's as much as I can promise. You and I will have to keep our feet,
Dick, and you will have to share Lady Tate's seat, Constance. If every
ticket-holder turns up this afternoon, there won't be a single vacant
seat in the whole of that great hall."

"You earned your Sunday morning in, John," said Mrs. Van Homrey. "Is the
Prime Minister coming?"

"No, he has failed me at the last, but half the members of the last
Government will be there, and I have promises from prominent
representatives of every religious denomination in England. There will
be sixty military officers above captain's rank, in uniform, and
forty-eight naval officers in uniform. There will be many scores of
bluejackets and private soldiers, a hundred training-ship lads, fifty of
the Legion of Frontiersmen, and a number of volunteers all in full
uniform. There will be a tremendous number of society people, but the
mass will be leavened, and I should say one-half the people will be
middle-class folk. For to-night, no tickets have been issued. The
attendance will depend to some extent on the success of this afternoon,
but, to judge from the newspapers and the talk one hears, I should say
it would be enormous."

Just before we left the flat Crondall told us a secret.

"You know they have a volunteer choir of fifty voices?" he said. "It was
Stairs's idea, and he has carried it out alone. The choir consists
entirely of bluejackets, soldiers, volunteers, Red Cross nurses, and
boys from the Army bands."

VII

THE SWORD OF THE LORD

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free,
And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

WORDSWORTH'S _Ode to Duty_.

I have always been glad that I was able to attend that first great
service of the Canadian preachers; and so, I think, has every one else
who was there. Other services of theirs may have been more notable in
certain respects--indeed, I know they were; but this one was the
beginning, the first wave in a great tide. And I am glad that I was
there to see that first grand wave rise upon the rock of British apathy.

I have said something of the audience, but a book might well be devoted
to its description, and, again, a sentence may serve. It w