by M. P. Shiel
XXV
CHURCH ARCHITECTURE
It was already eleven o'clock, the sun shining in a bright sky, underwhich the country round the Waveney lay broad to the hills of mist whichseemed to encompass the valley; yet, when one came to them no hills werethere, but were still beyond. When Hogarth came out from the wood upona footbridge, to his right a hand-sower was sowing broadcast, with atwo-handed rhythm, taking seed, as he strode, from his scrip; and to theleft ran a path between fields to an eminence with a little church onit; straight northward some Thring houses visible, and north-east, nearthe river, Lagden Dip orchard. Only two stooping women in fields nearThring could Hogarth see; also, still further, a gig-and-horse whoseremote motion was imperceptible; also the trudging two-handed process ofthe sower nourishing the furrows. But for these, England, supposed to be"overcrowded", seemed a land once inhabited, but abandoned.
To Hogarth the whole, so familiar, looked uplifted now, the sunlight ofa more celestial essence. Westring he would buy--though one memorablenight in Colmoor he had arrived at the knowledge that it was not justthat Westring should be anyone's; but then what one bought with his owndiamonds was surely his own--his name being Richard.
He had passed the bridge, when, glancing to the left, he saw a fifthperson in the landscape--a man under a sycamore near the church, gazingup, with hung jaw, at the apse window--dressed in a grey jacket, buta clerical hat, and he had a note-book, in which he wrote, or drew.Hogarth, whose mind was in weathercock state, rolled the barrow to thehill, left it, went stealing fleetly up, and gripped the man's collar,to whisper: "In the King's name I arrest you".
The man's hand clapped his heart, as he turned a face of terror.
"There is--some mistake--My God! Are you--?"
"Yes".
"Hogarth?"
"Who else?"
"But you have killed me! My heart--"
"Serves you right. Why didn't you give your right name to Loveday? Andwhat are you doing here?"
"I was just examining this lovely old church, with its two south aisles,and one north, like St. John's at Cirencester. When the church fell inEngland, architecture was abolished--But as to why I am in Norfolk atall, I am skulking: and here is as another place. Your friend packedme off to America; but for some reasons I should prefer Golmoor--oldColmoor, eh? I fear I am a voluptuary, my son, fond of comfort, and oldthings, and pretty things. And all that I shall have yet! Tut, O'Hara isnot done with the world, nor it with him. As to Norfolk, I once knew--aperson--in this neighbourhood--"
The priest paused, regarding Hogarth with a smile, the "person" meantbeing Hogarth's mother; and he said: "But you are quite the Jew indress: do you know now, then, that you are of the Chosen Race?"
"Singular notion! This is a mere disguise".
"Ah. But you look quite radiant. You must have come into a fortune. WhenI heard of your escape, I said to myself--"
"How did you hear?"
"Why, from Harris".
"Harris is drowned".
"Harris is now under that little roof down there--there"--the prelatestabbed with his forefinger: "Harris is my shadow; Harris is mymaster. He was picked up naked by the ship which ran down your vessel,recognized me one day in Broadway, and threatened to give me in chargeif I did not adopt him 'as my well-beloved son'. Well, from him I heardall, how you called fire from Heaven--it was gallant. But aren't youafraid of capture down here in your own country?"
"I cannot be captured".
Those stony eyeballs of O'Hara, bulging from out circular trenchesround their sockets, surveyed Hogarth, weighing, divining him, while hisbottom lip, massive as the mouth of Polynesian stone gods, trembled.
"How do you mean?"
"I can buy King on throne, Judge on bench, Governor and Warder, thewhole machinery. Even O'Hara I could buy".
"I am for sale! Hogarth! I _smelled_ it about you, the myrrh of yourgarments! And didn't I prophesy it to you years ago? What a development!That beast, Harris, will dance for joy! Oh, there is something veryartistic to my fancy, Hogarth, in the metal gold--brittle, bright,orpimented--"
"And diamonds?"
"Hogarth, have you diamonds?"
"Yes", said Hogarth, smiling at the effect of ecstasy upon O'Hara.
"Prismic diamond!" cried the prelate: "but how--?"
"Do you want to enter my service?"
"Do I _want_?"
"Well, I want a tutor, O'Hara; and you shall be the man. Undertake,then, to teach me all you know in two years, and I'll give you--howmuch?--twenty thousand pounds a year".
"My son", whispered O'Hara, "what a development--!"
"Good-bye. In Thring Street there is a little paper-shop. Come thereto-night at seven".
He ran down the hill: and as he went northward, pushing his barrow,O'Hara had a lens at his eyes, saw the meteorite, and wondered.