第118章 Slander Leaves a Slur (3)

"This way, Tom!" called Erica."Come and help us!"But a laughing reference to the day of their childish disaster died on her lips when she caught sight of him for she knew that something was wrong.Accustomed all her life to live in the region of storms, she had learned to a nicety the tokens of rough weather.

"Hazeldine wishes to speak to you," said Tom, turning to Raeburn.

"I brought him round here to save time."

"Oh! All right," said Raeburn, too much absorbed in planning the arrangement of his treasures to notice the unusual graveness of Tom's face."Ask him in here.Good evening, Hazeldine.You are the first to see us in our new quarters."Hazeldine bore traces of having lived from his childhood a hard but sedentary life.He was under-sized and narrow chested.But the face was a very striking one, the forehead finely developed, the features clearly cut, and the bright, dark eyes looking out on the world with an almost defiant honesty, a clearness bordering on hardness.

Raeburn, entirely putting aside for the time his own affairs, and giving to his visitor his whole and undivided attention, saw in an instant that the man was in trouble.

"Out of work again?" he asked."Anything gone wrong?""No sir," replied Hazeldine; "but I came round to ask if you'd seen that circular letter.'Twas sent me this morning by a mate of mine who's lately gone to Longstaff, and he says that this Pogson is sowing them broadcast among the hands right through all the workshops in the place, and in all England, too, for aught he knows.I wouldn't so much as touch the dirty thing, only I thought maybe you hadn't heard of it."Without a word, Raeburn held out his hand for the printed letter.

Erica, standing at a little distance, watched the faces of the three men Tom, grave, yet somewhat flushed; Hazeldine, with a scornful glitter in his dark eyes; her father? Last of all she looked at him and looking, learned the full gravity of this new trouble.For, as he read, Raeburn grew white, with the marble whiteness which means that intense anger has interfered with the action of the heart.As he hastily perused the lines, his eyes seemed to flash fire; the hand which still held the measuring tape was clinched so tightly that the knuckle looked like polished ivory.

Erica could not ask what was the matter, but she came close to him.

When he had finished reading, the first thing his eye fell upon was her face turned up to his with a mute appeal which, in spite of the anxiety in it, made her look almost like a child.He shrank back as she held out her hand for the letter; it was so foul a libel that it seemed intolerable to him that his own child should so much as read a line of it.

"What is it?" she asked at length, speaking with difficulty.

"A filthy libel circulated by that liar Pogson! A string of lies invented by his own evil brain! Why should I keep it from you? It is impossible! The poisonous thing is sown broadcast through the land.You are of age there read it, and see how vile a Christian can be!"He was writhing under the insult, and was too furious to measure his words.It was only when he saw Erica's brave lip quiver that he felt with remorse that he had doubled her pain.

She had turned a little away from him, ostensibly to be nearer to the gas, but in reality that he might not see the crimson color which surged up into her face as she read.Mr.Pogson was as unscrupulous as fanatics invariably are.With a view of warning the public and inducing them to help him in crushing the false doctrine he abhorred, he had tried to stimulate them by publishing a sketch of Raeburn's personal character and life, drawn chiefly from his imagination, or from distorted and misquoted anecdotes which had for years been bandied about among his opponents, losing nothing in the process.Hatred of the man Luke Raeburn was his own great stimulus, and we are apt to judge others by ourselves.The publication of this letter really seemed to him likely to do great good, and the evil passions of hatred and bigotry had so inflamed his mind, that it was perfectly easy for him to persuade himself that the statements were true.Indeed, he only followed with the multitude to do evil in this instance, for not one in a thousand took the trouble to verify their facts, or even their quotations, when speaking of, or quoting Raeburn.The libel, to put it briefly, represented Raeburn as a man who had broken every one of the ten commandments.