He rose, and put the money in his desk,—­such was his genius for avoiding situations which threatened to become emotional.

“I’ve started another one,” she told them, as she departed.

A few moments later Miss Grower appeared.

“Sally,” said Mr. Bentley, “you’re a wise woman.  I believe I’ve made that remark before.  You have managed that case wonderfully.”

“There was a time,” replied Miss Grower, thoughtfully, when it looked pretty black.  We’ve got a chance with her now, I think.”

“I hope so.  I begin to feel so,” Mr. Bentley declared.

“If we succeed,” Miss Grower went on, “it will be through the heart.  And if we lose her again, it will be through the heart.”

Hodder started at this proof of insight.

“You know her history, Mr. Hodder?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Well, I don’t.  And I don’t care to.  But the way to get at Kate Marcy, light as she is in some respects, is through her feelings.  And she’s somehow kept ’em alive.  We’ve got to trust her, from now on—­that’s the only way.  And that’s what God does, anyhow.”

This was one of Miss Grover’s rare references to the Deity.

Turning over that phrase in his mind, Hodder went slowly back towards the parish house.  God trusted individuals—­even such as Kate Marcy.  What did that mean?  Individual responsibility!  He repeated it.  Was the world on that principle, then?  It was as though a search-light were flung ahead of him and he saw, dimly, a new order—­a new order in government and religion.  And, as though spoken by a voice out of the past, there sounded in his ears the text of that sermon which had so deeply moved him, “I will arise and go to my Father.”

The church was still open, and under the influence of the same strange excitement which had driven him to walk in the rain so long ago, he entered and went slowly up the marble aisle.  Through the gathering gloom he saw the figure on the cross.  And as he stood gazing at it, a message for which he had been waiting blazed up within him.

He would not leave the Church!

CHAPTER XVIII

THE RIDDLE OF CAUSATION

I

In order to portray this crisis in the life of Kate Marcy, the outcome of which is still uncertain, other matters have been ignored.

How many persons besides John Hodder have seemed to read—­in crucial periods—­a meaning into incidents having all the outward appearance of accidents!  What is it that leads us to a certain man or woman at a certain time, or to open a certain book?  Order and design? or influence?

The night when he had stumbled into the cafe in Dalton Street might well have been termed the nadir of Hodder’s experience.  His faith had been blotted out, and, with it had suddenly been extinguished all spiritual sense, The beast had taken possession.  And then, when it was least expected,—­nay, when despaired of, had come the glimmer of a light; distant, yet clear.  He might have traced the course of his disillusionment, perhaps, but cause and effect were not discernible here.