Strange contradiction! Much as he had hated Glory's way of life, there came to him at the moment a deep remorse at the thought that he had been the means of putting an end to it. And then her gay and happy spirit clouded by his own disasters! Her good name stained by association with his evil one! Her pure soul imperilled by his sin and fall!
But it was now very late and he began to ask himself where he was to sleep. At first he thought of his old quarters under the church, and then he told himself that Brother Andrew would be gone by this time, and that everything connected with the parish must be transferred to other keeping. Going by a hotel in Trafalgar Square he stepped in and asked for a bed.
“Certainly, sir,” said the clerk, who was polite and deferential.
“Can I have something to eat, too?”
“Coffee-room to the left, sir. Luggage coming, sir?”
“I have no luggage to-night,” he answered, and then he saw that the clerk looked at him doubtfully.
The coffee-room was empty and only half lit up, for dinner was long over and the business of the day was done. John was sitting at his meal, eating his food with his eyes down and hardly conscious of what was going on around, when he became aware that from time to time people opened the room door and looked across at him, then whispered together and passed out. At length the clerk came up to him with awkward manners and a look of constraint.
“I beg your pardon, sir, but—are you Father Storm?”
John bent his head.
“Then I'm sorry to say we can not accommodate you—we dare not—we must request you to leave.”