Every Sunday morning Mr. Samuel Wright and Mr. Thomas Dilworth--the one
pale and pompous, the other rosy and smiling--took up the collection in
St. Michael's. A mahogany pole with a black velvet pouch on one end,
was thrust solemnly into each pew, then drawn back with very personal
pauses--which were embarrassing if you had forgotten to put some change
into your glove before starting for church. When these poles had raked
every pew, they were carried up the aisle to Dr. Lavendar, who, taking
hold of the purple tassel on the bottom of each bag, turned the
contents into a silver plate. The change came out with a fine clatter;
we children used to keep awake on purpose to hear it. Once in a while a
bill would rustle out with the silver and balance on the top of the
little heap in such an exciting way that Dr. Lavendar had to put his
hand over it to keep it from blowing off as he carried the plate to the
communion-table--we did not say "altar" in Old Chester. This done, Mr.
Wright and Mr. Dilworth would tiptoe solemnly back to their respective
pews. When the service was over the senior warden always counted the
money. On this summer Sunday morning, when he went into the vestry for
that purpose, he found Dr. Lavendar just hanging up his black gown
behind the door.
"Dr. Lavendar," said the senior warden, "you will, I am sure, be
pleased when I inform you that there is a good collection. Mrs. Richie
put in a five-dollar bill."
"Well," said Dr. Lavendar, "we need it. Your father sent me a check the
other day; but we need some more."
Mr. Wright did not comment upon his father's generosity; instead, he
slid the money from the silver plate on to the table and began to count
it. Dr. Lavendar looked at him over his spectacles; when only half a
dozen coppers were left, he said suddenly:
"Samuel!"
The senior warden looked up; "Yes, sir?"
"Samuel, your father has spoken to me of you."
Mr. Wright looked down; then he slowly picked up the last penny.
"Yes; he spoke of you. Samuel, I have something to say to you of a very
serious nature."
"We have nine dollars and seventy-seven cents," said the senior warden.
"Your father," said Dr. Lavendar, "has expressed a willingness to see
you."
Mr. Wright put the money into a small canvas bag, and pulling the
drawing-string up, wound it round and round the top; his hands trembled.
"He has some concern about your Sam--as you have yourself. He is
disturbed because the boy has lost his heart to your tenant, Mrs.
Richie."
"Call it twelve dollars," Samuel said, embarrassed to the point of
munificence. He put the canvas bag in his pocket, and rose. "I'll
deposit this to-morrow, sir," he added, as he had added every Sunday
morning for the last twenty years.
"Samuel," said Dr. Lavendar, sternly, "sit down!"
With involuntary haste the senior warden sat down, but he would not
look at Dr. Lavendar. "It is not my purpose or desire," he said, "to be
disrespectful, but I must request you, sir--"
"To mind my own business? I will, Sam, I will. My business is to
admonish you: _Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way.
First, be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift._"
Samuel Wright cleared his throat. "I cannot, Dr. Lavendar, discuss this
matter with you. I must be my own judge."
"I have heard that a man might be his own lawyer," said Dr. Lavendar,
smiling; "but you can't be your own judge. The Christian religion
judges you. Samuel, and convicts you. Your father is willing to see
you; he has taken the first step. Think what that means to a man like
your father! Now listen to me; I want to tell you what it's all about."
"I have no desire, sir, to be informed. I--"
Dr. Lavendar checked him gently: "I am sure you will listen, Samuel, no
matter what your decision may be." Then, very cautiously, he began
about young Sam. "Your father thinks he ought to get away from Old
Chester; he's worried because of Mrs. Richie."
"You know my sentiments, sir, in regard to my son's idiocy."
"Oh, come, come! Falling in love is a harmless amusement," said Dr.
Lavendar; "but your father does take it a good deal to heart. He wants
to get him out of town. However, to send him away without letting him
know why, is difficult; and the last thing would be to let him think we
take his love-making seriously! Therefore your father thinks some kind
of excuse has to be made."
Here Dr. Lavendar became elaborately casual; he had decided that he
must prepare his senior warden for a possible reference to a dangerous
topic. "He mustn't be taken unawares," Dr. Lavendar had told himself.
But he quailed, now that the moment of preparation had come. "Your
father thinks the excuse might be the finding a publisher for some
poetry that Sam has written."
Samuel Wright's large pallid face suddenly twitched; his dull eyes
blazed straight at Dr. Lavendar; "Finding a publisher--for poetry! Dr.
Lavendar, rather than have my son encouraged in making what you call
'poetry,' I'd let him _board_ at Mrs. Richie's!"
"Well," said Dr. Lavendar, easily, "never mind about his poetry; your
father has an idea that life in a small place with only your own
interests, is narrowing; and I guess he's right to some extent. Anyway
this project of a journey isn't a bad one. Sam has never been further
from his mother's apron-string in his life, than Mercer."
"My dear Dr. Lavendar," said Samuel, pompously, "a boy attached to that
string will never have the chance to fall into temptation."
"My dear Samuel," said Dr. Lavendar, "a boy attached to that string may
never have the chance to overcome temptation--which would be almost as
serious. I tell you, Sam, safety that depends on an apron-string is
very unsafe!"
"My son is not to be trusted, sir."
"Samuel!" Dr. Lavendar protested with indignation, "how can he become
worthy of trust without being trusted? You have no more right to shut
up a grown man in Old Chester for fear of temptation, than you would
have to keep a growing boy in his first pair of trousers! Why, Sam,
there isn't any virtue where there has never been any temptation.
Virtue is just temptation, overcome. Hasn't that ever struck you?
However, that's not the point. The point is, that your father has
expressed a willingness to meet you."
Mr. Wright made no answer.
"He will talk over with you this matter of Sam's falling in love.
Whether you agree with him that the boy should go away, is not
important. What is important is his desire to see you."
"I said," Samuel Wright broke out, with a violence that made Dr.
Lavendar start--"I said I would never speak to him again! I took my
oath. I cannot break my oath. 'He that sweareth to his own hurt, and
changeth not--'"
"Yes," said Dr. Lavendar; "'to his own hurt,' but not to somebody
else's hurt. You swore to your father's, to your children's, to the
community's hurt. Change as quickly as you can. Come up the hill with
me to-night."
"I can't," Samuel Wright said hoarsely, and into his hard eyes came the
same look of childish terror that the old minister had seen in Benjamin
Wright's face when he sat in the hot sunshine watching the canaries.
Then Dr. Lavendar began to plead....
It was a long struggle. Sometimes it really seemed as if, as the senior
warden had said, he "could not" do it; as if it were a physical
impossibility. And there is no doubt that to change a habit of thought
which has endured for thirty-two years involves a physical as well as a
spiritual effort, which may cause absolute anguish. Mr. Wright's face
was white; twice he wiped the perspiration from his forehead: half a
dozen times he said in an agonized tone, "I cannot do it; I _cannot._"
"Samuel, your father is very old; he is very feeble; but he has had the
strength to take the first step. Haven't you the strength to take the
second? Will you carry your wicked quarrel to his grave? No, Sam, no! I
am sure you won't."...
An hour later, when Dr. Lavendar sat down to a dinner of more than
ordinary Sunday coldness, his old face was twinkling with pleasure.
Samuel had promised to go with him that night to The Top! Perhaps as
the still afternoon softened into dusk his joy began to cast a shadow
of apprehension. If so, he refused to notice it. It was the Lord's
business, and "He moves in a mysterious way," he hummed to himself,
waiting in the warm darkness for Samuel to call for him,--for both the
quailing men had made Dr. Lavendar's presence a condition of the
interview.
At half-past seven Mr. Wright arrived. He was in a shiny box-buggy,
behind a smart sorrel. He was dressed in his black and solemn best, and
he wore his high hat with a flat brim which only came out at funerals.
His dignity was so tremendous that his great bulk seemed to take even
more than its share of room in the buggy. When he spoke, it was with a
laboriousness that crushed the breath out of any possible answer. As
they drove up the hill he cleared his throat every few minutes. Once he
volunteered the statement that he had told Sam not to stay late at--at--
"Oh," said Dr. Lavendar, "your father will pack him off;--he will
probably take the opportunity to call on Mrs. Richie," he added
smiling. But Sam's father did not smile. And, indeed, Dr. Lavendar's
own face was sober when they turned in between the sagging old
gate-posts at The Top.
When the moment came to get out of the buggy, Samuel looked at his
companion dumbly; a sort of paralysis seemed to hold him in his seat.
When he did move, Dr. Lavendar heard him gasp for breath, and in the
darkness, as he hitched the sorrel to a staple in one of the big
locusts, his face went white. The large manner which had dominated Old
Chester for so many years was shrinking and shrivelling; the whole man
seemed, somehow, smaller....
Benjamin Wright, in his mangy beaver hat, sitting quaking in his
library, heard their steps on the veranda. As soon as supper was over,
he had dismissed his rejoicing grandson, and long before it was
necessary, had bidden Simmons light the lamps; but as night fell, it
occurred to him that darkness would make things easier, and in a panic,
he shuffled about and blew them all out. A little later, he had a surge
of terror; he couldn't bear _that voice_ in the dark!
"You! Simmons!" he called across the hall. "Light the lamps!"
"I done lit 'em, suh--" Simmons expostulated from the pantry, and then
looked blankly at the black doorway of the library. "I 'clare to
goodness, they's gone out," he mumbled to himself; and came in, to
stand on one leg and scratch a match on the sole of his carpet slipper.
"Don't light all four, you stupid nigger!" the old man screamed at him.
When Simmons left him he lit a cigar, his fingers trembling very much;
it went out almost at once, and he threw it away and took another. Just
as he heard that ponderous step on the veranda, he took a
third--[Illustration: Samuel slid into a chair near the door.] but only
to throw it, too, still smouldering, into the empty fireplace.
Dr. Lavendar came in first. His face was very grave; he made no
conventional pretence of ease. Behind him, in the doorway, loomed the
other figure. Out in the hall, Simmons, his bent old back flattened
against the wall, his jaw chattering with amazement, stood, clutching
at the door-knob and staring after the visitors.
"Come in!" said, Benjamin Wright. "Hello, Lavendar. Hello--"
Alas! at that moment Samuel's cracked and patched-up self-respect
suddenly crumbled;--his presence of mind deserted him, and scrambling
like an embarrassed boy into a marked discourtesy, he thrust both hands
into his pockets. Instantly he realized his self-betrayal, but it was
too late; his father, after a second's hesitation, occupied both his
hands with the decanter and cigar-box.
"Well; here we are, Benjamin!" said Dr. Lavendar.
"Take a cigar," said the very old man; he held the box out, and it
shook so that the loose cigars jarred within it. Dr. Lavendar helped
himself. "Have one--" Benjamin Wright said, and thrust the box at the
silent standing figure.
"I--do not smoke." Samuel slid into a seat near the door, and balancing
his hat carefully on his knees twisted one leg about the leg of his
chair.
His father bustled around to the other side of the table. "That
doggoned nigger brought up Kentucky instead of Monongahela!" He lifted
the decanter and began to fill the glasses.
"Hold on! hold on! Don't swamp us," said Dr. Lavendar, He leaned over
to rescue his tumbler, and his good-natured scolding made an instant's
break in the intensity.
"Have some?" said Mr. Wright, turning to his son.
"I--do not drink." The banker uncoiled his leg, and put his hat on the
floor.
His father pounded the decanter down on the table. "Simmons!" he called
out; "light the rest of these lamps, you--you freckled nigger!
Gad-a-mercy! niggers have no sense."
Simmons came stumbling in, the whites of his yellow eyes gleaming with
excitement. While he was fumbling over the lamps, his lean brown
fingers all thumbs, Benjamin Wright insisted upon filling Dr.
Lavendar's tumbler with whiskey until it overflowed and had to be
sopped up by the old minister's red bandanna.
As soon as Simmons could get out of the room, Dr. Lavendar settled
himself to the business which had brought them together. He said to his
senior warden, briefly, that his father was concerned about Sam's
attentions to Mrs. Richie; "he thinks it would be an especially good
time to have the boy see a little of the world, if you will consent? He
says it's 'narrowing to live in Old Chester," said Dr. Lavendar, slyly
jocose;--but Samuel refused to smile, and the old minister went on with
determined cheerfulness. "I think, myself, that it would be good for
Sam to travel. You know
'Home-keeping youths
Have ever homely wits.'"
"A boy," said the senior warden, and stopped; his voice cracked badly
and he cleared his throat; "a boy--Dr. Lavendar;--is better at home."
The old minister gave him a quick look--his senior warden was
trembling! The cloak of careful pomposity with which for so many years
this poor maimed soul had covered its scars, was dropping away. He was
clutching at it--clearing his throat, swinging his foot, making
elaborate show of ease; but the cloak was slipping and slipping, and
there was the man of fifty-six cringing with the mortification of
youth! It was a sight from which to turn away even the most pitying
eyes. Dr. Lavendar turned his away; when he spoke it was with great
gentleness.
"I don't know that I quite agree with you, Sam, any more than with your
father; but still, if you don't want the boy to go away, can't we
convince your father that he is in no real danger of a broken heart? If
he goes too far, I am sure we can trust Mrs. Richie to snub him
judiciously. You think so, don't you, Samuel?"
"Yes;--Dr. Lavendar."
"Do you hear that, Wright?"
Benjamin Wright took off his hat and banged it down on the table. Then
he threw away another barely lighted cigar, put his hand into the blue
ginger-jar for some orange-skin, and looked closely at his son; his
agitation had quite disappeared. "I hear," he said calmly.
But as he grew calm, Mr. Samuel Wright's embarrassment became more
agonizing, nor was it lessened by the very old man's quite obvious
interest in it; his head, in its brown wig, was inclined a little to
one side, like a canary's, and his black eyes helped out the
likeness--except that there was a carefully restrained gleam of humor
in them. But he said nothing. To cover up the clamorous silence between
father and son, Dr. Lavendar talked a good deal, but rather at random.
He was confounded by the situation. Had he made a mistake, after all,
in insisting upon this interview? In his own mind he was asking for
wisdom, but aloud he spoke of the weather. His host gave no
conversational assistance except an occasional monosyllable, and his
senior warden was absolutely dumb. As for the subject which brought
them together, no further reference was made to it.
"Take some more whiskey, Dominic," said Mr. Wright. His eyes were
glittering; it was evident that he did not need any more himself.
Dr. Lavendar said, "No, thank you," and rose. Samuel shot up as though
a spring had been released.
"Going?" said Benjamin Wright; "a short call, considering how long it
is since we've met;--Lavendar."
Samuel cleared his throat. "'Night," he said huskily. Again there was
no hand-shaking; but as they reached the front door, Benjamin Wright
called to Dr. Lavendar, who stepped back into the library. Mr. Wright
had put on his hat, and was chewing orange-skin violently. "It ain't
any use trying to arrange anything with--So I'll try another tack." He
came close to Dr. Lavendar, plucking at the old minister's black
sleeve, his eyes snapping and his jaws working fast; he spoke in a
delighted whisper. "But, Lavendar--"
"Yes."
"He wouldn't take a cigar."
"Samuel never smokes," Dr. Lavendar said shortly.
"And he wouldn't take a drink of whiskey."
"He's a very temperate man."
"Lavendar--"
"Yes?"
"Lavendar--_it was efficacious!_"