m.

By George Stairs's invitation, Mrs. Van Homrey, Constance, Crondall,
myself, Sir Herbert Tate, and Forbes Thompson, joined the preachers that
evening, quite informally, at their very modest supper board. It must
have been a little startling to a _bon vivant_ like Sir Herbert to find
that the men who had stormed London, supped upon bread and cheese and
celery and cold rice pudding, and, without a hint of apology, offered
their guests the same Spartan entertainment. But it was quite a
brilliant function so far as mental activity and high spirits were
concerned. We were discussing the possibilities of the Canadian
preachers' pilgrimage, and Crondall said:

"I know that some of you think I take too sanguine a view, but, mark my
words, these meetings to-day are the beginning of the greatest
religious, moral, and national revival that the British people have ever
seen. I am certain of it. Your blushes are quite beside the point,
Stairs; they are wholly irrelevant; so is your modesty. Why, my dear
fellow, you couldn't help it if you tried. You two men are the
mouthpiece of the hour. The hour having come, you could not stay its
Message if you tried, nor check the tide of its effect. I know my
London. In a matter of this kind--a moral movement--London is the
hardest place in the kingdom to move, because its bigness and variety
make it so many-sided. Having achieved what you have achieved to-day in
London, I say nothing can check your progress. My counsel is for no more
than a week in London; two days more in the west, three in the east, and
one in the south; and then a bee-line due north through England, with a
few days in all big centres."

"Well," said Reynolds, "whatever happens after to-night, I just want to
say what George Stairs has more than once said to me, and that is, that
to-day's success is three parts due to Mr. Crondall for every one part
due to us."

"And to his secretary," said Stairs. "It really is no more than bare
truth. Without you, Crondall, there would have been no Albert Hall for
us."

"And no Bishop," added Reynolds.

"And no great personages."

"_And_ no columns and columns of newspaper announcements."

"In point of fact, there would have been none of the splendid
organization which made to-day possible. I recognize it very clearly. If
this is to prove the beginning of a really big movement, then it is a
beginning in which _The Citizens_ and their founder have played a very
big part. You w