“As it was on every question we put to him. And so we are perfectly prepared now for his attitude in the face of this dissolute and demoralizing woman and her company. But what a tremendous scene it must have made.”

“Go on, Mr. Maxwell,” cried Virginia and the others. “We cannot wait to hear the rest.”

Mr. Maxwell resumed his reading:

We have already spoken of the wonderful tone of Jesus’s voice. It was remembered after the great excitement of the evening was over a little, that he had begun to speak just as the people on the stage had struck the first note of the voluptuous strain of “The Pageant.” The opening note is a loud, full staccato. But over and through and beneath and around, the voice of Jesus rang through the house, so clear, so strong, that it smote ear and mind and heart like a physical blow.

He stood there after that first utterance, in the center of the orchestra seats, and there was a deathlike silence, so prolonged and faced with such absolute calmness on his part, that the effect was actually terrifying.

Then he began to speak in such a low quiet tone that the deep silence was still unbroken. The people on the stage remained in their places. No one moved. Avonarina, in the front of the group, seemed smitten with curiosity at first. But as he went on, the voice stronger and more striking, she was seen to cower down until at last, she actually crouched upon the stage on her knees.

We have already spoken of the difference of opinion concerning the motive of “The Girdle of Venus.” It has been permitted on the stage of New York as an artistic production crowned by Avonarina’s genius. In reality, it is no more than strict candor to confess that portions of this production contain scenes and dialogues that are not for self-respecting people to see and hear.

The denunciation of the Pageant that now fell from the lips of Jesus was terrific in its severity. He condemned the motive and the presentation of it with scathing words that unsparingly included all those who supported it by their attendance. He did not even mention the actors in the scene. His whole condemnation seemed to fall upon the audience. He rebuked those who already, he said, had lowered their heads in shame over the scene at the opening of the Pageant, but had not had the moral courage to leave the house.

And then, after a most tremendous statement concerning the terrible results which had come to New York in the way of impurity and the downfall of womanhood and manhood from witnessing such theatrical presentations, the climax of the entire astonishing scene came. Nothing like it has ever been witnessed in any theatre in America.