DR. DENNIS' STUDY.
THEY walked on in absolute silence for a few minutes, each busy with her
own thoughts. Eurie was the first to speak:
"Girls, I propose we go and call on Dr. Dennis."
Ruth and Marion uttered exclamations of dismay, or it might have been of
surprise. Flossy spoke:
"You don't mean _now_?"
"Now, this minute. We have an hour at our disposal, and we are all
together. Why not, and have it over with? I tell you, that man is afraid
of us! And when you come to think of it, why should he not be? What have
we ever done to help his work; and how much we may have done to hinder
it! I never realized how much, until this present moment. It enrages me
to think how many enterprises, like this one, I have been engaged in
without giving it a thought. Just imagine how such things must look to
Dr. Dennis!"
"But, Eurie, you have never been mixed in with anything like that
performance, as it is to be! What do you mean by admitting it?" It was
Ruth who spoke, in some heat; the association rankled in her heart.
"Not precisely that sort of thing, I admit; but what must be the
reputation I have earned, when I can be so coolly picked out for such
work? I tell you, girls, I am angry. I suppose I ought to be grateful,
for my eyes have certainly been opened to see a good many things that I
never saw before; but it was a rough opening. Shall we go to the
parsonage, or not?"
"Oh, dear! I don't feel in the least like it," Flossy said, timidly.
"Do you ever expect to _feel_ like it?" Eurie asked, still speaking
hotly. "For myself, I must say that I do. I am tired of my place; I
want to be admitted, and belong, somewhere. It is entirely evident to
me that I don't belong where I did. I have discovered that a great many
things about me are changed. I feel that I shall not assimilate well.
Let me get in where I can have a chance. I want to belong to that
Sunday-school, for instance; to be recognized as a part of it, and to be
counted in a place. So do you, Flossy, I am sure; why not settle the
matter?"
Yes, Flossy certainly wanted to belong to that Sunday-school; more than
that, she wanted to belong to that class. Her heart had been with it all
the week. If there was a hope that she might be permitted to try it for
awhile, she was willing even to call on Dr. Dennis, though that act
looked awfully formidable to her.
"I suppose it is very silly not to want to go this evening, as well as
any time," she admitted at last.
"Of course it is," Marion said, energetically. "Let us turn this corner
at once, and in two minutes more we shall have rung his bell; then that
will settle the question. Nothing like going ahead and doing things,
without waiting to get into the mood."
"See here," said Nellis Mitchell, speaking for the first time. "Please
to take into consideration what you propose to do with me? I take it
that you don't want me to make this call with you. My sister has been
remarkably bewildering in her remarks, but I gather that it is something
like a confidential talk that you are seeking with the doctor, into
which I am not to be admitted."
"I forgot that you were along," said Eurie, with her usual frankness.
"No, Nell, we don't want you to call with us; not this time."
"I might ask for a separate room, and make my call on Miss Grace. At
least I might try it; but I doubt her father's permitting such a
tremendous action: so, really, I don't see quite what you are to do with
me. I am entirely at your disposal."
"See here, Nell, couldn't you call for us, in half an hour, say? Girls,
_could_ we stay half an hour, do you suppose? We shall have to do
something of the kind; it won't do for us to go home alone. I see what
we can do, Nell. You go to father's office, and wait just a little
while; if we are not there in half an hour, you can call for us at Dr.
Dennis'; and if we find we are not equal to a call of that length, we
will come to the office; will that do?"
The obliging brother made a low bow of mock ceremony, assured her that
he was entirely at her service, that she might command him and he would
serve to the best of his knowledge and ability, made a careful minute of
the present time, in order to be exact at the half hour, and as they
laughingly declined his offer to ring the doctor's bell for them, he
lifted his hat to them, with the lowest of bows, and disappeared around
the corner.
"He is such a dear fellow!" said Eurie, looking fondly after him.
"I don't see in what respect," muttered Ruth in an aside to Flossy. Ruth
had a special aversion to this young man; possibly it might have been
because he treated her with the most good-humored indifference, despite
all her dignity and coldness.
Meantime, in Dr. Dennis' study, his daughter was hovering around among
the books, trying to bring order out of confusion on the shelves and
table, and at the same time find a favorite volume she was reading. The
doctor turned on a brighter flame of gas, then lowered it, and seemed
in a disturbed state of mind. At last he spoke:
"I don't know that my caution is needed, daughter--I have no reason to
think that it is, from anything in your conduct at least; but I feel
like saying to you that I have less and less liking for those young
ladies, who seem, since their unfortunate freak of attending that
Chautauqua meeting, to have banded themselves together, I can hardly
imagine why; they are certainly unlike enough. But I distrust them in
almost every way. I am sorry that you are at school, under Miss Wilbur's
influence; not that I dread her influence on you, except in a general
way."
At this point Grace opened her bright lips to speak; there was an eager
sentence glowing on her tongue, but her father had not finished his:
"I know all that you can say; that you have nothing to do with her
religious, or non-religious, views, and that she is a splendid teacher.
I don't doubt it; but I repeat to you that I distrust all of them. I
don't know why they have seen fit to come to our Sabbath-school, and to
our meeting this evening, unless it be to gain an unhappy influence over
some whom they desire to lead astray. I can hardly think so meanly of
them as that, either. I do not say that such was their motive, but
simply that I do not understand it, and am afraid of it; and I desire
you to have just as little to do with any of them as ordinary civility
will admit. Hitherto I have thought of Ruth Erskine as simply a leader
of fashion, and of Flossy Shipley as the tool of the fashionable world;
but I am afraid their dangerous friends are leading them to be more. The
tableau affair, to-night, I have investigated to a certain degree, and I
consider it one of the worst of its kind. I would not have you
associated with it for--well, any consideration that I can imagine; and
yet, if I mistake not, I heard them urging you to join them."
Again Grace essayed to speak, but the pealing of the door bell
interrupted her.
"Who is it, Hannah?" Dr. Dennis questioned, as that personage peeped her
head in at the door.
"It is four young ladies, Dr. Dennis, and they want to see you."
Grace arose to depart.
"Do you know any of them, Hannah?" the doctor asked.
"Well, sir, one of them is the Miss Wilbur who teaches, and I think
another is Dr. Mitchell's daughter. I don't know the others."
"Show them in here," said Dr. Dennis, promptly. "And, daughter, you will
please remain. They have doubtless come to petition me for your
assistance in the tableaux, and I have not the least desire to be
considered a household tyrant, or to have them suppose that you are my
prisoner. I would much rather that you should give them your own
opinions on the subject like a brave little woman."
"But father," Grace said, and there was a gleam of mischief in her eye,
"I haven't any opinions on this subject. The most that I can say is,
that you don't wish me to have anything to do with them; and so, like a
dutiful daughter, I decline."
"Well, then," he said, smiling back on her in a satisfied way, "show
them how gracefully you can play the part of a dutiful daughter. While
you are so young, and while I am here to have opinions for you, the
dutiful part cheerfully done is really all that is necessary."
And this was the introduction that the four girls had to the pastor's
study. How shy they felt! Ruth could hardly ever remember of feeling so
very much embarrassed. As for Eurie, she began to feel that distressing
sense of the ludicrous creeping over her, and so was horribly afraid
that she should laugh. Marion went forward to Grace, and in the warm,
glad greeting that this young girl gave, felt her heart melted and
warmed.
Dr. Dennis, confident in the errand that had brought them, decided to
lead the conversation himself, and give them no chance to approach the
topic smoothly.
"Have you done up the tableaux so promptly?" he asked. And while he
addressed his question to Marion, Eurie felt that he _looked_ right at
her.
Marion's answer was prompt and to the point.
"Yes, sir, we have. Miss Mitchell was the only one of us who was
pledged; and I believe she was entirely dissatisfied with the character
of the entertainment, and withdrew her support."
"Indeed!" Dr. Dennis' manner of pronouncing this word was, in effect,
saying, "Is it possible that there can be an entertainment of so
questionable a character that Miss Mitchell will withdraw from it?"
At least that was the way the word sounded to Eurie, but she had been
roused to unusual sensitiveness. The effect was to rouse her still
further, to put to flight every trace of embarrassment and every desire
to laugh. She spoke in a clear, strong voice:
"Dr. Dennis, we shall be talking at cross purposes if we do not make
some explanation of our object in calling this evening. We feel that we
do not belong in the society where you are classing us; in fact, we do
not belong anywhere. Our views and feelings have greatly changed within
a short time. We want to make a corresponding change in our
associations; at least, so far as is desirable. Our special object in
calling just now is, that we know it will soon be time for the communion
in your church, and we have thought that perhaps we ought to make a
public profession of our changed views."
Was ever a man more bent on misunderstanding plain English than was Dr.
Dennis this evening? He looked at his callers in an astonished and
embarrassed way for a moment, as if uncertain whether to consider them
lunatics or not; and then said, addressing himself to Eurie:
"My dear young lady, I fear you are laboring under a mistake as to the
object in uniting with the Church of Christ, and the preparation
necessary. You know, as a church, we hold that something more than a
desire to change one's social relations should actuate the person to
take such a step; that, indeed, there should be a radical change of
heart."
Poor Eurie! She thought she had been _so_ plain in her explanation. She
flushed, and commenced a stammering sentence; then paused, and looked
appealingly at Ruth and Marion.
Finally she did what, for Eurie Mitchell to do, was unprecedented, lost
all self-control, and broke into a sudden and passionate gust of tears.
"Eurie, don't!" Marion said; to her it was actual pain to see tears. As
for Dr. Dennis, he was very much at his wits' end, and Ruth's
embarrassment grew upon her every moment. Flossy came to the rescue.
"Dr. Dennis," she said, and he noticed even then that her voice was
strangely sweet and winning, "Eurie means that we love Jesus, and we
believe he has forgiven us and called us by name. We mean we want to be
his, and to serve him forever; and we want to acknowledge him publicly,
because we think he has so directed."
How simple and sweet the story was, after all, when one just gave up
attempting to be proper, and gave the quiet truth. Ruth was struck with
the simplicity and the directness of the words; she began to have not
only an admiration, but an unfeigned respect for Flossy Shipley. But you
should have seen Dr. Dennis' face. It is a pity Eurie could not have
seen it at that moment; if she had not had hers buried in the sofa
pillow she would have caught the quick glad look of surprise and joy and
heartfelt thankfulness that spoke in his eyes. He arose suddenly, and,
holding out his hand to Flossy, said:
"Let me greet you, and thank you, and ask you to forgive me, in the same
breath. I have been very slow to understand, and strangely stupid and
unsympathetic. I feel very much as I fancy poor doubting Thomas must
have done. Forgive me; I am so astonished, and so glad that I don't
know how to express the feeling. Do you speak for all your friends here,
Miss Flossy? And may I ask something about the wonderful experience that
has drawn you all into the ark?"
But Flossy's courage had forsaken her; it was born of sympathy with
Eurie's tears. She looked down now, tearful herself, and trembling like
a leaf. Ruth found voice to answer for her.
"Our experience, Dr. Dennis, can be summed up in one word--Chautauqua."
Dr. Dennis gave a little start; another astonishment.
"Do you mean that you were converted during that meeting?"
Marion smiled.
"We do not know enough about terms, to really be sure that that is the
right one to use," she said; "at least, I do not. But we do know this,
that we met the Lord Jesus there, and that, as Flossy says, we love him,
and have given our lives into his keeping."
"You cannot say more than that after a hundred years of experience," he
said, quickly.
"Well, dear friends, I cannot, as I said, express to you my gratitude
and joy. And you are coming into the church, and are ready to take up
work for the Master, and live for him? Thank the Lord."
Little need had our girls to talk of Dr. Dennis' coldness and dignity
after that. How entirely his heart had melted! What a blessed talk they
had! So many questions about Chautauqua, so much to tell that delighted
him. They had not the least idea that it was possible to feel so much at
ease with a minister as they grew to feel with him.
The bell rang and was answered, and yet no one intruded on their quiet,
and the talk went on, until Marion, with a sudden recollection of Nellis
Mitchell, and their appointment with him, stole a glance at her watch,
and was astonished into the announcement:
"Girls, we have been here an hour and a quarter!"
"Is it possible!" Ruth said, rising at once. "Father will be alarmed, I
am afraid."
Dr. Dennis rose also.
"I did not know I was keeping you so," he said. "Our theme was a
fascinating one. Will you wait a moment, and let me make ready to see
you safely home?"
But it appeared, on opening the door, that Nellis Mitchell occupied an
easy-chair in the parlor, just across the hall.
"I'm a patient young man, and at your service," he said, coming toward
them as they emerged. "Please give me credit for promptness. I was here
at the half hour."
As they walked home, Nellis with his sister on one arm, and Flossy
Shipley on the other, he said:
"Now, what am I to understand by this sudden and violent intimacy at the
parsonage? Miss Flossy, my sister has hitherto made yearly calls of two
seconds' duration on the doctor's sister when she is not home to receive
them."
"A great many things are to be different from what they have hitherto
been," Flossy said, with a soft little laugh.
"So I begin to perceive."
"Nell," said Eurie, turning back when she was half way up the stairs,
having said good-night, "are you going to help them with those
tableaux?"
"Not much," said Nellis.
And Eurie, as she went on, said:
"I shouldn't be surprised if Nell felt differently about some things
from what he used to. Oh, I wonder if I can't coax him in?"
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