DANGERS SEEN AND UNSEEN.
IT was this man, then, to whom Harry Matthews' eyes often wandered
during that morning service. The look of profound amazement which had
settled on his uncle's face after the first sweeping glance which he
gave the little church, had caused Harry the keenest satisfaction.
The more so that during the morning he had been addressed after this
fashion:
"The only regret I had, when I found that I could drop off at South
Plains and spend a day or two, was that it was Saturday, and the
Sabbath would have to be spent in that forlorn little box where you go
to church. I have vivid recollections of the day I spent with you a
year ago. Harry, my boy, I don't like to think of your Sabbaths being
passed amid such unpleasant surroundings. I shall be glad when your
engagement here closes. You don't think of renewing it, I hope? I have
plans which I want to talk over with you to-morrow?"
But Harry had been too full of the surprise in store, to make any reply
to these questionings, other than to say:
"Come on, uncle Harold; I sing in the choir, and I promised to be there
in good time."
None the less was he watching for that first look, and it satisfied
him. He wanted to laugh outright, but of course he did no such thing;
instead, he seated his amazed relative in one of the best pews, then
took his place in the choir, all of his face save his eyes in decorous
repose.
All the bright Sabbath afternoon they sat together, uncle and nephew;
the one an eager narrator, the other an attentive listener. Every step
of the colossal plan, as it appeared to others, and was matured and
carried out by the unfaltering zeal of Claire Benedict, was detailed
for the uncle's benefit. And certainly Claire's reputation did not
suffer in the young man's hands. He could not help glorifying her. None
knew better than he, what she had been to him; but of this more sacred
story he as yet said nothing. Its time was to come.
"Why, uncle Harold, you remember Bud," he burst forth afresh after a
moment's silence, "that queer fellow who worked for the Ansteds; he
came down here that night you spent here last spring, with papers, you
know, for Mr. Ansted, and you talked with him a little, and laughed so
over his queer notions. Remember?
"Well, sir, that fellow is simply made over! It is a great deal more
wonderful than the church! We used to think he was not more than
half-witted. I'll tell you what it is: I shouldn't wonder if it turned
out that he was double-witted. You didn't recognize his name to-day,
of course; it is a wonder that he did himself. Hubbard Myers, that's
the boy. Yes, sir, he has joined the church; and a help he will be
to it, too. Uncle Harold, you ought to hear him pray! He says queer
things even in prayer; at least, they sound queer; but in spite of
yourself you can not help wondering sometimes whether it is not because
he has gotten ahead of all the rest, and sees things that they don't
understand. I believe he thinks Miss Benedict is an angel sent here
from heaven to help him. That's no wonder, though; perhaps she is;
anyhow, she has helped him as well, and perhaps better than a real
angel could have done; and she is the first one who ever took any
notice of him, or remembered that he had a soul."
It is no special wonder that the uncle was deeply interested in this
story. It told more than Harry suspected. How came this gay young
nephew, who had cost him many sleepless nights, to be sufficiently
familiar with a prayer-meeting to know who prayed, or how? He studied
the bright face before him most attentively. It was changed, certainly;
he had felt the change in the boy all day. What was it? How much did it
mean? There had certainly been need for change. It made his heart beat
fast to think of Harry's mother, and the possibility of news for her
such as would make her feel young again.
"Harry," he said gently, "do you know, I half hope that I have not
heard the best yet of this wonderful story; that there has been another
'making over.' How is it, my boy?"
A bright flush mantled Harry's face as he bent his eyes closer over the
paper on which he was scribbling his own and his uncle's names with all
sorts of flourishes.
Suddenly he raised his head, and looked full into the kind eyes bent
wistfully on him, and smiled:
"I don't know why I should hesitate to tell you that, I am sure," he
said, speaking in a firm, manly tone. "It is true enough. I have been
made over, I believe. Certainly nobody ever needed it more, and nobody
ever struggled harder against it, as you very well know. At least, you
know part; but I have been lower down than you think, uncle Harold.
Talk about angels! I know that I don't see how any angel can ever do
more for me than Miss Benedict has done! I've engaged for life as a
servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I owe more to Miss Benedict, this
minute, than I do to any human being, not excepting even you and my
mother."
The uncle was out of his chair by this time, one hand on the shoulder
of his dear boy, while he held out the other, which was promptly
grasped; but he could not speak yet, and he could not see for the
tears. This young fellow was very dear to him, and the waiting had been
long.
"God bless you!" he said at last, his lips quivering, and unable to
utter another word.
When he could speak again he said:
"My dear boy, have you told your mother?"
"Not yet," said Harry, his eyes shining, "but you can be sure that I am
going to. You see, Uncle Harold, the articles of surrender were only
signed, sealed and delivered, night before last in the middle of the
night. Since then I have not had a moment's time that belonged to me;
but I'll write her such a letter as she has never had from me."
While the uncle walked the parlor of the boarding-house, and waited for
his nephew to make ready for evening service, he had some questions to
settle which were personal. He became aware of the fact that he had
certainly jumped to conclusions regarding some of the workers in the
Master's vineyard which were apparently without foundation. Here was
this Miss Benedict. He had heard her name mentioned frequently in the
days gone by, and always as one of the dependences of the church to
which she belonged; and yet he had always thought of her with curling
lip. "Workers!" he had told himself, being mentally very sarcastic,
"yes, didn't all the initiated know what that meant when applied to a
fashionable young lady who lived in an elegant home and mingled with
the fashionable world? It meant that she helped at the fancy fairs, and
festivals, and bazaars, and what not? Worked them up, probably, with
all their accompanying train of evils. It meant that she was a district
visitor, perhaps, and left a tract on 'Redeeming the Time' in a home
where they were starving for lack of employment, and needed a loaf of
bread." He had seen workers of that sort, and he found it difficult to
feel for them anything but contempt. The thing for which he was now to
take himself to task was the fact that he had classed Claire Benedict
among these, knowing nothing of her, meantime, save that she was a
member of a fashionable up-town church; and that, too, after knowing
her father, and singling him out as a man among thousands. The simple
truth was, that he had imagined a character of which he disapproved,
and named it Claire Benedict, and then let himself disapprove of her
heartily.
"The sole thing that I know about the young woman is that she was once
wealthy, and on this account I have judged her as I have; and I find
that it is what I am apt to do." This is what he told himself as
he walked the length of that little parlor, and waited. He was much
ashamed of himself. "It is an excellent standpoint from which to judge
character," he said, severely. "If there is any justice in it I must be
a worthless person myself. I wonder how many people are setting me down
as one who merely plays at Christian work, because my father left me
one fortune and my old aunt another!"
I am glad that this man had this severe talk with himself. He needed
it. The truth is, he was very apt to judge of people in masses; as
though they were specimens, and belonged to certain types.
The conclusion of his self-examination at this time was, that he
declared that if one third of what Harry thought about this young
person was true, it had taught him a lesson. He went to church that
evening apparently for the purpose of studying the lesson more
thoroughly; at least, he gave some attention to the organist. He had
recognized her in the morning, because she had eyes like her father;
and this evening he decided that her head was shaped like his,
and that she had the firm mouth and yet sweet set of lips that had
characterized the father, and he told himself that he might have known
that the daughter of such a man would be an unusual woman.
After service was concluded, he walked deliberately forward and claimed
acquaintance with Sydney Benedict's daughter. The glow that he brought
to her face, and the tender light which shone in her eyes, when he
mentioned that dear father's name, gave him a glimpse of what the
daughter's memories were.
Harry came up to them eagerly, having been detained by the pastor for a
moment.
"You have introduced yourself, Uncle Harold, I see. Miss Benedict, I
wanted my Uncle Harold to know you for very special reasons."
Uncle Harold was unaccountably embarrassed. What a strange thing
for that boy to say! and what did he propose to say next? But
Claire relieved the embarrassment, and plunged him into a maze of
questioning, by the sudden, eager interest which flashed in her face
with the mention of his name.
"Are you Harold Chessney?" she asked as though a new thought came to
her with the union of the two names, "and are you going to the Rocky
Mountains?"
"I am Harold Chessney," he said, smiling, "and I have in mind a trip
to the Rocky Mountains, if I can make my plans in that direction
what I wish. But why this should be of interest to you passes my
comprehension." Of course this last he thought.
She did not leave him long in doubt.
"Is Louis Ansted going with you?"
"He is if I can prevail upon him to do so. That is part of my errand
here at this time, and has to do with the plans I mentioned." And now
his face plainly asked the question: "Why do _you_ care?"
She seemed to answer the look.
"He needs to go, Mr. Chessney. He needs help; such help as perhaps you
can give him. I don't know. Something must be done for him, and that
soon. Mr. Chessney, I _hope_ you will succeed."
There was no time for more. Alice Ansted came up, and claimed the
stranger as an acquaintance, and stood talking with him for a moment
and expressed extreme anxiety that he should find her brother in the
city the next day.
"He is somewhere in town, but we never know where. Still, I could give
you a dozen addresses, at any one of which you might find him. I hope
you will not return without seeing him."
"I shall not," Mr. Chessney said, decidedly. "Is he inclined to
accompany me, do you think? Has he mentioned to you my designs?"
"Yes, and would go if it were not for--Mr. Chessney, if you could make
mamma understand. No one seems able to. Claire Benedict has tried and
failed; and what she fails in, perhaps can not be done. I don't know,
but something must be done, and that speedily."
Almost Claire Benedict's words repeated. The newcomer walked home in
almost silence. As they neared Harry's door, he said:
"What is young Ansted about just now?"
"Drinking hard, sir; he is running down hill very fast. If you don't
get him away with you, I am afraid he will go to the dogs in a hurry."
"Is he still on terms of special intimacy with the VanMarters?"
"Well, as to that, I do not know. Things look mixed. He rails against
Willis VanMarter once in a while, when he has been taking enough to
make him imprudent, and Miss Alice seems to have broken with them
altogether; at least, Willis does not come out any more, I think,
and Miss Alice is not in town often; but Mrs. Ansted seems to be as
intimate with them as ever, and Louis goes there with his mother. I
don't know anything about it, but it looks like a house divided against
itself. If I had such a mother as Louis Ansted has, I don't believe I
would try to be anybody."
"Mothers don't seem to count for much sometimes, my boy."
"You mean with their sons, and I dare say you mean me, Uncle Harold;
but it is not true. My mother always counted for ten times more than
you think. It was she who held me back. If Louis Ansted had a tenth
part of the craving for liquor that I have, with his mother to push
him, he would have been gone long ago, beyond reach. I don't know but
he is now. He has been going down very fast in the last few weeks."
"What is the accelerating cause?"
"That I don't positively know. Partly, it is the natural result of
a bad habit indulged, I suppose; but there are other influences at
which I can guess. Still, it is pure guesswork. I am not in any one's
confidence, except when Louis has been drinking too much, he says to me
things that he would not want me to know if he were sober, and those,
of course, I don't repeat. I think that his mother is bent on this
union of the two houses, VanMarter's and theirs, and I think neither
Louis nor Miss Alice are of her mind in the matter; and I think,
moreover, that Louis would rather have an hour of Miss Benedict's
society than a lifetime of Miss Eva VanMarter's, and I don't think he
can get what he wants. Now, isn't that an interesting little romance
for a young fellow like me to think out, especially when I don't know a
thing about it? The only fact is that Louis Ansted is in great danger,
and nobody seems to have much influence over him--at least, nobody who
uses it in the right direction."
"His sister seems to be roused. I was surprised to hear her speak as
she did."
"His sister is not the woman she was when you saw her last. She has
been under Miss Benedict's influence all winter."
"Evidently you incline to the belief that Miss Benedict is a remarkable
woman," his uncle said, with a slight laugh. "Why has she not been
exerting her influence to help poor Louis?"
"She has tried as hard as a woman can. But, Uncle Harold, she is not
the sort of woman to promise to marry a man merely to save him from
becoming a drunkard."
"I should hope not," Mr. Chessney answered promptly.