For one instant Enid stood spellbound; then involuntarily she stepped
backward, crumpling the slip of paper in her hand.
At the same movement Bale-Corphew advanced and, passing the Mystic,
indicated the Sanctuary curtain.
"Go!" he commanded, in an unsteady voice. And as the man slunk away, he
wheeled round and confronted Enid.
"So this is your action?" he said, tremulously. "This is your conception
of honor? Truly, woman is the undoing of man!" With an excited gesture,
he lifted his hand and extended it towards the white Scitsym lying upon
the lectern.
But Enid met his attack with the courage that sometimes outlives hope.
"A just man need fear no woman!" she exclaimed. "It is because you are
unjust and a coward that you fear--that you suspect--that you find it
necessary to hide and spy."
The color surged over his face.
"I have been outraged!" he cried--"I have been outraged!"
"And, like an unreasoning animal, you turn to devour the thing that has
hurt you?"
"I demand justice."
She threw out her hands and laughed suddenly and hysterically.
"And you call this justice? You call it justice to trap one man and set
a hundred others loose upon him?"
But Bale-Corphew turned upon her.
"And what is this man to you?" he cried. "What spell has he cast upon
you that you can forget his outrage and his blasphemy?"
Enid met the question with her new fortitude; searching Bale-Corphew's
turbulent face, she answered with a certain high simplicity.
"I do not know," she said. "Once I believed that I admired him--that I
looked up to him--because he was a Prophet; something higher and better
than myself. Now I know that my belief was wrong and false; that it was
because he is a man--because, before everything else in the world, he is
a man--that I turned to him, that I relied upon him."
Bale-Corphew gave a short, cruel laugh.
"So that is it? That is the secret? He is a man? Well, I will strip him
of his manhood! We have had our disillusioning; yours is to come. Here,
on this sacred spot where he has been so exalted, he will bite the
dust."
He paused triumphantly; and in the pause there rose again to Enid's mind
the picture of one tall, white-robed figure confronting a sea of
faces--all incensed--all passionately, vindictively unanimous in
desire.
"Oh no!" she said, suddenly, faltering before the picture. "No! No! You
cannot. You must not. Be merciful! Let him go. And if there is
anything--any recompense--" But even as it was spoken, the appeal died.
Somewhere in the heart of the House a solemn clock chimed the hour of
eight; and as though the sound were a signal, the curtain of the chapel
door was drawn softly back, and a stream of dark-robed figures poured
over the empty floor.
For a moment she stood immovable before the imminence of the crucial
scene; then, with a sensation of physical weakness and helplessness, she
turned, moved blindly forward, and sank into a vacant seat.
At the same moment Bale-Corphew left her without a word, and passed
rapidly down the aisle.
Great fear frequently exercises a paralyzing effect upon the body. With
the undeniable knowledge that the time for action--the time for
hope--was irrevocably passed, Enid felt deprived of the power to move.
She sat crouching in her seat, every sense alive and strained, but with
limbs that were overpowered and weighted as if by tangible fetters.
Thrilling to this numb and impotent sense of dread, she heard the
devotees enter the chapel, one after another, and pass to their chosen
seats with soft, gliding steps. With a sickening knowledge of
approaching catastrophe, she saw another of the unconventional
black-robed servants emerge from behind the Sanctuary curtain, and
proceed with maddening deliberation to light the sixteen groups of wax
tapers that were set at intervals along the walls. Mechanically her eyes
followed the man's movements; and it seemed that each new taper that
spat, flickered, and shot up into a light was a symbol, a portent of the
scene to come.
As the last candle was lighted, the shuffling of feet and the stir of
garments that, since the entry of the first devotee, had unceasingly
filled the chapel suddenly subsided, and nerved to motion by the lull,
she turned and glanced behind her.
The scene, familiar though it was, impressed her anew. It was a strange
effect in black and white. The black clothes of the congregation seemed
massed together in a sombre blur; their strained, fanatical faces looked
white and set; while the marble walls shone out, sharp and polished, in
the same contrasting hues. Over the whole scene the concentrated light
and accentuated shadow thrown by the great sconces glowing with tapers,
made a variation of tone almost as vivid as that seen on a moonlight
night.
Unconsciously she recognized the curious, the almost barbaric
picturesqueness of light and grouping; but her eyes had barely skimmed
the scene when the meaning of the hush that filled the place was brought
home to her mind.
Glancing towards the curtain that hid the entrance, she saw the figure
of the Prophet move slowly into the chapel and pass up the aisle,
attended by the Precursor and the Six Arch-Mystics.
He moved forward with grave, dignified steps, and with a head held even
higher than usual, and reaching the Sanctuary gate, passed through it
without hesitation.
The action was so calm--so natural--so like what she had witnessed night
after night--that Enid sat newly petrified, her senses striving to
associate this strong figure with the man who, only a few hours before,
had humiliated himself in her presence. For a moment her mind refused
the connection of ideas; but the next a full realization of the position
swept over her, galvanizing her mentally and physically, as she turned
in her seat and glanced at the seven who were following in the wake.
[Illustration: "SHE SAW THE FIGURE OF THE PROPHET ... ATTENDED BY THE
PRECURSOR AND THE SIX ARCH-MYSTICS"]
First behind his master came the Precursor. And to Enid's searching
gaze it seemed that his face was set into unfamiliar and anxious lines;
but under his black cap and red hair, his skin looked colorless and
drawn. But after the first glance, her eyes were not for him; with swift
apprehension they passed to the six Arch-Mystics who, walking two and
two, formed the procession.
Animated by the speed of actual fear, her gaze passed from the
abnormally agitated face of old Arian, the blind Arch-Councillor, to the
dark, turbulent face of Bale-Corphew, who brought up the rear. The
survey was rapid and comprehensive; and to her uneasy mind the thought
came with unerring certainty that, on all the six faces--differing so
markedly in physical characteristics--there was a common look of
suppressed excitement, of suppressed resolve.
As they passed her seat, Norov turned and shot a glance of cold
curiosity in her direction; but otherwise the whole group seemed
unaware of her presence. Still inert, she sat, watching every movement
in the scene before her as one might watch a drama that would, at a
given moment, cease to be entertainment and become real life.
Very quietly the Prophet advanced to the Scitsym and, following the
customary routine, opened it and began to read.
The words were a strange jargon of mystical counsel interspersed with
the relation of mystical visions and ecstasies. On ordinary lips, the
long, disjointed sentences and disconnected phrases would have sounded
vague and incomprehensible; but, from the first, it had been one of the
Prophet's special gifts that his deep, grave voice could lend weight and
meaning to the fantastic utterances. And to-night it seemed that he
intended to put forth all his powers; for scarcely had he opened the
book and begun to read, than a stir of interest passed over the
congregation; and even Enid, enmeshed in her own terrors, bent forward
involuntarily.
He spoke very slowly, enunciating every word with studied seriousness;
and from time to time he paused and looked across the sea of fixed and
almost adoring faces turned in his direction. It was as if, by strength
of will, he had determined that no point, no syllable, of this, his last
reading, should be lost upon his hearers. More than once, Bale-Corphew
moved uneasily and shot a glance at Norov; but the Prophet was
unconscious of these surreptitious signs.
For half an hour he read on, slowly, distinctly, impressively; then,
still following the routine of the evening service, he closed the book
and calmly moved across the Sanctuary to the Throne. As he neared it,
the Precursor stepped forward deferentially and conducted him to the
foot of the gilt steps.
Having ascended, he took his seat with calm impassivity and, resting his
hands upon the arms of the great gold chair, looked out once more upon
the massed faces. This, according to custom, was the signal for a
general movement. The congregation swayed forward, prostrating
themselves upon the ground, while the Arch-Mystics gathered their wide,
black robes about them and assumed attitudes of rapt contemplation.
In obedience to usage, Enid also dropped upon her knees and covered her
face with her hands. But though her pose was conventional, there was
little place in her thoughts for either prayer or meditation. One
idea--and one only--absorbed her being. How, and at what moment, must
she gather strength to act? She crouched upon the ground, her hands
pressed tightly over her eyes. It seemed to her that all the torture,
all the suspense and apprehension of the universe, were gathered into
that half-hour of appalling silence. Once she ventured to unlace her
fingers and glance through them fearfully; but at sight of the Prophet,
calm, impassive, unconscious of his threatened danger--at sight of the
six sombre shrouded figures that sat inside the Sanctuary railing, her
blood turned cold and her courage quailed.
When the sign that ended the evening's meditation was given, she rose
with the rest and sank weakly into her seat. Then, in dumb, stricken
helplessness such as envelops us in a terrible dream, she saw the
Prophet rise very slowly and stand on the steps of the Throne, looking
solemnly down upon the people.
During his change of position, she sat vacillating pitiably. The
knowledge that in a single moment he would have begun to speak spurred
her to a fever of alarm, while a terrible nervous incapacity chained her
limbs and paralyzed her tongue.
Bale-Corphew's words rose to her mind. "He will fool us--as he has
fooled us before." In the apprehension aroused by the memory, she half
rose in her chair, her hands grasping the back of the seat in front of
her; but suddenly the chapel, the lights, the congregation seemed to
fade from her vision, and she sank back into her place. The Prophet had
begun to speak.
"My People," he said, very calmly and distinctly, "heretofore I have
spoken to you as a teacher. To-night I will speak to you as one of
yourselves."
Something in the tone--something in the words--struck a note of surprise
and uneasiness. Again Bale-Corphew shot a swift glance at Norov, and old
Michael Arian lifted his head and strained his sightless eyes towards
the Throne, while Enid's hands tightened spasmodically on the back of
the chair in front of her, and her lips parted in new fear. What was he
going to say? How much further was he going to compromise himself? But
the body of the congregation swayed forward in absorbed attention, and
the Prophet continued to survey the fixed faces with grave, steady eyes.
"My People," he said, "you are an unusual gathering. Some would call you
a gathering of fanatics--some might even call you a gathering of fools.
But fools, fanatics, or Mystics, you are all men and women. You are all
human beings!"
Old Arian started, and Norov's cold, blue eyes flashed; but still the
Prophet was oblivious of their emotion.
"It is always well to study one's own kind; and to-night I am going to
speak to you of a man. I am going to tell you the story of a man--a man
as passionate, as headstrong, as weak and vulnerable as you yourselves."
He halted for a moment, and his glance seemed to grow more concentrated,
more intense.
"Once, many years ago, there was a boy born here, in this city of
London. Don't lose patience! My story has the merit of truth.
"There was nothing pleasant, there was nothing easy, in the
circumstances of this boy's birth. His first sight of the world was
gained through the window of a tenement-house, and the picture he saw
was the picture of an alley--dark, foul, teeming with life. His first
knowledge of existence was the realization of poverty--not the free,
wholesome poverty of the country, but the grinding, sordid, continuous
poverty of the town, that no tongue can adequately describe.
"These were his surroundings--this was his environment; and yet--so
great are the miracles that love can accomplish--every day of that boy's
life was illumined and glorified by one presence. God in his bounty had
given him a mother!"
It was the first time in any discourse that he had mentioned the supreme
Name, and as if conscious of the tremor it aroused, he continued his
narrative without pause.
"To say that a boy's life is made happier by his mother's existence
sounds too trite and obvious to bear any weight; but it is through the
obvious facts of life that the world's machinery is kept in motion. The
inexpressible, unwearying tenderness of this mother for her son, the
love of this boy for his mother, grew with the passage of time--grew
into something so significant, so vital and so deep, that even the
poisonous atmosphere of the alley could not thwart its growth.
"This feeling grew in the boy's heart; and with it--by a necessary law
of nature--another feeling took root and grew also. Fired by stories of
a past, in which wealth and position had been won by his forefathers, he
conceived the idea of becoming in his own person a hero--a
knight-errant. And in the grimy, common alley; in the poor, bare
sitting-room where his mother sewed unendingly; in the dark closet under
the slates where at night he dreamed his child's dreams, he built
castles such as never stood upon the hills of Spain!
"The germ of his ambition fell into his soul like a seed of fire; and,
like a seed of fire, sprang into a flame. At whatever price--at whatever
sacrifice--there must be a golden future, in which the mother he adored
would sit in high places; in which the worn hands would never ply a
needle except for pastime, the frail figure grow straight and strong,
the pale face warm and brighten with the colors of health!
"It was a very humble, a very young ambition, but it sprang from the
true, clean source of untainted love, like which there is nothing else
in all the world." He paused; and from his grave voice it seemed that a
wave of emotion passed across the chapel. The congregation, too
fascinated by his words to question their meaning, drew a sigh of rapt
anticipation. Enid, amazed, bewildered, moved beyond herself, sat
immovable--her face pale, her great eyes fixed upon the Throne. Only the
six Arch-Mystics stirred uneasily, glancing at each other with quiet,
uncertain looks.
Presently, as though he had marshalled his ideas for the continuation of
his speech, the Prophet raised his hand.
"My People," he began, again, "do not think that I am going to compel
you to listen to a psychological discourse upon this boy's development.
That is not my intention. But were I to hold up a picture for your
inspection, you could not properly appreciate it were you ignorant of
the art of drawing. And so it is with my story. To understand the
completed work, you must understand the manner of its growth.
"Though this boy lived in obscurity, he was bound by one link with the
great things of the world. But for the unjust disinheritance of his
father, he would have been heir to a vast property; and through all his
youth, this had been the golden mirage that had floated before his
vision--this had been the fabled country from which his castle rose.
Steadily, unfalteringly, one idea had expanded in his mind. By some
brave action--by some deed of heroism--he was to win back the lost
inheritance.
"Time passed. And with its passage the wheel of fate revolved. By one of
those strange chances for which no man can account, the opportunity that
the boy longed for fell across his path.
"It came. But it came enveloped in no cloud of glory. The path to the
lost inheritance was steep and rugged and dark. He was called upon to
leave his mother; to leave the place that, however sordid, however mean,
was yet his home; and to enter upon a period of servitude with an
unknown master--a man related to him by blood, whom report described as
an eccentric--a miser--a madman."
As he said these words a curious thing occurred. A wave of color flushed
old Arian's sightless face; an inarticulate sound escaped him, and he
made a tremulous attempt to rise. But the movement was instantly checked
by Bale-Corphew, who bent close to him and whispered quickly in his ear.
Neither gesture nor whisper was noted by the Prophet. His own face had
paled as if with some deep emotion; and lowering his raised hand, he
spoke again with a new, suppressed intensity.
"Then began the vital period of that boy's career. He left his home--he
left the mother he loved--he went into voluntary exile, animated by one
purpose. Remember that, my People! He went into the service of this man
animated by one purpose--the determination to win back his rightful
fortune! And for seven weary years he continued his pursuit. For the
seven most vital years of his youth he suppressed every instinct that
animates a boy!
"He worked more laboriously than the laborer in the fields, for mental
servitude is more galling to the young than any physical strain. But he
never faltered; and at last he had the pride of knowing that his end was
gained--he had the pride of knowing that he had become indispensable to
the master whom he served!" Again he paused, but this time the pause was
of impressive weight. Unconsciously, and without analyzing the feeling,
every member of the congregation felt that some announcement was
pending--that some extraordinary revelation was about to be made.
Enid sat rigid, holding her breath in an agony of suspense, fascinated
and appalled by the incomprehensible discourse. Behind the high
railing, old Michael Arian's lips moved rapidly and nervously, as though
he were muttering inaudible prayers; while Bale-Corphew's florid face
flamed, as, with a rapid, agitated movement, he glanced over the tense
faces of the congregation. For one moment it seemed that he was bracing
himself for action, but before his intentions could bear fruit, the
voice of the Prophet again rang out across the chapel.
"My People!" he said. "It is now that I appeal to your humanity! It is
now that I ask each one of you--men and women--to stand in this boy's
place--this boy, built like yourselves of human desires, human hopes,
human weaknesses. After seven long years he touched the knowledge that
he had become indispensable; and the bearer of that knowledge was
Death--his master's master!
"Death came; and in his chill presence the boy saw his task
completed--laid aside like a written scroll!
"It was the most glorious moment of his life--that moment in which he
stood with unshaken faith, looking towards the future. But the darker
side of existence was his portion; he had been born to the darker side.
Within one hour of his master's death, his dreams were dispelled. He
learned that, in the eyes of the man he had served, he had never passed
beyond the position of the outcast--the dependent, whose services are
liberally rewarded by the gift of a few hundred pounds. The fortune--the
inheritance--the golden mirage, was no longer existent, save as
something that did not concern him. By the disposition of his master's
will, it had passed into the coffers of a religious body--a fantastic,
unknown sect to which the old man had belonged!"
The announcement fell with strange effect. Enid, inspired by sudden
terror, rose to her feet; Bale-Corphew sat gripping the arm of his
chair, his face contorted, his mouth working, while a rustle, an
audible murmur of excitement passed over the whole chapel, and the
Precursor, who all along had been crouching at the foot of the throne,
turned quickly and anxiously towards his master.
But the Prophet reassured him by a gesture. It seemed that he was
exalted by some emotion, lifted above his surroundings by some invisible
power.
"Put yourselves in this boy's place!" he cried. "Was there ever a
position so intensely human? The thing he had striven for--the thing he
needed inordinately--had been wrenched from him by a band of people who,
in his eyes, were either fools or knaves. What would you have done in
his position? What would have been your impulse? What your instinct? If
I know anything of human nature, it would have been the same as
his--precisely, accurately the same as his!
"He had known for years of this sect to which his master belonged; and
for years he had held it in contempt. In his normal, youthful eyes, the
idea of a creed that denied the high, simple theory of Christianity, and
awaited the coming of a mythical Prophet was a subject for healthy
scorn. And now suddenly it was forced upon his understanding that this
anæmic sect--this mystical, anticipated Prophet--were his rivals--the
despoilers of his private intimate hopes.
"Such a knowledge has power to work a miracle; and in one single night
it changed this boy into a man. Embittered, hopeless, stranded,
inspiration came to him. He conceived the tremendous idea of entering
upon a new fight--a second quest of the great inheritance. He conceived
the idea; and standing, as it were, upon a different plane of life, he
saw--"
But the Prophet got no further. With a gesture of violent excitement,
Bale-Corphew rose; at the same instant the Precursor sprang to his feet
and stood in a defensive attitude before the Throne.
The whole scene was enacted in a second. Enid, grasping its full
meaning, turned very white and dropped back into her seat, while the
whole congregation strained forward in unanimous amazement and
curiosity.
And then, for the first time, the hot, angry glance of Bale-Corphew met
that of the Prophet. He glared at him for one moment in speechless rage,
then he turned to the people.
"Mystics!" he cried, in a choked voice. "In accordance with a solemn
duty, I--I proclaim this man to be--"
But before he could proceed the Precursor interrupted.
"People! Mystics!" he cried, raising his penetrating voice. "Is this
right? Is this permissible?"
A murmur rose from the chapel.
Bale-Corphew's face became purple.
"People! hear me!" he exclaimed. "This man is no Prophet. He is an
impostor! A fraud! I have proof. I can give you proof!"
Of the extraordinary effect of these words Enid--crouching helplessly in
her seat--saw nothing. All her senses were riveted upon one object--the
tall, calm figure upon the steps of the Throne. By the power of
intuition, rather than by physical observation, she saw the look of
intense surprise, of incredulity merging to dismay, that crossed the
Prophet's face at the Arch-Mystic's words. And at the sight the real
meaning of his incomprehensible discourse passed over her mind in a wave
of incredulous admiration. Believing himself secure in his position, he
had voluntarily chosen to denounce himself.
That was her first thought as the matter became clear to her; but a
chilling second thought followed sharp upon it. What would be the
Prophet's reading of Bale-Corphew's knowledge? Would not one
solution--and one only--present itself to his mind? The idea that she
had betrayed his confidence. With the horror of the suggestion an
ungovernable impulse filled her--an impulse to rise--to go to him--sweep
the doubt from his mind. But an instant later the merely egotistical
thought was obliterated by the greater issues that filled the moment.
After Bale-Corphew had spoken an uproar--a clamor--had suddenly filled
the chapel; and now the rapt concourse of people had become as a
turbulent sea. The Precursor, pale with intense nervous excitement,
stood vainly striving to make his voice heard; while Bale-Corphew,
closely surrounded by his fellow-Mystics, gesticulated violently.
At last the Prophet raised his hand; and by habit and training, the
people subsided into silence.
Instantly Bale-Corphew's voice rang out.
"Listen!" he cried; "listen!"
But again the Precursor interrupted.
"People," he demanded, "will you refuse the Prophet the right of speech?
Will you refuse to hear the Prophet's words?"
"This is sacrilege! Sacrilege!" Norov suddenly raised his voice. "Listen
to your Councillor!"
"Listen to the Prophet! The Voice of the Prophet calls upon you. Will
you deny it?" The Precursor's voice shook with excitement.
"This is the truth! I tell you the truth!" Bale-Corphew appealed to the
people with out-stretched arms.
But the tumult broke forth again.
"Mystics! Mystics!" Old Arian's shrill, alarmed tones rose for an
instant, only to be drowned in the clamor.
Then out of the confused babel of sound one cry became distinguishable.
"The Prophet! The Prophet! Let the Prophet speak!"
For a space confusion reigned; then, answering to the demand, the
Prophet again lifted his right hand.
As though it exercised some potent spell, his calm, imperious gesture
subdued the turmoil. When silence had been restored he began to speak;
and never, since he had addressed the first Gathering, had so deep a
note of domination and decision been audible in his voice.
"Mystics!" he cried, "there is no time for preamble or delay. As the
Arch-Mystic says, you must have truth! Perhaps there is no need to tell
you that the history I have just related to you has an imminent bearing
upon your lives and mine. You probably know, without my telling, that
the boy of my story and I are one and the same person; that the fanatic
sect, for which I was made a beggar, is your own sect--the sect of the
Mystics. But so it is. On a wild, dark night ten years ago I learned
that the money which should have been mine--the money which should have
been the recompense for my mother's hard life--had been given to you.
Given for the use of a Prophet in whose coming you believed!
"My feelings on that night were the criminal feelings that underlie all
civilization. I had only one desire--to destroy--to be avenged. My
uncle, Andrew Henderson, was an Arch-Mystic of your sect; and on the
night he died, your sacred Scitsym was in his house!"
The congregation thrilled, and the blind Arch-Councillor turned and
clutched Bale-Corphew's arm.
"My first impulse was to destroy that book. Look at it, look at it!" He
pointed to the lectern. "Ten years ago, I knelt before a fire with its
pages in my hand, and black thoughts of revenge in my heart. But the
devil of temptation lurks in strange places. In the very act of
destruction, an inspiration came to me. A man was expected! A Prophet
was expected! And in the pages of the Scitsym were contained the
attributes, the secret signs, the manifold ways in which he was to make
good his claim.
"I come of an obstinate stock--of a stock that in the past has overcome
many obstacles. That night I copied out the whole of your Scitsym, and
afterwards, as soon as I reasonably could, I left Scotland.
"I went at once to my mother; I told her that, according to the
disposition of my uncle's will, I was to inherit his fortune in ten
years' time, and that in the interval I was to fit myself for wealth by
profound study. It was the first time in all my life that I had lied to
her!
"But to come to the end, your Prophet was to be a student of Eastern
lore. With this knowledge in my mind, I started with my mother for the
East. What has happened since then is immaterial. My second probation
has been as hard as my first. But I accomplished two things. I fitted
myself mentally and physically for the part I was going to play, and I
made one stanch, wholly disinterested friend!" With a gesture of grave
affection, he indicated the Precursor.
In the opportunity that the slight pause gave, Bale-Corphew sprang
forward and, resting his hands upon the Sanctuary railing, faced the
congregation.
"People!" he cried, hoarsely, "be not deceived! This man pretends to
tell you what he is. He is blinding you--weaving a bandage of specious
words across your eyes. But I will undeceive you. I will tear the
bandage--" He hesitated, stammered, paused.
With a movement full of fire, full of authority, the Prophet stepped
from the Throne.
"Silence!" he cried. "There is no need for interference. This matter is
between the People and myself." With a pale face and burning eyes he
stepped forward, and standing beside the Arch-Mystic confronted the
congregation.
"I will tell you everything that this man would tell you," he said, in a
steady voice. "I believe I will even use the word he himself would
choose. I am a thief! I am a thief--in intention if not in act!"
The effect of the word was tremendous. A perfectly audible gasp went up
from the breathless crowd; and, by one accord, the people rose and
swayed upward towards the Sanctuary.
Calm and immovable as a rock, the Prophet held his place.
"Yes," he said, steadily, "until this morning I have virtually been a
thief. Until this morning it was my firm intention to take by force that
which should have come to me as my right. The fact that my intention
faltered at the last moment does not affect the case. I wish to make no
appeal. My desire"--his voice suddenly quickened--"my desire is plainly
and simply to state my case.
"Morally I have done you no wrong. My teaching has been the expounding
of simple truths, that my personal action could not desecrate. I stand
before you to-night empty-handed as I came. The one thing I claim from
you is judgment!
"Judge me! I am in your hands. If you think I deserve punishment, punish
me! If you think circumstances have made me what I am, then stand aside!
Let me pass out of your lives!"
There was a great silence; then a woman's sharp cry rang out across the
chapel, as, with a savage movement, three of the Arch-Mystics sprang
upon the Prophet.
"Sacrilege! Sacrilege!" Bale-Corphew's voice rose loud and violent.
But he had calculated without his host. The fanaticism of a crowd is a
dangerous weapon with which to tamper, and the dethronement of a king is
not accomplished in a day. With the speed of light, the element he had
unloosed turned upon himself.
Again one word disentangled itself from the medley of sounds.
"The Prophet! The Prophet!" Like an ignited fuse, instinct had
been lighted in the people. The man who for months had been
exalted--honored--well-nigh worshipped--was in imminent peril!
That one thought submerged and demolished every other.
There was a forward movement--a roar--a crash--and the high, gilt
railings of the Sanctuary went down as before a storm.
To Enid, who had been borne irresistibly upward on the human tide, there
was one overpowering moment of fear and clamor, in which the cry of "The
Prophet! The Prophet!" dominated her consciousness; then, to her, the
world became suddenly and mercifully sightless, soundless, and void.
* * * * *
When at last her eyes opened--when at last her senses falteringly
returned to the consciousness of present things--she was in her own
familiar room. The atmosphere breathed of repose and peace; through the
drawn curtains the hum of London came subdued and soothing; in the room
itself the lights were modulated and the fire glowed soft and mellow,
while a faint, pungent smell of restoratives filled the air. But these
details came but vaguely to her appreciation, for the first object upon
which her glance and her ideas rested was the figure of John Henderson,
kneeling beside the couch on which she lay.
For a long, silent space she gazed bewildered into the grave face bent
over her own--striving to fathom whether this was another phase of an
extraordinarily prolonged and harassing dream, or whether it had any
bearing upon real life; then, as the pained, bewildered sensation
deepened in her mind, it was suddenly illumined by a flash of
recollection; and starting up, she caught Henderson's hand.
But before she could speak he laid his fingers gently over her eyes.
"You are not to think," he said. "To-night is past."
"But Hellier Crescent? What happened after--after--?"
Again he made a soothing movement.
"You must not think of it. They gathered round me. They were generous.
They heaped coals of fire."
Enid lay silent, conscious with a keen yet poignant pleasure of his hand
upon her face. Then suddenly a new thought obtruded itself, and drawing
away his fingers, she looked up into his face.
"And after to-night--?" she said, in a low, unsteady voice.
For a moment he did not answer, and in the soft light it seemed to her
that a shadow of pain passed over his face.
Again she put out her hand and touched his.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, below her breath.
At last he raised his head and looked fully at her.
"I am going back to the East. The hardest task of my life is awaiting me
there. It is a very bitter thing to disillusionize the person to whom
one is a hero."
She looked at him quickly.
"You are speaking of your mother? You are thinking of your mother?"
He bent his head.
For a space neither spoke. Vaguely, and in distant accompaniment to
their thoughts, each was conscious of the hum of traffic and of the
softly crackling fire; then at last Enid stirred, and with a gesture
full of comprehension, her fingers closed round Henderson's.
"Let me tell her the story!" she said, almost inaudibly. "Take me with
you--and let me tell her! We are both women, and--" Her head drooped
slightly; and her face flushed. "And we both love you."