All Roads Lead to Calvary

f tea when there came a tap at

," she said. "You're

'm generally in about this time; and it's

lips, as she lowered herself with evident satis

r. Johnson always talked of a 'dish'

d Mrs. Phillips. "He's w

e of him. Or I'll lend you mine," she added, "if you'll be careful of it. You'll f

u see, as the wife of a public ma

oan. "Are they going to make

rrected herself. "And he must, of course, if the King insists upon it. But I wi

swered, "but just be agreeable to the right people.

n I was young," said Mrs. Phillips. "Of course,

," Joan advised her. "Let him forget them when he's with

Phillips. "He does often say that he'd

poor puzzled face was staring into the f

to him. As you said yourself the other evening. It's

ooking up. "What sort of things ought

h, almost anything," she answered vaguely: "so long as it's cheerful and

ent then," she said. "'E just liked to-you know. We didn't seem to 'ave to

advise upon. "How long have

sn't the only one. I'd got a way with me, I suppose. Anyhow, the men seemed to think so. There was always a few 'anging about. Like flies round a 'oney-pot, Mother u

you didn't say N

that little poem, 'Lord Burleigh,'" she continued;

. "He was a landscap

t I was letting myself in for being the wife of a big

ng is not to be afraid of one's fate, whatever it is; but j

bit down in the mouth sometimes when 'e goes off into one of 'is brown studies, and I don't seem to

felt instinctively, for poor Phillips's also. It was not an unpleasing face. Underneath the paint, it was kind and womanly. Joan was sure he would like it better clean. A few months' attention to diet would make a decent figure of her and improve her wind. Jo

e, what she had come for: which was to inv

the lady again. "Two other guests beside yourself: a Mr. Airlie-I am sure you will like

p she had caught sight of his disappearing coat-tails round the corner. Yielding to impishness, she had run after him, and his expression

he episode-so fa

let him. I chipped him out of it. If he's going to write plays,

k, and Joan kissed i

ss," she said. "He never will if he can help i

eme, and might seem discourteous-to her hostess. Besides, "mousey" colours didn't really suit her. They gave her a curious sense of being affected. In the end she decided to risk a black crêpe-de-chine, square cut, with a girdle of gold embroidery. There couldn't be anything quieter than black, and the gold embroidery was of the simplest. She would wear it without any jewellery whatever: except j

ed her effusively, and introduced her to her fellow guests. Mr. Airlie was a slight, elegant gentleman of unce

e informed her, on her granting it.

hand vigorously wit

illips. "She ought to be in bed if she

om behind a bowl of artificial flowers. Joan could not suppress a slight start; she had not noticed her on entering. The girl came slowly forward, and Joan felt as if the un

ping her away from her books. 'Twas her own wish to be sent to boarding-school. How would

f a reply. To the evident surprise o

've got 'em

e to get used to them so

a well-built, athletic frame, and he had gone to a good tailor. He

he conversation consisted chiefly of anecdotes by Mr. Airlie. There were few public men and women about whom he did not know something to their disadvantage. Joan, listening, found herself repeating the experience of a night or two previous, when, during a performance of Hamlet, Niel Singleton, who was playing the grave

lmost been converted: he was so tremendously in earnest. She now learnt that he lived in Curzon Street, Mayfair, and filled, in private life, the perfectly legitimate calling of a company promoter in partne

her interest in the principles

s breath away: it was the name of one of her heroes, an eminent writer: one might almost say prophet. She had hitherto read his books with grateful reverence. They pictured for her the world made perfect; and explained to her just pr

ding points the way to the fair city. She told herself this, but it left her still short-

which the reverend gentleman's wife and family surrounded him. It was beautiful to see. The calls upon his moderate purse, necessitated by his wide-spread and much paragraphed activities, left but a narrow margin for domestic expenses: with the result that often the only fire in the house blazed brightly in the study where Mr. Airlie and the reverend gentleman

heir women folk: of socialists who travelled first-class and spent their winters in Egypt or Monaco: of stern critics of public morals who preferred th

all true?" Joan whi

son why it shouldn't be," he said.

"to understand the Lord's enthusiasm for Da

mean, cantankerous old cuss whose curious pride it was that he had never given anything away. Not a crust, nor a sixpence, nor a rag; and never would. Many had been the at

nd the level of the milk had sunk half an inch. So he hid himself and waited; and at twilight the next day the window was stealthily pushed open, and two small, terror-haunted eyes pee

d long, watching the small cloaked figure till it was lost in the darkness. It was not till he lay upon his dying bed that he

of the folding doors, which had been left open. Phillips asked her to leave Joan and himself wh

. Hilda came and stood before

d. "I wanted to see you from wha

had said. She raised her face quietly, and the child bent forward and kissed her, and went out without looking back

men and women who never come, thinking it has nothing to do with them. I'm shy and awkward when I try to write. There seems a bar

hem, not yet. But enough to show that I real

metimes before one man will summon up courage to put a question; but once one or two have ventured they s

ell me what to do." She was not conscious of

t them to see the need of concentrating upon the food problem:

ght and famine: only a narrow strip of river bank where a grain of corn would grow; and that only when old Nile was kind. If not, your nearest supplies five hundred miles away across the desert, your only means of transport the slow-moving camel. Your convoy must be guarded against attack, provided with provisions and water for a two months' journey. Yet he never failed his people. Fat year and lean ye

at was the trouble. The railway carriage alone would cost him more than he could get for them. They were too cheap. So nobody could have them. It's the muddle of the thing that makes me mad-the ghastly muddle-headed way the chief business of the world is managed. There's enough food could be grown in this country to feed all the people and then of the fragments each man might gather his ten basketsful. There's no miracle needed. I went into the matter once with Dalroy of the Board of Agricul

ix of us children; and my mother brought us up healthy and decent. She fed us and clothed us and sent us to school; and when she died we buried her with the money she had put by for the purpose; and never a penny of charity had ever soiled her hands. I can see them now. Talk of your Chancellors of the Exchequer and their problems! She worked herself to death, of course. Well, that's all right. One doesn't mind that where

shes from his pi

way company and wasn't going to. 'Oh, it's only a few scratches,' he said. 'They'll be hit hard enough as it is.' If he'd been a poor devil on eighteen shillings a week it would have been different. He was an engineer earning good wages; so he wasn't feeling sore and bitter against half the world. Sup

. I want to see her workers properly fed. I want to see the corn upon her unused acres, the cattle grazing on her wasted pastures. I object to the food being thrown

at her, so it had seemed to Joan. Suddenly

you as if you were a public meeting. I'm afraid I'm m

nged. The eyes had a

feeling as if I were the

?" he asked her,

explained, "where Wagner gave his opera

that," he said, "if

nd a flush passed o

said, "if it h

ablecloth. "But you have won now," she said, still absorbed a

y think to shave my locks; show me to the people bound by the

ow suggest the rat," she said:

me?" he asked. "I

oors they could see into the other room. Mrs. Phillips, u

. It isn't as if you were a mere agitator. Take this opportunity of showing them that you can build, plan, organize; that you were me

oing with his fingers on

ve stood up to a Birmingham mob that was waiting to lynch me and enjoyed the experience; but I'd run ten miles rather than face a drawing-roo

t got to trouble yourself about that . . . You're quite passable." She s

ng about the little things. But the others: the sneering women and the men who wink over their should

ps had swallowed the smoke and was giggling and spluttering by turns. The yellow ostrich feat

r and rose. "Shall we j

d the other room, his back to the open

if she were giving a command. B

he affairs of the kingdom? Is

"We are going to say to the pe

and smoothed her tumbled hair.

iend, a raw-boned youth she had met at Cambridge. He was engaged to McKean's sister. H

ll the world," he said. "Though mer

nd went on up the st

d with herself. She replaced the star in its case, and took off the regal-looking dres

t herself once more. She seemed to be no one of any importance at all: j

t troubled her until to-night. Suddenly she sat up again. She needn't be back in London before Tuesday evening, an

him put his a