold
which
it
has
on
similar
material
in
the
great
towns
of
the
North
.
Towards
religion
in
general
the
prevailing
attitude
is
one
of
indifference
tinged
with
hostility
.
'
Eight
hundred
thousand
people
in
South
London
,
of
whom
the
enormous
proportion
belong
to
the
working
class
,
and
among
them
,
Church
and
Dissent
nowhere
—
Christianity
not
in
possession
.
'
Such
is
the
estimate
of
an
Evangelical
of
our
day
;
and
similar
laments
come
from
all
parts
of
the
capital
.
The
Londoner
is
on
the
whole
more
conceited
,
more
prejudiced
,
more
given
over
to
crude
theorising
,
than
his
North-country
brother
,
the
mill-hand
,
whose
mere
position
,
as
one
of
a
homogeneous
and
tolerably
constant
body
,
subjects
him
to
a
continuous
discipline
of
intercourse
and
discussion
.
Our
popular
religion
,
broadly
speaking
,
means
nothing
to
him
.
He
is
sharp
enough
to
see
through
its
contradictions
and
absurdities
;
he
has
no
dread
of
losing
what
he
never
valued
;
his
sense
of
antiquity
,
of
history
,
is
nil
;
and
his
life
supplies
him
with
excitement
enough
without
the
stimulants
of
'
other-worldliness
.
'
Religion
has
been
on
the
whole
irrationally
presented
to
him
,
and
the
result
on
his
part
has
been
an
irrational
breach
with
the
whole
moral
and
religious
order
of
ideas
.
But
the
race
is
quick-witted
and
imaginative
.
The
Greek
cities
which
welcomed
and
spread
Christianity
carried
within
them
much
the
same
elements
as
are
supplied
by
certain
sections
of
the
London
working
class
—
elements
of
restlessness
,
of
sensibility
,
of
passion
.
The
mere
intermingling
of
races
,
which
a
modern
capital
shares
with
those
old
towns
of
Asia
Minor
,
predisposes
the
mind
to
a
greater
openness
and
receptiveness
,
whether
for
good
or
evil
.
As
the
weeks
passed
on
,
and
after
the
first
inevitable
despondency
produced
by
strange
surroundings
and
an
unwonted
isolation
had
begun
to
wear
off
,
Robert
often
found
himself
filled
with
a
strange
flame
and
ardour
of
hope
!
But
his
first
steps
had
nothing
to
do
with
religion
.
He
made
himself
quickly
felt
in
the
night-school
,
and
as
soon
as
he
possibly
could
he
hired
a
large
room
at
the
back
of
their
existing
room
,
on
the
same
floor
,
where
,
on
the
recreation
evenings
,
he
might
begin
the
story-telling
,
which
had
been
so
great
a
success
at
Murewell
.
The
story-telling
struck
the
neighbourhood
as
a
great
novelty
.
At
first
only
a
few
youths
straggled
in
from
the
front
room
,
where
dominoes
and
draughts
and
the
illustrated
papers
held
seductive
sway
.
The
next
night
the
number
was
increased
,
and
by
the
fourth
or
fifth
evening
the
room
was
so
well
filled
both
by
boys
and
a
large
contingent
of
artisans
,
that
it
seemed
well
to
appoint
a
special
evening
in
the
week
for
story-telling
,
or
the
recreation
room
would
have
been
deserted
.
In
these
performances
Elsmere
's
aim
had
always
been
twofold
—
the
rousing
of
moral
sympathy
and
the
awakening
of
the
imaginative
power
pure
and
simple
.
He
ranged
the
whole
world
for
stories
.
Sometimes
it
would
be
merely
some
feature
of
London
life
itself
—
the
history
of
a
great
fire
,
for
instance
,
and
its
hairbreadth
escapes
;
a
collision
in
the
river
;
a
string
of
instances
as
true
and
homely
and
realistic
as
they
could
be
made
of
the
way
in
which
the
poor
help
one
another
.
Sometimes
it
would
be
stories
illustrating
the
dangers
and
difficulties
of
particular
trades
—
a
colliery
explosion
and
the
daring
of
the
rescuers
;
incidents
from
the
life
of
the
great
Northern
ironworks
,
or
from
that
of
the
Lancashire
factories
;
or
stories
of
English
country
life
and
its
humours
,
given
sometimes
in
dialect
—
Devonshire
,
or
Yorkshire
,
or
Cumberland
—
for
which
he
had
a
special
gift
.
Or
,
again
,
he
would
take
the
sea
and
its
terrors
—
the
immortal
story
of
the
Birkenhead
;
the
deadly
plunge
of
the
Captain
;
the
records
of
the
lifeboats
,
or
the
fascinating
story
of
the
ships
of
science
,
exploring
step
by
step
,
through
miles
of
water
,
the
past
,
the
inhabitants
,
the
hills
and
valleys
of
that
underworld
,
that
vast
Atlantic
bed
,
in
which
Mont
Blanc
might
be
buried
without
showing
even
his
topmost
snowfield
above
the
plain
of
waves
.
Then
at
other
times
it
would
be
the
simple
frolic
and
fancy
of
fiction
—
fairy
tale
and
legend
,
Greek
myth
or
Icelandic
saga
,
episodes
from
Walter
Scott
,
from
Cooper
,
from
Dumas
;
to
be
followed
perhaps
on
the
next
evening
by
the
terse
and
vigorous
biography
of
some
man
of
the
people
—
of
Stephenson
or
Cobden
,
of
Thomas
Cooper
or
John
Bright
,
or
even
of
Thomas
Carlyle
.
One
evening
,
some
weeks
after
it
had
begun
,
Hugh
Flaxman
,
hearing
from
Rose
of
the
success
of
the
experiment
,
went
down
to
hear
his
new
acquaintance
tell
the
story
of
Monte
Cristo
's
escape
from
the
Château
d'If
.
He
started
an
hour
earlier
than
was
necessary
,
and
with
an
admirable
impartiality
he
spent
that
hour
at
St.
Wilfrid
's
hearing
vespers
.
Flaxman
had
a
passion
for
intellectual
or
social
novelty
;
and
this
passion
was
beguiling
him
into
a
close
observation
of
Elsmere
.
At
the
same
time
he
was
crossed
and
complicated
by
all
sorts
of
fastidious
conservative
fibres
,
and
when
his
friends
talked
rationalism
,
it
often
gave
him
a
vehement
pleasure
to
maintain
that
a
good
Catholic
or
Ritualist
service
was
worth
all
their
arguments
,
and
would
outlast
them
.
His
taste
drew
him
to
the
Church
,
so
did
a
love
of
opposition
to
current
'
isms
.
'
Bishops
counted
on
him
for
subscriptions
,
and
High
Church
divines
sent
him
their
pamphlets
.
He
never
refused
the
subscriptions
,
but
it
should
be
added
that
with
equal
regularity
he
dropped
the
pamphlets
into
his
waste-paper
basket
.
Altogether
a
not
very
decipherable
person
in
religious
matters
—
as
Rose
had
already
discovered
.
The
change
from
the
dim
and
perfumed
spaces
of
St.
Wilfrid
's
to
the
bare
warehouse
room
with
its
packed
rows
of
listeners
was
striking
enough
.
Here
were
no
bowed
figures
,
no
recueillement
.
In
the
blaze
of
crude
light
every
eager
eye
was
fixed
upon
the
slight
elastic
figure
on
the
platform
,
each
change
in
the
expressive
face
,
each
gesture
of
the
long
arms
and
thin
flexible
hands
,
finding
its
response
in
the
laughter
,
the
attentive
silence
,
the
frowning
suspense
of
the
audience
.
At
one
point
a
band
of
young
roughs
at
the
back
made
a
disturbance
,
but
their
neighbours
had
the
offenders
quelled
and
out
in
a
twinkling
,
and
the
room
cried
out
for
a
repetition
of
the
sentences
which
had
been
lost
in
the
noise
.
When
Dantes
,
opening
his
knife
with
his
teeth
,
managed
to
cut
the
strings
of
the
sack
,
a
gasp
of
relief
ran
through
the
crowd
;
when
at
last
he
reached
terra
firma
there
was
a
ringing
cheer
.
'
What
is
he
,
d'ye
know
?
'
Flaxman
heard
a
mechanic
ask
his
neighbour
,
as
Robert
paused
for
a
moment
to
get
breath
,
the
man
jerking
a
grimy
thumb
in
the
story-teller
's
direction
meanwhile
.
'
Seems
like
a
parson
somehow
.
But
he
ai
n't
a
parson
.
'
'
Not
he
,
'
said
the
other
laconically
.
'
Knows
better
.
Most
of
'
em
as
comes
down
'
ere
stuffs
all
they
have
to
say
as
full
of
goody-goody
as
an
egg
's
full
of
meat
.
If
he
wur
that
sort
you
would
n't
catch
me
here
.
Never
heard
him
say
anything
in
the
"
dear
brethren
"
sort
of
style
,
and
I
've
been
'
ere
most
o
'
these
evenings
and
to
his
lectures
besides
.
'
'
Perhaps
he
's
one
of
your
d
—
d
sly
ones
,
'
said
the
first
speaker
dubiously
.
'
Means
to
shovel
it
in
by
and
by
.
'
'
Well
,
I
do
n't
know
as
I
could
n't
stand
it
if
he
did
,
'
returned
his
companion
.
'
He
'd
let
other
fellers
have
their
say
,
anyhow
.
'
Flaxman
looked
curiously
at
the
speaker
.
He
was
a
young
man
,
a
gasfitter
—
to
judge
by
the
contents
of
the
basket
he
seemed
to
have
brought
in
with
him
on
his
way
from
work
—
with
eyes
like
live
birds
'
,
and
small
emaciated
features
.
During
the
story
Flaxman
had
noticed
the
man
's
thin
begrimed
hand
,
as
it
rested
on
the
bench
in
front
of
him
,
trembling
with
excitement
.
Another
project
of
Robert
's
,
started
as
soon
as
he
had
felt
his
way
a
little
in
the
district
,
was
the
scientific
Sunday
school
.
This
was
the
direct
result
of
a
paragraph
in
Huxley
's
Lay
Sermons
,
where
the
hint
of
such
a
school
was
first
thrown
out
.
However
,
since
the
introduction
of
science
teaching
into
the
Board
schools
,
the
novelty
and
necessity
of
such
a
supplement
to
a
child
's
ordinary
education
is
not
what
it
was
.
Robert
set
it
up
mainly
for
the
sake
of
drawing
the
boys
out
of
the
streets
in
the
afternoons
,
and
providing
them
with
some
other
food
for
fancy
and
delight
than
larking
and
smoking
and
penny
dreadfuls
.
A
little
simple
chemical
and
electrical
experiment
went
down
greatly
;
so
did
a
botany
class
,
to
which
Elsmere
would
come
armed
with
two
stores
of
flowers
,
one
to
be
picked
to
pieces
,
the
other
to
be
distributed
according
to
memory
and
attention
.
A
year
before
he
had
had
a
number
of
large
coloured
plates
of
tropical
fruit
and
flowers
prepared
for
him
by
a
Kew
assistant
.
These
he
would
often
set
up
on
a
large
screen
,
or
put
up
on
the
walls
,
till
the
dingy
schoolroom
became
a
bower
of
superb
blossom
and
luxuriant
leaf
,
a
glow
of
red
and
purple
and
orange
.
And
then
—
still
by
the
help
of
pictures
—
he
would
take
his
class
on
a
tour
through
strange
lands
,
talking
to
them
of
China
or
Egypt
or
South
America
,
till
they
followed
him
up
the
Amazon
,
or
into
the
pyramids
or
through
the
Pampas
,
or
into
the
mysterious
buried
cities
of
Mexico
,
as
the
children
of
Hamelin
followed
the
magic
of
the
Pied
Piper
.
Hardly
any
of
those
who
came
to
him
,
adults
or
children
,
while
almost
all
of
the
artisan
class
,
were
of
the
poorest
class
.
He
knew
it
,
and
had
laid
his
plans
for
such
a
result
.
Such
work
as
he
had
at
heart
has
no
chance
with
the
lowest
in
the
social
scale
,
in
its
beginnings
.
It
must
have
something
to
work
upon
,
and
must
penetrate
downwards
.
He
only
can
receive
who
already
hath
—
there
is
no
profounder
axiom
.
And
meanwhile
the
months
passed
on
,
and
he
was
still
brooding
,
still
waiting
.
At
last
the
spark
fell
.
There
,
in
the
next
street
but
one
to
Elgood
Street
,
rose
the
famous
Workmen
's
Club
of
North
R
—
—
.
It
had
been
started
by
a
former
Liberal
clergyman
of
the
parish
,
whose
main
object
,
however
,
had
been
to
train
the
workmen
to
manage
it
for
themselves
.
His
training
had
been
,
in
fact
,
too
successful
.
Not
only
was
it
now
wholly
managed
by
artisans
,
but
it
had
come
to
be
a
centre
of
active
,
nay
,
brutal
,
opposition
to
the
Church
and
faith
which
had
originally
fostered
it
.
In
organic
connection
with
it
was
a
large
debating
hall
,
in
which
the
most
notorious
secularist
lecturers
held
forth
every
Sunday
evening
;
and
next
door
to
it
,
under
its
shadow
and
patronage
,
was
a
little
dingy
shop
filled
to
overflowing
with
the
coarsest
free-thinking
publications
,
Colonel
Ingersoll
's
books
occupying
the
place
of
honour
in
the
window
and
the
Freethinker
placard
flaunting
at
the
door
.
Inside
there
was
still
more
highly
seasoned
literature
even
than
the
Freethinker
to
be
had
.
There
was
in
particular
a
small
halfpenny
paper
which
was
understood
to
be
in
some
sense
the
special
organ
of
the
North
R
—
—
Club
;
which
was
at
any
rate
published
close
by
,
and
edited
by
one
of
the
workmen
founders
of
the
club
.
This
unsavoury
sheet
began
to
be
more
and
more
defiantly
advertised
through
the
parish
as
Lent
drew
on
towards
Passion
week
,
and
the
exertions
of
St.
Wilfrid
's
and
of
the
other
churches
,
which
were
being
spurred
on
by
the
Ritualists
'
success
,
became
more
apparent
.
Soon
it
seemed
to
Robert
that
every
bit
of
hoarding
and
every
waste
wall
was
filled
with
the
announcement
:
—
'
Read
Faith
and
Fools
.
Enormous
success
.
Our
Comic
Life
of
Christ
now
nearly
completed
.
Quite
the
best
thing
of
its
kind
going
.
Woodcut
this
week
—
Transfiguration
.
'
His
heart
grew
fierce
within
him
.
One
night
in
Passion
week
he
left
the
night-school
about
ten
o'clock
.
His
way
led
him
past
the
club
,
which
was
brilliantly
lit
up
,
and
evidently
in
full
activity
.
Round
the
door
there
was
a
knot
of
workmen
lounging
.
It
was
a
mild
moonlit
April
night
,
and
the
air
was
pleasant
.
Several
of
them
had
copies
of
Faith
and
Fools
,
and
were
showing
the
week
's
woodcut
to
those
about
them
,
with
chuckles
and
spirts
of
laughter
.
Robert
caught
a
few
words
as
he
hurried
past
them
,
and
stirred
by
a
sudden
impulse
turned
into
the
shop
beyond
,
and
asked
for
the
paper
.
The
woman
handed
it
to
him
,
and
gave
him
his
change
with
a
business-like
sangfroid
,
which
struck
on
his
tired
nerves
almost
more
painfully
than
the
laughing
brutality
of
the
men
he
had
just
passed
.
Directly
he
found
himself
in
another
street
he
opened
the
paper
under
a
lamp-post
.
It
contained
a
caricature
of
the
Crucifixion
,
the
scroll
emanating
from
Mary
Magdalene
's
mouth
,
in
particular
,
containing
obscenities
which
cannot
be
quoted
here
.
Robert
thrust
it
into
his
pocket
and
strode
on
,
every
nerve
quivering
.
'
This
is
Wednesday
in
Passion
week
,
'
he
said
to
himself
.
'
The
day
after
to-morrow
is
Good
Friday
!
'
He
walked
fast
in
a
north-westerly
direction
,
and
soon
found
himself
within
the
City
,
where
the
streets
were
long
since
empty
and
silent
.
But
he
noticed
nothing
around
him
.
His
thoughts
were
in
the
distant
East
,
among
the
flat
roofs
and
white
walls
of
Nazareth
,
the
olives
of
Bethany
,
the
steep
streets
and
rocky
ramparts
of
Jerusalem
.
He
had
seen
them
with
the
bodily
eye
,
and
the
fact
had
enormously
quickened
his
historical
perception
.
The
child
of
Nazareth
,
the
moralist
and
teacher
of
Capernaum
and
Gennesaret
,
the
strenuous
seer
and
martyr
of
the
later
Jerusalem
preaching
—
all
these
various
images
sprang
into
throbbing
poetic
life
within
him
.
That
anything
in
human
shape
should
be
found
capable
of
dragging
this
life
and
this
death
through
the
mire
of
a
hideous
and
befouling
laughter
!
Who
was
responsible
?
To
what
cause
could
one
trace
such
a
temper
of
mind
towards
such
an
object
—
present
and
militant
as
that
temper
is
in
all
the
crowded
centres
of
working
life
throughout
modern
Europe
?
The
toiler
of
the
world
as
he
matures
may
be
made
to
love
Socrates
or
Buddha
or
Marcus
Aurelius
.
It
would
seem
often
as
though
he
could
not
be
made
to
love
Jesus
!
Is
it
the
Nemesis
that
ultimately
discovers
and
avenges
the
sublimest
,
the
least
conscious
departure
from
simplicity
and
verity
?
—
is
it
the
last
and
most
terrible
illustration
of
a
great
axiom
:
'
Faith
has
a
judge
—
in
truth
'
?
He
went
home
and
lay
awake
half
the
night
pondering
.
If
he
could
but
pour
out
his
heart
!
But
though
Catherine
,
the
wife
of
his
heart
,
of
his
youth
,
is
there
,
close
beside
him
,
doubt
and
struggle
and
perplexity
are
alike
frozen
on
his
lips
.
He
cannot
speak
without
sympathy
,
and
she
will
not
hear
except
under
a
moral
compulsion
which
he
shrinks
more
and
more
painfully
from
exercising
.
The
next
night
was
a
story-telling
night
.
He
spent
it
in
telling
the
legend
of
St.
Francis
.
When
it
was
over
he
asked
the
audience
to
wait
a
moment
,
and
there
and
then
—
with
the
tender
imaginative
Franciscan
atmosphere
,
as
it
were
,
still
about
them
—
he
delivered
a
short
and
vigorous
protest
in
the
name
of
decency
,
good
feeling
,
and
common
sense
,
against
the
idiotic
profanities
with
which
the
whole
immediate
neighbourhood
seemed
to
be
reeking
.
It
was
the
first
time
he
had
approached
any
religious
matter
directly
.
A
knot
of
workmen
sitting
together
at
the
back
of
the
room
looked
at
each
other
with
a
significant
grimace
or
two
.
When
Robert
ceased
speaking
one
of
them
,
an
elderly
watch
maker
,
got
up
and
made
a
dry
and
cynical
little
speech
,
nothing
moving
but
the
thin
lips
in
the
shrivelled
mahogany
face
.
Robert
knew
the
man
well
.
He
was
a
Genevese
by
birth
,
Calvinist
by
blood
,
revolutionist
by
development
.
He
complained
that
Mr.
Elsmere
had
taken
his
audience
by
surprise
;
that
a
good
many
of
those
present
understood
the
remarks
he
had
just
made
as
an
attack
upon
an
institution
in
which
many
of
them
were
deeply
interested
;
and
that
he
invited
Mr.
Elsmere
to
a
more
thorough
discussion
of
the
matter
,
in
a
place
where
he
could
be
both
heard
and
answered
.
The
room
applauded
with
some
signs
of
suppressed
excitement
.
Most
of
the
men
there
were
accustomed
to
disputation
of
the
sort
which
any
Sunday
visitor
to
Victoria
Park
may
hear
going
on
there
week
after
week
.
Elsmere
had
made
a
vivid
impression
;
and
the
prospect
of
a
fight
with
him
had
an
unusual
piquancy
.
Robert
sprang
up
.
'
When
you
will
,
'
he
said
.
'
I
am
ready
to
stand
by
what
I
have
just
said
in
the
face
of
you
all
,
if
you
care
to
hear
it
.
'
Place
and
particulars
were
hastily
arranged
,
subject
to
the
approval
of
the
club
committee
,
and
Elsmere
's
audience
separated
in
a
glow
of
curiosity
and
expectation
.
'
Did
n't
I
tell
ye
?
'
the
gasfitter
's
snarling
friend
said
to
him
.
'
Scratch
him
and
you
find
the
parson
.
These
upper-class
folk
,
when
they
come
among
us
poor
ones
,
always
seem
to
me
just
hunting
for
souls
,
as
those
Injuns
he
was
talking
about
last
week
hunt
for
scalps
.
They
ca
n't
get
to
heaven
without
a
certain
number
of
'
em
slung
about
'
em
.
'
'
Wait
a
bit
!
'
said
the
gasfitter
,
his
quick
dark
eyes
betraying
a
certain
raised
inner
temperature
.
Next
morning
the
North
R
—
—
Club
was
placarded
with
announcements
that
on
Easter
Eve
next
Robert
Elsmere
,
Esq.
,
would
deliver
a
lecture
in
the
Debating
Hall
on
'
The
Claim
of
Jesus
upon
Modern
Life
'
;
to
be
followed
,
as
usual
,
by
general
discussion
.
CHAPTER
XXXIX
It
was
the
afternoon
of
Good
Friday
.
Catherine
had
been
to
church
at
St.
Paul
's
,
and
Robert
,
though
not
without
some
inward
struggle
,
had
accompanied
her
.
Their
midday
meal
was
over
,
and
Robert
had
been
devoting
himself
to
Mary
,
who
had
been
tottering
round
the
room
in
his
wake
,
clutching
one
finger
tight
with
her
chubby
hand
.
In
particular
,
he
had
been
coaxing
her
into
friendship
with
a
wooden
Japanese
dragon
which
wound
itself
in
awful
yet
most
seductive
coils
round
the
cabinet
at
the
end
of
the
room
.
It
was
Mary
's
weekly
task
to
embrace
this
horror
,
and
the
performance
went
by
the
name
of
'
kissing
the
Jabberwock
.
'
It
had
been
triumphantly
achieved
,
and
,
as
the
reward
of
bravery
,
Mary
was
being
carried
round
the
room
on
her
father
's
shoulder
,
holding
on
mercilessly
to
his
curls
,
her
shining
blue
eyes
darting
scorn
at
the
defeated
monster
.
At
last
Robert
deposited
her
on
the
rug
beside
a
fascinating
farmyard
which
lay
there
spread
out
for
her
,
and
stood
looking
,
not
at
the
child
,
but
at
his
wife
.
'
Catherine
,
I
feel
so
much
as
Mary
did
three
minutes
ago
!
'
She
looked
up
startled
.
The
tone
was
light
,
but
the
sadness
,
the
emotion
of
the
eyes
,
contradicted
it
.
'
I
want
courage
,
'
he
went
on
—
'
courage
to
tell
you
something
that
may
hurt
you
.
And
yet
I
ought
to
tell
it
.
'
Her
face
took
the
shrinking
expression
which
was
so
painful
to
him
.
But
she
waited
quietly
for
what
he
had
to
say
.
'
You
know
,
I
think
,
'
he
said
,
looking
away
from
her
to
the
gray
Museum
outside
,
'
that
my
work
in
R
—
—
has
n't
been
religious
as
yet
at
all
.
Oh
,
of
course
,
I
have
said
things
here
and
there
,
but
I
have
n't
delivered
myself
in
any
way
.
Now
there
has
come
an
opening
.
'
And
he
described
to
her
—
while
she
shivered
a
little
and
drew
herself
together
—
the
provocations
which
were
leading
him
into
a
tussle
with
the
North
R
—
—
Club
.
'
They
have
given
me
a
very
civil
invitation
.
They
are
the
sort
of
men
after
all
whom
it
pays
to
get
hold
of
,
if
one
can
.
Among
their
fellows
,
they
are
the
men
who
think
.
One
longs
to
help
them
to
think
to
a
little
more
purpose
.
'
'
What
have
you
to
give
them
,
Robert
?
'
asked
Catherine
after
a
pause
,
her
eyes
bent
on
the
child
's
stocking
she
was
knitting
.
Her
heart
was
full
enough
already
,
poor
soul
.
Oh
,
the
bitterness
of
this
Passion
week
!
He
had
been
at
her
side
often
in
church
,
but
through
all
his
tender
silence
and
consideration
she
had
divined
the
constant
struggle
in
him
between
love
and
intellectual
honesty
,
and
it
had
filled
her
with
a
dumb
irritation
and
misery
indescribable
.
Do
what
she
would
,
wrestle
with
herself
as
she
would
,
there
was
constantly
emerging
in
her
now
a
note
of
anger
,
not
with
Robert
,
but
,
as
it
were
,
with
those
malign
forces
of
which
he
was
the
prey
.
'
What
have
I
to
give
them
?
'
he
repeated
sadly
.
'
Very
little
,
Catherine
,
as
it
seems
to
me
to-night
.
But
come
and
see
.
'
His
tone
had
a
melancholy
which
went
to
her
heart
.
In
reality
he
was
in
that
state
of
depression
which
often
precedes
a
great
effort
.
But
she
was
startled
by
his
suggestion
.
'
Come
with
you
,
Robert
?
To
the
meeting
of
a
secularist
club
!
'
'
Why
not
?
I
shall
be
there
to
protest
against
outrage
to
what
both
you
and
I
hold
dear
.
And
the
men
are
decent
fellows
.
There
will
be
no
disturbance
.
'
'
What
are
you
going
to
do
?
'
she
asked
in
a
low
voice
.
'
I
have
been
trying
to
think
it
out
,
'
he
said
with
difficulty
.
'
I
want
simply
,
if
I
can
,
to
transfer
to
their
minds
that
image
of
Jesus
of
Nazareth
which
thought
,
and
love
,
and
reading
have
left
upon
my
own
.
I
want
to
make
them
realise
for
themselves
the
historical
character
,
so
far
as
it
can
be
realised
—
to
make
them
see
for
themselves
the
real
figure
,
as
it
went
in
and
out
amongst
men
—
so
far
as
our
eyes
can
now
discern
it
.
'
The
words
came
quicker
towards
the
end
,
while
the
voice
sank
—
took
the
vibrating
characteristic
note
the
wife
knew
so
well
.
'
How
can
that
help
them
?
'
she
said
abruptly
.
'
Your
historical
Christ
,
Robert
,
will
never
win
souls
.
If
he
was
God
,
every
word
you
speak
will
insult
him
.
If
he
was
man
,
he
was
not
a
good
man
!
'
'
Come
and
see
,
'
was
all
he
said
,
holding
out
his
hand
to
her
.
It
was
in
some
sort
a
renewal
of
the
scene
at
Les
Avants
,
the
inevitable
renewal
of
an
offer
he
felt
bound
to
make
,
and
she
felt
bound
to
resist
.
She
let
her
knitting
fall
and
placed
her
hand
in
his
.
The
baby
on
the
rug
was
alternately
caressing
and
scourging
a
woolly
baa-lamb
,
which
was
the
fetish
of
her
childish
worship
.
Her
broken
incessant
baby-talk
,
and
the
ringing
kisses
with
which
she
atoned
to
the
baa-lamb
for
each
successive
outrage
,
made
a
running
accompaniment
to
the
moved
undertones
of
the
parents
.
'
Do
n't
ask
me
,
Robert
,
do
n't
ask
me
!
Do
you
want
me
to
come
and
sit
thinking
of
last
year
's
Easter
Eve
?
'
'
Heaven
knows
I
was
miserable
enough
last
Easter
Eve
,
'
he
said
slowly
.
'
And
now
,
'
she
exclaimed
,
looking
at
him
with
a
sudden
agitation
of
every
feature
,
'
now
you
are
not
miserable
?
You
are
quite
confident
and
sure
?
You
are
going
to
devote
your
life
to
attacking
the
few
remnants
of
faith
that
still
remain
in
the
world
?
'
Never
in
her
married
life
had
she
spoken
to
him
with
this
accent
of
bitterness
and
hostility
.
He
