Part 16 (2/2)
”Alors, as Calabressa would say, you can show that you are pleased, Natalie,” her father said, lightly, ”by going and writing a pretty little note, asking your new friend, Mr. Brand, to dine with us to-night, after the initiation is over, and I will ask Evelyn, if I see him.”
But this proposal in no wise seemed to lessen the girl's embarra.s.sment.
She still clung about the back of her father's chair.
”I would rather not do that, papa,” said she, after a second.
”Why? why?” said he.
”Would it not look less formal for you to ask him, papa? You see, it is once or twice that we have asked him to dine with us without giving him proper notice--”
”Oh, that is nothing--nothing at all. A bachelor with an evening disengaged is glad enough to fill it up anyhow. Well, if you would rather not write, Natalie, I will ask him myself.”
”Thank you, papa,” said she, apparently much relieved, and therewith she went back to her seat, and her father turned to his newspaper.
The day pa.s.sed, and the evening came. As six o'clock was striking, George Brand presented himself at the little door in Lisle street, Soho, and was admitted. Lind had already a.s.sured him that, as far as England was concerned, no idle mummeries were a.s.sociated with the ceremony of initiation; to which Brand had calmly replied, that if mummeries were considered necessary, he was as ready as any one to do his part of the business. Only he added that he thought the unknown powers had acted wisely--so far as England was concerned--in discarding such things.
When he entered the room, his first glance round was rea.s.suring. There were six persons present besides Lind, and they did not at all suggest the typical Leicester Square foreigner. On the contrary, he guessed that four out of the six were either English or Irish; and two of them he recognized, though they were unknown to him personally. The one was a Home Rule M.P., ferocious enough in the House of Commons, but celebrated as the most brilliant, and amiable, and fascinating of diners-out; the other was an Oxford don, of large fortune and wildly Radical views, who wrote a good deal in the papers. There was a murmur of conversation going on, which ceased as Lind briefly introduced the new-comer.
The ceremony, if ceremony it could be called, was simple enough. The candidate for admission was required to sign a printed doc.u.ment, solemnly pledging himself to devote his life, and the labor of his hands and brain, to the work of the a.s.sociation; to implicitly obey any command reaching him from the Council, or communicated through an officer of the first degree; and to preserve inviolable secrecy. Brand read this paper through twice, and signed it. It was then signed by the seven witnesses. He was further required to inscribe his signature in a large volume, which contained a list of members of a particular section.
That done, the six strangers present shook him by the hand, and left.
He looked round surprised. Had he been dreaming during these brief five minutes? Yet he could hear the noise of their going down-stairs.
”Well,” said Mr. Lind, with a smile, ”it is not a very terrible ceremony, is it? Did you expect prostrations at the altar; and blindfold gropings, and the blessing of the dagger? When you come to know a little more of our organization, of its extent and its power, you will understand how we can afford to dispense with all those theatrical ways of frightening people into obedience and secrecy.”
”I expected to find Evelyn here,” said George Brand. He was in truth, just a little bit bewildered as yet. He had been a.s.sured that there would be no foolish mummeries or fantastic rites of initiation; but all the same he had been much occupied with this step he was about to take; he had been thinking of it much; he had been looking forward to something unknown; and he had been nerving himself to encounter whatever might come before him. But that five minutes of silence; the quick reading and signing of a paper; the sudden dispersion of the small a.s.semblage: he could scarcely believe it was all real.
”No,” Lind said, ”Lord Evelyn is not yet an officer. He is only a Companion in the third degree, like yourself.”
”A what?”
”A Companion in the third degree. Surely you read the doc.u.ment that you signed?”
It was still lying on the table before him. He took it up; yes, he certainly was so designated there. Yet he could not remember seeing the phrase, though he had, before signing, read every word twice over.
”And now, Mr. Brand,” his companion said, seating himself at the other side of the table, ”when you have got over your surprise that there should be no ceremony, it will become my duty to give you some idea--some rough idea--of the mechanism and aims of our a.s.sociation, and to show you in what measure we are allied with other societies. The details you will become acquainted with by-and-by; that will be a labor of time. And you know, of course, or you have guessed, that there are no mysteries to be revealed to you, no profound religious truths to be communicated, no dogmas to be accepted. I am afraid we are very degenerate descendants of the Mystics, and the Illuminati, and all the rest of them; we have become prosaic; our wants are sadly material. And yet we have our dreams and aspirations, too; and the virtues that we exact--obedience, temperance, faith, self-sacrifice--are not ign.o.ble.
Meanwhile, to begin. I think you may prepare yourself to be astonished.”
But astonishment was no word for the emotion experienced by the newly admitted member when Ferdinand Lind proceeded to give him, with careful facts and sober computations, some rough outline of the extent and power of this intricate and far-reaching organization. Hitherto the word ”International” had with him been a.s.sociated with the ridiculous fiasco at Geneva; but here was something, not calling itself international, which aimed at nothing less than knitting together the mult.i.tudes of the nations, not only in Europe, but in the English and French and German speaking territories beyond the seas, in a solemn league--a league for self-protection and mutual understanding, for the preservation of international peace, the spread of knowledge, the outbraving of tyranny, the defiance of religious intolerance, the relief of the oppressed, the help of the poor, and the sick, and the weak. This was no cutthroat conspiracy or wild scheme of confiscation and plunder; but a design for the establishment of wide and beneficent law--a law which should protect, not the ambition of kings, not the pride of armies, not the revenues of priests, but the rights and the liberties of those who were ”darkening in labor and pain.” And this message, that could go forth alike to the Camorristi and the Nihilists; to the Free Masons and the Good Templars; to the Trades-unionists and the Knights of Labor--to all those ma.s.ses of men moved by the spirit of co-operation--”See, brothers, what we have to show you. Some of you are aiming at chaos and perdition; others putting wages as their G.o.d and sovereign; others content with a vague philanthropy almost barren of results. This is all the help we want of you--to pledge yourselves to a.s.sociate with us, to accept our modest programme of actual needs, to give help to those who are in want or trouble, to promise that you will stand by us in the time to come.
And when the time does come; when we are combined; when knowledge is abroad, and mutual trust, who will say 'yes' if the voice of the people in every nation murmurs 'No?' What priest will reimpose the Inquisition on us; what king drive us to shed blood that his robes may have the richer dye; what policeman in high places endeavor to stamp out our G.o.d-given right of free speech? It is so little for you to grant; it is so much for you, and for us, to gain!”
These were not the words he uttered--for Lind spoke English slowly and carefully--but they were the spirit of his words. And as he went on describing to this new member what had already been done, what was being done, and the great possibilities of the future, Brand began to wonder whether all this gigantic scheme, with its simple, bold, and practical outlines, were the work of this one man. He ventured by-and-by to hint at some such question.
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