"If I believed you," she declared, "I'd give up this rubber and go and lose myself amongst the palms with you. Come and cut in--you too, Wilhelmina."

But Wilhelmina excused herself. She drove homewards with a soft smile upon her lips, and the dead weight lifted from her heart.

CHAPTER XV

THE ONLY WAY

It was a round table, too, at which Macheson dined that night, but with a different company. For they were all men who sat there, men with earnest faces and thoughtful eyes. The graces of evening dress and society talk they knew nothing of. They were the friends of Macheson's college days, the men who had sworn amongst themselves that, however they might live, they would devote the greater part of their life to their fellow-creatures.

They were smoking pipes, and a great bowl of tobacco was on the table.

Few of them took wine, but Macheson and Holderness were drinking whisky.

Holderness, their senior, was usually the one who started their informal talk.

"My work's been easy enough all the time," he remarked, leaning forward.

"There were no end of labour-papers, but all being run either for the trades' unions, or some special industrial branch. I started a labour magazine--Macheson found the money, of course--and I'm paying my way now. I don't know whether the thing does any good. At any rate it's an effort! I've been hearing about your colony, Franklin. I shall want an article on it presently."

A tall, thin young man removed his pipe from his mouth.

"You shall have it as soon as I can find time," he answered. "We're going strong, but really there's very little credit due to me. It was Macheson's money and Macheson's idea. We've got an entire village now near Llandirog, and the whole population come from the prisons. Macheson and I used to attend the police-courts ourselves, hear all the cases, and form our own conclusions as to the prisoners. If we thought there was any hope for them, we made a note, met them when they came out, and offered them a job, on probation--in our village. We have to leave it to the chaplains now--I can't spare time to be always in London. We've two woollen mills, a saw-mill, and a bakery, besides all the shops, and nearly a thousand acres of well-farmed land. At first the people round were terribly shy of us, but that's all over now. Why, we have less trouble with the police in our village than any for miles around. We're paying our way, too."

"You've done thundering well, Franklin," Macheson declared. "I remember what a rough time you had at first. Uphill work, wasn't it?"

"That's what makes it such a relief to have pulled through," Franklin declared, re-lighting his pipe. "I shouldn't like to say how much I had to draw from Macheson before we turned the corner. Glad to say we've paid a bit back now, though. Tell us about your idea, Holroyd. They tell me it's working well in some of the large cities."

"It's simple enough," Holroyd answered, smiling. "It was just the application of common sense to the laws of charity. Nearly every one's charitable by instinct--only sometimes it's so difficult for a busy man to know exactly when and how to give. I started in one of the big cities, looking up prosperous middle-cla.s.s families. I'd try to induce them, instead of just writing cheques for inst.i.tutions and making things for bazaars, to take a personal interest in a family of about the same size as their own who were in a bad way. When they promised, all I had to do was to find the poor family and bring them together, and it was astonishing how much the one could do for the other without undue effort. There were the clothes, of course, and old housekeeping things, odd bits of furniture, food from the kitchen, a job for one of the boys in the garden, a day's work for one of the girls in the house. I tell you I have lists of hundreds of poor families, who feel now that they have some one to fall back upon, and the richer half of the combination take a tremendous interest in their foster-family, as some of them call it. Sometimes there is trouble, but the world is governed by majorities, and in the majority of cases the thing has turned out excellently."

"There's the essence of charity in the idea--the personal note,"

Macheson remarked. "How's the Canadian farm going, Finlayson?"

"We're paying our way," Finlayson answered, "and you should see our boys. They come out thin and white--all skin and bones. You wouldn't recognize one of them in six months! They're good workers, too. We've nine hundred altogether in the North-West, and we want more. I'm hoping to take a hundred back with me."

"It's a grand country," Macheson said. "I'm glad it's part of the Empire, Finlayson, or I should grudge you those boys. We can't spare too many. Hinton, your work speaks for itself."

Hinton, the only one in clerical dress, smiled a little wearily.

"Sometimes," he said, "I wish it would speak a little louder. East End work is all the same. One feels ashamed of preaching religion to a starving people."

Macheson nodded his sympathy.

"I know what you mean," he said. "It drove me from the East to the West.

We should preach at the one and feed the other!... Of course, I personally have always been handicapped. I haven't been able to subscribe to any of the established churches. But I do believe in the laws of retribution, whether you call them human or Divine. One's moral delinquencies pay one out just as bodily excesses do. Always one's debts are to be paid, and it's a terrible burden the drones must carry. After all, I've come to the conclusion that there's heaps of sound moral teaching to be drummed into our fellow-creatures without the necessity of being orthodox!"

"You speak lightly of your own work, Macheson," Franklin said, "but there is one thing we must none of us forget. Our schools, our farms, our colonies, all our attempts, indeed, owe their very being to your open purse----"

Macheson held out his hand.

"Franklin," he said, "I want to tell you something which I think none of you know. I want to tell you where most of my money came from, and you'll understand then why I've been so anxious to get rid of it--or a part of it--in this way. Did you ever hear of Ferguson Davis, the money-lender? Yes, I can see by your faces you did. Well, he was my mother's brother, and he died without a will when I was a child, and the whole lot came to me!"

"A million and a quarter," some one murmured.

"More," Macheson answered. "I was at Oxford when I understood exactly the whole business, and it seemed like nothing but a curse to me. Then I talked to the dear old professor, and he showed me the way. I can honestly say that not one penny of that money has ever been spent, directly or indirectly, upon myself. I believe that if the old man could come to life and read my bank-book he'd have a worse fit than the one which carried him off. I appointed myself the trustee of his fortune, and it's spread pretty well all over the world. I've never refused to stand at the back of any reasonable scheme for the betterment of our fellow-creatures. There have been a few failures perhaps, but many successes. The Davis buildings are mine--in trust, of course. They've done well. I've a larger scheme on hand now on the same lines. And in spite of it all the money grows! I can't get rid of it. The old man chose his investments well, and many of our purely philanthropic schemes are beginning to pay their way. It isn't that I care a fig about the money, but you must try to make these things self-supporting, or you injure the character of those who benefit by them. Now I've told you all the truth, but don't let it go out of this room. You can consider yourselves fellow-trustees with me, if you like. Show me an honest way to use money for the real benefit of the world's unfortunates, and it's yours as much as mine."

"It's magnificent," Franklin murmured.

"It's justice," Macheson answered. "The money was wrung from the poor, and it goes back to them. Perhaps it's a saner distribution, for it's the improvident and shiftless of the world who go to the money-lender."

There was a knock at the door. The hall-porter of the club in which they were holding their informal meeting entered and addressed Macheson.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, "but there is a young man here who wants to see you at once. He would not give his name, but he says that his business is urgent."

"Where is he?" Macheson asked.

"In the smaller strangers' room, sir."

Macheson excused himself, and, crossing the hall, entered the barely furnished apartment, on the left of the entrance. A young man was walking up and down with fierce, restless movements. He was pale, untidily dressed, and in his eyes there was a curious look of terror, as though all the time he saw beyond the walls of the room things which kept him breathless with fear. Macheson, pausing for a moment on the threshold, failed on the instant to recognize him. Then he closed the door and advanced into the room.

"Hurd!" he exclaimed. "What do you want? What is the matter?"

"Matter enough," Hurd declared wildly. "I have been a fool and a blackguard. Those two got round me--the old man and his cursed step-son!

I must have been mad!"

"What have you done?" Macheson asked sharply.

"She treated me badly," Hurd continued, "made a fool of me before you, and turned me away from Thorpe. I wanted to cry quits with her, and those two got hold of me. Jean le Roi is her husband. She refused to see him--to hear from him. Letty Foulton is there, and I have been allowed to visit her. I knew the back way in, and I took Jean le Roi there--an hour ago--and he is waiting in her room until she comes home!"

"Good G.o.d!" Macheson murmured. "You unspeakable blackguard!"

He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight.

"What time was she expected home?" he demanded.

"Soon after eleven! She was only dining out. He--he swore that he only wanted to talk to her, to threaten her with exposure. She deserved that!

But he is a madman. When I left him I was afraid. He carries a knife always, and he kept on saying that she was his wife. I left him there waiting--and when I wanted him to promise that there should be no violence, he laughed at me. He is hidden in her room. I thought that it was only money he wanted--but--but----"

Macheson flung him on one side. He caught up his hat and rushed out of the club.

CHAPTER XVI

MAN TO MAN

Hortense smiled softly to herself as she laid down the ivory-backed brushes. What did it mean, she wondered, when her mistress went out with tired eyes and pallid cheeks, and came home with the colour of a rose and eyes like stars, humming an old French love-song, and her feet moving all the time to some unheard music? It was years since she had seen her like this! Hortense knew the signs and was well pleased. At last, then, the household was to be properly established. A woman as beautiful as her mistress without a lover was to Hortense an incomprehensible thing.