第55章 THE EIGHTH - THE NEW WORLD(3)

"I think you ought to have some place near the centre of London; not too west, for you might easily become fashionable, not too east because you might easily be swallowed up in merely philanthropic work, but somewhere between the two.There must be vacant sites still to be got round about Kingsway.And there we must set up your tabernacle, a very plain, very simple, very beautifully proportioned building in which you can give your message.I know a young man, just the very young man to do something of the sort, something quite new, quite modern, and yet solemn and serious.Lady Ella seemed to think you wanted to live somewhere in the north-west of London--but she would tell me very little.I seem to see you not there at all, not in anything between west-end and suburb, but yourself as central as your mind, in a kind of clergy house that will be part of the building.That is how it is in my dream anyhow.All that though can be settled afterwards.My imagination and my desire is running away with me.It is no time yet for premature plans.Not that I am not planning day and night.This letter is simply to offer.I just want to offer.Here I am and all my worldly goods.

Take me, I pray you.And not only pray you.Take me, I demand of you, in the name of God our king.I have a right to be used.And you have no right to refuse me.You have to go on with your message, and it is your duty to take me--just as you are obliged to step on any steppingstone that lies on your way to do God service....And so I am waiting.I shall be waiting--on thorns.I know you will take your time and think.But do not take too much time.Think of me waiting.

"Your servant, your most humble helper in God (your God),"AGATHA SUNDERBUND."And then scrawled along the margin of the last sheet:

"If, when you know--a telegram.Even if you cannot say so much as 'Agreed,' still such a word as 'Favourable.' I just hang over the Void until I hear.

"AGATHA S."

A letter demanding enormous deliberation.She argued closely in spite of her italics.It had never dawned upon the bishop before how light is the servitude of the disciple in comparison with the servitude of the master.In many ways this proposal repelled and troubled him, in many ways it attracted him.And the argument of his clear obligation to accept her co-operation gripped him; it was a good argument.

And besides it worked in very conveniently with certain other difficulties that perplexed him.

(4)

The bishop became aware that Eleanor was returning to him across the sands.She had made an end to her paddling, she had put on her shoes and stockings and become once more the grave and responsible young woman who had been taking care of him since his flight from Princhester.He replaced the two letters in his pocket, and sat ready to smile as she drew near; he admired her open brow, the toss of her hair, and the poise of her head upon her neck.It was good to note that her hard reading at Cambridge hadn't bent her shoulders in the least....

"Well, old Dad! " she said as she drew near."You've got back a colour.""I've got back everything.It's time I returned to Princhester.""Not in this weather.Not for a day or so." She flung herself at his feet."Consider your overworked little daughter.Oh,how good this is!""No," said the bishop in a grave tone that made her look up into his face."I must go hack."He met her clear gaze."What do you think of all this business, Eleanor?" he asked abruptly."Do you think I had a sort of fit in the cathedral?"He winced as he asked the question.

"Daddy," she said, after a little pause; "the things you said and did that afternoon were the noblest you ever did in your life.I wish I had been there.It must have been splendid to be there.I've not told you before--I've been dying to....I'd promised not to say a word--not to remind you.I promised the doctor.But now you ask me, now you are well again, I can tell you.Kitty Kingdom has told me all about it, how it felt.It was like light and order coming into a hopeless dark muddle.What you said was like what we have all been trying to think--I mean all of us young people.Suddenly it was all clear."She stopped short.She was breathless with the excitement of her confession.

Her father too remained silent for a little while.He was reminded of his weakness; he was, he perceived, still a little hysterical.He felt that he might weep at her youthful enthusiasm if he did not restrain himself.

I'm glad," he said, and patted her shoulder."I'm glad, Norah."She looked away from him out across the lank brown sands and water pools to the sea."It was what we have all been feeling our way towards, the absolute simplification of religion, the absolute simplification of politics and social duty; just God, just God the King.""But should I have said that--in the cathedral?"She felt no scruples."You had to," she said.

"But now think what it means," he said."I must leave the church.""As a man strips off his coat for a fight.""That doesn't dismay you?"

She shook her head, and smiled confidently to sea and sky.

"I'm glad if you're with me," he said."Sometimes--I think--I'm not a very self-reliant man."

"You'll have all the world with you," she was convinced, "in a little time.""Perhaps rather a longer time than you think, Norah.In the meantime--"She turned to him once more.

"In the meantime there are a great many things to consider.

Young people, they say, never think of the transport that is needed to win a battle.I have it in my mind that I should leave the church.But I can't just walk out into the marketplace and begin preaching there.I see the family furniture being carried out of the palace and put into vans.It has to go somewhere....""I suppose you will go to London."