"To an appeal to New York's better nature," said H. R., enthusiastically. "The masses always follow the classes; if they didn't there wouldn't be classes. Mr. Wyman, of the National Bank of the Avenue, will act as treasurer." It was the fashionable bank. Stock in demand at seventy-two hundred dollars a share, and all held by Vans. "Has he--" "He will," interrupted H. R. so decisively that the Bishop forgot to be annoyed at not being allowed to finish his question. "We shall appeal to all New-Yorkers. Your name must therefore lead the signatures. Much, Bishop Phillipson, depends upon the leader! Of course there will be other clergymen, and leading merchants, and capitalists, and the mayor, and the borough presidents, and the reform leaders, and everybody who is Somebody. They must give the example. Do you not constantly endeavor, yourself, to be an example, reverend sir?" Before the Bishop could deny this H. R. gave into his hands a book beautifully bound in hand-tooled morocco. The leaves were vellum. On the first page was artistically engrossed: _Hunger knows no denomination._ _There must not be starving men, women, or children in New York._ _We who do not hunger must feed those who do._ _LET US FEED ALL THE HUNGRY!_ "Here, Bishop Phillipson, is the place at the head of the list. It will be signed by men and women whose names stand for Achievement, Fame, and Disinterestedness." H. R. held a fountain-pen before him and pursued: "If you sign, I'll feed all the hungry--_all_! Have you ever seen a starving man? Do you know what it is to be hungry?" The Bishop shook his head at the fountain-pen. He had seen starving men, but he had read about signatures. He could not officially sanction a plan of which he knew so little. No grown man can say that he did not know what he was signing. "Listen!" commanded H. R., sternly. "Do you hear your Master's voice?" "Your intentions, I make no doubt, are highly praiseworthy. But your language is so close to blasphemy...." "All words that invoke God in unrhymed English are so regarded in the United States. Grace would have it that you would sign in Chinese if by so doing it fed the hungry. '_But the greatest of these is charity._' The reporters are waiting for the list. Everybody else will sign if you head the list." "Of course." And the Bishop's voice actually betrayed the fact that he had been forced into self-defense. "Of course. I should be only too glad to sign if I were certain such an action on my part would actually feed the hungry--" "_All_ the hungry," corrected H. R. "Even a tenth of the hungry of New York," the Bishop insisted. "But, my dear young man, excellent intentions do not always succeed. Your methods might not commend themselves to men who have made this work the study of a lifetime."