THE FACE OF ROBINSON
Two minutes after that clasp of the hands the doctor passed out of the
room with the baron; two minutes later he returned to the room alone,
and stood at the casement, with his brow drooped toward his breast, in a
brown study.
Langler whispered to me: "you will wait outside. I am going to speak to
him now."
We walked round to the front of the manse, where Langler rapped, Dr
Burton presently came to him, and I from outside looked on at the two
standing together in lamplight in a parlour.
Langler, I think, was not asked to sit. I heard the brogue of Dr Burton,
then in Langler's hand beheld the piece of paper on which Dr Burton was
spoken of as a "union of Becket and Savonarola." Dr Burton did not look
at it, but began to lower angrily, Langler to bow, till at last Dr
Burton frowned towards the doorway. Langler bowed, and withdrew.
When angry he had a habit of lowering the eyelids in an expression of
hissing disdain, and the street-lamps, as we trudged through Ritching,
revealed him so to me. For some time he was silent, but finally, when
we were climbing towards Goodford village, he said: "Dr Burton has
insulted me, Arthur, and for the moment I find it difficult to speak of
him in a Christian spirit. However, he is a good man--I really need just
now to repeat that fact to myself--though mewed up in crassness.
Uppishness, of course, is part of the being of every dominant man, and I
don't blame him for his uppishness, but only for the fact that it is so
blatant and instant. Still, one must take the thorns with the rose, and
I promise by to-morrow morning to love him again. Partly it was my own
fault, for I should have felt, after the compact which we witnessed,
that my warning would be all too late. Imagine how momentous must have
been the matter of that compact, Arthur, when Burton could be brought to
confirm it with the Bible at his lips, and imagine the craft and the
might of will by which he must have felt himself crimped and mesmerised.
Here is a man who two days ago began by telling Baron Kolár that he had
not leisure to listen to him, and already we find him _in genubus_, with
(of all things) _the Book_ at his lips. Have you not here a miracle of
mind? But given a known individuality, one may deduce certain facts from
it. We can assert, for instance, from our sure knowledge of Burton, that
the compact contained nothing dishonouring to _him_, that it was lofty
and pure on _his_ part. It must be so. And since it was Kolár who first
kissed, and afterwards Burton, we may say, too, that the first terms of
the pact are to be fulfilled by Kolár. If Kolár will do certain things,
as he says he will, then Burton will do certain things. But what things?
Pity we couldn't catch a few snatches of the talk; yet certainly, even
so, I don't think that we are quite in the dark. For Burton's motives
were lofty and pure: therefore Kolár's promises of good things did not
concern Burton's own self-interests, or not solely. Yet Burton was so
enthusiastic as to these promises that he took an oath of repayment:
they may very likely, therefore, have concerned his love--the Church.
But the Church where? At Ritching? It is inconceivable that Kolár can be
so interested in the Church at Ritching as to wish to exact any oath
with regard to it. 'Church,' therefore, as between him and Burton, must
mean Church on a larger scale; and in the Church on this scale we know
that Kolár is, in fact, interested. But how is Burton, a village priest,
to repay services rendered to the Church on so large a scale? Does it
not seem as if Kolár's promises do not apply altogether to the Church,
but in part to Burton personally, that Burton is not for ever to remain
a village priest? Indeed, did not Kolár yesterday volunteer the prophecy
that this 'union of Becket and Savonarola' is 'destined to become the
greatest priest in Europe'? A singular prophecy, Arthur, from a man
whose words in general assuredly have some significance. We may guess,
then, that Kolár's undertakings consist in rendering to the Church some
good which will include the rise and greatness of the doctor himself,
and the doctor swears to use his greatness in some way indicated, or to
be indicated, by Kolár. Certainly, such seem the divinations prompted by
the facts which we have."
"Isn't it a strange thing," I said, "the interest of Kolár in the
doctor, even before he saw him? It is not to be supposed that Kolár is a
very regular church-goer, yet he hastened to hear the doctor at once on
coming to Goodford. One could be almost certain that the letter
describing the doctor as Becket _plus_ Savonarola, and asking someone to
'come down,' was addressed to no other than to Baron Kolár."
"Very likely," replied Langler; "and that was chiefly what I had to say
to Burton in our interview just now. I tried to persuade him that the
baron is no friend of priests, that he probably has one of them a
prisoner in his burg at this moment, but because I could make no certain
statements his mind was closed against me. On his part, he used the
words 'evil-speaking,' 'presumption,' 'interference'; he said 'dare,' he
said 'irreverent.' But I won't speak of that interview--it was _bête_.
The sentiment that now occupies my mind about Dr Burton is this: 'the
pity of it!' One cannot touch pitch and go undefiled. I have often had
the augury that Burton is a man with a tragedy in his future, and, if I
was right, that tragedy now perhaps takes shape: it will consist in his
'defilement.' Baron Kolár has prophesied that the doctor will be the
greatest of priests: well, if I, too, may prophesy, I say that from
being the greatest of priests, as he now is, he will become no priest at
all; that by little and little he will drop from his height, will lose
perfection of motive and absoluteness of fibre, till on a day he will
find himself fingering the dross of the grosser world."
By this time we had got into sight of the lights of Goodford House. On
our arrival, as we were passing through the outer hall, a man handed a
letter to Langler, which Langler, after glancing through it, handed to
me; and I read the words: "Charles Robinson, your groom, is certainly in
this neighbourhood, and if you have not found him it is because you have
not searched enough. If you have the courage to meet the writer at the
north-west corner of Hallam Castle alone at seven on Sunday evening, he
promises you that at least you shall see the face of the missing man.--A
Well-wisher."