On the way from the Clergy-House to Warwick Gardens Vane tried more than
once to get his father to tell him something about the evening's
entertainment which he had invited him for, but Sir Arthur only laughed,
albeit somewhat seriously, and said:
"My dear boy, I am not going to let you spoil a pleasant little
surprise. I don't say that it will be altogether a pleasant one, yet I
know that it will not be an entirely unpleasant one. To a certain
extent, as you will find afterwards, it is one of the many results of
that precious sermon of yours, and, as certain things had to be done, I
thought they would be better done at home than elsewhere."
And in reply to Vane's second attempt his father said simply:
"No, Vane, this is a surprise party, as they say in the States, and I am
not going to give the names of my guests away. You really must possess
your soul in patience for the present. Meanwhile tell me what Father
Baldwin thinks of the position you have taken up?"
"You mean, of course, about this new heresy of mine?" replied Vane with
a laugh--"a heresy, by the way, which is as old as Christianity. Well,
dad, to tell you the truth I think the dear old Father is a little bit
frightened, but he is too strong a man to go back from the position, and
too good a Christian to want to do so. He sees that I am right, or, I
should say of course, that this is after all the only possible doctrine
and belief for a Christian. He gave me permission to preach that sermon
from his pulpit, but I don't think he quite realised, as a matter of
fact I didn't myself, what an effect it would have, and perhaps the
consequences have worried him a little; but he is perfectly staunch, and
so are Moran and Webley."
"And so, I suppose," replied Sir Arthur, "St. Chrysostom's will not be a
pleasant Sunday morning and evening resort for rich people any longer.
That is, perhaps, a somewhat flippant way of putting it, but of course
you know what I mean."
"Yes, I quite see what you mean, dad," said Vane rather more seriously.
"I don't think it will be, but I do think that before very long we shall
have a better congregation of Christians than we have ever had before,
people who, I mean, will have lost their delusions about fashionable
Christianity--just as if there could be such a thing!--and who come to
hear the Word of God as it is, and not as most people would like it to
be. By the way, have you heard that the Canon, I mean Canon
Thornton-Moore, of Worcester, a man that I met at dinner at the Abbey,
has accepted the presentation of All Saints, Densmore Square? It is
supposed to be a little higher even than St. Chrysostom, and if possible
the congregation is even more disgustingly rich and fashionable and
everything that is not Christian."
"I must say, Vane, that you have all the uncompromising severity of the
true enthusiast, and the way in which you include your old father with
these hopeless sinners is really almost unfilial. I think I can tell
you this much, that to-night you are going to meet a very much greater
sinner than I am, a sinner to the extent of millions, and yet, from what
I have learned of him on the best possible authority, as honest a man,
as good-hearted a fellow, as ever fought the world single-handed and
beat it."
"Just as you did, dad," said Vane in a tone which reminded his father of
the old days. "I suppose there is nothing to be said of the other two
persons of the Infernal Trinity."
"Not at present," said Sir Arthur, with a sudden change in his voice
which made Vane look round at him. His face had changed with his tone.
He was leaning with his arms on the door of the cab, staring up at the
sky over the roofs of the houses. Vane noticed a little twitching of the
lip under the long grey moustache, and thought it well to hold his
peace.
Fortunately, perhaps, for both, the cab at that moment swung round out
of the main road into Warwick Gardens. Vane looked at the familiar
corner at which he had stopped that other hansom cab on that memorable
Boat Race night and got out, after Carol had denied him the kiss he
asked for, to meet his father on the pavement. Sir Arthur remembered it
too, and he had good reasons to, for he said as the cab swung round:
"Vane, when my lease is up I am going to leave this place. I never can
pass that corner without thinking of what no man ought to be obliged to
think of."
"I know what you mean, dad," cried Vane. "It was horrible enough, or at
least it might have been and yet it wasn't, and because it wasn't----"
"Well, at any rate," interrupted Sir Arthur as the cab pulled up, "let
us thank God that it wasn't."
As they got out another cab drove up just behind theirs, and somewhat to
his astonishment Vane saw Ernshaw get out.
"My dear Ernshaw," he said, as they shook hands, "isn't this great
extravagance?"
"Only a shilling's worth," laughed Ernshaw in reply, "and I think
justifiable; a little kiddy was knocked down in Addison Road there by a
butcher's cart, and I picked her up and took her to the hospital in
Hammersmith Road, and this good fellow won't charge me more than a
shilling for both journeys, although it is out of the radius."
"Oh, he won't, won't he?" said Sir Arthur, putting his hand into his
pocket and pulling out a couple of half-crowns.
"You take that, my man, not for yourself if you won't have it, but for
your wife and your children if you have got any; you can't say no for
them."
"No, sir, thankee, I won't say no to them," said the cabby, taking the
half-crowns and touching his hat. "It's the best fare I've earned
to-day. Good-night, sir, and thank you, sir. Come up, old girl."
The whip flicked, and the old mare went round to begin another of those
endless journeys through London streets which horses, if they reason at
all, must find so utterly incomprehensible and aimless.
"Is this the beginning of the surprises, dad?" said Vane, as the two
cabs drove away. "This is certainly one of the last places in London
that I should have expected to meet Ernshaw in, after seeing him up to
his neck in work at Bethnal Green yesterday. It must have been a pretty
strong attraction, Ernshaw, that got you as far west as this."
"My dear Maxwell," said Ernshaw, "surely the worst of us are entitled to
a holiday now and then. Why, even Father Philip goes to Norway for a
fortnight every year, to say nothing of an occasional run up to Town
now and then, and he confessed to me not very long ago that he enjoys no
earthly pleasure better than a good 'Varsity match at Lord's."
"There is nothing better," said Sir Arthur, "except a good Indian polo
match. Well, come in. I have just got time for a wash and a change
before our other guests arrive. You clerics don't want a change, so you
can have a wash and a cigarette if you want one in the Den."
As the door opened Koda Bux came along the hall and made his salaam; his
grave, deep eyes made no sign as he recognised Vane in his clerical
garb; he only salaamed again and welcomed Vane back to the house of his
father and his mother. That was Koda Bux's way of putting it in his
Indian fashion. He would have put it otherwise if he had known what such
a welcome meant to him.
"This is the place of the _debacle_," said Vane to Ernshaw when they met
in the Den after they had had their wash; "there's the hearthrug--yes,
and there's the same spirit-case. It is a curious thing, Ernshaw, but
since then, or rather, since that other ghastly collapse at Oxford, I've
lectured in club rooms reeking with alcohol; I've gone with you as you
know where everyone was sodden with the gin and stank of it, and even
into bars where you could smell nothing but liquor and unwashed
humanity, and yet that intoxication has never come back to me."
"Of course not," said Ernshaw; "you have prayed and fought since then,
and as you have won your battles your prayers have been answered."
"Yes," said Vane, "I hope you are right; in fact, I am sure you are. I
don't suppose a sniff at that whiskey decanter would affect me any more
than a few drops of eau de cologne on my handkerchief."
As he said this he went towards the spirit-case on the little old oak
sideboard and took out the whiskey decanter.
"Take care, Vane!" said Ernshaw. "I hope you are not forgetting the old
doctrine of association. Remember what you were saying just now about
this room. There is a sense, you know, in which places are really
haunted."
"My dear Ernshaw, I believe you are even more ideal than I am," laughed
Vane, as he took the stopper out and raised the decanter to his
nostrils. As he did so the front door bell tinkled, and the hand of a
practised footman played a brief fantasia on the knocker. In the middle
of an inhalation Vane stopped and put the bottle down; but even as he
did so the mysterious force of association against which Ernshaw had
warned him had begun to work upon his imagination. The familiar room,
with its pictures and furniture and simple ornaments, the feel of the
cut-glass decanter, which was the same one that he had held in his hand
that fatal night, the smell of the whiskey--all these elements were
rapidly combining in those few moments to produce an effect partly
mental and partly physical which might have more than justified
Ernshaw's sudden fear.
"Ah, there are the mysterious guests, I suppose!" he said, putting the
decanter back into the case. "I suppose you don't happen to know who
they really are, Ernshaw?"
"My dear fellow, if I did I shouldn't tell you," was the distinctly
non-committal reply. "I think it will be very much more interesting for
you to find out yourself."
By this time Koda Bux, in his capacity of major-domo and general
factotum to Sir Arthur, had opened the door, and at the same moment Sir
Arthur himself came downstairs. Vane heard him say:
"Good evening, ladies; I am sorry that I have no hostess to receive you,
but Mrs. Saunders, who helps Koda Bux to take care of me, will take you
upstairs."
Then there was a low murmur of a woman's voice, a rustle of skirts up
the stairs, and Sir Arthur went on:
"Now, Mr. Rayburn, if you will come with me I will show you where to put
your hat and coat and have a rinse if you like."
"Thanks, Sir Arthur," replied a voice which was strange to Vane.
"And who might Mr. Rayburn be?" he said to Ernshaw. "I didn't know the
governor knew anyone of that name. Still, from the sound of his voice he
is a gentleman, and, I should say, a man."
"I think when you meet him you will find him both," said Ernshaw.
"Ah," laughed Vane, "I think I caught you out there. So you are in this
conspiracy of mystery, are you? Now, look here, Ernshaw, what is it all
about?"
"Guilty, but shan't tell," replied his friend. "Now here comes Sir
Arthur; perhaps he will tell."
"Vane," said Sir Arthur as the door opened, "this is Mr. Cecil Rayburn,
and I want you to be very good friends; you will soon find out why."
Vane looked up and saw a man apparently a year or two older than
himself, about the same height and build, but harder and stronger, and
possessing that peculiar erectness of carriage and alertness of movement
that is owned only by those who have worked or fought, or done both, in
the outlands of the earth. But a glance at his face confirmed Vane in
the opinion he had formed when he heard his voice; he was undeniably
both a gentleman and a man. He held out his hand and said:
"Good evening, Mr. Rayburn. Of course a friend of my father's has to be
my friend also."
To his astonishment Cecil Rayburn made no movement to take his hand; on
the contrary he drew back half a pace and said with a note of something
like nervousness in his voice--a note which sounded strangely in the
speech of a man who had never known what fear was:
"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell; I hope we shall be friends, but I am afraid I
can't shake hands with you yet--I mean, I shouldn't like you to regret
it afterwards."
Before Vane had found any words to shape a reply, Sir Arthur said:
"Mr. Ernshaw, suppose we go into the drawing-room to receive the ladies,
and leave these two to have it out. We shan't have dinner for half an
hour, and I think they will manage to understand each other before
then."