Great Possessions Part 43

There is a small house with a little chapel attached to it in a road in Chelsea where some Frenchwomen, who were exiled from their own country, have come to dwell. It is built on Sir Thomas More's garden, and it possesses within its boundaries the mulberry tree under which the chancellor was sitting when they came to fetch him to the Tower. It is a poor little house with very poor inmates, and a poor little chapel. But in that chapel night and day, without a moment's break, are to be found two figures (when there are not more) dressed in plain brown habits and black veils. And on the altar there is always a crowd of lighted candles, in spite of the poverty of the chapel. It is a very small chapel and oddly shaped. The length of the little building is from north to south, and the altar is to the east. There are but few benches, but they run the full length of the building. Strange things are known by these women, who never go farther than the small garden at the back, of the life of the town about them. Some men and more women get accustomed to coming daily into the chapel with its unceasing exposition, and to love its silence and its atmosphere of rest and peace. Some never make themselves known; others sometimes ask to see a nun, and thus gradually these recluses come to know memorable secrets in human lives.

Molly had often been there in the weeks which she had afterwards called "my short fit of religious emotion." She chose to go there to-night, to spend there her last hour in London.

The little chapel was fairly cool, and through a door very near the altar, open to the garden, came the scent of mignonette on the air.

Besides the motionless figures at the altar-rail there was no one else in the chapel.

At eight o'clock two small brown figures came in and knelt bowed down in the middle of the sanctuary. The two who had finished their watch rose and knelt by the side of those who relieved guard. Then the four rose together, and the two newcomers took up their station, and the others left them. And the incessant oblation of those lives went on. What a vast moral s.p.a.ce lay between their lives and Molly's! What a contrast!

Molly had had no home, but they had given up their homes for this. Molly had pined in vain for human love; they had turned away from it. Molly had rebelled against all restraints; they had chosen these bonds. Molly had sinned, against even the world's code, for love of the world; and they had rejected even the best the world could give.

Was it unjust, unfair that the boon they asked for in return was given to them?

If, on the one hand, Molly had inherited evil tendencies and had fallen on evil circ.u.mstances, does it seem strange that she could share in good as well as in evil?

It is easy to take scandal at Molly's inherited legacy of evil tendencies. It is easy to take scandal at the facility of her forgiveness. The two stumbling-blocks are in reality the two aspects of one truth, that no human being stands alone and that each gains or suffers with or by his fellows.

The sinless women pleaded for sinners in a glorious human imitation of the Divine pleading. And the exuberant vitality poured by the Conqueror of death into the human race, flowing strongly through that tiny chapel, had carried the little, thin, stagnant stream of Molly's soul into the great flood of grace that purifies by sorrow and by love.

Molly knelt in one of the back benches with her eyes fixed on the monstrance, in a very agony of sorrow and self-abas.e.m.e.nt. I would not if I could a.n.a.lyse that penitence. Happily as life goes on we shrink more, not less, from raising even the most reverent gaze on the secret places of the soul. We do not know in what form, if in any form at all, and not rather, in a light without words, the Divine Peace reached her. Was it, "Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee?" Or was it perhaps, "This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise?" We cannot tell. Only the lay-sister who saw Molly go out with the little black bag in her hand said afterwards that the lady had seemed happy.

THE END.

_A Selection from the Catalogue of_

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Complete Catalogues sent on application

"_A work of absorbing interest_"

THE SOCIALIST

BY GUY THORNE

Author of

"WHEN IT WAS DARK," "A LOST CAUSE," ETC.

"A story that leads one on by its boldness, its vigours, its interesting realism of both ducal splendour and evil squalor, and by the individual interests it attaches to social phases and problems. _The Socialist_ contains plenty of dramatic description and intensely studied character to remind one of _When it Was Dark_ and other well staged and effectively managed story-dramas from the same busy and clever pen."--_The Dundee Advertiser_.

"A work of absorbing interest dealing with one of the burning questions of the day in a manner alike entertaining and instructive. Mr. Thorne has taken considerable pains to explain the real meaning of Socialism as understood and taught by leaders of what may be styled the higher Social movement. We congratulate the author on having produced a first-cla.s.s novel full of feeling and character, and with an eminently useful mission."--_The Irish Independent_.

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NEW YORK LONDON

"_A story that warms every reader's heart and makes him regret that he has reached the end._"

Old Rose and Silver

By MYRTLE REED

Author of "A Spinner in the Sun," "The Master's Violin," etc.

NOT a "problem," "detective," or a "character study" story. It does not contain a morbid line. Just a charming, pure, altogether wholesome love story, full of delicate touches of fancy and humor. A book that leaves a pleasant taste in the memory, and one that people will find most appropriate as a dainty gift.

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WALTER BIGGS

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

"_Bound to be one of the most popular novels of the year_"

THE WIVING OF LANCE CLEAVERAGE

BY ALICE MACGOWAN

Author of "JUDITH OF THE c.u.mBERLANDS," "RETURN," "LAST WORD," ETC.

By its stirring dramatic appeal, its varied interest, its skilful artistry, Miss MacGowan's new Tennessee mountain story marks a long step in advance of her earlier novels. It is an interesting company that is brought together in this book--notably the proud high-spirited mountain beauty who is the heroine, and the bold and fiery young hero, who will surely stand high in the good graces of readers of the tale--and a company of distinct types drawn with a graphic and spirited hand, a company moved by strong pa.s.sions--love, and hate too, green jealousy and black revenge.

With Ill.u.s.trations in Color by ROBERT EDWARDS

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

_By the author of "The Country House"_

FRATERNITY

BY JOHN GALSWORTHY

Author of "THE MAN OF PROPERTY," "VILLA RUBEIN," ETC.