BY
ROBERT HUGH BENSON
CLAVI DOMUS DAVID
I am perfectly aware that this is a terribly sensational book, and opento innumerable criticisms on that account, as well as on many others.But I did not know how else to express the principles I desired (andwhich I passionately believe to be true) except by producing their linesto a sensational point. I have tried, however, not to scream undulyloud, and to retain, so far as possible, reverence and consideration forthe opinions of other people. Whether I have succeeded in that attemptis quite another matter.
Robert Hugh Benson.
CAMBRIDGE 1907.
| PROLOGUE |
| BOOK I |
| THE ADVENT |
| BOOK II |
| THE ENCOUNTER |
| BOOK III |
| THE VICTORY |
Persons who do not like tiresome prologues, need not read this one. Itis essential only to the situation, not to the story.
“You must give me a moment,” said the old man, leaning back.
Percy resettled himself in his chair and waited, chin on hand.
It was a very silent room in which the three men sat, furnished with theextreme common sense of the period. It had neither window nor door; forit was now sixty years since the world, recognising that space is notconfined to the surface of the globe, had begun to burrow in earnest.Old Mr. Templeton’s house stood some forty feet below the level of theThames embankment, in what was considered a somewhat commodiousposition, for he had only a hundred yards to walk before he reached thestation of the Second Central Motor-circle, and a quarter of a mile tothe volor-station at Blackfriars. He was over ninety years old, however,and seldom left his house now. The room itself was lined throughout withthe delicate green jade-enamel prescribed by the Board of Health, andwas suffused with the artificial sunlight discovered by the great Reuterforty years before; it had the colour-tone of a spring wood, and waswarmed and ventilated through the classical frieze grating to the exacttemperature of 18 degrees Centigrade. Mr. Templeton was a plain man,content to live as his father had lived before him. The furniture, too,was a little old-fashioned in make and design, constructed howeveraccording to the prevailing system of soft asbestos enamel welded overiron, indestructible, pleasant to the touch, and resembling mahogany. Acouple of book-cases well filled ran on either side of the bronzepedestal electric fire before which sat the three men; and in thefurther corners stood the hydraulic lifts that gave entrance, the one tothe bedroom, the other to the corridor fifty feet up which opened on tothe Embankment.
Father Percy Franklin, the elder of the two priests, was rather aremarkable-looking man, not more than thirty-five years old, but withhair that was white throughout; his grey eyes, under black eyebrows,w