His
lordship the Bishop of Beeston has shown you very clearly how little he
knows of the horrors which seethe beneath the brilliant life of this
wonderful city. He has brought it upon himself and you--that one who
does know shall tell you something of the truth of these things."
There was an intense and breathless silence. This was an assembly
amongst whom excitement was a very rare visitant. But there were many
there now who sat still and spellbound with eyes riveted upon the
speaker. To those who were personally acquainted with him a certain
change in his appearance was manifest. A spot of colour flared in his
pale cheeks. There was a light in his eyes which no one had ever seen
there before. After years of self-repression, of a cynicism partly
artificial, partly inevitable, the natural man had broken out once more,
stung into life by time smooth platitudes of the great churchman
against whom his attack was directed. He was reckless of time fact
that Lady Caroom, Brooks, and many of his acquaintances were in the
Strangers' Gallery. For the motion before the House was one to obtain
legal and ecclesiastical control over all independent charities
appealing to the general public for support, under cover of which the
Church, in the person of the Bishop of Beeston, had made a solemn and
deliberate attack upon Brooks' Society, Brooks himself, its aims and
management.
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