Debits and Credits

I should take a less highly coloured bird. ‘The colour is in the feeding,’ said

ham terrier in silver spectacles. For some reason his face and his voice stayed in my mind so distinctly that, months later,

vice about the

over the rod-case on his shoulder,

*

a tobacconist’s to have a ba

the man behind the counter. We shook hands,

have seen above the door — but Son had been killed in Egypt. His

s’s death and why the boy had been christened Lewis.) ‘Yes. There’s not much left for middle-aged people just at present. Even one’s hobbies —— We used to fish together. And the same with cana

kilfully as a surgeon. A soldier came in, spoke

he other hand, not one man in five thousand has a tobacco-palate. Preference, yes. Palate, no. Here’s your pipe, again. It deserves better treatment than it’s had. Th

right — that I might have made a friend. A little distance from the door I was accosted by

s held a half interest in Ackerman and Pernit’s, the great cigar-importers, which had come to him through an unc

‘I like the ritual of handling things. The shop

jars, with Crowns, Garters, and names of forgotten mixtures in gold leaf; the polished ‘Oronoque’ tobacco-barrels on which favoured customers sat; the cherry-black mahoga

— are absolutely unique. Is there any one in the trade now could tell you what “Romano’s Hollande” was? Or “Scholten’s”? Here’s a snuff-mull of George the First’s time; and here’s a Louis Quinze — what am I t

vilege of making his wife’s acquaintance. One morning, as I was looking covetously at a jacaranda-wood ‘cigarro’-not cigar-cabinet wi

loudly, ‘are you

u?’ Mr. Burg

papers nothin’, you understand. I left my Lodge owin’ ’em seventeen dollars ba

Mr. Burges. ‘We mee

‘Hell!’ said he. ‘But I’m in

.,’ Mr. Burges added promptly. ‘Yo

t,’ was the cheery reply. ‘Toosda

t that be

f Masons now. Well! Well! We must do what we can these days. If you’ll come to te

ge?’ I said, for up till then

very Thursday, but we sit oftener than that now because there are so many Visiting Brothers in town. ‘

pince-nez in lieu of the silver spectacles. I blessed my

ovenly Ritual anywhere. By the way, would you mind assisting at the examinations, if there are many Visiting Brothers to-night? You’ll find some of ’em very rusty, but — it’s the Spi

urges, and handed him his loc

went on. ‘You mustn’t be too critical of our

we wandered up a mews and into a courtyard. Mr. Burges p

es and Barton Wilson, fathers of ‘Emulation’ working, in the place of honour; Kneller’s Christopher Wren; Dunkerley, with his own Fitz-George book-plate below and the

ther hobby of

introduced me to the senior partner of Lemming and Orton, whose little shop is har

my compliments. ‘There are some more in the Lodge Room. Come and l

to pillar, implements to seats, seats to lights, and little carved music-loft at one end, every detai

before Masonic furnishers spoilt it. I picked up that pair in Stepney ten years ago — the same time I got the gavel.’ It was of ancient, yellowed ivory, cut all

question,’ I beg

Brother Anstruther — he was our contractor — cheated himself out of. By the way, that ashlar there is pure Carrara, he tells me. I don’t underst

out later that that was what they had been, when first picked up for a song near Oswestry). A few men in uniform were wai

iscreet box, saying: ‘Don’t be

p to speak to any purpose, so we compromised on the signs. The next — a New Zealander from Taranaki — reversed the process, for he was one-armed, and that in a sling. I mistrusted an enormous Sergeant–Major of Heavy Artiller

wers, but I give yer my word that so far as I’ve had any religion, it’s been a

he was entitled to them — levels, of decent plate. Some one in front of me tightened a belt on a stiffly silent person in civil clothes with dischargebadge. ‘‘Strewth! This is comfort

ralian signaller. ‘Can’t you

his friend and — what moved Lemming more — the threat that, were he refused, he would have fits from pure dis

ettle us down, for ten or twelve were cripples and had to be helped into long or easy chairs. I sat between a one-footed R.A.M.C. Corporal and a Captain of Territorials, who, he told me, had ‘had a b

earded man, who turned out to be a doctor. ‘After all, there’s nobody to touch Bach, is there?’ T

tures. Worshipful Brother Burges, resplendent in Solomon’s Chair (I found out later where that, too, had been picked up), briefly told the

uties of Lodge Officers. They protested bashfully that they were too rusty. ‘The very reason why

re a musician for whom place and opportunity are needed. Only,’

with the solemnity of an initi

,’ said the Brother. ‘Weighed

ross, lifted the slight weight in his arms and bore it to the loft, where, the reg

de the regular members to prompt. The visitors had to work entirely by themselves, but, on the Battery-Sergeant-Ma

R.A.M.C. on my

t?’ said the

e does when one says a thing twice over in another’s hearing. ‘Yes, “veiled in all’gory and illustrated in symbols”— the Fatherhood of God, an’ the Brotherhood of Man; an’ what more in Hell do you want

confusion that had arisen with wha

ngled ceremony by Regular Brethren of the Lodge. Then I realised for the first time what word-and-ge

ng, and this is an audience worth

gs of some pictured symbols and diagrams. His theme was

ld copybook-headings pe

n form. ‘But they’re the kind o’ copybook-headin’s we shall find burnin’ round our bunks in Hell.

ful Sir,’ a Visiting Brother began, and explained how they worked that detail in his parts. Another and another joined in from different quarters

ain-musician’s vacant seat on my left. ‘But men can’t really

for an instant from a dark, sour-looking Yeoman in spurs who was laying down the law on Dutc

’ said I to the Doctor.

and be happy like we are now. He was right too. We’re learning things in the war. A man’s Lodge means more to him than people imagine. As our friend on your right said just now, very often Masonry’s the only practical creed

et your visito

they told their friends. And they came! That was two years ago — and now we’ve Lodge of Instruction two nights a week, and a matinee nearly every Tue

this evenin

r weekly visiting attendance for the last four months averaged just under a hundred and forty. Divide by four — call it thirty-five Visiting Brethren

t must cost like anything.

Keede — laughed. ‘No, a

had an evening like

ulty. They do exactly what you were going to sug

you?’ I

? And Ellis and McKnight — that long big man over yonder — the provision dealers? How much d’you suppose could Burges write a cheque for and not feel?‘Tisn’t as if he had to save for any one now. I assu

’s like a ship. You could ea

him our jewels to look after. He pretty well polished the numbers off ’em, but — it kept him from fighting Huns in his sleep. And when we need Masters to take our duties — two matinees a week is rather a tax — we

one between a grunt and a squeak. I heard ‘Hauraki,’ ‘Inyanga–Umbezi,’ ‘Aloha,’ ‘Southern Lights’ (from somewhere Punta Arenas way), ‘Lodge of Rough Ashlars’ (and that Newfoundland Naval Brother looked it), two or three Stars of something or other, half-a-dozen cardinal virtues, variously arranged, haili

jerked and mouthed, and at last mumbled something unintelligible e

rd-long Welsh name, adding, ‘That means Pembroke Docks, Worshipful S

. I must get a note of that fellow’s case after Lodge. I saw you didn’t care for music,’ he went on, ‘but I’m afraid you’ll have to

ed to half-a-dozen trained voices answering each other till the

showed th

t is

he Lord req

ce’ self de

o do j

o love

k humbly w

y Mason

ered Apprentices’ Song.’ I noticed that the regular Brethren of

gs, Dukes,

down the

te-room, now set for t

quity’

e on ou

men just in t

. He laid down that Masonry should be regarded as an ‘intellectual abstraction.’ An Officer of Engineers disagreed with him, and told us how in Flanders, a year

for that,’ said the Clergyman. ‘The i

galia out of camouflage-stuff that we’d pinched, and we manufactured our

r was your Warrant?’ said the Brother from the Milit

up our table broke in, ‘it ‘ud warrant travelling Lodge

s promiscuously?’ sai

ed, of course. You’d

while, and proved that, on the lowest scale

ghtfully, ‘I could design a complete travel

said the Military Lodge man; and they went at it to

or hospitals, but now and again a Brother came in from the outer darkness to fill a chair

anders mud, accoutrements and a

,’ he explained. ‘I remembered your

tion?’ said the Clergyman precisely.

’ve thrown up a month’s

ce fell forward. The Clergyman had him by one already limp arm and steered him

usual too

sions.’ He turned his broad back on me and continued his discussion with a Brother from Aberdeen by way of Mitylene where, in t

ss ‘lose on their corsets what they make on their clothes,’ and that ‘Satan himself can’t save a woman who wears thirty-shilling corsets under a th

alk all round me. Little by little the company thinned, till at last there were only a dozen or so of us left. We gathered at the end of a

go with you?’

a new world

hipped his silver spectacles. ‘Or that’s what it might be made with a little trouble. When I

wly, ‘but — on the whole — I’m inclined to a

t as a substitute for Relig

for a bit?’ the Doctor muttered. ‘It hasn

, both hands up. ‘Certainly not as a substitute for a creed, but as an

g degrees too, as well as instruction. Why shouldn’t the young men join? They practise what we’re always preaching. Well

g on the Doctor. ‘And what’s the darn use

ted it with a nod. ‘I was wrong,’ he said to me, ‘when I boasted of our independence. They get round us sometimes. This,’ he slapped his pocket, ‘will give

only had five or six. I’

d him myself — at my little place in Berkshire. His name was Charl

. They’re appreciated.’ Brother Lemming nodded above the pipe he had lit as we began a second supper. Suddenly the Clergyman, after a glance at the cl

ly behind the man’s head, and at arm’s length rapped on the dome of the helmet. The man woke

ch your train.’ The Clergyman pass

id the man, wriggling into his stiff straps. He fo

at?’ said

ndifferently. ‘He’s been here befo

yelids were drooping. ‘We must all do what

other into our coats, ‘what would happ

Lemming turned

ns a week — and running a lodging-house as well. It’s all

said Lemming. ‘We’ll settle it aft

hem to meet in. Think of the possibilities of it! Think what could have been done by Masonry through Masonry for all the world. I hope I’m n

own your throat. What really troubles him is our legal position under Masonic Law. I think he’ll i

into mine. ‘Almost as much as the Church ha

could steal a march on the Clergyman and in