“Yes?”

“Have you noticed how few great men we’ve got?  It’s not like fifty years ago, or even thirty.  Then there were Mason, Selborne, Sherbrook, and half-a-dozen others.  There was Brightman, too, as Archbishop:  and now!  Then the Communists, too.  Braithwaite is dead fifteen years.  Certainly he was big enough; but he was always speaking of the future, not of the present; and tell me what big man they have had since then!  And now there’s this new man, whom no one knows, who came forward in America a few months ago, and whose name is in every one’s mouth.  Very well, then!”

Percy knitted his forehead.

“I am not sure that I understand,” he said.

Father Blackmore knocked his pipe out before answering.

“Well, this,” he said, standing up.  “I can’t help thinking Felsenburgh is going to do something.  I don’t know what; it may be for us or against us.  But he is a Mason, remember that....  Well, well; I dare say I’m an old fool.  Good-night.”

“One moment, father,” said Percy slowly.  “Do you mean—?  Good Lord!  What do you mean?” He stopped, looking at the other.

The old priest stared back under his bushy eyebrows; it seemed to Percy as if he, too, were afraid of something in spite of his easy talk; but he made no sign.

* * * * *

Percy stood perfectly still a moment when the door was shut.  Then he moved across to his prie-dieu.

CHAPTER III

I

Old Mrs. Brand and Mabel were seated at a window of the new Admiralty Offices in Trafalgar Square to see Oliver deliver his speech on the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Poor Laws Reform.

It was an inspiriting sight, this bright June morning, to see the crowds gathering round Braithwaite’s statue.  That politician, dead fifteen years before, was represented in his famous attitude, with arms outstretched and down dropped, his head up and one foot slightly advanced, and to-day was decked, as was becoming more and more usual on such occasions, in his Masonic insignia.  It was he who had given immense impetus to that secret movement by his declaration in the House that the key of future progress and brotherhood of nations was in the hands of the Order.  It was through this alone that the false unity of the Church with its fantastic spiritual fraternity could be counteracted.  St. Paul had been right, he declared, in his desire to break down the partition-walls between nations, and wrong only in his exaltation of Jesus Christ.  Thus he had preluded his speech on the Poor Law question, pointing to the true charity that existed among Masons apart from religious motive, and appealing to the famous benefactions on the Continent; and in the enthusiasm of the Bill’s success the Order had received a great accession of members.

Old Mrs. Brand was in her best to-day, and looked out with considerable excitement at the huge throng gathered to hear her son speak.  A platform was erected round the bronze statue at such a height that the statesman appeared to be one of the speakers, though at a slightly higher elevation, and this platform was hung with roses, surmounted by a sounding-board, and set with a chair and table.