IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

1.25

2.5

'- lilM

|50

^ IM 12.2
1^ 1^

ISi

lAO

2.0

1.8

U IIIIII.6

/^p

'>/ >

'4 j^V ^

<> *>\ ^kN

■%'

^^^

pt?

CIHM/ICMH
Microfiche

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques

1980

Technical Notes / Notes techniques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Physical
features of this copy which may alter any of the
images in the reproduction are checked below.

Coloured covers/
Couvertures de couleur

Coloured maps/

Cartes g^ographiques en couleur

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains
ddfauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la
reproduction sont notds ci-dessous.

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Coloured plates/
Planches en couleur

Th
pc
of
fil

or
ap

Th
fil
in!

Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages d^color^es, tachet^es ou piqu^es

Tight binding (may cause shadows or
distortion along interior margin)/
Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou
de la distortion le long de la marge
intdrieure)

Show through/
Transparence

Pages damaged/
Pages endommagdes

fol

Additional comments/
Commentaires suppldmentaires

Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques

□

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponibie

Bound with other material/
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

Pagination incorrect/
Erreurs de pagination

Pages missing/

Des pages manquent

Maps missing/

Des cartes gdographiques manquent

Plates missing/

Des planches manquent

Additional comments/
Commentaires suppldmentaires

The images appearing here are the best quality
possibis considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall
contain the symbol ^♦•(meaning CONTINUED"),
or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever
applies.

Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettetd de I'exemplaire film6, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Un r'.&s symboles suivants appara?tra sur la der-
nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas:
le symbole — ♦► signifie "A SUIVRE ', le symbole
V signifie "FIN".

The original copy was borrowed from, and
filmed with, the kind consent of the following
institution:

National Library of Canada

L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grdce d la
gdndrosit^ de I'dtablissement prdteur
suivant :

Bibliothdque nationale du Canada

Maps or platos too large to be entirely included
in one exposure are filmed beginning in the
upper inft hand corner, left to right and top to
bottom, as many frames as required. The
following diagrams illustrate the method:

Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre
reproduites en un seul cliche sont film^es ^
partir de Tangle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d
droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le ncmbre
d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant
illustre la mdthode :

THE PREPARATION OF RYERSON

EMBURY

THE

Preparation of Ryerson Embury

B lpurpo0e

ALBERT R. CARMA

"... But, looking deep, he saw
The thorns which grow upon this rose of life •
How the swart peasant sweated for his wage,'
Toiling for leave to live."-7y.^ Light of Asia

TORONTO
THE PUBLISHERS' SYNDICATE, LTD.

51 YONGE STREET
1900

'^^^^^vflsissiiSQIOBBiii^^H

■

C^i'mfihj

/^-•^:,

■ 0/7o

■

lA/t Rights reserved]

The

Preparation of Ryerson Embury

The January moonlight lay white upon the Canadian
college town of Ithica. In fields and vacau. jts,
where the crust of the snow \^as unbroken, th' ye
was conscious of vast stretches of ethereal purity
which stirred in a sensuous way the moral faculty
and flooded the emotions like a strain of lofty music.
Only the hard glitter, when the moon's rays fell
upon a bit of icy coating here and there, brought a
reminder of the edged cold that v;as cutting the
face. The scattered houses, as they sat at a respect-
ful distance from each other in their comfortable V
gardens, were made up of sharp patches of milky
whiteness and dark shadow ; and often the moon
upon a window made a brighter light than the
lamp that lit its shaded neighbour.'^

Close-muffled groups were coming with crunch-
ing footsteps up various streets, and converging
on a small church in the suburbs which seemed

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury

bursting with li<^"hfc. Presently along the middle
of the road from the College " residence " briskly
marched a column of young men, generally silent,
though some broke into snatches of Sankey airs
occasionally, and their singing and bits of chat
sounded crisp and sharp across the nipping air.
llyerson Embury approached the church alone
alonii" another street from his boardiuoj-house. He
had debated much with himself about attend ini::
the " revival " that night. Study claimed him,
especially when he remembered that his chief rival
for class honours would cynically lock his door on
all invitations to " come out to meetinf; to-niijht "
and sit at home plugging away until midnight
without so much as getting drowsy. But Ryeison's
people were religious, and they liked him to write
home that he was attendino; the " meetinujs." And
there were other reasons. The emotional surge of
the " revival " rolled pleasurably through his blood ;
and the neat-fitting, fur- trimmed jacket, as it
embraced Wxayciiic form of Grace Brownell, when
she stood for a moment warming her toes at the
roarino; box stove at the rear of the church, was
pleasant to see. Then there was always the
chance that he would walk home with her after
the meeting.

As he swunor alono; under the brio-ht stars, with
the sheeted lights of the "aurora" gliding and
leaping in shivery silence all across the northern
sky, he liked to feel the tingling air on his house-

I
I

1^..

The Preparation of Rycrson Etnbitry

fevered cheek, though it compelled him to rub his
ears at times. Tlie board walk suapped beneath
his feet with the intense frost; his breath blew
out like smoke before him. Turning in through
the open church gateway, he stamped the loosa
snow from his rubbers in the porch, and then
pushed open the swinging doors that gave
directly upon the church itself — a plain room,
a little longer than wide, with a platform at one
end carrying a simple pulpit.

" Hello, Ryerson ! Glad to see you out."
This greeting, which met him just within the
church door, was from an open-faced young man
with brisk manners, a classmate of Ryerson and
one of the " workers " at this revival, liyerson
slirank from it, though responding. He felt that
he was being patronised by one who believed
himself to be in a superior position. His manner
said to Ryerson's sensitive ears, '* I am ' saved,'
and I am nobly labouring to put you in the way
of obtaining the same advantage." Ryerson passed
on to a seat not far up, and presently saw the fur-
trimmed jacket come, coquettishly warm itself a
few moments at the fire, become conscious of his
presence and then of that of two or three of the
" workers " near the door, exchange a little whisper-
ing with a couple of girls for whom he felt non-
sympathetic, and then go demurely in the wake
of the family up to a pew much nearer the front
than his.

^^. ^^y.......„:--,.-,^o.^.|

4 77/6' Preparation of Ryerson Embury

Miss Willmott, orf^anist to the little church urul
maiden aunt to all the boys in the neighbourhood,
was playing Sunday School airs on a diminutive
and short-breathed church organ which occupied
the extreme right of the generous platform at
the upper end of the room. The people, as they
gathered in the front pews, joined in singing the
familiar ''gospel songs" which Miss Willmott was
playing. The church filled up slowly with an
unusually assorted congregation. The battalion of
College boys, of greater age and more studious
appearance than that term means to the general
ear, sat, a solid mass, up one side of the room.
The " godly women " of the neighbourhood, clothed
« j with that plain severity which evangelicalism still
\j requires of its votaries in the rural sections, made
the large body of worshippers in the rest of
the church. Their daughters accompanied them
in many cases, and sometimes an earnest-faced
if husband, whose rapt attitude and nervous lips
^ proclaimed him a man of marked religious fervour.
The boys, when they came, showed a love for
the back seats and a wistful enmity toward the
"College chaps." The scholarly faces of a few
College Professors, and the brighter dresses of
their wives, were sprinkled throughout the
gathering.

The meeting began ; and hymns, laden with
emotional reminiscence, and an impassioned praj'-er
swollen by cries of " Amen, Lord ! " " Do it, Lord ! "

The Prcparatio7i of Ryerson Iimlmry 5

" Come in miglity power ! " from among the kneel-
ing congregation, prepared them for the sermon
and exhortation to follow. As they rose from
their knees, tears shone in some eyes, others
openly wiped them away, and here and there
were faces bright with ecstasy whose lips moved
in eager prayer. Even to the unmoved, the air
seemed laden with a subtle something that had
not been there before.

The preacher was an old man with a crown of
grey hair, clean-shaven face and firm, mobile lips.
His eye had a penetrating power, and when he
spoke of the impossibilty of liiding sin under a
cloak of morality, it fell upon each hearer like an
accuser. His sermon began with tlie love of )
Christ, but was soon an exhortation to all those (^
" out of Christ " to seize upon the present offer of i
salvation, driven home with terrifying incidents J
illustrating the dangers of delay.

It all fell upon the naked soul of Kyerson
Embury with undiminished force. The lad had
not so much as a fig-leaf of doubt upon him to
lessen its impetus. When the preacher quoted
Scripture, Ryerson heard the voice of God, and
knew himself for an outcast. For he had little
hope of salvation. He had " heeded the call "
before at more than one " revival," but had never
obtained the *' blessed assurance " that his sacrifice
was accepted on high. To this school of theology,
a man could become certain of lieaven by repent-

6 T/ic Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry

ing his sins and " crying to God for nxcrcy," when
tlie Holy Spirit would communicate to his spirit —
if his repentance was accepted — an unmistakable
assurance that he was forgiven.

When the preacher talked of some being
hindered because keeping back from the sacrifice
"some darling sin," llyerson's heart laughed with
angry scorn witliin liim ; for eternity was to him
a reality, and in moments of revival exaltation he
would liave literally cut off his right hand to be
sure of salvation. He had prostrated himself
before this awful Clod again and again, imploring
Him to cut deep into his heart, if there He saw a
sin that " His servant knew not of," But He had
neither cut nor yet "spolien peace" to this throb-
bing, boyish soul.

When the "seekers" were invited to tlie front
at the close of the sermon, Ryerson looked
toward Grace Browuell, anil, as he expected, saw
her leave her seat and ^q quietly up to the
rail about the platform, in iront of whicii she
knelt, resting her brow upon it. This wns her
fourth niccht of " seekini^," and she now went
to the front without any hesitation or visible
emotion. Ryersoji luxd not gone " forward " this
revival. The memory of past failures kept him
back.

Quite a number were presently kneeling " ahout
the altar," which was the manner in which the
participants in the " reviv^al " signified that they

■■tv

-y ';;u

il i i »1 •r'Tli i '' i "Taii' III 1" "ii itiiiSiimiiiiiSii

The Preparation of Ryerson Evilmry

were seeking the forgiveness of the Almiglity, and
awaiting His assurance of acceptance into the
Kingdom. Singing and praying alternated irregu-
larly, and the tenseness of the emotional strain
increased. Fervent ejaculations fell on the super-
heated air from the kneeling figures in all parts of
the church.

The " workers " moved from seat to seat, speak-
ing: to those who had not ijone "forward" about
their soul's salvation. Of these movimj; fiirures,
the preacher of the evening was the most con-
spicuous, with his noble, snow-crowned head and
his lighted countenance, proclaiming exaltation of
spirit. Several young men were quietly question-
ing and talking, chiefly among the boys at the rear
of the room, while a number of earnest-faced
women moved with doubtful success al)out the
pews where sat the phalanx of unsaved students.

" Come to Jesus, come to Jesup,
Come to Jesus just now,"

it
e
Is

; :

;

an aged, quavering -^oice began singing among
tlie front seats, and here and there, throughout the
cimrch, other voices joined in.

" That's it ! " whispered a young man to ^ lad he
was pleading with just across the aisle from
Ryerson. " Come now ; come to Jesus. He is wait-
ing. He is willing and eager to save you. You
cannot be sure of to-morrow. God may call you

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury

;

to-night. He may call you before you arc out of
this church. This may be your last chance.
' Now is the accepted time.' "

The lad looked stolidly into the back of the pew
in front of him, and said nothing.

" What are you waiting for ? " asked the
" worker."

" I don't know," in spiritless tones from the lad.

"It will never be any easier," persisted the
young man.

" Almost persuaded, now to believe ;
Almost persuaded, Christ to receive,"

came in the high, pure notes of a woman's voice
across the fervid air. Very few joined in this
hymn, and these only in a low murmur ; for the
sinorer was a Professor's wife, who sanor with i-are
sweetness and penetrating power.

" God help him ! Christ save him ! Forgive,
Lord, forgive ! " broke in strong, vibrant, im-
passioned tones from a bearded man who was
kneeling beside a weeping youth across the church.
The maker of the prayer had thrown himself back
on his heels, so that his body was upright, and had
raised his arms high in supplication. " Look down
upon Thy contrite son ! " he shouted, and went
vehemently on pleading for forgiveness for the
sobbing boy.

" Your mother is praying for you, my son," said
a low voice at Ryerson's side, and a hand fell

I'lii'Tl I'flW

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

)>■

caressingly on his arm. He quivered under the
blow upon his highly-strung emotions, and his
mind became a whirling mass of lonirinors and
fears, and home-sick pictures of mother-filled
scenes. Swiftly he decided to try it again, and
amidst crirs of " Bless the Lord ! " " Save him.
Lord ! " " Forgive, forgive ! " he went to the altar
with the rest, and was soon pleading with the old
hopeless fatigue for the " salvation " that would
not come. Toward the close of the night's meet-
ing, he was sensitively conscious that Grace had
arisen, and was saying in a faltering voice that slie
had at last " found peace."

His familiar failure lay chill upon him, and a
gap seemed to widen between them. He liad
meant to wait for her when the meeting broke up,
but she and lier mother remained talking for a
time with a group of the " workers," and he pre-
sently slipped out into the cold, and ploughed
down the snowy road alone.

For a time he practically abandoned study at
night, and attended the meetings with dogged
i-egularity, going to the "altar" as a matter of
course at the first invitation, and waiting with
fevered weariness, interspersed with periods of
passionate, wordless prayer, for the " witness of the
Spirit " that his repentance was accepted, lliere
were moments of ecstasy when he had thought it
had come, but they contained nothing that seemed
to him to be the intelligent message of an intelli-

d^^m^^

aam

I o T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Etnbury

gent God to an intelligent being. This certainty —
this unmistakable speech of God to the spirit —oi'
which the " converted " spoke so confidently, he
could not fret. He tried to find out from several
approachable people just what their experience
was when they " heard the still, small voice,"
but the result was not satisfactory, and left
him under the impression that several people
who thought their -elves "saved" might wake
up on judgment day and find themselves
mistaken.
A One morning, while sitting in his room, Hallam
in hand, really in doleful consideration of his

-'vT ^^.t-Vii'.iiumiliating plight, he suddenly came to the con-

j(f>4""v iM( elusion that he would devote himself to God's

, 0>>4 service in the world without any promise from the

i|v)i 'jX V ?-''v^'-^*^''ty <^f salvation. I'lainly he could not get that

•^£^l^v

-«

4 ^

promise. Very well. He would find God's work
and do it, and God could damn him then if lie
wanted to.

It appeared at the moment, as his generous
impulses rose, that personal salv^ation was a piti-
able thing to be begging for anyway. He would
be a man ; and if he. went to hell, he would go as
a man. A loathing of himself as he had been for
the past week or so, swept over him. He had read
something more than pity in Grace's eyes. Was it
contempt? Yet she believed that he was doing
rigiit in " seeking salvation." But was there not a
woman in her that lay deeper than this religious

mmm

The Preparation of Ryerson Embjiry 1 1

life which, he had to confcvss, slie carried more
light!} than he had expected ; and did not this
woman judge him and condemn ? Would it not be
nobler to save others than to cry perpetually to be
aved himself? But then, again, did not the Bible
say that he must be saved himself before he could
save others ?

Doubt thickened before him again. It was easy
to talk, but every Christian worker in the world
had got saved himself first. How could he hope
to break a new path'^ Well, at any rate, he would
take his damnation standincf. He would ficfht as
hard for rioht as he could — he would Lave his life
up to it. The innate sense of justice in the lad
forbade him to say that a God of Justice would
permit such a life — could he achieve it — to end in
failure and punishment ; but he saw no farther
ahead than that he would take the straight path
and plod on, whether recognised by tlie Great
Captain or not. His courage may have been
stimulated by a budding doubt as to the absolute
truth of the teaching of his " pastors and masters,"
that this path of agony and humiliation and the
"witnessing of spirit with spirit" was the only
path to Heaven ; but, if so, he was hardlj'' conscious
and undoubtedly not certain of it himself.
He did not jjo to the "meetincfs" aj^ain.

Ryerson liad been pleased from the first to note
tliat Grace's "conversion " did not materially affect
her personal attitude toward himself. But it had
done another thincr that he liked much less. Be-
cause of it and of her consequent attendance upon
certain religious services, an intimacy had jrrown
up between her and a youn<]j divinity student, a
year ahead of him at college but several years the
better in assurance and aqiloinh. ' Worse than that,
^ the divinity student, whose n.ame was Walters —
\j Arthur Drake Walters — was welcomed at the
home of the Brownells as he, Ryerson, never had
been. This wrought him into a spirit of antag-
onism to " religion," as represented by Walters and
the too frequent meetings, that otherwise it is not
likely he would have developed. ;

Spring helped him, however, by turning the
world out of doors, making a standing welcome to
the Brownell home of less strategic importance, and
diminishing the regularity of attendance at the
dangerous " services." One day, when the sun lay
bright on the glossy new leaves of the trees, and

spring flowers were to be found by the knowing in

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 1 3

secluded nooks and on the dry knolls that slope
up to the trunks of uncrowded trees, llyerson sat
studying at the window of his room. His eye,
when he raised it, carried two or three streets to the
west if he manoeuvred it so as to avoid intervening
trees and houses. His notes on the constitutional
history of England lay in his lap, and he was
trying to rivet his attention upon them ; though
sadly disturbed by the circumstance chat when he
lifted his eyes to test his memory, the shimmer of
the spring day fell upon them, and a sense of its
beauty flowed in through them and filled h.m with
a languorous longing to be at large and idle in the
scented wood. The sight of the cramped writing
of his " notes " revolted him. They suggested the
hot, close air of his room of a winter night when
they had been written out, the paper of his lamp-
shade browning with a dull odour and the frosted
windows hiding from him even the snow-blanketed
garden.

Presently his truant eye caught sight of a wide
hat he was not unacquainted with, moving along
toward the river two streets away. It was un-
mistakable. The little head that it engulfed was
as plain to him as if he saw it. The lithe, easy
and girlishly buoyant carriage he did see ; and
also caught the flash of a small, brown covered
basket which hung lightly upon her arm.

" Going for May flowers," he said under his
breath. "I wonder — yes, I've time enough. I'll

:!i?i4?W'^-

The Preparation of Rye r son Iinidnry

work to-ni;^lit." And in a moment liis book of
"notes" was damped on the table, wliicli v/as its
proper place on such a day, and he had fitted on a
Tam-o'-Shanter, and was hurrying down the street
to intercept the Hower gatherer a few blocks
farther on.

Turning up a side street, he found himself still
behind the light figure with the swaying skirt and
the wide hat. She was not moving rapidly, for
the day was deliciously warm after the long winter
and the uncertain spring, across whose sunshine a
keen wind had commonly blown ; and then the
little head within the spreading hat may have
known that it is not good for a girl to pass too
quickly away from the streets of the town where
sympathetic companionship is more easily to be
picked up than out in the empty wood. He had
not followed far, however, before a little lift of the
head betrayed that she was conscious of someone's
approach.

" Going for May flowers ? " he asked, stepping
alongside and lifting his "Tam."

" Why, Mr Embury ! " she said, with a quite
wasteful quantity of surprise in her voice and
" start," for it did not deceive Ryerson in the
slightest. " I thought you would be studying very
hard just now," she added as if explaining some-
thing, though just what did not appear.

" Oh, I am usually," said Ryerson ; " but this
afternoon vv^as too much for me."

The Preparation of Rycrson ]i))ibury

"Isn't it splendid !" she agreed with enthusiasm,
lookin<,^ at him from under the lon<^ sweep of her
hat with a pair of blue eyes that danced witli the
pure pleasure of life on such a day.

His eyes f^ave a wordless answer that said more
than any comment on the weather called for. It
is the privileire of j^oung eyes to be thus lavish.
Experience has not yet taught them the necessity
of keeping superlatives in reserve for great
occasions. Then he withdrew his eyes with a toss
of the head, as one who would repudiate a too
ardent messenger and said in a tone of over-con-
scious carelessness, —

" It is a great pity for any of us to stay mewed
up in the house these days ; especially for you,
who have nothing to keep you there. Why don't
you go out more ? "

" ' Nothing to keep me there ? ' I suppose you
think I have nothing to do," she said with a pout ;
and she tilted her face up that he might see the
pout and be repentant.

"Oh, you do enough in some ways," he replied a
little distantly.

She divined at once that he referred to her
attendance on religious services, and became quiet ;
her face meantime wearing the look of one who
feels that she ought to say something very im-
pressive, but knows neither what to say nor how it
would be received. Presently she went on, however.
"I do a great deal at home — more than you

1 6 The Preparation of Ryerson E7nbury

would tliiiik. Then I havu to practise two hours
every day ; and papa is leading nie through a
course of reading. I like that, however."

" What are you reading ? " asked Ryerson.

'* Oh, we are always reading two books," she
explained, "one heavy and one fiction." It was
worth something to see ihe sweet gravity oi* her
face when she said " one heavy," and the lofty
toleration, a little conscious of its insincerity, with
which she added " and one fiction."

*' Just now," she went on, " we are reading
Livingstone's Travels in Africa together, and I
am reading Barrie's Little Minider by myself. I
suppose you've read them both ? " — regretfully.

" No," Ryerson answered, though he was think-
ing more of the exquisite droop of her mouth, that
showed when she was serious, than of any book.
" I read lite Little Minister last summer vacation,
but I have never had a chance to read Livingstone."

"I'll lend it to you when we are through."

" I'm afraid that I sha'n't have time for it this
year."

" No, I suppose not. How did you like The
Little Minister ? "

"Oh, I don't know. Well enough, I guess.
But I think it is not true to nature. I don't think
that a bright girl like Babbie would fall in love
with a stiff and starched minister like Gavin — eh
— what's his name ? "

" Did you really think that Babbie was nice ? '

The Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry 17

she asked in petulant protest. " I think it's — it's — ^ /
stran^^e the way she runs around and puts herself '
forward."

" But there was lots of fun in her."

" Would you like your sister to be that kind of
a fjirl ? " — severely.

"It would be better" — and he laughed — "to
liave her somebody else's sister."

" Well " — stiffly — " that may be your idea of a
nice young lady, but I think it was very unnatural
to make a clever and — a — a good young minister
fall in love with her. He was far too good for
her." This last defiantly.

Then there was silence for a time. The " stiff
and starched minister" and the "good young
minister " had both spelled Walters to Ryerson ;
and a touch of sullenness lay upon him. They
had reached the " Common " now that stretched
between the town and the wood, and their feet
fell soft on the fresh sod.

" Won't you let me carry your basket ? " he asked
presently.

" Oh, it's not in the way there," she said, lifting
her arm a little to show how lightly it swung.
She had put on a pair of old gloves for plucking
the flowers — kid gloves that, grown too small,
fitted her slim, soft hands snugly, but let you see
the rosy flesh of her flnger-tips through some
unmended rips. Ryerson looked at them with
greedy eyes as he kept step with her over the

T/ic Preparation of Ryerson Enibttry

<^ra.ss. He know the hands would ])c very wliite
if he could pull ofl* the gloves — white and aol't and
ki.sHable, and the palms would be rosy. The
thought of it hurried his blood in its pulsin^^^s antl
peeped shyly from his eyes. Grace looked
up and cauo^ht it '"here. Her hands moved
out in a quick i^esture, a flush came into lier
cheeks, and then she dropped her eyes. The
rhythmic pacing over the grass went on until they
came to the edge of the wood, when he said, as it'
speaking in the presence oi something sacred, yet
Homethincf askiniic jjreat tenderness, —

** Whicli way do you want to go, Grace ? "

It was all in the " Grace." It was not often that
he had called her that, and she thrilled under it
now. Neither of them could have accounted for
the mood into which they had fallen. A question
about it would have dispelled it. But it was real
<mough, though as evanescent as the youth and
the spring-time of whose meeting it was born.

"But," Grace answered — and it was not a very
relevant reply to his question — " Babbie is so
different a kind of girl from — well, from any of us
around here."

" Yes," he replied a little absently, not following
the direction of her thought; "she was not like
you."

" Is that " — and she laughed constrainedly — " the
reason you called her ' bright ' ? "

"No, no," he laughed back right scornfully;

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

" but I tlious^ht she was too good for iliat preacliy
Mittlo minister.'"

She looked troubled. " You should not say such
tliiiiiXH about ministers."

" Why ? Are they special friends of youni ? "

" No, not that ! " — ea<^erly — " But — you know I
mean ministers in creneral — ministers like Or
Holden."

'' Oh ! "

And they looked at each other a^^ain with quick
exchange of thought, their eyes saying tilings thoy
would not have cared to put in words.

Then they moved on along the path that led
through the wood toward the river. This bit of
woodland which lay near the town was, by reason
of its neiixhbourhood to rectangular houses and
properly shaven macadam, a very demure repre-
sentation of nature ; and it wore its bright spring
dress daintily. P^nough of the brown wreckage
of last year lay between the trees to sharpen one's
appreciation of the vivid freshness of the new
green ; and the vitalising power which ever tills
the warm spring air blended with the visible re-
newal of life all about them to pitch the conscious-
ness of these two youth-shod mortals at a singing
note.

" Now look carefully." said Grace, lifting a gloved
finger, " and see which of us gets the first flower."

" Oh, you will," replied Ryerson ; " I can never
see any flowers at first until someone else has

i ! i

)

20 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

found a few and I get used to the sight of
them."

Presently uttering an exclamation, she pushed
through a sliglit tangle of underwood, and was
kneeling in the midst of several bunches of
hepatica.

*' I win, you see," she cried, still kneeling and
looking back at him over her shoulder.

" Yes," he said, coming up to her ; *' and now
you will have co let me hold your basket for you
while you pick them "

" These are not for the basket ; they arc for a
buttonhole."

" Whose ? "

" For " — and she stopped as if considering — '' for
someone who does not think a tom-boy nicer
than — than — " And she suddenly dropped her
eyes, which had been laughing up at him, and
began to pick the delicate pink and white
flowerets.

" Than whom ? " he insisted, stepping nearer

" Oh, bother ! No one," she half whispered with
a confused laugh.

" Oh, yes," he persisted. " You meant someone.
Now, who was it ? "

"The flowers are for you," she said abruptly,
getting suddenly up from her knees and stand-
ing before him with more red in her face than
even the kneeling posture would account for ; " and
if you do not straighten back, I'll never be able to

The Preparation of Ryerson E^rdmry 2 1

put them in your buttonhole. Which side ? " she
asked as he, alarmed at this danger and reading in
her face that the subject was not to be pursued
w:*th safety, lifted his head, and presented his
lapels to her. " The left, I suppose. You haven't
a pin, of course. Men never do."

" Don't they ! " said Ryerson, jealous of this wide
experience.

'* There," she went on, ignoring his remark and
pinning the bunch of flowers firmly into place with
an accompanying compression of the lips that left
them a deep scarlet. Then she patted it into order
with her finger-tips, coming closer to do it ; and,
looking up at him from under her broad hat brim,
said, " Don't you think it is pretty now ? "

He looked down at her fresh face in which the
colour came and went so easily, into her limpid
eyes and at her parted lips, the face of a child
speaking for the white soul of a child just waking
to woman's sweetest heritage ; and he, with his
new manhood clogged by his boyish helplessness,
answered his simple " Yes." But as she turned
from him quickly and made her way back to the
path again, before he could clear the road for
her, he felt that he had not been wholly mis-
understood.

After that they went joyously on together,
gathering flowers where they found them, and
blithely exchanging more or less sincere opinions
about all sorts of men and things — and the doings

The Preparation of Rye r son Evibury

of girlw. 'J'his last was perhaps the most fruitl'ul
tlicme, for Grace had many jud;i,inents to deliver
along this line which she did her beso to make
charitable; and Ivyerson liked to watch her self-
portraiture as she approved and disapproved of
the conduct of others. Then she asked about some
of the students whom she knew but slii^htly, and
Ryerson gave them charactei-s which, it is to be
feared, depended less upon the actual deserts of
these worthy young men than upon the likelihood
he thousjht there existed of them becominix better
ac(|uainted with Grace and rising to favour in
her eyes.

Down by the river, she thought it necessary to
take off her gloves to wash the tips of her fingers
from the earth that had clung to them when push-
ing down for the bottom of unusually short stems.

" Let me help you," pleaded Ryerson, as the too
tight gloves proved stubborn.

She gave him her hand, and he held it firmly
with one of his while tugging at the glove-fingers
with the other.

" No, that is not the way," she protested. *' You
should take the glove by the other end and pull
it off', turning it inside out."

He obeyed, and the tender white of the hand
from which the blood had been so long com})resscd,
stirred him with a strange sex force. Then he
took the other hand and began the same opera-
tion. What would he give to kiss it ? Well, why

t^'v^~-tr-yr'^---f,^'-ryrj.f,. -:,-.■

The Preparation of Rye r son Embury

not? He looked at lier, and she was sniilin*;
sli(,ditly at the slowness of his elibrts. What
would she think ? Could he not say something to
carry it oti'? 1

"An' now, faire ladye," he said t.rjinuilo(|uently, vy
'* by your leave ! " And he stooped as if to kiss
the fingers, but pressed instead a strong kiss on
the soft back of the hand. Grace reddened, put
her hand nervously behind her when he had
released it, and said, "How silly of you!" but
with marked insincerity in her tones.

III

i^'ft

Saturday afternoon, flooded with sunlight and
the mild, stiniulating air of spring, found Kyer-
son tramping through this same wood to tlie
music of —

" The sliadc'S of night were falling fast
U-pi-dee, U pi-da,
As through an Alpine village passed
U-pi-deo-i-da."

His blood sang with the music, and a conscious
pleasure ebbed and flowed through him, sometimes
carrying a little fulness into the throat; for was
he not in good company — the company of " men "
who knew the world and made merry in it,
" men " whose ^ay poise of mind he had always
envied, and whose pleasures he had coveted a share
in ? A classmate of his, Harry Gault, who lived
in Ithica, had taken him once to an oyster supper
which began at the fascinating hour of midnight,
where these light-spirited " men " of twenty, more
or less, formed tlie bulk of the company. There
were a number of other collegians present, but
most of them were older than Ryerson, both in
years and in the world of the " town," as con-

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 25

trastc'd with that of the " gown." The festivities
were of the frolicsome order ; Billings of the
science department, and Madden, a law student,
cooking the oysters on the kitchen stove of the
private house they had secured for the occasion,
owing to the temporary absence of all the family
save a son ; while a couple of athletic young men
gave an exhibition of "ground and lofty tumbling "
in the parlour. Then there was singing, "stag"
dancing, uproarious joking and a college recita-
tion or two. The party was broken up at 4 a.m.,
owing to the protests of a querulous neighbour
who could not sleep well for the racket.

To-day some of these same " royal spirits," as
they appeared in his lad's eyes, were off for a
country walk, and happy Ryerson was in the
company. In front strode three choristers, all
blessed with good voices and carrying heavy
cudgels. There was Paterson, a divinity student,
M'Neill of the Merchant's Bank, and "Shorty"
Batters, who figured on the college rolls as a
"pass" second-year man, but who was really
known as the bass in the Glee Club. This trio
led the singing as well as the procession, and
their choice varied from " Polly -Wolly-Doodle " to
" Only an Armour Bearer."

Next them walked, frequently out of step,
Madden of " Webster, Saunders & Webster,
Barristers and Solicitors," and Chalmers, un-
attached industriously at present, for his father

;rj':t;r'«f''»WfI»»»^'*«'»>'-l.K

fl^.#jr^ Mu: j«]t • -i,-» f^f

26 T/ic Prepai'ation of Rycrson Evibury

i i

was weulthy, but giving Iiis time to u society of
scientific research in tlic town in tlic capacity of
secretary. T'ley were discussing with earnestness,
but a great sliow of toleration for each otlier's
V views, tlic probable effect of protection on Great
\ Britain. Later they considered the authenticity
* of the miracles ; then touched on Darwinism, from
which they vaulted lightly to the standing of the
legal profession and then back again to Biblical
inspiration. Next walked Ryerson, flanked by his
chum Gault and a graduate of the college re-
joicing in tlie thirst-suggesting name of Pitcher ;
and all three talked with great freedom of ex-
pression about the personal characteristics and
relative merits of the various College Professors.
Behind them came a singing quartette who were
often a word or two slower than the three leaders,
a circumstance that gave rise to mutual recrimina-
tion from time to time.

It was only when they kept to the country road
that wound throufjh the wood, foUowino; rou^'hlv
the winding of the river, that this formation could
be observed. If they dropped into the narrow
footpath which sometimes cut off curves in the
road or oftener kept to the river bank when the
carriage way deserted it, they fell into single file ;
and at other times they spread out in skirmishing
order, and swept irregularly through pathless
sections of the wood, plucking flowers or chasing
each other with stocks of dead "burrs." But

The /^reparation of Rye r son Enibury

always on rcacliinc^ the road a<;ain, they loll into
iinich the same <^roupin^, thoui^di at times all were
(alkinjr and none were Kinf;injj, and a^^ain all
would sin*; and none would talk.

Rycrson drev/ many a deep, pleased breath as
he looked about him, caucrht the fragments of
frank and unshackled talk that came from the
'*men" with whom his light feet were kee{)in<^
step ; and, best of all, found that some opinions
of his own, whose unlikeness to those he usually
heard had made him fear tliat his mind was
abnormal if not malignly mastered, were in this
company accepted as coin of the realm.

At one point the path led to a high and dry
resting place on the edge of a pigmy blufi' over-
looking a modest gorge through which the river
had worn a way.

" Let's take recess," suggested M'Neill. " This is
an elegant place to camp."

"Ah," observed Pitcher, dropping down on Ids
side and elbow, " one must come to such a spot to
see that spring has really arrived."

"Isn't it great?" gurgled Madden, rocking to
and fro with his hands locked over his knees.
" Why do we ever have anything except spring ? "

"Give it up. Ask the parson ! " suggested
iJatters.

" Well, parson, what have you to say for your-
self?" queried Madden, turning cheerfully to
Paterson.

li!

28 The Prepay atio7i of Ry arson Embttry

Oh, many thinc^s if 1 felt like it," responded
Piiterson, airily. " Why, for instance, should we
have Maddens when we miorht all be like myself,
and — Embury here, eh ? " — smiling gaily at
llyerson. " Simply for the sake of variety. You
would not appreciate us if there were not a few of
the other kind to show us off well."

" Say ! " broke in Batters, " Did you fellows
hear about Hughson and ^Granipy' Wilson?"
Hughson was more properly known as Professor
Hughson and filled the rhair of chemistry at
Ithica College ; while " Grampy ''' Wilson was a
worthy student of unpolished manners and more
age than was usual among the " boys " of his class.

A general negative being forthcoming. Batters
went on. " Well, Hughson is so blamed slick, you
know, that it occurred to him that he might score
off poor ' Grampy ' yesterday in chemistry class.
The lecture was on ammonia, and he brought a
bottle of it with him — one of those elegant, cut-
glass bottles of his. The idea was to pass the
bottle about for the boys to smell and then enjoy
the situation when ' Grampy ' got a good whiff.
Great idea, but in a moment of weakness he let
Webster into the plot, getting Web to stand next
to * Grampy * and show him how to take a fine
deep smell. What did Web do but pass the
word on to ' Grampy ' himself, with a hint to
pretend to be gagged by the stuft' and then drop
the fine new bottle. 'Grampy ' caught on at once,

i: \-

=501"

ore

ss.

prs

)re

a
t-
ic

let
t
e
e
o

The Preparation of Ryerson Endniry

and wliBn Iliif^hson f^ravely handed the bottle to
Wel)ster, and said ' Now, Mr Webster, the best test
of ammonia is, perhaps, the odour. See if you can
manauje to distinguish any characteristic scent,' the
boys said that it was worth a meal at the liussell
to see ' Grampy ' hold on to himself so he would
not snort ri<;ht out. When Webster, after pre-
tending to smell deep and long, passed the bottle
tc him with, ' I think, professor, I can detect a
faint odour,' * Grampy ' shook and gulped and,
lifting the bottle to his nose, really got quite a
stinger, then shouted on?-, ' Goodness ! Gracious ! '
at the top of his voice and smashed the professor's
cut-glass bottle on the floor. Oh ! it was great.
Hughson didn't even smile, and dismissed the class
two minutes after."

That reminded Pitcher of a similar thinof that
happened while he was at college ; which left
Madden no .alternative but to tell of a law office
escapade, and so it went. Then they got into
politics, ])ut soon tired of it, watching rather the
leaping river and the fair blue sky. Presently
Chalmers observed, adjusting his spectacles and
smiling drily about the corners of his mouth, —

*' You'd better attend to ^ladden's theology,
Paterson."

" Yes ? " from Paterson.

" He ' don't know ' more things about the P)ible
than any person I ever met."

Madden straightened up from a sprawling atti-

The Preparation of Ryerson Evilmry

tilde, grinned aggressively at Paterson and awaited
his comment.

Paterson looked lazily into the deeps of the
wood and then said, as if reluctant to speak at all,
" He will have to call on me during office hours."

" That's the modern preacher for you ! " shouted
Madden, derisively. '* He never works overtime.
You'll do, my hoy, when you graduate."

" Bosh ! " replied Paterson, with the directness of
college discussions. " You don't know what you're
talking about, and I don't want to waste my powder
on you this afternoon."

'* P'r'aps I don't," said Madden, with a know-
more-than-you-think grin, " and p'r'aps you'll tell
us, as a light half-holiday starter, how two contra-
dictory accounts of the same thing can both be true."

" Ingersoll and water ! " retorted Paterson.

" All right ! " said Madden, shaking his head, and
then continued, " How about Joshua's raid ? Did
the Lord command him to do all that wholesale
killing of innocent people ? "

" But," interjected Ryerson, venturing in, " they
were opposing the will of God."

" Yes, by resisting an unprovoked assault on
their homes and lives, just as you or I would
have done," returned Madden, vehemently. " Is
patriotism a bad thing ? Then, moreover, the
Bible says that the Lord hardened their hearts so
that tlicy would fight Joshua so that he might
have a chance to kill them."

. V

The Preparation of Ryerson Eiulmry

sale

on
lid

Is
the

so
rht

•' Don't you believe all you hoar," Paterson
advised Kyerson.

•' You take your Bible wlien you get home and
look alontj in the first of the book ol* Joshua, and
you will find what I said is true," Madden assured
him with conviction.

llyerson smiled doubtiri^^dy, but felt timid, ms if
in a stran^^e land.

" Perhaps that passage ought not to be in the
Bible," suggested Pitcher. " I heard a preacher
the other day who told how the Bible was made
up. They voted on the books and sometimes the
voting was pretty close."

" You're thinking of the Old Testament, Pitcher,"
said Paterson, " and these men were supposed to
have acted under divine Gfuidance."

" Like the ' stationing committee,' '' commented
Batters, sarcastically. The *' stationing committee "
is the body which in Canadian Methodism annually
" locates " the ministers.

With that tlie discussion drifted off on the
rearrangement of the ministers likely to take
place at the coming Methodist Conference, and
presently they were all up and away again
across country to another road which led back
to Ithica through the little country village of
Glen Ewart.

'' What d'ye say, Madden, to taking the parson
to Josie's and getting him a pint of something — or
a ginger ale ? " Batters inquired from the rear of

The Prcpa7'ation of Rycrson Embury

the coluTTin of the merry, elastic-moutlicd law
student who was marchinf^ in front.

Madden looked at Paterson, with whom he was
walkint^, with apolo^ijy in his eyes, and tossed back,
" Oh, shut up ! " to the jovial Batters. He liked to
bait the parson on theolo<T^y, but he had a profound
respect for what he considered his prejudices.

" I'll go, if Batters will treat," said Paterson,
promptly.

And they went and got their ginger ale, punctu-
ated with a " beer " or two, in a stale-smelling
parlour oft' the " bar " which Josie's papa kept ;
but they saw nothing of Josie. The red-figured
tablecloth covered the round centre table ; the
prints of astonishing horses and ensanguined
Oriental scenes hung upon the walls : but the
bright-eyed Josie with her masses of black hair
and her dancing step, and her suggestion of bound-
ing life within, was not there.

*' Josephine ? " answered her father as he de-
posited the last amber glass on tlui red tablecloth.
" Sure, she's gone fur her mewsic lesson. She's
gettin' to play fine now, Mr Batters. She can
ma-ake a pianny sound just like a band when she's
feelin' well."

On the way up the village street they met her
walking demurely along with a large music book
under her arm, and a furtive smile of welcome on
her face. There was pride in it, too, for was she
not entrajxed in the business of brain-culture like

.'/■.I

The P^'cparation of Rycrson Ejubiiry 33

thi3 rest ol' tlium. Batters, who was loading, doffed
his hat and stopped. Tlio ^irl also stopped,
answerini^ his <^reetin|ifs with frank pleasure, and
takinpj his introduction to the newcomers — Pater-
son, Uyerson and a couple of the others — with an
air of liking it which was (|uite different from the
studied reserve Ryerson had been accustomed to
see in his girl acquaintances.

" So you are taking music this spring ? " said
Madden, familiarly.

"Yes," she replied with a pleased smile, "and
fatlier says that perhaps I may go to Miss Taylor's
Academy in Ithica in the fall."

" Oh ! " they chorused in congratulation.

" Well, we will be glad to see you in town, Josie,"
said Batters with a touch of patronising good
humour.

She just perceptibly winced at the " Josie," but
laughed her acceptance of the welcome without
affectation. " Well, I must go," she said, and
started briskly off, when her music book struck
a picket in the fence with considerable force and
fell straddling open to the ground.

Ryerson was the nearer, and so picked it up and
set it to rights. As he gave it back to her he said,
in a polite little way he had, " I hope, Miss Fitz-
gerald, that it is not hurt."

" Oh, I think not," she assured him, looking at
him individually for the first time, and evidently
with approval, whether for himself or for his mode

34 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

of address whicli had nothing of " Josie " patronage
in it. And then she walked with her springing,
light-footed step up the street. She walked as if
she liked it, much as a "blooded" horse prances
from pure delight in its power to prance when it is
fresh to a good road and the air is inspiriting in
its nostrils. Her smooth, firm cheek, her resolute
mouth, her eyes that faced that band of mocking
collegians with a knowledge that they knew more
than she about many things, and yet without fear,
stayed with Byerson more or less throughout the
walk ; and, for the life of him, he could not help
contrasting her with the more sheltered develop-
ment of Grace Brownell. Upon the one, hardly
a zephyr had blown ; the other had blushed at
the Hying compliments of half- drunken men in
her father's parlour and was on her defence against
mankind.

■\ *

The annual (^xaniuuitious were coiniii<^ on now, and
Ryerson began to live with his nose in his text-
books. On fine days he would sometimes stroll oti'
along country roads or wander into the woods, but
always with a book in his hand, and the slightly
moving lips o£ a memoriser. Sundays, however,
brought him a complete release, for he was
thoroughly convinced that the Sunday rest helped
men to achieve their immediate and temporal ends.
His chief competitor in his own class worked as
hard on Sunday as on Monday ; but this did not
disturb Ryerson, for he had beaten the " Sabbath-
breaker" before now under precisely these con-
ditions. And his Sundays were luxuriant oases in
a desert of brain fatigue. From Monday until
Saturday he kept his mind on a tread-mill ; but
on the Sabbath it took happy note of the advanc-
ing spring, dipped as deep as fancy favoured into
the emotions of youth, and lived in companionship
again with the town world of Ithica which appar-
ently knew not that the examinations approached.
In the morning, if the day were fine, he took any

fragment of fiction he had at hand out with him to

36 7/tc Preparation of Ryerson Embury

the river bank, and tliere lay on the fresh sod, read-
ing as it pleased him, and looking away when
inclined to the swirling, eddying river, the idle wood
and the restful, distant sky. After dinner he went
to Sunday school, and was pretty sure of being
permitted to walk home with Grace Brownell
afterward. Walters was there too, but Grace
generally happened to escape from her group of
girl friends at a time when Ryerson could hardly
fail to reach her first. On one occasion Walters had
joined the group of girls in the church and tried to
detach Grace, but the manwuvre had not been a
success. Grace had had something particular to say
that afternoon to her friend, Dora Norris, and had
walked with her all the way home, leaving the
venturous Walters to a noisy litile frump with a
squat nose, w^ho " Oh, Mr WUters-ed " him to the
point of disgust. At church in the evening it w^as
different. There Grace sat with her parents — a
square-jawed, massive father, and a short, aquiline-
nosed mother — and w^alked home ahead of them
through the quiet dark. Walters had of late
generally walked with her and was always asked
promptly in by Mrs Brownell — a doubtful advan-
tage, for on the rare evenings when Ryerson had
adroitly succeeded in carelessly stepping up to Grace
first, he had liked best of all the few minutes spent
with her at the gate alone.

He had seen little, too, of late of his friends of
the walking party. One Sunday morning Madden

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury '^^j

had found him in tlie wood, and had bewildered '
him with cynical talk about the contradictions of /
Scripture and the bad loo^ic of Christian doctrine. V^^
Ryerson had valiantly replied for fi time, but the
lad had had no training- that fitted him for the con-
test. But when Matlden incautiously attacked the
sincerity of professing Christians, he found himself /
beatinf^ upon Hint. Ryerson had not lived his life
amoni^ Christian people without knowincj that, at
all events, they were entirely sincere. He admitted
that the true coin was counterfeited there as ,
elsewhere for selfish purposes ; but he knew that
the bulk of the church people of his acrpiaintance {
believed the teachincrs of the old evanc^elical /
Christianity. Soon Madden shifted back to his
first <fround of attack, and left Ryerson at his
door, when they had walked, with veliement and
exciting discussion, in from the wood, with his
brain hot and pulsing within him. His mother's
letter of yesterday lay on his study table. He felt
a bound of gladness in his heart that he had stood
up for her religion, and for her sincerity. Of
course, she believed her reliL;ion. How hopelessly V
]\Iadden misunderstood the church people. But
yet he felt that he had not been very effective in
Ids defence of that religion. Madden had quoted
Scripture to him, whose meaning he had never
studied, and had shown him the relations of this
passage to that in a way he had not dreamed of.
He had been surprised to find, for instance, that

The Prepa7'ation of Ryerson Embttry

he had no consecutive idea of Christ's life in his
head. When IMadden had asked him at what
period in his career Christ had driven the money-
cliangers out of the Temple, lie could not even
make a guess. Madden had then lau^hin^i^ly said
that he might have tried with safety, for the
incident was put nt three different dates by the
four evangelists. Ryerson knew that there must
be some reply to this, but he did not know what it
was. As soon as he got time, he would study and
find out. It was absurd to suppose that all tlie
wise men of the world had read this Bible, and
believed it to be true, and had never seen these
fatal contradictions, but that it had been reserved
for a contentious little law student of the town of
Ithica, Ont., ' nd a few others like him prol)al)ly
in other towns, to upset the faith of the Christian
world. Why didn't preachers preach about these
things, and arm their congregations for such
encounters ?

Thai was a work he might do.

The thought fell on him like an inspiration. It
was true that he could not get " saved " ; but had
he not devoted his life to God's work ? His own
failure to get saved would hinder him irom saving
others, but there was no reason why lie should not
fight a tremendous battle against sharp-shooters
of the Madden band. Cold intellect could do that ;
and — well — God might pity liim at the last. He
would have a talk with Dr Holden, the most

The Preparation of Rycrson Embicry 39

scholarly clergyman he knew, and find out how
the question stood. Probably his whole work
would be to take the learned conclusions of theo-
logical masters and write them out in plain
language.

Examinations began, and Ryerson's brain be-
came a dump cart which he packed full of a
subject, emptied what was asked for in the ex-
amination hall, and dumped the rest on his way
to his lodfjinffs that he micjht have room for the
next load. They finished on a Thursday afternoon,
and Friday and Saturday he wandered about in
a state of semi-coma. Grace was aw^ay over
Sunday ; other examinations were still in progress ;
and he wanted nothing but sunshine on his back,
and security from disturbance to his brain torpor.

Sunday morning he went to church. It was
a luxury to feel that the world was so full of
woodland rest days for him now that he could
afford to spend the morning in church if he
wanted to. The sermon was on the familiar
parable of the " talents " ; and the preacher per-
petrated the usual mild pun, sanctified by churchly
usage, and dwelt upon the duty of each to use
what talent he had to help on God's work. This
revived llyerson's determination to see Dr Holden
and prepare to meet the minor guerrillas of in-
fidelity. After church he caught the doctor just
as he was pushing open his front gate.

" Doctor ! " said Ryerson, panting a little from

40 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

norvouHncsH. " Do you tliink you could <;ivo me
an liour's talk sonietinie on — on reli<aous matters ? "

Dr Holden looked at the younger man from out
of his benevolent, studious eyes as if searching for
the meaning of this request ; and said presently,
" Nothing would please me more. Could you come
this afternoon?" and he smiled a welcome.

" Yes," said llyerson, simply ; " I should like to
very much."

" At three, then," said the doctor, cheerfully, and
bowed himself inside his ixate.

At three, Ryerson steppoa on the broad verandah
of the Holden hou^e with marvel at his own
temerity in his heart, and a brain full of the chaos
of the hundred and one questions he had tried to
frame with which to suitably commence the con-
versation. Through the open door he heard the
tapping of someone on the doctor's study door,
the location of which many of the students knew
well ; and presently the doctor came down the
hall-way to greet him himself.

" Come in," he said. " I think my study is the
(piietest place we can find. Violet can never see
me in the arbour without wanting to join me."
Violet was an eight-year-old daughter who
thought that " papas " were chiefly intended to be
played with.

Once in his study, this experienced diplomat at
the court of youth soon had Ryerson at his ease
f]|,nd had learned what it was he wanted. " Yes,"

The Preparation of Ryersoii Embury 41

he said reflectively, " I felt that difficulty myself
when I was fjoinii: throu<xh colle<'e. Thouohtful and
conscientious underi^raduates are especially subject
to it. But it is impossible to silence the criticism
of veneered ignorance by a reply of like kind. You
may buttress your own soul aij^ainst their attacks,
but you can hardly cut off their supply of pop-
f^uns. The raw material out of which they make
them is too cheap," and the doctor smiled pleasantly
at his neat way of puttin*^ it. " Have you had
Paley's Evidences on your course yet ? " he
continued.

*' Yes," said Ryerson, " but it does not seem to
meet the case."

" No, it wouldn't," replied the doctor as if lie had
e cpected Ryerson's statement ; " but it and later
works of the same kind and purpose assure you of
the strength of your position, and help you to dis-
regard the pin-pricks of these cheap critics who
really are useful in testing your faith."

" But," ventured Ryerson, " I think that if I could
explain these contradictions in the Bible — and — and
reconcile science with revelation, that I could bring
these young men I speak of into the faith."

The doctor smiled pityingly. "These scientific
objections," he said, " have really been answered so >.
often that one requires Christian patience to meet /
them afresh every day. Often they are unimpor-
tant ; others are exploded from time to time by
new discoveries ; true science is everywhere found

42 The Prepai'ation of Ryerson E7}?httry

\\ [

fighting on the side of the Bible, and yet there
always are people who will reject the glorious
truths of revelation because they never saw a whale
they would care to take rooms in." And he laughed
heartily at his daring witticism.

" Well, what about Jonah anyway ? " asked
Ryerson, covering his (juestion with an answering
laugh.

" Oh," said the doctor, becoming grave ; " my own
opinion is that the story of Jonah is a parable,
teaching the folly of striving to escape the com-
mands of God. There are other parables in the
Scriptures. Christ himself preferred that vehicle
for teaching the people. Then there is poetry in
the Bible, too, which these half-baked infidels insist
upon taking seriously and literally. But there is
truth there, too, my son — the truth that maketh
unto salvation."

To the sophisticated churchgoer and newspaper
reader of this day, there would be nothing startling
in Dr Holden's words. They might think him a
little in danger of a church trial for heresy if he
were too outspoken about his opinions ; but they
would have felt no such shock as fell upon this ex-
ceedingly inexperienced young man who knew no
resting place between perfect faith and infidelity,
to w^hom the whole Bible was " the Word of God,"
and who had thought that he must accept it all
literally or none of it. His position was no doubt
very absurd, and learned divines will smile at it;

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 43

but wliat percentage of evangelical Cliristians at
this moment think ditiercntly ? In liow many
sermons, outside of the great cities, is the Bible
treated on the poetry and parable theory ?

Dr Holden's placid face, suggestive of nothing but
the commonplace, steadied him, however, and lie
felt that it would be something like a display of
rusticity to be surprised at the doctor's way of look-
ing at the matter. Then did he not know that there
were both parables and poetry in the Bible ? What
was he staring at ? But there fell across his mind
the memory of his mother explaining to him at
length that the Bible said that the Lord had
especially prepared a great fish to swallow up
Jonah ; and that if He could do this, He could
certainly make this particular fish so that Jonah
could live in it. It seemed keenly pathetic to him
now that his mother should have so striven to read
reality into a parable ; but he dismissed the scene
and pulled himself up to the doctor's superior
position.

" Yes, yes," he said, making a pretence of thinking
about it; "that could easily be so. Jonah would make
a good parable. And Joshua's raid ^ " he asked,
remembering one of Madden's fiercest assaults, and
f eelino; that he was frettinfj on. " What about that ? "

"That's historic," replied the doctor, promptly.
" There's no excuse for disbelieving that."

" No, I meant about the Lord telling him to put
everybody to the sword," explained Ryerson.

The Preparation of Ryerson Emhvry

" Oh," said tlio doctor with a trace of impatience,
"we cannot judi^e the morals of one aj^e by the
standards of another. You must contrast the Jews
of tliat day with tlie peoples about them to see the
efi'ect of divine <^uidance."

"But," Ilyerson persisted, "God's standard of
morals ouc^ht not to vary."

"God must work through human agents," retorted
the doctor, sharply. " i5ut I shouldn't bother about
these (juibbles if I were 3"ou," he went on more
genially. " ^Phey lead to nothing. i\latters we are
troubled about now will all be revealed in God's
good time. The great Christian doctrines are plain
enough to you, aren't they ? "

" Yes," said Kyerson.

"Well, lean upon then and go ahead. If we
knew the whole of truth, we should be gods. I
fear that you are in need of more spiritual guidance.
Do you pray ? "

" Yes, sir."

" All right " — heartily. " Now," getting up and
going to the bookcase, " here is an admirable little
volume dealino; with some of the difficulties of a
Christian life. Take it for vacation reading, and
don't fritter away your time arguing with these
pin-hole infidels. They are soiling their hands with
the chatf that the Germans swept out of their work-
shops long ago. If they want to talk, compare
lives with them ; compare results with them. Put
the church beside their miserable little clubs. They

* *••,

The Preparation of Rycrson Rnibitry 45

0- ^

have clone nothing but cavil all their lives. The
church lifts tlie race, and they carp because — be-
cause " — lookincr for a simile — " because it stands
on tlie earth to do it." And with that he shook
hands with Ryerson and led him out throu^jh the
wide hall to the vine-hidden verandah.

As Ryerson walked up the street, he felt that he
had attained to a broader outlook on thini^s. He
believed himself better able to meet Madden, now
that he was not tied down to the literal and speci-
fic defence of every passage in the Scripture. There
was more room to play about in dialectically. It
was the difference between rooting a pugilist to the
cjround and lettino; him dance about the rins:. Then
suddenly the thought pushed up into his mind that
while he danced about, his mother must stand still
and take all the blows. She believed the Bible to
be absolutely true and entirely the work of God
from Genesis to Revelation. From the impetus of
not one statement in all its pages did she escape
under.cover of the notion that it was poetic or an
unlabelled parable. " Don't you believe the Bible ? "
she would say as a clincher after having quoted a
passage in support of some contention.

As he walked, these two conceptions of the
Scriptures battled in his brain ; and he presently
found himself turning down to his own boarding
house instead of going on to look up Madden as he
had originally intended.

On an at'turnoon in the iullowin*^ weok, if Uycrson
had been on callin<^ terms with the Brownells, he
mifijht have found the Rev. Arthur Drake Walters
— as he was known on the country circuits- ited
at ease on the Brownell verandah, resting ... jli",
after tlie tug of examinations, in tlie grateful society
of Mrs Browjell and Grace. He had brought a
volume of Cowper with him and had been read-
ing them some poetry, and now he was telling of
some college escapades in which he apologetically
confessed to have }»layed a prominent part. They
were mostly practical jokes perpetrated at the ex-
pense of new or stupid students, in which the
immense cleverness of the. perpetr'ators was always
apparent, though one sometimes wished they had
chosen more difficult game. Mrs Brownell ejacu-
lated at the adroitness of the plan, which was
always laid to begin with; said "No, really!" at
the miraculous stupidity of the victim ; exclaimed
in consternation at the climax, when the said
victim seemed in danger of life, or, at least,
cuticle ; and cried, " My, what awful boys you
college boys ai-e ! " when the tale was safely

The Preparation of Rycrson lunlmry 47

• »

over. Grace, who was doin^ Komothinfij with a
crochet needle and thread, hiui^h(!<l when Walter's
eyes were looking at her, and conducted some
puzzled counting with puised lips when they
were not.

Then the talk turned to church matters, and
Walters told of the benefit that the winter's
revival had been to the college boys. Most ot*
those who were converted had " persevered," and
they had a tine Y. M. C. A. prayer meeting now
every Friday night immediately after supper.
The ladies were both soberly pleased at this,
and Mrs Brownell told of some of the men and
boys in the neighbourhood who had been much
better behaved since the " meetings." Then she
deprived herself of the pleasure of this young
man's society — and it was undoubtedly a great
pleasure to her who saw little of males with
lively tongues and minds unharnessed to dollar-
making — and went indoors to see about soraethinor
or other indefinite. Grace came somewhat out of
her preoccupation of needlework, and tossed the
conversational ball with modest reserve back and
forth with her visitor.

'* You make a great many pretty things," he said
politely, looking straight at her.

" Oh, 1 don't know," she replied, arching her
neck and looking hard at her work.

" Oh, yes, you do," he insisted. " Your mother
has shown me some of your work in the parlour."

48 The Preparation of Ryerson E^nbiiry

11 .

Grace smiled deprecatin<»ly.

" I shouldn't have tlie patience for it," he went
on, turning liis eyes out toward the street. " I
liavo so much reading to do anyway that I have
no time for much else."

" Papa and I do a good deal of reading too," said
Grace with a touch of pride in her tone, both at the
fact and the partnership with her father.

" What do you read ? " asked Walters with an
amused smile.

" Oh, different things," said Grace, largely.
" Dickens and The Little Minister and — "

Walteis's laugh stopped her. "I can't waste my
time on fiction," he interjected. " There's too much
serious reading to be done. Then I believe it
weakens the mind," he added, as an after-
thought.

" We don't always read fiction," said Grace, a
little stiffly. " Now we have just finished reading
Dr Livingstone's African travels."

"Yes," said Walters, tolerantly; "that's very
good, but you ought to try some philosophy if
you want to know what reading is. Why, one
book I read this year I had to go over many of
the sentences three or four times to get any idea,
of their meaning."

" My ! " said Grace, visibly impressed.

" The theology course," he went on, '• is very
heavy. The works we much read are so abstruse
and — and — transcendental. None of the other

The Preparation of Ryerson Ejiibury

courses are like it. Now, if you are preparing
to study law, for instance, what do you have ?
A little history, some Koinan law, constitutional
history, and that sort of thing — all straight read-
ing. You could get it up fairly well without
lectures. But theology and philosophy are
different altogether."

" I am sure it must be very hard," said Grace ;
" but I would find law hard too." Ryerson Embury
was supposed to be preparing for the law.

" Why don't you go away to college where they
admit ladies and take a course yourself ? " Walters
asked with the air of one who would encourage a
protege to great deeds. " I think you could get
through one all right."

" I'm certain I could," replied Grace, calmly ; " and
I mean to take a course some day."

" Will your papa let you ? "

" I hope so ; but if he don't, I can teach and get
enough money to put myself through."

Walters laughed in enjoymentof her adorable little
air of independence ; and then said teasingly, —

" You'll get married first."

A little colour showed in her cheekr^. " No," she
said decidedly, " I won't. You think ^M^h can do
nothing but marry, but you are mistak* n."

" Most of them do," he pointed out.

" Well," she said defiantly, shaking her head,
"you'll see. I like to study and I — I want to
know things. I will go in especially for the

■; I; ,

50 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

lanojuages," she added in a tone of charming
importance.

" Yes," he commended hirgely ; " you'll not find
' moderns ' very liard ; but you ought to tackle
Hebrew, as we poor ' theologues ' have to. That
would bother you more than tangled fancy work."
She shifted a little in her chair, as if minded to
protest, but said nothing.

" Hebrew recpiires very careful study," he went
on ; " Henders was telling me a story about old Dr
Chalmers the other day that illustrates this. Dr
Chalmers, you know, can drink tea in Hebrew — "

She looked up and laughed brightly at the
fancy.

" — Knows the language thoroughly. Well, one
night some years ago — but first I must explain to
you that in Hebrew every little mark means an
awful lot. The meanin(»; of an entire sen^^ence
will be wholly changed by a little dot or a stroke
in the wrong place. That is what it means when
it speaks in the Bible about one jot or one tittle" —
a suggestion of his pulpit style was noticeable —
" they were small Hebrew characters, the loss of
which might have a great etlect on the meaning
of the passage."

" Yes, I know," said Grace, a trifle impatiently.

" Well," and he smiled in anticipation of his
story, "one night long ago, Dr Chalmers sat
up reading an old Hebrew copy of the Old
Testament, when suddenly he noticed that a

-.^

The Preparation of Rycrson Emb7i7y

familiar passage had an entirely new meaning.
He read it over again, but there was no mistake-
There it was in black and white" — and Walters
gave a short snigger in enjoyment of the denoue-
ment which Grace was yet to hear. " So he
worked over the passage for a long time, got
out all his dictionaries and authorities, but he
could not change it. Finally the morning sun
found him still at work and — eh — still perplexed.
So he carried the volume to l)r Holden who
knew something of Hebrew, and got him up
out of bed to see the new discover3^ And what
do you suppose it was ? "

" How would I know ? " asked Grace in return.

"It was nothing but a fly-speck," chuckled out
Walters ; " and that shows how much difi'erence a
little dot can make in Hebrew."

" 0-o-o-h ! " cried Grace, balancing between amuse-
ment and sympathy. " Poor old Dr Chalmers, with
his poor old eyes. I think it was a shame for Dr
Holden to tell."

But Walters was still laughing at the joke and
he only said, " How coiild he help it ? " and then,
after he had laughed himself out, " Hebrew is a
great languaoje."

Then he told her more about the great difficulty
of his college course ; and how he felt when preach-
ing ; and finally dropped into talking of the girls
whom he met on his circuits. Grace was quite
curious on this latter score, and chided him Hatter-

52 The Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry

c o <J.

tK:

ingly for the conduct set I'ortli in his tales of bread-
and-milk gaUantry. Presently she called him "a
terrible flirt," at which his eyes danced, though he
protested with his tongue. She insisted, however,
on tlie accuracy of lier description, and added,
moreover, her conviction that all young preachers
were " flirts."

At this he became grave and confidential. Jle
said that it was simply ridiculous the way that
country girls acted toward young ministers. And
lie gave instances in point.

" But," said Grace, " you know better, and you
should teach them better."

" I guess there are few young men who would
not take more advantage of their chances than I
have," he protested. " Then it don't hurt them to
flirt a little," he went on with a half laugh. "It
brightens them up and they will know better after
a while. They are not really nice girls, you know,
like — like you are," and he twisiod his chair about
and carelessly threw his arm around her shoulders.

She rose instantly, holding her matted fancy
work from falling with both hands ; and with a
faint smile on her lips said in a constrained voice,
" Would you like to play a game of tennis, Mr
Walters ? "

He got up too with, "You are not angry with
me, are you, Grace ? "

She looked at him a moment, and then said in
even tones, "I shouldn't like you to IqU 0<H over

-A

' he circuits you visit that you-you-well, that you
called mc ' Grace.' "

"I beg your pardon," he said quickly. "It was
all only an accident — "

/'Or a habit," she put in, flashing a smile at
him ; and then, putting down her fancy work, she
led the way to the tennis court.

The dayH when the fagged collegians hiy under
tlie young summer sun, and waited for the results
of the examinations, were idyllic. The utter im-
possibility of doing anything now that could
change the result by a fraction of a per cent.,
entirely reconciled the conscience to unbroken idle-
ness ; and the passionate industry and the close
application of the past month, clothed rest and
liberty with that supreme charm which is usually
the property only of some incredible good fortune.
Be-pencilled text-bouks, the imperious taskmasters
of yesterday, could now be flouted on their shelves ;
one might go to the wood of a morning with a
novel or with nothing in his hands ; every day was
a lengthened Saturday afternoon ; a " walk " was
no longer a medical necessity to be hurried back
from ; and through it all ran an intermittent
curiosity as to who had led, who had passed, who
were plucked, and what one had done one's self. It
was an unavoidable becalming of the vessel when
there was nothing to do but wait for the last breeze
— and the harbour.

There was football on the " campus " at irre-

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 55

gular hours in which the men joined listlessly, for
no necessity was felt now to pack much play into
few minutes. There were walking tours, and all-
day boating trips down the river. One day a
party was made up of Gault and Madden and
Paterson and " Shorty " Batters and Ryerson and
two or three more coUeoje men to tro down the river
immediately after diimer and fish for bass. They
had three boats between them, and floated down
stream under the early afternoon sun with a
minimum of exertion. " Shorty " Batters occasion-
ally sang a line or two of something suggestive of
a rollin^x crait, waGCSfinij his head the while and

O c5 ' OCT O

trailing his lingers on both sides of the boat
through the water. Madden pulled his hat over
his eyes and dozed ; while Gault and Ryerson and
a couple of the others kept up a desultory discus-
sion on the several papers lately submitteci to them,
and the chances of the best men in the di He rent
classes.

"Billings told me," said Gault, "that liughson
told him that you had made the best figures in
years in third-year geology, Ryerson."

" I don't believe that Hughson would tell Billings,
even if he had j?ot the returns from Dr Bertram
yet," Ryerson objected with the unbigoted air of
a man who would like to have his objection set
aside.

" I don't know," replied Gault, not sticking to his
guns as staunchly as Ryer.son had hoped. " But

56 The Preparation of Rye r son Embury

that's what Billings said. I hope it's true anyway.
I'd like you to get the ' Greenleaf ' " — a prize ofi'ered
for the best papers in third-year science.

" M'Kim is pretty sure of it, I'm afraid," sighed
Ryerson ; " he worked much harder than I did all
year."

"Say! I saw Parson Walters yesterday," broke
in Batters, " and he expects to lead his year."

" No ! " said Paterson, more as a ^ote of amuse-
ment than as a negative.

" He was quite serious about it," Batters assured
him ; " said that Charlie Sampson would disappoint
his friends when the returns came in."

" He will," commented Paterson. " He w^ill dis-
appoint Friend Walters."

" You should stand by the cloth better, Paterson,"
said Marlden, chidingly, pushing his hat back and
taking an interest in things.

" There ara * shysters ' in other businesses beside
the law, you junior Blackstone plus Ingersoll,"
returned the deliberate divinity student.

*' They say that Walters has got a ' cinch ' on
old Brownell's daughter," put in a classmate of
Ry erson's, possessed of a square jaw, pompadour
hair and Van Loom as a family name. " And it's
the way he oozes piety that gets him in there."

Ryerson felt uncomfortably conscious, though he
knew that few if any of the fellows present would
have thought of connecting his name with that of
Grace Brownell. She was too carefully kept by a

The Preparation of Rye r son F.nibury 57

watchful mother for much student flirtation to
come near her wliere the public eye could take note
of it. The boys who went to Sunday scliool were
the only ones who would have been certain to turn
to him at the mention of her name, and most of
them were in the junior classes. A third-year man
was a survival at the Sunday school, and llyerson
had felt an indefinite shame at being there all
through the last year. But it was his one safe
chance to see Grace; for happily "mamma" pre-
ferred an hour's shaded meditation in her own room
on a Sabbath afternoon.

"That's what's the matter with Paterson," went
on Madden in answer to Van Loom's remark. " He's
jealous — not of the girl, but of Walter's perspiring
piety."

"You're a fool, Madden," Paterson observed
calmly.

" Possibly," Madden admitted ; " but you're not a
Simon-pure, coine-to-glory Christian if you don't
believe in Walters's kind of religion."

" I may agree with his religion without admiring
his methods of preaching it, mayn't I ? " Paterson
queried.

*' I don't know," returned Madden. " There are
preachers who insist that you must believe in their
emotions as a part of their religion, and Walters's
methods are not far from his emotions."

Later in the day, when they had all tired of fish-
ing where there were no fish to speak of, and were

58 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

sittin<; on the shady bank of tlic river amidst the
rumpled papers and scattered chicken bones and
the usual wreckage of a lunch, I'aterson took
Madden lazily to task for bothering an old man
who did some writing in liis office with " cheap and
nasty " objections to Holy Writ. " You know
perfectly well," he said, " that the modern Christian
scholar does not believe that Moses wrote the
account of his own death, or that there is any kind
of inspiration which the discovery of a few contra-
dictions would wreck, or any other absurd thing
of that order. Yet it was that sort of talk you
bothered old Mathews with."

Madden defended himself on the ground that
Mathews, at all events, believed these things, and
that it was a duty to dispel ignorance wherever you
found it. " And as you grant that these things
are not true, you should praise me for setting
Mathews right on the subject," he added with a
grin.

" Ah ! but you took advantage cf the influence
gained over his mind by knockiLiT down these
straw men to teach him that there was nothinij
divine about the Bible at all," said Paterson.

" Well, neither there is," returned Madden, ag-

/ gressively. " What's the use of talking nonsense !

\ i If the Bible contains bad geography, bad history,

bad science, self-contradictions and, what is worse,

bad morals, do you think that God would bind up a

divine revelation with such a mess and impose it

The Preparation of Ryerson Evibury

upon his people as a Holy Book ? ^lore than that,
your contention is that he has inctJe belief in these
doctrines, thus wrapped up in things impossible to
believe, a sine qua nan of salvation. Then you
talk of ' straw men.' They are flesh and blood
enough to the majority of church people."

" What an old bell-mouthed blunderbuss you
are. Madden," Paterson observed calmly. "You
know perfectly well that all those showy shots of
yours about bad liistory, contradictions and the
like, do not hit the position occupied by Christian
scholarship at all."

" Well, if it comes to that, why not ? " Madden
im^uiredargumentatively. "Don't Christian scholar-
ship accept the Bible as a divine revelation ? "

" I had rather say that it holds that the Bible
contains a divine revelation."

" Oh— ho ! " Madden chortled. " How do you
profess to know the divine from the human parts
then ? "

" I shall answer your question by asking another,"
Paterson returned. " How do you know truth any-
where ? "

" By the reason," Madden shot out triumphantly.

" lOxactly," said Paterson, leaning slightly for-
\Nard, but without any change in his habitually
cahn and confident manner. " Reason, led by the
Holy Spirit, is our guide."

Madden looked baffled for a moment, and then
diverted his attack toward another point.

60 7 Vic Preparation of Ryerson Embury

"Then you admit tliat some parts ol* the Bible
are untrue ? " he (queried.

"The purely human sections are, of course,
subject to human frailties."

" Now don't dodt^e ! Do you think that any of
the Bible history, for instance, is untrue?"

" I suspect," said Paterson with the smoothness
suffcrestive of force that is seen when a current
runs swiftly, but without breaking, over a stone,
" that the Scribes may have tampered with Old
Testament chronology a bit, but I cannot see that
it matters. As long as God's dealings with the
Jews are clear, the purpose of the revelation is
accomplished."

And so the unending debate went on. Ryerson
joined in presently by attacking Madden for the
. / unproductivity of " free thought " in the line of
" good works." This was Dr Holden's suggested
plan of campaign ; but the doctor had not told
him what to say when Madden argued that civilisa-
tion had advanced in spite of the church — that,
for instance, " Christianity owed more to the
Germanic peoples than the Germanic peoples did
to Christianity." Of Paterson, Ryerson was more
in awe, though he felt that his own people at home
would regard his line of defence as little better
than a surrender to the enemy. The debate had a
sequel, however, in a militant visit from Madden
the following evening, when he talked the lad into
a condition of bewilderment and, in the parlance of

i .

*. i

'f;i I

The Preparation of Rycrson Endnirv 6 1

*- 1

such discussions, '* sliut liiin up entinjly." Ryerson
felt tho unfrtii'ness of many of liis aroumcnts, felt
that he (Madden) was constantly the not too
scrupulous advocate and seldom the truth-seeker ;
but he was verbally pounded into a state of
spf^echlessness. Of course, Madden saw the book
that Dr Holden had f^iven Ryerson for " vacation
reading," and at once offered him antidotes by the
armful. Ryerson said he would take two or
three, because his pride as a " fearless truth-seeker"
would not let him refuse ; but he felt no taste for
writing which should handle roughly the beliefs
which had been numbered among the immutable
things with him until a little ago, and were yet
sacred. When the books came — Tom Paine, Strauss
and IngersoU — he had a physical repulsion toward
them. He took care not to pack them anywhere
near his Bible or his mother's picture, and then
heaped exaggerated ridicule on himself for his
childish scruples. Was he not a man, seekirg the
truth at all costs ? Why should he be ashamed to
read both sides ? Did he think that true religion
had anything to fear from the fullest research ?
Was not his father's favourite motto, " Be sure you
are right and then go ahead ? " Was not, in short,
his home teaching to search out things for himself ?
Why, of course. There could be no doubt about
the propriety of taking these books home. He —
but so tricky a thing is the mind that, before he
was aware of it, he caught himself wondering, in

The Preparation of Ryersoft EiJibury

1 '

11 I

the midst of all this heroic mental slapping of
his thrust-out chest, where he could hide the
books when he got home, so that neither father
nor mother would suspect their presence. Then
he blushed to the brow and went furiously on
with his packing.

Friday saw the lists up. Ryerson had the
*' Greenleaf " and led his class. It was the first
time in his course, and he felt an insane desire
to jump right up and down. Then he w^rote a
postal card home about it, and turned out into the
streets to find himself famous. Boys gathered
about him on the " campus," and asked him how
he did it — how many hours he studied, whether
he reviewed with notes or the text-books, if he
took an egg-nog in the mornings before going into
the examination hall, whether he ran over the
papers and answered the questions he was sure
of first or just ploughed down the list. Professors
stopped him on the street to extend a congratu-
latory hand. l>ut the climax came when the
cautious Mrs Brownell asked him to come over for
an afternoon's tennis and stay to tea. He forgot
theology, and revelled in the perfumed incense of
success. Walters had not led the ffraduatins" class
by a long way, and Mrs Brownell liked to see
promising young men talking to Grace. Convoca-
tion came and he trc»d the elastic path to the dais
tliree times amid the plaudits of his friends — once
for his " honours," once for the " Greenleaf " and

The Preparation of Ryerson Embtcry 63

once for the " Proticiency." Grace sat in the
gallery, in some kind of a light dress and a wide
summery hat, and beamed down on him. That
niorht he sat ap'ain on her verandah in the flower-
scented air of a happy June, and talked hopefully
of his future in which they both tac^'tly assumed
she was interested.

The last thing at the gate he said, —

" Well, I suppose I shall not see you again until
autumn."

" No."

" I wonder — do you think you could give me
that rose you are wearing, until then ? "

" Will you give it back then ? "

" Yes ; sure."

" You'll lose it."

" No, no. Here, put it in my buttonhole for
the present."

And she came close to him in the deep shadow
of the vine that embowered the "fate and lifted her
hands to fasten the flower as he had asked. Her
eyes shone like stars, and her breath played on his
neck and chin.

" I wonder," and his voice was unsteady, " if you
would do me a greater favour."

" What ? " and her tone was low and she looked
with a new shyness at him.

" This," was the reply, and he kissed her for the
first time on the mouth.

" Oh," she said, but her lips neither smiled nor

n rl

The Preparation of Rye^'son Embury

compressed in anger. In a moment she stepped
back into the li^^ht and said in a voice laden with
gentleness, " Good-bye ; and — and I shall look
for a call when vacation is over."

VII

When Ryerson stepped off the train next day at
Fordville — the unprogressive little village that had
been his home from childhood — both his father and
mother were on the station platform to meet him.
He did not know, until his mother mentioned it
quite casually that evening, that they had been
tliere for two hours, having come down to meet
an earlier train on the chance that he might try
to surprise them by taking it, although he had
written that he would come by the ''express."
This early " move to the front " was his father's
idea. He would let no " youngster " from college
get ahead of him. His mother had thought of it
and then discarded it, deciding, with a finer tact,
that if Ryerson wanted to surprise them it would
be too bad to disappoint him.

When he was not on the first train, the expectant
couple, who had learned to wrap their love well
round with patience during the long years through
which they had " raised " this only child of their
own great love, simply sat down on the whittled
and knife-lettered wooden bench which stood
against the shady side of the station-house and

\} i!

II ! |i

T/ie P^'cparation of Ryerson Embury

waited thron(»;h the two hours that swam with
loving anticipation. They said little to each other
though their eyes met frequently, and furtive
smiles played with the corners of their mouths
as wantonly as sungleams light the air on an April
day.

Embury the elder — Ryerson's father — was a man
of slight stature and spare form, with a face that
was full of kindness though the indecisive eyes
suggested an incapacity that damns a man —
particularly with the successful. As a matter of
fact, he had not been very successful. A public-
school teacher all his life, he had only attained to
the head-mastership of his school by dint of long
service and patient waiting. In his schoolroom
he had the appearance of a man wearing a character
several times too large for him. He tried to be
impressive, and succeeded fairly well ; but a great
crisis or a determined revolt against his authority
would bring his pretentious, plaster-of- Paris master-
ship down with a crash.

But to his "vife he was always a god with a
kindly manner, and her great grievance against
the world was its inexcusable failure to appreciate
her husband. She, on her part, was a gentle soul,
with something of awe for her husband's wide
erudition — and it was undoubtedly much superior
to that of many of the men who pushed themselves
by him in the scramble of life. Did not the village
doctor always refer to liim as "the most learned

<.i

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

man in the countv, sir ! " and were not his letters
in the chief paper of the county town on the
relation of Old Testament teachinir to Greek
thought, read and praised by all the preachers of
the district, to say nothing of Dr Holden of Ithica
who wrote Mr Embury a congratulatory note on
the subject ? Mrs Embury had more worldly
wisdom than her husband, however; and it was
their economy that bought their charming little
cottage-home for them and saved the money which
was now sending Ryerson to college.

And now that Ryerson was on the second half of
that college course, how full of ambition they both
were for him ! There was nothing he might not
do. The lad had high hopes for himself, but they
were limping and broken-winged when compared
to theirs. The " card " that told of his medal and
his " Greenleaf " had cut the last cord that bound
the wings of their ambition for him ; and they
revelled in the thought of what the villaae would
say when he had grown great. His mother, in her
heart of hearts, would have preferred that he should
be a great preacher, but she was willing to confer
him on the law, seeing that he desired it ; remind-
ing herself that lawyers can do a vast amount of
good, and that he might then the more easily
become a Gladstone-like premier, ruling the
nation on Christian principles. His father was
less positive in his vicarious ambition. Success
was the great thing. Ryerson must never know

i 1
P

tii

\
\

68 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

the agony of being passed on the patli by a better-
equipped but really less worthy man.

That long summer vacation at Fordville was to
Ryerson a period of alternating mental stagnation
and mental turmoil. When his father's holidays
came, they all took an inexpensive two-weeks'
outing at a lake resort not far away ; but for the
rest of the time he seemed to live between the
tremulous quiet of the village street under the
' blazing noon-day, the cool fresh quiet of a wood
V near by, the yet cooler quiet of the closed parlour
at home where he liked best to read, and the noisy,
gossiping companionship of the idle village at
night. Amid such surroundings, thought was
merciless. He must face every problem until he
had solved it — there was not a distraction to ride
away upon. He did some studying for next year,
and began the books that Madden had lent him.
He would see what was in them. He would,
indeed, have to be prepared with replies to them
when he met Madden in the fall. Then he had
Dr Holden's book, which he turned to with hope;
but unhappily it appeared to take for granted, or
else to teach simply on authority, the things which
the Madden squadron attacksd. But still he kept
up a pretty stitf defence against Paine and Ingersoll
so lono" as he could maintain the attitude of his
friend Paterson. What did these cheap jibes prove
after all ? The Gospel was still intact.

But the moment he entered the atmosphere of

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury 69

Fordville, the Paterson buckler fell to the ground.
"Doesn't the Bible say so?" was there the all-
sufficient proof of any statement. On Sundays the
minister quoted from " the Word of God " ; and '
he made no distinction between Jonah and ,Jesus.
They had the minister in to tea one night and the.
conversation turned upon the "higher criticism/''^
It was a chorus of condemnation. It was as bad,\
they said, to disbelieve one part of the Bible as to
disbelieve it all. What human hand could venture
to divide the true from the false in Holy W^rit ? \
Ryerson protested that notice had to be taken of
later discoveries, and that the arguments of the
infidel had to be met.

" Take care, my son," said the niinister, " you are ^
drinking at a dangerous spring. College life is
full of snares and pitfalls. Stick to the good old
faith of your fathers."

Ilyerson reddened and denied that what he had
said involved any abandonment of faith. He was
going on to argue the case, but the pain in liis
mother's eyes and the disapproval and astonish-
ment in his father's face stopped him. Then tlie\
three agreed that the so-called " higher critics " !
were doing more harm than outspoken infidels
whom one could always beware of ; and Kyerson's j
father said that he thought that if a man had any (

doubts about the Bible or religion he ought to
keep them to himself and not disturb the faith of
others.

was the religion that had

religion of the revival. It was the

70 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Evibury

Consequently the lad fought this battle against
the infidel writers with his hands tied. He must
save his mother's religion, or nothing. Then hers

life in it. It was the
eligion of

practically the whole Church — even Dr Holden
himself called the Bible " the Word of God " when
in th*^. pulpit without once mentioning the
differences in authority between the various
parts of the book.

Then the battle was single-handed. He was a
beardless boy fencing with giants. The very love
of his parents for him forbade him to let them know
tliat he was in need of aid. Then what could they
do for him ? They had both accepted their faith
as they had the climate into which they were born.
The minister had a showy armory of arguments,
but authority was constantly called in to supple-
ment reason. So the lad fought alone. There was
no one to look over his shoulder and point out the
special pleader's trick with which this man " scored "
or that man made a feint at toppling over an ancient
belief. Above all, there was no one to point beyond
the tragedy of Calvary to the dynamic, oppression-
rending, caste-levelling teaching on the Mount and
in the Temple that led up to it. For another thing,
the lad was only a lad and knew nothing yet of the
world's sorrow — of the misery of the many because
of the inhumanity of Uie strong. How could he
then see the record of the never-ending struggle of

^J^ t -^^^^/^^^'^^^^^^ of Rycrson Embury 7 i

the hero-knight against the black dragon of in-
justice which a^jpears in many a Scripture from
the story of Moses, the Liberator, to the thunders
of John, the Pamphleteer against Nero ?
So he fought his fight alone— and lost.

hi \'

VIII

One windy, sunshiny day in the following March
— a six months after Ryerson's summer of religious
controversy within himself — when minute pools of
water shone and rippled on the icy road-bed of the
streets and hummocks of drenched grass showed
through the snow in the fields, Dr Holden plashed
and pushed his way along to make an afternoon call
on Mrs Brownell. The visit was of a semi-pastoral
nature, for the worthy professorial doctor had been
a minister in active work in his day, and looked
upon several congenial homes in Ithica as con-
stituting in some sense an unexacting and wholly
voluntary pastoral charge for him yet. At all
events, he liked to make afternoon calls at these
houses, and to chat with the dcccrously-gowned
ladies over the light humours and mild tragedies
of the neighbourhood, and to hear occasionally, as
a sort of Protestant " father confessor," the silken
story of their perplexities and problems and trials.
On this afternoon Mrs Brownell was at home
and was sitting in an alcove of the drawing-room
with Grace and Mrs Masterson, the wife of the
leading manufacturer of the town.

" Ah ! Good afternoon, doctor. It is very brave

J'v

The Preparation of Rycrson Enibnry y2)

of you to venture out on 8uch a day," she said
when he was ushered in.

The doctor made his greetings all round, pinching
Grace's cheek, when it came her turn, with a com-
ment on its plumpness. Then he asked after the
well-being of the masculine attachments of the
ladies, and remarked that he had been told that
Mr Masterson intended building another conserva-
tory this year.

"Yes, William thinks of doing so," said Mrs
Masterson, " if the men at the ' works ' do not dis-
arrange all his plans for him."

" How so ? " asked Dr Holden. ^

" Oh, in these days," returned Mrs Masterson,
" one cannot venture to have a plan without con-
sulting one's servants. The houses are ruled from
the kitchen and the * works ' from the boiler-room."

" Any trouble at the ' works ' ? " asked the doctor,
seeking the point.

"Not yet," said Mrs Masterson, "but the men
are talking * strike '."

" Why % "

" Because they are too well off," and Mrs IMaster-
son's eyes glinted in a manner suggestive of her
husband's best steel. "They are getting full of
high and mighty notions. Many of their wives
dress better than T do, and none of the girls are
content until they get a piano. And now they
have reached such a pitch that none of them will
work at all unless they get certain wages." /'

T I

' i

i I

74 T/ic Pref^aration of Ryerson Emlmry

'* You wouldn't expect tlieni to work for un-
certain Wi'inres, would you ? " put in Grace, who
was still at that age when a chance to make a bad
pun is an irresistible temptation.

Mrs Masterson smiled indulgently at her and went
on. '* It's worse even than that, doctor. They won't
let anyone else work now who doesn't get as good
wages as the best — at least, of his own grade. Now
there's poor Sam Wilson. You know him, doctor ? "

The doctor nodded.

" Well, William wanted to give him a little work
last month. His family hardly had a bite to eat
and he was behind in his rent. So William wanted
to let him earn what he could at the ' works.' He
called in his foreman and told him about it. And
do you think the foreman would let him ? Not
for a minute. He ^aid that if Sam would join
their Union they'd let him come in and work at
Union wages for a man of his grade. Of course,
poor Sam would have been willing to work for
anything, but they'd rather see him starve."

" I thought Sam was a Union man," said the
doctor.

" He is now," said Mrs Masterson. " They
frightened him into it, but William soon taught
him that that was not the way to get into his
works, and so the Union men have had the pleasure
of keeping him ever since," and she smiled as if
she were a style ahead of her next pew neighbour
in a church hat.

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 75

"But what is the strike likely to be about?"
asked Dr Hoklen.

" In a word," said Mrs Masterson, emphatically,
" William says he's goinf^ to find out who owns his
own factory — himself or the men."

" Oh ! " said the doctor, comprehendingly, settlin<x
back ; and then he added — " labour troubles are \
getting to be the greatest curse oi' this country." /

" Well, but, Mrs Masterson," put in Grace, \
" Kurcly everybody knows that Mr Masterson 1
owns the foundry." /

'* The men pretend they don't," Mrs Masterson \
replied with a sniff'. " You would be astonished,
my child, at the things they claim the right to do
if you only knew them. Why, they won't let Mr
Masterson say how much wages he will pay any
of his men ; they must settle that themselves. He
can't go into his foundry and tell any man to do
what he wants him to as your mother can with lier
servants. Not a bit of it. The Union fixes all that /
— ,just what each is to do, and what he is to get for^
it."

" Why, but Mr Masterson needn't give it to them
if he doesn't want to," Grace said wonderingly.

" If he don't, they will strike and go out and
march and keep others from working, and close
the foundry and try to burn it down as like as
not," Mrs Masterson proceeded with vehemence.

" Why, that's not right," Grace adjudged. " That \ J
is against the law, isn't it ? " /

N..

76 The Preparatioji of Ryerson Embury

" That's what Mr Masteraon is thinking of trying
to find out," returned Mrs Masterson, with a shake
of the head.

" My ! I never heard of such a thing," was
Grace's comment on this, her first look into the
" labour problem."

Then the doctor asked Mrs Brownell how her
palm was getting on, turning the conversation
into less heating channels. Presently Mrs Hunt-
ington and her dau<hter, Miss Bertha, came in,
radiating an atmosphere of vivacious good-humour
with one's self after their tussle with the March
wind. They were merry over finding Dr Holdcn
making an afternoon call ; and Miss Bertha, wdio had
a masculine stride, and rode cross-country when
she could get companions, and carried her taste for
rough-riding into her conversation, chirruped, —

"You do belong to the third sex, don't you,
doctor ? You sliould have a * day ' and brew tea
for your lady friends, male and female."

The doctor Hushed a little, regarded Miss Bertha
for a moment, and then brought his gentle soul to
retort, —

" So far, very few of my lady friends are — eh —
of masculine texture."

" Oh ! " said Miss Bertha — she was thirty-three,
publicly unengaged, and wore a * gent's ' collar and
tie — ";«'0U mean that for me. Well, I will spare
you i..u, time; for — to tell the truth — I can think
of nothip^ at the moment to reply."

W'.

The Preparation of Ryersort Embury Jj

Mrs lluntincrton had been crushintj: alonij mean-
time to the two ladies about some lovely things
slie had seen at " Benson's " — the leading dry-
goods store in Ithica — but still, it seemed, she
could not suit herself because this was too dark,
and Mrs So-and-so had already ordered a dress of
that, while another "just too lovely thing" was
altogether too expensive. Then, out of pity for
the helpless man present, they noisily agreed to
talk of something he could understand, and hit
upon the weather as fairly within his comprehen-
sion. At that, he managed to lead the talk to the
p(3pular lectures that the college professors had
been giving during the winter at tli . ]\Ieclianics'
Institute, but this reminded Mrs Huntington so
vividly of a report that young Professor Mackenzie
was going to marry '* tliat Morris girl," that she
could not helo whispering the news in an aside
to Mrs Brownell, which led Miss Bertha to remark
that "Sally Morris would certainly get young
Ma. Ivcnzie if burning incense to a man in public
was to be rewarded in this life." The doctor
smiled a trifle wanly, and made an adroit effort
to catch the elusive tail o? the conversation by
beginning to talk of the other young men at
college, growing jocose over their interest in the
young ladies of Ithica. He seemed to think this
in som.e way a compliment to Miss Bertha, but
slie sturdily refused all such undeserved sweet-
meat. It may be remarked in passing that she

^1'

The Prepa7'ation of Rycrson Embmy

rt'

always sat a chair as she did a horse, and plainly
had difficulty in refraining from whipping up her
dress skirt.

Had anyone been watching Grace during this
conversation, they would have noticed that through
most of it she appeared to be divided between
boredom and an amused half -interest. But when
Dr Ilolden turned the chat to the young collegians,
she became at once apprehensive as if fearing a
wound — not showing the shyness of a young girl,
the name of whose sweetheart is likely to be
mentioned, but rather the nervousness of a woman
whose family skeleton you are in danger of rattling
inadvertently. Then she made an effort — visible
because of her inexperience — to control herself.
She would appear as if she had exactly the same
interest in the conversation as before — not a particle
more. But she had the foresight to take a book
off tlie table to give lier hands employment.
/ / *' By tlie way, doctor, you have an infidel club
J up at your godly college now, haven't you ? " It
was the incisive voice of Miss pjertha.

Grace opened the book, read the inscription to
her mother from " a sea-side friend " quite carefully,
as if it were new to her, and then (juickly closed
it as if she had found what she had wanted so
suddenly.
f " Well, hardly that," tlie doctor was replying
\j doubtfully, and with the air of one attacked on
an unpleasant subject. " Rationalism is always

The Preparation of Ryerson Emhtry 79

epidemic with undergraduates Jit a certain stage,
you know," he added, smiling. /

"But I'm told," insisted Miss Bertha, " that Mr
Embury made a speech the other night at the
' Free Thought Club ' — a most uncompromising
speech."

Grace's fino;ers tiofhtened on the book con-
vulsively, and her eyes looked at the gossiping
group with an almost audible plea for mercy in
them. Mrs Brownell's lips had become compressed,
and she looked at her daughter as one who invites
attention to what is being said.

" No. You must be m.istaken," said Dr Holden,
in a shocked voice. " Embury is unquestionably
the ringleader, but I don't think he has gone into
the town ' Free Thought Club ' yet."

" I am afraid that Miss Huntington is right,"
said Mrs Masterson, in the tone of one who makes
it a duty to always expect the worst. " Mrs Gault
told me that she forbade Herbert to havo anything
more to do with young Embury, and they used to
be quite thick."

" That was an excellent way to make Herbert
go with him or die," commented Miss Bertha.

*' I think it is terril)ly too bad," said Mrs Brownell,
with a sigh. " He was so clever a young man.
But" — and her eyes passed over Grace's face as if
by accident — " Christian people inust teach these
young men tliat when they choose a life of revolt
against religion they must take the conse(|uences."

* w

!•

The Prepa^-ation of Ryerson Embury

The book slipped from Grace's lap to the floor.

" Can't you discipline them at college ? " Mrs
Llasterson inquired of Dr Holden.

" No, we have no religious test," he said ; " and
then wouldn't that be making the affair a matter
^ of too great importance ? "

"I hardly think that is possible," was Mrs
Brownell's verdict.

" Ah ! Grace, dear," exploded Miss Bertha,
suddenly catching sight of Grace's tell-tale face,
" didn't I hear that Mr Embury was — ah — well —
an admirer of yours ? " and she smiled at her
roguishly.

/ " We are friends yet," returned Grace, vHth a
j quick flush.

'■■ " What ! With an awful, dreadful, blasphemous
i infidel ? "

" Oh, I don't know that he is so awful," returned
Grace, more loyal than efl"ective in reply.

*' Of course he has ceased to call here," Mrs
Brownell observed, patently taking no notice of
the dialogue with Grace.

Miss Bertha, still to Grace, "Perhaps you are
thinking of trying to convert him ? "

Grace stooped for her book, an operation which
appeared to impart to her eyes the least bit of a
glitter. Then she replied to the kittenishly expect-
ant Miss Bertha, laying the book as she did so on
the table with a steady hand, '* I am afraid I don't
know how. Any effort I would make might

The Prcpai^ation of Ryerwn Embury

be misunderstood ; we are so near of an age.
Some one old enougli to be beyond any — any
gossip should try it. You — eh — " But she was
not accustomed yet to the use of the social
bludgeon, and her young hand faltered at the
moment of the blow. She looked away quickly
from Miss Bertha's astonished face, and Miss
Bertha herself fell to looking' out of the window,
until Dr Holden shifted the conversation by
asking if any of the ladies had heard of the
escapade over at Miss Taylor's "relined Academy
for selected young ladies."

None of them had ; and so the doctor, smiling a
bit and sure of attention at last, told how the
night before last, according to liis informant, who
was there " quite by accident, of course " — the
doctor's own smile broadened at this — seven young
ladies, who were drinkinfj in decorum and refine-
ment at the extra-polite spring presided over by
the eminently proper Miss Taylor, got out of the
Academy at the shocking hour of lO.oO p.n?.,
through a ground-floor window ('' How di-eadful ! "
from Mrs Brownell, and "No risk in that" from
Miss Bertha), and met four or five vounir nien on
the street just about the corner, walked as nmch
as half a block with them, accompanied by much
giggling, took fright at the approach of a female
ligui'e which they w.'re sure was that of Miss
Primrose, one of the lady teachers, and rushe(i
back to the Academy in a panic where they made

It;

'' .1

h I

82 T/ic Preparation of Rye r son Ernhiry

so iiiucli i'uss climbiii<; in at tlic window af^ain
that Miss Taylor woke up, and, looking out of
her window after a discreet delay, caught the last
of them just disappearing; over the sill.

" And who was she ? " asked Grace, lier eyes
dancing. "I am sure it was Eva Mulhall, she's
so slow."

" No," said the doctor, still enjoying the episode
as adipose tissue always does the friskings of
young blood. " It was what they call a ' weekly
pupil,' I believe, a Miss Fitzgerald from — from
some place or other near here. Goes home, you
know, every Friday night."

'* I know her," said Miss Bertha, promptly. " A
dashing sort of girl — the daughter of a little inn-
keeper on the Glen Ewart Road — a bad piece of
girl flesh to get men past."

" It was too bad she wasn't just a little bit
quicker," sighed Grace.

" Yes," assented the doctor, " but it was not her
tardiness but her courage that caused her undoing.
She wouldn't run from the bo,o:us Miss Primrose,
but sauntered on in a spirit of bravado to meet
her with this same Embury we were talking of.
That's what reminded me of the story."

Grace's face went scarlet, and Miss Bertha
turned a pair of amused eyes on her, rocking her
foot meanwhile as if it were in a stirrup.

Mrs Browneli, called her liousemuid " Suzette " •
but " Su.ette'.s " diminutive brotI>er, .kmesy, con-
tented Inmself with Susan. But tlien Jan.esy
|l.d not read poHtc literature and had never visited
nends in i\ew York in his life. Still, Jamesy
had lus sphere of usefulness, and when he
sauntered in that evening by <he wide entrance
through which the Brownell drive-way swept
trom the street up to the coach-house, and then
strolled on around to the rear of the house, where
he rapped on a door and inquired, in a low voice
and bashful air that "th' feUys" would never
have recognised, if "Susan Smithers" were in
Jamesy was supplementing an inefficient postal
service The experts who run Her Majesty's
posta department for Canada probably imagine
that they meet the demands of the public fairly
well, but this is only because the said experts
liave never had occasion to deliver a letter to one
member of a household-the said member bein..
a minor -^without the knowledge of any other
member of the said household. If any of the.se

84 The Pixparation of Rycrson Embury

learned men ever should have such an experience,
they would realise how absolutely inefficient and
stupid their precious system is when it is called
upon to deal with matters of I'eal importance.
Anyone can receive, transmit and deliver a busi-
ness letter or a cord of invitation, but it requires
a diplomatic genius and a knowledge of the *' lay
of the land," suj^plemented by a " pull," to convey
a missive from a young man to a young maid when
the o-nardians of the front door are adverse to the
enterprise.

Now Jamesy had all tliese rare (qualifications in
an eminent degree, and they were stimulated to
special activity in the present case by his un-
bounded admiration for Ryerson Embury as the
" dandiest futball player at de coDidge." And,
morever, he squeezed a ten-cent piece of Kyerson's
between his thumb and fhiGjer in the furthermost
elepths of his trouser's pocket.

The result of it all was that Suzette had busi-
ness in Grace's room that night just after that
young lady had brought up a well-filled lamp, a
smuggled box of chocolates and Mr Crockett's
Lilac i^imhonnai^ with which to woo by no means
— in her case — coy slumber. And when she had
gone out, Grace tore open a diminutive envelope,
settled herself on the floor, with an arm on the
chaii that held the lamp, and read with eager-
ness, but with a touch of indignant colour in her
cheeks, the following note : —

her

The Preparation of Rye is on Embury 85

"At i\[Y Study Window.

'' Dkau Grace, — What a persistent little preaclior
you are ! I can see your ^4oved forefini^er shaken
at me throu<^^h evei-y sentence of your last letter.
Why don't you oive me up ? I am afraid that
I am a hard case. I don't mean, of course, for
you to L,ive me up in any way but the religious.
But I think that if anything- could save a man it
would be such a girl as you ; you almost make
one believe in all — but there, I won't say any-
thing more about it.

" I am writing this to ask a great favour of
you. You Jiave no idea how lonely it is since
your mother came to the conclusion that I was
too bad to continue those delightful Friday even-
ing visits." (" Lonely," sniffed Grace to herself ;
" except on nights when that Fitzfjerald airl can
dodge out of the Academy.") " They were the one
kindly touch on my life. Down here at njy
rooms it is all tired - looking notebooks, ink-
splotches, eye - wearying text - books, and the
shadow of coming 'exams.' Out with the boys,
it is jollity and rivalry and fierce discussion, but
nowhere the touch of a woman's hand."

(Grace's lips came together but she said nothing.
It was in her thoughts that "the touch of a
woman's Iiand" could hardly have been lacking
at that night escapade outside Miss Taylor's
Academy.)

ISfi" "I

86 7'/^6^ Preparation of Rycrson Embury

" But tliose deliciouKly quiet evenings with you,
Grace " (the letter went on), " when we sat in the
lio'ht of the great, red-shaded lamp and talked of
books that were merry, and better books still that
told the ' sweet dream ' most mortals dream some
day, when you let me read ]\loore to you and
Tennyson, and then you told me your serious
plans for the future, which implied years of living
alone and working for fame, and I laughed at you.
They were nights to be marked, as Du Maurier
says, ' with a white stone.'

"Now I am hungry to see you again, if only for a
moment. I have about made up my mind to go
into Webster, Saunders & Webster's office here in
the autumn and I want to talk it over with you.
Then I've lots and lots of other things to say — and
hear. Won't you meet me some evening soon by
the maple at the corner of Masterson street ? It
will be perfectly safe, I think. Or you might walk
down to the post-office about four on Friday, when
I will meet you ' by accident ' and take you up to
Clara's — that's a good way off.

" Send me a note by Jamesy, and do be good to
me. — Your most affectionate and lonely friend,

" R. E."

The answer that Jamesy, the underground post-
man, carried back to the writer of the foregoing
letter, read as follows. It was Gi-ace's third
"drai't."

■>Jmi)iE'UM«IJiW~i->4lg !^

The Prcpa7'ation of Rycrson Embury ^y

" BuowNKLL Villa.

"Dear Mr Emijury,— I am afraid that it is very
wrong of you to ask me to meet yon in the evening.
But I could not go anywhere with you very well
in the day-time, and there are some things that I
think I ought to say to you. You are to listen,
too, and not argue back all the time, putting poor
me off the track.

'' So if you are at the maple at nine o'clock, Friday
night, I will come for a minute. Suzette will be
with me. I think it is just awful for girls to steal
out at night to meet young men, but in my case it
really is not stealing out, for no one has forbidden
me to go. Then I shall not be alone, and I have a
good object in coming.

" Be sure and be in time. — Your sincere friend,

" Grace Brownell.
" Please burn this note."

A full twenty minutes before nine Kyerson was
v/alking up and down in the neighbourhood of "the
maple," keeping a nervous watch down the street
in the direction from which he expected to see
Grace and Suzette emerge. He had grown per-
ceptibly older in appearance since that spring day
of a year ago when he went May-flowering with
Grace and kissed her hand with the white skin and
the rosy palm. A creditable moustache now covered
his upper lip, and his mouth had a firmer set. He
looked out on the world with two resolute eyes,

.j^.. '^^

.o^V^^^^^

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

i I.I

1.25

ui MM

if m

If iM m

*^ I— \\\m
M

1.8

1.4 ill 1.6

^ Mi.J

<J^

"'\ J' mli --J

88 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry

and the semi-diffidence of conscious boyhood was
entirely gone. His whole bearing was manly ; and
one could hardly imagine him now, as he trod up
and down, showing shy surprise at " Maddenisms,"
or, for that matter, anything novel in the world of
thought. He had none of the conscious frippery of
conceit, but he had "become a man" and looked
ready to face what might come with courageous
optimism.

Two figures came out of the dusk, one stopped
short, the other paused irresolute and then come on
toward him.

" Ah, Grace," he said, going up to her with both
hands held out, "I am awfully glad you have
come."

She gave him one hand only, which he took in
both of his.

" I can only stay a minute," she panted ; and
then added quickly, "though, of course, there is
nothing wrong in my being hero."

" Not a bit of it," lie assured her heartily ; " and
then no one will see us."

" Let us walk up and down," she suggested. " It
will not look so strange as standinix still."

He airreed and thrust his arm beneath hers, but
she drew quickly away.

" That's a bad beginning," he hazarded jokingly.

" Are you accustomed to take the arms of young
ladies on a smooth sidewalk ?" she queried by way
.of reply.

'■{

TJie Preparation of Ryerson Embury 89

"I think it is not unusual," he said lightly.

" Oh ! " with an inflection of deep comprehension.

He looked at her in puzzlement a moment, for
he guessed nothing of incipient jealousy of Josie
Fitzgerald or of anyone else ; and then said, —

"You don't know how good it is to see you again
after all these weary days. What a pity your
mamma thinks me naughty ! "

" Well," and her eves would have shown trouble
it he could have seen them, "haven't you been
naughty ? "

" Not unless it is naughty to speak the truth as
one sees it."

" Oh, but, Ryerson — Mr Embury, I mean — "

" Ryerson," he insisted. " Surely you—"

" How many other people call you ' Ryerson ' ? "
she flashed at him.

" Precious few down hero. But why ? "

" Oh, nothing. Well, Ryerson, then " — a pause
— " why can't you see that religion is true ? " she
at last blurted out with the fearful directness of a
maid in an armiment. " You must know that all
the people in the world who believe the Bible to
be true, and all those who have died in that belief,
knew more about it than you can at your age."

His face expressed sorrow Jind a trace of im-
patience. " Unhappily I can't take their ' say-so '
for it," he siixhed.

" Yes, I know," she went on feverishly. " You
say that Dr Holden and those who ought to know

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

n ii

I 'i

;

will not go over the (iuestion with you point by
point ; but still the fact that they believe it them-
selves ought to count for something."

" But if they can't give a reason," he began.

" Oh, but they can," she assured him with
emphasis ; " but Dr Holden says that when a
young man has been brought up in a Christian
country by Christian parents the way voxx have,
he ought not to need being constantly retaught
the simple truths of the Gospel." She was a bit
out of breach at this but went sturdily on. " You
ought to hear what nice things they say about you,
too. They say that you, being so clever, might do
untold good if you had not gone astray; and I
don't see why you can't have faith," and she looked
up at him with eyes so earnest, so blue, so uncon-
sciously beseeching, as he stalked along beside her,
that if he could but have seen them he must have
thought favourably of bowing his neck to the " old
superstition " as he called it for choice ; but the
night was dark and his soul was hot within him
against the service of this sweet girl to the said
" o. s." There is nothing, he was learning, so in-
tolerant as a belief that one has the truth, unre-
lieved by the knowledge that liberty is the supreme
truth.

They walked along in silence to the end of their
"beat," turned and started back before he spoke.
Then his words came with gravity and deliberation.

" I'm afraid it is not much good for us to argue

^w*

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 91

this question, Grace. You are so willing to take \
things on authority, whereas I" — and he tossed his 1
head up — " must at least ask that ' authority ' give
its reasons. Don't think that I should not like to 1
believe as you and my mother and father do, but
belief is not a matter of choice — it is not voluntary.
I cannot believe what I will, but what I must. If
I am to be your friend, it must be as I am and not
with the mask of a hypocrite — no" — and he re-
called a phrase coined during one of the many
restless hours when he dramatised argumentative
conversations with various people — " nor with the
stifled feeling of one who smothers his reason
under the rose-leaves cf conventional and long-
established custom." And he looked at her as a
bowler does at the nine-pins when his hand has
just launched a satisfactory ball.

" But, Ryerson " — she stopped short and turned
and faced him — " I KNOW it is true. You would
take my word about anything else ; why won't you
believe me in this ? ''

" How do you know, Grace ? "

" Why — why — you know " — her fingers locked
and unlocked nervously — " it's the ' witness of the
Spirit.' You wouldn't even come to the revival
this last time. How can you expect to * get light '
when you won't ask for it? But I KNEW — all
the Christians there KNEW tlie — the truth of — cif
religion. Don't stand there looking at me so
stupidly. You know very well what I mean."

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

And she moved on again swiftly, with her face
held down and tears of vexation at her ineffective-
ness in her eyes.

Ryerson caught up with her in a moment. The
last break in her voice had brought his pride of
reasonino; down as the loosenincr of the knees does
the body.

"Don't let us quarrel about it, Grace. We will
all see the truth some day," he pleaded. As she
made no answer, he went on presently — " We have
so little time together, we mustn't spend it all
talking about creeds.

' This moment's a flower too fair and brief
To be withered and stained by the dust of the schools,' "

he quoted. " Let's talk of ourselves and leave
religion to the preachers."

" But w^e can't see each other if you remain
irreligious," Grace managed to .say calmly at last.

"Oh, yes, we can — like this, even if the worst
comes to the worst."

" No, we cannot," replied Grace, with decision.
" You may have lady friends who will steal out
to meet you at night, but I will not do so — as a
rejifular thin":."

" But your mutlier is wrong in keeping us ap.irt
for so trivial a reason," Ryerson began to argue.

"The reason is not trivial," said Grace, slowly, as
if admitting an unpleasant truth. " It is the most
important in the wliole world."

The Prcparafiou of Ryerson Einbiiry

" Grace ! " — in jocose repioach.

" Yes, it is. We can never be near friends,
thinking so differently as we do."

" I'm willing to try."

"That's because you don't respect my feelings at
all," vehemently. " You don't think what I think
— is worth — eh — thinking about at all."

Again there was silent pacing fur a time, during
which Ryerson plumed himself on his forbearance
and Grace nursed a sense of grievance because
he did not contradict her last accusation. Both
mental processes were badly calculated as pre-
cursors of peace. Ryerson would have been far
better employed, had the night been lighter, in
marking the curve of her cheek ; and the tender-
ness that such employment would have brought to
his eyes would have been more winning than much
argument. Cupid looks better naked and rosy in
the summer sunlio-ht than blue-stockin<;ed and
clad in a wrangler's gown, disputing witli a
fevered foreliead.

'" What would you do, Grace," Ryerson asked at
last, " if you had to choose between me and your
religion ? ".

" You never would ask me to make such a choice
if you cared," she returned passionately.

" No, I should not ask it," said Ryerson, " but
circumstances might."

Grace made no reply to this.

Presently Ryerson, who felt within him a rush

94 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

of anger against the unreasoning devotion of this
girl to her " ridiculous religion," burst out
with, —

" Why are you so fettered to your — your
preacher-dictated religion ? I know that women
are the chief stay of all priesthoods, and that all
women have a tendency that way, but I know no
other girl who makes so much of her religion as
you do."

For a moment the pain of the unexpected on-
slaught kept the word back from Grace's tongue ;
and then she said, replying to his last statement
first —

" I suppose not. You can find plenty of girls
who care nothing of religion ; and " — her manner
was dignity itself — "you may go and — and be
with them as soon as you like."

" Oh ! " was Ryerson's comment. " But come,"
he added, "don't let's quarrel over this blessed
religion that you have got and I haven't. When
can I see you again ? "

" When you learn to respect my convictions."

" What about respecting mine, Grace % "

" I hardly knew you had any."
/ "Yes," there was a sensation of cold steel in
hearing his voice, " I have a conviction that your
religion is a sham, and that you couldn't give the
poorest reason for the ' faith that is in you ' ; but
that you care immensely less for me than you do
, for it, little as you understand it."

The Preparation of Ryerson Embitry 95

" You— you," began Grace, but kIio could say
nothing more.

When they reached the end of their " beat "
nearest to Suzctte she simply walked straight
on without a word. He followed her quickly
and poured "Grace, Grace! Don't be angry!"
into her ear, but she paid no heed. In a moment
she had joined Suzetke, when she turned and said,
in a voice that shivered, —

" Good-night, Mr Embury."

'■- .^-RO:^f:RT,' OF

•"'L'BL/C LIBRARY.

•i^^Mvr^H I aa^ p ni i i i ■« ■ ',||i iiaii^IJi qpii

?l'

II
, Si

i The cfiect of such an encounter upon a girl of
I Grace orownell's sheltered experience and tender
nature was far in excess of the proper force of tlie
cause. To Josie Fitzgerald it would have been " a
({uarrel " and nothing more. A day or two of
reserve on her part and an outburst of penitence
from the offending young man would have erased
it from the memory — though the scars of such
flesh wounds last lonof after we have forfjotten

! the occasion. But to Grace Brownell it was no

j *' lover's quarrel." It was a blow in the face, a
J , blasphemy, a cruel betrayal of her trust in going

' out to him at night, a corroboration of the teach-
ing that intidelity coarsens and depraves the
victim. He had never spoken to her so before
— never. For that matter, no one else ever had,
but that hardly lessened the force of Ryerson's
attack. He had called her sacred religion "a
sham," and declared with pitiless scorn that she
did not understand it. The tears scalded her
eyelids at the thought. That night it was late
before she slept; and in youth an emotion that
conquers sleep is a powerful one indeed. In the

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 97

morning she was white and pre-occupied, and at
noon her appetite had not yet come back to her.

" What is the matter, Grace ? " asked Mrs
Brownell.

Grace looked at her and her eyes filled. Now
Mrs Brownell had a large heart if a narrow mind,
and had always managed to keep the confidence
of her daughter. That afternoon, in the privacy
of her own room, Grace told her the whole tragic
story, and now it was Mrs Brownell who had a
white face and a pre-occupied air.

" None too soon," she said to herself, when Grace
had gone comforted but forlorn to her room. " She
cared a good deal for him. What can a mother
do? I just think that such young men should not
be permitted to go to college."

The result was that Grace went for a visit to an
uncle's where there were three girls and a young
man in family, and stayed a round month. She
had never known these cousins very well before,
for they were more boisterous and worldly than the
Browneils quite approved.

Ryerson walked himself sleepy the night of the
dispute, and abused himself considerably the next
day for his precipitation. Relief came when he
thought that he would look in on his old Sunday
School just for fun the day following, which
happened to be Sunday, and see Grace home. On
Sunday, however, he bethought himself that it
would be awkward for him with his present repu-

9«S The Preparation of Ryerson Evibiiry

tation to appear in Sunday School ; and so he
conchided to stroll past outside at the usual
breaking-up hour. He timed himself well. The
children came boiling out of the church door just
as he swung (juite by accident into the street
leading along in front of the building. Many of
them recognised him and gave him noisy greeting.
Grace's class came out in whispering couples — but
no Grace. The children who hung upon him gave
him capital reason to delay. The stream from the
door straggled and stopped — still no Grace. Then
the Rev. Arthur Drake Walters came smiling out
alone, with a couple of books under his arm, and set
off briskly up the street in a direction that he
would have taken if he had been going to the
Brownells'.

"Very well," remarked Ryerson, in answer to
nothing in particular ; and, giving the little fellows
about him a joke to remember him by, set off
himself in a direction which presently led out upon
the Glen Ewart road. It was a capital afternoon
for a walk ; the days were getting long again and
the road was in many places quite dry. From the
first, he was conscious of his intention to walk out
to Glen Ewart and see Josie Fitzgerald, who would
be spending Sunday at home. But several times
along the road he stopped, almost convinced that
he ought to turn back. She would take so
determined a " call " too seriously. Then he could
hardly avoid seeing her father, a squat, familiar.

li ]j

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

Id
es
at
so
Id
■ar,

vulcfar old man, who offended his sense of refine-
ment sorely. He would probably be in shirt-
sleeves of a Sunday and in an odiously social mood.
But always his pauses for consideration ended in
his going on toward the jiretty little village of
Glen Ewart. Once it was a picture of the smiling
Walters " taking tea " at the Brownells' that turned
the scale ; and at another time the memory of the
charming way in which Josie's rich voice — deeper
than usual with a girl — rounded off the precise
English learned at the academy with surviving
touches of her natural brogue.

Arrived at the Fitzgerald Inn, he opened the
door and looked into the sitting-room. The old man
sat, with three or four slow-moving neighbour lads
who had dropped in, with his coat off, as Kyerson
had anticipated, and huge carpet slippers on his
splay feet. He scrambled to the said feet briskly
enough when he saw Ryerson, however, and in
answer to an inquiry touching Miss Fitzgerald's
whereabouts, shuffled off to get further instructions
from that young lady herself, It was quite a time
before he came back, and then he had a coat on,
and with much politeness invited Eyerson to follow
him upstairs to the family sitting-room.

When Ryerson stepped into this apartment he
knew that he had risen to a different social stratum.
Josie came to meet him with just a suggestion of
that bounding step which had stirred him with its
lithe beauty when he had first seen her, for now it

II
i i

T ii(-

lOO T/?e Preparation of Ryerson Embiiiy

was hidden as much as might be under the proper
" glide forward " which Miss Taylor taught her
pupils as the correct manner when advancing to
greet a caller. \. soft wool gown, in which red
predominated, clung to her figure and gave one an
instant impression of luxuriant beauty of form,
riper, perhaps, than would be looked for in a girl
of Josie's age. The haxid she gave Ryerson pulsated
with life, and felt velvet and vital under his
pressure. The room was certainly too floridly
furr/shed, and might have been even gaudy in a
strong sunlight; but Ryerson saw it then in a
luminous twilight, and during the evening by the
rays of a rose-shaded lamp. As they sat chatting,
the twilight deepened, but when Ryerson moved
to go, Josie insisted on his taking a little some-
thing to eat first — "just a biscuit and a glr^ss of
wine."

When the r.i. 'd rapped for admittance to bring
it in, she entered with a small table which in a
moment or two she had covered with a daintily-
served supper, having cold chicken as a foundation
and hot tea and sponge cake to top off with. Josie
iadghed at Ryerson's astonishment and clapped her
hands in delight when he ejaculated, " Chicken !
Think of it. Oh, wouldn't Madden like to be
hero I "

" You might have brought him," said Josie, in-
vitingly. " Not much," returned Ryerson ; " not if
the Court knows itself — this is not too big for

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury loi

•
two." And Josie's smile was softer now than it

had been, and her white hand moved in and out

among the teacups and appertaining ware for all

the world like a poised humming-bird.

After tea they agreed that it was a little chilly,
and Josie sent for some dry chips and a few pieces
of hard wood, and they knelt down together in
front of an old-fashioned " parlour stove " that
stood in the room, which had sliding doors in
front that exposed the blaze when pushed back,
and by joint endeavour soon had a jolly, ruddy
lire streaming up out of the miniature *' fireplace."
It was then, when the firelight played full upon
their feet as they sat back in front of it, that
Ryerson noticed that Josie wore low slippers — so
low that it made one wonder how they hung on at
the toes at all — and that the stocking that covered
the arch of her foot was red.

Their talk was a good deal of it banter, a good deal
of it gossip, some of it about light literature, more
— much more — about the things they each liked and
diaa't like. She played to him upon the piano her
father had lately purchased for her ; and he was
more taken up with watching the swift, capable,
tense play of her hands over the keys than in hear-
ing the music. The flashing fingers that seemed so
strong and yet so soft, so masterful and yet so
melodiously gentle, partially hypnotised him ; and
he seemed distinctly to come to himself when she
ceased to send them hither and thither over the keys

w,i»

1 02 The Preparation of Ryerson Emhiiiy

"i:

jind turned her face up to liis for approval. Tlicn
she wanted him to teach her some college songs ;
and, as he couldn't play, she sat down opposite him
on the floor where the lio-ht of the fire flooded her
face at unexpected moments and flickered over it at
other times, when he taught her some new choruses
by tlie device of singing a line and letting her sing
it after him. This required that she should watch
his lips very closely, and that when she was singing
the eyes of both should be in constant telegraphic
communication with each other.

At one time during the evening the carefully-
wetted and down-plastered hair of Fitzgerald,
senior, was poked in at the door and a tray
carrying two glasses and a bottla of beer brought
partially through. But ihe black anger in Josie's
eyes stopped the old man.

" I thought it moight be gethin' a leetle dhry up
here," he explained with a pathetically apologetic
smile ; but Josie said nothing and he backed out and
stumped downstairs again. It took five minutes
for the pair to recover from this. Later they got to
talking of the future. Ryerson never had poured
his ambitions into a more sympathetic ear. This
girl's whole life was ambition. When his hope
faltered and he prefaced the mention of a daring
idea with, " 1 know I can never do it," she would
hearten him with her fervid assurance that there
was nothing he might not do She had heard him
speak, and nc other young man of his age was his

^ I

The Preparation of Rycrson Emdury 103

equal. Did he not lead his class last year ? The
world would see him in Parliament yet.

But his religious opinions, he objected.

They had not hurt him yet, she retorted ; and if
they did, why, he could make his choice. She fully
approved of his idea of j^oino- into law, and thought
he might be a judge some day.

It was late when he started for the walk home.
She came down to the door with him and gave him
her hand in parting with a quiet dignity, curiously
out of keeping with the garrulous clatter in the
public parlour to the right. Her warm smile, her
impulsive springing run into the street to see what
the night was like, and her somewhat wistful,
" Won't you come out again ? " were the memories
that stayed with him on the walk home.

*•' Her eyes are as bright as the stars at night,
And as wicked us wicked can be ;
And her foot is lighter and her ankle tighter
Than Venus dj May-de-chec,"

he sang as he tramped blithely along under the
spring moon as it glinted from behind flying spring
clouds. And when he climbed the stair into the
room which he and Madden shared between them.,
he was still singing, —

" Her lips are red as a tulip bed,
And I'd like a kiss to steal-O ;
She possesses two arms, thus passing the charms
Of the Venus of Mee-lu."

1 04 The Ptcpamtion of Ryerson Embury

" Hello ! you wanderer," came sleepily from
Madden, who had already gone to bed. " Where
the deuce have you been since noon ? "

" Learning that tlierc ' are others,' " returned
Ryerson, jauntily.

" Did you here the news ? " asked Madden.

" No. What ? "

" M.isterson's men are out on strike, and they say
that Williams's men will follow."

" Humph ! " commented Ryerson. '' They'll all be
back again jolly soon. But the real news is, Mad,
old boy, that —

■I

<",*

" Her cheek is rosy and her name is Josie,
And she's the girl for me.
Her form's as round, though more fitly gowned
Than Venus de May-de-chee."

'•I

Coy Miss Sprin^^ tripped and smiled and dimpled
into the languorous and prolific matron of Summer,
and then stiffened into the more stately dame of
Autumn, who displayed a growing fondness for the
"colour box" as the days wore on. And still the
Masterson- Williams "strike" continued. At first
the air was full of threats of violence. Ryerson
always remembered that those last days when he was
" cramming " for his B.A. examinations were cliarged
with the expectation of something very exciting
about to happen. A man would drop in to borrow
his notes on "Spectrum Analysis," and interlard
between an account of a "stiff papor " of three years
ago he had just seen, and the news that Jack Gordon
sat up till four o'clock yesterday morning reading
Mill, the " foreign intelligence " that fifty new
special constables had been sworn in to keep the
strikers from breaking Masterson's windows.

" The riotous beggars!" would be Ryerson's very
probable comment. " I wish exams, were not on
and they'd swear a few of us in. We'd show them
how to put up a scrimmage."

But exams, most emphatically were "on," and the

105

1 06 TAe Preparation of Rycrson Embury

relations of sodium to chlorine were far more to
Ryerson than those of labour to capital. When he
took his short constitutional " after four " to clear
his brain for the night's reading, he would sec groups
of sullen-looking men standing idly about ; or if he
went over into the district where the foundry men
lived, women with shawls over their heads appeared
to be perpetually grouped about some neighbour's
door talking despondently. But he only thought
of it to wonder at the stupidity of men who would
not work when they could, preferring rather to let
their families go hungry. One night — the night
before he was going to write on *' honour botany,"
he remembered — the fact of the strike was thrust
vigorously upon his attention. When Madden came
home to tea he had reported that it was rumoured
that the men were going to " demonstrate " that
night before the residence of Dr Holden, who had
preached a sermon the preceding Sunday from the
text, '* Servants, be obedient to them that are your
masters, according to the llesh," in which he argued
learnedly that a strike was unscriptural — especially
a strike which presumed to prevent the master from
hiring another servant. ]\Iadden was delighted at
the prospect of a popular rising against a "minister,"
but Ryerson felt the student's desire to champion a
professor against these "grimy-fingered townsmen."
Madden went out to see the fun, Ryerson being, of
course, too busy. He sat studying with his window
up as May had laid a caressing hand on the wander-

•■}«

T/iC Preparation of Rycrsou Eniotiry loy

ing air and sootlied it into balminess. For a long
time the growl of distant shouting came to him fit-
fully through his study of petals that form a tube
and pistils that grow in unexpected places ; but
suddenly the relative peace of the night was broken
by the charge of running footsteps down the street
and the excited repetition of the familiar cry, " All
up, Ithica, all up ! " with this new addition, however,
" On to Dr Holden's." Ryerson dropped his note-
book ; and, a moment or two later, was running
down the street toward the doctor's house. The
hubbub increased as he approached, and rounding
the last corner, he saw" a sea of men swaying and
churning in front of the Holden residence. Across
the street from him, and nearer the house, another
street ran into the one he was on, and at the junction
a lively row was in progress. Cries of " All up,
Ithica, all up ! " clashed with oaths and angry shouts,
but clearly the students w^ere making little impres-
sion on the crowd. Directly in front of the house
something was going on, Ryerson could not make
out exactly what. He began to push his way to the
scene of the students' attack, when a general cry
from the crowd called his attention to the house
again. Something was blazing high and fiercely
opposite the front gate.

*' They're setting the house on fire ! " exulted a
voice in his ear.

" No," said another, " it's the damned 's effigy

they're a-burnin' ."

io8 The Prcpai'dtion of Ryersou Evibiwy

" Pity it wasn't the house," rasped tlie shrill voice
ot* a woman. " Then that miminy-piminy girl of
his'n might know what it is to sleep on the Hoor.''

" Bosh ! " grunted a man. " Why should we burn
the parson's when Masterson's mansion still
stands ? "

" Hush-sh-sh ! " came from all sides. Someone
was making a speech from the Holden verandah.
The crowd nearest the house quieted down as if
by magic.

" Why, I'm d d if it ain't th' ' love-yer-

neighbor ' parson," said a chap wearing a collarless
shirt and a greasy cap. " What's he got to do with
th' likes o' Holden ? "

" They're both of a trade, I tells ye," growled a
companion. " How otfen has I got to tell ye that
these here ministers alus sticks together ? "

But the speaker was evidently having an effect
on the men outside the gate, for presently those
in front began to back away and the whole lot were
soon moving): off down the street. Rverson found
some of the college men, several of whom had
bruised faces and torn clothes, and learned that the
doctor, being panic-stricken at the arrival of the
mob, had sent a message up to the college for help,
to which they promptly responded. But probably
nothing more had been intended than to burn him
in effigy ; and when this was done, Rev. " Tommy "
Tracy, who was very popular with the men, had
easily dispersed them.

.<ev

#•;

The Preparation of Ryerson Emlmry 109

'■ Well, they are a nervy lot," commented Ryerson.
" to burn a man oi' Dr Holden's standing in effigy."

The idle period, with its nervous thread of piijuant
anxiety, which lies between the close of examina-
tions and Convocation, taught Ryerson very little
more of the " strike," for he felt no interest in it
and hence no curiosity. He did hear the cause,
however. Mr Masterson had reduced wages ten
years before because times were hard and his profits
had fallen off. Now times had notoriously im-
proved, and both Mr Masterson and the Williams |
people were getting large profits. The men '
demanded a return to the old race of wage, on the
ground that if they had to help him bear the lean
years they should share the fat ones. Mr Masterson
laughed at this. The rate of wages were, he said,
fixed by competition, like the price of his ironware,
and the large importation of foreign skilled labour
recently had increased the supply of labour more
than sufficient to offset the growing profits of the j
business. He might have added that increased
profits do not aft'ect wages unless they increase the
demand for labour, but this would have cast doubt
upon the doctrine that lessened profits do affect
wages, instantly and necessarily, in a depressing j
manner, and the time might come when he should j
need that doctrine again. Logic is a luxury that
only poor men can often afford.

" That's a law of political economy," was Ryer-

I lo The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

son's judGjmcnt. " Old Masterson is right. The
men cannot get away from that."

But soon the returns were " posted " and Ryerson
was through with " honouis " and a gold medal, and
the sunlight would get into his head, and he was
always shaking hands with somebody, and father
and mother were coming up to see him get his
degree, and the world and the future were all a
golden haze. iTosie Fitzgerald wrote him a neat
little note of congratulation, and he walked out the
Sunday afternoon before Convocation and spent the
evening building air castles in her soft-lighted up-
stairs " parlour."

The lirst time that the '' strike " appealed to
Ryerson in a personal way was when he came back
in August to take advantage of an unexpected
opening in Webster, Saunders & Webster's office,
which he found had been caused by the dropping
out of a young student whom he had come to know
fairly well during the winter while living with
Madden. The young man had put in an in-
dustrious year in the office, and was considered to
be doing very well indeed ; but his father was one
of the striking moulders, and, determined as the
grim man was to " give his son a chance," the wolf
had pushed his ugly snout within the door, and
Allan Nichol, junior, must give up the law and go
back to his old and well-paid place behind the counter
at " Benson's." He took this step against the will of
both his parents, who would have stood the siege of

«'

The Preparation of Rycrson Enilmry 1 1 1

want for a longer time, but young Allan was as
decided as liis lather, and he turned Jus back on his
future without a word.

RyerKon's feelings over this episode were mixed.
He admired Allan's pluck but vigorously berated the
stubbornness of the old man who would sacrifice
his son to his pig-headed determination to carry his
point with his " masters." Then he settled down to
work and forgot Allan. A new interest suddenly
arose. It became on dit in Ithica that Rev\
Arthur Drake Walters was engaged, or about to
be, to Miss Grace Brownell, and that he was to get
the appointment to the assistant pastorship of the
First Methodist Church in the town. This was
an excellent vestibule to promotion for a young
minister, including as it did the pastoral charge of
a mission church in the suburbs and the privilege
of occasionally preaching to the central congrega-
tion. Ryerson began by scouting the intelligence ;
then he declared it very probable — Grace Brownell
was a devotee and Walters a fanatic ; then he con
fided to Madden that it would be a terrible mistake
— Grace, he said, is a genuine, true-hearted little
woman, and that man Walters is a conceited ass.
Next he became philosophic. It was no business of
his. Grace had made her own choice with her eyes
open, and we should see how she would like it. He
would think no more about it at all. She had
walked out of his life on that spring evening when
she left him in a huff near the maple. Then he

' :i

1 1 2 T/ic Preparation of Rycrson nnihury

sat down to write licr a letter. He would bcfj her
— no, ho would not. lie would ju.st give her some
cold advice. She did not know Walters like he did.
Didn't she I Then she knew precious little of him,
for Ry( on hardly knew the unctuous man at all.
Anyway, he would write.

" Wkustkh, Saundkrh & Wkhstkb,
" JJarnstcra, tSuticitors, etc.

" My Dear Miss Brownell, — I know it is an
impertinence for me to write to you on the subject
of your approaching marriage, but my interest in
your welfare is my only excuse. Knowing you as
I once had the opportunity of doing, I am CERTAIN
that you wdl not be happy with Mr Walters. He
is not worthy of you. For that matter, no one is."

" That won't do," thought Ryerson ; " that's far
too warm."

So he struck out the last sentence and tried

agani .

" Your temperament is such that you must have
a particular kind of husband or you will be very
unhappy. He must understand and appreciate
you-"

" "Whe-ew ! I'll be writing ' love you ' next if
I'm not careful," said Ryerson, *'and, by Jove,
that's just what I mean ! " Then he sat and

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 1 1 3

luiisod a wliilc, with the result that he crossed
out all he had written alter his tirst .sentence,
and began once more, —

"A youni^ lady of your refined temperament
sh.ould approach marriage very careTully, It
means so much to you. The story (jjoes that
Mr Walters is likely to be the [)rererred and
fortunate man, but I simply do not believe it.
You could not choose him — "

And again he stuck. " It looks jis if I were
going to say ' after having known IME,' " was his
comment as he regarded the last unfinished
sentence. He tore up what he had written and
went out. Two minutes' walking without a
purpose brought him opposite the Browncll
residence. Mrs Brownell's emphatic voice fell
on the air.

" I think you are right," Walters's throaty tones \
replied. "Christian people are not bound to ex- j
tend charity to the families of men who can work ,
but will not. What does the Book say ? — ' If any
N ould not work, neither should he eat.' I don't
think we are bound to support the striking class." .

Ryerson's walking carried him out of earshot.N
" The striking class ! The striking class ! " he 1
muttered half-unconsciously to himself. " If that
cad condemns them, they can't be so bad." '

I. 1

V I

XII

K>^S-

As for Grace, if she had heard the report that
disturbed Ryerson, she would have felt, with an
inward sink''ig at the heart, tliat it might possibly
be true. She was in the spirit of sacrifice at this
time — a spirit that had grown in intensity all
summer. That month with her livelier cousins,
wliich had immediately followed the quarrel with
Ryerson under the spring sky, had compelled her
to come reluctantly out of herself, and so had
carried her over the period of sharp pain without
time to do more than feel the distress. Had she
been at leisure and in Ithica, she might have been
subdued by it into a willingness to see that Ryer-
son had a " point of view " as well as herself ; but
when, after her month of never wholly pleasant
activity, she returned to both her accustomed
leisure and familiar Ithica, the sense of her loss
had become imbedded in her consciousness as a
fixture, and she chiefly thought of the reason for
it — her loyalty to her religion.

And if she could give up her love for her
religion — she called it "her love" with a sad

114

The Preparation of Ryerson E^nbu^y \ 1 5

)!*

sedateness altogether dead to the quickening pulse
— what was there that she need withhold t

Rev. Arthur Drake Walters knew little enough
of this, but he knew that Grace no longer made
mock of his best compliments and that she would
sit on the Brownell verandah and listen to his
talk for hours together. His best "cue," he found,
was semi-religious discourse ; and he was even
alarmed to find in Grace a rare taste for pious
tales of noble renunciation and missionary sacri-
fice. He took pains to assure her from time to
time that all were not " called " to the mission-
field, nor were all set apart for lives of abnegation.

To tell the truth, this excellent young man, who
never had a doubt as to the perfect propriety of his
intentions and the supreme worthiness of his ideals
in life, and the still more excellent Mrs Brownell,
v/ho was full of intentions but hardly conscious of
ideals, had their times of trial with Grace during
this summer. Had they known the jargon of a3S-
theticism, they would have said that she was " too
intense " ; but, as it was, they simply suffered and
remonstrated and explained and marvelled over
^ler.

" How can we live such empty, idle, uselcvss
lives ? " exclaimed Grace one torrid afternoon to
the relaxed Walters, who was stretched out in
great comfort on the velvet lawn in the shade of
an elm, with a red-streaked "Astrakan" in his
fingers. " How can we ? " she insisted. " There

1 1 6 The Preparation of Ryersou Embury

are lots of people in Ithica who care nothing for
religion. Why don't we go and talk to them —
plead with them ? "

Walters was used to such " spasms " by this
time, and he merely looked away uncomfortably.
Grace sat straight up, with her hands locked in
her lap and her earnest face and intense blue
eyes turned toward where Walters's face would
have been if he had sat up too.

" Some are giving up so much," she murmured,
half to herself ; " and others seem to care so little
about it."

"But, Grace," ventured Walters — he had long
ago gained the privilege of her first name — " it is
no use to persecute people. The Church is doing
what it can."

" But are we ? Are we ? "

" What v70uld you like to do ? "

" I — oh ! — I — I can do nothing — more."

" Oh, yes, j^ou can," and Walters turned over so
that his elbows supported his upturned forearms
and his encouraging smile was lifted nearer to
Grace's sadly passionate face. " You can furnish
cheer and encouragement and womanly solace to
one unworthy labourer in the vineyard. What
would we men be without you women ? "

The intense blue eyes turned full on him, and
their passionate inquiry went through him and
into his very soul. And then they clouded as if
they found not thnt for which they sought, and

The Preparation of Ryerson limbtiry 1 1 7

the encouraging smile fell from his face, and his
eyes quivered and there was white on his cheeks ;
for he knew then, as well as he ever woukl, that
he had been weighed in the balances of a great
earnestness and found wanting.

But Grace had sunk down in weariness, and stared,
through the long silence that followed, at the rows
of grass blades which came up between lier spread
fingers.

Sometimes it was the mother whose tear-filled
eyes watched the struggles of the girl against her
great helplessness.

" I want to do something in the world, mother,"
Grace would say. " Something of use — something
to help people."

" Why, you are of great help to me every day,
Grace," tlie distressed and little comprehending
woman would answer; "and what your father
would do without you, I can't guess."

" Yes, I suppose. But I like to do that — that's
for love. That's just for my own people and is
selfish. But I want to do somethins:, in a religious
way, you know, outside of my own family."

" You can work in the meetings next winter."

" But that seems to accomplish so little. They —
the people — will not come to the meetings for us
to oret at them."

" Why, yes, they do, Grace. You are forgetting."

And the intense blue eyes would turn away
this time, and pass through the window and far,

■i/ (

1 1 8 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Emlmry

far out toward — nothing. "Whatever else she was
doing, she was not forgetting.

Then there were days when she seemed not to
have a serious thought — when, if you had not
known her in the time of her sweet equipoise, you
would liave tliought her the maddest, the most
reckless girl in Ithica. Mr Walters did not enjoy
these days, though he made a magnificent pretence
at doing so. She would keep him on the tennis
court until his circular clerical collar was a yellow
streaked ruin, and his prized voice too thick for
utterance. Then she might want to be read to, or
she might want to take him calling. When com-
pany was present she delighted, in such moods,
to bother him about his foibles.

" Do you know a curious thing ? " she said one
day to Miss Bertha Huntington, while that young
lady sat " riding " the rail of the verandah and
Walters and Grace and two or three others filled
roomy chairs in front of her. " Mr Walters did
not always have three full names. He lent me a
book the other day in which he had written
' Arthur D. Walters.' Think of it ! What would
Mr Walters be without his ' Drake ' ? "

" Or without his ' duck,' " murmured Miss
Bertha.

'*I'll tell you about that-—" Mr Walters began
heavily and with an amiable smile.

" Do ! " urged Grace, with a laugh that set every
nerve jarring in pained sympathy. " I should

The Preparation of Rycrsori Embury 1 19

like to know when you thought it prudent to
add ' rake ' to your label." And she laughed again
with her foot well down on the loud pedal — so
unlike her glad-toned girlish laugh of but a little
while ago that they all turned a furtive eye
upon her.

" Well," said Walters, in the pause re-lighting his
amiable smile, " when I w^s a young man — "

" Before you had heard of Hugh Price Hughes,"
put in Miss Bertha.

" Or Mark Guy Pierce," laughed Grace, second-
ing the vicious thrust as in her right mind she
would not have dreamed of doing.

Some red got into Walters 's face at this ; but
he persevered with the plodding persistence of
those who have little alertness and only win by
patient endurance of " punishment."

'* It was no such example that changed me,"
he stolidly asserted. " I came to the conclu-
sion — "

"Do you know," burst in Grace, with a rush
and a voice that told you that the jarring laugh
was within, eager to escape from her lips, " that
you remind me of Hugh Price Hughes at this
minute ? "

The badgered Walters looked up with a smile
that was fast turning grey, and asked his
helpless —

" Why ? "

" Because you have * hue ' at one end — I see it

i ii

1 0. 1} m

1 20 T/ic Preparation of Rycrson Embury

in your face — and shoes at the other — " and the
tlircatened laugh came with an effect not unlike
the jar of thunder after a warning Hash. There
was little laughter though from the rest of them,
and Mr Walters gave up his attempt to explain,
and that company never knew why he had decided
to spell out his middle name.

But for all this by no means painless " persever-
ance," the young "saint" had his reward. The
"strenuous" days and the "reckless" days were
really far fewer than those other days when Grace
was like her own sweet self, much as an incurable
invalid is like the man he was before he knew of
his slow death-sentence. The glad light that had
kindled in her eyes when the voice of Ryerson
was in her ear never came there, it is true, but
Walters did not miss it, for he had never seen
it. But the endearing poise of her head, always
seeming to be seeking a shoulder to cushion
against, was still there ; the soft oval of her cheek
had not fallen away, and the tremulous, innocent,
appealing sweetness of her adorable mouth was
still potent to move the hearts of those who
looked with a longing to protect, to preserve, to
possess.

Mr Walters had " spoken " to Mr Brownell, and
had been told without preamble that the decision
was with Grace. Mrs Brownell had endorsed
it added her "best wishes." More

irr

than that, she had told Grace of it tliat same

•s

The Prcpai^ation of Ryerson E7nb2iry 1 2 1

clay, and Grace had looked at her with that
intensity of gaze no one quite liked to meet, and
said presently, —

" I wonder if it would be for the best."
"You would have a splendid chance to lead a
useful life," commented her mother.

"Yes" — slowly — "so it is always said. But
he — mother — he — do j^ou think that he would help
one to be really useful ? "

" He ought to — he's God's minister."
"Ah! But — but — " and Grace's face turned
toward her mother, lined with doubt and suffering,
and her eyes were full of misery.

With a sob, the mother had taken her daughter
to her arms and held her tiixht — tijjht for a full
minute before either spoke, and then Mrs Brownell
whispered, —

" You must be happy in your marriage, my
darling, you must be happy."

Grace was crying, and she cried on and on, and
her mother led her to a sofa and comforted her as
if she were still a little girl, whose whole horizon
is no further away than to-morrow.

It was August when Walters thought that he
had found an opportunity to " speak " to Grace
herself. It offered a few days after Ryerson had
come up to town to take his place in Webster,
Saunders & Webster's. She had seen him on the
street, and the spur of the spirit of sacrifice was
pressing more deeply than ever into her tender flesh.

-'Taws ■■w* ■»!

122 The Preparation of Ryerson E^iihtiry

Mr Walters," she said — her manner was formal
though sweet, and her lips twitched — " I shall
conceal nothinc; from you — I do not love you — not
with an earthly love. I know it, and I know that
I never shall. If you wish to withdraw your otier
of marriage now, you may." And she looked at
liim with a quiet gravity that chilled the lover in
him almost to silence.

" But, Grace, you may learn," he managed to
say ; and there was so little of conscious superiority
left in his manner that the girl looked at him with
a softening pity in her eyes.

" You love me," she whispered, putting out her
hand toward him.

" Yes — yes," he urged, a great genuineness filling
his face. " I love you — I would — 1 must have
you," and he seized her hand and drew her up out
of the chair in which she had been sitting, and
almost had her in his arms, \7hen with a quick,
sharp cry she dashed her other hand into his face
and pushed him back.

" No, no," she said, panting. " You must never
do that — never. Promise me that you will never
try to do it again."

He stood white and wondering, and said nothing.

" Promise me," she demanded, " or I shall never
see you again."

" But, Grace," he began protestingly, while she
watched him with hostile eyes in which the blue
was now of a steely cast, " I don't want to promise

*:v

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

123

that. Ydu might be willing yourself some day,"
and he smiled faintly.

Her face hardened still more ; and then, as she
looked at him, it seemed slowly to melt. The lips
fell loose and grew a little tremulous. Then a
gravity came into the eyes, and the lines of the
mouth settled into sadness.

" You must let me think of this, Mr AValters.
If you love me, I must not wound you on that side.
Nor must I turn hastily aw^ay from what may be
a leadino; of Providence."

She had moved behind her chair by this, and was
standing with both her hands resting on the back
of it, the attitude, the voice and face suggesting
her manner while giving her experience in " class
meeting." l^oor Walters perceived it, and his
misery deepened. That was the attitude he
fancied her most in, her air was so full of sweet
gentleness and a deathless devotion. Yet, while
she thus reminded him of the Grace he coveted
the most, he hardly wanted to be taken as a
" religious blessing."

" I will think of it," she went on ; " and we will
both pray over it."

" Oh, Grace, Grace," he burst out, " can't you
love me as a man longs to be loved — as I love you ? "

" No," she said quickly, and stepped back a pace
as in alarm; then recovering, added, *•! will think
of what you have said — if you are willing that
I should."

124 The Preparation of Ryerson Evibitry

" Yes. Better that than nothing."

" Very well. And you promise never to — to
touch me."

" Not unless you are willing, Grace."

" Very well." And she stood waiting in silence
for him to go, until he, perceiving her intent, had
for once the tact to fall into her mood and make
his farewell with a quiet bow.

XIII

One Sunday morninfjj in September, Aliiddcn re-
minded Ryerson that tliey liad not seen Allan
Nichol for many a long day, and suggested that
they look him up and take him for a walk. "It
will brighten the poor beggar up a bit," he said,
" and give him a whiti" of something besides bogus
bargains and goods ' marked down ' to several
notches above the ordinary selling price."

" Good idea," agreed Ryerson, his eyes con-
curring. " I've often wondered, don't you know,
if we couldn't do something for that fellow. It
seemed an awful shame that he should have been
put out of the game that way — caught by his
father's elbow, so to speak, when he drew back to
make his ' strike ' at Masterson."

" A strike that kicked, eh ? " commented Madden,
reaching for his hat ; " and that's a cursed bad
habit common to most strikes," he added sen-
tentiously,

The house of Nichols, the moulder, was a cosy

brown-frame structure, located in the middle front

of a quarter-acre lot on a retired tree-lined street

leading down to the river. It was a full half mile

125

I 26 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

from the " works," for Mr Nichol made a boast of
keeping his family out of the " soot " Tho yard
was suggestive of a loose tangle of shrubbery,
with unrestrained flowers playing at hide-and-
seek with you through the mazes, rather than
of a number of show plants imprisoned in geo-
metrical beds — an arrangement which betrays the
fact that the gardener's best notion of beauty is
order ; and otf to the side of the house was a
parallellogram of lawn upon which they played
croquet of an evening.

Mr Nichol sat out in the yard coatless in the
September sun, reading, and two of his children
played noiselessly near him. His face wrinkled
with pleasure at the sight of the lads whom he
knew to have been companions of his son in the
prosperous days when " Allan was reading law with
Webster, Saunders & Webster."

" Right glad t' see ye," he said. " Walk in I "
And then called, "Alice! Alice!" in a low voice
suggesting at once constraint and authority. When
Alice appeared — a slighter rendering of Allan, with
more gold in her brown hair but with his clear, confi-
dent eye and his nervous yet resolute lips — her
father asked her in a yet lower tone to tell Allan
that he had two visitors. She smiled her pleasure
at this, and disappeared from the doorway like a
fairy at a pantomime.

" How goes the strike ? " Madden asked Mr
Nichol.

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury \ ij

He set his lips and noddud his head trrimly.
" Masterson's gone away," he said at last. '* He's
gone to take a holiday down in Montreal. lie can
afford to wait, and he knows it. We can't and he
knows that too."

" Didn't you — didn't the men think of that at
first ? " Ryerson asked gently.

Mr Nichol's eyes blazed as he turned them on the
young man. " Of course we did. Of course we
did," he replied. "But there was nothing else for
it. Some of us were getting along well enough,
but more of us were getting deeper into debt with
every year. Then it was the injustice of the thing ! "
and his bicj fist came down with a smash on the arm
of his easy chair. " When Masterson reduced wages
and we agreed to it, he said that it was because he
was making nothing and could not run the works
at a loss, and he promised " — Mr Nichol ticked off
each word with his joined thumb and finger on the
chair-arm — " to raise wages again when his profits
increased. But he broke his pledge. He didn't do
it. He thought we'd forget. But we didn't " — this
last very grimly.

The lads sat silent, and presently he went on
again. " No, with me it is not a question of win or
lose. It is justice I'm after. The masters shall not
lie to us with impunity. It is more than that ! " —
and he sat upright, grasping the arms of the chair
with both hands. " The time is coming when they
will give us our fair share of the earnings of the

128 77/6' Preparation of Rycrsoii Embury

* works ' or neither we nor they nor anyone else
shall work." His leonine head seemed to bulk larger
on the eye at this ; and Alice, who had come out
while he was speaking, threw her arm across his
shoulders, but not to soothe him as " the dove-eyed
daughter of fiction " might have done, but to signify
her comradeship with him, for her eyes flashed ex-
actly like his and she lifted her dainty head with
a precise copy of his defiant pose. Then Allan came,
and the boys escaped from the hypnotism of the
scene in hearty, jocose greetings of him.

Presently they carried him ofi" for the walk they
liad planned, and the three made directly for the
old river road leading through the wood. The
September frosts had not yet tinged the trees with
colour, but the green had a dead, varnished look, and
the grass lay brown along the path-side. The river
Lad shrunk in its bed, revealing wide layers of
greyish limestone which had been worn smooth by
the attrition of years. The boys told Allan stories
of the ofiice as they swung along ; and they seemed
deliriously funny to him, so thoroughly did he
appreciate the point when the oddity of an inmate
of the old office was the pivot of the joke, and so
redolent of the sprightly, quick-brained life of the
hopeful days when he, too, 'read law' did they
seem. Finally Madden broke out impulsively
with, —

*' Say, old man ! don't you think tha,t this strike
will soon end and let you come back again ? I'm

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 129

sure Saunders would be delighted to give you a
desk."

The gay light in Allan's face vanished at once,
and in the sudden reaction littli was to be seen
there but sadness. He walked alono; for a few
moments, cutting the weeds that grew by the path
with a stick he had picked up, but saying nothing.
Then he replied, without looking at the boys,
however, —

" I see no immediate prospect of an end to the
strike, and even i^ it should end now, I could not
go back to the office. Father —father put a
mortgage on the place the other day to raise funds
to put in the Union treasury."

" What ! " anrl *' You don't say so ! " came from
the two boys.

" Yes, you see," he went on, *' the men did not
get quite so much outside help as they expected,
and it's been a pretty hard pinch for some of them.
So there was talk of oivincj in, but father and a
few of the men who have property said they'd
rather sell all they have than yield through
starvation."

" Well, but supposing that your father gets his
increased wages, it'll take a long time to make up
for that, v^on't it ? " asked Madden, wonderingly.

Allan smiled a trifle wanly. " He don't look at
it that way," he said. "It's — it's a religion with
him to stand by his brother working men. He
looks at it as you do at patriotism. If you went

130 T/zc Prcpa7^ation of Ryerson Emhitry

into the army in time of war you wouldn't expect
to get paid for the risk you ran. Well, that's his
position in regard to this strike. He believes it's
rijxht. He thinks the men are beino; defrauded out
of their just earnings, and he is making this fight
to get them justice."

" But it's going to fail, isn't it ? " asked Ryerson,
a little breathless at this new view of the case.

Allan looked at him a moment intently, and then
said, "Speaking privately, I think so — have
thought so from the first. The chances were all
with Masterson and the Williams people. But
what could the men do ? They must strike, or go
on in the old way, getting less than their share."

Madden looked at him when he had said this v ith
doubt and pity mingled in his eyes, as one wbo
could crush him with a sentence but still cannot
because of the pity he feels for him.

" Oh, you fellows don't know, can't know any-
thing about it," burst out Allan in a sudden passion
that was more like an agony. " I live among these
people and I know. The best workmen dc get
their heads above the water a bit and begin to
cherish some ambitions. But for the rest, there is
nothing. You think it is a pity that I can't go on
with law — and it is — for me. But I know more
fellows than one who were cleverer than I when
we all went to school together, yet who — who
never got far enough out of the 'soot,' as father
says, to have an ambition to study law or anything

■fUL>«gi9u-i- .««|-A»^-<JU--

The Pi'cparation of Rycrson Enihury

foi

lo
It

else. They left school before I did ; their fathers,
looking for nothing, did not keep them at it. I
remember that I envied them then," and the tired
eyes of the lad smiled at the reminiscence. *' But
my father was laying by money, and he kept me
there, telling me constantly that he would give me
* the education of a gentleman.' But tliese fellows,
being free to come or stay away as they liked,
stayed away, and loafed on street corners until big
enough to be taken on at the ' works.' They had
no other ambition. There was no other hope for
them. They jeered at me when I went into
Benson's ; they jeered at me harder when I went
into law ; and they have jeered at me with a new
relish since I have had to give it up. But, God
knows, I feel no resentment, except for the moment,
perhaps, when their taunts sting a little sharper
than usual. They would have done as I did, only
perhaps more successfully, if the very root of am-
bition had not been stunted within them by the
conditions under which they grew up. It's not so
much the physical hunger sutiered by the poor that
appeals to me. It always seems to me that that is
a trivial thing that I could stand if necessary. If
you live you get over that, and if you don't get
over it, you don't live. But to be maimed in one'.3
soul — to be turned from an aspiring man into a
grinning, coarsened animal — yes, animal in whom
even the divine sense of humour has soured into
p cruel thing — and — and — rotted into somethino-

132

The Preparatio7i of Ryerson Embury

.'.f

obscene, and still to live on, content — sardonically
content — that is hellish ! "

Neither Madden nor Ryerson spoke when Allan
had spent his passion, an<l for a time they v/alked
steadily on thron^jh the windless wood. Then
Allan be<xan airain, but in a calmer tone, —

*' And the women, boys ! and the youno^ ojirls —
theirs is a worse plit^ht. I have had many
chances, of course, of knowin^j^ what the surround-
ini^s of a lady are — what the tastes are of a normal
woman who has had a sheltered life amid rcfinins:
influences, and it nearly breaks my heart to visit
the * parlour ' of a poor woman wh.o is not entirely
crushed down into the mud. The walls bear her
pathetic efforts at feminine ornamentation —
coloured advertising cards — "

"I've seen fashionable girl's decorate with them,"
Madden broke in.

"Yes," said Allan, smiling at him, " so have I,
but not one advertising card in a straw frame —
not a torn one pasted tight against the wall — not
the side of a room given up to three different-sized
'cuts' from illustrated papers, Hanked by little
bunches of business cards tacked to the unpapered
wall ; and I have seen all these in the last two or
three days. I made one woman's eyes shine only
last Friday night by bringing her a few strips of
the coloured paper we have some of our boxes lined
with at Benson's. And what do you think her
husband said ? "

The Preparation of Ryerson Einbury

" What ? " asked Ryerson, whose face was vibrant
with sympathy at the pictures Allan was drawing.

" ' Well, well,' he said, taking up some of the frail
paper and pulling it roughly through his hands,
tearing a piece ott" the end of one of the strips in
his carelessness, ' but you are an old fool to bother
with these things. I could get you lots of them if
I wanted to ' (which was a lib, by the way), ' but
you are putting on too many frills now for the likes
o' you.' The woman pretonded to laugh at this,
but her anxiety for fear he would tear them worse
kept her eyes on his hands. Then he tossed the
stuff to her contemptuously, and she, being relieved
to get it out of danger, said, with a good imitation
of his own manner, ' It's not for me, you Dutchman,
you, but for Sally and her dollie play-toys.' Yet
I know that uhat same woman bought a picture
once when bread was not too plenty and swore
that the minister's wife gave it to her. Their
hearts are hungry for the beautiful things of life,
these women, but they hardly dare admit it to
themselves ; and they laugh with their men at any
attempt toward it — laugh while they envy, until —
well, that is the way slatterns are made."

" Come, old man," said Madden, genially, "■ you are
getting morbid. This strike won't last forever."

" It is not the strike," returned Allan, hotly ;
" though the suffering it has brought is awful. It
is the condition that made the strike. What would
you do if your mother died under your eyes of con-

y .'

i ;

134

T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

8uniptiou when, ii* you could liiivo seut her South
for the winter, she might have lived for years % and
if all through that winter you saw Mrs Masterson
drive past your door every day witli a couple of
dogs in lier lap that cost over three hundred
dollars i That's what young Wilson did, and that's
what made him hot for the strike."

"Well, but will the strike hel}) him?" asked
Madden, argumentatively.

" Oh, 1 don't knov/, and he don't know," replied
Allan, wearily. " But it's wrong — it's wrong ; and
if the men who own the ' works ' won't divide fairly,
then, by Heaven ! the ' works ' have got to stop."

This kind of talk was certainly not "brightening
the poor beggar up," which was the object of the
lads' visitation to Allan, but Madden succeeded at
this point in creating a diversion, and the chat
became gayei* and Allan smiled once more on the
world whose seamy side had been too much in his
eyes of late. Finally Madden challenged Ryerson
to take them over to Glen Ewart to dinner.

" Emburv can recommend the cuisine over there,"
he said, winking at Allan.

" Of course I can," returned Ryerson, jauntily,
obviously enjoying tlie innuendo. He had travelled
a long w^ay from the day when the casual mention
of Grace Brownell's name, or a reference to her
mother, even, would send his eyes to the ground.
But perhaps his present position of something very
like pride in his intimacy with the fair Josie was

XJic Prcpanilion of Rycrson Embury

135

not wholly reacliLMl by tnivei on his part. Tliero
are "girl adventures" that young men always like
to be twitted about, and there are others of which
they can never hear without embarrassment ; and
the wise young lady will j^i'^'it^i' that she fall into
the latter class. However this nm}'^ be, Ryerson led
the way over to Glen Ewart and introduced Allan
to Josie Fitzgerald, iind the three lads were served
dinner in the stuffy little dining-room by a thick -
fingered serving-maid with bad teeth, but with no
Josie to brighten the table's foot as they had hoped.
However, after they had dined and Madden and
Allan had smoked, Mr L'itzgerald asked them up-
stairs to the private parlour, where Ryerson was by
this time very much at home, and Josie was very
chatty with all three until she learned that Allan
had gone back to Benson's ; and then she could
only fairly be described as being chatty to two
and a-half — Allan being the half. At the last she
piqued Ryerson by drawing Madden ofF to a
window which commanded an " alleged " view and
talking closely there with him for an unconscionably
long time, both breaking at times into irrepressible
laughter. Consequently Ryerson stayed to have
it out with her when the others said they must

go-
He began by being sulky and she with chatting

cheerfully along as if both were notoriously in the

best spirits. Then he grew sarcastic, and she

wondered with wide-open eyes what he could

•'8P

136

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury

::i

possibly mean. Finally ho became explicit, when
she passed rapidly from amazement at the very
idea that she was anythin^j more than commonly
friendly to Madden to solemn assurances that she
was only trying to gain the good opinion of his
friends, and then to reproaching him for quarrel-
ling with her because she was agreeable to the
persons whom he had brought to see her himself,
and wound up by confiding in him that not one of
them, nor any other young man she had ever met,
could talk half so cleverly as he did or interest her
half so much. This he believed sincerely, as
fatuous young men are wont to, but he resolved
within himself not to take Madden there again —
Madden was such a conceited ass that he miglit
think that Josie's attentions were for himself and
not because he was the friend of Ryerson Embury.

li ■'

III

XIV

" This strike lias done one thing, anyway," re-
marked Madden to Ryerson next day wlien they
were walkino; down to the office. " It lias soured
some of these pig-headed workmen on their
precious churches."

" Yes ? " queried Ryerson.

" You bet yer life," was JMadden's emphatic
affirmative. " Old Nichol used to be as roo-ular at
church as the paid soprano, but Allan was telling
me yesterday on the way home that he has not
been near the place since the Charity Board, which
the preachers and (Jhurcli people run, you know,
voted not to give any help this winter to strikers
or their families."

" Well, I should think so," sniffed Ryerson.
" Pretty sort of religion that."

" It's the kind Masterson pays for, I guess,"
commented Madden.

This cold-blooded action of the Charity Board

recurred to Kyerson's mind again and again during

the day, growing more repulsive the more he

thought of it. The Board was a Union Church

affair, and surely the Church should not take part

137

■ !

1^.8

7Vic Preparation of Rycrson Embury

this way in a coiit(38t over a ([Ucstiuii oi" wa<^os.
His iinagiiiation toyed witli the coiise({Uences of
the Board's decision. He would, without nieaiiing
to, picture a family sitting in a scjualid, winter-
chilled room, and visited there by one of the
Board's voluntary visitors, who turned away, how-
ever, and would not give them so much as a
basket of coal because the father was one of the
strikers. Then he called himself a "stupid" for
distracting his mind with visionary woes, and
plugged away harder at the jioint he was studying.
But, in spite of himself, his imagination would
play about this Charity which was decidedly a
respecter of persons. Now it would be a scene at
the Board offices — a " peaked " girl w^ith broken
shoes and a shawl over her head standing in a row
of similar figures, waiting to get something in her
basket. " Is your father dead, my girl ? " " No,
sir." " Can't he get work anywhere, then ? " " No,
sir. He's strikin'." " Bless me, don't you know
that it is against our rules to give help to the
families of strikers ? " A t^uivering lip and the
girl goes hungry aw^ay. When she reaches home —
Bosh ! This is no way to get up law. And again
the lad would settle himself down to his reading
with a mental thrust on the shoulder. But his
mind was tricky. Now it would be Mr Masterson
giving his annual subscription to the Board funds.
It was the Rev. Dr Snowdon, a venerable member
of the Board, who called for his donation. " He

]

T/ic Preparation of Rye r son lunlncry 139

tliat ^ivctli to the poor lendcth to the J^ord, Urotlier
Masterson," tlie wliito-luiired minister would .say.
"True, Brother Snowdoii, but tliis is a 'call loan,'
and if you let a striker's brat ;;et any of it 1 want
it back," would be the reply he would hear
from the lips of the shadow Masterson. He felt
all along that it was intensely stupid to pla<^ue his
mind so much about a thin*^ that l»e could not
affect, but thoui,di he no longer had any part or lot
with the Church, it pained him like a sacrilege to
see a Christian organisation taking the part of the
rich against the poor. It was out of harmony
with the constant association in his mind of (Jhrist
with poverty, and with the scriptural warnings
against riches.

That night he wanted to talk to somebody
about it. But Chidden was going out. And any-
way, he felt that Madden would not be sympathetic
toward his point of view. They neither of them
believed the " Christian doctrine," and in that were
at one. But beyond that he knew there was a
difference. For Madden, this was a godless world,
a world without right or wrong in it, a world
where it was good to laugh when you could, and
keep your feet, no matter who groaned beneath.
But his own outlook he felt to be different. As to
God, he did not know ; but he believed in the
reality of truth, in a right and a wrong, in — to
come to the concrete — the wrongness of hurting
another man and the rightness of, at least, giving

/■

140 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

liim a chance. He woi ;o and see Allan. Allan
ought to be fairly near j hiw point of view in this
case, at all events.

Alice Nicliol answered his knock, brightened at
the sight of him conic so soon again for her brother,
and told him that, though Allan was out, he was
only " over at Ulack's," whither she would send for
him if Ryerson would come in.

" No, I want to take him for a little walk,"
Ryerson said. "I'll go over to 'Black's' for him
if you'll tell me how to d it."

" Black's " proved to a room behind a small
general store, where the bachelor manager of the
establishment liked to have a number of the boys
" drop in of an evening." ALctn came out into
the store when he knew that Ryerson was asking
for him, and chatted with him a few minutes at an
empty counter while waiting for one of the fellows
inside to finish with a paper of his he had been
reading to the party when Ryerson arrived.
Ryerson very soon asked Allan his opinion of the
decision of the Charity Board that had troubled
him, which led to some joint *' swearing at large "
on the subject, with the result that when a nervous-
faced chap with a tossed mane of hair came out of
the back room to give Allan his paper, Allan intro
duced Ryerson to him as " apparently an inquirer,"
at which both Allan and the young man with the
ruffled hair smiled as at an old jest, and suggested
that they take Ryerson into the "den."

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury \ 4 1

" \iy all means ! " .said ho of the hair, <;enially.
" Come in and hear the proletariat tear."

As they approached the closed door* of the inner
room, a hi<jfh-pitched, unmusical voice could be heard
speaking with monotonous tones within ; and when
Allan opened the door, the words came to them, —

" — no more riy'hts than I have. What protec-
tion has a capitalist for his capital except what
we give him ? What — " But the faces of his
auditors told him that someone unfamiliar had
come through the open door behind him, and he
paused with his hand in the air and craned his
sinewy neck around that he might see. Allan at once
introduced Ryerson and piloted him to a chair on
the other side of the room. The brownish, heavily-
figured paper on the walls, and the circumstance
that two of the men in the company wore grey
Hannel shirts and no collars, were the first facts to
enter Ryerson's consciousness. There was a desk
with pigeon-holes above it just at his elbow against
the wall ; a tireless stove with a sucjgostion of
white about it stood in the middle of the floor ;
most of the chairs were of plain white wood ; a
torn and faded lounge with permanent depressions
in its surface crossed one corner, and behind it was
visible a heap of newspapers.

Allan explained that the reason he had brought
Ryerson in was that he had expressed indignation
at the action of the Charity Board, and that " that
betrayed a sympathetic mind."

[r. ' -i '

142 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

" What else would you expect ? " asked one of
thP' flannel-shirted men with an expansive smile.
He sprawled, long-legged, on his tilted chair as if it
were only a prop on which he adroitly balanced
himself.

" I'd expect charity to favour the poor," replied

Ryerson, his face going suddenly red.

/ " The contented poor ! The poor and 'umble, my

/boy," said his questioner in mild tones. " Charity,"

\ he exclaimed, suddenly straightening up. " Charity

lis the chloroform that the rich administer to their

victims. They oil the social machine with it in

order that it may carry them with less unpleasant

squeaking. It is the bounty with which they buy

■soldiers out of the army of labour."

The mixed mecaphor appeared extravagantly
ridiculous to Ryerson, but, fixed as he was by the
vehement declaimer's eye, he had to let his sense of
amusement pass off in a shiver down his back.

"You'll notice," said a pale-faced j^oung man
with thin lips drawn tightly over his white teeth,
" that my friend, Mr Armstrong, generalises very
freely. There is charity and charity. When
charity is love — the sense in which the word is
usually employed in the Scriptures " — (his friend,
Mr Armstrong, sniffed loudly at this) "it is the
most beautiful thing in the world. But Mr
Embury is not interested, I fancy, in the whole
subject, but in this specific case. And here, what,
indeed, are we to expect ? Masterson, Williams

The Preparation of Rye r son Embiiry 143

and that crowd are large subscribers to the Board
funds. Would they be willing that their money
should be used to sustain the strike ? Certainly
not. And that is the whole natter."

" But how about the preachers on the Board and
the religious cloak it wears ? " asked the young
man with the waving hair whom Rj^erson came to
k. "^ V as Morris Maclean. " Surely they were not
supposed to be collecting a war-chest for those who
grind the faces of the poor."

" Why not ? " asked the pale young man. " Your
whole simile justifies it. A strike is war ; or
rather a battle in a war. That is the way I
justify interference with ' scab ' labour. In times
of peace you have no right to keep a man from
working when he wants to ; but when war breaks
out, then you use what weapons you can get — "

The other flannel -shirted man — a keen-faced,
steady-eyed chap with small but capable- looking
hands — broke in at this to ask, " Do you think,
then, that employers should use the militia and
police to quell strikes ? "

" Certainly, if they can get them," was the
prompt reply. " And they generally do get them
and practically ,iil the other weapons ; and that is
one of the reason.^ — to digress still farther — why T
think strikes fool, 'h from the working-man's point
of view. But to return. This strike being open
war, of course the clergy of each party prays for
the success of his friends. The clergy have

/ /

[ , /

] 1/

f.i

\J I

144 Tke Preparation of Ryerson Embury

always done that from time immemorial. We,
bein^^ poor men, are rather short on clergy, that
is all."

'' That's rioht, that's ri^ht," said the lanky
sprawler, emphatically.

" We can't afford luxuries, I suppose," added
Morris Maclean, "and so, of course, we can't pay
plausible gentlemen to tell us that the neighbours
we are enjoined to love as ourselves live in India
but not in Ithica."

" Haven't I seen you at the Free Thought
Club ? " Armstrong suddenly asked Ryerson.

Kyerson eagerly assented, and the whole group
fell into a s^cneral discussion of the effect of free
thought and the attitude of cerfain Free Thinkers
on the labour question. They all maintained
against Ryerson that more sympathy was fairly
to be expected from Free Thinkers than they — the
labour agitators — actually received from them ;
and finally Ryerson was compelled to excuse their
lack of concern for the labour cause by contending
that they did not understand it. " At all events,"
said the slighter ilannel-shirted man — his name was
Bob Martyn — " they don't ask us to believe that it
is good for us to suffer."

Then the discussion widened out. Morris
Maclean argued that what the working man
wanted was justice, not charity. " If he were
only allowed to keep what he makes, he would
be all right," was his contention. Allan Nichol

The Preparation of Ryerso7i Embury 145

assented, but added that the only way to mal:3
sure of this was to nationalise all tools as well
as all land, railways and the like. He was a|
" Socialist, out and out." I

Bob Martyn didn't know that this would be
necessary, and he thought that they should net V^r^K/
attempt too much. They were all agreed that "^^^
land should be nationalised; why not start with
that and see how it would work ? ^

" No," protested Morris Maclean, " I don't want
land ' nationalised.' I want every man to have
a perfectly good, permanent and individual title
to his land ; but I want the rental value taken
for State purposes. And, further, I want natural
monopolies nationalised, such as coal mines,
railways, telegraphs and the like."

" Well, but suppose you do all that," persisted
Allan Nichol, " you don't prevent the man who
has capital from investing it and living all his
life in idleness on the interest."

"I'll tell you a secret," said Morris Maclean,
confidentially. "I'm a rebel against George on ./
the interest question. I believe that the Single !
Tax will abolish interest." J

" Fiddlesticks ! "

" Yes, but I do. With private property in land
abolished and a lot of artificial public obligations
removed and natural monopolies nationalised, what
can a man invest in that is not perishable ? And
in that case he will be more than satisfied to lend

f 1 t

.||(

)j |!j

) i'i' <,i

'*il

fjU

.jll'

i.HH ■

^^H

■

IhH

F^^l

i ^^^1

E ^^H

■ m

■r ^

& I

1 ..

fU,,.

,; { s

146 77/6' Preparation of Ryerson Embury

his surplus capital with the prospect of getting
as much back again."

This talk was all Greek to Ryerson, and when
he asked for explanations the replies were little
better. The grimness of poverty he understood ;
a strike for higher wages he saw the logic of
clearly enough ; but this confident talk about a
change in land ownership curing poverty, and the
State taking possession of " tools," was abstruse
jargon to him. He could not for the life of him
see the connection. For a few moments they fell
foul of Protection, and then he was at home. His
college text-book on political economy had, with
scientific superiority, condemned Protection, and he
had felt a mild wonder ever since at the stupidity
of the politicians who could not see thir, thing.
True, once or twice he had run into a politician
who had argued him to a standstill on the question
and shaken his faith in the kindergarten reasoning
of the text-book; but now when he found these
men disposing of Protection in the same " dead-
sure " manner as that placid volume, he felt that
he could talk with them — he had lived in that
atmosphere himself. But for the rest he was at
sea. Still, the talk had a curious effect on him.
Apparently isolated statements were constantly
being made which he instantly recognised to be
true, and, moreover, to be unexplainable on his
theory of life. Yet to these young fellows the
truth of these strange and disturbing things

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 147

l-
it
lit
it
11.

►e

is
le
:s

seemed to be the very proof they wanted of the
theories tliey advanced. To them, they were ex-
planations of life ; to him, they were hopeless
Contradictions of his every idea of life.

For instance, Bob Martyn said, in the course of
a lonir and vehement statement of which he under-
stood little, —

" Wealth is seldom the wages of abstinence or
of industry or of thrift. It comes to men who are
squanderers, and are idle enough between their
gambling bouts. Industry and abstinence in the
majority of cases fail to get more than a meagre
slice of it. There are exceptions ; but wealth is
generally the wages of a lucky bet — often on
loaded dice — or the pilferings from a multitude
of lean purses."

Ryerson at once perceived this to be true, in part
at least. But it was contrary to all text- book
teachings on the subject. Yet Bob Martyn used
the fact to clench his argument — plainly it fitted
in with his theory of life.

"You haven't read Progress and Poverty f"
said Morris Maclean to him at one time when he
betrayed his perplexity by a befogged question.
" That's what's the matter with you."

" Well, it need not be fatal," said liyerson. " I
know how to read."

" Good ! I'll send you one of my missionary
copies of P. and P. in the morning," Maclean
promised. " I buy 'em for a quarter a piece, and

J f

148 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

one book, plus ten talks, generally makes three
converts."

" Then your converts cost you ten cents each,
estimating your talks generously as worth five
cents for the ten," calculated Jack Armstrong, with
a broad grin.

When Ryersoa came in from the office tlie follow-
ing evening, a parcel that suggested a book but
not a book-store — for the wrapping was very
clumsily done — lay on his table. He tugged at
the string a few futile moments and then cut it
with his knife. The wrapping paper bristled up
sulkily as if resentful at being tied down in so
cramped and unnatural a position, and, when he
had loosened it from its charge, revealed a paper
copy of Progress and Poverty. It was a neat-
looking book, and as he let the pages run out
from under his thumb, the black type captions had
an attractive appearance. Rut " tea " was ready,
so he leaned it against the end of the row of books
on his swinging shelf.

Neither that night nor for the next three did
he get a chance to take it down again ; and it was
Saturday evening when, after an exhilarating
afternoon in the golden September air, he reached
up for it, adjusted his lamp shade, and settled
himself in his arm-chair to give "this book of
Maclean's a look over."

The table of contents read to him suspiciously
like that of a college text-book on political

149

'■ y

I _

■ mi Ml

iff '

150 7"^^ Preparation of Ryerson Evilmry

economy ; and while it increased his respect for
the work in his hand — it was plainly no campaign
pamphlet — it douched his expectation of pleasure
in the reading of it. He wanted to bt thrilled and
stirred, and here he was invited to study. Things
Rjild at " Black's " that Monday night — daring
things, pitiful things, things he had failed to
understand — had been interpreting themselves to
his mind at odd moments all weelv, and he was
beginning to fire at " the wrongs of the dis-
inherited " — at the silent tragedy of hereditary
poverty. And he had come to Progress aTid
Poverty expecting to find a trumpet call, a
luminous exposure of the "crimes of the
capitalist " ; but here was a discussion of the
Malthusian theory, of the " laws of distribution "
and the question of land titles.

Then he turned over the page and read, —
" Ye build ! ye build ! But ye enter not in ! "
The page went blurry under his eyes ; then he
lifted them and they shone out into the empty
room as a man's will when someone utters a truth
his soul has long known but has been unable to
speak. " That's it," he said to himself, nodding his
head. " You patient workers ! ' Ye build ! ye
build ! But ye enter not in.' " When he tarned to
the book again he found that this was only the
first line of a quotation from Mrs Sigourney with
which the author had, with marvellous art, pre-
faced his introduction.

JfaSEti...wA ■

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 151

The opening chapter, in which Mr George states
*' the problem " he is about to consider, heightened
the effect of the quotation. Never have the per-
sistence of poverty in the midst of progress, and
the imperious problem which this amazing fact
presents to all who do not take refuge with Cain
in a denial of the claims of brotherhood, been stated
with more of that supreme dramatic force whose
chief elements are a calm mental poise and plain
speech. When he had finished this introductory-
chapter, Ryerson felt ready for the most heroic
plodding which might be necessary to arrive at
the "remedy" he was promised at the conclusion
of the book. His appetite was especially whetted
by the confident way in which Mr George put
aside the cures for poverty so often offered. He
spoke of them, indeed, as heresies which must
bring the masses into danger. " The ideas," he
read, "that there is a necessary conflict between
capital and labour, that machinery is an evil, that
competition must be restrained and interest
abolished, that wealth may be created by the
issue of money, that it is the duty of Government
to furnish capital or to furnish work, are rapidly
making way among the great body of the people,
who keenly feel a hurt and are sharply conscious
of a wrong. Such ideas, which bring great masses
of men, the repositories of ultimate political power,
under the leadership of charlatans and demagogues,
are fraught with danger."

a' 5 '/■•'■ '

III

1 i . m

T 5 2 T//e Preparation of Rycrson Embury

Tills was not the kind of thing he had expected
to liear from a cliampion ^f tlie hibour cause. He
thouglit that all labour leaders were at war with
the capitalist, but this writer seemed not to be.

As he read on, Ryerson fell under the charm oi'
that lucid and masterful style which never seems
to conjecture but always appears to know. He
was in the presence of a teacher of an exact
science, not following the gropings of a searcher
in the dusk. The writers whom IVIr Georofo
pushed aside as he marched toward his four-square
conclusions reminded Ryerson of a group of ill-
prepared scholars guessing at the answer to the
teacher's question, while the teacher smiled at
their more or less happy attempts and finally
gave them the right reply, which they instantly
recognised as the exact truth. When he began
the consideration of the wages question, the idea
that wages are commonly advanced from capital
seemed quite plausible to him ; but when he had
finished, there was not a suggestion of a doubt in
his mind that wages are drawn from the product
of the labour for wliich they are paid. The
chapters leading up to this conclusion were as
convincing as Euclid, though nothing like so dry.
He was just beginning on the dissection of
Mai thus which follows when Madden came in
from having smoked a jangling yet jovial evening
through with some fellows down town.

" Y' missed it, Ry ! You mole-eyed book-

The Preparation of Rycrson Embury 153

worm, you ! " was the smoker's noisy grcetin*^.
" Batters was down, and he sang — "

" Not n".u«h, i didn't miss it," Rycrson inter-
rupted, layinc^ his book open across Ins knee witli
as little reluctance as he could show. *' Say ! I've
r^ot the greatest book here you ever saw."

"What's it?"

" A book Maclean sent me — it's called Progress
(tnd Poverty — lays out the orthodox ideas on
political economy with a Hail."

"I've heard of it — Single Tax, isn't it?"

" Yes, but I haven't got that far yet. But he
hasn't dropped a stitch as far as I have got."

" Your similes arc getting too feminine, young
man, since you took to the Glen Ewart road."

llyerson grinned and then said, " He's just
preparing to flay Malthus alive where I am now,"
and he picked up the book suggestively.

" Oh, Malthus is all right," declared Madden.
" There are too many people in this botch of a
world."

" I don't know what this book says about him
yet. Will I read you a bit ? "

" Let 'er go ! " and Madden flung himself down
on the bed, elevating his feet on the footboard.

The boys did not finish with Malthus and his
libel on the Creator that night, for Mr George is
at great pains to vindicate the sanity and humane-
ness of the plan of creation, but they did finish
it the next morning after breakfast before setting

: i:

154 ^/^^ Preparation of Ryersofi Embtiry

'■_ /m

' ¥

H -M'

out on their usual Sunday tramp. Then they
went round for Allan Niehol again, and llyerson
came in for some chaffing because of his tendency
to lead every thread of talk up to the " wages
fund " or the problem of poverty. They dined at a
riverside village this time, but afterward llyerson
let the other two go home alone while he struck
across the country to Glen Ewart and the cosy
parlour at the head of the stairs.

Josie was in brown when he got there, and
nothing would do her but to cover her hair with
a boy's cap and take him out into the woods
again. And certainly the brown of her dress and
the red of her cheeks found an admirable frame
in the autumn woods. Then, as they talked, her
eyes grew fuller than usual of wondering approval
of the clever Ryerson. She had never heard him
so impassioned, so impressive — so eloquent, she
permitted herself to say, and she sympathised
with him to the top of her appreciation. " I
always mean to help poor people all I can," she
told him ; and then added with frankness, " for, you
know, I have known well what it is to be poor."
/ Ryerson warmed at her sympathy and talked to
/ her some of the philosophy of " Black's." Doctrines
of a revolutionary tinge that he had not well
digested yet himself came to his tongue, but the
girl who was making her fight to climb the social
ladder as it now stands did not greet them with
any enthusiasm, j She thought that " the sub-

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 155

merged tentli " — the plirase had the relish of
novelty to Ryerson — could emerge if they had
the right ambition and determination. Her father
was a case in point. Ryerson said something
weakly about exceptions which proved the rule ;
but she insisted that she knew many cases in
which families were poor simply through the
inexcusable foolishness of the father. The thought
that she was quoting instances studied from life
in her father's bar pressed to the front of his
mind and would not let him think of any other
answer. Yet had he not heard ct "Black's" that
drink was not the cause of poverty, but poverty
of drink ? His foothold on the new road was,
however, altogether too uncertain yet to enable
him to withstand a charge ; so he gave up the
contest and brought the talk back to their
favourite subject — his ambitions.

The next night he had his Progress and
Poverty to himself again, and once more his
hand felt the firm pressure of that of the master.
At times as he read he thoufjht of Georo^e as an
impassioned writer, who appealed with a sure
touch to the emotions ; and a paragraph later the
whole book seemed a linked chain of the coldest
loofic. It was reasonino; enforced, but never
thrown into the background, by brilliant illus-
tration. He seemed to be learning all the time
without the fatigue of study. He was conscious,
too, that " rent " was bulking on his mental eye

fe:

156 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

like a moiiRtrous dragon whose outlines one makes
out slowly in a dim picture.

When Madden came in he talked to him of what
he had read ; but it was unsatisfactory, for Madden
did not seem to catch his meaning easily. Then
Madden seemed to care little about the subject.

Ryerson did not again iind himself alone in his
room until Friday night, and he at once settled
down to linisli tlie book if possible. It was quite
possible. He was now in the full swell of the
stream. The slow pushing through the under-
brush of past economic growths was over, and
also the patient progress across the level until he
i-eached the conclusion that the owner of natural
opportunity — i.e., the earth — was literally " the
heir of all the ages," labour and capital being
but disinherited younger brothers. And now it
was a triumphant rush to the sea.

He never forgot the night he sat up to finish
Progress and Poverty. Madden came in at
eleven, but soon took refuge in bed when he
found that every time he reminded the absorbed
Ryerson of his presence he got a fiery passage
discharged at his head. Then Ryerson read on,
his blood pulsing at the vivid picture of social
injustice which these virile pages were presenting
to him with convincing force. Poverty revealed
itself as the great mother of crime, and monopoly
of the Father's gift to all as the sinister mother
of poverty. He had long classed himself as an

-ffn' ^'Uj.i.l.J.lH, ..'JIU I^HMH i atH.'" '' ' :" '

The Preparation of Ryerson Enihtiry 157

infidel, but these pages made a belief in an all-
Father reasonable again. The terrible disarray
of the world, which had seemed to him a disproof
of God, now appeared rather as a proof that man \
had succeeded in baulking God.

But was He God if man could baulk Him ? He
put this question aside and read on. He became
convinced at all events of the injustice of private
property in land.

" Place one hundred men on an island from
which there is no escape," he read, " and whether
you make one of these men the absolute owner of
the other ninety-nine, or the absolute owner of
the soil of the island will make no difference
either to him or to them. In the one case as the
other, the one will be the absolute master of the
ninety-nine — his power extending to even life and
death, for simply to refuse them permission to
live upon the island would be to force them into
the sea."

He felt, with a touch of misgiving, as he drew
nearer to the end, that he was losing his critical
poise in the swirl of the stream — that he was not
mentally certain, for instance, that the taking of
rent for public uses would work the miraculous
cure of poverty which Mr George so confidently
promised ; but he was sure that land monopoly
was a giant injustice, and that it must be abolished,
whatever the consequence. He would thrash out
the details later.

158 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

Those last cliapters on " iiuuiau progress " natis-
fied that sense in him with which we perceive
truth so perfectly as to give us a sensation akin to
that felt at the feeding of a keen bodily appetite.
At an especially luminous sentence he would lean
back with the thrill one enjoys at a new discovery.
But, under it all, he felt tlie plunging of a passion
that was rage at the relentless grinding of the
poor by the insensate laws which protect privilege,
and was scorn for the leaders of the people who
saved them not from these economic tyrannies, aid
was contempt for religious teachers who smote
not this greatest dishonesty, and was a fervid
resolve to do himself what he could toward liber-
ating the unconscious many from this unperceived
despotism.

George's pei-fect faith in the final victory of the
right revived in him the mental pose of his earlier
life ; and the confident teachings of religion re-
garding the inevitable ultimate triumph of the will
of God stirred again in his mind. If there were
a good God, this man was His prophet. The
succour of the poor — the lifting of man out of
brutalising environment — was surely the work
God would have men do. And the churches ?
They stood aside with alms in hands which should
have borne a sword — they distracted our attention
to the next world. And they had the Bible for it,
and so were not greatly to be blamed. The poor
old Bible !

s'JkJ g i«iew"»» -1 - »■* "

The Preparatiofi of Rycrsoti Embury 159

He had linislied Proijresti and Poverty now,
and, going to the window, noiselessly pushed open
the shutters and looked out on the starry distance
and over the sleeping town. The cool niglit air
quieted his fever. " This is a great book," he
whispered to himself. " The reading of it gives a
man a mission." Then he thought of the churches
again, preaching their dead Christ and leaving
this plain work of God untouched. And yet they
only followed their mistaken Bible.

Then across his mind there came the passage —
" Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of
God." And, like a flash, his mind ran over the
beatitudes as he had once learned them from
Luke for controversial purposes until it paused
at — " But woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have
received your consolation."

What did that mean ? Was the Bible n cam-
paigner for the poor too ? Was Christ, after all, a / \/
social reformer? Had He been misjudged? He
leaned farther out and straightened up to follow
the new thought from text to text. Then across
the night silences came the mellow tones of the
town clock striking three ; and he smiled at his
ardour, closed the shutters and sat resolutely down
to quiet himself with a book of out-of-door poetry
he was reading in the odds and ends of his time.

, 1

! 1 ;

■1:.,

XVI

Allan Nichol was to Ryerson his most direct
link with the " strike," and, now that his interest
in the affair had been so keenly stirred, he found
himself dropping in on Allan occasionally in the
evening. Allan and his sister Alice were very
much to each other, and as Ryerson's frank cheer-
fulness had soon made the girl feel at home
with him, she often sat with them while they
I discussed with boyish enthusiasm the problem of
involuntary poverty. Thus she came to hold
strong opinions touching these subjects, which,
with the magnificent disregard of consequences
so startlingly common with her sex, she was prone
to express defiantly and with some freedom.

The Nichols were pew neighbours with the
Brownells, and Grace and Alice knew each other
in Church work. So it came about that while
they waited together one afternoon in the
" vestry " for some other young ladies to come
to a meeting, they fell into a conversation, upon
whose placid stream Alice soon turned her heavy

guns.

" There is not much mystery," she said, " about

160

The Prepa7'ation of Rycrson Embury i6i

the reason why the people have ceased to attend
the services out at the East End Mission."

"No?" said Grace, with an apprehensive look,
for Alice's tone was not suggestive of a pleasant
revelation.

"There is certainly not," returned Alice, posi- \ /
tively. " You cannot expect them to support the v
churches when the Church Charity Board takes
sides with stingy employers against them." i

"Oh," said Grace, very conscious that Alice's
father was a striker.

"Mr Embury says," she went on militantly,\ /
" that the Church is the rich man's device for keep- / \J
ing the poor man contented with his lot — that's
what he says ; and he thinks, too, that the work- ■
ing people are fools to have anything to do with
it. You just ought to hear him talk about the ,
Church, preachers and all."

" Yes, he's very bitter," said Grace, sighing.

" Well, I'm not sure that there isn't some truth
in what he says," persisted Alice, with great de-
liberation. " My father has stopped right off going
to church, and I'm not sure that I oughtn't to do
the same thing. Then you haven't noticed it,
probably, but some of the girls are not nice to me
at all since the strike."

" Oh, you must be mistaken," Grace assured her,
eagerly.

"No, I'm not," she snapped out, and her face
set like iron. " You watch them when they come in."

162 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

"But anyway," said Grace, with an added
dignity, " that should make no difference in your
loyalty to your Church and to religion."

"It is easy for you to talk," burst out Alice.
"It's just floating down stream for you to be
churchified."

" I've made my sacrifices," said Grace.

" You don't hear the Church criticised like I do,"
with a knowing cast of her eye. " The things that
Mr Embury says are just awful ; but he's clever,
and Allan thinks there's no one like him."

" You must not let Mr Embury lead you astray,"
said Grace, solemnly. " He's an out-and-out infidel,
you know."

" Yes," admitted Alice, with the air of one who
thought of saying more and then thought better
of it.

"I think," Grace went on bravely, though her
forehead reddened and her heart came to a thump-
ing " double quick " at a bound, " that Mr Embury
is a very dangerous companion for — for anyone,
and you must be on your guard against him."

Alice was silent. She knew something of the
story of Grace and Ryerson, and she appreciated
the courage of the girl before her.

" There may be men in the Church who do not
do right by their employees," Grace continued;
" but that does not make religion untrue, and the
poor must get their souls saved as well as the
rich."

.?.:!'.

MsaaaHaa:^

The Preparation of Ryerson Evilmry

163

On a subsequent evening Alice interrupted
Ryerson with, —

" But, Mr Embury, even if there are people in
the Church who do not treat the workinor classes
right, must not the working classes get their souls
saved ? "

Ryerson laughed. "I'm not worried about my
soul," he said.

" No, but shouldn't you be ? " asked Alice, with a
diffident seriousness.

Ryerson looked at her, wondering how much of
his caustic doubt he dare pour into those tender
ears. " Do you think that the preachers have a
monopoly of soul-saving ? " he asked presently.

" N — no," she replied doubtfully ; " but mustn't
one do Church work ? "

" Not unless the work of the Church tends to lift
humanity," Ryerson answered.

She thought over this for a full minute, and
then said, —

" Ah, but I mustn't listen to you — I was warned
against you."

" Whom by ? "

"One who knows you well," she replied with
some archness.

" Whom ? " and he smiled persuasively.

" I'm afraid I mustn't tell."

Allan laughed his appreciation of her teasing.

"Very well," said Ryerson, making a feint of
abandoning his inquiry. " But do you yourself

i'.\

164 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

think she had any good ground for regarding me
as dangerous ? "

"I think so. I think you tried to make an
infidel of her."

" She was a ' she,' then ? "

" Oh ! "

" But I didn't succeed in shaking her faith ? "

" No, I'm sure you did not."

" But perhaps I did inside."

" No. She's going to marry a preacher."

Ryerson 's face sobered and whitened in spite of
himself. "Ah, well. It's your secret," he said
nervously; but poor Alice knew that it was not,
and that he wished sincerely that it were. He
discussed with Allan the rest of the evening the
marvellous fidelity of women to their religion —
whatever it may be — and said so many bitter
things that Alice left them early to themselves.

But her conscience smote her because of the
slip, and she took the first opportunity of saying
to Grace, with great penitence, —

" I did a terrible thing the other night. I told
Mr Embury that someone had warned me against
him, and then stupidly 3aid things which made
him guess it was you."

Grace's eyes flashed, and she set her lips.

" I'm very, very sorry — " Alice began, but Grace
had walked away from her.

She came back again, however, in a few moments
and said, with a nervous little smile, —

JTwsv^itS.'

.^^^esflSBS

The Preparation of Ryerson Einbiuy 165

" I shouldn't wonder if your mistake mi^jjht do
liim good — that is, if he cares — if, I mean, he
remembers who I am — "

" Oh, he remembers right enough."

" Of course. I suppose he could not forget that
there is such a person as I — but — but he thinks
me hopelessly prejudiced and — narrow — and — oh —
old fogeyish."

" He's very outspoken, and I like him for the
way he understands the working man and his
side of it. He knows how we feel, and he sees
that we are not treated right."

" I wish I could understand it all," said Grace. !

" You could if you would listen to him and
Allan talk. They say" — diffidently — "that Jesus /
loved the poor, and that He attacked the rich and \j
powerful, and " (now she was hurrying) " that the
churches do not follow Him when they do not
do like Him."

" But I love the poor. My mother and I help
a great many poor people — and so do other Church
people."

" Yes, I know."

" And what can Mr Embury say to that ? "

" I don't know," was Alice's response ; and, like
a sensible girl, she determined to find out. Con-
sequently, it was not long before Ryerson had
this remark flung at him across the round sitting-
room table at the Nichols', with its covering of
figured red.

1 66 The Prcparalion of Rycrson Embury

U- ■?

" But, Mr Embury, the Church people do a grout
deal to help the })oor."

llyerson smiled indulgently.

*' The Charity Board, for instance," said Allan.

"No, I mean right straiglit along, on ordinary
occasions. Take such people as — well, as the
Brownells, for instance."

" Yes," sneered Ryerson, " coals and tracts ! Such
folk reverse the old saying and try to teach the
people that the Lord will help them — in doles —
if they will only not help themselves. I am for
helping myself."

" Give us justice and we will not need charity,"
put in Allan, with the ring of an accustomed saying.

" The Brownells," went on Ryerson, pursuing
his thought, " mean well. There is no doubt about
that. Mrs Brownell is sweetness personified."

" And Grace is a good, good girl," added Alice,
in a low voice.

" Yes," said Ryerson, in a voice still lower. Then
the three sat in silence, until Ryerson said, —

" What a pity — what a pity that someone cannot
open her eyes to the true errand of love in this
life ! "

" I think you could," said Alice. Her voice was
almost a whisper.

Ryerson raised his eyes and looked at her with
a serious gaze, full of inquiry and hope. Then
he dropped them and said, —

" No. One must be trusted if he is to lead."

XVII

That autiinin was, indct'd, lor Ryerson Embury,
full oi* preoccupied days and disputatious nights.
He became a regular visitor at " Black's," and
put liis feet on the unpolished stove — until they
began to build fires in it — and railed at the things
that are, with the best of them. Someone got
him to read Felix Holt, the Madical, during this
time, and he considered seriously the wisdom of
going without a collar, as Felix did, in order to
mark himself off to all who looked as one who
had come out from among this careless and self-
centred generation. At the height of his exaltation
he liad difficulty in being civil to some of the
richer clients who came to consult Webster,
Saunders & Webster; but he was cured of this
pretty well by a discussion one evening at I
" Black's," in which he had to defend George's
claim that the capitalist and the labourer stand
together as victims of the landowner and monopoly- _
holder.

One night at the Free Thought Club he raised
the question of the Masterson-Williams strike, and
the failure of the churches to do anything for the

167

ail -

ft'

hi ■

I: • :

'I >

'-'\

\'i

1 68 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

settlement of it, or for tlie relief of the strikers.
His proposal was that the club should step in and
do both, thus proving itself to be more useful in
the community than all the churches. The idea
received instant support from several varieties of
members. Some of the strikers were there ; and
to them such action meant not only help, but
smashing proof to all their friends that they had
been right in preferring the club to the churches
long ago. Then several militant Free Thinkers
saw in it a capital convert-making scheme — the
labour people would bo won over in a body.

Some conservative members, however, thought
that this was hardly the mission of the club. They
were truth-seekers — nothing more. " It would be
a preacher's trick to rush into a light of this kind
simply to gain popularity." The discussion was
finally closed by an invitation to Mr Embury to
prepare a paper on the subject for the next meeting,
when a decision would be arrived at.

The time Ryerson put on that paper made his
attendance at the law office a mere formality. He
read it to " Black's " the night before the meeting
of the club amidst uproarious enthusiasm. Then
he read it to the club— a crowded meeting. It began
by proving the average working man to be a
victim of injustice ; then it discussed the strike ;
and finally appealed to the club to go to the
rescue of the " under dog."

The debate that followed was one of the best

•H")*'

7/id Preparation of Ryerson Evibury 169

tliat the oldest Free Thinker could remember to
have lieard iu the club rooms. Sharp difference
oi* opinion appeared at the outset as to wliether
or not the charge of injustice had been established.
Ryerson was accused of attacking the security of
property, and he was over-zealously defended by
men who contended that " all property was
robbery." But the weight of opinion was in
favour of the contention that the present social
order is based upon injustice. When it came to
enlisting for the war upon this injustice, however,
there were not many who stood with Ryerson and
the labour section. A very effective speech was
made by the president of the club, who vacated
the chair temporarily for the purpose, in which he
argued that the present is a stage in a great
evolution which has been in progress for countless
ages, the central law of which always has been
and is yet the good old rule of the "survival of
the fittest." It was only natural that everyone
— including the ''under dog" — should strive to
survive. Thus working men combined for that
purpose. But the other classes have an equal
right to strive to survive. And as the survival of
the lion means death to the lamb, so the survival
of the strong often means death to the weak. To
interfere with the working of this law would be
unscientific; and such interference, if successful,
would retard by just so much the evolution of the
race. It was their boast as Free Thinkers that

I \

: )

f
I

•I

' "^

170 77ic Prepai'ation of Ryerson Embury

they were not swayed by emotion ; and they must
not in this case be carried off' tlieir feet by the
suffering of the "lamb." It was best that the
*' lion," i.e.y the strong, should survive ; and they,
as individuals, had but to play their parts as
individuals, knowing that under the operation of
this law the fittest would emerge from the struggle.

The Embury party could make no headway
against this unimpassioned reasoning. Ryerson
was excited, and, in closing, made his appeal on
the ground of man's brotherhood, which the
president easily dismissed as "a fiction of the
religionists." At one time he began to gain
ground by invoking the analogy of theft, and
asking if the putting down of stealing inter-
fered with the smooth working of the law of
evolution ; but he was a new apostle of the
"cause," and failed to recognise this firm foot-
ing when ^e reached it. So, after the meeting
was over, he tramped back with his little group
in discourageme^.t to " Black's," and there learned
that the "strike ration" had been reduced again
that day, though it could haiJly keep soul and
body together before.

The next night the strikers met on a vaco^'^t
lot just outside the town limits to discuss the
situation. Ryerson, who had been wrapped in
a ferocious gloom all day, went. Maddon had
tried to keep him at home.

" You will get into trouble over there," he said.

The Pi^cparation of Ryerson Embury 1 7 1

*' I backed you up in talking to the club all right ;
for that was professional. But they'll get you
down as a 'strike leader' if you go talking over
there ; and that won't help you with the Websters,
you may be sure."

" They may get me down for anything they

d d please," was Ryerson's surly reply. " We

kid-gloved fellows are grinding the life out of
these strikers and tlieir kind, and not one of us
cares. The churches will save their soula for them
if they will give up striking and swearing and the
forgetfulness they can buy in a bottle ; and the
Free Thought Club will scliool itself to endure
all that anybody else suffers in order that evolu-
tion may not be interfered with. By Heaven ! I
can't do much, but I can go down with the ' under
dog

) M

The meeting was net noisy, but you would have
said it was hoarse. It had been raining off and on
during the day but }iad stopped at six. The air
drifted from the north-east, chill and damp; and
the sodden ground was stiffening a bit with the
cold. Two " head-lights " borrowed from the
railway stood upon the improvised platform, and
gave the only light, except that furnished by
a group of torches wliicii burned just in front of
the speakers. The burden of the talk was the
necessity for endurance. "If we give up now,
we'll be kicked about by the bosses all our lives,"

rr^

■>i

^1,

■If I,

i i

a j

? j

» I

172 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embttry

.said one of the Union leaders. A Union official
from a distant city made tlie longest speech, in
which he pledged them further financial assistance
from the funds of the central Union if they held
out. The cheers were not frequent, and they were
feeble. The strain was telling cruelly, and the
many shawled women who mingled with the
crowd were absolutely silent. They seemed to
have come to hear something they did not hear.
The faces that appeared and shifted and re-
appeared in the channels of light streaming out
from the powerful locomotive reflectors, spoke
of hunger — hunger — always hunger. Some of
the speakers were wildly vehement, lavishing
stinging epithets and fiery exhortation right and
left; but the restless, hoarsely - grumbling crowd
were unmoved. One misguided man told a joke,
yet no one laughed. The eyes that reflected back
the shine of the head-lights — the wid*^, imploring
eyes, the contracted, half-shut eyes, the enduring,
patient eyes — all spoke of hopelessness and hunger.
The platform was for " sticking out." Very well,
the men would " stick it out " ; but did the plat-
form know what it was to rise and dwell all day
and go to bed again at night with hunger ? The
platform did, and the crowd knew it ; and that is
what kept them steady. Soldiers never endured
with more steadiness.

Ryerson had pushed his way to the front and
stood leaning against the edge of the platform

^ll^

lO"

ai,

L*1U

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 173

while the speaking went on. His eyes followed
those tunnels of light, and sickened at the patient
hells they revealed. A man who knew him came
across the platform, leaned down, end whispered, —

'' Will you say something, Mr Embury ? "

"Say something?" said Ryerson, looking up,
the veins on his forehead showing. "I can say
nothing but — but curse and stamp my feet."

" Do it, then," said his friend, putting out a hand
to help him on to the platform.

In a few moments he was in the flickering circle
of light made by the torches, and the people had
been told who he was ; but not a word would
come to his tongue. A woman in the throng
slipped on the freezing ground, and her weight
came heavily on the arm of the man next her.

" Lean on yer supper, carn't ye ? " he growled,
with savage ill-humour.

Her face twisted much as it would have done if
she had smiled, and then she whispered, " I hadn't
none." The shawl fell from her head as she
straightened up, and Ryerson noted that her hair
was streaked with grey. The crowd shifted rest-
lessly at the long pause of the speaker, for it was
cold.

" I have no right to say a word to you," Ryerson
began abruptly. " I have not gone without my
supper once to help you in this strike." Someone
laughed, and Ryerson stopped again. He knew
that he had s' .uck a false note ; but he could think

. v

' I i

llf\

--t

S«i!

IS!

It i H'

174 Z"^^ Preparation of Rye r son Embury

of nothing else — nothing at all. He seemed suffo-
cating. The moving, hungry, chill-bitten crowd
appeared a crawling horror to his eyes.

" By Heaven ! men/' he cried out at last, as if
calling to a shipwreck, " why do you suffer ?
Why do you stand it ? You nave the power in
your own hands. No one can rob you — can
wrong you without your consent. It is no lie
when I tell you that you, the working, suffering
people, can rule if you will. It is not a mere
matter of ballot-marking either — you could rule
if there were no ballot, The people have never
tried to get a thing that they have not got."

" Will Masterson raise our wa-ages ? " interrupted
a voice from the crowd.

"I believe," said R^erson, solemnly, stepping to
the front of the platform and raising his hand,
" that that is for you to decide. You can not
only make him do it, but make him glad to do
it."

Several of the men nearest him laughed a
jarring laugh.

" No, I am not cheating you with sarcasm," cried
the young fellow, his frame shaking with his
excitement. " I am stating the absolute truth.
I know that I can't go into long explanations
here, for you have neither the time nor the
patience to hear me ; but I'd just like to ask
you whether you or the 'bosses' have the most
votes."

The Preparation of Ryerson Emimry 175

us
bh.
bns
[he
Isk

)St

"Pile o' good that does us," grumbled a heavy
male voice.

" Well, it should do you good," retorted Ryerson,
vehemently. " You can govern the country that
way. I'm not talking politics now, but Trades
Unionism. I believe in Trades Unions as a war
measure ; and labour is always at war with its
oppressors. But you must know who your op-
pressors are, and how to get at them. Now, I've
no right to say a word except by j'Our sufferance.
I dare not criticise you or your leaders, for you
have the scars of a hundred iights, while I am a
boy and a novice, but, please God, a recruit in
your army. I know strikes are good things very
often ; they've done much for labour. But I must
take courage to tell you that if a man had a
thousand loaves of bread in his pantry and I had
none, I wouldn't sit down to beat that man by
starving him out."

There were murmurs of approval in the crowd
at this, and Ryerson waited for his point to go
home.

" What would you do ? " asked someone on the
platform.

"What would I do? I'll tell you" replied
Ryerson, turning part way round. "I'd make
it impossible for Mr Masterson to pay lower
wages by making it possible for his men
to employ themselves at higher. You will
dissent from me if I say that the employer

f|Fl

I i

? ;'

I \i

j:}«

176 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry

of labour is not necessarily the enemy of
labour.

" You bet he is," and " That's right," from the

crov/d. " Masterson is a mean ," shrilled a

woman, and a few scattered cheers supported her.

" Don't mistake me ! " urged Ryerson, flinging
out his hand. " I'm not for Masterson. He has
not used you fairly. He has lied to you and
cheated you. But the kindest-hearted employer
cannot give more wages than the competition of
men like Masterson will let him. If he does,
Masterson will undersell him and ruin him.
Consequently " — and he straightened up and lifted
his forefinger straight toward the zenith — " so long
as you must work for these men or not work at all,
skinflints like Masterson will fix your pay. But
if you will take the land for your own use, you
can always grow enough to feed yourselves, and
presently you will have the Mastersons competing
for your labour instead of you competing for their
'jobs.'"

"I'm no farmer," shouted a tall man with a
glassily-shaven chin.

*' Probably not," replied Ryerson, good-humouredly ,
" But two or three of the ten men competing for
your job might like to farm if they had the
chance ; and if you vote a farm within their reach,
they will be taken out of your way and will create
a new centre of demand for the products of the
factory and the forge. Open the land, and you

■^■: w

ly-

or
he

h,
te
he
ou

The Preparation of Rye r son Embury 177

lighten the pressure of competition ou every man
here — you raise the standard of wages."

" But we carn't get the land," objected an earnest-
faced man.

" Why can't you ? It's yours. No one has a land
title worth anything in justice. And you have the
law-making power in your own hands. All you
have to do is to stop protecting bad land titles.
You have the taxing power ; and through all time
the men who levied taxes have been the masters
of society. With this power in your hands, I
marvel at your — moderation. I use no stronger
word. You could use it now to tax your own land
back into your own possession. But you — you
seem determined to attack the foe with your
weakest weapons. You aimply stop work and
starve, when you might — what might you not
do ? You — yc^' — " and his passionate pity for
them seemed to fill his throat. The crowd had
waked up under the lashing of his impetuous speech ;
and during the last minute or two their patience
had visibly melted into resentment. Now they
watched with sullenly expectant eyes the tense
form of the young man as he stood silent before
them, plainly wrestling with his passion that he
might bring it within the compass of words.
Suddenly throwing both his hands out in a strong
gesture, he said, in even, deliberate tones that were
more thrilling than the wildest shout, " I tell you
God's truth, men, right here, I would not sit still

^ •

•,"M

■J

t'-;.

'*;<

178 The Preparation of Ryerson E^nbury

and see my wife go hungry — if I had one — while
other men fattened on my property. I would take
it. I—"

But his voice was drowned by the first loud roar
of the night, and it was full of menace. Cries
mingled with it that grew in boldness and insist-
ence. " That's Masterson," and " Burn the out "

could be heard ; and " Let's try his cooking," and
commoner and coarser imprecations. During the
long sullen summer these men had thought of
more direct ways than the political of making the
wealthy give back " their property," and talk of
this kind was not so new to them as it was to
Ryerson.

Ryerson lifted both hands for silence; but the
chilled crowd had got in motion, and they found
the shouting and the stamping too pleasant to give
it over at once. The labour leaders came to the
front and called for quiet, but it was no use,
" You've put a match to it, young fellow," said one
of them to Ryerson, not unkindly, " and we shall
get the blame." Ryerson stood back now, silent
and pale, frightened and astonished at the passion
to which he had apparently stirred that numbed
crowd. He had no idea that a good deal of the
display was no more than a mental stamping of the
feet to wake up a sleeping circulation.

" That's right," he heard someone whisper behind
him ; '' take them to the Labour Hall ! " And
presently the sound of a strong male voice could

&Mi

ury

The Preparation of Ryerson Embttry 179

rhile
bake

roar
Cries
isist-
out"
' and
g the
•ht of
ig the
ilk of
vas to

at the
found
,0 give
to the
lo use.
lid one
shall
silent
assion
umbed
of the
of the

behind

And

le could

be heard sinofingr oft on the ri^^ht of the crowd. A
slow quieting came over them, and the shouting
was soon borne down by a swelling chorus in which
they all joined, moving oft' in irregular marching
order towards the centre of the town. The song
was one which Ryerson had heard before and often
heard again, it being the composition of one of
the strikers and very popular with the men. The
verses were sung by a young fellow with a vibrant
tenor voice, and tliey all shouted out the chorus.
It began : —

" Your hand is growing hard, my burly bucko !

Your fingers .shine with oil and crease with grit —
Your nails are broken jagged —
Your working clothes are ragged —

Your ' Sundays ' lack a Piccadilly ht.
But still you have the perfect satisfaction

Of knowing there are men whose hands are white
They neither br«. ak their nails —
Nor dine in dinner pails —

But they dine — oh, yes — they dine, most every night."

The chorus, which hud the swing of a chant, was —

" The hand that makes is the hand that should take.
Trudge along. Knights of Labuur, trudge along !

The back that bears is the back that should wear,

Trudge along, Knights of Labour, trudge along !

Justice awaits us when we get awake —

We shall come to our own when we dare ! "

There were several other verses ; and often on
occasion the author would write a special one
fitting the circumstances. One of the original
verses most commonly sung was —

Pi'!

^^ T

1 80 T/ic Preparation of Ryerson Embury

" That boy of yoiir's don't talk, my burly l)ucko !

Of culture and of college and of art.
Yet he learned to read and write,
And cipher and recite

As (iiiick as those who now talk twice as smart.
He'll spend his life amid the soot and cinders,

But you'll be pleased and grateful to recall
That the sons of other men
For his dollar will make ten

By supplying him with work — and that is all."

i';'ll«£!S^ iCiaiiti :1 !. teiw. Jj lifevi'itiiii'.'.i

XVIIl

An afternoon shut in by a low ^rey sky and teased
by a neuralgic, dust-lit'ting wind, several days later
than the night meeting on the Common, found
Mrs Brownell and Grace sharing a fire of soft coal
in their sittinir-room cerate with Rev. Arthur Drake
Walters, wlio was reading to them with copious
comments from Shelley. He disapproved of
Shelley's theology, and read him tliat he might
show how easily a really well-read theologian
could puff it away. And he was succeeding
famously ; for Mrs Brownell confined her remarks
to, " How very dreadful," and " To be sure," and
" Isn't it a wonder that these men can't see how
foolish they are I " ; while Grace said nothing at all.
Grace had grown older than the almanac would
have told you since she walked straight on home-
ward past Ryerson on that spring night not really
so lonof afjo. The face had lost a little of its
roundness ; the chin was thinner and more distinct ;
the eyes looked at you more seriously. She
seldom busied herself with " fancy work " now, and
sat this afternoon with her hands folded in her lap
looking absently into the fire. Happily for the
others, this was not with her an "intense" day,

nor was she playing the madcap. She always knew

181

I. i

IMAGE EVALUATrON
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

t/j

I • V ' |i£

I.I

1.25

"Mia iiM

I— IIIIIZ2
2.0

t 1^

14. 11.6

■7y

e2^ .1>^ ^'t>

«»»'^*

^ ^

%' '■

€^

^9)

*?
*

^. V. '^o^

»s^'^'%\^

^v- * -1

1 82 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

what Mr Walters was saying, though she felt
impatiently at times that he was making much
out of little.

"Are you sure Shelley means so badly?" she
asked him once, and then he turned to the poet's
prose notes and read passages that silenced her.

Presently there was a sound of girls' voices in
the hall, at which Grace rose quickly — and with-
out altogether concealing a breath of relief — to
go out.

"Bring the girls in," suggested Mrs Brownell;
and then to Mr Walters, "It is Grace's 'club,'
I think. I always call it her ' club,' though it is
only a few girls she has got in with lately."

" Yes, I know," replied Mr Walters, tolerantly ;
" the Morton crowd."

When Grace came back she brought t ith her
four young ladies who had thrown their jackets
open, but had resisted all invitations to lay them
aside. There were the two Miss Mortons with
two years' difference in their ages, but nearer ten
in their minds ; then there was Miss Dalton, a tall,
slight woman of thirty-five odd — very odd — who
wore glasses and had spent several of her super-
abundant years in Europe; and lastly there was
Mrs Larry Burnaby, who chaperoned the party on
occasion by virtue of her wedding ring, though she
was easily the gayest of the quintette.

" Shelley ! " sniffed Miss Dalton, when they had
all made the proper number of greetings. " I call

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 183

him ' Mary's little lamb/ though not because of any
resemblance to the lamb's proverbial innocence, you
may be sure.'"

"Oh, Shelley is all right in safe hands," Mr
Walters assured them all impartially. "I have
been making a study of him recently, with a
view to lecturing to the college boys on his
more dangerous tendencies."

"I should think," put in Mrs Burnaby, "that
you might safely trust the college boys not to
open him if you do not go and label him
* dangerous.' "

" Did you ever read Miles Standish — by Long-
fellow, you know ? " Miss Carrie Morton, the
younger of the sisters, inquired of Mr Walters
with a little air of learning; but he ignored her
question, turning to Miss Dalton with, " J am sure
that you find Ithica dull after your long residence
abroad."

" Dull ? No," replied that lady, " not a bit of it.
I find more human interest here than anywhere
else."

" Ah, yes," he admitted ; " that is true. As some-
one has well said, the whole ocean is in a drop of
water."

"I shouldn't want to take his word for any-
thing important," commented Grace ; " for instance,
whether a road was good for * wheeling ' or not."

There was a general laugh at this, more from
good nature than amusement; but Mr Walters

t M

^ i

, i

184 The Preparation of Ryerson Ernhiry

turned smiling, but serious, to her with, " You do
not understand my meaning, Grace. It is really
quite true."

" Of course it is," Grace admitted with hurried
emphasis, and another little break of laughter that
was not without impatience.

After a time the circle was enlarged by the
arrival of Dr Holden, who still loved Mrs
Brownell's " talk exchange " of a dull afternoon,
Mrs Masterson and Mrs Webster, the wife of the
junior partner of Webster, Saunders & Webster.

Dr Holden was full of narrative this afternoon,
and he usually could get a section of the ladies to
listen to him. The others discussed the weightier
matters of the law of autumnal fashions, and the
social programme for the season, giving the doctor
the pauses in their conversation. Miss Morton and
Grace had a half-facetious, half-serious tilt with
liim over some severe remarks he was said to
have made on the subject of the " new woman,"
which put Mr Walters in a state of excitement,
for he was constantly apologising to the doctor
for Grace, and explaining to that young lady the
doctor's terse remarks.

Someone, in an unguarded moment, asked Miss
Carrie Morton if she wouldn't sing something;
but she assured those who were listening, with
much elaboration, that she could not think of such
a thing ; she had learned nothing new recently.
" Nonsense, Carrie," said Mrs Burnaby. " You

■laMWMM

■iiy 1. 1 vfitr^- ■ -^rj-j^.r

T^e Preparation of Ryerson Embury 185

know lots of things. Give us one of your old
ones."

" But there's no piano," protested Carrie, tugging
unconsciously at the finger-tips of her gloves.

" There is in the drawing-room, and we can hear
you quite plainly," Grace volunteered.

" But — I — don't — know — a — thing — worth —
singing," insisted Carrie, with many a shake of her
head, though by this time her gloves were off and
her eyes shining with pleasure.

" Sing that beautiful thing you sai)g at the
Epworth League meetiug the other night," sug-
gested Mr Walters.

Carrie then took her sister, who had tried to
look unconscious through all the preliminary pro-
testations, to keep her in countenance, and disap-
peared in the direction of the drawing-room,
whence, after considerable whispering, she w^as
heard to sing, in a sv/eet-toned voice and patty-
pan manner, a religio - sentimental ditty, be-

gmnmg-

" I should like to die, said Willie,
If my papa could die too ;
But he says he is not ready,
For he has too mucli to do. "

fc;

" Willie must have been a spirited youngster,"
was Miss Dalton's comment to Grace when the
singing had ceased.

Meanwhile Mrs Webster was doing the vivacious
and amiable to Mrs Masterson, whom she had long

1 >

1 86 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

thought worth cultivating, though the soil did seem
a trifle cold and '* clayey." She gushed over her
flowers, she inquired after the health and wealth
of the Ladies' Aid to which she belonged, and then
she expressed sympathy at the long duration of
the " strike."

" Oh, well, the Union leaders are making some-
thing out of it, I suppose," said Mrs Masterson,
with a grim face. " It is to be hoped so, for no
one else is. The men and their families are simply
starving."

"I don't see why they won't take work when
they can get it," commented Mrs Brownell, sighing.

" Why, you know, mamma " put in Grace, " it is
because they cannot get pay enough."

*•' Pay enough ! " ejaculated Mrs Masterson, turn-
ing sharply around on her. " Do you think that
Mr Masterson will not give them all they earn ? "

The blood mounted to Grace's forehead, but she
said with calmness, " I'm only reminding mamma
of the reason given by the strikers themselves."

" Oh ! " was Mrs Masterson's short but sufficient
comment.

" Weren't you frightened the other night when
they talked of burning you out ? " gushed Mrs
Webster.

"Didn't know it till next morning," was Mrs
Masterson's telegraphic response; then she added,
" I believe, by the way, that we owe that outbreak
to a clerk in your office."

■Mwa

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 187

icient

rhen
Mrs

Mrs

Idded,
break

"Oh, you mustn't blame Mr Webster for that.
. He said the other day that the ' young firebrand '
you speak of won't be a clerk there very long."

" I should think not/' said Mrs Masterson, em-
phatically. "William said, when he heard about
Embury's speech inciting the mob to come and
burn us in our beds, that he would have to find
out if his own law firm intended to harbour
Anarchists in our midst."

"The history of that young man is an object-
lesson to all youth," remarked Dr Holden, senten-
tiously, with his fingers interlocked. " He flung
away religion, and now he has the torch in his
hand."

Someone was standing in the door as this was
being said, and when they looked up, Mrs Brownell
arose with, " Why, how are you, Mr Tracy? Come
in, won't you ? "

" I would like to see you just a moment, if that
be possible," he replied, and then nodded formally
to the two clergymen whom he knew.

* No, come in," said Grace, going up to him and
giving him her hand. "We are just discussing
your people, and they sadly need a friend here."

" You have proven yourself that," said Mr Tracy,
mildly. " You and your mother."

Rev. Thomas Tracy was a short, spare man,
with an anxious face and not a little grey in his
hair. He had a blue eyar'tEaii''i!i^HiE3Rtii ,ki®rf-
ness, thoupjh at times it flattierch wiifh tkefimjyQf a

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

r3ii-

1 88 The Prepa7'ation of Ryerson Embury

fanatic when defending his " people " — the poor —
from what he considered an unjust attack. His
black coat was edged with braid now — it had not
always been so — and the seams were unnecessarily
noticeable. There was a patch on the side of his
left boot, and his carefully-starched collar showed
the coarser texture of the inner cloth at several
points.

" It is on behalf of my people that I am come,"
he said in a patient voice as he took a tentative
seat on the edge of a chair and balanced his hat by
the brim. " I was going to appeal to your charity
once again for several mothers who have neither
food nor fuel }his inclement weather," he went on,
looking at Mrs Brownell.

" Why don't ' your people ' work for a living as
I've always had to do ? " asked Mrs Masterson,
sharply.

" Because your husband won't pay them a living
wage ! " he answered witliout so much as increasing
the rate of his utterance.

" Nonsense ! " she snapped.

"I think there are two sides to that, Brother
Tracy," Mr Walters broke in, with an anxious
geniality which marked him out as a peacemaker.

" No, there are not," was Mr Tracy's calm re-
sponse. " There is no one in this room who would
attempt to live on the wage that Mr Masterson
offers to these people."

" Oh, that is quite beside the question," said Dr

;

-^««MMAlMyNU»«iW«

■■n

The Pi'eparation of Ryerson Embury 189

Holden, with impatience at so boorisli a remark
" What would serve them in their station of life
would not necessarily serve us."

" My Master is no respecter of persons," was Mr
Tracy's unruffled reply ; " and, besides, the pay
offered these men would not suffice for a Christian
livelihood." Then he turned his eyes a little
wearily to Mrs Brownell, for he saw nothing to be
gained in debate with settled prejudice.

Mrs Brownell rose to take Mr Tracy into an
adjoining room to hear his story, when Mr Walters
interposed with an air which was a nice blend of
the confidential and the authoritative.

" Now, Mrs Brownell," he said, standing up, I
think we ought to consider this matter very c . .-
fully before acting. Do these people, who will not
work, deserve help ? Should they be encouraged
in their obstinacy ? Charity should pause before it
leads to pauperism."

Mrs Brownell stopped irresolute.

The first smile of the afternoon hung like wintry
sunshine over the face of Mr Tracy. "And a
certain priest . . . passed by on the other side,"
he quoted.

Grace had risen, however, when her mother
paused ; and now she touched Mr Tracy's coat
sleeve and said, " Come and tell me about it,
mamma is busy with her guests." And then to
the company, " I know nothing about the rights
or wrongs of this strike, but I don't believe that

i
\

i r

I go The Prepar^ation of Rycrson Binbtcry

starving a man's wife to make him give in is — is
even civilised warfare."

Outside with Mr Tracy she heard his familiar
story, and then fell into general chat with him
about the strike situation, in the course of which
she casually asked what this report was about
" young Embury's " incendiary speech.

" Mr Embury," said Mr Tracy, smiling, " has the
zeal of the new convert. His eyes have just been
opened upon the great modern struggle, and he's
aflame with it. He's a Christian and he don't
know it. That's all ! " And the worn man smiled
again.

"A Christian?" repeated Grace, with somethijig
of amaze and something of a budding delight in
her tones.

" Yes," he replied simply, " a Christian is a man
who fights for the weak and not against them.
The boy has not had my religious experience, and
he is the poorer for the lack ; but he's with us —
he's with us. And it looks as if he would have to
bear some stripes in the cause."

" Did he really tell the men to burn out the
Mastersons ? "

" No, no ! Though some of them understood
him to hint at something of the kind. Others
again think that he was trying to get the men to
give up the strike, and some even accuse him of
being sent by Masterson's lawyers to do this. But
there's nothing in it. It only shows how easily a

WB.

msm

)od

^ers

Jut

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 1 9 1

man is misunderstood. I didn't hear the speech,
but I guess that his heart was too big for his
mouth — that's all. I've felt that way myself when
the infamous, the irreparable wrongs suffered by
the working classes have become especially real to
me," and the little minister's eyes glowed as he
turned them full upon Grace. " Sometimes I have
felt," he went on, " as if the thing must be stopped
right off — as if I must go out and take society by
the throat and — " Then the sympathy in her face
reminded him of how vehement he had grown, and
he stopped short.

"Ah, well," he added presently, laughing in a
noiseless way, " I am now doing ambulance duty —
that is all. It is only a Christ who dare go into
the very Temple with his scourge ? "

l^i!

' I

: i

XIX

That night speech on the Common did, as
Madden had prophesied, get Ryerson into trouble.
The very next day after its delivery, Mr Saunders
called Ryerson into his private office and told him,
with the real kindness that a jocular tone can often
best carry, that that kind of talk was too expensive
a luxury for either j^'oung lawyers or young
preachers to indulge in. " The best clients of both
preachers and lawyers are, you know, the men
with the long purses," he said, " and they do not
care for anarchy or arson or any of these exciting
amusements in ' theirs.' " He went on to express
the hope that no real harm would come of this
speech. "I shouldn't wonder," he said with a
twinkle, " if you were sufficiently beside yourself
on that occasion to swear that ' the other fellow '
made those pyrotechnic remarks. But," he added,
"if that crowd had got down to Masterson's last
night, the firm could not have retained both
your esteemed services and Masterson's valued
patronage."

When Mr Saunders had begun talking about
the affiiir, Ryerson promptly decided to take the

192

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 1 93

first opportunity of tolling him that last night's
speech had not been any stronger than his most
profound and calm convictions concerning the
matter, and that he would continue to say such
things as long as he lived. But Mr Saunders's
manner of treating the affair disarmed him. "Jlie
lawyer seemed to be moved by a very genuine and
good-humoured interest m his (Ryerson's) welfare.
His point of view was thoroughly worldly and
thorou<jhly friendly. When Ryerson spoke of
his own sincerity in the case, Mr Saunders
accepted it as an admitted fact hardly calling
'^'or mention, but added that Ryerson could not
help the strikers by losing his own chance in
life.

" My boy," he said, standing up to put his hand
on Ryerson's shoulder as he spoke, " I was young
once myself. Most of us older men were. But
you can't move the world until you get a place
on which to stand — a sort of financial ' pou sto ' ;
and," he finished a little sadly, " when most of us
get that standing place, we don't want to move
anything."

But it soon turned out that Mr Saunders was
too optimistic about the results of Ryerson's
speech. Mr Webster, the younger, was still to be
heard from with his impetuous contempt of " fresh-
ness " and " fool talk " and everything that does
not make for business progress ; and Mr Webster,
the elder, had not yet had his patent leather con-

I ■

; ' ;

194 ^'^^ Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry

servatism shocked by the outrageous and revohi-
tionary language upon which this boy — this office
boy — had ventured. Nor had Mr Masterson yet
dropped into the office to serve a fev/ sarcasms
upon his hiwyers touching " the future member of
the firm," and tlie new clientele they were bidding
for.

When these more hostile voices w^re heard, Mr
Saunders laboured with some patience and skill to
smother them with banter. He talked of Ryerson
as " an impulsive lad with a taste for speech-
making," and thought that they should not
"punish a verbal spree more severely than one
of the alcoholic variety." When Mr Mauterson
stormed about a " firebrand," he objected with a
laugh — '* Nonsense, you mean a cigarette light."
But their anger was not to be entirely laughed
down.

So Mr Saunders took Madd -> into his confidence,
telling him that Ryerson w.... still in danger, and
suggesting that he delicately let him know this
and keep him clear of further risk. Madden at
once brought his tact and resource to bear on the
situation, beginning by casting doubts carelessly
into the air, when Ryerson was about, whether
the workmen either understood or appreciated
his harangue, and taking early occasion also to
effect an alliance with Miss Josie Fitzgerald. Miss
Josie was amazed that Ryerson should imperil his
future deliberately in so foolish a way, but speedily

: \

ury

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 195

olu-
>ffice
yet
isms
er of
iding

i, Mr

all to
erson
)eech-
l not
Q one
terson
ith a
jlight."
,usjhed

idence,
T, and
this
ten at
)n the
ssly
|].iether
eclated
Iblso to
Miss
jril his
:eedily

came to look upon it as a new kind of intoxication
to which the incomprehensible male animal was
liable, and regarded it as her duty to woo him
away from it, if possible.

Madden's expressions of doubt about the ap-
preciation of tlie working men found the readier
lodgment in Ryerson's mind because of some
outbreaks of hostility toward himself in that
quarter which he had heard lately to his own
great amazement and chagrin. There was talk
in the air that the strike was about to collapse;
and one of the fellows at " Black's " had flung it

in his face that his " d d mealy-mouthed speech

on the Common that night was chiefly to blame."
On another occasion, when passing a crowd of
workmen opposite a saloon, he heard distinct
" groans," and one man had said something about
"a limb of the law who did Masterson's dirty
work." It was hard, indeed, not to see that the
strike was on its last legs. The men were in a
savage temper, and Ryerson began to stay away
from their quarter of the town, for he got nothing
but ill-looks *and short answers when he went
there. He did not know, of course, that that was
all the discouraged and beaten fellows had for any-
body, and he interpreted it as a feeling against
himself for "meddling." The fact was that the
leaders of the strike were preparing the men for a
surrender. Two new circumstances had suddenly
determined them to take this course. The whole-

■'i- * '\

;■

t ;

T96 T//e Prepai'ation of Rycrson Evibiiry

brotherhood elsewhere seemed likely to be involved
olmost immediately in a much laro^er strike, and they
would need all their funds for the struggle. Then
the Masterson- Williams combination had decided at
last to take more aiiff^ressive measures, be<i^inninii"
by bringing in workmen from abroad. Now there
were not enough workmen in the town of Ithica
to make anything like an efi'ective figlit against
the free admission of these new hands to the
works, so they were reluctantly driven to the
conclusion that it would be better to establish an
armisiice, at least for a time, in this part of the
field. But no leader can abruptly pull down a flag
with impunity ; and these men, sore at heart at
the necessity, were preparing their followers for
the inevitable. Their plan was to call a private
meeting and ask for permission to treat with
Masterson and the Williams people, but to precede
it with a public meeting at which Ryerson's " cue "
was to be accepted and the wide possibilities of
political action painted in promising colours.
From this it will be seen that they had nothing
to do with the " groaning " at Ryerson, nor the
attacks upon the hona fides of his speech ; but
again the young man did not know.

One Friday — a fairly dark-coloured Friday for
him — two notes awaited him at his boarding-
house at night. Mr Webster, junior, had been curt
with him several times that day, and he read in
this the coming of the end to his law studies in

^ ll

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 197

that place. Then at noon a couple of Masterson's
late employees whom he had come to know recently
met him on the street and told him as a secret that
the strike was to be called off soon, and talked of
the news as if he (Uyerson) would be notoriously
glad to hear it. They meant nothing offensive by
this. Their eyes had been opened by his political
action speech. But he knew how morose and de-
pressed they all were at the failure of their great
struggle, and his only thought was that they con-
nected him with this failure and covered him with
blame accordingly.

The first of the notes that he found at home
that night was from the American labour leader
asking him to speak at a meeting of the strikers to
be held in the Labour Hall on Monday evening to
discuss " the political side of the labour problem " ;
and the other was from Josie Fitzgerald, and read
as follows : —

"In the Pai.'t Room (Miss Taylor's),
" Friday Afternoon,

" Dear Mii Embury, — We are supposed to be
painting, but most of the girls are chattering
dreadfully. I need not add that Miss Holden is
out. So I take advantage of the occasion and
write a note to you.

" I want you to be sure and come out to Glen
Ewart early on Sunday afternoon ; and wear your
best bib and tucker, for I'm going to take you

' ■'

1 ■

198 The Preparation of Ryerson Etiihiry

to call on The Evvarts. Mrs Ewart said that I
might. Now come prepared to look and talk your
best.

" I heard a nice compliment about you on Tues-
day which I'll tell you on Sunday. I hear Miss
Hoi den's mincy-mincy step coming down the hall,
so I'll rivet my attention on cobalt blue again. —
Your sincere friend, JosiE."

The air of Sunday afternoon was full of sun-
shine and " charged " with frost. It was that kind
of air which most nearly approaches champagne,
and the walk out to Glen Ewart gave Ryerson an
exhilaration he had not felt for many a day. He
could not remember either to have ever seen Josie
better dressed, yet she was by no means so allur-
ing as usual. Commonly you hardly thought of
her dress ; it was the lithe, magnificent girl with
her smooth, dark face and her constant suggestion
of a full pulse and a curbed passion for move-
ment that you saw. But to-day her gown had
fettered her, and her gloves had conquered the
elasticity of her hands, and her very hair was
tortured into primness. However, Ithica could not
produce better clothes. She looked Ryerson over
as they sat talking a while in her little parlour,
and if her eyes were to be trusted she could have
criticised his dress at several points. She made
no comment, however, contenting herself with
pinning a rose in his buttonhole, he being " a

The Preparation of Ryerson Embitry 199

coiiHeuting party " but hardly guilty oi" " aiding
and abetting."

And then they set out for the Ewarts. Thel
Ewarts were the grand people of the entire district.
Two )r three families only in Ithica were on call-
ing terms with them ; and they spent much of \l
their time away — in Montreal, New York and at
the seaside. Rumour made them fabulously rich ;
but the free Canadian spirit of the district kept
this from gaining little for them except isolation. /

The Ewart house, which was grey stone and
irregular, stood well back from the Glen Ewart
road, and was reached by a winding drive-way,
which passed through massive gates and by
a lodge, and then buried the visitor in a great
grove, broken at times by patches of sward.
Finally it emerged at the foot of the slight
eminence upon which the house stood, and led ,
you under a magnificent porch at the side. Mrs /
Ewart, a genial, broad-faced "Lady Bountiful"!
for the neighbourhood, received them in a cosy'
little room off the hall, from which they could
see through the open door into the wide parlours
just opposite. A rich mantel with a polished mirror
above it was the thing chiefly in view. Miss
Edith Ewart, the daughter who notoriously assisted
her mother in her charities, was the only other
member of the family whom they saw. Mrs
Ewart regarded Josie as one of her 2)roUgeSy and
readily acceded to her request for permission to

I 11:

20O The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

bring this young gentleman whom she " knew
very well " to call on her on Sunday afternoon.

The talk began with the weather, and then
veered abruptly to a discussion of Ryerson's pro-
fession. Mrs Ewart was delighted to hear that
he was with Mr Webster. She knew " dear Mr
Webster " very well indeed, a man of most proper
opinions, and she was confident that Ryerson
could not fail to succeed if he imbibed his chief's
legal knowledge and moral principles. Josie was
invited to tell of her experiences at Miss Taylor's,
which she did with a reserve and yet a sprightli-
ness so thoroughly in keeping with the tone of
the company, that Ryerson, who had always per-
mitted himself some boisterousness and easy
manners w^ith her, was conscious of surprise.
The whole call, indeed, suggested delightfully
an atmosphere of refinement. The light play
of the conversation presently fell upon books,
and he found that the reading of the ladies of
the house had been confined to literature, pure
and simple. They had read nothing strenuous,
and they had lifted eyebrows for all so-called
novels with a purpose. Lucille^ Miss Ewart found
to be a charming thing, but she had not read
Main Travelled^ Roads, and did not think that
she would like it.

As the talk went on, Ryerson cushioned him-
self more easily in his chair, and was conscious
of a sensuous pleasure in the harmonious luxury

-m^i

■Mmmm

The Preparation of Ryerson Embtiry 201

Ihim-
jious
:ury

of his entire environment. The unkempt side
of life, the strain of life, even that tang of struggle
which accompanies a fresh success, were not sug-
gested by so much as an impatient thought. ,
The world was a lady's parlour, literature was/
a flower garden, suffering and hunger were food
for delicious pathos and were instantly to bei
relieved by alms, and he and a gloved Josie were/
to live in this world and no other. \

He thought of " Black's," and that night on ■
the Common, and the sallow, unshaven strikers ;
and a little shudder of relief passed over him at i
having escaped from them all soon enough. ■ /
Madden had said that he would become known \l
as a labour leader if he kept on ; and what chance
would a labour leader ever have to penetrate into
such a life as this on anything like equal terms ?
And this was the life to be tried for. When he
shook hands with Mrs Ewart, she again told him
that she was glad he was with Mr Webster, and
surmised that he might come out again some time
with the Websters. Then Josie and he walked
down the long, winding avenue with the low
autumn sun in their faces ; and that shrewd young
lady perceived that the stage-setting which she had
prepared in his mind for her appeal to his ambi-
tion had been most excellently chosen.

That night, in Josie's own little parlour, Ryer-
son renewed his vows to Success. He seemed to
have been seized with a physical repugnance to

■i

) 4

202 The Preparation of Ryerson Enibttry

il:

poverty and all its ill-shapen wpawn. CompaHsion
for the poor he would always have. Josie re-
counted the unobtrusive charities of Mrs Ewart
until the giving of alms rang in his ears as
genteelly as the striking of the deep-voiced clock
in the long hall at the Ewarts'. But to fellow-
ship with them, to risk sharing their poverty,
to be classed as one of them and be barred there-
by from the soft carpets and rich hangings of
refinement, surely it was not he with his passion
for the beautiful who had ever thought of making
such a choice. Mental pictures of the strike
leaders came into his mind, and he laughed at
the idea that he should choose their companion-
ship rather than that of — well, names did not
matter. Josie's constant mention of the Ewarts
had at last stirred in him a fear of possible
toadyism.

And Josie herself was now a hearthstone com-
panion a man might well labour to win. She
had escaped from the harness of the afternoon's
parade, and was again the lithe, gipsy Josie with
her masses of black hair and her gift of home-
making which touches the young man as a gush
of warm light through an unshuttered window
will a lonely traveller in a foreign city. He liked
to see her hold her hands to the colour-flinging
fires in the grate-like stove, while her loose sleeves
fell back from the rounded forearms an J the light
reddened and paled on her smooth cheek. He

vry

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

203

non
re-
/art
1 as
lock
low-
erty,
acre-
's of
.sHion

iking
strike
ed at
inion-
d not
jwarts
ssible

com-
She
noon's
with
home-
a gush
indow
} Uked
inging
sleeves
e light
Ik. He

liked to have her push a chair into place for him,
and then coax him to tell her how Madden and
he arranged their furniture in their room in town.
He liked to see her stand upriglit before him with
her hands clasped behind her while she told him,
half in mockery and half in earnest, that she had
not yet decided whether she would have him
become a judge or a member of Parliament.

Then just before he left she asked leave to
talk to him seriously. He turned to her surprised
and asked what the matter could possibly be.
He cast about rapidly in his mind, but could think
of no other girl of whom she could by the wildest
exaggeration be jealous. Well, she said, and she
plainly found it difficult to go on, did he know
that his generous help to the labour men was
putting his whole future in danger ? He had
heard something of that, but was confident now
that ail danger was over.

" Not if you do it again," she said a little anxiously.

" I don't think I'm apt to," he replied lightly ;
and he smiled into her eyes all his appreciation
of 1 interest in him.

The skies were spangled with stars as he
walked home, and he looked at them and drank
of their splendour and thanked God that he had
not linked his future to the grey clods which
never went starward unless they were flung there
in anger.

This Sunday had been a busy one to the Rev.
" Tommy " Tracy. Most Sundays were, indeed,
with their two services, their morning " class "
and their afternoon Sunday School ; but this
day a new task had fallen to the little man's
lot which had kept him so busy that he had
quite missed Sunday School altogether — a
happening so unwonted that the scholars
thought more of it and its possible cause than
of the "lesson."

It came about in this wise. The night previous
Mr Tracy had been invited, as he frequently had
of late, to meet in council with the strike leaders
to discuss the ever -darkening situation. They
were all building their hopes now on the success
of Monday night's meeting. That was to fire the
men with enthusiasm for the new policy of political
action, and thus prepare them for the temporary
abandonment of the strike programme. But they
were disturbed now with misgivings as to the
prospects for a successful meeting. They had
been depending almost entirely upon the practised
rhetoric of an imported speaker, and the contagious

204

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 205

enthusiasm of Ryerson Embury's younf^ optimism ;
and here they were not sure of <:jettin^ either man.
The outsider had teleo^raplied tliat he could not
possibly be there, and Ryerson, when seen on
Saturday, had been very indefinite about his
intentions in the matter. " I'he men won't listen
to us talk anythini]^ but strike," they said; and
as for " Tommy " '^l^i'acy, he was a preacher, and
so was without the confidence of the men in
practical matters.

" Why," said Mr Tracy, emphatically, " Embury
will come sure wlien he knows the iinportanee
of it."

- " I don't know," commented one of the men,
doubtfully. " lie's in Websters', and I hear that
they're putting the screws on him."

" That won't stop him," Mr Tracy assured them.
*' lie's made of the ri^ht stud'. I'll see him to-
morrow and get a positive promise from him
for you." And this accounts for " Tommy's "
busy day.

He went around to Ryerson's boarding-house
immediately after dinner, but, of course, found
him gone to Glen Ewart. Madden was there,
however, and good-humouredly assured his caller
that he might as well save himself further trouble
in the matter — that Ryerson simply would not
speak a word on Monday night.

" How do you know ? " " Tommy " asked in the
best of faith.

• !l

2o6 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

" Because he is not a drivelling idiot," waa
Madden's prompt rejoinder — equally in the best
of faith. "Now, look here," he said in an ex-
planatory tone, " it would cost him his place in
the office to make mat speech, and surely you
don't want him to risk that. Why don't you
make a * talk ' yourself ? "

" Tommy " looked at the confident young man
silently for a few moments, and then he said,
" It may cost him his soul if he don't make
that speech," and turned away. Madden
hugged himself at this, and presently, when
"Tommy" was out of hearing, broke out into
a loud laugh.

" By cricky," he said, " those preachers are always
jingling the keys of heaven and hell at you. The
moment they become concerned in a thing they
promptly elevate it to a test of salvation. I'll
tell that to old Ry the moment he gets back
from Josie's, and then he couldn't go down to
that meeting and make a soul-saving speech with
a straight face."

Now " Tommy " journeyed up the street and took
counsel with himself. What should he do ? He
must get that promise from Ryerson. But he had
more doubt now of his ability to win the desired
promise single-handed. Ryerson, he recalled, was
nominally a Free Thinker, and he did not know
exactly how to appeal to such a man. Then he
remembered that he had heard somewhere that

try

was
best
cx-
e in
you
you

man
said,
make
idden
when
, into

Iways

The

they
I'll

back
5vn to

with

took
I? He
le had
lesired
was
I know
len he
that

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 207

Ryerson "kept company" witli Miss Grace
Brownell ; and, knowing that she was a friend
both to the poor and of himself, he determined
to see her about it — all of whieli shows that
Maddens and ministers are not so far apart in
tlic study of tactics after all.

lie hurried on to the Brownells', and found Grace
and Rev. Arthur Drake Walters settled down in a
sunny corner of the drawing-room to an hour's
preliminary study of the Sunday School lesson
of the day, before Mr Walters would have to
meet a late Bible class of young men at the
First Methodist Church. He liked to go over
these lessons with Grace, to accustom her, he
said, to a scholarly study of the Bible. " Should
you ever happen to become a minister's wife," he
would add with arch jocosity, "you may have to
teach a Sunday School class sometime ; " at which
Grace would look thoughtful but say nothing.
Grace went to greet Mr Tracv with outstretched
hand, and gladness in her eyes ; while Mr Walters
greeted him from his seat with inquiring eyebrows
and an official nod. He liked neither the man
nor the untimeliness of his "call."

Grace at once asked whether any of Mr Tracy's
" friends " were in trouble.

" They all are," he replied simply, " and I have
come to get some help from you."

" Now, look here," broke in Mr Walters, with an
unconscious quotation from Madden, "don't you

k !

- « .

I' M" *

208 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

think there ought to be a limit to your coddling
of those fellows ? "

" ' Those fellows ' are my brothers," replied
" Tommj^" without resentment ; " and I can tell
you that they show precious few signs of
coddling just now."

" I know," went on Walters, throwing himself
back in his chair and runninfij; his fincfers throuo:h
his luxuriant hair, " that I have no right to call you
to account ; but don't you ever think that you may
be dragging the Christian ministry into disrepute
! by consorting with law-breakers and encouraging

lawlessness ? "
j *' My Master was accused of consorting with
\ ' publicans and sinners,' " said " Tommy."

" Ah, yes," replied Walters, straightening up and
flinging his finger out at " Tommy." " Quite so.
But in so far as the charge was true, it was
for the purpose of wooing them away from sin."

'' ' Ditto ' in my case," said " Tommy," leaning back
and interlocking his fingers in his lap. " But," he
added a moment after abruptly, with an ominous
glint in his eye, " my Master did spend His life
with the poor and for the poor, while you are
spending yours with the very class of men who
crucified Him."

Walters's face went white and then red. " You
are very insolent," he said.

' Frank, you mean," said " Tommy," and his eye
was mild again.

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 209

Iback
" he
Inous
life
are
who

You

eye

Grace had been listening to the colloquy with a
heightening" colour of her own ; and when it
threatened to stop here, she asked, with a b'ttle
catch o2 excitement in her voice, " But what
do you mean, Mr Tracy, by saying that we —
that is, Mr Walters's congregation — are the class
who crucified Christ ? "

" Not you, Miss Grace," he replied kindly. " I
would rather put you in the household of Joseph
of Arimathea — "

Walters gave a contemptuous shrug to his
shoulders, as one who would call attention to an
act of doubtful candour or courage.

" Buo," Mr Tracy went on, " it was the Pharisees
who crucified Christ, and they were emphatically
the churchly sect of the time, and their sin was
that they took advantage of the weak and op-
pressed the poor. And the men who in this day
answer to that description are to be found in just
such churches as yours. Mr Masterson. for in- I
stance, has the third pew from your own." /

' And I suppose that Mr Masterson and Mr
Brown ell are Christ-killers," cried Walters, getting
to his feet, while ang^r filled his face and rode on
his voice.

"It is not for me to judge," said "Tommy,"
without so much as unlocking his fingers, " nor."
looking up with a firm eye, " for you to dilute
the Scriptures. You know as well as I that
Christ said, * Inasmuch as ye did it not to one

in ' ,

I i ;;i !

:' ( >

2IO T/ie Preparation of Rycrson Embitry

of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.' And
you know what the Board of Charities did ; and
you know what side your Church has been on in
this strike; and — But there is one, judgment I
will give," the worn minister exclaimed, suddenly
interrupting himself and getting in turn to his
feet, " and that is this," commanding Walters to
silence with a gesture — " the Pharisees were the
religious leaders of the people. They took upon
themselves the responsibility of interpreting God's
truth to man like to no class in our day save and
except the clergy. They betrayed that truth ; and
the merciful Christ, who had condemnation for so
few, poured His fiercest indignation upon them.
And I believe in my soul that the section of the
clergy who this day fail to preach the gospel of
brotherhood, letting the Mastersons think they are
following Jesus when they sweat the poor and
divide the spoil witli the Church, come under the
very condemnation that Christ thundered out on
the Scribes and Pharisees."

Neither Grace nor Walters had moved while
the frail preacher, with a burning eye and the
high - pitched voice of the terribly - in - earnest,
poured these words upon them ; or, rather, seem-
ingly through them and upon some shadowy but
immense concourse beyond. W^alters was the first
to move, and it was only to sit down. At this Mr
Tracy appeared to come to his everyday self again,
and his eyes turned full of apolOj,y upon Grace.

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 2 1 1

id
nd
in
bl

Liiy

lii«
5 to
tbe
ipon
lod's

and

and
or so
bliem.
ff the
)el of
jy are
and

ir the
|ut on

while
id tho
trnest,
seem-

[y ^^^
te first

ins Mr
again,
Lce.

" I am sorry to have said these bitter things to
you," he said. Then with a smile — "They don't
often escape me. It's no use — no use. But you —
you have been good to my people, and no one
who loves the unfortunate can fail of the love of
Christ," and he moved nearer to her and put out
his hand as if with a vague notion of comforting her.

" I fear," said Mr Walters, speaking very quietly,
" that you lose sight of the spiritual side of Christ's
teaching in your zeal for * your people.' "

"No," replied Mr Tracy, turning towards him
with a smile that was good-humoured if rueful ;
" but you can't get up much spiritual exaltation
on an empty stomach, nor in a thoroughly tired
man or woman. Then I really see in Christ's
teaching more about feeding the hungry and
banishing poverty generally than about spiritual
joys. Christ had a passion for the distressed and
the outcast — He even made a Magdalen His travel-
ling companion."

"A thoroughly repentant Magdalen," corrected
Walters in a shocked voice, looking apprehensively
at Grace.

" A repentant Magdalen ! " Mr Tracy repeated
after him in that voice in which one repeats a
notoriously unworthy excuse for a bad action.
" A repentant Magdalen ! I know of no phrase
that is more suggestive to me of a mocking and
sardonic irony. A repentant victim ! If I were going
to say it, I would have said an escaped Magdalen."

2 1 2 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

"Yes, possibly, yes," Walters sard confusedly,
getting up. The subject was embarrassing to
him when Grace was present, while poor
"Tommy" never thought of that phase of it —
there was so little room left in his mind for the
mapping out of the "dark continent " of life which
society does, roughly, into the domain of the young
female, the wider domain of the married female,
the still wider domain of the married male, while
the young male has a roving commission and may
know more before marriage than he dare admit
afterwards.

Then Mr Walters discovered that he must
hurry away to get to his Bible class, and rather
anxiously asked " Tommy " if he were going down
toward the town too ; but " Tommy " sat down with
the remark that he had come particularly to see
Grace about something important and would wait
a little longer. Grace went out into the hall to
see Walters get his broad-brimmed clerical hat,
his light overcoat, and his "stick," and start for
the church. He took advantage of the chance to
do some emphatic whispering, warning Grace to
be very careful and not let " Tracy " draw her into
any doubtful undertaking.

" I have grown up," said Grace, laconically.

" You must remember," urged Walters, " that he
has some most extraordinary ideas of Christian
duty. You can't put faith in him like you can in
most ministers, you know." And he carefully ad-

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 213

:or

nto

, he
iian
in
ad-

justed his hat on his head and buttoned his over-
coat with both eyes riveted on the glass in the
hat-rack. Otherwise he miijht have seen a furtive
smile on Grace's lips.

"He seems to me to live nearer to the life of
Christ than any minister I know," she said in even
tones, but a speck of red showed in each cheek.

" P]h ! " said Walters, giving a last set to his
coat ; then, realising her meaning " But you're
joking."

" No," said Grace ; she was smiling now.

" Ah ! but you must be," he assured her geni-
ally. *■ How would you like me to take his church
and — wear his — do as he does, I mean ? "

She said nothing to this, but her smile was
touched with pity — or was it scorn ?

" Well, I must start," he said briskly, holding
out his hand, in which she laid hers. " When
do I get that first kiss, Grace ? " he asked, drawing
her toward him.

" Not now," she said quickly, freeing her hand.
*' Not — not till I say so," she added more calmly.

'^ When will that be ? "

" Ah, you must not wait for that, Mr Walters.
I've told you not to wait for me. I'm afraid it
will never be."

"Nonsense, Grace."

'* Yes," she went on quickly, " there are times
when I am sure that it will never be ; and then —
and then I am not sure. But you must not wait."

^ 'I

I 1

li i 'I

214 T/ie Preparation of Rycrson Embury

" Why, I would wait as long as you wanted me
to,'' he said with a kind of wooden emphasis that
killed her seriousness.

" Well, your class won't," she retorted with a
nervous laugh.

" No," he agreed, brightening up. But he paused
a moment before going to the door, and presently
{said, " Well, there really is no hurry yet. An un-
married minister gets along all right until the
time comes for him to take a big church by him-
self. Then " — and his smile was patently roguish
— "he needs a wife. Good day," and he was
off.

When Grace got back to the drawing-room,
" Tommy " began at once and told her the whole
story of the plan to save the strikers from being
caught between two fires and wiped out, how
important it was that the " political action "
meeting should be a success, how entirely that
depended upon a strong speech from Ryerson
Embury, and what powerful influences there were
at work to keep Ryerson from speaking. Among
these latter he did not mention Josie, for the good
and sufficient reason that he knew nothing of her.

Grace showed neither weariness at his tale nor
surprise that he should tell it to her. Was she not
interested in all that concerned " Tommy's " people ?
Her eyes — and they were of a tender blue — had
the flash of admiration in them when he dwelt
upon the effect that Ryerson's speech was sure to

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 2 1 5

produce on the men, and " Tommy " felicitated
himself on getting along so well. When he spoke
of the influences that were working to keep
Ryerson from using this power, her lips — and
they were mobile and a soft red — pooh-poohed
them away ; and " Tommy " interpreted this to
m.ean that their owner knew that a word from her
would have this etFect. Then he recounted his
conversation with Madden that afternoon, at
which both eyes and lips showed their tine scorn,
and said that he was going back in the evening
to get the young man's promise for the anxious
strike-leaders, and that he would like to take a
note from Grace telling Ryerson that she thought
he ought to speak — "just to make sure."

" A note from me to Mr Embury ! " exclaimed
Grace, and both eyes and lips now spoke of nothing
but amaze and dismay.

" Yes," said " Tommy," simply, nodding his head
with complaisance.

" But — but — why, we don't speak now," she
managed to get out, and then blushed at the
childish phrase.

" A lover's quarrel ? " asked " Tommy," with a
serene smile, meant to be knowing but succeeding
in being no more than humorously solicitous.

" No ! No / " Grace denied with heated emphasis.
" We are not lovers. Who could have told you
such a thing ? "

*' I can't remember," said " Tommy," reflectively ;

' !

) .

il-

I ■'

: !

I::

2 1 6 7^-^^ Preparation of Ryerson Embury

,"bui i- certainly thought that you were 'keeping
company.' Probably I should not have bothered
you about this, but I'm very anxious — very anxious
to make sure of him for to-morrow night." And
" Tommy " thoughtfully beat the back of one hand
into the palm of the other and looked ruefully out
of the window.

" Well, but," said Grace, after a pause, " surely
the Websters will not object ? Is not this a speech
to make the strike stop ? "

" Ye — es " said " Tommy." " That is expected to
be one effect of it, but not in the way that the
Websters will like. This strike may stop tem-
porarily, but the men are to be urged to get
prepared to make a better fight for their rights
next time. There is to be no stop to the war on
the oppressors of the poor. This is only leading
the men out of an untenable position in order to
make a fiercer fight elsewhere ; and there is no
guarantee, for that matter, that the next battle
may not be a more effective strike."

" Oh ! " and then there was silence for a time.

"If," Grace began presently, "if" — but there
seemed to be trouble about going on — " if you
want to get a young lad}'^ to influence Mr Embury,
you should go to the one to whom he is supposed
to be engaged."

" Who ? " asked " Tommy," looking up with new
interest and in perfect good faith, for he was a
very simple-minded saint. He even looked toward

lere
you
ury,
osed

IS a
^ard

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 217

the door and showed himself ready to go the
monnmt he was given the puissant young lady's
name.

" Miss Fitzgerald of Glen Ewart," said Grace,
stiffly ; and " Tommy," whose eyes were on her
face, for the first time arrived at an inkling of the
true situation. But it was a hazy inkling at best.
" Tommy " was no carpet clergyman.

" Misw Fitzgerald ? Nonsense ! " he said, leaning
back in his chair. " A man of Embury's type will
care little for her — about as little as she would care
for my people."

" Do you know her { " in(|uired Grace, surprised.

" Enouirh." Then there was a thoui^htful silence
for a time.

" I tell you what I wish," he said presently. " I
wish you'd come to the meeting to-morrow night."

" Why ? What good could I do ? "

"Much. The men will appreciate your sym-
pathy."

" Well "—thoughtfully— " I guess I could get
Suzette to take me."

" I don't want your answer now. I want you to
write it to me, and I'll call for it about six
to-night."

" Oh 1 "

" Yes ; and 1 want you to say how much you
want the meeting to be a success in yimv note."

" Oh, I can't."

" Yes, you will. The future of two hundred

»i

2 1 8 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

i !

I; '■

families may depend on it. If the strike goes
on and these outside men once get into the
foundries, I don't know what will become of
many of the strikers and their families."

" But you wouldn't show it to him ? "

" Yes, I would ; and I had rather have a stroke
of your pen than the strongest word from that
daughter of a tavern."

At this Grace blushed furiously and quite forgot
to reprove him for referring in such a manner to
poor Josie, as she should have done.

" I don't think I could," she said presently,
biting her lip.

" Well, I'll call at six and see if you have,
anyway," he said, getting up and going out into
the hall for his hat, smiling the while covertly to
himself.

Grace followed him to the hall and watched him
prepare to go out into the frosty air.

" Oh, you needn't call," she said presently. " I
can get Jamesy, Suzette's little brother, to take it
down to you."

" Is he trustworthy ? "

" Oh, yes. But, of course, I may not write it."

" No ? " and he gave her his hand in parting.
Then he opened the door, and, bowing, was passing
out into the porch when she called after him, " I'll
come to the meeting anyway."

And he smiled still more knowingly as he looked
back and nodded approval.

4 i;

XXI

(I rn

Tommy's" visit to Ryer.son's boarding-house that
niglit was of no avail, of course, for Ryerson was
in a silken dream of beauty worship at Glen Ewart.
" Tommy " waited for him a while, however, and
Madden came in. He was then assured again, on
that young gentleman's vociferous authority, that
it was no use to worry Ryerson about that plaguey
meeting to-morrow night.

" Why should a man do a thing so diametrically
against his interests ? " Madden demanded of him,
standing like a tripod before him with his legs
apart and his cane forming the third leg behind him.

" Because it is man's duty to do good to his
fellow-men," replied the preacher.

" Why is it ? " insisted Madden, with an argu-
mentative smile on his lips.

"Because — because God says so," was " Tommy's"
answer.

" Bosh ! " rejoined Madden. " Do you think you
can talk that kind of thing to a sturdy Free Thinker
like Ryerson ? "

" I don't know," said " Tommy," with his itievit-
able simplicity ; but he thought of it a good deal
as he tramped back presently toward his comfort-

219

2 20 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

less room in the " tenement " — the one building of
the class in Ithiea.

Madden l»ad intended to tell Ryerson of these
visits ot " Tommy's " in the morning, and put him
in a proper attitude of humorous contempt
towards "Tommy" and his appeals by dwelling
on the little preacher's religious tone ; but when
be found that young man full of admiring chat of
the magnificent E warts and humming his old song
about her cheek being " rosy " and her name being
Josie, he determined to leave well enough alone.

When they had been at the office a little while,
Mr Saunders came to Ryerson with the rccjuest that
lie would help him in the pi'oparation of an im-
portant case then on hand. Ryerson was delighted
at the chance and eagerly assented.

" It will mean some niirht work," Mr Saunders
remarked, " and I should like to beirin to-nii^ht."

" Very well," said Ryerson. " Shall I come up to
3'our house ? "

" Yes, about eight. You won't fail, will you ? "
and the old lawyer gave him a keen but kindly look.

" No ; I should be afraid of losing the chance,"
was Ryerson's instant reply.

So matters went along until nearly noon, when
a lad handed Ryerson a note. He tore it open and
read, —

" My dear Embury, — Will you lunch with me
to-day at Dawson's ? I want you to meet a man I

Eil -.: 11)

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 2 2 1

have long known very well, and whom you must
know by reputation — Mr Wilson Crawford. He
is only in town for a few days, which accounts for
this unceremonious invitation. — Yours sincerely,

" Thomas Tracy."

»>

rhen
and

" Jehoshapliat ! " ejaculated Ryerson, tapping the
desk with his finger tips in his perplexity and
surprise. "'Tommy' giving a lunch at Dawson's
and to no less a person than Wilson Crawford.
Why, all I know of Wilson Crawford is that
he is always spoken of as the founder of the
Ithica Free Thought Club — the last sort of a com-
panion for the evangelical ' Tommy,' I should think.
Of course, I'll go — it'll be like a mental salad."
And he accordingly told the boy that Mr Tracy
might expect him.

Madden was not so enthusiastic over the affair.
He distrusted " Tommy " since the day before.

•' I don't believe he's got Crawford in tow at all,"
he declared.

" Then what's he asking me to lunch for % "
asked Ryerson.

" See here, old man," said Madden ; " I didn't tell
you, but ' Tommy ' was trotting after you all day
yesterday to get you to go to that labour meeting
to-night, and I suspect that this is a little game of
Ins to get you alone with him where he can tell
you, as he did me, that you might lose your soul if
you don't speak at that meeting."

22 2 The Pj^eparatiou of Ryerson Embury

" Whew ! " whistled Kyerson, thouglitfully. " I
never thought of that. Say, 1 don't v. ant to talk
to him about the matter either."

" Don't go then."

"But I've promised. How about Crawford,
though ? "

" A blind."

"No — o — 00, 1 don't believe it. ' Tommy' couldn't
put up a ' straight one ' like that."

'* You might be late."

" No, I'll go, and if ' Tommy's ' alone I'll make
short work of the lunch."

But " Tommy " was not alone. Wilson Crawford
sat with him awaiting Ryerson's arrival. Mr
Crawford was a man of middle age, but over
middle height, with a kindly, wholesome, serious
face and humorous eyes. He wore a beard and a
bushy head of hair, and his smile was a perpetual
guarantee of good faith.

The oddly-assorted pair sat chatting at a table
near the entrance to the main lunch-room at
Dawson's — a room that found in that town of
mid-day dinners its chief use as an ice-cream
parlour — but, at ohe arrival of Ryerson, "Tommy"
sprang up and led the way importantly to the
most private corner that the inner room of this
decidedly non-metropolitan cafe, could furnish.
And it was worth something to see " Tommy " play
the host. He had arranged all that was possible
beforehand, had reserved the exact table he wanted,

"""'■^y^tsmm-

■u

try
"I

•alk

'ord,

Idn't

make

wford
Mr

over

erious

and a

ctual

table
^m at

rn o£
Icream

my"
o the
f this
rnish.

" play
ssible
anted,

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

2 2 "5
** **" o

had made sure that tliey would have something " to
be ordered" for lunch, and had impressed upon Mrs
Dawson herself with great pains that Crawford
was a man who had seen the worM and would
appreciate her best efforts. "Tommy's" relations
to the worldly and travelled Crawford may as well be
put down here. As an old Ithica boy, Wilson Craw-
ford came back to the town from time to time,
and always took a close and practical interest in
the progress of the foundry men, and, indeed, of
the working classes generally. Ho was commonly
understood to be a student of the " labour question,"
and there was a club in New York where he was
known as " the mild-mannered Mirabeau." It was
no uncommon thing for him to take a room for a
month in " Tommy's " tenement, and the facts
there learned made copy in many a magazine I
that neither " Tommy " nor the tenement ever heard 1
of. It was here that he met the hard- working:,
cheerful, patient little minister, and as he grew to
know him, his lips grew less and less ready to say
bitter things of the religion the little minister
professed. " I'm beginning to think there's as
much in Methodism as in Mohammedanism," he
said to " Tommy " one day ; but the minister with
his direct mind made nothing of the saying. At
the same time, " Tommy " ca.ne to love Crawford for
the help he brought to his beloved people, and to
admire the magnificent calm of his judgment in
dealing with their perplexities. It is needless to

1 1

li tl

I «11WJM-?"»I''

224 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

'flfirl!

jl: I

say that the devout " Tommy " yearned over him as
a father might have done, and prayed for his " con-
version" witli fierce earnestness, though he ventured
little upon direct verbal appeal. For under such
attacks Crawford was at his worst and lacerated
" Tommy's " tender spirit with biting blasphemies.

Now, on the previous evening, when the per-
plexed minister walked slowly home from his
colloquy with Madden, wondering how he could
best appeal to the Free-Thinking Ryerson, it
suddenly occurred to him that Crawford was pro-
videntially in town and would be just the man to
take the lad on his own ground. So he hit upon
the idea of the " lunch " and obtained Crawford's
promise to come, telling him much of Ryerson's
new interest in the labour cause and of the import-
ance of having him speak at the meeting, and a
little about his connection with " Free Thought."

While lunch was being ordered and served there
was no conversation, only the flipping about of
disjointed remarks. " Tommy " was restive and
bothered, for the duties of entertainer in a public
lunching-room weighed heavily upon him. He
peppered the waitress with questions, not always
in a low voice, and kept up a fire of suggestion
to his guests. Finally they .settled down to com-
parative calm, however, when Crawford and
Ryerson drifted into a discussion of "the strike"
as a means of ameliorating the condition of the
underpaid workman. Ryerson, who had never seen

''^'^^^rfi^rf^!i^!i^fRy^^

--S

but tlie one strike had a prettv ,.
as a method of warfare ^f T^ "P""'"" °f "'
several brilliant sue— ih,. v. ^r^"''^ ^^'^'^d
this weapon. *''^' ''"'^ ^een secured by

"nder all conditions thLTh ? '''"''"y" employed

times it is very etf ct" r. '^'''^"»"^- «°«e-
the sacrifice of [heSt gH T^'"'^'' '' '« "'«

Then they talked oUheS: ^' ^f-'-a"
and "Tommy" was at 'rlS™ •?''''" ^*'>''^«'
hopeless it was to ^o on til. .? '''°^ ^°^^
•determined. " Vou ,-„„ i^rV'"' ""''" seemed
f^^ to Ryer::, '^ : ,^^,5-^hol, he .aid,
&"erson, one of the leaders !„ 1' '''"' ^''^^
hmi on Friday niMit to 2^^ °''' "''"•^'^ on
calling off of the sWke N^ h , ' '°°^'"' *° '^e
-d and. going outl'nfoth 11,^"*'°"' '^
the front door; then J,e said 1 P- "^ "P"--'
house has a mortgage on it *°,*^"<=«on, 'This
stnke going, and y^uy be t "^ Z^''*' *° ^^'^ the
for fear the mortgage fa ,1 '^ °"' "'''' '* """^^
hits you.' The m!n"are V T^"^ '''^ "^^ and
and if we can't Tt th!! I"'' .^'"•''■' ^ '^" ^ou ;
to-night, there wfll be f " T""'^ ^"°">er road
the light Brigad Embr"' '.'''" '^'^ ''^^ °^
Ryerson again .'von f r^' ^' '''''^' t"™ing to
" • On .rZT' ^ ^""P^y must speak "
On what compulsion must I ? • '■ i 'j ^
<l-hng his Shylock and lau; inl a litt' ""^"T '
Tommy " hesitateH „ ^ ™e nervous y.

^^'^'tated a^moment at this question,

2 26 The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

\ !

and then glanced at Crawford, as much as to say,
" This is in your bailliwick."

" Because of the noblesse oblige of the aris-
tocracy of truth," said Crawford, leaning forward
as one who ceases to be a spectator and becomes a

, participant in the game.

• Ryerson turned this over in his mind a moment
and tlien said, " Ah, but Mr Tracy exaggerates.
There are other speakers ; and then I — it is par-
ticularly awkward for me to take part in such a
meeting just now."

"As to that," said Mr Crawford, "your own
judgment must be your only guide. But I have
come to the conclusion that it is not well for him
in th sum of thiags who knows a truth tliat the
peopla need and who will not speak it."

" Yes, I believe that," said Ryerson, slowly ; and
he sat twiddlinof with the stem of his fjoblet for
quite a time.

" I appreciate your position," Mr Crawford went
on, " and I have not a word to say to influence you,
one way or the other. Mr Tracy thinks that the
fate of the night rests with you. I don't know.
Your better plan may be to go on, get to be a
lawyer, and then make your fight for truth. The
decision must be with you. But I certainly believe
that there is an imperative obligation upon the man
who knows a saving truth to preach it, and to give
his life to the preaching of it, in the manner he
judges to be most effective."

•is-

lent
ites.
par-
ch a

own
have

L- him
^t the

and
't for

'7"

7/^ Preparation of Ryerson Evilmry 227

g-ive

ler

" That's good Christian doctrine," said " Tommy,"
nodding approval.

" Yes, I think it is," returned Crawford, emphatic-
ally, turning to his host. " Jesus of Nazareth
preached the truth of truths without ceasing until
they killed Him for it."

"The truth of truths?" repeated Ryerson,
inquiringly.

" Yes. Brotherhood — love — which presupposes
liberty and justice."

" Isn't that a new doctrine for you ? " asked Kyersou .

" No, not very new," replied Crawford. " There
was a time, to be sure, wdien I was so enraged at
the false Jesus — at the Jesu& who is not seen until
He is lifted up on the cross — whom the churches
insisted on presenting as the only Jesus, that I
failed to see the living Jesus of the Gospels ; but I
hive lono; since found Him out." And a smile of
serenity lit up Crawford's strong face. " He was the
greatest of reformers, my boy," he went on, beaming
upon Ryerson. " He attacked privilege at a time
when privilege was impregnable. He fought for the
poor when they were so little able to fight at His
side that there was no uprising at the Crucifixion.
He preached a system that meant food for the
hungry, and clothes for the naked, and liberty for
all, and He said so unmistakably, and those who
think of Him as only promising happiness in
another life have either misread His teaching or
not read it at all — which is the more likely. The

5 i- ;*

228 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

method of reading the Gospels by ' passages ' is the
mother of much misunderstanding:."

" But the miracles and — and — all that ? " Ryerson
asked almost automatically.

"If you have been a Free Thinker to any
purpose," Mr Crawford began impressively, "you
have learned that truth is not a creature of
authority. It makes no difference whether truth
is uttered by divine lips or by human lips, whether
by Jesus or by the man possessed of a devil, or by
the devil which possessed the man, it is always
truth. Now the men of the time of Jesus did not
understand this. They wanted their truth vouched
for by divinity; and they recognised their gods
by the way they played pranks with their own
laws. To what extent Jesus worked * wonders ' as
a means of obtaining the confidence of the people
among whom He taught, or to what extent they
were only imputed to Him by His biographers, I
do not know, and, in the presence of a militant Mr
Tracy, I am not going to guess. But I do know
that He taught truth, and that is the point that
interests me. He insisted, for instance, upon the
equality of the human family."

" Like Henrv George," commented Ryerson.

" Like Henry George," agreed Crawford. " And
talking of George," he went on, " did you ever read
the land law of the Jews which they are said to
have received from divine sources ? "

" I don't think so."

,on

fon
of

uth

uher

rby

»^ays
not

ched

orods
own

s' as
iople
they
rs, I
.t Mr
i^now
that
the

And

read

Lid to

T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury 229

" Well, you look it up. It comes nearer to the
George principle than any code I know. The fact
of the matter is, my boy, that we, who discarded
religion because we found it made a stalking /
horse for the plunderers of the poor, have simply y
given up a weapon that is properly ours. Every
great religious leader has had but the one purpose
of rescuing the suffering section of humanity.
Look at Buddha and at Moses."

" But of Christ ? " asked Ryerson, turning back
to the subject concerning which Crawford's talk
had most stirred his surprise. " Aren't you giving
a one-sided picture of his preaching ? "

" Look at it. Look at it ! " said Crawford.
" Take that part of the Sermon on the Mount in
which He advises them to take no thought for
what they shall eat or drink, or wherewithal the}*
shall be clothed. ' But seek ye first the Kingdom
of God,' He says, ' and His righteousness ; and all
these things shall be added unto you.' Now, did
that mean anything ? I put it to Mr Tracy —
Was Jesus in earnest ? If so, it meant that if
these people obtained the Kingdom of God they
needed not to worry any more about food and
raiment. And what interpretation of the phrase
' Kingdom of God ' will fit that except * a right
social order,' as a friend of mine puts it, in which
he believes and I believe that every man should be
able to feed and clothe himself by simply doing the
thing he would choose to do."

tiU

■I

230 T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury

And so the chat went on lantil long after lunch
was eaten, now of Christ's teaching, now of the
laws for the relief of the slave and the oppressed
in the Old Testament, now of kindred teachings
by religious teachers in other lands and times.
And the lad's brain sang with the new thoughts
that crowded in upon it. The fire of the old
religious spirit which had taken him to the altar
at more than one " revival," which had made him
vow himself stubbornly to God's service at the
close of that last " revival " nearly two years before,
though he could not "get saved," burned again
within him. He felt the imperious hand of the
ancient " ouirht," which has come out of the un-
known in all times to compel the obedience of the
chosen crusaders, press heavily upon his shoulder.
Yet he feared himself to be simply mastered by a
greater mind, and he fought back any emotion as
likely to cloud his reason. He wanted opportunity
to think. So after testintj the confident doctrine
of Mr Crawford with as many questions as came
to him, he dropped out of the chat, and thought
and thought while the other two talked on regard-
less of him, now that the topic of their hearts lay
open before them.

Was this, then, Ryerson asked himself, the real
Christ whom these two men — the one a Free
Thinker and the other a Christian minister — saw ?
Was this why the "common people heard him
gladly " ? AVhy, surely. The Pharisee was a

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury

231

:eal
'ree

i,w ?
lim
a

religious man — t)ie pillar of the Church ; and his
sin was not unchurchliness, but that he bound
heavy burdens upon men's shoulders, and devoured
widow's houses, and omitted the weightier matters
of the law. judgment, mercy and faith. ISurely,
surely ! Why had ho not seen it before ? There
is nothing so bitter as to be misunderstood ; and
could it be possible that Christ was now enduring
this bitterness at the hands of the great majority
of those who believed themselves to be worshippers
of Him ? What sin, what black, damnable sin was
theirs, who first cloaked His teaching in spiritual
cjarments and stole His name for a rose-water creed !

And religious instinct ! Was that really, as
Crawford said, always properly a force seeking to
compel the strong to deal justly with the weak
and to lead us all to love one another. He hastily
tested this idea by as much as he knew of the
religions of the world, and concluded that it might
be so. He listened at times to the two men who
seemed never to stand still in dispute, but always
to go forward hand in hand. This point of view
was all new to him. Had he actually " found
Christ," as the preachers would say ?

"Tommy," however, did not forget him. When
he said something about going for a walk and then
back to the office, " Tommy," sly dog that he was,
pretended not to hear him, but went on telling
Crawford how deeply some of the wealthier
Ibhicans were interested in the strike.

i/'

232 T/2C Preparation of Ryersoii Embury

" Here, for instance," he said, with a magnificent
carelessness, " is a letter I got last evening from a
daughter of Stephen Brownell, wishing us success
at to-night's meeting." And he handed the missive
over to Mr Crawford to read. When he got it back
again, he passed it on to Ryerson as a matter of
course, without once looking at that young man.
The unconscious manner in Avhich this was done
would have deceived Sherlock Holmes, but poor
Mr Crawford had to repeat his last remark to the
little preacher three times before that individual
heard enouo-h of it to misunderstand it. This is
what Ryerson read : —

'"'■ 8vnday Eveninfj.

" My dear Mr Tracy, — I have seen Suzette and
it will be easy for us to avail ourselves of youi-
kind invitation and attend tlue labour meetino- to-
morrow night. Suzette's father and brother are
among the strikers. I am glad to go with Suzette,
for it will show how thoroughly I feel myself to
be with these workers — I who have been so sinful
an idler.

" I sincerely hope that the meeting will succeed.
These men of our own town ought not to be
sacrificed for lack of good leading. Then what
will become of their families ?

" It must be magnificent to be able to win the
confidence of these men and lead them out of
dancjer. No W'ork could be nobler. — Yours for
the people, Grace Brownell."

The Preparation of Ryerson Emdtiry

)£

Under this Grace had begun to write something
else, beginning, " If you men are afraid — " : but
har' evidently thought better of it and crossed
it out.

Ryerson read the note twice and then sat awhile
longer, in what waa nearer reverie than thought.
It was a May day in the wood by the river that
was chiefly on the surface of his mind. Under-
neath, the currents of thought plunged and whirled
and beat upon the banks. Once he thought of
Josie ; but there was a curl upon her lip as she
watched a body of grey-hued strikers straggle past
to their meeting. She glittered before him, but he
was weary and felt a sort of passion to kiss again
the rosy, soft, flower-like palm he knew so long
ago. The eyes above the palm were liquid with
sympathy. Then he roused himself. This was
boyish. What a mental attitude for an aspiring
leader of the prosaic people !

"I will speak to-night, Mr Tracy," he said,
getting up and abruptly interrupting a monologue
on the opportunity of the Church in the perplexity
of the poor by Mr Crawford. " If I should change
my mind, I'll let you know before six," he added
with an eye to his recent wavering.

The little preacher broke into a delighted smile,
got up and shook hands with the young man
warmly and long, and then, spreading open his
coat tails, sat down again without saying a word,
but still smilino^ almost audiblv.

'A' < lilt

■ii

XXII

Ryerson did not go back to his office, but walked
about for an hour and then went to hiw room to
leave a note for Madden, telling him briefly that
he had decided to speak, that he k' v what it
meant to do so, that he would not I ck again
until after the meeting, and asking him to see Mr
Saunders and explain. " Please tell Mr Saunders,"
he added, " that I am very grateful for the inloicst
he has taken in me, but that I am conceited enouoh
to think I have a duty to do in connection with
this labour movement."

Madden got the note at half-past four, having
hurried up to the house to see what had happened
Ryerson who had not turned up at the office since
lunch. He had begun to suspect " Tommy " very
sincerely early in the afternoon, and his heart was
hot against the little man. When he read the
note, he rushed back to ^Ir Saunders for advice.
The lawyer heard him through his excitement, and
then read the missive for himseH.

" I should do nothing if I were you," he said

finally, looking up at Madden with a face that a

fanciful person might have thought to be tinged

234

s--^mmmm.

Lvmg
^ened
(since
verv
was
the
[vice,
and

said
lat a
ged

T/ie Preparation of Ryerson Embury 235

with regret. " Embury has chosen the better part. ]
We will get more strawberries and cream in life ■
than he ; but he — well, men will be loving him yet
when they can't read our names on our grave-
stones."

At eight o'clock the Labour Hall was packed to
the window sills. Men stood pressed together
down the aisles, some of them coatless. A few
bonnets of the pitifully plain kind were to be seen
in tlie audience, but it was mostly a mass of
heavily-breathing men. The air was already
thick, and many of the men were still smoking.
A grumble of talk was to be heard from all sides,
and not a few of the voices jarred with the note of
anger. There was hardly a face to be seen that
was not sullen, except some which were red and
quarrelsome. The little group of leaders on the
platform were both apprehensive and defiant.
Grace Brownell sat just below the platform to the
right, with Suzette on one side and Suzette's
brother on the other. She heard little of the pre-
liminaries until Ryerson came on through the
platform door accompanied by Rev. " Tommy "
Tracy and Mr Crawford. Instantly a storm of
hisses broke from one corner of the room, and
picked up an occasional supporter in different parts
of the hall. A brawny chap with hairy hands and
prominent eyes, sitting exactly behind Grace,
seemed to her to hiss more loudly than any other
dozen.

IHTT

WtS

236 T/ie Preparation of Rycrson Embury

" What's that for ? " she asked nervously.

" Nothing, miss," said Suzette, with a reddening
face and fugitive eye ; " I don't know."

Suddenly the man behind her stopped hissing
and shouted viciously, "Muzzle Webster's watch-
dog!" A great shout of approval went up, and
then she knew why they hissed.

The rest of the night was full of wild excitement,
chill terrors and mad anger ^or this child of a
sheltered fireside. At first she was furious that
they should dare hiss the man who had given up
so much to come and speak to them. Then she
began to understand. Their cries showed that
they thouglit he was trying to stop the strike.
But he began his speech by praising the system of
striking as a means of securing the rights of
labour, giving them some of Crawford's instances
of success, and they soon fell into quiet. Then
he neatly dove-tailed into an account of a success-
ful strike an instance in which the taxing power
was used even more effectivel}' ; and his road was
open to him. The taxing power he declared to be
labour's heaviest weapon ; and he drove home his
point with so many illustrations — illustrations which
touched closely the lives of those who listened —
that the men heard him intently and " s-s-sh-ed "
down every interrupting sound. From this he
went to the moral aspect of the question. " No
class <^ ^tizens would," he said, " deliberately
adopt *^nd steadily adhere to a line of action that

MfHMMlBammia

The Preparation of Rye r son Embtcry 237

they thought to be morally wrong. Unless I can
show you that you have a moral right to tax
the wealth that lies in land values and public
franchises into your pockets, I am perfectly per-
suaded that you will do nothing of the kind, no
matter what you may think in the heat of the
moment." With ' hat he turned to the immorality
of landlordism anu Tie moral title of every man to
a full share in the common heritage.

The close of his speech was an appeal to them to
ocet togcether and fio^ht with the ballot. It was
here that the young eloquence upon which the
strike leaders depended told. He had not been
wholly free from interruptions from the first, and
at times he had been compelled to endure quite a
fusilade. But this last part of his speech brought
nothing but cheers from the crowd. They liked to
be told that they were the kings of the new day,
even though they were not certain of getting any
breakfast. But Ryerson was not satisfied with
emotional assent to his metaphorical coronation of
them — he laboured with tremendous earnestness
to make them realise its truth. And to an extent
he seemed to succeed. Men looked ft one another
as if asking mutely, " Have we b^en fools all our
lives ? Have we cringed before a ^^ower that was
never there ? "

Clearly the speech was a success. The faces on
the platform told of great relief. Bui%Grace was
mentally black and blue all over. The crowd had

2 2,S The Preparation of Ryei^son Embury

never spared Kyerson when they disagreed witli
him. Epithets hurtled at him ; cries came that
impugned his motives most cruelly ; low alterca-
tions reached her ears in which profanity was a
running flavour. Words and expressions she had
never before heard, but the meaning of which she
could not escape, fell upon her mind like blows :
and when they were aimed at Ryerson, who loomed
before her, half martyr, half apostle, they seemed
to bring the blood. Some in the audience appeared
to her to pursue him with malignant hatred, and
the hairy-handed giant behind her was one of
these. Her heart exulted at Ryerson's courage,
at his eloquence, at his success ; but she felt that
she was beginning to hate and fear " Tommy's "
people.

Fortunately for her, the future was to give her
a truer view of the great army of the Sinned
Against, those whose misfortune it is that they
have not

"... that repose
Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere."

They may be Sansculottes, and their women may
be Moenads when the sins of the oppressors have
forced them far enough, but, for all tliat, they are
but men and women, fighting chilled steel with
bare knuckles, and opposing to the satin politeness
and the lightning word-play of the practised and
the powerful what jagged repartee has been per-
mitted them. But the first sight of les oniserahles

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 239

to the tenderest eyo is not always certain to evoke
sympathy — much less understanding : it may bring
horror, or even superficial condemnation.

After Ryerson was through, Grace's one thought
was whether they would see each other after the
meeting, and, if so, what she would say and what
he would say. But though he came to the edge of
the platform, and, nodding joyously to her, pre-
pared to jump down and go to her, some meddle-
some men called him away into a back room, and
she felt that she could not wait until he returned.
So she walked silently home with Suzette. When
Ryerson got free, he followed, but the Brownell
house lay dark behind its shrubbery. He stood
wondering if he could with any decency call to-
morrow, when a voice from the gateway called
him. It was Suzette.

" If you'll walk up and down for a few minutes,
I'll tell Miss Grace you are here," she said. " She
don't expect you, I know," slie went on, " but she
might come out."

Suzette's light footfall along the path touched
his emotional nature like the lilt of a love song.
The stars twinkled with a softer lifjlit — thev

O ft

seemed indeed to wink at him with knowincj
friendliness. The very dark which but a moment
ago had been chill and unfriendly, now caressed
him. He leaned on the low gate and waited.

A door closed. There was a swish of drapery
against the pebbles. A form grew out of the dark.

Hfl

■

H "^'^^s^H

^^w 'i^^^^^H

i^ly

240 Tke Preparation of Ryerson Embwy

" Grace ! " he whisj^ered toward it.

"And to think," came an answering whisper,
"that I thought you were not good."

" Don't think of it," he suggested to the shadow.
" Let us begin all new again."

Then she came a little nearer, and he could see
her hand where it held her cape together.

*' It was magnificent," she said.

"What?" he asked, thousfh he knew well what
she would say. There are some things we like
better in conversation than to be informed.

" Your — your carrying the flag before those
men," was her answer.

" Poor fellows," he said. " I hope it will help
them to avoid disaster."

" They are so rough," she commented, shudder-
ing a little.

"They've had no chance to be anything else,"
he reminded her quickly ; " but if my fighting can
help at all, we'll do what vve can to get them a
' sunnier exposure ' in life after a while."

" That will be a noble work."

" After a talk I had with a man to-day, I feel
like saying — what I wouldn't have said yesterday
— that it will, if carried out, be a Christian work."

" Was ' the man ' Mr Tracy ? "

" No, but he was there."

" Mr Tracy has changed my point of view very
much lately," said Grace, after a pause.

" Yes ? "

bury

isper,
idow.
Id see

. what
e like

those

11 help

ludder-

else,"

lUg can
:hem a

I feel

^terday

rork."

very

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 24 1

" Yes. That's why I think — I think you are
good."

But this is so little the conversation that should
have passed between a man and a maid uuder the
sympathetic stars that we may well cease the re-
porting of it. Later, however, they were hotli
leaning on the gate, and Ryerson was telling of his
plans. He knew that his dismissal from Webster,
Saunders & Webster's awaited him in the morning.
Then he would pack up and go home till he had a
chance to think things out. Then he would try
the world again. Grace had nothing but contempt
for the " firm " which had tried to stitle him, and
breathed the warmest wishes for his future into
the night.

" Well, I really must go in," she said tinally for
the fourth time.

" Well, good-bye ; and thank you for the chance
to say it." And he held out his hand into which
she placed hers. It trembled a little until he held
it firm. " I suppose," he went on, " I shall see
some day that you are married."

There was dead silence at this. The passing of
a breath of wind through the shrubbery was
audible.

" You know," he added presently, " how deeply I
wish you happiness."

" And I you," she answered quickly.

He laughed. *' But I am not marrying," he said.

Then there was a longer silence. Grace broke

I ■' 1

IB?

242 77^^ Preparatio7i of Ryerson Embury

it, speaking with diflBculty. " 1 was told that you
were going to marry Miss Fitzgerald."

Ryerson tried to see her face, but failed. " Are
you joking ? " he asked.

" Why, no," she said. " Why should I be ? "

" Well, then, someone else is," he went on. " If
you knew Madden, I should blame him."

" Then it is not true ? "

" No. I have never spoken of marriage to Josie.
She is a splendid girl — but, for one thing, she
would not look at me now that I have no
'prospects.' She told me as much last night."

" Last night ? "

"Yes. She talked all sorts last night against
me speaking to-night. She is entirely out of
sympathy with me in this crusade."

" And if she were not ? "

" Then she would not be Josie Fitzgerald."

She drew away her hand as if just realising that
he was holding it. He made a momentary effort
to detain it ; but, remembering Walters, let it go.

"You must not take Miss Fitzgerald's refusal
too much for granted," she said presently. " Girls
cannot always be judged by what they say at one
time."

" Oh, nonsense ! " he exclaimed impatiently.
"We would not marry in any case. We are not
of the same mental ' pitch ' at all." (This may have
an over-emphatic sound, but it must be remembered
for Ryerson's exculpation that there was a wdde

HWtPt''^

nbury

at you

Are

3 Josie.
ng, she
ive no

ght."

against
out of

le: that

effort

lit go.

•efusal

" Girls

at one

liently.
Ire not
have
ibered
wide

The Prepa7'atio7i of Rycrson Embury 243

difference between the " mental pitch " of the lad
who sang "Josie's the girl for me," and that of
this young tribune of the people.) " And then," he
went on, " it is absurd to talk of my marrying any-
body. Here I am ejected from a law office, with
no idea of what I am going to do for a living,
and committed to a cause which will close many
a door to me. The soldier had always best be a
bachelor."

" Do you think a wife would hinder him ? "

" No — o. Not the right kind of a wife. But it
must be a barracks life for the woman."

"Women who love do not fear that" — and
Grace's voice was not too steady.

Again ho looked at her searchingly, but again
the dark hid her face. It was only a tender oval
with two moving, shining Will-o'-the-wisps for
eyes.

" Good-bye," he said again simply, holding out
his hand for hers once more.

" Good-bye," she said, giving him hers ; " and do
not expect to hear of my marriage, " she added,
" for I am engaged to no one, and have no prospect
of being so."

And then he could not do other than stay and
bid her *' Good-bye " all over again — a half-hour
later.

' ^I'l '

1
1

1
I

■

T^u^l

;;■■■ 1

y'B^B^H

f^' :■

?S!

)

XXIII

Just a little before noon on the following Saturday,
Grace Brownell and Ryerson Embury walked up
and down the platform of the railway station at
Ithica, waiting for the train which would pass
Fordville.

Ryerson had not been disappointed in the results
of his Labour Hall speech. The Websters, father
and son, had said their '^f^ay" to him; and Mr
Saunders had joined in their reprovals, officially,
and then had given him a strong letter of introduc-
tion to a Montreal lawyer — an old schoolmate
boastinor a labour clientele. Dr Holden had
written a letter of condolence to Ryerson's father,
pointing out that the infidel path leads to worldly
failure. " God cares for His own, " the doctor
wrote, " but there is no promise for those who
reject Him. I hope you will labour with your son
with prayer and good counsel. I know that you
yourself are always in the way." Ryerson did not
know of this letter then — for the only word he got
from home was an urgent request from his father
that he come home and help him through the
winter with his school (a transparent fraud, for the

214

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 245

tturday,
Iked up
iition at
lid pass

e results
s, father
and Mr
)fficially,
ntroduc-
fioolmate
en had
father,
worldly
doctor
sc who
our son
hat you
did not
d he got
s father
crh the
for the

old man was never better), to which his mother had
added a postscript — " Your old room is waiting for
you. Don't bother to bid all your old teachers,
like Dr Holden, good-bye." This last injunction
puzzled Ryerson not a little, and he never knew
why it was written until he was turning over his
father's correspondence after his death, and found
Dr Hoi den's letter. It was endorsed in his father's
shaky hand, " My lad was not an infidel when lie
left my care for that of Dr Holden."

The strike, too, was over. The men had voted
the next night after the meeting to "go back,"
and prepare to conduct the battle on more promis-
ing lines. They were not too happy over it, but
already the women began to wear brighter faces.
Ryerson had been asked to come back later in the
winter and address their Union again on lines of
practical political work.

As he paced up and down the platform now with
Grace in the keen air, both faces bore the look of
confidence and settled happiness. Their talk was
tinged with self-pity at the long separation in
prospect, but they were too newly re-united to
really feel much more than their joy in this. The
sadder hours would come later. Presently Madden
stamped up the platform and joined them.

" Is three company ? " he asked.

" Yes, if you are one of the three, " said Ryerson ;
and Grace, who had met him during this last week,
joked him about being so fond of Ryerson that he

1:1

11 i [

246 77/^ Preparation of Rycrson Evibitry

had planned to go down to Fordvillo for tlie coming
Christmas.

" Well, if wishes were Pullmans, I wouldn't go
alone," he retoi-ted, whereat both Grace and
llyerson turned redder than even the air warranted.

Allan Nichol came up soon, and then several of
the others, and Grace talked of running away.
" Not a bit of it," said Madden. " We are your
bodyguard. Your Majesty."

"Tommy" was a late arrival, but he at once
took Grace under his care, assuring her that it
was all right to be there with her "favourite
clergyman."

"That is what you are, " Grace admitted, which
led Madden to ask the little minister what he did
with his marriage fees when he had no wife.

A rising blur of smoke away up the track told
that the train was coming. Immediately the boys
all seemed to have business either in the station or
out on the rails, and Ryerson and Grace were left
alone for a last few words.

" You are sure you are not sorry? " asked
llyerson.

" Sure ! sure ! " and her eyes swam with earnest-
ness.

" It may be a long, hard fight, little one."

" But we will be together," was her response
Then their hands met and clasped, and they looked
into each other's eyes with a passion that was more
than many caresses.

oteW^MttlMlMMiw- ~

The Preparation of Ryerson Embury 247

As the train rushed in, " Tonnny " came running
up with, " Hurrah ! here they are. I was afraid
you would get oil' too soon."

At this Ryerson and Grace turned and saw the
men from the two foundries swarming on to the
platform from both sides of the station. " Tommy "
gave Grace his arm and led her aside. The men
were cheering Ryerson as they came, and now
pressed about him, shaking his hands as fast as
they could reach them. They had heard of his
expulsion from the law office, and they knew the
reason for it. " Good luck to you," " You'll be all
right yet," " You're the stuff," " Come again," and
" Good-bye," and " Good-bye " again, were the kind
of thing they were all saying to him at once.
Ryerson was saying nothing, but just taking their
hands one by one and blinking strangely. Grace
saw the tall man with hairy hands, who had sat
behind her and so frightened her at the meeting,
push his way through to Ryerson and exclaim,
" I've faith in you, sir. You'll do something for
us yet." And she never again was so quick to
shiver at the rough earnestness of the Sinned
Against.

The conductor called " All aboard," and Ryerson
stepped on the platform of the car. Madden had
already taken his valise in and come out again.
But the train did not start at once. There was an
awkward moment, and then one of the men began
singing a favourite song among them just then.

248 The Preparation of Ryerson E^nbury

riiey all joined in, and, just as the train pulled out,
their voices rantj the chorus —

"Ile'ti thu man they call M'Ginty,
He's one man out of twinty,
And we're going to have M'Ginty for our nixt M.P."

And Ryerson looked back on a soa of whirling
caps and swaying figures, aud above them all
fluttered a tiny white handkerchief waved by a
white hand ; and he knew that the palm of it was
made of crushed rose-leaves.

THE END

Colston &" Coy. Limited^ Printers, Editihurgh.

E^nbury
lied out,

^hirlinp-

iem all

i by a

it was