“Will your train cross over the bridge?” inquired the boy, pausing and looking over the banisters.
“Yes. Why?”
“Because we can see the bridge from our front-room window, and if you were to wave your handkerchief as your train goes over the bridge, we could wave back.”
“All right. I’ll do so. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Barrington waited till he heard Frankie open and close the door of Owen’s flat, and then he hurried away. When he gained the main road he heard the sound of singing and saw a crowd at the corner of one of the side-streets. As he drew near he perceived that it was a religious meeting.
There was a lighted lamp on a standard in the centre of the crowd and on the glass of this lamp was painted: “Be not deceived: God is not mocked.”
Mr Rushton was preaching in the centre of the ring. He said that they had come hout there that evening to tell the Glad Tidings of Great Joy to hall those dear people that he saw standing around. The members of the Shining Light Chapel—to which he himself belonged—was the organizers of that meeting but it was not a sectarian meeting, for he was ’appy to say that several members of other denominations was there co-operating with them in the good work. As he continued his address, Rushton repeatedly referred to the individuals who composed the crowd as his “Brothers and Sisters” and, strange to say, nobody laughed.
Barrington looked round upon the “Brothers”: Mr Sweater, resplendent in a new silk hat of the latest fashion, and a fur-trimmed overcoat. The Rev. Mr Bosher, Vicar of the Church of the Whited Sepulchre, Mr Grinder—one of the churchwardens at the same place of alleged worship—both dressed in broadcloth and fine linen and glossy silk hats, while their general appearance testified to the fact that they had fared sumptuously for many days. Mr Didlum, Mrs Starvem, Mr Dauber, Mr Botchit, Mr Smeeriton, and Mr Leavit.
And in the midst was the Rev. John Starr, doing the work for which he was paid.