Part 60 (1/2)

”Oh, Maurice had various old scores to settle with me,” said Meynell, quietly. ”I have come across him more than once in this parish--no need to say how. I tried to prevent him from publicly disgracing himself and you; and I did prevent him. He saw in this business an easy revenge on a sanctimonious parson who had interfered with his pleasures.”

Barron had risen and was pacing the room with unsteady steps. Meynell still watched him, with the same glitter in the eye. Meynell's whole nature indeed, at the moment, had gathered itself into one avenging force; he was at once sword and smiter. The man before him seemed to him embodied cruelty and hypocrisy; he felt neither pity nor compunction. And presently he said abruptly--

”But I am afraid I have much more serious matter to lay before you than this business of the letters.”

”What do you mean?”

Taking another letter from his pocket, Meynell glanced at it a moment, and then handed it to Barron. Barron was for an instant inclined to refuse it, as he had refused the others. But Meynell insisted.

”Believe me, you had better read it. It is a letter from Mr. Flaxman to myself, and it concerns a grave charge against your son. I bring you a chance of saving him from prosecution; but there is no time to be lost.”

Barron took the letter, carried it to the window, and stood reading it.

Meynell sat on the other side of the room watching him, still in the same impa.s.sive ”possessed” state.

Suddenly, Barron put his hand over his face, and a groan he could not repress broke from him. He turned his back and stood bending over the letter.

At the same instant a s.h.i.+ver ran through Meynell, like the return to life of some arrested energy, some paralyzed power. The shock of that sound of suffering had found him iron; it left him flesh. The spiritual habit of a lifetime revived; for ”what we do we are.”

He rose slowly, and went over to the window.

”You can still save him--from the immediate consequences of this at least--if you will. I have arranged that with Flaxman. It was my seeing him enter the room alone where the coins were, the night of the party, that first led to the idea that he might have taken them. Then, as you see, certain dealers' shops were watched by a private detective. Maurice appeared--sold the Hermes coin--was traced to his lodgings and identified. So far the thing has not gone beyond private inquiry; for the dealer will do what Flaxman wants him to do. But Maurice still has the more famous of the two coins; and if he attempts to sell that, after the notices to the police, there may be an exposure any day. You must go up to London as soon as you can--”

”I will go to-night,” said Barron, in a tone scarcely to be heard. He stood with his hands on his sides, staring out upon the wintry garden outside, just as a gardener's boy laden with holly and ivy for the customary Christmas decorations of the house was pa.s.sing across the lawn.

There was silence a little. Meynell walked slowly up and down the room.

At last Barron turned toward him; the very incapacity of the plump and ruddy face for any tragic expression made it the more tragic.

”I propose to write to the Bishop at once. Do you desire a public statement?”

”There must be a public statement,” said Meynell gravely. ”The thing has gone too far. Flaxman and I have drawn one up. Will you look at it?”

Barron took it, and went to his writing-table.

”Wait a moment!” said Meynell, following him, and laying his hand on the open page. ”I don't want you to sign that by _force majeure_. Dismiss--if you can--any thought of any hold I may have upon you, because of Maurice's misdoing. You and I, Barron, have known each other some years.

We were once friends. I ask you--not under any threat--not under any compulsion--to accept my word as an honest man that I am absolutely innocent of the charge you have brought against me.”

Barron, who was sitting before his writing-table, buried his face in his hands a moment, then raised it.

”I accept it,” he said, almost inaudibly.

”You believe me?”