hurch for which I have
done more than any other man."

Hodder stared at him in amazement.

"You really believe that!" he exclaimed.

"Believe it!" Eldon Parr repeated. "I have had my troubles, as heavy
bereavements as a man can have. All of them, even this of my son's
death, all the ingratitude and lack of sympathy I have experienced--"
(he looked deliberately at Hodder) "have not prevented me, do not
prevent me to-day from regarding my fortune as a trust. You have
deprived St. John's, at least so long as you remain there, of some of
its benefits, and the responsibility for that is on your own head. And I
am now making arrangements to give to Calvary the settlement house which
St. John's should have had."

The words were spoken with such an air of conviction, of unconscious
plausibility, as it were, that it was impossible for Hodder to doubt the
genuineness of the attitude they expressed. And yet it was more than his
mind could grasp.... Horace Bentley, Richard Garvin, and the miserable
woman of the streets whom he had driven to destroy herself had made
absolutely no impression whatever! The gifts, the benefactions of Eldon
Parr to his fellow-men would go on as before!

"You ask me why I sent for you," the banker went on. "It was primarily
because I hoped to impress upon you the folly of marrying my daughter.
And in spite of all the injury and injustice you have done me, I do not
forget that you were once in a relationship to me which has been unique
in my life. I trusted you, I admired you, for your ability, for your
faculty of getting on with men. At that time you were wise enough not to
attempt to pass comment upon accidents in business affairs which are, if
deplorable, inevitable."

Eldon Parr's voice gave a momentary sign of breaking.

"I will be frank with you. My son's death has led me, perhaps weakly, to
make one more appeal. You have ruined your career by these chimerical,
socialistic notions you have taken up, and which you mistake for
Christianity. As a practical man I can tell you, positively, that St.
John's will run downhill until you are bankrupt. The people who come to
you now are in search of a new sensation, and when that grows stale
they will fall away. Even if a respectable number remain in your
congregation, after this excitement and publicity have died down, I have
reason to know that it is impossible to support a large city church on
contributions. It has been tried again and again, and fa