It was part of the spinster"s life to subject her companion to a kind of drill in this way. The unfortunate girl"s movements were regulated mathematically, and in her more genial and expansive moments Miss Pritchett would explain that her "nerves" required that this should be so--that she should have absolute control over the movements of any one who was in the room with her.

There had been spirited contests between Miss Pritchett and a long succession of girls who had refused to play the part of automaton, but in Gussie Davies, the lady had found a willing slave. She paid her well, and in return was served with diligence and thorough obsequiousness.

Gussie was adroit, more adroit than her somewhat lymphatic appearance would have led the casual observer to suppose. Properly trained, she might almost have made a psychologist, but her opportunities had been limited. However, for several years, she had directed a sharp brain to the study of one person, and she knew Miss Pritchett as Mr. Sponge knew his Mogg. Her influence with that lady was enormous, the more so in that it was not at all suspected by the object, who imagined that the girl was hers, body and soul. But, nevertheless, Miss Davies, who hailed from Wales and had a large share of the true Cymric cunning, could play upon her mistress with sure fingers, and, while submitting to every form of petty tyranny, and occasionally open insult, she ruled the foolish woman she was with.

Gussie sat down. Miss Pritchett did not speak at once, and the girl judged, correctly enough, that she was meant to open the ball.

"O Miss Pritchett!" she said with a little shudder, "what a relief it must be to you to be back in your own mansion!"

Nothing pleased the spinster more than the word mansion as applied to her house. Gussie used the term with discretion, employing it only on special occasions, unwilling to be prodigal of so sure a card.

"You may well say that, child," Miss Pritchett answered faintly.

"Now you must let me ring for a gla.s.s of port for you," the young lady continued. "You need it, indeed you do. I"ll take the responsibility on myself."

She rose and rang the bell. "Two gla.s.ses," said Miss Pritchett when the answering maid had received her order. "You shall have a gla.s.s, Gussie, for I feel I am to blame in taking you to such a place. I have seen the world, and I have met women of that cla.s.s before, I am sorry to say. But hitherto I have managed to shield you from such contamination."

Gussie sighed the sigh of innocence, a sigh which the young men with whom she larked about in Alexandra Gardens never heard.

"I wish I had your knowledge of the world," she said. "But, of course, I"ve never mixed in society, not like you."

The port arrived and in a minute or two the experienced damsel saw that her patroness was settling down for a long and confidential chat. The moment promised a golden opportunity, of which she meant to take advantage if she possibly could. She had a big scheme in hand; she was primed with it by minds more subtle than her own. The image of Sam Hamlyn was before her and she burned to deserve that gentleman"s commendation.

"Yes," said Miss Pritchett, "as a girl, when I used to go to the Lord Mayor"s b.a.l.l.s at the Mansion House with papa and mamma, I saw what society really was. And it"s worse now! That abandoned hussy at the vicarage is an example of what I mean. I must not go into details before you, child, but I know what I know!"

"How _awful_, Miss Pritchett! I saw her making eyes at all the gentlemen before you went up to her."

"All"s fish that comes to the net of such," replied Miss Pritchett. "An earl"s toy, the giddy bubble floating on the open sewer of a London season, or the sly allurer of an honest young city gentleman. Anything in trousers, child, is like herrings to a cat!"

"How _awful_! Miss Pritchett," repeated Gussie, wondering what it would be like to be an earl"s toy, and rather thinking she would enjoy it. "I suppose you"ll go to the vicarage just as usual, though,--on parish business, I mean."

This, as the girl expected, provoked a storm, which she patiently endured, certain that she was in a way to gain her ends. At length, the flow of voluble and angry words grew less. Miss Pritchett was enjoying herself too much to risk the girl"s non-compliance with her mood.

"There, there," she said eventually, "it"s only your ignorance I know, Gussie, but you do aggravate me. You don"t understand society. Never shall I set foot in that man"s house again!"

Gussie gasped. Her face expressed fervent admiration at such a daring resolve, but slight incredulity as well.

The bait took again. "Never, as I"m a living lady!" said Miss Pritchett, "and I don"t know as I shall ever drive up to the church doors in my carriage on a Sunday morning more! Opinions may change. I _may_ have been--I don"t say I _have_ been, yet, mind you--I _may_ have been led away by the false glitter of Roman doctrine and goings on."

The idea seemed to please the lady. She saw herself picturesque in such a situation.

Gussie started suddenly.

"What"s the matter, child?" she was asked tartly; "do you think no one"s got any nerves? Keep still, do!"

"I"m very sorry, Miss Pritchett, but when you said that, I remembered something I was reading last night in the _Hornham Observer_."

"I was keeping it for Sunday afternoon," said Miss Pritchett. "I did mean to go to morning service and then read Mr. Hamlyn"s side of last Sunday"s proceedings at home, comfortable like. But what"s in the paper?"

"A great deal that will interest you, dear Miss Pritchett, though I do not know if you will be pleased."

"Pleased? What do you mean?"

"Your name is mentioned several times."

"Is it, indeed! We"ll soon see about that! Fetch the paper at once and read what it says. If Mr. Hamlyn"s been foolish enough to talk about his betters, I"ll very soon have him turned neck and crop out of the place.

He"s a man I"ve never spoken to more than twice, and he must be taught his place in Hornham."

Gussie went out to fetch the paper. She smiled triumphantly as she came into the hall. All was going well and, moreover, her quick ear had caught the slight trace of wavering and alarm in the concluding words of her mistress. Miss Pritchett, like many other people, was never able to rid herself of a superst.i.tious reverence for print. She devoutly believed the cheap romances that formed her literary food, and even a small local newspaper was not without a strong influence on one whose whole sympathies and interests were local.

Gussie came back with the paper. "There"s two whole pages about the St.

Elwyn"s business," she said, "column after column, with great big letters at the top. Shall I begin at the beginning?"

"No, no; read the bits about me, of course. Read what it was that made you jump like a cat in an oven just now."

"That particular bit did not mention your name, Miss Pritchett, but it chimed in so with what you said just now. I wonder if I can find it?--ah, here it is--

""And so I think I have accounted for the reason of the popularity of such services as go on at St. Elwyn"s among the poorer cla.s.ses. A wealthy clergyman can buy attendance at any idolatry, and who would blame a starving brother, desperate for food, perhaps, for attendance at a mummery which is nothing to him but the price of a much-needed meal?

Not I. Tolerance has ever been the watch-word of the _Observer_, and, however much I may regret that even the poorest man may be forced to witness the blasphemous and hideous mockery of Truth that takes place at St. Elwyn"s, I blame not the man, but the cunning of a priesthood that buys his attendance and then points to him as a convert to thinly veiled Romanism.""

Gussie stopped for a moment to take breath. Miss Pritchett"s face was composed to pleasure. This was hot and strong indeed! She wondered how Father Blantyre liked this!

Worthy Mr. Hamlyn, indeed, had heard of the little incident of the navvy and Father King, and knew that the erstwhile antagonist was now housed in the vicarage. Hence the preceding paragraph. Gussie went on:

""But what shall we say when we find rank and fashion, acute intelligence and honoured names bowing down in the House of Rimmon? How shall we in Hornham regard such a strange and--so it seems to us--unnatural state of affairs?

""The Scarlet Woman is powerful indeed! It would be idle to attempt to deny it. The drowsy magic of Rome has permeated with its subtle influence homes where we should have hoped it would never enter. And why is this? I think we can understand the reason in some measure. Let us take an imaginary case. Let us suppose that there is among us a woman of high station, of intellect, wealth, and charm. She sees a struggling priesthood establish itself in a Protestant neighbourhood. The sympathy that woman will ever have for the weak is enlisted; she visits a church, not realising what its sham and ceremony leads to, under what Malign Influence it is carried on. And then a gracious nature is attracted by the cunning amenities of worship. The music, the lights, the flowers, the gorgeous robes, appeal to a high and delicate nature. For a time, it pa.s.ses under the sway of an arrogant priesthood, and, with that sweet submission which is one of the most alluring of feminine charms, bows before a Baal which it does not realise, a golden calf that it would abhor and repudiate were it not blinded by its own charity and unsuspicious trust! Have I drawn a picture that is too strong? I think not. It is only by a.n.a.logy that we can best present the Truth.

""Nevertheless we do not hesitate to a.s.sert, and a.s.sert with absolute conviction, that, if such a clouding of a fine nature were temporarily possible, it would be but transient. Truth will prevail. In the end, we shall see all those who are now the puppets and subjects of a Romanising attempt come back to the clear sunlight of Protestantism, away from the stink-pots and candles, the toys of ritual, the poison of a painted lie.""

Gussie read the paragraphs with unction. She read them rather well. As she made an end, her guilty conscience gave her a fear that the unusual emphasis might have awakened some suspicion in Miss Pritchett"s mind.

But with great relief she saw that it was not so. That lady was manifestly excited. Her eyes were bright and there was a high flush on the cheek-bones. Truth to tell, Miss Pritchett had always suspected that there were depths of hidden gold in her nature. But they had never been so vividly revealed to her before.

"Give me the paper," she said in a tremulous voice; "let me read it for myself!"

Her unguarded words showed Miss Davies how completely the fortress was undermined. The spinster read the words through her gla.s.ses and then handed the paper back to her companion.

"The man that wrote that," she said, "is a good and sincere man. He knows how the kind heart can be imposed upon and deceived! I shall take an early opportunity of meeting Mr. Hamlyn. He will be a great man some day, if I am any judge."

"He must have had his eye on the Malakoff," Gussie said. "Why, dear Miss Pritchett, he has described you to a T. There is no one else in Hornham to whom it could apply."

"Hush, child! It may be as you say. This worthy man may have been casting his eye over the parish and thought that he saw in me something of which he writes. It is not for me to deny it. I can only say that in his zeal he has much exaggerated the humble merits of one who, whatever her faults, has merely tried to do her duty in the station to which she has been called. And if Providence has placed that station high, it is Providence"s will, and we must not complain!"

"How beautifully you put it, Miss Pritchett!"

The chatelaine of Malakoff wiped a tear from her eye. The excitement of the afternoon, the gla.s.s of port, the periods of Mr. Hamlyn"s prose, had all acted upon nerves pampered by indulgence and tightened with self-irritation.

"I believe you care for me, child," said Miss Pritchett with a sob.

"How it rejoices me to hear you say so, Miss Pritchett," Gussie replied, seeing that her opportunity had now come. "But your generous nature gives way too easily. You are unstrung by the wanton insults of that woman! Let me read you the concluding portion of Mr. Hamlyn"s article.