CHAPTER III

"I THINK HE IS A GOOD MAN"

The servant had turned on the lights in the drawing room, where a low fire still glowed red upon the hearth, and left Constantine Schuabe alone to await the vicar"s arrival.

On either side of the fireplace were heavy hangings of emerald and copper woven stuff, a present to Helena from an uncle, who had bought them at Benares. Schuabe stood motionless before this background.

The man was tall, above the middle height, and the heavy coat of fur which he was wearing increased the impression of proportioned size, of ma.s.siveness, which was part of his personality. His hair was a very dark red, smooth and abundant, of that peculiar colour which is the last to show the greyness of advancing age. His features were Semitic, but without a trace of that fulness, and sometimes coa.r.s.eness, which often marks the Jew who has come to the middle period of life. The eyes were large and black, but without animation, in ordinary use and wont. They did not light up as he spoke, but yet the expression was not veiled or obscured. They were coldly, terribly _aware_, with something of the sinister and untroubled regard one sees in a reptile"s eyes.

The jaw, which dominated the face and completed its remarkable _ensemble_, was very ma.s.sive, reminding people of steel covered with olive-coloured parchment. Handsome was hardly the word which fitted him.

He was a strikingly handsome man; but that, like "distinction," was only one of the qualities which made up his personality. Force, power--the relentless and conscious power suggested by some great marine engine--surrounded him in an almost indescribable way. They were like exhalations. Most people, with the casual view, called him merely indomitable, but there were others who thought they read deeper and saw something evil and monstrous about the man; powerless to give an exact and definite reason for the impression, and dubious of voicing it.

Nevertheless, now and again, two or three people would speak of him to each other without reserve, and on such occasions they generally agreed to this feeling of the sinister and malign, in much the same manner as the vicar and his curate had been agreeing but half an hour before his arrival at the house.

The door opened with a quick click of the handle, and the vicar entered with something of suddenness. One might almost have supposed that he had lingered, hesitant, in the hall, and suddenly nerved himself for this encounter.

Mr. Byars advanced to take the hand of his visitor. Beside the big man he seemed shrunken and a little ineffectual. He was slightly nervous in his manner also, for Basil"s impa.s.sioned and terror-ridden words still rang in his ears and had their way with him.

The coincidence of the millionaire"s arrival was altogether too sudden and _bizarre_.

When they had made greetings, cordial enough on the surface, and were seated on either side of the fire, Schuabe spoke at once upon the object of his visit.

"I have come, Mr. Byars," he said, in a singularly clear, vibrant voice, "to discuss certain educational proposals with you. As you probably know, just at present I am taking a very prominent part in the House of Commons in connection with the whole problem of primary education.

Within the last few weeks I have been in active correspondence with your School Board, and you will know all about the scholarships I have founded.

"But I am now coming to you to propose something of the same sort in connection with your own Church schools. My opinions on religious matters are, of course, not yours. But despite my position I have always recognised that, with whatever means, both the clergy and my own party are broadly working towards one end.

"Walktown provides me with very many thousands a year, and it is my duty in some way or another to help Walktown. My proposal is roughly this: I will found and endow two yearly scholarships for two boys in the national schools. The money will be sufficient, in the first instance, to send them to one of the great Northern Grammar Schools, and afterwards, always providing that the early promise is maintained, to either university.

"My only stipulation is this. The tests shall be purely and simply intellectual, and have nothing whatever to do with the religious teaching of the schools, with which I am not in sympathy. Nevertheless, it is only fair that a clever boy in a Church school should have the same opportunities as in a secular school. I should tell you that I have made the same offer to the Roman Catholic school authorities and it has been declined."

The vicar listened with great attention. The offer was extremely generous, and showed a most open-minded determination to put the donor"s personal prejudices out of the question. There could be no doubt as to his answer--none whatever.

"My dear sir," he said, "your generosity is very great. I see your point about the examinations. Religion is to form no part of them exactly. But by the time one of our boys submits himself for examination we should naturally hope that he would already be so firmly fixed in Christian principles that his after-career would have no influence upon his faith.

Holding the opinions that you do, your offer shows a great freedom from any prejudice. I hope I am broad-minded enough to recognise that philanthropy is a fine, lovely thing, despite the banner under which the philanthropist may stand. I accept your generous offer in the spirit that it is made. Of course, the scheme must be submitted to the managers of the schools, of whom I am chief, but the matter practically lies with me, and my lead will be followed."

"I am only too glad," said the big man, with a sudden and transforming smile, "to help on the cause of knowledge. All the details of the scheme I will send you in a few days, and now I will detain you no longer."

He rose to go.

During their brief conversation the vicar had been conscious of many emotions. He blamed himself for his narrowness and the somewhat fantastic lengths to which his recent talk with Gortre had gone. The man was an infidel, no doubt. His intellectual attacks upon Christian faith were terribly damaging and subversive. Still, his love for his fellow-men was sincere, it seemed. He attacked the faith, but not the preachers of it. And--a half thought crossed his brain--he might have been sent to him for some good purpose. St. Paul had not always borne the name of Paul!

These thoughts, but half formulated in his brain, had their immediate effect in concrete action.

"Won"t you take off your coat, Mr. Schuabe," he said, "and smoke a cigar with me in my study?"

The other hesitated a moment, looked doubtful, and then a.s.sented. He hung his coat up in the hall and went into the other room with the vicar.

During the conversation in the drawing-room Helena had come back from the concert, and Basil, hearing her, had left the study and gone to her own private sanctum for a last few minutes before saying good-night.

Helena sat in a low chair by the fire sipping a bowl of soup which the maid had brought up to her. She was a little tired by the concert, where a local pianist had been playing a nocturne of Chopin"s as if he wanted to make it into soup, and the quiet of her own sitting-room, the intimate comfort of it all, and the sense of happiness that Basil"s presence opposite gave her were in delightful contrast.

"It was very stupid, dear," she said. "Mrs. Pryde was rather trying, full of dull gossip about every one, and the music wasn"t good. Mr.

Cuthbert played as if he was playing the organ in church. His touch is utterly unfitted for anything except the War March from _Athalie_ with the stops out. He knows nothing of the piano. I was in a front seat, and I could see his knee feeling for the swell all the time. He played _the_ sonata as if he was throwing the moonlight at one in great solid chunks.

I"m glad to be back. How nice it is to sit here with you, dearest!--and how good this Bovril is!" she concluded with a little laugh of content and happiness at this moment of acute physical and mental ease.

He looked lovingly at her as she lay back in rest and the firelight played over her white arms and pale gold hair.

"It"s wonderful to think," he said, with a little catch in his voice, "it"s wonderful to me, an ever-recurring wonder, to think that some day you and I will always be together for all our life, here and afterwards.

What supreme, unutterable happiness G.o.d gives to His children! Do you know, dear, sometimes as I read prayers or stand by the altar, I am filled with a sort of rapture of thankfulness which is voiceless in its intensity. Tennyson got nearer to expressing it than any one in that beautiful _St. Agnes" Eve_ of his--a little gem which, with its simplicity and fervour, is worth far more than Keats"s poem with all its literary art."

"It is good to feel like that sometimes," she answered; "but it is well, I think, not to get into the way of _inducing_ such feelings. The human brain is such a sensitive thing that one can get into the way of drugging it with emotion, as it were. I think I am tinged a little with the North-country spirit. I always think of Newman"s wonderful lines--

""The thoughts control that o"er thee swell and throng; They will condense within the soul and turn to purpose strong.

But he who lets his feelings run in soft luxurious flow, Shrinks when hard service must be done, and faints at every blow."

"I only quote from memory. But you look tired, dear boy; you are rather white. Have you been overworking?"

He did not answer immediately.

"No," he said slowly, "but I"ve been having a long talk with the vicar.

We were talking about Mr. Schuabe and his influence. Helena, that man is the most active of G.o.d"s enemies in England. Almost when I was mentioning his name, by some coincidence, or perhaps for some deeper, more mysterious, psychical reason which men do not yet understand, the maid announced him. He had come to see your father on business, and--don"t think I am unduly fanciful--the Murillo photograph, the head of Christ, on the mantel-shelf, fell down and was broken. He is here still, I think."

"Yes," said Helena; "Mr. Schuabe is in the study with father. But, Basil dear, it"s quite evident to me that you"ve been doing too much. Do you know that I look upon Mr. Schuabe as a really _good_ man! I have often thought about him, and even prayed that he may learn the truth; but G.o.d has many instruments. Mr. Schuabe is sincere in his unbelief. His life and all his actions are for the good of others. It is terrible--it is deplorable--to know he attacks Christianity; but he is tolerant and large-minded also. Yes, I should call him a good man. He will come to G.o.d some day. G.o.d would not have given him such power over the minds and bodies of men otherwise."

Gortre smiled a little sadly,--a rather wan smile, which sat strangely upon his strong and hearty face--, but he said no more.

He knew that his att.i.tude was illogical, perhaps it could be called bigoted and intolerant--a harsh indictment in these easy, lat.i.tudinarian days; but his conviction was an intuition. It came from within, from something outside or beyond his reason, and would not be stifled.

"Well, dear," he said, "perhaps it is as you say. Nerves which are overwrought, and a system which is run down, certainly have their say, and a large say, too, in one"s att.i.tude towards any one. Now you must go to bed. I will go down and say good-night to the rector and Mr.

Schuabe--just to show there"s no ill-feeling; though, goodness knows, I oughtn"t to jest about the man. Good-night, sweet one; G.o.d bless you.

Remember me also in your prayers to-night."

She kissed him in her firm, brave way--a kiss so strong and loving, so pure and sweet, that he went away from that little room of books and _bric-a-brac_ as if he had been sojourning in some shrine.

As Basil came into the study he found Mr. Byars and Schuabe in eager, animated talk. A spirit decanter had been brought in during his absence, and the vicar was taking the single gla.s.s of whisky-and-water he allowed himself before going to bed. Basil, who was in a singularly alert and observant mood, noticed that a gla.s.s of plain seltzer water stood before the millionaire.

Gortre"s personal acquaintance with Schuabe was of the slightest. He had met him once or twice on the platform of big meetings, and that was all.

A simple curate, unless socially,--and Schuabe did not enter into the social life of Walktown, being almost always in London,--he would not be very likely to come in the way of this mammoth.

But Schuabe greeted him with marked cordiality, and he sat down to listen to the two men.

In two minutes he was fascinated, in five he realised, with a quick and unpleasant sense of inferiority, how ignorant he was beside these two.

In Schuabe the vicar found a man whose knowledge was as wide and scholarship as profound as his own.

From a purely intellectual standpoint, probably Gortre and Schuabe were more nearly on a level, but in pure knowledge he was nowhere. He wondered, as he listened, if the generation immediately preceding his own had been blessed with more time for culture, if the foundation had been surer and more comprehensive, when they were _alumni_ of the "loving mother" in the South.