The feeling in Lockhaven about Helen Ward's unbelief was not confined to
Elder Dean; for every one who knew Mrs. Davis knew what the preacher's
wife thought of Tom's salvation, and judged her accordingly. As for the
widow herself, the hope Helen had given her quite died out under the
fostering care of Elder Dean. She grew more bitter than ever, and refused
even to speak on the subject.
"No, ma'am," she said wearily, when Helen went to see her after the
funeral,--"no, ma'am, 'tain't no use to talk. Elder Dean's been here, and
I know there ain't no good hopin'. Even the preacher don't say there's
any good hopin'. What you said was a comfort, ma'am, but 'twasn't true.
'Twasn't religion. It's in the Bible that there's a hell, and there's no
use sayin' there isn't; sayin' there isn't won't keep us from it, Elder
Dean says, and I guess he's about right. I'm sure I'm much obliged to
you, ma'am; but I'm a Christian woman myself, and I can't deny religion."
There was no use arguing; custom and a smattering of logic settled her
convictions, and no reasoning could move her dreary hopelessness.
Helen told John of it, her head resting on his breast, and comforted by
his mere presence. "I know you believe in hell," she ended, "but, oh,
John, it is so horrible!"
He stroked her hair softly. "I am afraid, dearest," he said, "Mrs. Davis
is right. I am afraid there is no possibility of hope. The soul that
sinneth, it shall die, and shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?"
Helen sprang to her feet. "Oh," she cried passionately,--"that is just
it,--He does do right! Why, if I thought God capable of sending Tom to
hell, I should hate Him." John tried to speak, but she interrupted him.
"We will never talk of this again, never! Believe what you will,
dearest,--it does not matter,--but don't speak of it to me, if you
love me. I cannot bear it, John. Promise me."
"Oh, Helen," he said, with tender reproach, "would you have me conceal my
deepest life from you? It would seem like living apart, if there were one
subject on which we dared not touch. Just let me show you the truth and
justice of all this; let me tell you how the scheme of salvation makes
the mystery of sin and punishment clear and right."
"No," she said, the flush of pain dying out of her face, but her eyes
still shining with unshed tears,--"no, I cannot talk of it. I should be
wicked if I could believe it; it would make me wicked. Don't ever speak
to me of it, John."
She came and put her arms around him, and kissed his forehead gently; and
then she left him to struggle with his conscience, and to ask himself
whether his delay had caused this feeling of abhorrence, or whether the
waiting had been wise and should be prolonged.
But Helen's words to Mrs. Davis were repeated, and ran from mouth to
mouth, with the strangest additions and alterations. Mrs. Ward had said
that there was no hell, and no heaven, and no God. What wonder, then,
with such a leaven of wickedness at work in the church, Elder Dean grew
alarmed, and in the bosom of his own family expressed his opinion of Mrs.
Ward, and at prayer-meeting prayed fervently for unbelievers, even though
she was not there to profit by it. Once, while saying that the preacher's
wife was sowing tares among the wheat, he met with an astonishing rebuff.
Alfaretta dared tell her father that he ought to be ashamed of himself to
talk that way about a saint and an angel, if ever there was one.
Mr. Dean was staggered; a female, a young female, and his daughter, to
dare to say such a thing to him! He opened his mouth several times before
he was able to speak.
Alfaretta was at home for her evening out, and her young man was with
her, anxious for the clock to point to nine, that he might "see her
home." They had intended to leave the elder's early, and wander off for
a walk by the river, but prayers were delayed a little, and after that
Alfaretta had to listen to the good advice given every week; so Thaddeus
lost all hope of the river-walk, and only watched for nine o'clock,
when he knew she must start. But in this, too, he was doomed to
disappointment, for the outburst which so stunned the elder detained
Alfaretta until after ten, thereby causing Helen no little anxiety
about her prompt and pretty maid.
The elder had closed his admonitions by warning his daughter not to
be listening to any teachings of the preacher's wife, for she was
a backslider, and she had fallen from grace. "In the first place,"
said the elder, laying down the law with uplifted hand, "she's a
Episcopalian,--I heard her say that herself, when she first come here;
and her letter of dismissal was from a church with some Popish name,--St.
Robert or Stephen,--I don't just remember. I've seen one of those
churches. Thank the Lord, there isn't one in Lockhaven. They have candles
burnin', and a big brass cross. Rags of Popery,--they all belong to the
Scarlet Woman, I tell you! But she's a backslider even from that, fer
they have some truth; she's a child of the Evil One, with her unbelief!"
This was more than Alfaretta could bear. "Indeed, pa," she cried, "you
don't know how good she is, or you wouldn't be sayin' that! Look how
she's slaved this winter fer the families that 'a' been in trouble,
havin' no work!"
"'Tain't what she's done, Alfaretta," said her father solemnly; "works
without faith is of no avail. What says the Scripture? 'A man is
justified by faith' (by faith, Alfaretta!) 'without the deeds of the
law.' And what says the confession?"
Alfaretta, by force of habit, began to stumble through the answer: "'We
cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the
hand--at the hand--of God, by reason of'"--Here her memory failed her.
"Well," her father said impatiently, "can't you remember the rest? 'Works
done by unregenerate men are sinful, and cannot please God,' you know.
Go on."
But Alfaretta could not go on, and the elder would not betray his own
lack of memory by attempting to quote.
"So you see," he continued, "it isn't any use to talk of how good and
kind she is, or what she does; it is what she believes that will settle
her eternal salvation."
But Alfaretta was unconvinced. "Well, sir," she said stubbornly, "it
don't seem to me that way, fer she's the best woman, except mother, I
ever saw. I reckon if anybody goes to heaven, she will; don't you,
Thaddeus?"
Thaddeus was tilting back in his chair, his curly black head against the
whitewashed wall, and thus suddenly and embarrassingly appealed to--for
he was divided between a desire to win the approval of the elder and to
show his devotion to Alfaretta--he brought his chair down with a clatter
of all four legs on the floor, and looked first at the father and then at
the daughter, but did not speak.
"Don't you, Thaddeus?" repeated Alfaretta severely, for the elder was
dumb with astonishment.
"Well," said Thaddeus, struggling for some opinion which should please
both,--"well, I do suppose we can hope for the best; that isn't against
the catechism."
But the elder did not notice his feeble compromise, while Alfaretta only
gave him a quick, contemptuous look, for her father, opening and shutting
his mouth slowly for a moment, began to say,--
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a child that's
ungrateful for the best of teaching and sound doctrine! Many's the time,"
said the elder, lifting his eyes and hands,--"many's the time I've showed
her the truth; many's the time I've explained how every other sort of
religion is all wrong, and is of its father the Devil! And I've brought
her up faithful to the catechism and the confession, yet now the child
would instruct the parent! This comes," he cried, becoming very angry,
and beating his hand so violently upon the table that the family Bible
fell with a crash to the floor, from which Thaddeus lifted it,--"this
comes from your settin' in the seat of the scornful, and bein' in the
kitchen of an unbeliever! You'll leave her; do you hear me, Alfaretta?
You'll leave her this day month. I'll perform my duty to my child's soul,
even if Brother Ward's wife has to do her own cooking. Yes, and I'll do
my duty to Brother Ward, too, though I used to think him a pious young
man. I'll tell him he has got to convert that woman's soul She's a
corrupter of youth, she's a teacher of false doctrines,--her tellin' Mrs.
Davis there wasn't any hell!--she's a--a Episcopalian, so she is! She'll
experience a change of heart, or the Session will take this matter in
hand."
At this terrible threat, even Alfaretta was speechless, and her mother
put two shaking hands on her arm, and whispered, "Oh, Retta, I wouldn't
say no more; it makes your pa angry."
"Yes," continued the elder violently, "that woman is the Jonah of the
church, and she's got to be dealt with; to save her soul, she's got to be
disciplined, for the sake of every one that heard her false and lying
tongue. I'll have her brought before the Session and showed the truth,
and she shall be saved. Tom Davis not in hell, indeed!"
Mr. Dean stopped for breath. Alfaretta's courage came back with a rush.
"Listen to me," cried the young woman, stamping her foot with excitement,
for she was as angry as the elder himself,--"listen to me! How can you
say such things about her? A saint and angel, if ever there was one. The
Lord don't send no one to hell, let alone such as her. An' any way, I'd
rather go to the bad place with her than stay with all the golden harps
and crowns in the best sort of a heaven with them as would keep her out,
so I would!"
Here Alfaretta broke down, and began to cry. Thaddeus could not stand
that; he edged up to her, murmuring, "I wouldn't cry, Retta,--I wouldn't
cry."
But she only gave the shoulder he touched a vicious shake, and cried
harder than ever, saying, "No--I--I bet you wouldn't--you'd never--care."
But Alfaretta's defense changed Mr. Dean's anger at the snub he received
from the preacher's wife into real alarm for his child's spiritual
welfare. A daughter of his to say the Lord did not send souls to hell!
"Alfaretta," he said, with solemn slowness, "you'd better get your bunnet
and go home. I'll see Mr. Ward about this; his wife's done harm enough.
You've got to leave her,--I mean it. I won't see her send my child to
hell before my very eyes."
"Oh, pa," Alfaretta entreated, choking and sobbing, and brushing her
tears away with the back of her hand, "don't,--don't say nothin' to Mr.
Ward, nor take me away. 'Twasn't her made me say those things; it was
just my own self. Don't take me away."
"Did she ever say anything to you about the Lord not sendin' people to
hell?" asked her father.
"Oh," said Alfaretta, growing more and more frightened, "'tain't what she
talks about; it's her bein' so good, an'"--
"Did she ever," interrupted the elder, with slow emphasis, standing over
her, and shaking his stubby forefinger at her,--"did she ever say the
Lord didn't send Tom Davis to hell, to you?"
Alfaretta cowered in her chair, and Thaddeus began to whimper for
sympathy. "I don't know," she answered desperately,--"I don't know
anything, except she's good."
"Listen to me," said Mr. Dean, in his harsh, monotonous voice: "did Mrs.
Ward ever say anything to you about hell, or the Lord's not sendin'
people there? Answer me that."
Then the loving little servant-maid, truthful as the blood of Scotch
ancestors and a Presbyterian training could make her, faced what she knew
would bring remorse, and, for all she could tell, unpardonable sin upon
her soul, and said boldly, "No, she never did. She never said one single
blessed word to me about hell."
The wind seemed suddenly to leave the elder's sails, but the collapse was
only for a moment; even Alfaretta's offering of her first lie upon the
altar of her devotion to her mistress was not to save her.
"Well," he said, opening his mouth slowly and looking about with great
dignity, "if she hasn't said it to you, she has to other people, I'll be
bound. Fer she said it to Mrs. Davis, and"--the elder inflated his chest,
and held his head high--"and me. It is my duty as elder to take notice of
it, fer her own soul's sake, and to open her husband's eyes, if he's been
too blind to see it. Yes, the Session should deal with her. Prayers ain't
no good fer such as her," he said, becoming excited. "Ain't she heard my
prayers most all winter, till she give up comin' to prayer-meetin',
preferrin' to stay outside,
"'Where sinners meet, and awful scoffers dwell'?
An' I've exhorted; but"--the elder raised his eyes piously to
heaven--"Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but it don't do no good."
Alfaretta knew her father's iron will too well to attempt any further
protests. She wiped her eyes, and, while she put on a hat adorned with an
aggressive white feather, she bade the family good-night in an unsteady
voice. Thaddeus, anxious only to escape notice, sidled towards the door,
and stood waiting for her, with a deprecating look on his round face.
In spite, however, of the elder's indignation and his really genuine
alarm about the influences which surrounded his child, he had a prudent
afterthought in the matter of her leaving the service of Mrs. Ward. It
was difficult to get anything in Lockhaven for a young woman to do, and
times were hard that year.
"You--ah--you needn't give notice to-night, Alfaretta," he said. "I'll
speak to the preacher about it, myself. But mind you have as little to
say to her as you can, and may the Lord protect you!"
But the elder's plans for cautioning his pastor were doomed to
disappointment. He was a prisoner with lumbago for the next fortnight,
and even the most sincere interest in some one else's spiritual welfare
cannot tempt a man out of the house when he is bent almost double with
lumbago. Nor, when John came to see him, could he begin such a
conversation as he had planned, for his neck was too stiff to allow him
to raise his head and look in Mr. Ward's face. When he recovered, he was
delayed still another week, because the preacher had gone away to General
Assembly.
But Alfaretta was far too miserable to find in her father's command "not
to give notice to-night" any ray of comfort. She choked down her tears as
best she might, and started for the parsonage.
Thaddeus had almost to run to keep up with her, such was her troubled and
impatient haste, and she scarcely noticed him, though he tramped through
the mud to show his contrition, instead of taking his place by her side
on the board walk.
It is curious to see how a simple soul inflicts useless punishment upon
itself, when the person it has offended refuses to retaliate. Had
Alfaretta scolded, Thaddeus would not have walked in the mud.
Her silence was most depressing.
"Retta," he ventured timidly, "don't be mad with me,--now don't."
He came a little nearer, and essayed to put an arm about her waist, a
privilege often accorded him on such an occasion. But now she flounced
away from him and said sharply, "You needn't be comin' round me, Mr.
Thaddeus Green. Anybody that thinks my Mrs. Ward isn't goin' to heaven
had just better keep off from me, fer I'm goin' with her, wherever that
is; and I suppose, if you think _that_ of me, you'd better not associate
with me."
"I didn't say _you_ was goin'," protested Thaddeus tearfully, but she
interrupted him with asperity.
"Don't I tell you I'm bound to go where she goes? And if you're so
fearful of souls bein' lost, I wonder you don't put all your money in the
missionary-box, instead of buying them new boots."
Perhaps it was the thought of the new boots, but Thaddeus stepped on the
board walk, and this time, unreproved, slipped his arm about Alfaretta's
waist.
"Oh, now Retta," he said, "I didn't mean any harm. I only didn't want the
elder thinkin' I wasn't sound, for he'd be sayin' we shouldn't keep
company, an' that's all I joined the church for last spring."
"Well, then," said Alfaretta, willing to be reconciled if it brought any
comfort, "you do think Mrs. Ward will go to heaven?"
"Yes," Thaddeus answered with great confidence, and added in a burst of
gallantry, "She'll have to, Retta, if she goes along with you, for you'll
go there sure!"