Of course it was soon known that Helen Ward was at the rectory, but to
the Misses Woodhouse, at least, her presence was not of enough importance
to speculate or gossip about. Gifford had merely said Helen had changed
her mind about going, and would be in Ashurst a few days longer, and the
little ladies had such an absorbing interest of their own they did not
ask many questions. Miss Ruth only remarked that she wondered how she
could be satisfied to stay away from her husband so long, and Miss
Deborah replied that the young did not understand serious attachment.
To both sisters a vague happiness had come in these last few weeks, and a
certain sense of importance. Each felt it for herself, but was unable to
realize it for the other, yet constantly encountered it with irritated
astonishment, when the desire to confide was strong.
Once Miss Ruth, tearful with the memory of that last look from Mr.
Denner's dying eyes, tried to approach the subject delicately, but
was met with such amazing certainty on the part of Miss Deborah, and
a covert allusion to the value of the miniature, that she was silenced.
And again,--on Dr. Howe's return from Lockhaven,--Miss Deborah's
condescension in telling Miss Ruth she might accompany her to the
graveyard fell somewhat flat when she found that her sister had intended
going, and had even picked some flowers to put on Mr. Denner's grave.
However, they went together, a gentle seriousness on each face, and in
an unusual silence. Their parents were buried here, so that it was not
altogether sentiment which made them sad.
A white, dusty road climbed the hill which overlooked the village on the
east, and on its brow, facing the sunrise, was the little group of
Ashurst's dead.
The blossoming grass grew long and tangled here; the gray headstones
slanted a little, or had even fallen, and some of the inscriptions were
hidden by moss. The place was full of shadowy silence, only broken by the
rustle of the leaves and small bird-cries, or, from down in the valley,
the faint tinkle of a cow-bell. Cypresses stood dark against the blue
sky, swaying a little in the soft wind, and from the top of one of them
flew suddenly a brown hawk, his shadow floating from the green dusk under
the trees out over the sunny meadow below.
The two sisters went to the graves of their father and mother first, and
laid some flowers on them, and stood a moment looking at them silently.
Their sighs were rather a reverent recognition of an old grief than real
sorrow, for it was many years ago that these two had been laid here; the
simple souls were too happy to understand the pathos of a forgotten
grief, indeed, they did not even know that they had forgotten it.
As they turned away, Miss Ruth said in a hushed voice, "It is over
by Dr. Howe's lot, sister. You can see it under that larch." So they
went towards this one new grave, stepping softly, and stopping by some
familiar name to brush away the grass that hid the inscription, or lay
a blossom against the stone. They spoke once or twice of those who lay
there, calling them by their first names, yet with that curious lowering
of the voice which shows with what dignity death has invested what was
once familiar.
They were silent as they laid their flowers on the fresh earth of Mr.
Denner's grave, over which the kindly grass had not yet thrown its veil;
and Miss Deborah stopped to put a single rose upon the sunken, mossy spot
where, forty years before, the little sister had been laid to rest. Both
the little ladies frankly wiped their eyes, though with no thought except
for the old friendship which had ended here. They would have turned to
go, then, but Miss Deborah laid her hand on Miss Ruth's arm. "Why,
sister," she said, "who is that by Mary Jeffrey's grave?"
Some one was lying upon the grass, her cheek resting against the small
marble cross at the head of the grave, and one arm thrown around it.
"It must be Helen!" answered Miss Ruth anxiously. "How imprudent!"
They went towards the prostrate figure,--there were no divisions in the
Ashurst burying-ground,--and Miss Deborah stooped and touched her on the
shoulder, saying in a shocked voice, for Helen was shaken with sobs,
"Why, my dear child, what is the matter?"
Helen started violently, and then sat up, brushing the tears away, and
struggling to speak calmly. "I--I did not know any one was here."
"We were just going," Miss Ruth replied in her kind little voice, "but we
were grieved to see you troubled, my dear?"
Miss Ruth could not help saying it in a questioning way, for, in spite
of Ashurst traditions of parental love, it could hardly be imagined that
Helen was crying for a mother she had never known.
"You are very kind," Helen said, the tears still trembling in her eyes.
"Something did trouble me--and--and I came here."
The sisters spoke some gentle words of this young mother, dead now for
more than twenty years, and then went softly away, full of sympathy, yet
fearing to intrude, though wondering in their kind hearts what could be
the matter. But their curiosity faded; Mr. Denner's grave was a much more
important thing than Helen's unknown grief.
"I dare say she misses her husband?" Miss Ruth suggested.
But Miss Deborah thought that quite improbable. "For she could go home,
you know, if that was the case."
And here the sisters dropped the subject.
As for Helen, she still lingered in the silent graveyard. She felt, with
the unreasoning passion of youth, that the dead gave her more comfort
than the living. Lois had scarcely dared to speak to her since that talk
in their sitting-room, and Dr. Howe's silence was like a pall over the
whole house. So she had come here to be alone, and try to fancy what her
husband and her uncle had said to each other, for Dr. Howe had refused to
enter into the details of his visit.
His interview with her husband had only resulted in a greater bitterness
on the part of the rector. He had waited for John Ward's answer to his
letter, and its clear statement of the preacher's position, and its
assertion that his convictions were unchangeable, gave him no hope that
anything could be accomplished without a personal interview. Discussion
with a man who actually believed that this cruel and outrageous plan of
his, was appointed by God as a means to save his wife's soul, was absurd
and undignified, but it had to be. The rector sighed impatiently as he
handed her husband's letter to Helen.
"He is lost to all sense of propriety; apparently he has no thought of
what he owes you. Well, I shall go to Lockhaven to-morrow."
"It is all for me!" Helen said. "Oh, uncle Archie, if you would just
understand that!"
Dr. Howe gave an explosive groan, but he only said, "Tell Lois to pack my
bag. I'll take the early train. Oh, Helen, why can't you be like other
women? Why do you have to think about beliefs? Your mother never doubted
things; why do you? Isn't it enough that older and wiser people than you
do not question the faith?"
At the last moment he begged her to accompany him. "Together, we can
bring the man to his senses," he pleaded, and he secretly thought that
not even the hardness and heartlessness of John Ward could withstand the
sorrow in her face. But she refused to consider it.
"Have you no message for him?" he asked.
"No," she answered.
"Sha'n't I tell him how you--miss him, Helen?"
A light flashed across her face, but she said simply, "John knows," and
her uncle had to be content with that.
Dr. Howe grew more intolerant with each mile of his journey. Every
incident touched him with a personal annoyance at the man he was going to
see. The rattling, dingy cars on the branch railroad afflicted him with
an irritated sense of being modern; the activity about the shabby station
jarred upon his remembrance of Ashurst's mellow quiet; the faces of the
men in the lumber-yards, full of aggressive good-nature, offended his
ideas of dignity and reserve. A year ago, Dr. Howe would have thought all
this very entertaining, and simple, and natural. Now, that a man who
lived in such a place, among such people, should have it in his power to
place the Howes in a conspicuous and painful position was unbearable!
By the time he reached the parsonage, to which an officious young person
of whom he had inquired his way conducted him, he had attained a pitch of
angry excitement which drove all theological arguments out of his mind.
Alfaretta greeted him with a blank stare, and then a sudden brightening
of her face as he gave his name.
"You're her uncle!" she cried. "How is she? and when is she comin' back?
She ain't sick?"--this with quick alarm, for Dr. Howe had not answered
her questions.
"No, no, my good woman," he said impatiently, "certainly not. Where is
your master?"
"The preacher's not home," the girl answered coldly. She was not used to
being called "my good woman," if she did live out. "You can wait, if you
want to;" but there, her anxiety getting the better of her resentment,
she added, "Is she comin' back soon?"
"I'll wait," said Dr. Howe briefly, walking past her into John Ward's
study.
"Insufferable people!" he muttered. He looked about him as he entered the
room, and the poverty of the bookshelves did not escape his keen eyes,
nor the open volume of Jonathan Edwards on the writing-table. There was
a vase beside it, which held one dried and withered rose; but it is
doubtful if the pathos of the flower which was to await Helen's return
would have softened him, even if he could have known it. He stopped and
glanced at the book, and then began to read it, holding it close to his
eyes, while, with his other hand behind him, he grasped his hat and
stick.
He read the frequently quoted passages from Edwards, that God holds man
over hell as a man might hold a spider or some loathsome insect over the
fire, with the satisfaction one feels in detecting a proof of the vicious
nature of an enemy. "Ward is naturally cruel," he said to himself. "I've
always thought so. That speech of his about slavery showed it."
He put down the book with an emphasis which argued ill for his opinion of
a man who could study such words, and began to pace up and down the room
like some caged animal, glancing once with a smothered exclamation at the
old leather-covered volume, which had fallen upon the floor; he even gave
it a furtive kick, as he passed.
He was so occupied with his own thoughts, he did not see John Ward come
up the garden path and enter the parsonage, and when, a moment
afterwards, the preacher came into the room, Dr. Howe started at the
change in him. These weeks of spiritual conflict had left their mark upon
him. His eyes had a strained look which was almost terror, and his firm,
gentle lips were set in a line of silent and patient pain. Yet a certain
brightness rested upon his face, which for a moment hid its pallor.
Through fear, and darkness, and grief, through an extraordinary
misconception and strange blindness of the soul, John Ward had come, in
his complete abnegation of himself, close to God. Since that June night,
when he met the temptation which love for his wife held out to him, he
had clung with all the passion of his life to his love for God. The whole
night, upon his knees, he besought God's mercy for Helen, and fought the
wild desire of flight the longing to take her and go away, where her
unbelief could not injure any one else, and devote his life to leading
her to light; go away from his people, whom God had committed to him, and
whom he had betrayed, leave them, stained with the sin he had permitted
to grow unchecked among them, and give his very soul to Helen, to save
her. But the temptation was conquered. When the faint, crystal brightness
of the dawn looked into his study, it saw him still kneeling, his face
hidden in his arms, but silent and at peace. God had granted his prayer,
he said to himself. He had shown him the way to save Helen. At first he
had shrunk from it, appalled, crying out, "This is death, I cannot, I
cannot!" But when, a little later, he went out into the growing glory of
the day, and, standing bareheaded, lifted his face to heaven, he said,
"I love her enough, thank God,--thank God." A holy and awful joy shone in
his eyes. "God will do it," he said, with simple conviction. "He will
save her, and my love shall be the human instrument."
After that had come the days when John had written those imploring
letters to his wife, the last of which she had answered with such entire
decision, saying that there was no possible hope that she could ever
believe in what she called a "monstrous doctrine," and adding sorrowfully
that it was hard even to believe in God,--a personal God, and she could
be content to let doctrines go, if only that light upon the darkness of
the world could be left her.
Then he had sent his last letter. He had written it upon his knees, his
eyes stung with terrible tears; but his hand did not falter; the letter
was sent. Then he waited for the manifestation of God in Helen's soul:
he distrusted himself and his own strength, but he never doubted God;
he never questioned that this plan for converting his wife was a direct
answer to his prayers.
Now, when he saw Dr. Howe, he had a moment of breathless hope that her
uncle had come to tell him that Helen had found the truth. But almost
before the unreasonableness of his idea struck him, he knew from Dr.
Howe's face that the time was not yet.
"I am glad to see you," he said, a little hurriedly; the thin hand he
extended was not quite steady.
The rector's forehead was gathered into a heavy frown. "See here," he
answered, planting his feet wide apart, and still holding his hat and
stick behind him, "I cannot give you my hand while you are ignorant of
the spirit in which I come."
"You come for Helen's sake," John replied.
"Yes, sir, I do come for Helen's sake," returned Dr. Howe, "but it is
because of your conduct, because of the heartless way in which you have
treated my niece. You cannot expect me to have a friendly feeling for the
man who is cruel to her." For the moment he forgot that this was to be a
theological dispute. "Now, sir, what explanation have you to give of this
outrageous affair?"
"Helen's soul shall be saved," John said, his voice growing firmer, but
losing none of its gentleness.
Dr. Howe made an impatient gesture. "Helen's soul!" he cried. "Is it
possible that a sane man can seriously excuse his conduct on such a
ground? Why, it is incredible! How do you suppose the world will regard
your action?"
"What have you or I to do with the world?" the other answered.
"We live in it," said Dr. Howe, "and if we are wise men we will not, for
a mad whim, violate its standards of propriety. When a man turns his wife
out of his house, he must consider what meaning is attached to such an
action by the world. You blast Helen's life, sir, and her family is
necessarily involved in the same disgrace."
John looked at him with clear, direct eyes. "I save Helen's soul, and her
family will rejoice with me when that day comes."
"Her family," the other replied contemptuously, "are not troubled about
Helen's soul; they are quite satisfied with her spiritual condition."
"Do they know what it is?" John asked.
"Certainly," answered the rector, "of course. But it isn't of the
slightest consequence, anyhow. The main thing is to cover up this
unfortunate affair at once. If Helen comes back right away, I think
no one need know what has happened."
"But there is nothing to cover up," John said simply; "there is no shame
that Helen should accept God's way of leading her to himself."
"Lord!" exclaimed Dr. Howe, and then stopped. This would never do; if
Ward became angry, he would only grow more obstinate.
"If you are so troubled about her unbelief," the rector said, feeling
that he was very wily, "I should think you would see the need of daily
influence. You could accomplish more if she were with you. The constant
guidance of a clergyman would be of the utmost value. I suppose you think
she is with me, but I doubt"--his lip curled a little--"if I can give her
quite the instruction you desire."
"Oh, I had not hoped for that," John answered. "But her surroundings
will not influence Helen now. Impelled by my grief, she must search for
truth."
Dr. Howe was too much excited to notice the reproof in John's words.
"Well, it will teach her to think; it will push her into positive
unbelief. Agnosticism!--that's what this 'search for truth' ends in
nowadays! Come, now, be reasonable, Ward; for Heaven's sake, don't be
a--a--don't be so unwise. I advise this really in your own interests.
Why, my dear fellow, you'll convert her in half the time if she is with
you. What? And don't you see that your present attitude will only drive
her further away? You are really going against your own interests."
"Do not play the part of the Tempter," John said gently; "it ill becomes
Christ's minister to do that. Would you have me pray for guidance, and
then refuse to follow it when it comes? God will give me the strength and
courage to make her suffer that she may be saved."
Dr. Howe stared at him for a moment. Then he said, "I--I do not need you
to teach me my duty as Christ's minister, sir; it would be more fitting
that you should concern yourself with your duty as a husband." The vein
in his forehead was swollen with wrath. "The way in which you pride
yourself upon devising the most exquisite pain for your wife is
inhuman,--it is devilish! And you drag her family into the scandal of
it, too."
John was silent.
Again Dr. Howe realized that he must control himself; if he got into a
passion, there would be an end of bringing about a reconciliation.
"You made me forget myself," he said. "I didn't mean to speak of my own
feelings. It is Helen I want to talk about." Perhaps some flash of memory
brought her face before his eyes. "Sit down," he added brusquely,--"you
look tired;" and indeed the pallor of John's face was deadly.
The rector, in his impatience, sat on the edge of his chair, one plump
fist resting on the table, and the other hand clenched on the head of
his cane. His arguments and entreaties were equally divided, but he
resolutely checked the denunciations which trembled upon his lips. John
answered him almost tenderly; his own grief was not so absorbing that
he could be indifferent to the danger of a man who set the opinion of the
world before the solemn obligations of his profession. Carefully, and
fully, and very quietly, he explained his position in regard to his
parish; but when Dr. Howe urged that Helen might observe all proper
forms, and yet keep silence on what was, after all, a most immaterial
difference, John roused to sudden passion. Here was an old temptation.
"God forbid!" he said. "Observe forms, and let her hope of spiritual life
die? No, no,--not that. Form without soul is dead. You must have seen
that too often."
"Well, I'll tell you what to do," said the rector, in his eagerness
pulling his chair closer to John's, and resting his hand almost
confidentially upon his knee: "if you fear her influence in your
parish,--and of course I understand that,--why, give her a letter
to another church."
John half smiled, but did not answer. The room had grown dark as they
talked, and now Alfaretta brought a lamp, looking curiously at the
rector, as she passed him. "Supper's ready, Mr. Ward," she said.
"Yes," John said. "Dr. Howe, I hope"--
But the rector plunged again into argument. Once he stopped, and said,
"So, surely, she can return?"
"It is impossible," John answered quietly.
And again, "You will let me send her back?"
And he said, "No."
At last, wearied and baffled, Dr. Howe rose. He leaned heavily forward
on the table, his open palm resting on the volume of sermons, which
Alfaretta had lifted from the floor, and he looked steadily at John.
"Then, sir," he said slowly, "I am to understand, for my niece, that this
monstrous decision of yours is fixed and unchangeable? We cannot hope
that her love, or her youth, or your duty, or the miserable scandal of
the affair, will ever move your cruel determination?"
John rose, too. The interview had been a terrible strain. His courage
was unshaken, but his strength was leaving him; a pathetic desire for
sympathy and understanding seized him. "I love her too much to change.
Don't you understand? But I cling to more than human strength, when I
say, I will not change."
"Then, by Heaven," cried the rector, "neither shall she! With my consent
she shall never return to a man who reads such books as those," and he
pointed to the row of Edwards,--"a man who denies good in anything
outside his own miserable conception of religion; the very existence of
whose faith is a denunciation and execration of every one who does not
agree with him. You are firm, sir? So is she! I bid you good-day."
He turned to the door, breathing hard through his shut teeth. John Ward
followed him, and laid his hand upon his arm. "Do not go," he said;
"there is much I would like to say; and you will spend the night here
with me? I beg that you will not go."
"The roof which refuses to shelter my niece," answered Dr. Howe, his
voice shaking with anger, "shall not be over my head!"
"Then," said John slowly and gently, "you must listen now to what I have
to say."
"Must!" cried the rector.
"Yes, for it is your duty to listen, as it is mine to speak. I dare not
hear a servant of God set the opinion of the world above a conception
of duty--no matter how strained and unnatural the duty may appear to
him--and keep silence. I cannot listen when you urge Helen's temporal
happiness, and refuse to consider her eternal welfare, and not tell you
you are wrong. You evade the truth; you seek ease in Zion. I charge you,
by the sacred name of Him whose minister you are, that you examine your
own soul."
Dr. Howe looked at him, his face crimson with anger. "Sir," he stammered,
flinging the detaining hand from his arm,--"sir!" And then, for the first
time since Archibald Howe took orders, an oath burst from his lips; he
struck his stick madly against the table, and rushed from the room.
Alfaretta was lying in wait for him at the garden gate, a large and
rustic bunch of flowers in her hand, which she hoped he would carry to
Helen.
"How's Mrs. Ward?" she said, trying to detain him. "When will she be
home?"
"Get out of my way, girl!" he cried, and, slamming the gate behind him,
he strode down the street.