Part 54 (1/2)

”Ah!” cried Max, ”does that shock the Church?”

The challenge went unanswered; instead came question.

”Have you not had this desire before--in other directions?”

”Never!” exclaimed Max. ”No, never!”

The Archbishop eyed him keenly. ”You have had experience.”

”I have lived my life openly,” said the Prince.

”I was aware of that,” returned his Grace. ”Need I trouble your Highness with any further grounds for my refusal? Not with my consent shall my daughter marry a libertine.”

”Great Judge of Heaven!” cried Max, springing to his feet. ”Hark to this old man!”

”Don't shout,” said the Archbishop; ”He hears you.”

Max's scorn dropped back like a rocket to earth.

”Yes,” he retorted, ”no doubt! The question is, are you capable of hearing Him?”

”I am always ready to be instructed,” replied his Grace sarcastically.

”I must remind you,” said the Prince, ”that as a Doctor of Divinity I have some claim. Yes,” he went on in answer to the Archbishop's look of astonishment, ”though you have forgotten the circ.u.mstance, you yourself dubbed me Theologian by hitting me over the head with a Greek Testament.”

The Archbishop accepted the reminiscence.

”In that case,” said he, ”I bow to your Highness's authority.”

”Yes: you were a shepherd of that fold, yet you let me in? I was the clever one of my family; and the t.i.tle was given me when, with three lives standing between, there was little likelihood of my becoming Head of the Church. Was I to wear it, then, as an ornament, or as an amulet to guide me into right doctrine? Whatever faith I still hold, I fear me that miracle has not been wrought.”

”In these days,” said the Archbishop, ”faith itself is the great miracle.”

”That people should have any faith in the Church is indeed a miracle,”

said Max. ”Yet I suppose it is but another instance of how easily the world accepts what it finds. I myself remain outwardly a Churchman; merely because it seems to me hardly to matter, and because any overt act on my part would hurt those whom I love. And what spiritual experience have I acquired as the result of my outward conformity? I have found the pulpit the most polished of all social inst.i.tutions: and never once have I heard from it any word troublesome to a conscience which has still, I can a.s.sure you, its waking moments. The eloquence that flows from it never trespa.s.ses beyond the bounds of polite conversation; and as regards 'unpleasant subjects' it deals faithfully only with the lives of those who do not form the bulk of its congregations. If it dealt faithfully with them, those polite congregations would get up and walk out.”

”I do not think, sir, that your experience puts you in a position to know how the Church deals with the consciences of the faithful.”

”You mean,” said Max, ”that in the ears of royalty uncomfortable subjects are avoided? That merely indicates the system. As the snail withdraws first his horns into his head, then his body into his sh.e.l.l, so your Church adapts itself to its surroundings. Let me give you a case in point--it touches on our present discussion. I have heard often enough the cheaper forms of prost.i.tution decorously alluded to; but when did I ever hear dealt with, either for approval or reprobation, the established practice among the unmarried youth of our aristocracy of keeping mistresses?”

”I think, sir, that you must have been often inattentive. The virtue of purity is, I am sure, constantly inculcated by our clergy.”

”In such a form,” replied the Prince, ”that we need not apply it to ourselves. The betrayal of innocency, yes, I have heard of that, for that only touches a small minority. But these mistresses whom most of us keep are no more innocent than ourselves, nor are we more innocent than they. And yet, while to them all social entrances are barred, we men are allowed to go in free.”

”Society cannot act on mere rumor and suspicion,” said the Archbishop.

”In the woman's case it does,” replied the Prince. ”And I wonder whether it has ever occurred to any one to connect that fact with the cheapening of our modern definition of chivalry. Are you ever chivalrous; am I?”

”Charity is a greater thing than chivalry.”