Part 16 (1/2)
The lights leapt up once more, and all the vast audience, with a shudder of fear, turned to look at the face and form of him who had spoken.
Standing in the stage-box, surrounded by a group of sombre figures, a man was visible in the view of all.
Something went through the theatre like a chill wind. The music of the band died away in a mournful wail.
There were a few frightened shouts, and then came a deep, breathless silence.
Standing in the midst of them was one who, in face and form, seemed to be none else but Our Lord Himself!
Hampson knew that voice. Even as it pealed out he rose, staggered, and sank back into the arms of the man next to him. He did not know that Sir Thomas was pointing with outstretched arm to the figure of a woman who stood among the surrounding group in the box. He hardly heard the young baronet's agonized cry of ”Mary! Mary!”
He heard only that awful accusing thunder--
”WOE UNTO YOU, SAMARIA!”
There was an extraordinary silence in the theatre, such a silence as the Frivolity had probably never known before in the whole of its disreputable career.
The members of the orchestra dropped their instruments, and the gay music died away with a frightened wail. Mimi Addington stopped suddenly in her abominable song. No member of the vast audience made a single sound. The silence of fear, swift, astonished fear, lay over all the theatre.
Who was this man?
Joseph was, of course, in modern dress. But the long, dark cloak he wore, Lluellyn's cloak, which Mary had given him, a veritable mantle of Elijah, robbed the fact of any modern significance.
The frightened people in the theatre only saw come suddenly and mysteriously among them one who was the image and similitude of Christ Himself. It was as though He stood there.
The voice thrilled them through and through. In all their lives no single one of them had ever heard a voice like this.
There were those who had, at one time or another, listened to great and popular preachers, famous political orators. But none of these had spoken with such a voice. All were thrilled by it, stirred and moved to the depths of their being. And there were some among the crowd in whose hearts the knowledge and love of G.o.d were only dormant, and not yet dead.
These few trembled exceedingly, for they recognized the voice with their spiritual, if not with their material ears.
Whoever this man might be--and the marvellous resemblance blazed out as it were into the theatre--whoever he might be, the Holy Ghost was speaking through his mouth!
The whole audience seemed turned to stone. Such a thing had never been known before. The big, uniformed attendants who would have hustled out an ordinary intruder or brawler almost before the audience had had time to realize what was taking place, now stood motionless and silent.
”Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.”
In the terrible music and menace of its warning, the voice cleft the air like a great sword. The people in the theatre cowered like a field of corn when the wind blows over it. Every face grew pale, and in the slight pause and breathless silence which followed Joseph's words, quick ears could distinguish a curious sound--or, rather, the intimation of a sound. It was as though m.u.f.fled drums were sounding an enormous distance away, so far and faint that the listener feels that, after all, he may be mistaken, and there is nothing.
It was the beating of many human hearts.
Joseph came forward into the full view of every one. His arm was outstretched, the marvellous eyes were full of a mystical fire and inspiration.
”This is a home of abominations,” he cried, ”the l.u.s.t of the flesh, the pride of the eye. There!”--he went on with unutterable scorn, pointing to Mimi Addington, with a sudden movement--”there is the priestess of evil whom you have a.s.sembled to wors.h.i.+p. Her body is fair. It was the gift of G.o.d. Her voice is beautiful, she is subtle and skilled--these are also the gifts of the Most High. But she has abused and degraded these gifts. With her voice she has sung the songs of d.a.m.nation, and chanted the music of h.e.l.l. She has led many astray. There are homes in England desolate because of her. She has destroyed the peace of many homes. She has poured poison into the minds of the innocent and young, calling them to evil pleasure, and by her words leading them to think of the flowery paths of sin. She has caused many to stumble and offend, and unless she cast herself upon the infinite mercy of G.o.d, it were better that a millstone were put about her neck and she were cast into the sea.”
The voice of the man with the message ceased for a moment.
There was a low sigh, though every one in the theatre heard it, and the wretched girl sank in a tumbled heap of senseless glitter and finery upon the floor.
A universal shudder of fear swept through the huge, brilliant building, a c.u.mulative gasp of dismay--the material voice of many consciences awaking from sleep!