mttmnmmmmmmmmmmmKm mnmoMmin 
 
 JXLjEjbJt\.J.x^ \jr 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MILLION 
 
 JOHN ACKWORTH 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 .:> 
 
 KtJV. CYRUS H. FRAMPTON .
 
 The Making; 
 
 of the Million 
 
 TALES of the TWENTIETH 
 CENTURY ^ 
 FUND ^ ^ 
 
 By 
 
 John Ackworth 
 
 Author of " Clog Shop Chronicles," etc. 
 
 New York : Eaton & Mains 
 Cincinnati : Curts & Jennings
 
 
 "?/l 
 
 2)e£)icate5 
 
 WITH HONEST AND HEARTY ADMIRATION 
 TO 
 
 R. W. PERKS, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 THE ORIGINATOR OF 
 
 THAT UNIQUE AND WONDERFUL 
 
 MOVEMENT THE 
 
 WESLEYAN TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND 
 
 York, 1899 

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL .... 9 
 
 II 
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN . . . . • 33 
 
 III 
 A MANCHESTER MAN . . . . * 57 
 
 IV 
 
 THE BLANK LINE ....•• 79 
 
 V 
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION .... 103 
 
 VI 
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION . . .125
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 
 
 THE Rev. Caesar Snape was ashamed of 
 himself. This was not at all an un- 
 common state of mind for him to be in, for, as 
 a matter of fact, he was oftener in that condition 
 than any other, especially in a morning. He 
 was a Wesleyan probationer, and lived alone 
 in Mrs. Pendlebury's small upstairs front room, 
 overlooking the parish church in the High 
 Street, Muggridge. 
 
 He was the junior minister of the circuit, 
 and though he had never heard of Muggridge 
 until the Conference appointed him to it, he 
 had since discovered that it was a very im- 
 portant place indeed ; in fact, it would have 
 been impossible for the Stationing Committee 
 
 9
 
 10 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 to have selected a circuit that would not have 
 assumed this aspect in the Rev. Caesar's eyes 
 the moment he found himself allocated to it. 
 It was generally regarded as a country circuit, 
 but the new minister had soon discovered that 
 it ought to be reckoned as at least a senti- 
 suburban one, being only eleven miles as the 
 crow flies from the head of the district. 
 
 " Fifty-nine trains pass through Muggridge 
 every day," he used to say impressively to his 
 friends ; and he was surprised and a little hurt 
 when somebody suggested that he might as 
 well make it sixty, and some one else asked 
 how many of the trains stopped. 
 
 Ministerially, the Rev. Caesar regarded him- 
 self as something of an impostor, whom the 
 Muggridge Wesleyans had not yet found out. 
 To his amazement they seemed quite resigned 
 to him, and some of them even affected to enjoy 
 his ministry. 
 
 What confiding, even credulous people the 
 Wesleyans were ! Taking everybody to be as 
 high-minded and devoted as themselves, they 
 had always insisted upon regarding him as a 
 godly, self-sacrificing, and able young fellow,
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL II 
 
 and had insisted on his entering the ministry ! 
 Ah, they little knew! Every Methodist be- 
 lieved that no man was fit for the ministry 
 who wanted to be in it, and he had been 
 literally consumed with ambition for the sacred 
 office. The " call " only came to those who 
 were in a high state of grace, and he had desired 
 it whilst he was still a hardened sinner. (A 
 surreptitious smoker of cigarettes and a reader 
 of mild fiction.) 
 
 A true minister was always oppressed with 
 an awful sense of the responsibilities of his 
 office, and would gladly lay it down if he dared, 
 but he was so filled with unholy pride and 
 ambition that he could not think life worth 
 living apart from it. An essential qualification 
 for the ministerial office was the possession oi 
 courage to say everything he felt he ought to 
 say, and he was, and always had been in these 
 respects, a miserable coward. Somebody would 
 find him out some day, and then what a revela- 
 tion there would be ! 
 
 And now this " Million Scheme " had come 
 and it was just such a big, grand enterprise as 
 his soul delighted in ; and he had been to the
 
 12 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 preliminary District Committee in place of his 
 super, who was ill, and had come back the night 
 before full of enthusiasm, and eager for the 
 next day to arrive, that he might set to work 
 and rouse the sympathies of his people. 
 
 But now it was morning, and in the dim 
 December daylight his dreams of the night 
 before looked Utopian and ridiculous, and he 
 felt a miserable, cowardly feeling rising within 
 him, which tempted him to wish that the great 
 effort had never been heard of. 
 
 The Muggridge circuit was not like any 
 other ; his people were very good — wonderful 
 people, in fact, when he came to think of it — 
 but not exactly in that way. Ah ! he under- 
 stood now why some of his ministerial brethren 
 had looked surprised when he had spoken so 
 enthusiastically of his flock ; they knew them 
 better than he did. Two guineas per member 
 at least ! The thing was preposterous ! 
 
 The super was an invalid, and the initiation 
 of this great scheme in the circuit would rest 
 almost entirely with himself He could not 
 give much himself, and he had never in his 
 life done any begging of this kind before ; the
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 13 
 
 whole thing would be a fiasco, and the Mug- 
 gridge circuit, his first circuit, would be dis- 
 graced in the eyes of the whole Connexion. 
 
 And then he pulled himself up. Yes, it was 
 just like him ! A minister's work was to make 
 light of difficulties and show his people how 
 they might overcome them, and here was he 
 shrinking like a timid schoolgirl at the very 
 first serious task he had ever been called upon 
 to face. " Caesar Snape, you're a duffer ! a 
 miserable coward, sir ! " and he made the little 
 sugar-tongs in the glass basin dance again as 
 he smote the table with his fist. 
 
 " Scoose me, sir, who might you be a-speakin' 
 of?" 
 
 It was Mrs. Pendlebury, tall, gaunt, and worn- 
 looking, with deep lines on her sallow face and 
 her head cocked at an inquisitive and bellicose 
 angle. She was a class leader and a great 
 person at the mothers' meeting, and took quite 
 a motherly interest in her young men, of whom 
 Snape was the fifth. 
 
 She had come upstairs to clear away the 
 breakfast things and had overheard the 
 minister's last words. Caesar started when
 
 14 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 thus addressed, and blushed ; he always 
 . blushed, as if it were not enough to be a 
 coward without also appearing one. 
 
 "Oh, it's nothing, Mrs. Pendlebury. I was 
 only talking to myself as usual ; I'm all right 
 now." 
 
 The landlady gave her head a dignified toss, 
 and then asked, tartly : " You was a-speakin' of 
 my minister, I believe ? " 
 
 " Well, well ! it's all right, Mrs. Pendlebury." 
 But the landlady stood her ground and raised 
 her head a httle. " I don't allow nobody to 
 say nothin' agin my minister, sir — it's them 
 Hexams, I suppose ? " 
 
 " No, no ! the Exams were last week ; it's 
 nothing, I tell you, I'm all right," and Snape 
 gave a significant glance at the pots on the 
 table as a hint that he wanted them cleared 
 away. But his visitor was not to be shaken 
 off ; she had her duty to perform ; the circuit 
 had committed these young men, one after 
 another, to her to take care of, and she was 
 going to fulfil her commission. 
 "Then it'ull be that Piggin ? " 
 "No, no, Mrs. Pendlebury, nothing of the
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 1 5 
 
 kind ; a — a — it's this Million Scheme, if you 
 must know." 
 
 A smile as of conscious victory played for 
 a moment round the deep-lined mouth of the 
 landlady. " Oh, that ! " she exclaimed, takmg 
 a step nearer the table. "Yes, we was a-con- 
 siderin' of it last night." 
 
 Snape lifted his head with a glance of 
 curiosity and surprise. " Considering it ? 
 Where? Who?" 
 
 " Me and my members." 
 
 The minister could have laughed. The idea ! 
 The members of this class, some thirty or so, 
 were the very poorest in the Muggridge society, 
 and both they and their leader would have to 
 be paid for, if they had any place in the scheme. 
 He smiled indulgently, leaned back in his chair, 
 and clasping his hands over his knees, asked : 
 " Well, and how did you get on ? " 
 
 " Well, you see, sir " — and, to Snape's dismay, 
 she sank into a seat and prepared herself for 
 the long talk which it was evident she had come 
 to have — " Well, you see, sir, it was a bit 
 awkered at first." 
 
 Snape thought that very likely indeed, but,
 
 l6 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 as there was now no escape from the good 
 woman's eloquence, he tried to interest himself 
 in it, or at least to appear to do so. 
 
 " It was that there roll as bothered us most, 
 sir ; they all wanted to be on, an' hev all their 
 relations on as well. Old Sally Pride hez hed 
 three husbands, and she wanted all them to be 
 on ; an' Deb West, her with the red hair and 
 glidey eyes, wants her sweetheart on, an' him 
 a ratcatcher. An' Letty Blears wants that 
 child of hers on as nobody knows the father 
 of. Oh, an' there's five members as is gone to 
 heaven, an' two in the ' House,' an' three as is 
 so old they never comes, an' all them as hez 
 bad husbands wants 'em on, an' — an' what 
 shall we do, sir ? " 
 
 Snape was conscious of a curious struggle 
 within between amusement and outraged seemli- 
 ness, but presently he said : " Well, there's a 
 very easy way of disposing of all those questions, 
 Mrs. Pendlebury." 
 
 "'Ndeed, sir ; what might it be ? " 
 
 " Ask them to find the guineas ; that will 
 stop them. The Society will pay for all the 
 bona fide members of your class, but we can-
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 1 7 
 
 not undertake for all their relations, you 
 know." 
 
 "Well, sir?" 
 
 « Well ? that will stop them, won't it? " 
 
 Mrs. Pendlebury rose to her feet and began 
 to heap together the pots on the tray, then 
 drawing herself to her full height, and facing 
 the minister with a severe look, she said : " Mr. 
 Snape, my members is members, an' not bony- 
 fidees ; the Society can pay for the bonyfidees, 
 whatever they are, if it likes, but we shall pay 
 for ourselves ; we don't honour the Lord with 
 other people's substance in my class, sir." And 
 whisking the tray and its contents off the table 
 with a resolute and defiant jerk, the irate lady 
 carried them downstairs. 
 
 Left alone, the minister felt more ashamed 
 of himself than ever. His landlady's brave 
 words had enabled him to measure the depths 
 of his own miserable cowardice. Any other 
 man would have resigned right away, but he 
 had not even the nerve to do that. In fact, 
 it was a dismal aggravation of his condition that 
 tne more unfit he felt himself to be for his great 
 calling, the more he clung to it and gloried in it. 
 
 2
 
 1 8 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 This was by no means the first time that 
 Mrs. Pendlebury's words had stimulated him, 
 but now, smarting under the veiled and, 
 perhaps, unconscious rebuke, he roused himself 
 to his task. If such poor people as his land- 
 lady were bestirring themselves, it was high 
 time that he should do something. He dressed 
 himself and called upon the super. From him 
 he went to see the senior society steward. 
 Brother Timms. Thence he passed on to the 
 house of the circuit steward, and then to the 
 residence of the only great magnate in the 
 circuit, Mr. Burton, of the Grange. When he 
 had finished his round he had arranged for a 
 preliminary consultative meeting to be held 
 after the service on the following Wednesday 
 evening. 
 
 As he walked home it occurred to him to 
 call upon Piggin, the leader of the opposition 
 in the circuit, and the terror of all ministers 
 and officials. But he had not been encouraged 
 even by those he had already consulted, and 
 who were supposed to be loyal, and somehow 
 he hadn't the heart to face the redoubtable 
 i^iggin just then ; and so all the rest of the day
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 19 
 
 he was tormenting himself for giving way to 
 his weakness and allowing himself to be 
 intimidated by such a man. 
 
 After tea he walked out to Swaddleby to 
 preach, and entertained the trees and hedges 
 en route with an astonishingly eloquent deliver- 
 ance on the Million Scheme. After service he 
 attempted to interest Farmer Whittle in the 
 subject, but though he stuck valiantly to 
 his text during supper and returned to it 
 again and again in spite of the farmer's 
 tendency to divert the conversation to the price 
 of stock and the many excellencies of a 
 particular breed of pigs, of which he was the 
 sole local patron, he went away feeling that he 
 had failed once more, and was plainly out of 
 his sphere. 
 
 For the next few days the Rev. Caesar was 
 the prey of all kinds of haunting fears. No- 
 body but his eccentric landlady seemed to have 
 the least interest in the great scheme. Timms 
 only laughed at him, and went off into a long 
 string of stories, which the minister had heard 
 again and again, but which were told so 
 vivaciously and with such artistic variations,
 
 20 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 that he was compelled to admit that he enjoyed 
 them, chestnuts of the most ancient kind 
 though they were. One or two of the local 
 preachers spoke to him about the effort, but 
 they were for the most part even more 
 impecunious than he was himself, and could 
 give nothing but advice. 
 
 But the minister's most anxious thoughts 
 were expended upon the Burtons. Mr. Burton 
 was rich, and was expected to become a county 
 magistrate any day now. Everybody would 
 look to the Grange to start the movement, and 
 unless the people residing in that new and very 
 grand-looking house could be got to take a 
 hearty interest in the matter the thing was 
 hopeless. And yet what could he do ? 
 
 Since his election as chairman of the District 
 Council Mr, Burton had talked of nothing but 
 sewage and settling beds and effluents and 
 precipitates and patent mixers, and Snape 
 felt that if he went there again and did not 
 succeed he would be more depressed than 
 ever. 
 
 And then there was Miss Olive. She was a 
 Newnham girl, with a broad, masculine fore-
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 21 
 
 head, and great, frank, grey eyes that looked you 
 through. He was afraid of that girl, and was 
 always haunted during his visits to the Grange 
 with the feeling that she was secretly quizzing 
 him and reckoning him up. She unnerved him 
 when he was preaching, especially when he 
 caught one of those satirical smiles of hers. 
 
 She was a painfully natural young lady of 
 most uncompromising plainness of speech, but 
 so refined and intellectual that if he had not 
 been a minister, and had been anything like her 
 equal, he might have been in danger of falling 
 in love with her. But on this point he was 
 very decided ; he examined himself every day 
 of his life, and always came to the conclusion 
 that it was not to be thought of She was a 
 most engaging creature, and her culture gave a 
 piquancy to her that was most fascinating, but 
 whenever he left the Grange after a bright hour 
 in her company he thought of Beauty and the 
 Beast, and asked himself what she would think 
 of him if she ever knew that he was only a 
 factory operative's son. 
 
 He hated pretence and false show, but both 
 she and her father always insisted upon treating
 
 22 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 him as a cultivated person and a gentleman, 
 and he had never had the courage to disabuse 
 their minds on the subject, which was, of course, 
 another evidence of his cowardice. 
 
 And so the days wore on, and the eventful 
 Wednesday came. There was a good congre- 
 gation at the service, and when it was over 
 a goodly number stayed behind to the after 
 meeting. The superintendent, though still ill, 
 came in with his mouth muffled up, and took 
 the chair. Most of the important people of the 
 Society were present, and one or two representa- 
 tives from the country dropped in. Altogether 
 the prospect looked promising. 
 
 The super explained that the meeting was 
 unofficial, and was called for the purpose of 
 forming some sort of idea as to how much the 
 circuit would contribute to the great fund. He 
 invited free expression of opinion, and finished 
 with a pathetic little reminder of the obligations 
 they were all under to the church of their choice. 
 When he sat down there was a long and 
 awkward pause, and the Rev. Caesar, sitting 
 next to his colleague, felt his spirit running 
 rapidly down.
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 23 
 
 The super hinted that perhaps Mr. Burton 
 would say a few words, but that great man had 
 a grievance against the fund in the fact that he 
 had been omitted from the District Committee, 
 and therefore he excused himself. 
 
 The minister named Brother Timms rather 
 hesitantly. The society steward had a reputa- 
 tion for making funny speeches, and certainly 
 maintained it that night ; but, after all, he con- 
 tributed nothing to the subject in hand, and 
 the junior minister had his own regretful and 
 despondent feelings deepened by observing that 
 Miss Olive, sitting near her father, looked 
 scornful and a little impatient and weary. 
 
 Then the circuit steward was called upon, 
 and he ventured, with considerable hesitation, 
 to say that he thought the circuit might manage 
 to raise, say, ;^200. The Rev. Caesar gasped ; 
 that was only about lOs. per member! What 
 would the Connexion think of them ? 
 
 Again the super appealed to the chairman 
 of the District Council, but he only shook his 
 head, and as Caesar sank back with a heavy 
 sigh in his seat he heard an ominous scraping 
 of the throat and a shuffling of feet, and
 
 24 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 glancing up, observed the obstreperous Piggin 
 on his feet. Piggin was short and square, with 
 a frame full of awkward and unexpected angles ; 
 he had Dundreary whiskers, a long, sharp nose, 
 and a prominent, aggressive chin. 
 
 " Mr. Chairman," he began, drawing a long 
 sniff and turning the whites of his eyes towards 
 the ceiling, " some folks seem to think that this 
 circuit is rich. I suppose if that's so, that long- 
 standing Quarter board deficit has gone. I'm 
 glad to hear it, sir. An' I always understood 
 az we were only waitin' for the Swaddleby 
 new chapel because we couldn't raise the 
 money. That must be wrong, too. And we 
 don't need money, it appears, for the Pemberton 
 Mission or the Long Lane Sunday School. I'm 
 delighted, Mr. Super. It appears that we have 
 money to spend on building cedar houses in 
 London. Very good, sir, but I claim to know 
 something about Muggridge Methodism, and 
 it appears to me, sir, that charity begins at 
 home." 
 
 During this weak but biting speech the 
 junior minister had been going hot and cold 
 and cold and hot again. He felt, for the
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 2$ 
 
 moment at any rate, that he hated Piggin, 
 and would like to tell him so, but just when 
 that worthy finished, a sudden fit of his old 
 cowardice came upon him, and he sighed heavily. 
 But another voice broke on his ears, and a 
 familiar one, too. Mrs. Pendlebury had risen 
 to her feet, and was standing with her eyes 
 closed as if in class. 
 
 "'Scoose me. Mister Super, might a widder 
 woman arsk a question?" 
 
 " Certainly, Mrs. Pendlebury, go on." 
 
 " I should Hke to arsk where our Calebs and 
 Joshuas are to-night," and as Caesar looked 
 up in perplexity he caught sight of his landlady 
 opening her eyes half-way to look at him. 
 
 The super looked puzzled, and turned in- 
 quiringly to his colleague. Caesar shook his 
 head to express his inability to interpret, and 
 then glanced furtively towards the Grange 
 people, both of whom looked bored. 
 
 " I'm afraid I don't quite understand you, 
 Mrs. Pendlebury," said the super, looking hard 
 at the woman, who was white with excitement. 
 
 She paused a moment, long enough, in fact, 
 to attract every eye in the place to her, and then
 
 26 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 she went on, speaking slowly through white 
 lips : " We've heard about the sons of Anak 
 and the walled cities, will somebody tell us 
 about the grapes of Eshcol ? " 
 
 Caesar, being more accustomed than the 
 rest to Mrs. Pendlebury's curious methods of 
 argument, was the first to catch the point of 
 this rather obscure reference, and a great flush 
 of emotion passed over him. The meeting 
 and the great people from the Grange vanished 
 out of sight, he saw nothing but his landlady's 
 pale face, and behind her the whole stretch of 
 his own short but happy and highly favoured 
 life. In a moment he was on his feet. 
 
 Miss Olive opened her eyes with quickened 
 interest, Mr. Burton brushed back the scanty 
 locks of hair he had been so restlessly rubbing, 
 and leaned forward to listen, and a flush of 
 triumph passed over Mrs. Pendlebury's face. 
 
 " Friends," cried Caesar. " /'// tell you of the 
 grapes of Eshcol. I was born in a cottage and 
 worked in a mill, but Methodism has made me 
 a minister of the glorious gospel. I owe my 
 godly mother to Methodism : the conversion 
 of my father after twenty years of wifely prayers
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 2^ 
 
 to Methodism : my education, my knowledge 
 of God, and my conversion, to Methodism : my 
 call to preach, and my training at dear old 
 Didsbury, to Methodism. All I have that is 
 worth anything I owe to Methodism, and to-day 
 as she rises before the world to do this great 
 deed I want to be with her, and to be worthy 
 of her, and, God helping me, I will ! " 
 
 For several minutes more he spoke, rapidly, 
 almost incoherently, with moist eyes and quiver- 
 ing lips, and when at last he dropped back into 
 his seat the super had hid his face in his hand- 
 kerchief, and Mrs. Pendlebury was rocking 
 herself and gazing up at the ceiling with shining, 
 tearful eyes. 
 
 There was an aw^kward silence, and then 
 some whispering ; and presently Mr. Burton 
 rose and, in very low tones, suggested that the 
 meeting should be adjourned for a few days. 
 When the super had pronounced the benedic- 
 tion he turned to his still excited colleague and 
 gripped him with a grip that was an embrace 
 in intensity, and then dragged him off home 
 with him to supper. 
 
 Caesar spent the next day a prey to his old
 
 28 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 torments, and even Mrs. Pendlebury, who was 
 radiantly sure now that Muggridge would do 
 its duty, could not comfort him. He had made 
 an exhibition of himself; Miss Olive knew now 
 that he was lowly born, and he pictured to 
 himself again and again her quiet, cold con- 
 tempt for a man who had so little fineness of 
 feeling as to make a show of his emotions in 
 public. 
 
 In the afternoon, to his terror, he received 
 an invitation to high tea at the Grange, and 
 would have given anything to have a decent 
 excuse for declining. He had cried like a baby, 
 he told himself, and had not even the consola- 
 tion of having accomplished anything. The 
 Burtons were unusually kind to him that night, 
 but he was sure they were graver and more 
 reserved than common, and Mr. Burton did not 
 even mention the previous night's meeting. 
 
 " And so you are an ex-factory operative, 
 and your mother was a weaver?" said Miss 
 Olive, as she helped him on with his overcoat 
 in the lobby as he was leaving. 
 
 And, with a desperate effort, Caesar answered : 
 " Yes, Miss Burton, and I am not ashamed of it."
 
 THE GRAPES OF ESHCOL 29 
 
 The lady stood on the doormat, evidently 
 reflecting, and then she lifted her clear eyes to 
 his and asked : 
 
 "And why did you not tell us all this 
 before ? " 
 
 " Because I'm a coward, Miss Burton ; a mean, 
 unworthy coward." 
 
 She looked long and steadily into his face 
 as he spoke, and then, as he put out his hand 
 to say good-night, she took it absently, and 
 answered, in soft, low tones : " I wish there 
 were many more such cowards in the world, 
 Mr. Snape." 
 
 Next day it was known in Muggridge that 
 the Burtons were giving ;^500 to the Million 
 Scheme, and a week later the Rev. Caesar was 
 received at the Grange in another and closer 
 capacity than that of minister.
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN
 
 II 
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 
 
 THE last building you pass as you go out 
 of the top end of Great Barkin is Jonathan 
 Tradger's workshop. It occupies, in fact, the 
 extreme point of the diamond-shaped island 
 formed by two great roads that run through the 
 town and unite at the end of it. The shop is 
 therefore triangular in shape, having a long side 
 upon each of the roads and a blunt point at 
 the fork. 
 
 The outside walls are farmed by two rival 
 firms of billstickers from the county town, and 
 there is a great door facing the Penkerton Road 
 that is never opened nowadays, and another 
 great door opening on the High Street, that is 
 never shut, at least in the daytime. 
 
 The first glance through the open door 
 
 33 3
 
 34 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 suggests a carpenter's shop, for the floor is 
 strewn with shavings and there is a joiner's 
 bench against the opposite wall ; but a second 
 look shows that the shavings are old and dirty, 
 and that the bench is littered with paint cans 
 and rolls of wall paper, whilst between the 
 bench and the wall are stuck a gig umbrella 
 and two ordinary ones, half hiding a plumber's 
 soldering iron and a pair of tinker's shears which 
 hang in a rough rack against the wall itself 
 
 If you put your head inside you also observe, 
 deep in the shop, a blacksmith's bellows, two or 
 three disabled perambulators, an old-fashioned 
 ordinary bicycle and three or four safeties. 
 
 The fact is, Jonathan, the proprietor of this 
 shop, is the village Jack-of-all-trades ; for Barkin, 
 now a decayed village, was once a market town, 
 and as its tradesmen were driven out of it one 
 by one by lack of business, the remaining in- 
 rtabitants fell back upon Tradger, who, as he 
 was too disreputable and intemperate to care 
 much, gradually slipped into the way of doing 
 any sort of odd job that might be brought him. 
 
 Some sixteen months ago, however, Jonathan 
 was converted, as the result of the visit of a
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 35 
 
 Joyful News Mission car to the village, and 
 since then he has been a consistent though 
 demonstrative and unmanageably unconven- 
 tional member of the Wesleyan Church. 
 
 The Methodists of Barkin are staid and highly 
 decorous, and some of Jonathan's ways shocked 
 and alarmed them ; but he was so humble, so 
 grateful to them for their kindly recognition of 
 him, so eager in his desire to comprehend all 
 the peculiarities of Methodist doctrine and pro- 
 cedure, and so devoted to the welfare of the 
 Church of his choice, that nobody had the heart 
 to check him, and Mrs. Wilkins, the super- 
 numerary's widow, who was the ultimate authority 
 on all matters of Church etiquette, was not 
 without fear that the good folk would spoil 
 him. 
 
 Jonathan was a sandy man, approaching sixty, 
 a little below the medium height, with fairly 
 regular features disfigured somewhat by a knobby 
 red nose, due partly to pugilistic encounters and 
 partly to the influence of drink. 
 
 " Wot's this ? " he growled, in a voice that 
 was now always husky, as he entered the shop 
 one morning just before Christmas. As he
 
 36 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 spoke he pointed with the only whole finger 
 he possessed on his right hand to a circular 
 lying on the box of a sewing machine which he 
 had been repairing the day before. 
 
 " It's a circular. You're a committee man 
 now," replied Walter John, his only son and 
 assistant, who, in virtue of a brilliant victory 
 obtained over the crafty machinations of a 
 Government inspector in the matter of a sixth 
 standard examination, was regarded by his 
 parents as a perfect marvel of learning, and 
 had consequently the right of opening and 
 answering his father's correspondence. 
 
 " Read it," jerked out Jonathan shortly ; and, 
 turning to look through the open door, as he 
 generally did when he wanted to think, he 
 leaned heavily on one leg in a listening attitude. 
 
 Walter John left the dog-kennel he was 
 painting and, putting down his brush, picked up 
 the missive and read in a brisk business style of 
 which he was very proud : 
 
 "Dear Bro. — I have pleasure in informing 
 you that at the Quarterly Meeting held yester- 
 day you were appointed a member of 'The
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 37 
 
 Twentieth Century Fund ' committee for 
 this circuit. — Yours sincerely, Geo. Wilde, 
 Secretary!^ 
 
 Jonathan drew himself up ; a look of grave 
 importance came upon his face, a soft gratified 
 light beamed from his eyes, whilst he pursed 
 out his lips and screwed his mouth about, to 
 conceal a tell-tale smile. Then he turned and 
 had another long stare out of the door, and 
 presently, giving his mouth a sort of covering 
 wipe with the back of his hand, he picked up 
 the circular which his son had laid down and 
 examined it, back and front, over and over again. 
 In a wavering, meditative manner he scrutinised 
 the document, and then, as if fearing to be 
 caught in the act, he abruptly dropped it and 
 resumed his staring through the door. 
 
 Walter John was perfectly aware that his 
 father wanted to ask a question, but as it 
 was always part of his policy to maintain his 
 intellectual reputation by affecting a lofty in- 
 difference, he commenced to hiss a tune through 
 his teeth, and became deeply absorbed in the 
 painting of the kennel. Jonathan watched the
 
 38, THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 
 operation out of the corner of his eye for a time, 
 and then turning to the machine, he resumed 
 his work of the night before, asking as he picked 
 up his tools : " Wot's committys for ? " 
 
 And Walter John stood back and examined 
 the kennel critically as he answered : " For 
 talkin'." 
 
 Jonathan looked enquiringly at his son for a 
 moment, and then bending over his work he 
 applied an oilcan to the machine and gave the 
 treadle an experimental touch with his foot as 
 he asked : " But wot do they do ? " 
 
 And the youthful but unconsciously cynical 
 libeller of these great modern institutions 
 answered with a slight accent of contempt : " Oh, 
 nothing, only talk." 
 
 Jonathan heaved a perplexed and protesting 
 sigh, and was just about to address a remon- 
 strance to his son, when a shadow fell across the 
 sewing machine, and a deep voice behind him 
 cried : " Mornin', boy, mornin'." 
 
 The new-comer was a tall, thin man, with 
 broad, angular shoulders drawn up into his 
 almost invisible neck, for the morning was cold 
 and nipping. His hands were thrust deep into
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 39 
 
 his pockets, and his thin snipe nose and red 
 eyes were moist with tears of cold. He was 
 Jonathan's class leader and chief mentor, and 
 his name was Solomon Jurby. 
 
 Saluting Jonathan and his son as he passed 
 them, Solomon strode to the far end of the shop, 
 where there was a small stove and a disabled 
 wooden cradle which, turned on its side, served 
 as a seat. Squatting down upon this, he took 
 the lid off the stove and began to stir the 
 fire, grumbling the while at the weather. But 
 Jonathan had something much more important 
 than mere meteorological discussion on his 
 mind, and so without further hesitation he 
 commenced : " Sol, wot's this Cen-cen-tenary 
 Fund ? ' 
 
 Solomon looked blank for a moment. '' W-o-t? 
 Oh, t' Centennery Fund thou means." 
 
 " Tchat ! " interrupted Walter John, with 
 superior impatience. " He means that there 
 Twentieth Century Fun'." 
 
 «0-h, that! Ah! that's somethin', that is! 
 I know'd we should hev somethin' wonderful 
 when that Hughes was President." 
 
 Jonathan felt himself growing bigger, but
 
 40 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 curbing his rising elation he asked : " Well, wot 
 is it?" 
 
 " Wot is it ? it's a reg'ler flabbergaster, that's 
 wot it is ! Huz Methodisses is goin' to subscribe 
 one million guineas^ 
 
 Jonathan's face expanded into a broad 
 gratified grin, and he looked at his mentor with 
 wonderine delis^ht. In a moment he ventured : 
 " How much is a milliond, Solomon ? " 
 
 " A million ! a million's t-e-n h-u-n-d-r-e-d 
 t-h-o-u-s-a-n-d," and Solomon sounded like a 
 man who was struggling with the miserable 
 inadequacy of human language to express the 
 vastness of his ideas. 
 
 Jonathan's face was a picture, and, as wonder 
 is one of the strongest stimulants to eloquence, 
 Solomon plunged off into a detailed description 
 of the great scheme, adding in his excitement 
 details which were, to say the least, apocryphal. 
 So stimulating, in fact, did he find Jonathan's 
 wonderment that, having exhausted his own 
 resources on the question, he sent Walter John 
 to his house for the last issue of the Recorder, 
 and when he returned Jonathan left his work 
 and joined Solomon at the stove, listening
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 4I 
 
 with ejaculations of astonishment and delight 
 as his learned son reeled off at express rate 
 a long account of the great meeting at Leeds. 
 
 As the reading proceeded, he punctuated 
 it with energetic nods ; then he smote his 
 hands together in keenest relish, and when 
 at last with a rhetorical flourish the self- 
 satisfied reader finished the President's speech, 
 Jonathan leaned forward, and smiting Solomon 
 heavily on the back, he cried with emphatic 
 conviction : 
 
 "Sol, t' Bank of Englan's nowt to huz 
 Methodisses." 
 
 Solomon smiled indulgently upon what he 
 regarded as the pardonable extravagance of his 
 friend, and was just about to make a reply 
 when Walter John, now warm to his work, 
 plunged off into a long account of the historic 
 roll, and from that to a list of circuit subscrip- 
 tions, in which, as Jonathan remarked, thousands 
 seemed " as common as coppers." 
 
 When at last the great reader finished, out 
 of breath and a little hoarse, his father was in 
 the seventh heaven of delight and pride. As 
 Solomon rose to go, however, Jonathan had a
 
 42 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 sudden recollection, and checking his friend as 
 he strolled towards the door, he asked abruptly : 
 " Wot's committy men got to do ? " 
 
 " Do ? Oh, lead off t' subscriptions an' 
 collect. Wot for?" 
 
 Jonathan pointed to the circular still lying 
 on the sewing machine, and Solomon took it 
 up, gave a little nod of surprise, and then 
 assuming a very knowing look, as if to con- 
 vey the impression that he had fully expected 
 some such thing, he lounged to the door. He 
 had reached the open air and was standing 
 gazing down the road when Jonathan followed 
 him, and drawing him by the button-hole still 
 farther away, in order to be out of earshot 
 of Walter John, he said : " Fancy, Sol ! drunken 
 Johnty's name among all them million 
 Methodys ! " 
 
 All that morning as Jonathan went about 
 his various occupations, his mind dwelt 
 delightedly on the wonderful scheme in 
 which so lowly a man as he was to have 
 his part ; as he meditated, the dark shadows 
 of difficulties cast themselves every now and 
 again across the brightness of his visions,
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 43 
 
 but he put them away, as had been his habit 
 far too much through all his life, and reso- 
 lutely kept before himself the great glory 
 that was coming to the Church to which he 
 owed so much. 
 
 But when he had sent Walter John out with 
 the now restored sewing machine, he stole to 
 the seat which Solomon had so recently occupied 
 in order to face fairly the hindrances which 
 he could no longer hide from himself To 
 begin with, his wife was not a member, and 
 had always had decided leanings towards the 
 Church of England. 
 
 Moreover, to the great comfort of the family, 
 she had always been the purse-bearer of the 
 household, and they were very poor, having 
 scarcely got out of the financial difficulties 
 into which his intemperate habits had plunged 
 them. He felt certain that Rebecca would not 
 see the wisdom or even the possibility of giving 
 away money, whole guineas at a time, and 
 would be able to tell him of any number of 
 claims upon their slender resources which, in 
 her judgment, were both more pressing and 
 more equitable than what he desired.
 
 44 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 He fancied he could hear her repeating again 
 one of her favourite proverbs, "Just before 
 generous, Jonathan," and the very most that 
 he could expect her to do was to offer to give a 
 guinea for himself But a committee man whose 
 family even were not included in the contribu- 
 tions would be an everlasting disgrace to the 
 great movement. 
 
 And then there was that roll-signing. He 
 had almost forgotten how to write, and his wife, 
 even if she consented to subscribe, could not 
 use a pen any better than he could himself, and 
 their clumsy caligraphy would be a sad dis- 
 figurement to the great record. For somehow 
 Jonathan had got it fixed in his mind that all 
 who went upon the roll would have to sign 
 their own names. 
 
 And then there was Martha Jane, who was 
 in service some thirty miles away ; she was 
 almost as decided in her preference for the 
 Church as her mother, and would not be able 
 to come so far to sign, even if they were able 
 to raise the money. 
 
 Once more, there was Walter John to be 
 considered ; he was a Wesleyan certainly, for
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 45 
 
 he blew the little chapel organ and attended 
 the Sunday school. 
 
 Altogether, as Jonathan looked at the 
 difficulties fairly and squarely, they appeared 
 blacker and blacker, and when he was called 
 to dinner, he left the shop in a very perplexed 
 and anxious frame of mind. It occurred to 
 him as he walked to the house to broach the 
 question to his wife, as he generally had to do 
 in his troubles, but the domestic weather seemed 
 so threatening when he got indoors that he 
 judged it better to defer the matter until a more 
 propitious moment. 
 
 It came that very night, and Jonathan, 
 finding his wife in a cheerful mood for her, 
 told his tale ; skipping characteristically the 
 monetary difficulty and presenting to his wife's 
 superior inventiveness the problem of the roll- 
 signing. Rebecca heard him through, and 
 ignoring altogether the writing question, she 
 gently, but with remorseless logic, made it clear 
 to him that the thing was entirely beyond them. 
 Her catalogue of pressing needs and approach- 
 ing payments made his heart sink, and he 
 found himself, to his alarm, getting angry.
 
 46 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 " But, woman ! " he cried, when she had 
 finished, " we're on the committee ! " But 
 Rebecca only shook her head, and as Jonathan 
 was naturally passionate, and since his con- 
 version had been haunted more with the fear 
 of losing his temper than even slipping back 
 into intemperance, he made a strong effort, 
 choked back his resentment, and with a sigh 
 of reluctant resignation went off to bed. 
 
 When he had gone, Rebecca, who had feared 
 an outburst from her husband, and had watched 
 with growing gratitude his successful effort in 
 self-control, sat glowering moodily into the fire. 
 Once or twice she sighed and her lips moved as 
 if in prayer, and presently she got up and took 
 a small rosewood box from the mantelpiece. 
 Opening this, she picked out a Joyful News 
 pledge card and a Methodist class ticket, upon 
 the former of which was scrawled in rude, uneven 
 characters her husband's name. With pensive, 
 musing face she turned them over, and then 
 looking at them earnestly through moistening 
 eyes, she murmured : " It mus' be done ! — some- 
 way ! Them two papers is worth a million, aye, 
 a million apiece to me ; " and putting them slowly
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 47 
 
 and carefully back in the box, she made her way 
 upstairs. 
 
 During the next few days Jonathan was greatly 
 exercised in his mind as to how he should raise 
 the money for his subscription, for though on 
 the night of his conversation with his wife he had 
 almost given up the idea, the new day brought 
 new hope ; but as nobody had told him that the 
 money could be paid in small instalments, he 
 was at his wits' end to solve the problem. 
 
 He overhauled the miscellaneous articles 
 which had accumulated in his workshop in the 
 hope of finding something saleable, but as he 
 had often done this before to raise money for 
 drink, there was nothing left that would give 
 him any help. 
 
 Then he debated with himself the possibility 
 of selling the Christmas pig, or rather its carcass, 
 for the animal had already been slaughtered ; but 
 as his wife generally managed that business 
 herself, he soon abandoned hope in that direction. 
 
 Then it occurred to him to try to borrow 
 something from his absent daughter ; but, again, 
 the remembrance of like transactions in his 
 unregenerate days restrained him.
 
 48 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Finally, in his increasing perplexities, he fell 
 back upon his old friend Solomon, and as they 
 sat together one dinner hour over the little stove, 
 he unbosomed himself Solomon was very 
 mysterious and taciturn for a while, but seeing 
 his pupil's anxiety and knowing something of 
 the official secrets of the Barking Wesleyans, he 
 at last took his pipe out of his mouth and said : 
 "Johnty boy, be content, whoever is left off 
 that paper thy name will be there," and then he 
 lapsed again into the most discouraging silence. 
 
 "But wot about the fam'ly ? " asked Jonathan 
 anxiously, and Solomon shook his head as if to 
 say that they were in a very different category. 
 And of course this conversation did not comfort 
 Jonathan as much as it was intended to do, for 
 he somehow felt that the thing would lose much 
 of its interest to him if his beloved ones did 
 not take part in it. 
 
 One day in Christmas week, however, Jonathan 
 received a surprise that almost reconciled him 
 to being left out of the great achievement. As 
 he was dressing to go to class and was strug- 
 gling before the little glass trying to arrange 
 his frayed necktie so that the place where the
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 49 
 
 lining showed would be concealed, his wife 
 came downstairs dressed to go out. 
 
 Jonathan looked at her in astonishment, for 
 she seldom went out at night. " I'm thinkin' 
 of goin' with thee to-night, Johnty," she said 
 softly, as she looked hard at the floor. And 
 Jonathan eyed her over from head to foot as 
 he asked : 
 
 " To class ? " 
 
 " To class." 
 
 And then it flashed into his mind that his 
 wife was going to class to console him for his 
 disappointment about the great fund, and he 
 turned hastily away and tried to swallow some- 
 thing. Well ! it was a grand idea after all ! 
 She had chosen that one thing which she knew 
 would be sweetest of all to him. Oh, what a 
 wife she was ! and for the next few minutes 
 as they walked down the High Street towards 
 the chapel he silently thanked God that they 
 had ever heard of this glorious fund. 
 
 It happened to be fellowship meeting that 
 night at the class, and so Jonathan missed the 
 luxury of hearing his wife's first " experience." 
 But when the meeting was over and the leader 
 
 4
 
 50 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 was marking the names, he said : " Glad to see 
 Sister Tradger to-night ; we won't press you 
 to have your name down now ; perhaps you 
 would like to try some other class first." 
 
 " But I want it down." 
 
 " To-night ? " 
 
 " To-night ! " 
 
 Jonathan could have hugged his wife then 
 and there, and as he went home he told himself 
 that he should always love the Million Fund, 
 and if ever he had the chance of giving to his 
 beloved Church 
 
 But next morning it took all his new joy to 
 sustain him, for the post brought him a summons 
 to the committee meeting, and with no chance 
 of being able to contribute he felt that he 
 could not go, and his absence might be 
 taken for indifference ; and he owed so much 
 to Methodism that he could not bear the 
 thought of that. 
 
 In the afternoon Solomon called at the shop, 
 and was so full of the approaching meeting that 
 the carpenter had not the heart to tell him 
 that he did not intend to attend ; and when 
 he went away Jonathan was more miserable
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN 5 1 
 
 than ever. As night came on he grew very- 
 restless and dejected ; once he told himself to 
 have faith in God and go to the committee : 
 but that effort was too great to be sustained, 
 and as the time drew near he seated himself 
 moodily by the fire at home in fidgety distress 
 lest Solomon should call for him, as he some- 
 times did. 
 
 Just then there was a sharp knock at the 
 door, and he felt a chill creep over him as he 
 heard a man's voice. But it was not Solomon, 
 it was the circuit minister. 
 
 "Come, Brother Tradger, aren't you coming 
 to the meeting ? " 
 
 Jonathan groaned and answered sadly : " I 
 can't, sir ; I've nothing to give." 
 
 Jonathan heard a stifled sob behind him, 
 which he knew came from his wife ; but the 
 minister was speaking again. 
 
 " Never mind, come along ! We must have 
 you on the roll whoever is omitted." 
 
 " But that would be four guineas, an' we 
 haven't one." 
 
 " Four fiddlesticks ! Nothing of the kind ; 
 this isn't a tax, my friend, it's a free-will
 
 52 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 offering, and those who have will give for 
 those who haven't." 
 
 " But I'm on the committee, sir." 
 
 " Of course you are ; I proposed you myself ; 
 only some can give, but we must all share in 
 the joy of it, you know. You must just give 
 what you are able without injury to yourselves, 
 and that you can do by instalments." 
 
 " By what, sir ? " (This from Mrs. Tradger.) 
 
 " By instalments — so much a week or month, 
 you know." 
 
 Rebecca turned her back to the minister and 
 marched hurriedly upstairs. 
 
 In a moment she came down with a strange 
 glow upon her faded face. 
 
 " Can them go on the roll az is only just 
 joined, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course ! But you can't afford, Mrs. 
 Tradger, you can't really." 
 
 "An' can children az isn't members be on 
 sir?" 
 
 " Yes, if they are the children of our people 
 certainly." 
 
 And then Rebecca, whom Jonathan was 
 watching intently, put out her thin worn arm
 
 THE COMMITTEE MAN $3 
 
 and laid a guinea on the table. " That's for the 
 Church az turned a bad husban' into a good 'un, 
 an' that," putting a crown piece near the guinea, 
 " is a thankful offering from the poor wife az 
 got that new husban'," and then, fumbling in 
 her pocket, she brought out a shilling, and 
 placing it near the other money, she went on, 
 "an' that's sixpence a week for Walter John 
 an' for the dear lass as sent her father's guinea." 
 
 The minister was overcome and tried to 
 expostulate, but Mrs. Tradger insisted on 
 having her way ; the instalment plan settled 
 everything, she said. 
 
 And so Jonathan went to the committee.
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 
 
 55
 
 Ill 
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 
 
 YES, he was incomprehensible ; the dearest, 
 the best of fellows, the most generous and 
 indulgent of husbands, and as true a man as 
 ever stepped, but peculiar, self-contradictory, and 
 perplexing, and pretty Mrs. Harwood, with a 
 pucker on her white brow and an absorbed, 
 far-away look in her eyes, gave a soft protesting 
 sigh and sank still farther back into the easy 
 chair which already almost buried her. She 
 was thinking, of course, of her husband, to 
 whom she had been married now about four 
 years. 
 
 She was a Wesleyan minister's daughter, and 
 had been brought up in the bookish, unworldly 
 atmosphere of the manse, where she had been 
 her father's companion and favourite. Conse- 
 
 57
 
 58 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 quently her tastes were distinctly literary, and 
 she was better up at any rate in the lighter 
 literature of the day than most ladies of her age 
 and rank. 
 
 Everybody said she was a remarkable judge 
 of human nature, and all her friends compli- 
 mented her on her gift of reading character. 
 She believed them, of course, in a becoming 
 way, but lo ! the very first man she had ever 
 become intimately acquainted with, and the 
 man of all others she most wanted to read 
 nonplussed her altogether, and after four years 
 of careful study of him she had to confess that 
 he was an enigma. 
 
 ' Her father had travelled mostly in country 
 circuits where the good folk take life easily, 
 and she had grown up to dislike and fear the 
 commercial spirit, and after all she had married 
 that embodiment of intensest commercialism, 
 a Manchester man. He was a prompt, cool, 
 and smart business man, with a reputation of 
 being the keenest buyer on the market ; but 
 before she had time to settle upon this as the 
 keystone of his character, she found that at 
 home he was easy-going, jovial, and almost
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 59 
 
 carelessly extravagant in matters of household 
 expenditure. 
 
 One thing had become clear to her in the 
 course of this interesting study, namely, that her 
 husband had a most intolerant hatred of every- 
 thing that savoured of pretence, and of this she 
 was proud ; only he carried it to such strange 
 and uncomfortable lengths, and was very fond 
 of a curious sort of self-depreciation, and liked 
 to speak of everything that belonged to himself 
 in disparaging and apologetic terms — a pecu- 
 liarity which she had also noticed was common 
 to Lancashire men. 
 
 In the company of ministers and officials he 
 assumed the manner of an ignorant and in- 
 different onlooker, and then amongst unim- 
 portant people he would talk like a Methodist 
 puritan. He seemed, in fact, to think that it 
 was his duty to deceive his fellow-men as 
 much as possible about all his most important 
 feelings and interests. 
 
 He wasn't a wholesale draper, he was in 
 the " rag " trade. His large warehouses he 
 always spoke of as " th' shop," and if ever they 
 went into particular company where she was
 
 60 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 anxious that he should appear a gentleman, he 
 was sure to drop into the dialect — a thing he 
 never did, or scarcely ever, at home. 
 
 All their business friends regarded him as 
 one of the safest men financially of their set, 
 but he delighted, in all sorts of company, in 
 telling romancing stories which seemed to 
 indicate that he was in a state of chronic 
 financial tightness, whilst he pretended to be 
 very anxious to keep friendly with the chapel 
 steward, because he was the bank-manager, 
 and might be awkward about the overdraft. 
 
 He affected to know and care nothing about 
 the " Connexion," and yet he took in all the 
 Conference publications, and went to sleep over 
 them every Sunday afternoon, and he had a 
 little joke about not being able to get off unless 
 he had the current number. 
 
 Altogether he was a contradiction and an 
 enigma, and it was very humiliating to her 
 pride and her reputation for character-reading, 
 to be obliged to confess to herself that she 
 was very little nearer understanding the man 
 she loved than she was on the day she married 
 him.
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 6l 
 
 And just now there was special reason that 
 she should know how to deal with him ; for 
 this great " Million Scheme " had been an- 
 nounced, and it was just the thing to appeal 
 to her imaginative temperament, and it had 
 done. She was a Methodist of the Methodists, 
 and as a child of the manse felt great pride in 
 the Church of her fathers. 
 
 But she knew something of the Manchester 
 men by this time, and felt certain that to 
 their cool, level-headed commercial minds the 
 enterprise would look fantastic and quixotic. 
 What a pity and a shame it would be, if sordid 
 love of money and lack of imagination should 
 spoil so grand a thing. 
 
 By this time she knew without the least vanity 
 that she was an important person in the circuit, 
 and had more influence than the wives of most 
 of the officials ; and if only her husband would 
 support her, she felt that she could make this 
 rich suburban circuit of theirs do its duty. But 
 there was the difficulty ; her husband never 
 seemed to take her seriously, and though he 
 never crossed her in any of her little projects, 
 and seemed, indeed, anxious in a lazy sort of
 
 62 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 way that she should have her desire, she felt 
 certain that his view would be the one prevalent 
 amongst men of his class, and that he would 
 simply give a respectable little sum to please 
 her, and in her name, and that would be all. 
 
 And then there was one other thing that 
 troubled her ; an episode had taken place re- 
 cently which had greatly humbled her, and pro- 
 vided a reason why she felt she could not greatly 
 urge her husband on this particular question. 
 Soon after their marriage her father, now a 
 supernumerary, had visited them, and had one 
 day confided to her husband certain difficulties 
 he had with the little investments he had made 
 to provide for the evening of life. And her hus- 
 band told her when the old man had gone to 
 bed, that parsons should never have anything to 
 do with money, and had then offered to under- 
 take to re-arrange her father's affairs, and make 
 such changes as would secure a better return 
 upon the investments. She had eagerly agreed, 
 and the thing had been done, and everything had 
 been handed over to George, who had managed 
 somehow to increase the permanent return. 
 
 This was now three years ago, but recently
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 6^ 
 
 she had been to London to a British Women's 
 Convention or something of the sort, and had 
 stayed with her brother. He had never been 
 a favourite of hers, but one night he greatly 
 angered her by insinuating that her husband 
 was making a good thing out of the " Pater's " 
 shares. 
 
 She was too indignant to say much in reply, 
 but she went home next day, and somehow the 
 nasty innuendo had stuck to her, and so after 
 fighting with it and worrying for some time, 
 she got a friend to find out what the shares 
 were making. A day or two after he wrote to 
 her to say that she must be mistaken in the 
 name of the company she had referred to, for 
 that concern had gone down over two years ago, 
 and anybody holding the scrip must know that 
 it was worthless paper. 
 
 And then it had all come to her ; her 
 husband had known what was coming, and had 
 made the proposal upon which they had acted 
 for the purpose of keeping trouble from her 
 and her parent, and had paid the dividend for 
 two years at least, although he had not received 
 a penny.
 
 64 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 This revelation made her ill for a day or 
 two, and aroused all kinds of awkward curiosity 
 on her husband's part ; she felt so humbled 
 about the matter that her manner was un- 
 consciously changed, and her husband grew 
 very suspicious indeed. She could never tell 
 him, but the thought that he was doing 
 this secretly for love of her, closed her lips 
 effectually on the question of the great Million 
 Scheme. 
 
 Still it would be an everlasting shame if the 
 rich suburban circuit to which they belonged 
 did not do its duty ,• she was just old enough 
 to remember the Thanksgiving Fund, and the 
 pride she had taken in giving the first half- 
 guinea she ever had of her own to this fund, 
 and she gathered from his letters that her father 
 was quite as enthusiastic about this effort as 
 he had been in the other. 
 
 She knew how he w^ould be planning and 
 scheming, and even perhaps selling his precious 
 books that he might do his duty, and she, his 
 daughter, married to a comparatively rich man 
 and living in ease and luxury, would only give 
 a little more than he did. The thought was
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 65 
 
 unbearable. Oh ! if only she knew I'ust how 
 to move this stolid hus 
 
 But just then a long pair of arms were thrown 
 around her, and she was lifted up like a baby, 
 whilst a strong, keen face was put down to hers 
 and a loud, but cheery voice exclaimed, " Hello ! 
 Doxey-didlums ! Which of those precious 
 mothers has pawned her petticoat now ? " 
 
 " Oh ! George, how you did startle me ! I 
 didn't hear the tram stop. No ! it isn't the 
 mothers, it's nothing," and she kissed the brown 
 moustache that was put down to her face, and 
 slipped out of his grasp and upstairs to touch 
 up her ruffled hair and assume as bright a look 
 as she could. 
 
 As she served the tea she talked about the 
 super's nerves, and then about little Freddy, snug 
 in his bed upstairs, and told in her vivacious 
 way all the young scamp's day's doings, until 
 George forgot his temporary suspicions, and 
 presently turned away from the table and drew 
 up to the fire, with his favourite briar in his 
 mouth and a comfortable contented look on 
 his face. 
 
 " George, what do you really think about this 
 
 5
 
 66 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Million Scheme?" and she leaned back in 
 the rocking chair, and tried to appear uncon- 
 cerned. 
 
 "Pah! High falutin' ! Cock-and-bull idea ! " 
 and George put his slippered feet on the brass 
 rail of the fender, thrust his little finger into the 
 bowl of his pipe, and appeared to be half asleep. 
 
 " George ! how can you ! I think it's noble, it's 
 grand ; I'm proud of the Church that could 
 conceive such a scheme, whether it comes to 
 anything or not," and in her excitement she rose 
 to her feet and stood leaning her bare, white 
 arm upon the mantelpiece, whilst she looked 
 earnestly down upon her amused and indo- 
 lent husband. 
 
 Now nothing pleased George better than to 
 get his wife " on her high horse," as he called it, 
 and so he sat looking at her with twinkling 
 eyes and most obvious admiration, and presently 
 he said, " My stars, Kitty ! but you would have 
 made a grand parson ; I'll have you nominated 
 for a School-board candidate, blow me if I don't." 
 
 "George, don't talk slang and nonsense! / 
 think the scheme is a glorious one." 
 
 He made no reply for a while, and evidently
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 6^ 
 
 thought none necessary, but Kitty was impatient 
 and anxious, and at last she said : " Do talk 
 sensibly, there's a dear ; what does Oxley say 
 about it ? " 
 
 Oxley was the circuit steward, and of course 
 his opinion was important. 
 
 " Never heard him mention it," was the de- 
 pressing answer. 
 
 " And what does Redfern think ? " (Redfern 
 was the cx-steward, and a rich bachelor.) 
 
 " Oh, he's sure to go in for it ; he's as bad 
 as you." 
 
 " Did he say how much the circuit ought to 
 give?" 
 
 " Oh, five hundred pounds." 
 
 " Five hundred pounds ! the miserable old 
 sinner : why, he ought to give that himself." 
 
 Kitty was never so interesting in her husband's 
 eyes as when she was excited, and now he was 
 delighted to see her pretty indignation, and so to 
 prolong the entertainment, he asked : " What do 
 you think the circuit ought to give ? " 
 
 " Give ! well, the super thinks we ought to 
 raise two thousand pounds, and that is the 
 very least."
 
 68 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 And George, with a burst of protesting, 
 amazed laughter, leaned back in his chair, and 
 cried : " Hay, what a world this would be, if it 
 were ruled by women and parsons — what would 
 you give, Kitty, if you had it ? " 
 
 " Give ? " and Kitty slid absently down upon 
 the hassock before the fire, and began staring 
 into the embers to assist her imagination. 
 " Give ? I'd give five hundred pounds, that's 
 what I would give, and not a penny less." 
 
 " Five hundred fiddlesticks ! Why, Kitty 
 wench, you'd break a bank ! " 
 
 It was a sure sign that George was more 
 interested than he seemed when he dropped 
 into dialect, and so his wife glanced sharply at 
 him, and was just going to pin him with a very 
 straight question, when he said : " What should 
 you give five hundred pounds for ? " 
 
 " What for ? Oh, for a hundred reasons." 
 
 " Well, what, for instance ? " 
 
 Kitty settled herself down upon the hassock, 
 and after a moment's meditation she began : 
 " Well, I've the noblest old father in the world, 
 and at this very minute he's cudgelling his worn 
 old brains to find out what he shall give and
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 69 
 
 where he shall get it— I'd give a hundred 
 pounds for him." 
 
 " Humph ! " 
 
 " And I was educated by Methodism, and in 
 all our circuits we received from the dear good 
 people kindness upon kindness, that makes me 
 cry when I think of it — I'd give a hundred 
 pounds for that." 
 
 " Bosh ! " 
 
 "And there's a curly-headed little rascal 
 upstairs, who came as a Christmas box two years 
 ago — I'd give a hundred, yes, many a hundred 
 for him." 
 
 George burst into an ironical laugh, but even 
 Kitty could see that it was only to conceal some 
 very different emotion. "Fire away, Kitty; 
 you're doing grandly." 
 
 But Kitty couldn't go on just then ; she 
 looked very earnestly into the fire, and then fell 
 slowly forward and dropped her fair face against 
 her husband's knee, but she never spoke, and 
 George was not sure that she could just then. 
 " Go on, madcap ; don't half do it now you've 
 started." 
 
 If her husband could have seen her face he
 
 70 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 would have hesitated to press her, but he could 
 not ; so presently, after another prompting from 
 him, she moved a little, and then, beginning to 
 speak very fast, she stammered : " I'd give all the 
 rest and — and a thousand times more for the 
 best and most — most tormenting husband that 
 ever was." 
 
 And George got hurriedly up and left the room. 
 
 Now, there was a sort of Freemasonry 
 amongst the officials of the circuit, and they 
 generally arrived at agreements as to what they 
 should do or give on occasions like the present, 
 either in one of their smoke-rooms or in the 
 train as they went to town in the morning 
 Two or three of them came in that same night 
 and stayed later than usual, and from what 
 Kitty could gather from her reticent husband, 
 the figure for the circuit seemed likely to be 
 fixed at ;^i,500. 
 
 Next night at the committee meeting that 
 sum, to the distress of the super, was agreed 
 upon, and when he called upon his infallible 
 comforter, Mrs. Harwood, he had a doleful tale 
 to tell, and was altogether out of heart about 
 the matter.
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 7 1 
 
 And Kitty, though she felt somehow more 
 hopeful after her talk with her husband, could 
 not say anything to relieve his mind, and so 
 when -he had gone and her heart was pitying 
 him and thinking of her father's troubles ot 
 a similar kind in days gone by, a little idea 
 struck her, and on the Sunday evening she 
 asked two or three of her husband's closest 
 friends in to supper, and as soon as she had 
 set them going at the table she opened out upon 
 them, and her husband listened with his mis- 
 chievous eyes dancing with enjoyment as she 
 tried to make them feel ashamed of themselves. 
 But next day George told her that the men 
 had greatly enjoyed her preaching and his 
 cigars, and were prepared to come as often as 
 she liked to invite them. Oh, the hardness of 
 these Manchester men ! 
 
 Her last hope was in the great meeting ; if 
 only she could get them there, and her husband 
 too, in the enthusiasm of that grand gathering 
 surely they would be moved to do something 
 worthy of them. But George, when she sug- 
 gested that of course he was going, pooh-poohed 
 the idea ; though, as he generally did this and
 
 72 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 went after all, she still hoped against hope. 
 The worst of her, George said, was that she 
 generally "went the whole hog" with a thing 
 when she once got started, and let things get 
 on her crazy little brain ; but when he was 
 going out in the morning of the day of the 
 meeting he half promised to meet her at the 
 door of the Central Hall. 
 
 All the forenoon she was out visiting her 
 lady friends, and trying to get them to feel as 
 she did and influence their husbands. And 
 then as soon as lunch was over, as luck would 
 have it, one of her intolerable but imperious 
 headaches came on and in a few minutes she 
 realised but too surely that there would be no 
 meeting for her that night. 
 
 This, of course, made her worse, and as she 
 lay on her couch half-dead with paralysing pain, 
 she sent her servant to the telephone to tell 
 George and urge him to go to the meeting. 
 This brought him home earlier than usual, and 
 he seemed quite angry with her for putting 
 herself out, and declared in quite a snappy 
 way that the " confounded Million Scheme was 
 not worth it." By this, of course, she saw how
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 73 
 
 little he really cared for the thing, and she 
 was so prostrate that she could not even bear 
 the efifort of trying to persuade him to go to 
 the meeting. 
 
 It was a long, dreary evening, in spite of the 
 fact that this matter-of-fact and worldly husband 
 of hers proved a delightful nurse, and though 
 later on the pain abated somewhat, she felt 
 so languid and disappointed that she was be- 
 ginning to think of going to rest, when the 
 door-bell rang, and in came the super from the 
 great gathering. 
 
 " Well, how have you got on ? " she cried 
 eagerly, lifting her head from her cushion, still 
 covered though it was with whisky cloths. 
 
 " Oh, splendidly ! magnificently ! I shall not 
 sleep to-night ; but you are ill, Mrs. Harwood." 
 
 Kitty waved her hand impatiently to check 
 his sympathies, and cried : "Tell us all about it" 
 
 Nothing loth, the minister launched forth into 
 an animated description of the meeting, and 
 finished by quoting the sums promised by the 
 various circuits. 
 
 "And we promised i^i,5oo," said Kitty, with 
 a mournful, half-contemptuous sigh.
 
 74 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 And that's more than we shall ever raise," 
 began George, but the super interrupted. 
 
 " No ! No ! We ! We came out grandly : 
 but I forgot, you don't know, do you? The 
 oddest thing ; " and he began to fumble in his 
 pockets and brought out a bit of paper. 
 
 "What? what was it?" and Kitty half rose 
 from her couch in her eagerness. 
 
 " Well ! the funniest thing ! I feel rather 
 shaky about it, but I was excited and promised." 
 
 " Go on ! Do go on ! " 
 
 "Just as I was going into the hall a fellow, 
 a clerk or something, stopped me and asked my 
 name. When I told him he gave me this note, 
 and when I got upon the platform I opened it, 
 and what do you think was in it ? " 
 
 " Don't know. Oh, do go on ! " 
 
 " The note is there ; it is on plain paper and 
 type-written, so that nobody can guess who 
 sent it, and it just says : 
 
 " ' Please increase the amount promised by your 
 circuit by ;^i,ooo. You will receive a cheque for 
 the amount in a few days. — Yours sincerely, 
 
 "'A Member.'"
 
 A MANCHESTER MAN 75 
 
 Kitty snatched the note hastily from the 
 super's hand, and read and re-read it, but there 
 was nothing more to be learnt. " Whoever can 
 it be ? " she gasped. 
 
 " I haven't the least idea," said the super. " I 
 was dazed, and am yet, about it, for that matter ; 
 but I promised, whatever the result may be. 
 Ah, whom do you think it will be, Mr. 
 Harwood ? " 
 
 George was sitting looking meditatively into 
 the fire. " Some old washerwoman or other, 
 with more brass than brains." 
 
 But somehow his manner was not quite as 
 natural as he wished it to be, for his wife lifted 
 her head and looked sharply at him across the 
 room, and as he turned his eyes away she 
 jumped up and rushed at him. " George," she 
 cried, pushing him back, so that she could see 
 his eyes, " look at me." 
 
 "Bless me, the woman's dotty!" cried 
 George ; but though he lifted his head, his eyes 
 sought the ornaments on the mantelpiece. 
 
 " Now then ! Look at me ! Let me see your 
 eyes," cried Kitty, and as at last he turned them 
 to her, she said triumphantly : " It is ! it is I Mr
 
 76 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Frost, it is George! Oh, you dear, kind, 
 naughty, teasing man, it's you, and it is like 
 you ! I'd love you more than ever — if I could," 
 and she kissed him again and again. 
 
 An hour later, as the super left, George saw 
 him to the door, and in his gruffest manner 
 insisted that the thing should never be known. 
 
 Next morning the contractor occupants of 
 the 8.41 first smoking to town decided that the 
 super had lost his head at the meeting on the 
 previous night, and would find himself "in a 
 hole" before long, and George quite agreed 
 with them.
 
 THE BLANK LINE 
 
 77
 
 IV 
 
 THE BLANK LINE 
 
 EVERYBODY who knew anything about 
 the case agreed with absolute and 
 emphatic unanimity, that there never was such 
 a body of trustees as that which built the 
 Floxton Common new chapel. 
 
 The super said so, and the tightening of his 
 thin lips and the projection of his strong, clean 
 jaw as he made the declaration left nothing 
 to be desired in the way of uncompromising 
 statement. 
 
 The resident minister said so, and as he 
 had taken part in trustees' meetings, committee 
 meetings, sub-committees and the like almost 
 every other night for the last eighteen months, 
 surely his evidence is uncontrovertible. 
 
 The trustees said so themselves, and inasmuch 
 
 79
 
 80 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 as several of them had almost lived on the 
 premises during the all-absorbing erection, and 
 had been threatened by their respective wives 
 with separation applications, divorce pro- 
 ceedings, etc., to say nothing of such everyday 
 suggestions as those of sending them their 
 beds and meals to the premises, it must be 
 admitted that they had a right to an opinion 
 on the subject. But even people who only 
 came into occasional contact with them got 
 the same impression. 
 
 The architect declared solemnly, that he had 
 never served so extraordinary a body of men 
 during the whole course of his professional 
 career, and he added when he got into safe 
 company that he hoped he never should 
 again. 
 
 The Manchester committee people shook 
 their wise heads at the very mention of Floxton 
 Common, and gave vent to sighs expressive 
 of unspeakable feelings, and even the Presiden 
 of the Conference when he went to open the 
 chapel said they were the most extraordinary 
 body of men he had ever met. 
 
 The super said that nothing surprised him
 
 THE BLANK LINE 8 1 
 
 SO much about these " Brethren " as their 
 automatic unanimity — except it was their 
 chronic disagreement. Against the architect, 
 the super, the " red-tapeism " of the Manchester 
 Committee, they were a solid unit, but amongst 
 themselves they did not agree, even about the 
 most trivial things. At every one of their 
 innumerable meetings some one either resigned 
 or consented to withdraw a previous resignation, 
 and nearly every man on the board had de- 
 clared at one time or other that nothing should 
 ever induce him to go near the place again. 
 
 Brother Bottoms had withdrawn on the sites 
 question, and Brother Taubman on the selection 
 of the architect, whilst Brother Eli Waites, 
 who was disgusted with the " baby work " of 
 the two gentlemen mentioned, sent in his 
 resignation and even withdrew his subscription 
 when it came to a spire. 
 
 The youngest trustee, a mere upstart of 
 forty, caused two meetings and two adjourn- 
 ments about the position of the pulpit, which 
 he insisted should be at the right corner of 
 the chancel arch as appointed by the architect, 
 and of course resigned when the older members 
 
 6
 
 82 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 of the meeting on anti-ritualistic grounds in- 
 sisted on its being placed in the middle ; and 
 they in their turn threatened to leave if the 
 entrance, which in the old chapel had always 
 been called the porch, was christened the 
 " Narthex." 
 
 The young minister of the circuit, who was a 
 probationer fresh from college, was considerably 
 exercised by the irreconcilable inconsistencies 
 which he detected in these good men, for as he 
 went about his work he was compelled to hear 
 all about these points of difference, and when 
 the last touches were being put upon the build- 
 ing and it was being got ready for the opening 
 services, he was amazed to discover the men 
 who had objected so strenuously to spire or 
 pulpit or narthex taking their friends round and 
 showing these particular things as the specialities 
 of the new sanctuary, and even in one or two 
 cases seeming to wish to convey the idea that 
 they were the original suggesters of these 
 eatures ; at any rate they seemed to be the 
 things they were most proud of, and took the 
 greatest delight in exhibiting. 
 
 But after all it was a noble thing these people
 
 THE BLANK LINE 83 
 
 had done ; they were not a rich Church nor 
 a very numerous one, yet they had by hard work 
 and wonderful self-sacrifice built a beautiful 
 edifice at a cost of nearly £7,000, which they 
 intended to open free of debt, and the super, in 
 spite of his many troubles with them, was full of 
 admiration for the way they had acted, and was 
 prompted to say, as he had often done before, 
 that there were no people like the Methodists 
 after all. 
 
 And just at the time when they thought they 
 had got through all their trials, they were 
 plunged into one that was worse than any they 
 had come through. When the day came for se- 
 lecting the places they would occupy in the new 
 building, it turned out that there were two appli- 
 cants for one pew — the back pew in the chapel. 
 
 Old Mr. Bottoms had sat in the back pew in 
 the old chapel, and thought he ought to have 
 the same place in the new one, and James 
 Higson, who had a delicate wife who sometimes 
 wanted to go out before the service was con- 
 cluded, had set his heart upon it, and had stated 
 twenty times over, he declared, that be should 
 want that particular seat.
 
 84 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 The trustees might have settled the matter 
 in their boisterous way if left to themselves, but 
 unfortunately Barbara, old Bottoms' daughter, a 
 female of a certain age, and an old flame of 
 Higson's, took up the cudgels for what she 
 called their "rights," and attacked Higson, who 
 was chapel steward, before strangers, as he 
 was arranging with other pew-holders for their 
 seats. 
 
 Eventually the matter came before the 
 trustees, and after the usual long wrangle, was 
 decided against Higson. As soon as the de- 
 cision was announced, he rose to his feet, took 
 up his hat, bowed with mock ceremoniousness to 
 the chairman and then to the meeting, and 
 walked out of the room. 
 
 One or two went after him and did not 
 return. Those who remained behind took no 
 further interest in the business, and when a few 
 minutes later the super and his colleague called 
 at Higson's he refused to see them, and next 
 day sent all his books in, and signified that he 
 had done with the Wesleyans once for all and 
 for ever. 
 
 The super, though not given much to senti-
 
 THE BLANK LINE 85 
 
 ment, was quite touched to see the distress of 
 the trustees when they found that Higson's 
 defection was serious and apparently final ; they 
 refused even to discuss the question of filling 
 his offices, and old Bottoms, in spite of terrible 
 threats from his aggressive daughter, sent at 
 least two notes to Holly Villa, where Higson 
 lived, to ask him to take the pew he wanted. 
 But all was in vain. 
 
 As the great day of the opening drew near 
 all sorts of clumsy attempts were made to bring 
 about a reconciliation, and Billy Clipston, the 
 shoemaker, declared again and again that when 
 the time came Higson would not be able to stay 
 away, but would turn up " as sure as heggs is 
 heggs." 
 
 But the day came and went, and the offended 
 one did not appear, and the super heard in the 
 vestry and in the aisles of the chapel a great 
 deal more about the absent man's many past 
 services than he heard about the event they 
 were actually celebrating. They told of what 
 he had endured for the sake of the good cause, 
 and altogether the Mat of one of the greatest 
 days in the history of Floxton Common
 
 86 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Methodism was spoilt by the constant lamenta- 
 tions of the chief men about the place because 
 their old fellow-worker had not taken part 
 The opening services were continued for three 
 Sundays, and it was confidently prophesied by 
 Billy and others that Higson would never be able 
 to hold out to the end. 
 
 But he did ; and when they sang the final 
 doxology at the last of the opening services, 
 because it was not only opened, but free from 
 debt, two or three of them told their minister 
 afterwards that they had not enjoyed their great 
 victory at all, and would rather have a thousand 
 pounds debt with Higson than all the triumph 
 of the day without him. 
 
 Well, at any rate it was a notable achieve- 
 ment, and the super was more than pleased with 
 the noble way in which the people had carried 
 out and finished their great undertaking. 
 
 And then something else began to trouble 
 him. He had said as little as possible about 
 the great Million Scheme whilst the good 
 folk of Floxton Common were straining every 
 nerve and almost punishing themselves to clear 
 their chapel, and now it seemed exceedingly
 
 THE BLANK LINE 87 
 
 hard upon them to ask them to look at another 
 effort. But circumstances left him no option ; 
 he had already made a definite promise of 
 ;^2,ooo for the circuit ; they had held the 
 meeting at the circuit chapel, and the con- 
 tributions had somewhat disappointed him, so 
 that there was now nothing for it but to have 
 the meeting as soon as possible at " The 
 Common." He was almost ashamed to name 
 the matter to them, but to his surprise the 
 good folk expressed a great interest in the 
 scheme, and were not at all inclined to shuffle 
 it. In fact, as old Bottoms said in his sen- 
 tentious way : " We've gotten a grand chap — 
 church, Mester Shuper, an' we mun show az 
 we appreciate it, sir." 
 
 This was at the final trustees' meeting when 
 the accounts had been presented, and the votes 
 of thanks given to those who had borne the 
 lion's share of the burden, a special resolution 
 being sent to Higson. After all the regular 
 business had been concluded, the super in a 
 regretful, almost apologetic way, introduced 
 the thing that was just then resting somewhat 
 heavily upon his mind. Yes, they would go
 
 88 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 into the subject at once, as far as unofficial 
 suggestions were concerned at any rate. Names 
 were mentioned of those who would make the 
 most effective officers for the local fund, and a 
 time was fixed for the holding of the meeting. 
 
 And then Blamires, the youngest trustee, 
 had an inspiration, and suggested that as they 
 had all worked together so harmoniously in this 
 grand chapel building effort, and were all so 
 proud of the finished work, they should have 
 their names down on the roll together in the 
 same order as they came in the trust deed. 
 Coming from this juvenile and impetuous source 
 the proposition was received with hesitation, 
 but presently it seemed to catch their imagin- 
 ations, and they insisted upon its being so. 
 
 The super, whose chief anxiety had been the 
 fear that they would resent being appealed to 
 again so soon, was only too glad to acquiesce, 
 and so the meeting adjourned for a couple of 
 days to enable the super to bring the roll that 
 they might all sign it in order as agreed upon. 
 
 Just as they were leaving the vestry, old 
 Bottoms made a loud exclamation of dismay, 
 and then rising to his feet, for he was still sitting
 
 THE BLANK LINE 89 
 
 at the far end of the room, he said mournfully : 
 "There's one thing az you've forgot, Mester 
 Shuper." 
 
 « Indeed ! What's that. Brother Bottoms ? " 
 and the super stepped up to the table. 
 
 " There'll be one name missing." 
 
 Everybody looked suddenly very sober, little 
 sighs escaped them, and they glanced at each 
 other in sorrow and disappointment. But the 
 super's train was due, and so he was compelled 
 to ask them to think the matter over until the 
 adjourned meeting should be held. 
 
 There was much debate and questioning 
 amongst the trustees about what should be 
 done in this difficulty. The more they thought 
 of it, the more they liked the idea of all signing 
 together, but the less likelihood did they see of 
 getting the missing signature. Moreover, it oc- 
 curred to one of them that it would look a very 
 mean sort of thing to try and get Higson back, 
 iust in order to get his subscription to the 
 Million Scheme, and so nobody could suggest 
 any way out of the difficulty, and the super 
 could not help them. 
 
 The minister had informed them that as they
 
 90 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 would all give more than the minimum amount, 
 there was no reason why their names should not 
 head the list of the Floxton Common contribu- 
 tions, though nobody had as yet named the 
 sum he was intending to give, that being re- 
 served for the great meeting in the church. 
 
 It took them half an hour, however, to make 
 up their minds to enrol themselves in the 
 absence of their estranged colleague, and at last 
 it was decided that a line should be left blank 
 for Higson in the hope that something might 
 occur in the meantime to bring the wanderer 
 back. Young Blamires signed readily, but old 
 Bottoms, who was next, hesitated considerably, 
 and then at last put down his pen, and in a 
 tearful voice faltered : " I'll gi' me money, bud I 
 don't want to be on if he isn't." 
 
 Whilst the old man was recovering himsell 
 and getting persuaded to do his part, the next 
 man signed, and then the old fellow tremblingly 
 followed. The next in order was Higson, and 
 a blank space had to be left, and hard though 
 it had been to sign before, it was much harder 
 now with that blank line staring them in the 
 face.
 
 THE BLANK LINE 9I 
 
 The super went home that night in a brown 
 study ; whatever could he do to reach Higson ? 
 for he felt that this effort would be shorn of 
 nearly all its sweetness to the good people if 
 Higson's name were not on the list, and they 
 had really done so nobly that he coveted the 
 pleasure of this reconciliation. And he got up 
 next morning with the same feeling in his mind. 
 
 It took him an hour or so to dispose of his 
 correspondence, but when that was done he 
 drew the precious roll out of his safe and began 
 to look once more at the names that had been 
 signed the night before. In a moment or two 
 it dawned upon him that that blank line looked 
 very awkward indeed, and if it were not filled 
 up it would be more eloquent than all the 
 names that went before or canie after. What 
 a mistake he had made in allowing those 
 whimsical trustees to have their fad. It would, 
 perhaps, be the only blank line in the whole 
 roll, and how strange it would look. Besides, 
 he had a reputation for neatness and orderliness, 
 and that would be there as a witness against 
 him for ever. 
 
 The thing bothered him and then annoyed
 
 92 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 him, and he was just sitting down in a sort 
 of pet with himself when a blessed thought 
 occurred to him. It was not absolutely necessary 
 that a contributor should sign his own name 
 He liked Higson, and greatly valued him, both 
 for his work and himself. He would keep his 
 own counsel, and if nothing occurred to change 
 the state of afifairs, he would write Higson's 
 name in himself and subscribe the extra guinea. 
 He had a large family, and every shilling 
 counted with him, but he would do that, what- 
 ever he had to sacrifice in other ways. The 
 super was pleased with the idea, and pleased 
 with himself for thinking of it, and he was just 
 laughing at his own self-complacency, when a 
 knock came at the study door and Brother 
 Bottoms was announced. 
 
 The senior trustee shambled into the room 
 in his characteristic manner, and shook hands 
 limply with his ecclesiastical superior. 
 
 He took off his hat and placed it shyly on 
 the floor by the side of his chair, and then, 
 taking a red pocket-handkerchief out of the 
 tail pocket of his antique black coat, he com- 
 menced : " I thought I would just call and pay
 
 THE BLANK LINE 93 
 
 my Home Mission Fund collection, sir," and he 
 fumbled in his pocket and produced a little 
 wash-leather bag, from which he drew two half- 
 crowns, which he placed in the minister's hand. 
 
 The super reached out a report, which serves 
 in these cases as a receipt, and handed it to his 
 visitor, wondering what was the old fellow's real 
 reason for calling. Bottoms took the report 
 without glancing at it, and then began to 
 discuss the weather. The subject provided an 
 interesting topic for a minute or two, for 
 atmospheric conditions were just then very- 
 trying, and then there was an awkward pause. 
 
 " I see you've got the great roll there, Mr. 
 Shuper," said Bottoms after a while, and he 
 glanced round as though he would like to look 
 at it. 
 
 The super opened it upon the desk, and the 
 old man got up and carefully examined it 
 inside and out. " H-u-m ! Ha ! wonderful 
 dockyment, Mester Shuper. Wc must all have 
 our names in that," and the minister noted that 
 his visitor was looking very dreely at the blank 
 space where Higson's signature should have 
 been. He seemed to have nothing further
 
 94 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 to say, however, and in a few moments rose 
 to go. 
 
 " Well, good morning, sir, and thank you ; I 
 hope you will get all the names you want," and 
 then, just as he was going out of the door, 
 " Oh ! beg pardon," and he came back and 
 drew out the wash-leather bag again. It took 
 him some time to find what he wanted, but 
 presently he pushed a sovereign and a shilling 
 into the super's palm, saying as he did so : 
 " Just put Higson's name down there, sir ; we 
 can't have him off, you know," and before the 
 minister could stop him he was gone. 
 
 The super was a little nonplussed and dis- 
 appointed ; but Bottoms was better off than he 
 was, and — well, they might make it two guineas 
 perhaps. The same afternoon as he was going 
 to his class he heard some one calling after him 
 and turning round saw Waites, the corn factor 
 hastening towards him. 
 
 Waites was always in a hurry, and on this 
 occasion he appeared more than usually so. 
 " Here, Mr. Super, take that. It's a fiver ; put 
 it into that fund and drop Higson's name in, 
 will you ? Ah, here's the tram. Good day, sir."
 
 THE BLANK LINE 95 
 
 The super was amused and touched ; it began 
 to dawn upon him that Higson's contribution 
 promised to be a pretty large one, if things went 
 on like this, and when he got home that night 
 another of the trustees was waiting for him. 
 This man seemed to be entirely unable to tell 
 what he had come about, but at last he blurted 
 out: 
 
 " Mr. Super, I've come about Higson and 
 that roll. He must be on, sir, he must ; he's 
 done more for Methodism in this place than 
 any other three of us, and his family is the 
 oldest in the circuit. Why, his grandfather 
 was at the opening of the first Methodist chapel 
 there ever was in the Common." 
 
 But the super intended to keep his secret 
 at least for the present, and so he said : " Yes, 
 but we can't make the man contribute, you 
 know." 
 
 " No, but we can do it for him, and we will ! 
 I will! Me? Why, sir, he got me the first 
 situation I ever had. He led me to the penitent 
 form, he helped me to get my wife. .He's 
 injured his business to look after that chapel. 
 He must be on, whoever else is."
 
 96 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 " Well, but how are we to manage it ? We've 
 tried everything we could think of." 
 
 " Manage it ! We must manage it. Look 
 here, sir ! I'll pay his share myself." 
 
 " But I've already got a guinea for him 
 and " 
 
 " A guinea ! A guinea for the best man 
 among us ! Why, sir, it would be a sin and a 
 shame for Higson's name to only represent 
 a guinea. Look here, sir, it must be twenty 
 at least ! Yes, twenty ! and I'll find it myself" 
 
 When he had gone the super told his wife, 
 and she put on an air of confidence which was 
 always rather aggravating to her husband, and 
 said : " Neither your money nor anybody else's 
 will be needed Higson will put his own name 
 in, you'll see." 
 
 At last the time for the holding of the Floxton 
 Common meeting came, and the super told 
 his colleagues that they must not be dis- 
 appointed if the results were not what they 
 might expect, as the " Common " people had 
 really done so well that they couldn't do much 
 more, however good their intentions. 
 
 As he had prophesied, the meeting was not
 
 THE BLANK LINE 97 
 
 largely attended, and even he felt depressed as 
 he noticed how few there were there who could 
 give much. The chairman was a " Common " 
 man, and started the meeting with a rousing, 
 confident speech, which he crowned with a 
 promise of fifty pounds. 
 
 The super stared from the speaker to his 
 colleagues in amazement as the sum was named ; 
 it was three "times the amount he had expected. 
 Then the resident minister spoke, and promised 
 an outrageously extravagant sum for himself 
 and wife and little ones. Then there was a 
 pause, and presently old Bottoms rose to his 
 feet. He had a mournful, melancholy tone with 
 him, and always spoke at great length, but at 
 last he announced that as the Lord had been 
 so good to them in the chapel scheme, he could 
 not give less than a hundred pounds. 
 
 The meeting applauded this to the echo, for 
 Bottoms had a reputation for nearness. Then 
 two or three more followed in a similar strain, 
 until the poor super, scarcely knowing where 
 he was, felt his eyes growing dim, and had to 
 blow his nose. Then they sang a hymn, and 
 were just sitting down again, when the man 
 
 7
 
 98 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 who was acting as temporary chapel steward 
 suddenly opened the inner door and threw up 
 his arms with a gesture of wondering triumph, 
 and the next moment who should walk into 
 the chapel but Higson. 
 
 He was a short, ruddy man, and now looked 
 redder than ever. He held his hat in his hand 
 and gazed wonderingly about the chapel, which 
 he had never seen since it was finished, and 
 walked staggeringly up towards the front. 
 Presently he stopped, his hat dropped out of 
 his hand, and he lifted a red, agitated face 
 towards the platform and cried : 
 
 " I had to come, Mr. Super, I had to come ! 
 I've been the wretchedest man in Floxton parish 
 this last two months, but I couldn't miss this 
 My father laid the foundation stone of the last 
 chapel, and my grandfather was the first trustee 
 of the oldest chapel of all. Everything I have 
 I owe to this Church, and my own bairns have 
 been converted here. I've heard what you are 
 thinking of doing with, my name, and that 
 brought me here to-night, that killed my pride. 
 God forgive me. Put me down for a hundred 
 ptunds, Mr. Super, if I'm not too bad, and I'll
 
 THE BLANK LINE 99 
 
 sit in the free seats if you'll let me come 
 again." 
 
 The meeting was some time before it got 
 composed, and then the subscriptions began to 
 roll in faster than ever. 
 
 That night, after Higson had been down to 
 the manse and signed the roll, the super 
 repeated once more his old saying, that the 
 Floxton people were the strangest people he 
 had ever travelled amongst, but this time he 
 added, " and the best."
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION 
 
 lOI
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION 
 
 TWO elderly ladies sat by the fire in a 
 comfortably furnished room, the walls of 
 which were adorned with steel engravings of 
 scenes in the lives of the Wesleys, Centenary 
 gatherings, and a large photograph of the first 
 lay representative Conference. The one seated 
 in the low modern armchair on the side nearest 
 the window was small and thin, with white hair 
 and fair skin, and cheeks like old china. She 
 had a meek, Quaker-like look about her, and her 
 dress was of plain silver grey. 
 
 The other one was taller than her sister and 
 dark, and had a masculine mouth, at the corners 
 of which there were lines which had been left 
 by bygone storms. She was reading the newly 
 
 arrived Methodist Recorder, and there was a 
 
 103
 
 104 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 disappointed, almost peevish look on her face, 
 and presently she threw the paper from her with 
 an impatient jerk, and as it fluttered to the 
 hearthrug she shaded her face with her hand 
 and gazed moodily into the fire. Her soft-eyed 
 little sister glanced concernedly at her once or 
 twice, sighed a little, and then asked gently : 
 " Anybody dead, love ? " 
 
 " No ; nobody we know." 
 
 Another slight pause, and then in a caressing 
 tone : " Anybody married ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Any news about Hanster ? " 
 
 « No." 
 
 The little Quakeress's knitting seemed to 
 trouble her just then and her thin, almost 
 transparent hands shook a little as she fumbled 
 for the dropped stitch. In a moment, however, 
 she lifted her head and asked coaxingly : " Is 
 there nothing interesting, love ? " 
 
 Miss Hannah dropped the hand that covered 
 her eyes, glanced petulantly round the room and 
 then answered pensively : " Susan, there's one 
 thing in that paper and one only." 
 
 The head of the meek little woman opposite
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION IO5 
 
 to her was bent over her knitting, the pearly 
 cheek paled a little, and then she asked : " And 
 that, love?" 
 
 " That paper has got nothing in it but 
 Twentieth Century ; it is Twentieth Century first 
 page and Twentieth Century last, and Twentieth 
 Century all the way through. Oh, that we 
 should have lived to see this day ! " 
 
 " Hannah ! " 
 
 " I mean it, Susan ; " and the excited woman 
 began to rock herself in an increasing grief. 
 " There was a Branscombe who entertained Mr. 
 Wesley, there have been Branscombes in every 
 great movement our Church has seen ; our 
 father sat in the first Lay Conference and we 
 both subscribed to the Thanksgiving Fund our- 
 selves. And now that our Church is doing the 
 noblest thing she ever did we shall be out of it. 
 Oh, that we had gone before it came ! " 
 
 " No, no, love, not so bad as that ; we can give 
 our guinea each, and — and one in memory of 
 our dear father, ah — with a little more economy." 
 
 " Guineas ! Branscombes giving single 
 guineas ! Our dear father down on that great 
 historic roll for a guinea ! Susan, how can
 
 I06 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 you ? what will the village think ? And the 
 Hanster people, and father's old Conference 
 friends ? They might suspect something ! We 
 cannot think of it for a moment" 
 
 Miss Hannah had risen to her feet during her 
 speech, but now, with a fretful, half-indignant 
 gesture, she sank back into her chair and once 
 more covered her face with her hands. 
 
 Little Miss Susan stole anxious, sympathetic 
 glances across the room for a moment or two, 
 and then, letting her knitting slide down upon 
 her footstool, she stepped softly to the side of 
 her sister's chair, and, bending over and press- 
 ing her delicate cheek against Miss Hannah's 
 darker one, she murmured soothingly 
 
 "And if some things I do not ask, 
 
 In my cup of blessing be ; 
 I would have my spirit filled the more 
 
 With grateful love to Thee, 
 And careful less to serve Thee much 
 
 Than to please Thee perfectly." 
 
 As these lines were repeated the face of Miss 
 Hannah softened, the shadow upon it gradually 
 disappeared, and in the pause that followed a 
 gentle light came into her black eyes. She
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION IO7 
 
 bent forward and silently kissed the dear face 
 that was still bent over her, and then said 
 impulsively : 
 
 " Bless you, love ! What have I done to 
 deserve such a sweet comforter ? But I should 
 like to have done one more good thing for 
 God and our Church before I go to heaven." 
 
 " Never mind, dearest ! When we get to 
 heaven the Master will perhaps say to us as He 
 said to David." 
 
 " What was that ? " 
 
 " Thou didst well that it was in thine 
 heart." 
 
 Now, the father of these two ladies had been 
 a prosperous, well-to-do Methodist layman of 
 Connexional repute, but when he died it was 
 discovered that all his means were in his 
 business, and that he had really saved very 
 little. His funeral was attended by great 
 numbers of Methodist magnates, lay and 
 clerical, from all parts of the country, and the 
 respect shown to their father's memory had 
 been a sweet consolation to the bereaved 
 sisters.
 
 I08 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 But whilst they were receiving the written 
 and spoken sympathies of many friends, the 
 family lawyer was expressing himself to himself 
 in language that was to say the least very 
 unparliamentary. Branscombe's business was 
 certainly a lucrative one, and whilst he was 
 there to attend to it all was well ; but the 
 man who spent or gave away all his income, 
 when he had two daughters unprovided for was, 
 in the lawyer's judgment, more fool than saint, 
 and he ground his teeth savagely when he 
 discovered that he would have to explain to 
 the sorrowing women that they would have 
 to change their style of life. 
 
 There was nothing else for it, however. The 
 business would have to be carried on, for it 
 was not the sort of thing that would realise 
 much when sold. A manager would therefore 
 have to be paid, and when that was done 
 there would not be very much left for the two 
 ladies who had always been brought up in such 
 comfort. 
 
 Lawyer Bed well had no patience with men 
 who left their affairs Hke that, and in spite 
 of himself, some of his feeling on the point
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION IO9 
 
 slipped out upon his first interview with his 
 fair clients. 
 
 When he had gone, their minds were occupied 
 with one thought only. It was clear that Mr. 
 Bedwell thought their father blameworthy in 
 the matter, and if he did others would be of 
 the same opinion. But they knew as no one 
 else did, how true and noble a parent they 
 had lost, and at all costs they were determined 
 that nothing should be done that would excite 
 suspicion in the minds of their friends. Appear- 
 ances, therefore, must be kept up, and every- 
 thing must go on as usual ; all their father's 
 ubscriptions must be continued, and their home 
 must still be the chief house of entertainment 
 in Hanster. 
 
 But as time went on these things became 
 more and more difficult. Nearly half the profits 
 of the business had to go to pay a manager ; 
 but, as he was not Mr. Branscombe and the 
 concern had depended largely upon the personal 
 effort and influence of its chief, there was a 
 serious annual shrinkage, in spite of all that 
 Lawyer Bedwell could do to prevent it. Then 
 the manager precipitated a crisis by absconding
 
 no THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 with some hundreds of pounds, and the legal 
 adviser to the firm was compelled to recommend 
 that the business be sold and that the ladies 
 should reduce their establishment, so as to be 
 able to live upon what was left. 
 
 For their own sakes this might easily have 
 been done, but for their father's they could not 
 think of it. At last, however, they decided 
 to leave the little town where they had been 
 born, and where all their interests centred, 
 and go into some quiet village, where they 
 might live cheaply, and do in a smaller way 
 the kind of work their father had done in 
 Hanster. 
 
 And so they came to Pumphrey, where they 
 were regarded as very great people indeed, 
 and where their now reduced contributions were 
 received as most munificent donations. But 
 the habits of a lifetime are not easily unlearnt, 
 and so, finding that the memory of their father 
 was still fragrant in Pumphrey, and that the 
 simple inhabitants of the village were ready to 
 give them all the respect and deference due to 
 their antecedents, they were soon acting in the 
 old open-handed way ; and whilst the little
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION III 
 
 circuit in which the village was situate rejoiced 
 in and boasted of their generosity, the poor 
 ladies were constantly over-reaching themselves 
 and lived in a condition of chronic impecunio- 
 sity. 
 
 Their personal expenses were pared down 
 until they could be reduced no further, but 
 the large-hearted liberality to which they had 
 always been accustomed and which regard for 
 their father's memory seemed to demand, was 
 continued as far as possible. Recently, how- 
 ever. Miss Susan had had a severe illness, and 
 this, with the heavy doctor's bill it involved, 
 had reduced them still further, and the 
 announcement of the Twentieth Century Fund 
 found them in the worst possible condition for 
 doing their duty to it. 
 
 The long pensive silence that fell upon the 
 sisters after Miss Susan's last remark was 
 broken presently by a knock at the door, and 
 Jane their faithful, if somewhat unmanageable, 
 domestic brought in the supper. Placing the 
 little tray containing hot milk and thin bread 
 and butter on the table, she picked up the 
 Methodist Recorder and somewhat ostentatiously
 
 112 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 proceeded to put it away in the homemade 
 rack at the side of the fireplace. 
 
 " You can take the paper with you, Jane," 
 said Miss Hannah. 
 
 " I dooan't want it, mum," answered Jane 
 gruffly, and in broadest Yorkshire. 
 
 " You don't want it, Jane ! Why, it is full 
 of news this week, all about the Twentieth 
 Century Fund, you know." 
 
 " That's just it, mum ! that theer fund I caan't 
 abeear ! It's gotten hup out o' pride an' pomp 
 an' vanity, that's wot it is, an it'ull niver prosper, 
 mark my wods ! " 
 
 "Jane!" 
 
 I meean it, mum ! Thank goodness, nooan 
 a my muney 'uU gooa ta sitchan a thing, an' bi 
 wot I can hear ther's nooan o' t' villigers gooin' 
 ta give nowt neeither." 
 
 "But, Jane " 
 
 But before Miss Hannah could stop her, Jane 
 had burst forth again : " It's nowt bud pride, 
 an wickidness, mum, it's woss nor that king 
 as showed his treasures to that Babshakkle, an' 
 as fur that theer rowl, it's King Daavid numberin' 
 Hisrael, that's wot it is."
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION II3 
 
 " But, Jane, we must all " 
 
 "Yes, mum, that's wot you alias says, beggin' 
 your pardon, bud it's my belief you ladies 'ud 
 subscribe ta buyin' t' moon if t' Conference 
 wanted it ; bud I'm different, an' if I hed my 
 waay not a penny 'ud goa oot o' this house 
 ta that Million Fund." 
 
 As the privileged and outspoken Jane closed 
 the door behind her, the two ladies looked at 
 each other with astonishment, for Jane was as 
 stout a supporter of all things Methodistic as 
 they were, and they had difficulty sometimes 
 in restraining her liberality. 
 
 To Miss Hannah, however, their old servant's 
 words were more disturbing than to her mild 
 sister. She did all the business of the establish- 
 ment and had charge of the purse, and she 
 had privately resolved in spite of her querulous 
 words to her sister that, if the worst came to 
 the worst, she would do as she had been driven 
 to do once or twice before and get a temporary 
 loan from Jane ; but, if Jane disapproved of 
 the fund, there might be difficulty, for nothing 
 was concealed from her, and, in fact, she had 
 more to do with the financial arrangements 
 
 8
 
 114 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 of the little family, than even Miss Hannah 
 herself 
 
 Meanwhile Jane, who was short and plump 
 with bright black eyes and black hair, had 
 made her way back into the kitchen, where sat 
 a ruddy-looking man of about thirty, dressed 
 like a gardener, and whose face wore an injured, 
 protesting expression whilst he leaned forward 
 propping his elbows on his knees and nervously 
 twirling his cap round with his hands. He 
 glanced sulkily up from under his brows as 
 Jane entered the kitchen, andffurtively watched 
 her as she picked up a wash-leather and re- 
 sumed her work at the plate basket. 
 
 The gardener gave his cap a fierce extra 
 twirl and then grumbled : " Ther niver wur 
 nooabody humbugged like me ; this is t' fowert 
 (fourth) time I've been putten off." 
 
 Jane gave an ominous sniff; her plump face 
 hardened a little, but she never spoke. 
 
 "It's t' Million Fund an' t' Mississes an' 
 onnybody afoor me." 
 
 The spoon Jane was rubbing was flung into 
 the basket with a peevish rattle, and rising 
 to her feet and stepping to the rug before the
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION II5 
 
 fire she said indignantly : " John Craake, hev 
 sum sense, wilta ? Here I've been telling lies 
 like a good 'un i' t' parlour till I can hardly 
 bide mysen, an' noo I mun cum back ta be 
 aggravaated bi thee. Them owd haangils i' 
 t' parlour 'ud sell t' frocks ofifen ther backs ta 
 subscribe ta this fund, an' thou sits theer talkin' 
 about weddins an sitch like floppery. I wunder 
 thou isn't ashaamed o' thisen." 
 
 John sat ruminating dolefully for a moment 
 or two, and then he wiped his nose with the 
 back of his hand and said with sulky resigna- 
 tion : " Well, what mun I dew then ? " 
 
 " Dew ? thou mun cum i' t' morning an' saay 
 thi saay to 'em, an' if that weean't dew, thou mun 
 waait, that's what thou mun dew." 
 
 Now John had been courting Jane in a 
 dogged sort of way almost ever since the 
 Branscombes came to Pumphrey, but until 
 recently he had made little apparent progress. 
 Some few months before the time of which we 
 write, however, a terrible burglary with murder- 
 ous incidents had taken place in the neighbour- 
 hood, and as the news greatly upset the old 
 ladies and made them declare that they would
 
 Il6 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 never be able to stay in the house unless they 
 could have a man about the place, Jane had 
 made a virtue of necessity and accepted her 
 lover, on the understanding that he was to 
 come and live in the house, and never suggest 
 any other arrangement so long as the old 
 ladies lived. 
 
 John had eagerly agreed ; but, though the 
 wedding had been fixed now three times, it 
 had so far been put off again and again, be- 
 cause, as John eventually discovered, the money 
 which Jane with a Yorkshire woman's thrifty 
 ideas felt was absolutely necessary for a decent 
 woman's wedding, had been sacrificed to the 
 needs of her mistresses. 
 
 And now it had seemed that the happy event 
 was really to come off, and just at the last 
 minute, so to speak, this Million Scheme had 
 turned up, and Jane insisted that before her 
 spare cash was spent on such a friv£)lous thing 
 as getting married she must be sure that it was 
 not wanted to enable her mistresses to subscribe 
 to the fund as became the daughters of Thomas 
 Branscombe. For Jane, be it said, was as 
 jealous for the honour of her old master as
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION II7 
 
 his daughters. She was, moreover, a Methodist 
 of the Methodists, and had upon the first 
 announcement of the fund decided that it was 
 her duty to give at least five pounds to so 
 glorious an object. 
 
 This idea, however, she now abandoned, and 
 whilst she consented to try and persuade her 
 mistresses not to think of subscribing and had 
 agreed that John should use his powers of per- 
 suasion in the same direction, she knew but too 
 well that the dear old souls she worshipped 
 would insist upon taking their part in the great 
 movement, and therefore the money she intended 
 to have given for herself and the money needed 
 for the approaching wedding would all be 
 required for the old ladies' subscription. And, 
 even if the sisters themselves could be talked 
 over, she still felt that their names ought to be 
 on the roll and that it was her duty to get them 
 on, even if she had to do it unknown to them, 
 and pay the subscriptions herself. 
 
 Next morning, therefore, John did his best 
 to convince the ladies that nobody thereabouts 
 cared anything for the fund, and that it would 
 be useless to hold a meeting in the village for
 
 Il8 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 the purpose. Encouraged by Miss Hannah's 
 manner as he respectfully argued with her, 
 he even suggested that she should write 
 to the super advising him not to think of 
 holding a meeting in Pumphrey. Jane, how- 
 ever, when he told her what he had said 
 in the parlour, was worse than sceptical, and 
 insisted on him as a leader writing to the 
 super himself. 
 
 A post or two later, however, a reply came 
 to say that the meeting was fixed for the follow- 
 ing Thursday night, and that Pumphrey surely 
 would not be behind other places. John 
 hastened to Pear Tree Cottage to tell the news 
 as soon as he got the letter; but on entering 
 the kitchen he was interrupted in his story by 
 the alarming information that Miss Susan had 
 been taken ill in the night, and he must hasten 
 away for the doctor. 
 
 The Thursday night came, and the super, 
 alarmed and disappointed at not seeing " The 
 Ladies " at the meeting, discovered on enquiry 
 that Miss Susan was confined to her room, and 
 that the doctor's report was not encouraging 
 The good man therefore came round on his way
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION II9 
 
 home, and Miss Hannah came down from the 
 sick-room to speak to him. 
 
 Her report of the condition of the patient 
 was so discouraging, and she herself looked so 
 sad, that the good pastor forgot all about the 
 meeting and was just saying good-night when 
 Miss Hannah said : " I was sorry we missed the 
 meeting but" (with hesitation and embarrass- 
 ment) " of course we shall send our subscription." 
 
 " Send it ? But you did send it, Miss Brans- 
 combe." 
 
 " No ! but we will do ; it will be all right, 
 Mr. Makinson." 
 
 " But you did send it, excuse me, and a very 
 nice one it is. See, here it is," and the minister 
 pulled out a small roll of papers and spread 
 the top one out upon the table. 
 
 Miss Hannah with a puzzled look bent over 
 the good man's shoulder and read, whilst tears 
 came into her sad eyes as she recognised the 
 clumsy writiiig : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Thomas Branscombe, Esq. (in Memoriam) 550 
 
 Miss Susannah Wesley Branscombe . ■ • 5 5 o 
 
 Miss Hannah More Branscombe . , • 5 5 o 
 
 Jane Twizel i i o
 
 120 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Miss Hannah turned away with a choking 
 sob, and the super, embarrassed and perplexed, 
 took a hasty departure. 
 
 In the small hours of the next morning, as 
 Miss Hannah sat musing by the sick-room fire, 
 a gentle voice called her to the bedside. 
 
 " What is it, love ? " she asked anxiously. 
 
 " Oh, Hannah, love, isn't God good ? I said 
 He would find a way and He has done — better 
 than we can ask or think." 
 
 " Yes, love ! of course, love ; but what do 
 you mean ? " 
 
 " The fund, you know, the great fund ; we 
 shall do it, you see, after all. Oh, isn^t He 
 good ? " 
 
 " Yes, love, of course." 
 
 But Miss Hannah's voice showed that she 
 did not quite understand, and so with a bright 
 smile the gentle sufferer explained faintly : 
 " The insurance, you know ; it is for whichever 
 of us dies first." 
 
 " Dies ? " cried Miss Hannah, in sudden dis- 
 tress ; " you are not dying, love. Oh, no 1 You 
 mustn't leave me alone." 
 
 But the sufferer evidently did not hear.
 
 A COSTLY CONTRIBUTION 121 
 
 Presently she murmured almost inaudibly : 
 ' There will be plenty of money for you now, 
 love, and the Branscombes will have an honour- 
 able place on the roll, and whilst the money 
 will be making the world sweeter and better 
 we shall be at rest." 
 
 Two days later the gentle soul slipped away 
 and was laid by her father's side in the Hanster 
 chapel-yard, and shortly after the Million 
 Scheme was enriched by a contribution of 
 a hundred pounds, " In loving memory of a 
 noble father and a sainted sister in heaven." 
 
 Poor John Crake is still waiting, though 
 somewhat more hopefully, to be allowed to 
 act as a protection against burglars at Pear 
 Tree Cottage.
 
 THE ALDERMAN'S CONVERSION 
 
 tas
 
 VI 
 
 THE ALDERMAN'S CONVERSION 
 
 SORRY, Mr. Super, but I cannot take 
 the chair, and as for my name heading 
 the circuit list, I don't intend it to be there 
 at all." 
 
 " Mr. Alderman, I'm astonished ! You of all 
 men ! Why, everybody is looking to you to 
 lead the way." 
 
 "Can't help it, sir; the fact is, I don't 
 approve of the scheme at all." 
 
 The super was amazed, and most undis- 
 guisedly disappointed. 
 
 " What ! What is your objection to it, 
 sir?" 
 
 And the alderman leaned back a little farther 
 into his Russian leather armchair, puffed out 
 a volume of smoke from his cigar, twitched 
 
 125
 
 1 
 
 126 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 up the tightened knee of his trousers, and 
 then drawled with an assumption of coohiess 
 he did not quite feel : 
 
 " It appears to me, sir, that this whole move- 
 ment is an attempt to endow our departments, 
 and as a — a — conscientious Radical I object 
 to all endowments." 
 
 The good super proceeded to explain, and 
 from explanation he passed on to argument 
 and from argument to pleading ; but the 
 alderman held his ground, and the minister 
 went away with astonishment and dismay in 
 his heart. 
 
 Leit alone in his office, Joseph Carfax put his 
 legs upon a chair and gave himself up to medita- 
 tion, in which the minister and the Twentieth 
 Century Fund were soon forgotten. The alder- 
 man was a successful man of business, who had 
 risen from the ranks, and whilst yet in the 
 prime of life had reached a comfortable com- 
 petence. He was also one of the most promi- 
 nent public men in the ancient borough of 
 Knibworth, and it was confidently stated that 
 he might have the mayoralty any time he 
 liked. Hitherto, however, he had declined the
 
 THE ALDERMAN'S CONVERSION 127 
 
 honour, chiefly because he was anxious when 
 he did occupy the civic chair to excel his 
 predecessors as much in munificence as he was 
 able to do in eloquence. He had a large and 
 expensive family and many calls upon his 
 liberality, but he was now beginning to feel 
 that if not next year, certainly the year after, 
 he would be able to do himself the honour of 
 accepting the dignity which had already more 
 than once been offered him. 
 
 As will have been seen already, Carfax was a 
 Wesleyan and had been for years a most accept- 
 able local preacher. In his earlier life, when he 
 was an obscure man, he had been very popular 
 and very much in demand ; but of late his 
 appointments had been reduced to an occasional 
 half-day at the circuit chapel, and he scarcely 
 ever went into the villages to preach except on 
 anniversary days, when his liberal contributions 
 to the collection were more eagerly looked for 
 than his services in the pulpit. He was trustee 
 of several chapels and had held every office his 
 Church could offer to laymen, not excepting 
 that of Conference representative. For some 
 years now he had been the chief layman of the
 
 128 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 Knibworth circuit, and was known throughout 
 the district as a generous, broad-minded sym- 
 pathiser with every good movement. 
 
 Of late, however, he had been conscious 
 that the ardour of his early days had left 
 him, and that he was not by any means as 
 enthusiastic a Methodist as he used to be. As 
 he mixed more with men of all kinds his ideas 
 had got broadened he told himself, and he was 
 compelled to admit that the nonsuch Methodism 
 of his earlier life did not quite satisfy his maturer 
 tastes. The ministers they had now were not 
 quite the same sort of men as those with whom 
 he had been so very friendly in those days gone 
 by, and the laymen with whom he associated at 
 the chapel were not exactly his style. His 
 family was growing up, too, and he began to 
 discover how very little society there was for his 
 sons and daughters in the Knibworth Methodist 
 circles. 
 
 His wife had complained more than once 
 recently that there were scarcely any young 
 people in the chapel with whom their children 
 could associate, and none with whom she would 
 like them to marry. And he felt that his wife
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION 1 29 
 
 was right, although he had pooh-poohed her 
 remark at the time ; really when he came to 
 think of it, a man in his position had to make 
 many social sacrifices, if he continued faithful to 
 the Church of his choice. He governed his 
 family upon what he called " modern principles," 
 and allowed his children great liberality, both of 
 speech and action. His growing discontent with 
 his Church had found expression of late in severe 
 criticisms of sermons and half-concealed sneerS 
 at the officials of the Church ; but he was 
 surprised and for the moment disturbed when he 
 discovered that his children entertained similar 
 views, and assumed a tolerant, contemptuous 
 air towards all things Methodistic. 
 
 Recently also two of the young people had 
 taken to going to church occasionally, making 
 their love of music the excuse ; and only the 
 other day his boy Fred had been invited to join 
 the choir of St. Margaret's. 
 
 To crown all, his wife had hinted to him a 
 day or two ago that there was something 
 between their eldest daughter Emily and young 
 Pearson, the son of one of his brother aldermen. 
 
 Well, after all, what right had he to expect 
 
 9
 
 130 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 that his children would be Methodists because 
 he had always been one ? Hadn't they as much 
 right to choose for themselves as he had ? It 
 would be a grand thing for Emily, if she did 
 marry young Pearson, and it would be a shame 
 for him to put anything in her way. Perhaps 
 if he became mayor it would help the matter, 
 for the Pearsons were a proud lot. Yes, that 
 was what he must do, he must take the chief 
 magistracy next year, and if he did, there would 
 be no money to spare either for this Million 
 Scheme or any other merely Methodist 
 matter. 
 
 Just as he had reached this conclusion the 
 office door opened, and in sauntered an old 
 man. He was evidently very much at home in 
 the place, and nodded familiarly to the alderman 
 as he entered. He was short and thin and very 
 straight ; he wore an old-fashioned semi-clerical 
 suit of black, tinged here and there with brown 
 spots, the result of snuff-taking. 
 
 " Hello, dad ! pay day again ? " And the 
 alderman rose hastily from his reclining 
 position and, drawing up to his desk, began to 
 take out his cheque-book.
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION I3I 
 
 The visitor was Carfax's father, an old local 
 preacher who lived by himself and was main- 
 tained in very generous fashion by his only 
 son. 
 
 " Yes, my lad, the old amount," he said play- 
 fully, as he came towards the desk ; " but I 
 want something else to-day." 
 
 " Hello ! what's up now ? " cried the alderman, 
 turning round and smiling. " Not going to get 
 married again, father ? " 
 
 The old man grinned, for this was an old 
 joke. " No, my lad, it's that Twentieth 
 Century Fund, you know." 
 
 Carfax laid down his pen, and turning 
 quickly round, cried : " But, father, you are 
 not going in for that, surely." 
 
 " Am I not ? but I am ! And why not ? " 
 
 " I don't believe in it, father. You can do 
 what you like and have as much as you like, 
 but I've made up my mind that I shall not 
 give a penny to it." 
 
 The old man's jaw dropped in dismay. He 
 looked amazedly at his son for a moment, took 
 a great pinch of snuff without ever removing his 
 eyes from the alderman, and then gasped out :
 
 132 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 " Thou's wandering, my lad." 
 
 It was a sure sign that he was excited when 
 old John Carfax " thoued " his son. 
 
 "Wandering or not, I mean it. I'll supply 
 you with as much as you like, with pleasure ; 
 but not a penny will I give myself." 
 
 " But, my lad, my lad ! it's for Methodism, 
 our blessed Methodism ! " 
 
 « Methodism ! What's Methodism ? It's no 
 better than any other Church that I know of." 
 
 "Joseph!" and in his extreme distress the 
 old man dropped his snuff-box, and coming up 
 to the desk and taking his son by the arm he 
 went on, " Joseph, my lad ! my lad ! why, 
 Methodism has been ivverything to uz." 
 
 " Don't see it, father ; I don't see it at all." 
 
 The old man's arm was still upon his son's 
 shoulder, and, as he stood gazing up into the 
 hard but handsome face of his only living 
 relative, he asked with eager, tremulous distress : 
 "Joseph, hev'n't I heard thee say at anniver- 
 saries 'at thou hed the best mother i' England ? " 
 
 " Yes, an' I had, too ; but what of that ? " 
 
 "That mother was saved from a bad family 
 and a bad life by Methodism ; and thy owd
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION 1 33 
 
 father was turned from a gamblin' skittle-player 
 to a local preacher by Methodism ; an' all 'at's 
 good in thee thou got fro' Methodism. Oh, 
 Joseph ! how can thou talk like that ? " 
 
 Carfax was moved somewhat, and so, pro- 
 mising to think of it, he put the old man off, 
 and as soon as he had gone tried to forget the 
 words he had heard in the public duties in 
 which he was so much interested. But again and 
 again at the Watch Committee that night the 
 old man's look came back into his mind, and 
 even when he got to the club he could not 
 shake off the impression that had been made 
 on him, and so he went home earlier than usual. 
 He had just finished supper and was immersed 
 in some corporation returns when the dining- 
 room door opened, and in burst Dick, his third 
 and most excitable son. 
 
 " Oh, dad ! I've been to such a jolly meeting ! 
 Went over to call on the Brigdens on my bike. 
 They were just going out to a meeting, so I 
 went with them and heard Perks. My stars, 
 didn't he make a rippin' speech ! " 
 
 Carfax glanced round indolently and asked : 
 " Missionary meeting, was it ? "
 
 134 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 " Missionary ! No ! it was about this Million 
 Scheme. Hay, I did feel proud that our Church 
 was such a grand one." And then he broke 
 off : "I say, dad, why don't we take in the 
 Methodist papers ? The Brigdens knew all 
 about it, and there was I as ignorant as a 
 noodle." 
 
 Carfax felt a reproachful little pang, and 
 was just turning again to his returns when his 
 impetuous son broke out once more : 
 
 " Oh, it was a speech ! Why, dad, I never 
 knew that ours was such a grand Church. Oh, 
 wasn't I proud I was a Methodist, I can tell 
 you!" 
 
 Carfax winced and was just about to speak 
 when a little flaxen-haired maiden, the saint of 
 the family as her eldest brother called her, got 
 up from the sofa where she had been reclining, 
 and stealing to her brother's side, put her white 
 arms upon his shoulder and said softly : " I 
 hope you will be a real Methodist some day, 
 dear." 
 
 Later the same evening the alderman had 
 a somewhat serious conversation with his wife. 
 He was going to tell her what he had decided
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION 135 
 
 to do with regard to the Million Scheme and 
 what he had said to the super whom Mrs. 
 Carfax did not particularly like ; but before he 
 could commence she began to confide to him 
 her apprehensions as to their eldest son, who 
 was in business in London ; and the details she 
 supplied, and the dark pictures which, with 
 motherly anxiety, she painted, made Carfax 
 very uncomfortable. 
 
 When she had gone to bed he fell into 
 troubled musings. He could not forget what 
 his father had said to him that day, and the 
 lisht words of the excitable Dick somehow 
 stuck to him ; but this news about Edmund 
 in London was worst of all, and sank deepest. 
 True, most of what the mother had said had 
 been mere surmisings ; but he felt how easily 
 they and much more might be true, and before 
 he was aware of it the alderman, who had of 
 late dropped into the habit of mentally mini- 
 mising the favourite Methodist doctrine of 
 conversion, found himself wishing, with a de^p 
 sigh, that his eldest boy had been converted 
 before he went to London. He would give a 
 thousand pounds at that very moment to know
 
 136 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 that his boy was a genuine Christian ; but there 
 seemed no hope of that, and his other children 
 seemed likely to become nominal Christians at 
 most, and to drift into other Churches. And 
 for the next half-hour — the deeper manhood of 
 Joseph having fairly awakened — gave him a 
 torturing experience. 
 
 But next morning he felt inclined to laugh 
 at his fears of the night before, and was no more 
 inclined than ever to depart from the path upon 
 which he had entered. 
 
 But circumstances were against the alderman, 
 for when he got home to dinner he found that 
 two of his children, Dick the irrepressible, and 
 Kathy the saint, had been down to grandfather's 
 and borrowed the Recorder and had also called 
 at the railway bookstall and got the Methodist 
 Times, and were now fuller than ever of the 
 wonderful fund. 
 
 When grandfather came in a little while after- 
 wards they of course received powerful rein- 
 forcement, and though the two eldest children 
 who were at home treated the matter rather 
 contemptuously, they could not altogether resist 
 the influences of the moment, and were soon
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION 1 37 
 
 almost as much interested as the younger 
 ones. 
 
 On the following Sunday it was announced 
 that the Million Scheme meeting for Knibworth 
 would be held on the Thursday week following ; 
 but no chairman's name was mentioned. Liter- 
 ature of various kinds was also found in the 
 pews and carried home, and Carfax during the 
 afternoon noticed some very mysterious calcula- 
 tions going on with lead pencils, and his wife 
 told him as he went to bed that, good Sunday 
 though it was, Dick and Kathy had been 
 reckoning up what sundry inmates of the 
 house owed them. 
 
 Carfax began to feel really ashamed of 
 himself, and told himself reluctantly that the 
 enthusiasm of his children, the younger end 
 of them at any rate, was a direct reproach to 
 him ; at the same time he was conscious of 
 a curious feeling of relief and thankfulness in 
 the thought, that some at least of his family 
 would by this fund become more firmly attached 
 to their father's Church. 
 
 During the week the super called again, and 
 tried to induce his most influential layman to
 
 138 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 take the chair at the circuit meeting. But 
 Carfax still held out, though more from a foolish 
 scruple about consistency than anything else ; 
 and the minister went away resolved to try 
 once more before the eventful day came. 
 
 Of late Carfax had fallen into the habit of 
 once-a-day worship, and so he stayed at home 
 on the following Sunday evening. And there, 
 by his own fireside, he got thinking once more 
 of his cherished plans, and was surprised to 
 find that they did not seem so beautiful as they 
 had done before. And then he was drawn to 
 think again of his whole life, and especially of 
 his recent attitude towards the Church in which, 
 as he could not but acknowledge, he had got 
 all his good. Then he wandered off into remem- 
 brances of the happy days when he was young 
 and struggling, and of the blessed weariness he 
 used to feel after a hard day's preaching in the 
 country. After all, those were happy days, and 
 he was not so sure that he was not a better man 
 then than now, in spite of his J. P. and municipal 
 and other honours. 
 
 Then his father's words in the office came 
 back to him, and he was just choking back a
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION 1 39 
 
 lump in his throat when the dining-room door 
 burst open and a fairy form flung itself upon 
 him, a hot cheek was pressed against his, and a 
 bright eager voice cried : " Oh, father, father ! 
 what do you think ? Oh, I am so happy ! 
 so very very happy ! " 
 
 " Whatever's the matter, child ? " 
 
 " Oh, father ! dear father, Dick's just told me 
 such a secret ! such a beautiful secret." 
 
 " And you are letting it all out ! What is 
 it, you whirlwind ? " 
 
 " Oh, father, Dick's just told me he is going 
 to join Mr. Jimpson's class. Isn't it grand, 
 father, glorious ? " 
 
 Carfax felt he was giving way. The slumber- 
 ing Methodism in him was all at once awaking 
 and swallowing up the alderman, and almost 
 to his own surprise he muttered fervently : 
 "Thank God." 
 
 It was many a long day since Carfax had had 
 a religious conversation with one of his children, 
 but that night he took young Dick into the 
 study and asked him what Kathy's strange story 
 meant. 
 
 Dick was frankness itself, and the alderman's
 
 140 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 heart grew warm and his eyes moist as he 
 listened to his own boy telling the old story 
 that he once used to hear so often. 
 
 "Well, my dear lad, it's the best news I've 
 heard for many a day. God bless you, and 
 make you a true Christian and a true and 
 faithful Methodist. Ah — there's one thing I 
 should like you to do, however." 
 
 "What's that, father?" 
 
 " I should like you to write to Edmund before 
 you go to bed, and tell him what has taken place." 
 
 On the Wednesday following, when the family 
 came down to breakfast, there was a letter lying 
 on Master Dick's plate, and the alderman who 
 saw it first felt somehow as if he would like 
 to open it. 
 
 Kathy also looked at it with longing eyes, for 
 the absent brother was her special favourite. 
 
 Presently Dick came down and opened his 
 letter. He had dressed hastily and was not 
 too much awake even now ; but as he read the 
 note his eyes opened and a bright light came 
 into them, and suddenly he flung the letter into 
 the air, and cried : " Hurrah ! I mean, Praise 
 the Lord."
 
 THE alderman's CONVERSION I4I 
 
 "What! What is it?" cried two or three 
 at once. 
 
 In a moment little Kathy had slipped from her 
 place at the table and picked up the letter, 
 which had fluttered down upon the hearthrug. 
 " Listen ! Hsten ! " she cried, with shining eyes 
 and radiant face, and whilst the rest looked at 
 her eagerly she read : 
 
 " Dear Dick, — Thank God for the news you 
 send me ; it is the best I have had for many a 
 long day. May the Lord keep you faithful ! 
 You may be surprised that I write like this, but 
 as you have told me your happiness I will tell 
 you mine. I have not been very good, I am 
 sorry to say, since I came to London ; but 
 a fortnight ago a friend asked me to go to St. 
 James's Hall. I went, and what I heard there 
 changed my life ; and that very night I gave my 
 heart to God. Please tell them all, but especially 
 dear little Kathy. With much love, 
 
 " Your affectionate Brother, 
 
 " Edmund." 
 
 " And the ;^2 50,000 for Hugh Price Hughes' 
 work was my special aversion," said the
 
 142 THE MAKING OF THE MILLION 
 
 alderman to himself, as he went down to his 
 office ; and when the super called an hour later 
 he found his hitherto obdurate layman in a very- 
 kindly frame of mind. The next evening the 
 chair was taken by Joseph Carfax after all, and 
 the fame of the Knibworth contribution has gone 
 forth into the whole Church.
 
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