"I don't anticipate a penny less than two thousand pound," said Mr.
Hamlyn, triumphantly. "P'raps a good bit over. You see, we got 'er just
at the last moment. It was me taking the consecrated wafer did it. She
woke up as pleased as Punch, it gave her strength for the afternoon, and
had the lawyer round at once. I never thought she'd go off so sudden,
though."
"Nor did I, Pa. Well, it's a blessing that she was able to contribute
her mite towards Protestant Truth before she went."
"What?" said Mr. Hamlyn sharply; "mite?--has Gussie Davies any idea of
'ow much the legacy is, then?"
"I only spoke figuratively like, Father."
"How you startled me, Sam!" said the secretary, his face resuming its
wonted expression of impudent good humour.
"How's the cash list to-day?" Sam asked.
"Pretty fair," answered his father, "matter of five pound odd. It's me
getting hold of that wafer, it's sent the subscriptions up wonderful. I
wouldn't part----"
Sam, who was sitting with his back to the door of the room, saw his
father's jaw drop suddenly. His voice died away with a murmur, his face
went pale, his eyes protruded.
The younger man wheeled round his chair. Then he started up, with an
exclamation of surprise and fear.
Both the Protestant champions, indeed, behaved as if they had been
discovered in some fraud by an agent of the law.
Two people had come suddenly into the room, without knocking or being
announced. The secretaries saw the blanched face of a clerk behind them.
During its existence, the Luther League had welcomed some fairly
well-known folk within its doors.
This afternoon, however, a most unexpected honour had been paid to
it--probably the reason of Hamlyn's extreme uneasiness.
A broad, square man of considerable height, with a stern, furrowed face,
wearing an apron and gaiters, stood there, with a thunder-cloud of anger
on his face.
It was His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Lord Huddersfield was with him.
The Archbishop looked steadfastly at Hamlyn for a few seconds. His face
was terrible.
In the presence of the great spiritual lord who is next to the royal
family in the precedence of the realm, the famous scholar, the caustic
wit, the utter force and _power_ of intellect, the two champions were
dumb. Hamlyn had never known anything like it before. The fellow's
bounce and impudence utterly deserted him.
The Archbishop spoke. His naturally rather harsh and strident voice was
rendered tenfold more penetrating and terrifying by his wrath.
"Sir," he said, in a torrent of menacing sound, "you have profaned the
Eucharist, you have mocked the holy things of God, you have made the
most sacred ordinance of our Lord a mountebank show. You boast that you
have purloined the Consecrated Bread from church, you have exhibited it.
Restore it to me, wretched man that you are. By the authority of God, I
demand you to restore it; by my authority as head of the English Church,
I order you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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