Siebenhaar took a malicious delight in the ruin of the newspaper trade, and pledged George to attend a mammoth church meeting in Bondon’s greatest hall of assembly. There were forty bishops on the platform, and a Duke presided. George entered. There were tears, cheers, sobs, sighs, groans, conversions; and hundreds suddenly became conscious of salvation, swooned away and were carried out.
The Duke spoke for fifty minutes. Mr. Samways (he said) would now tell the story of his—er—er—“Have I got to say something?” said George to Siebenhaar.
“Tell them,” said Siebenhaar, “to look after the stomach and the rest will look out for itself.”
George advanced toward the front of the platform and beamed out upon the eager audience.
Arabella let a pin drop and it could be heard all over the hall.
It was Arabella! For a moment George could not believe his eyes. It was she! He leaped down from the platform, took her in his arms and covered her with kisses.
So strong was the hypnotic power of his fame that there was no male in that huge audience but followed his example, no female, old or young, rich or poor, but yielded to it. In vain did the bishops protest and quote from the marriage service of the Fattish Church; in vain did they go among the audience and earnestly implore the individual members of it to desist. They replied that George Samways had revealed a new religion and that they liked it.
And above the tumult rose the voice of Siebenhaar saying: —— But what he said is unprintable.
XVIII: BETROTHAL
How he escaped from the pandemonium George never knew, but his first clear recollection after it was of being borne swiftly through the streets of Bondon with Arabella in his arms, she weeping and telling him of the hard and vile usage she had been put to on the Fatter ship, for the Admiral was a horrid man. She told him how she had at last been taken to the Fatterland and there, by her father’s influence—(for her father also had been marvelously delivered from an untimely end)—released and sent, first-class at the expense of the Fatter Government, home to Fatland, and how she had there resumed her old life of district visiting and tea parties and diocesan conferences and rescuing white slaves and had been content in it until she had seen him, when all her old love had sprung once more into flame and she would never, never desert him more. George wept also and protested that he would never leave her side.