es of the Brethren (who according to design were
to serve as a sort of subsidiary chorus to the Pageant, appearing and
reappearing, still in their antique garb, in a succession of scenes
supposed to extend over many centuries), had suddenly taken the line
of being 'all things to all men,' and sensibly relaxed the zeal of
his proselytising as well as the rigour of certain regulations
offensive to the more Protestant of his flock.

"You may growl," said Brother Copas to Brother Warboise: "but this
silly Pageant is bringing us more peace than half a dozen Petitions."

Brother Warboise was, in fact, growling because for three months and
more nothing had been heard of the Petition.

"You may depend," said Copas soothingly, "the Bishop put the thing
away in his skirt pocket and forgot all about it. I happen to know
that he must be averse to turning out his skirt pockets, for I once
saw him surreptitiously smuggle away a mayonnaise sandwich there.
It was at a Deanery garden party; and I, having been invited to hand
the ices and look picturesque, went on looking picturesque and
pretended not to see. . . . I ought to have told you, when you asked
me to write it, that such was the invariable fate of my
compositions."

Meanwhile, it certainly seemed that a truce had been called to the
internal dissensions of St. Hospital. On the pageant-ground one
afternoon, in the midst of a very scratchy rehearsal, Brother Copas
found himself by chance at the Chaplain's side. The two had been
watching in silence for a full five minutes, when he heard Mr. Colt
addressing him in a tone of unusual friendliness.

"Wonderful how it seems to link us up, eh?"

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

"I was thinking, just then, of the St. Hospital uniform, which you
have the honour to wear. It seems--or Mr. Isidore has the knack of
making it seem--the, er, _foil_ of the whole Pageant. It outlasts
all the more brilliant fashions."

"Poverty, sir, is perduring. It is in everything just because it is
out of everything. We inherit time, if not the earth."

"But particularly," said Mr. Colt, "I was thinking of the corporate
unity it seems to give us, and to pass on, through us, to the whole
story of Merchester."

"Aye, we are always with you."

Afterwards Brother Copas repented that he had not answered more
graciously: for afterwards, looking back, he perceived that, in some
way, the Pageant had actually helped to bring back a sense of
"corporate un