She fell down on the floor of the little sitting-room, sobbing great
tearless sobs and beating fruitlessly at the air. Useless to fight the
most perfect, the most complete, the most unanimous system that has been
since the world began. The Catholic Church is like a wonderful machine;
unlike that made by man, it cannot break down. Evelyn was its child,
bred in obedience. Once, many years ago in Liverpool, she had seen some
wonderful invention which revolved at the rate of some hundreds of turns
in thirty seconds. Unluckily for her, she entered the room just after a
serious accident. A careless workman standing near had been caught by
the wheels and cut to pieces before it could be stopped. The invention
itself was beyond praise; it had done incalculable good to humanity.
Only a few comparatively worthless lives had been sacrificed to it.
That was all. It had helped millions. Was that not also true of the
Church?
She rose wearily. Time was passing.
She took up her pen and wrote to Brand, sealing the letter.
"I hope that this will reach you in time, that you may catch the morning
train to Marseilles. I have found the absolute proof in your own
handwriting that you stole the Treaty. I am withholding these proofs
for twenty-four hours; that will give you time to leave the country.
You will, of course, change your name. If you go at once, on receipt of
this, to the Hôtel de Londres, I will meet you as soon as possible,
within twenty-four hours or forty-eight, as the case may be, with about
two hundred pounds in English gold. That should make your position
clear until I have time to carry through my intention—which is to make
over to you, under whatever name you permanently assume, the hundred
pounds a year which I received from my father.
"At the Hôtel de Londres I shall ask for Mr. Hendry. See that your name
is booked as that in the hotel register."
Evelyn fastened the letter deliberately. No very difficult task this.
But—what of her letter to Farquharson?
For here—how many sides took arms against her? Nature—cowardice—physical
frailty, even. They were so mighty an array, these almost visible
temptations which struck at the very root of her being, which surrounded
her and weighed her down with a solid panoply of strength. And to meet
them she had but her piteous array of threadbare honour and tottering
faith.
For Farquharson it was different. Those who have fame cannot reasonably
expect love; life is as best a compromise. Farquharson’s career was
wide and high. The fate of nations lay in his hand; nations, like
individuals, move mechanically to a set tune. The average man deals in
small issues; his view is bounded by his neighbour’s fences. But
Farquharson’s boundaries were limitless; they stretched from empire to
empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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