The morning after John Ward's return from his two weeks' absence at
General Assembly, he found it hard to settle down to work. Not that there
was very much to talk about, for daily letters had told of daily doings,
but to be with Helen again was an absorbing joy. She followed him about
as he put his papers away, and he, in turn, came out into the garden to
watch her while she showed Alfaretta where to plant some flower seeds.
"Come over here," Helen said, "and see these violets under the big elm!
I have been so in hopes they would blossom in time to welcome you. Let's
pick some for the study."
They pushed the shining, wet leaves aside, and found the flowers, and
then John watched his wife put them in a shallow dish on his table.
"It is weak in me to come in here," Helen said, smiling. "I know you
ought to work, yet here I sit."
"This is Thursday," he answered, "and I wrote my sermon on the train
yesterday, so after I have copied the reports I can afford to be lazy. I
cannot bear to have you out of my sight!" He drew her brown head down on
his shoulder, and stroked her face softly. "When I'm away from you,
Helen, I seem only half alive."
"And in three weeks I have to go to Ashurst," she said ruefully. "It is
too bad I couldn't have gone while you were at General Assembly, but it
wouldn't have been right for us both to be away from the parsonage at
once."
"No. Well, we have the three weeks yet. Yes, I must send you away, and
get at the reports. How you brighten this room, Helen! I think it must
be the sunshine that seems caught in your hair. It gleams like bronze
oak-leaves in October."
"Love has done wonderful things for your eyes, John," she said, smiling,
as she left him.
She put on her heavy gloves and brought her trowel from under the front
porch, and she and the maid began to dig up the fresh, damp earth on the
sunny side of the house.
"We'll have some sweet-peas here, Alfaretta," she said cheerily, "and I
think it would be nice to let the nasturtiums run over that log, don't
you? And you must plant these morning-glory seeds around the kitchen
windows." Suddenly she noticed that Alfaretta, instead of listening, was
gazing down the road, and her round freckled face flushing hotly.
"He sha'n't come in," she muttered,--"he sha'n't come in!" and dropping
the hammer, and the box of tacks, and the big ball of twine, she hurried
to the gate, her rough hands clinched into two sturdy fists.
Helen looked towards the road, and saw Mr. Dean come stiffly up to the
gate, for lumbago was not altogether a memory. Alfaretta reached it as he
did, and as she stooped to lean her elbows on its top bar she slipped the
latch inside.
"Alfaretta," said her father pompously, "open the gate, if you please."
As he spoke, he rapped upon it with his heavy stick, and the little latch
clattered and shook.
"Were you coming to see me, pa?" the girl asked nervously. "I--I'm busy
this morning. It's my night out, so I'll see you this evenin'."
"Yes, I'll see you," returned Mr. Dean significantly, "but not now. I
didn't come to see you now; I'm here to see the preacher, Alfaretta.
Come, don't keep me out here in the sun," he added impatiently, shaking
the gate again.
"I guess he's too busy to see you this morning,--he's awful busy."
"I guess he's not too busy to see me," said the elder.
Alfaretta's face was white now, but she still stood barring the gateway.
"Well, you can't see him, anyhow;" her voice had begun to tremble, and
Mrs. Ward, who had joined them, said, with a surprised look,--
"Why, what do you mean, Alfaretta? Of course Mr. Ward will see your
father. I hope your lumbago is better, Elder Dean?"
Mr. Dean did not notice her question. "Certainly he will see me. Come,
now, open the gate; be spry."
"You can't see him!" cried Alfaretta, bursting into tears. "I say he
won't see you, so there!"
Her mistress looked at her in astonishment, but her father put his big
hand over the gate, and, wrenching the little latch open, strode up to
the front door of the parsonage.
Helen and her maid looked at each other; Alfaretta's face working
convulsively to keep back the tears, and her mistress's eyes full of
disapproval.
"Why did you say that, Alfaretta?" she said. "It was not true; you knew
Mr. Ward could see your father." Then she turned back to her planting.
Alfaretta followed her, and, kneeling down by the border, began to grub
at the intruding blades of grass, stopping to put her hand up to her eyes
once in a while, which made her face singularly streaked and muddy.
"What is the matter, Alfaretta?" Helen asked, at last, coldly. She did
not mean to be unkind, but she was troubled at the girl's untruthfulness.
Alfaretta wailed.
"Tell me," Helen said, putting her hand lightly on her shoulder. "Are you
crying because you said what was not true?"
"'T ain't that!" sobbed Alfaretta.
"I wish, then, you would either stop, or go into the house." Helen's
voice was stern, and Alfaretta looked at her with reproachful eyes; then
covering her face with her hands, she rocked backwards and forwards, and
wept without restraint.
"I'm afraid--I'm afraid he's going to take me away from here!"
"Take you away?" Helen said, surprised. "Why? Is the work too hard?"
"No--no ma'am," Alfaretta answered, choking.
"I'll go and see him at once," Helen said.
"Oh, no!" Alfaretta cried, catching her mistress's skirt with grimy
hands, "don't go; 't won't do any good."
"Don't be foolish," Helen remonstrated, smiling; "of course I must speak
to him. If your father thinks there is too much work, he must tell me,
and I will arrange it differently."
She stooped, and took the hem of her cambric gown from between the girl's
fingers, and then went quickly into the house.
She rapped lightly at the study door. "John, I must come in a moment,
please."
She heard a chair pushed back, and John's footstep upon the floor. He
opened the door, and stood looking at her with strange, unseeing eyes.
"Go away, Helen," he said hoarsely, without waiting for her to speak, for
she was dumb with astonishment at his face,--"go away, my darling."
He put out one hand as if to push her back, and closed the door, and she
heard the bolt pushed. She stood a moment staring at the blank of the
locked door. What could it mean? Alfaretta's misery and morals were
forgotten; something troubled John,--she had no thought for anything
else. She turned away as though in a dream, and began absently to take
off her garden hat. John was in some distress. She went up-stairs to her
bedroom, and tried to keep busy with sewing until she could go to him,
but she was almost unconscious of what she did. How long, how very long,
the morning was!
* * * * *
John had looked up from his writing to see Mr. Dean standing in the
doorway.
"Good-morning," he said cordially, as he rose to give his hand to his
elder. "I am glad to see you. How have things gone since I have been
away?"
But Mr. Dean seemed to have nothing special to report, and let the
preacher tell him of General Assembly, while, embarrassed and very
uncomfortable, he sat twisting his hat round and round in his big,
rough hands.
A bar of sunshine from the south window crept across the floor, and
touched the low dish of violets on the table, and then John's face,
making a sudden golden glint in his gentle dark eyes.
"Mr. Ward," the elder said, at last, opening his mouth once or twice
before he began to speak, "I have a distress on my mind. I think the
Spirit of the Lord's driven me to tell you of it."
"Are you in any trouble, my friend?" The tired look which had fallen upon
John's face as he put down his pen was gone in a moment. "I am glad,
then, I was not away any longer. I trust sickness has not come to your
family?"
"No, sir," answered the other solemnly, "not sickness of body. What does
the Good Book say to the Christian? 'He shall give his angels charge over
thee.' No, I'm mercifully preserved from sickness; for, as for me and my
house, we serve the Lord. My lumbago was bad while you was away; but it's
better, I'm thankful to say. Sickness of the soul, Mr. Ward,--that is
what is truly awful."
"I hope you are not feeling the power of Satan in doubts?" John said
anxiously. "Such sickness of the soul is indeed worse than any which can
come to the body."
"No," replied the elder, "no, my feet are fixed. I know whom I have
believed. I have entered into the hidden things of God. I am not afraid
of doubt, ever. Yet what a fearful thing doubt is, Brother Ward!"
"It is, indeed," John replied humbly. "Through the mercy of God, I have
never known its temptation. He has kept me from ever questioning truth."
"What a terrible thing it would be," said Mr. Dean, beginning to forget
his awkwardness, "if doubt was to grow up in any heart, or in any family,
or in any church! I've sometimes wondered if, of late, you had given us
enough sound doctrine in the pulpit, sir? The milk of the Word we can get
out of the Bible for ourselves, but doctrines, they ain't to be found in
Holy Writ as they'd ought to be preached."
John looked troubled. He knew the rebuke was merited. "I have feared
my sermons were, as you say, scarcely doctrinal enough. Yet I have
instructed you these six years in points of faith, and I felt it was
perhaps wiser to turn more to the tenderness of God as it is in Christ.
And I cannot agree with you that the doctrines are not in the Bible, Mr.
Dean."
"Well," the elder admitted, "of course. But not so he that runs may read,
or that the wayfaring man will not err therein. There is some folks as
would take 'God is love' out of the Good Book, and forget 'Our God is a
consuming fire.'"
John bent his head on his hand for a moment, and drove his mind back to
his old arguments for silence. Neither of the men spoke for a little
while, and then John said, still without raising his head:--
"Do you feel that this--neglect of mine has been of injury to any soul?
It is your duty to tell me."
It was here that Helen's knock came, and when John had taken his seat
again he looked his accuser straight in the eyes.
"Do you?" he said.
"Sir," answered the elder, "I can't say. I ain't heard that it has--and
yet--I'm fearful. Yet I didn't come to reproach you for that. You have
your reasons for doing as you did, no doubt. But what I did come to do,
preacher, was to warn you that there was a creepin' evil in the church;
and we need strong doctrine now, if we ain't before. And I came the
quicker to tell you, sir, because it's fastened on my own household. Yes,
on my own child!"
"Your own child?" John said. "You have nothing to fear for Alfaretta; she
is a very good, steady girl."
"She's good enough and she's steady enough," returned Mr. Dean, shaking
his head; "and oh, Mr. Ward, when she joined the church, two years ago,
there wasn't anybody (joinin' on profession) better grounded in the faith
than she was. She knew her catechism through and through, and she never
asked a question or had a doubt about it in her life. But now,--now it's
different!"
"Do you mean," John asked, "that her faith is shaken,--that she has
doubts? Such times are apt to come to very young Christians, though they
are conscious of no insincerity, and the doubts are but superficial. Has
she such doubts?"
"She has, sir, she has," cried the elder, "and it breaks my heart to see
my child given over to the Evil One!"
"No, no," John said tenderly; "if she is one of the elect,--and we have
reason to hope she is,--she will persevere. Remember, for your comfort,
the perseverance of the saints. But how has this come about? Is it
through any influence?"
"Yes, sir, it is," said the elder quickly.
"What is the especial doubt?" John asked.
"It is her views of hell that distress me," answered the elder. John
looked absently beyond him, with eyes which saw, not Alfaretta, but
Helen.
"That is very serious," he said slowly.
"'T ain't natural to her," protested the elder. "She was grounded on
hell; she's been taught better. It's the influence she's been under,
preacher."
"Surely it cannot be any one in our church," John said thoughtfully. "I
can think of too many who are weak in grace and good works, but none who
doubt the faith."
"Yes," replied the elder, "yes, it is in our church. That's why I came to
beg you to teach sound doctrine, especially the doctrine of everlasting
punishment. I could a' dealt with Alfaretta myself, and I'll bring her
round, you can depend on that; but it is for the church I'm askin' you,
and fer that person that's unsettled Alfaretta. Convert her, save her. It
is a woman, sir, a member (by letter, Brother Ward) of our church, and
she's spreadin' nets of eternal ruin for our youth, and I came to say she
ought to be dealt with; the Session ought to take notice of it. The
elders have been speakin' of it while you was away; and we don't see
no way out of it, for her own soul's sake,--let alone other people's
souls,--than to bring her before the Session. If we can't convert her
to truth, leastways she'll be disciplined to silence."
That subtile distinction which John Ward had made between his love and
his life was never more apparent than now. Though his elder's words
brought him the keenest consciousness of his wife's unbelief, he never
for an instant thought of her as the person whose influence in the church
was to be feared. His church and his wife were too absolutely separate
for such identification to be possible.
"And," Mr. Dean added, his metallic voice involuntarily softening, "our
feelings, Mr. Ward, mustn't interfere with it; they mustn't make us
unkind to her soul by slightin' her best good."
"No," John said, still absently, and scarcely listening to his
elder,--"no, of course not. But have you seen her, and talked with her,
and tried to lead her to the truth? That should be done with the
tenderest patience before anything so extreme as Sessioning."
"We ain't," the elder answered significantly, "but I make no doubt she's
been reasoned with and prayed with."
"Why, I have not spoken to her," John said, bewildered; "but you have not
told me who it is, yet."
"Mr. Ward," said the other solemnly, "if you ain't spoke to her, you've
neglected your duty; and if you don't give her poor soul a chance of
salvation by bringing her to the Session, you are neglectin' your duty
still more. Your church, sir, and the everlastin' happiness of her soul
demand that this disease of unbelief should be rooted out. Yes, Brother
Ward, if the Jonah in a church was our nearest and dearest--and it don't
make no odds--the ship should be saved!"
They both rose; a terrible look was dawning in John Ward's face, and,
seeing it, the elder's voice sunk to a hurried whisper as he spoke the
last words.
"Who is this woman?" the preacher said hoarsely.
"Sir--sir"--the elder cried, backing towards the door and raising his
hands in front of him, "don't look so,--don't look so, sir!"
"Who?" demanded the other.
"I spoke fer the sake of Alfaretta's soul, and fer the sake of them
that's heard her say them things about Tom Davis, provin' there wasn't
any punishment for sinners. Don't look so, preacher!"
"Tell me her name!"
"Her name--her name? Oh, you know it, sir, you know it--it's--your wife,
preacher."
John Ward sprang at the cowering figure of the big elder, and clinched
his trembling hands on the man's shoulders, with an inarticulate cry.
"My wife!" he said, between his teeth. "How dare you speak her name!" He
stopped, struggling for breath.
"My duty!" gasped the elder, trying to loosen the trembling fingers--"to
her--an' you--an' the church you've starved and neglected, Brother Ward!"
John blenched. Mr. Dean saw his advantage. "You know your vows when you
were ordained here six years ago: do you keep them? Do you feed your
people with spiritual food, or will you neglect them for your wife's
sake, and let her example send the souls in your care to endless ruin?"
John had loosened his hold on the elder, and was leaning against the
wall, his head bowed upon his breast and his hands knotted together. A
passion of horrified grief swept across his face; he seemed unconscious
of the elder's presence. Mr. Dean looked at him, not certain what to do
or say; he had quite forgotten Alfaretta's "notice." At last the preacher
raised his head.
"You have said enough," he said, in a low voice; "now go," and he pointed
with a shaking finger to the door. "Go!" he repeated.
The elder hesitated, then slowly put on his hat and stumbled from the
room. John did not notice his outstretched hand, but followed him blindly
to the door, and locked it after him.
The full blaze of sunshine flooded the room with its pitiless mirth; it
was wilting the dish of violets, and he moved it to the shaded end of the
table.
* * * * *
Alfaretta, peering out of her attic window, and wiping her eyes on the
corner of the dimity curtain which hid her, saw the elder walk out of the
parsonage and through the little gateway, with shame written on his
drooping shoulders and in his hurried, shambling steps. He never once
looked back.