The organ was not silenced, nor was the service suspended. Sir George
came down to Cullerne, inspected the arch, and rallied his subordinate
for an anxiety which was considered to be unjustifiable. Yes, the wall
above the arch _had_ moved a little, but not more than was to be
expected from the repairs which were being undertaken with the vaulting.
It was only the old wall coming to its proper bearings--he would have
been surprised, in fact, if no movement had taken place; it was much
safer as it was.
Canon Parkyn was in high good-humour. He rejoiced in seeing the pert
and officious young clerk of the works put in his proper place; and Sir
George had lunched at the Rectory. There was a repetition of the
facetious proposal that Sir George should wait for payment of his fees
until the tower should fall, which acquired fresh point from the
circumstance that all payments were now provided for by Lord Blandamer.
The ha-ha-ing which accompanied this witticism palled at length even
upon the robust Sir George, and he winced under a dig in the ribs, which
an extra glass of port had emboldened the Canon to administer.
"Well, well, Mr Rector," he said, "we cannot put old heads on young
shoulders. Mr Westray was quite justified in referring the matter to
me. It _has_ an ugly look; one needs _experience_ to be able to see
through things like this." And he pulled up his collar, and adjusted
his tie.
Westray was content to accept his Chief's decision as a matter of faith,
though not of conviction. The black lightning-flash was impressed on
his mental retina, the restless cry of the arches was continually in his
ear; he seldom passed the transept-crossing without hearing it. But he
bore his rebuke with exemplary resignation--the more so that he was much
interested in some visits which Lord Blandamer paid him at this period.
Lord Blandamer called more than once at Bellevue Lodge in the evenings,
even as late as nine o'clock, and would sit with Westray for two hours
together, turning over plans and discussing the restoration. The
architect learnt to appreciate the charm of his manner, and was
continually astonished at the architectural knowledge and critical power
which he displayed. Mr Sharnall would sometimes join them for a few
minutes, but Lord Blandamer never appeared quite at his ease when the
organist was present; and Westray could not help thinking that Mr
Sharnall was sometimes tactless, and even rude, considering that he was
beholden to Lord Blandamer for new pedals and new bellows and a
water-engine _in esse_, and for the entire repair of the organ _in
posse_.
"I can't help being `beholden to him,' as you genteelly put it," Mr
Sharnall said one evening, when Lord Blandamer had gone. "I can't
_stop_ his giving new bellows or a new pedal-board. And we do want the
new board and the additional pipes. As it is, I can't play German
music, can't touch a good deal of Bach's organ work. Who is to say this
man nay, if he chooses to alter the organ? But I'm not going to truckle
to anyone, and least of all to him. Do you want me to fall flat on my
face because he is a lord? Pooh! we could all be lords like him. Give
me another week with Martin's papers, and I'll open your eyes. Ay, you
may stare and sniff if you please, but you'll open your eyes then. _Ex
oriente lux_--that's where the light's coming from, out of Martin's
papers. Once this Confirmation over, and you'll see. I can't settle to
the papers till that's done with. What do people want to confirm these
boys and girls for? It only makes hypocrites of wholesome children. I
hate the whole business. If people want to make their views public, let
them do it at five-and-twenty; then we should believe that they knew
something of what they were about."
The day of the Bishop's visit had arrived; the Bishop had arrived
himself; he had entered the door of Bellevue Lodge; he had been received
by Miss Euphemia Joliffe as one who receives an angel awares; he had
lunched in Mr Sharnall's room, and had partaken of the cold lamb, and
the Stilton, and even of the cider-cup, to just such an extent as became
a healthy and good-hearted and host-considering bishop.
"You have given me a regular Oxford lunch," he said. "Your landlady has
been brought up in the good tradition." And he smiled, never doubting
that he was partaking of the ordinary provision of the house, and that
Mr Sharnall fared thus sumptuously every day. He knew not that the
meal was as much a set piece as a dinner on the stage, and that cold
lamb and Stilton and cider-cup were more often represented by the bottom
of a tin of potted meat and--a gill of cheap whisky.
"A regular Oxford lunch." And then they fell to talking of old days,
and the Bishop called Mr Sharnall "Nick," and Mr Sharnall called the
Bishop of Carum "John"; and they walked round the room looking at
pictures of college groups and college eights, and the Bishop examined
very tenderly the little water-colour sketch that Mr Sharnall had once
made of the inner quad; and they identified in it their own old rooms,
and the rooms of several other men of their acquaintance.
The talk did Mr Sharnall good; he felt the better for it every moment.
He had meant to be very proud and reserved with the Bishop--to be most
dignified and coldly courteous. He had meant to show that, though John
Willis might wear the gaiters, Nicholas Sharnall could retain his sturdy
independence, and was not going to fawn or to admit himself to be the
mental inferior of any man. He had meant to _give_ a tirade against
Confirmation, against the neglect of music, against rectors, with
perhaps a back-thrust at the Bench of Bishops itself. But he had done
none of these things, because neither pride nor reserve nor
assertiveness were possible in John Willis's company. He had merely
eaten a good lunch, and talked with a kindly, broad-minded gentleman,
long enough to warm his withered heart, and make him feel that there
were still possibilities in life.
There is a bell that rings for a few strokes three-quarters of an hour
before every service at Cullerne. It is called the Burgess Bell--some
say because it was meant to warn such burgesses as dwelt at a distance
that it was time to start for church; whilst others will have it that
Burgess is but a broken-down form of _expergiscere_--"Awake! awake!"--
that those who dozed might rise for prayer. The still air of the
afternoon was yet vibrating with the Burgess Bell, and the Bishop rose
to take his leave.
If it was the organist of Cullerne who had been ill at ease when their
interview began, it was the Bishop of Carisbury who was embarrassed at
the end of it. He had asked himself to lunch with Mr Sharnall with a
definite object, and towards the attainment of that object nothing had
been done. He had learnt that his old friend had fallen upon evil
times, and, worse, had fallen into evil courses--that the failing which
had ruined his Oxford career had broken out again with a fresh fire in
advancing age, that Nicholas Sharnall was in danger of a drunkard's
judgment.
There had been lucid intervals in the organist's life; the plague would
lie dormant for years, and then break out, to cancel all the progress
that had been made. It was like a "race-game" where the little leaden
horse is moved steadily forward, till at last the die falls on the fatal
number, and the racer must lose a turn, or go back six, or, even in the
worst issue, begin his whole course again. It was in the forlorn hope
of doing something, however little, to arrest a man on the downward
slope that the Bishop had come to Bellevue Lodge; he hoped to speak the
word in season that should avail. Yet nothing had been said. He felt
like a clerk who has sought an interview with his principal to ask for
an increase of salary, and then, fearing to broach the subject, pretends
to have come on other business. He felt like a son longing to ask his
father's counsel in some grievous scrape, or like an extravagant wife
waiting her opportunity to confess some heavy debt.
"A quarter past two," the Bishop said; "I must be going. It has been a
great pleasure to recall the old times. I hope we shall meet again
soon; but remember it is your turn now to come and see me. Carisbury is
not so very far off, so do come. There is always a bed ready for you.
Will you walk up the street with me now? I have to go to the Rectory,
and I suppose you will be going to the church, will you not?"
"Yes," said Mr Sharnall; "I'll come with you if you wait one minute. I
think I'll take just a drop of something before I go, if you'll excuse
me. I feel rather run down, and the service is a long one. You won't
join me, of course?" And he went to the cupboard.
The Bishop's opportunity was come.
"Don't, Sharnall. Don't, Nick," he said; "don't take that stuff.
Forgive me for speaking openly, the time is so short. I am not speaking
professionally or from the religious standpoint, but only just as one
man of the world to another, just as one friend to another, because I
cannot bear to see you going on like this without trying to stop you.
Don't take offence, Nick," he added, as he saw the change of the other's
countenance; "our old friendship gives me a right to speak; the story
you are writing on your own face gives me a right to speak. Give it up.
There is time yet to turn; give it up. Let me help you; is there
nothing I can do to help?"
The angry look that crossed Mr Sharnall's face had given way to
sadness.
"It is all very easy for you," he said; "you've done everything in life,
and have a long row of milestones behind you to show how you've moved
on. I have done nothing, only gone back, and have all the milestones in
front to show how I've failed. It's easy to twit me when you've got
everything you want--position, reputation, fortune, a living faith to
keep you up to it. I am nobody, miserably poor, have no friends, and
don't believe half we say in church. What am I to do? No one cares a
fig about me; what have I got to live for? To drink is the only chance
I have of feeling a little pleasure in life; of losing for a few moments
the dreadful consciousness of being an outcast; of losing for a moment
the remembrance of happy days long ago: that's the greatest torment of
all, Willis. Don't blame me if I drink; it's the _elixir vitae_ for me
just as much as for Paracelsus." And he turned the handle of the
cupboard.
"Don't," the Bishop said again, putting his hand on the organist's arm;
"don't do it; don't touch it. Don't make success any criterion of life;
don't talk about `getting on.' We shan't be judged by how we have got
on. Come along with me; show you've got your old resolution, your old
will-power."
"I _haven't_ got the power," Mr Sharnall said; "I can't help it." But
he took his hand from the cupboard-door.
"Then let me help it for you," said the Bishop; and he opened the
cupboard, found a half-used bottle of whisky, drove the cork firmly into
it, and put it under his arm inside the lappet of his coat. "Come
along."
So the Bishop of Carisbury walked up the High Street of Cullerne with a
bottle of whisky under his left arm. But no one could see that, because
it was hid under his coat; they only saw that he had his right arm
inside Mr Sharnall's. Some thought this an act of Christian
condescension, but others praised the times that were past; bishops were
losing caste, they said, and it was a sad day for the Church when they
were found associating openly with persons so manifestly their
inferiors.
"We must see more of each other," the Bishop said, as they walked under
the arcade in front of the shops. "You must get out of this quag
somehow. You can't expect to do it all at once, but we must make a
beginning. I have taken away your temptation under my coat, and you
must make a start from this minute; you must make me a promise _now_. I
have to be in Cullerne again in six days' time, and will come and see
you. You must promise me not to touch anything for these six days, and
you must drive back with me to Carisbury when I go back then, and spend
a few days with me. Promise me this, Nick; the time is pressing, and I
must leave you, but you must promise me this first."
The organist hesitated for a moment, but the Bishop gripped his arm.
"Promise me this; I will not go till you promise."
"Yes, I promise."
And lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint, who was passing, told
afterwards how she had overheard the Bishop discussing with Mr Sharnall
the best means for introducing ritualism into the minster, and how the
organist had promised to do his very best to help him so far as the
musical part of the sendee was concerned.
The Confirmation was concluded without any contretemps, save that two of
the Grammar School boys incurred an open and well-merited rebuke from
the master for appearing in gloves of a much lighter slate colour than
was in any way decorous, and that this circumstance reduced the youngest
Miss Bulteel to such a state of hysteric giggling that her mother was
forced to remove her from the church, and thus deprive her of spiritual
privileges for another year.
Mr Sharnall bore his probation bravely. Three days had passed, and he
had not broken his vow--no, not in one jot or tittle. They had been
days of fine weather, brilliantly clear autumn days of blue sky and
exhilarating air. They had been bright days for Mr Sharnall; he was
himself exhilarated; he felt a new life coursing in his veins. The
Bishop's talk had done him good; from his heart he thanked the Bishop
for it. Giving up drinking had done him no harm; he felt all the better
for his abstinence. It had not depressed him at all; on the contrary,
he was more cheerful than he had been for years. Scales had fallen from
his eyes since that talk; he had regained his true bearings; he began to
see the verities of life. How he had wasted his time! Why _had_ he
been so sour? why _had_ he indulged his spleen? why _had_ he taken such
a jaundiced view of life? He would put aside all jealousies; he would
have no enmities; he would be broader-minded--oh, so much
broader-minded; he would embrace all mankind--yes, even Canon Parkyn.
Above all, he would recognise that he was well advanced in life; he
would be more sober-thinking, would leave childish things, would
resolutely renounce his absurd infatuation for Anastasia. What a
ridiculous idea--a crabbed old sexagenarian harbouring affection for a
young girl! Henceforth she should be nothing to him--absolutely
nothing. No, that would be foolish; it would not be fair to her to cut
her off from all friendship; he could feel for her a fatherly
affection--it should be paternal and nothing more. He would bid adieu
to all that folly, and his life should not be a whit the emptier for the
loss. He would fill it with interests--all kinds of interests, and his
music should be the first. He would take up again, and carry out to the
end, that oratorio which he had turned over in his mind for years--the
"Absalom." He had several numbers at his fingers' ends; he would work
out the bass solo, "Oh, Absalom, my son, my son!" and the double chorus
that followed it, "Make ready, ye mighty; up and bare your swords!"
So he discoursed joyfully with his own heart, and felt above measure
elated at the great and sudden change that was wrought in him, not
recognising that the clouds return after the rain, and that the leopard
may change his spots as easily as man may change his habits. To change
a habit at fifty-five or forty-five or thirty-five; to ordain that
rivers shall flow uphill; to divert the relentless sequence of cause and
effect--how often dare we say this happens? _Nemo repente_--no man ever
suddenly became good. A moment's spiritual agony may blunt our
instincts and paralyse the evil in us--for a while, even as chloroform
may dull our bodily sense; but for permanence there is no sudden turning
of the mind; sudden repentances in life or death are equally impossible.
Three halcyon days were followed by one of those dark and lowering
mornings when the blank life seems blanker, and when the gloom of nature
is too accurately reflected in the nervous temperament of man. On
healthy youth climatic influences have no effect, and robust middle age,
if it perceive them, goes on its way steadfast or stolid, with a _cela
passera, tout passera_. But on the feeble and the failing such times
fall with a weight of fretful despondency; and so they fell on Mr
Sharnall.
He was very restless about the time of the mid-day meal. There came up
a thick, dark fog from the sea, which went rolling in great masses over
Cullerne Flat, till its fringe caught the outskirts of the town. After
that, it settled in the streets, and took up its special abode in
Bellevue Lodge; till Miss Euphemia coughed so that she had to take two
ipecacuanha lozenges, and Mr Sharnall was forced to ring for a lamp to
see his victuals. He went up to Westray's room to ask if he might eat
his dinner upstairs, but he found that the architect had gone to London,
and would not be back till the evening train; so he was thrown upon his
own resources.
He ate little, and by the end of the meal depression had so far got the
better of him, that he found himself standing before a well-known
cupboard. Perhaps the abstemiousness of the last three days had told
upon him, and drove him for refuge to his usual comforter. It was by
instinct that he went to the cupboard; he was not even conscious of
doing so till he had the open door in his hand. Then resolution
returned to him, aided, it may be, by the reflection that the cupboard
was bare (for the Bishop had taken away the whisky), and he shut the
door sharply. Was it possible that he had so soon forgotten his
promise--had come so perilously near falling back into the mire, after
the bright prospects of the last days, after so lucid an interval? He
went to his bureau and buried himself in Martin Joliffe's papers, till
the Burgess Bell gave warning of the afternoon service.
The gloom and fog made way by degrees for a drizzling rain, which
resolved itself into a steady downpour as the afternoon wore on. It was
so heavy that Mr Sharnall could hear the indistinct murmur of millions
of raindrops on the long lead roofs, and their more noisy splash and
spatter as they struck the windows in the lantern and north transept.
He was in a bad humour as he came down from the loft. The boys had sung
sleepily and flat; Jaques had murdered the tenor solo with his strained
and raucous voice; and old Janaway remembered afterwards that Mr
Sharnall had never vouchsafed a good-afternoon as he strode angrily down
the aisle.
Things were no better when he reached Bellevue Lodge. He was wet and
chilled, and there was no fire in the grate, because it was too early in
the year for such luxuries to be afforded. He would go to the kitchen,
and take his tea there. It was Saturday afternoon. Miss Joliffe would
be at the Dorcas meeting, but Anastasia would be in; and this reflection
came to him as a ray of sunlight in a dark and lowering time. Anastasia
would be in, and alone; he would sit by the fire and drink a cup of hot
tea, while Anastasia should talk to him and gladden his heart. He
tapped lightly at the kitchen-door, and as he opened it a gusty buffet
of damp air smote him on the face; the room was empty. Through a
half-open sash the wet had driven in, and darkened the top of the deal
table which stood against the window; the fire was but a smouldering
ash. He shut the window instinctively while he reflected. Where could
Anastasia be? She must have left the kitchen some time, otherwise the
fire would not be so low, and she would have seen that the rain was
beating in. She must be upstairs; she had no doubt taken advantage of
Westray's absence to set his room in order. He would go up to her;
perhaps there was a fire in Westray's room.
He went up the circular stone staircase, that ran like a wide well from
top to bottom of the old Hand of God. The stone steps and the stone
floor of the hall, the stuccoed walls, and the coved stucco roof which
held the skylight at the top, made a whispering-gallery of that gaunt
staircase; and before Mr Sharnall had climbed half-way up he heard
voices.
They were voices in conversation; Anastasia had company. And then he
heard that one was a man's voice. What right had any man to be in
Westray's room? What man had any right to be talking to Anastasia? A
wild suspicion passed through his mind--no, that was quite impossible.
He would not play the eavesdropper or creep near them to listen; but, as
he reflected, he had mounted a step or two higher, and the voices were
now more distinct. Anastasia had finished speaking, and the man began
again. There was one second of uncertainty in Mr Sharnall's mind,
while the hope that it was not, balanced the fear that it was; and then
doubt vanished, and he knew the voice to be Lord Blandamer's.
The organist sprang up two or three steps very quickly. He would go
straight to them--straight into Westray's room; he would--And then he
paused; he would do, what? What right had he to go there at all? What
had he to do with them? What was there for anyone to do? He paused,
then turned and went downstairs again, telling himself that he was a
fool--that he was making mountains of molehills, that there did not
exist, in fact, even a molehill; yet having all the while a sickening
feeling within him, as if some gripping hand had got hold of his poor
physical and material heart, and was squeezing it. His room looked more
gloomy than ever when he got back to it, but it did not matter now,
because he was not going to remain there. He only stopped for a minute
to sweep back into the bureau all those loose papers of Martin Joliffe's
that were lying in a tumble on the open desk-flap. He smiled grimly as
he put them back and locked them in. _Le jour viendra qui tout paiera_.
These papers held a vengeance that would atone for all wrongs.
He took down his heavy and wet-sodden overcoat from the peg in the hall,
and reflected with some satisfaction that the bad weather could not
seriously damage it, for it had turned green with wear, and must be
replaced as soon as he got his next quarter's salary. The rain still
fell heavily, but he _must_ go out. Four walls were too narrow to hold
his chafing mood, and the sadness of outward nature accorded well with a
gloomy spirit. So he shut the street-door noiselessly, and went down
the semicircular flight of stone steps in front of the Hand of God, just
as Lord Blandamer had gone down them on that historic evening when
Anastasia first saw him. He turned back to look at the house, just as
Lord Blandamer had turned back then; but was not so fortunate as his
illustrious predecessor, for Westray's window was tight shut, and there
was no one to be seen.
"I wish I may never look upon the place again," he said to himself, half
in earnest, and half with that cynicism which men affect because they
know Fate seldom takes them at their word.
For an hour or more he wandered aimlessly, and found himself, as night
fell, on the western outskirts of the town, where a small tannery
carries on the last pretence of commercial activity in Cullerne. It is
here that the Cull, which has run for miles under willow and alder,
through deep pastures golden with marsh marigolds or scented with
meadow-sweet, past cuckoo-flower and pitcher-plant and iris and nodding
bulrush, forsakes better traditions, and becomes a common town-sluice
before it deepens at the wharves, and meets the sandy churn of the
tideway. Mr Sharnall had become aware that he was tired, and he stood
and leant over the iron paling that divides the roadway from the stream.
He did not know how tired he was till he stopped walking, nor how the
rain had wetted him till he bent his head a little forward, and a
cascade of water fell from the brim of his worn-out hat.
It was a forlorn and dismal stream at which he looked. The low tannery
buildings of wood projected in part over the water, and were supported
on iron props, to which were attached water-whitened skins and repulsive
portions of entrails, that swung slowly from side to side as the river
took them. The water here is little more than three feet deep, and
beneath its soiled current can be seen a sandy bottom on which grow
patches of coarse duck-weed. To Mr Sharnall these patches of a green
so dark and drain-soiled as to be almost black in the failing light,
seemed tresses of drowned hair, and he weaved stories about them for
himself as the stream now swayed them to and fro, and now carried them
out at length.
He observed things with that vacant observation which the body at times
insists on maintaining, when the mind is busy with some overmastering
preoccupation. He observed the most trivial details; he made an
inventory of the things which he could see lying on the dirty bed of the
river underneath the dirty water. There was a tin bucket with a hole in
the bottom; there was a brown teapot without a spout; there was an
earthenware blacking-bottle too strong to be broken; there were other
shattered glass bottles and shards of crockery; there was a rim of a
silk hat, and more than one toeless boot. He turned away, and looked
down the road towards the town. They were beginning to light the lamps,
and the reflections showed a criss-cross of white lines on the muddy
road, where the water stood in the wheel-tracks. There was a dark
vehicle coming down the road now, making a fresh track in the mud, and
leaving two shimmering lines behind it as it went. He gave a little
start when it came nearer, and he saw that it was the undertaker's cart
carrying out a coffin for some pauper at the Union Workhouse.
He gave a start and a shiver; the wet had come through his overcoat; he
could feel it on his arms; he could feel the cold and clinging wet
striking at his knees. He was stiff with standing so long, and a
rheumatic pain checked him suddenly as he tried to straighten himself.
He would walk quickly to warm himself--would go home at once. Home--
what _home_ had he? That great, gaunt Hand of God. He detested it and
all that were within its walls. That was no home. Yet he was walking
briskly towards it, having no other whither to go.
He was in the mean little streets, he was within five minutes of his
goal, when he heard singing. He was passing the same little inn which
he had passed the first night that Westray came. The same voice was
singing inside which had sung the night that Westray came. Westray had
brought discomfort; Westray had brought Lord Blandamer. Things had
never been the same since; he wished Westray had never come at all; he
wished--oh, how he wished!--that all might be as it was before--that all
might jog along quietly as it had for a generation before. She
certainly had a fine voice, this woman. It really would be worth while
seeing who she was; he wished he could just look inside the door. Stay,
he could easily make an excuse for looking in: he would order a little
hot whisky-and-water. He was so wet, it was prudent to take something
to drink. It might ward off a bad chill. He would only take a very
little, and only as a medicine, of course; there could be no harm in
_that_--it was mere prudence.
He took off his hat, shook the rain from it, turned the handle of the
door very gently, with the consideration of a musician who will do
nothing to interrupt another who is making music, and went in.
He found himself in that sanded parlour which he had seen once before
through the window. It was a long, low room, with heavy beams crossing
the roof, and at the end was an open fireplace, where a kettle hung
above a smouldering fire. In a corner sat an old man playing on a
fiddle, and near him the Creole woman stood singing; there were some
tables round the room, and behind them benches on which a dozen men were
sitting. There was no young man among them, and most had long
passed the meridian of life. Their faces were sun-tanned and
mahogany-coloured; some wore earrings in their ears, and strange curls
of grey hair at the side of their heads. They looked as if they might
have been sitting there for years--as if they might be the crew of some
long-foundered vessel to whom has been accorded a Nirvana of endless
tavern-fellowship. None of them took any notice of Mr Sharnall, for
music was exercising its transporting power, and their thoughts were far
away. Some were with old Cullerne whalers, with the harpoon and the
ice-floe; some dreamt of square-stemmed timber-brigs, of the Baltic and
the white Memel-logs, of wild nights at sea and wilder nights ashore;
and some, remembering violet skies and moonlight through the
mango-groves, looked on the Creole woman, and tried to recall in her
faded features, sweet, swart faces that had kindled youthful fires a
generation since.
"Then the grog, boys--the grog, boys, bring hither,"
sang the Creole.
"Fill it up true to the brim.
May the mem'ry of Nelson ne'er wither
Nor the star of his glory grow dim."
There were rummers standing on the tables, and now and then a
drinking-brother would break the sugar-knobs in his liquor with a glass
stirrer, or take a deep draught of the brown jorum that steamed before
him. No one spoke to Mr Sharnall; only the landlord, without asking
what he would take, set before him a glass filled with the same hot
spirit as the other guests were drinking.
The organist accepted his fate with less reluctance than he ought
perhaps to have displayed, and a few minutes later was drinking and
smoking with the rest. He found the liquor to his liking, and soon
experienced the restoring influences of the warm room and of the spirit.
He hung his coat up on a peg, and in its dripping condition, and in the
wet which had penetrated to his skin, found ample justification for
accepting without demur a second bumper with which the landlord replaced
his empty glass. Rummer followed rummer, and still the Creole woman
sang at intervals, and still the company smoked and drank.
Mr Sharnall drank too, but by-and-by saw things less clearly, as the
room grew hotter and more clouded with tobacco-smoke. Then he found the
Creole woman standing before him, and holding out a shell for
contributions. He had in his pocket only one single coin--a half-crown
that was meant to be a fortnight's pocket-money; but he was excited, and
had no hesitation.
"There," he said, with an air of one who gives a kingdom--"there, take
that: you deserve it; but sing me a song that I heard you sing once
before, something about the rolling sea."
She nodded that she understood, and after the collection was finished,
gave the money to the blind man, and bade him play for her.
It was a long ballad, with many verses and a refrain of:
"Oh, take me back to those I love,
Or bring them here to me;
I have no heart to rove, to rove
Across the rolling sea."
At the end she came back, and sat down on the bench by Mr Sharnall.
"Will you not give me something to drink?" she said, speaking in very
good English. "You all drink; why should not I?"
He beckoned to the landlord to bring her a glass, and she drank of it,
pledging the organist.
"You sing well," he said, "and with a little training should sing very
well indeed. How do you come to be here? You ought to do better than
this; if I were you, I would not sing in such company."
She looked at him angrily.
"How do _I_ come to be here? How do _you_ come to be here? If I had a
little training, I should sing better, and if I had your training, Mr
Sharnall"--and she brought out his name with a sneering emphasis--"I
should not be here at all, drinking myself silly in a place like this."
She got up, and went back to the old fiddler, but her words had a
sobering influence on the organist, and cut him to the quick. So all
his good resolutions had vanished. His promise to the Bishop was
broken; the Bishop would be back again on Monday, and find him as bad as
ever--would find him worse; for the devil had returned, and was making
riot in the garnished house. He turned to pay his reckoning, but his
half-crown had gone to the Creole; he had no money, he was forced to
explain to the landlord, to humiliate himself, to tell his name and
address. The man grumbled and made demur. Gentlemen who drank in good
company, he said, should be prepared to pay their shot like gentlemen.
Mr Sharnall had drunk enough to make it a serious thing for a poor man
not to get paid. Mr Sharnall's story might be true, but it was a funny
thing for an organist to come and drink at the Merrymouth, and have no
money in his pocket. It had stopped raining; he could leave his
overcoat as a pledge of good faith, and come back and fetch it later.
So Mr Sharnall was constrained to leave this part of his equipment, and
was severed from a well-worn overcoat, which had been the companion of
years. He smiled sadly to himself as he turned at the open door, and
saw his coat still hang dripping on the peg. If it were put up to
auction, would it ever fetch enough to pay for what he had drunk?
It was true that it had stopped raining, and though the sky was still
overcast, there was a lightness diffused behind the clouds that spoke of
a rising moon. What should he do? Whither should he turn? He could
not go back to the Hand of God; there were some there who did not want
him--whom he did not want. Westray would not be home, or, if he were,
Westray would know that he had been drinking; he could not bear that
they should see that he had been drinking again.
And then there came into his mind another thought: he would go to the
church, the water-engine should blow for him, and he would play himself
sober. Stay, _should_ he go to the church--the great church of Saint
Sepulchre alone? Would he be alone there? If he thought that he would
be alone, he would feel more secure; but might there not be someone else
there, or something else? He gave a little shiver, but the drink was in
his veins; he laughed pot-valiantly, and turned up an alley towards the
centre tower, that loomed dark in the wet, misty whiteness of the cloud
screened moon.