Elsie heard and inclined her head. It did occur to her that perhaps
Property in the Body Politic might be represented by food in the Body
Human, but she forbore. The Master was one who did not invite argument.
Nearly all the great Teachers of the world, if you think of it, have
conveyed their wisdom in maxims and aphorisms.
He took out his watch. 'It is nearly four,' he said. 'Shall we go on to
the Hall?'
'Not yet. There is no need for us to be there before six. We have two
good hours before us. Let us use them more pleasantly than in sitting
alone in the Hall--you must own that it is stuffy. We will talk about
other things--about ourselves--not about me, because I am quite an
insignificant person, but about you, dear Master.' She was now about to
enter upon her plan of duplicity. She felt horribly ashamed, but it had
to be done. She strengthened herself: she resolved: she suppressed the
voice of conscience.
'About me?' asked the Master. 'But what is there to talk about?'
'Oh! there is ever so much.' She took his right hand in her own and held
it, knowing that this little caress pleased and moved him. 'Master--what
a wonderful chance it was that brought me here! I can never sufficiently
wonder at it. I have told George--George Austin--my lover, you know: and
Athelstan--he is my brother.' She looked at him sharply, but there was
no sign of recognition of those two names. Edmund Gray had never heard
of either. 'I have told them about you and of your great work, and how
you are teaching me and everything. But when they ask me who you are,
where you have lived, and all about you, I can tell them nothing. Oh! I
know it matters nothing about me and my own friends; but, my dear
Master, we have to think of the future. When the Cause has spread, and
spread, and spread, till it covers the whole world, people will want to
know all about the man who first preached its principles. Who will be
able to tell them? No one. You are alone; you have no wife or children.
Your name will remain for ever attached to the Cause itself. But
you--you--the man--what will you be? Nothing. Nothing but a name. You
ought to write an autobiography.'
'I have sometimes thought I would do so'--his face became troubled;
'but--but----'
'But you are always occupied with working for the world. You have no
time, of course. I quite understand that; and it worries you--does it
not?--to be called upon to turn your thoughts from the present back to
the past.'
'Yes--yes; it does--it does. Elsie, you exactly express the
difficulty.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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