The opening of the second semester of the college year found Instructor
Brenton busy with his classes.
Conservative old Saint Peter's had taken the upheaval badly, not so
much the theoretic questions at stake regarding the soundness of their
rector's doctrine, as the loss of their rector himself. The older
members of the congregation loved Brenton as a son, the younger ones as
something a little dearer than a brother. One and all, they missed his
pastoral visitations, his incisive sermons on the righteousness of
honest living; above all else, they missed his voice. If they could
have kept these personal marks of the man himself, their rector might
have been welcome to believe anything he chose. He was their shepherd
and their friend. His curate was there to supply theology enough to
answer for them both.
However, Brenton, once his resignation was handed in, turned a deaf ear
alike to argument and coaxing. The reason for his resignation he had
insisted on setting forth downrightly: he was able no longer to affirm
absolute belief in some of the main tenets of his church. The entire
community loved Brenton. Now it gave proof of that love in a most loyal
fashion. It neither gossiped, nor indulged in undue speculation; it
merely did its best to accept the given explanation in all simplicity,
and say as little about it as was possible. How well it lived up to its
efforts was another question.
Of course, one little circle of Brenton's intimates, the Keltridges and
the Opdykes and the Dennisons, talked of the matter freely among
themselves, discussing causes, watching for effects. They regretted the
necessity for change, doubted it, even. Granted the necessity, though,
they rejoiced that Brenton could be transplanted from one calling to
the other, without the need for their losing him from their midst. It
was Brenton the friend they cared for; not Brenton the preacher and
pastor of souls. Moreover, there was not one of them who, asked, would
have hesitated to affirm that now at last Scott Brenton was entering
upon his true calling. Indeed, had not Professor Opdyke the word of his
old colleague, Professor Mansfield, to that effect? Had not Professor
Mansfield, even, left his classroom, in the middle of the term, for the
sake of appearing before the trustees of the college, and giving his
vehement testimony to that same effect?
The college, that section of the college, at least, which dealt with
the chemical department, rejoiced greatly, when once Scott Brenton was
launched upon his lecture courses. Doctor Keltridge, trustee and
medical adviser, though, had a double cause for his rejoicing. Not only
did he believe that at last Brenton was the right peg in the proper
hole; but he was overjoyed at the possibility of what the change might
accomplish in the man himself. Brenton, on the morning that his child
had died, had lost something which he never would regain. In more
senses than one, his wife and he, henceforward, would be twain, not the
one flesh ordained by matrimony. In the hour of his supreme need,
Katharine had left him and had gone her scientific way. In that hour,
moreover, his little son, pledge of their closest union, had been taken
from him; and Brenton was only too well aware that now no second and
similar pledge would ever be. In the eyes of the world and of the
literal law, Katharine was still his wife. In the eye of the spirit,
she was holding herself as far aloof from him as if their marriage had
never taken place, so far aloof that, nowadays, Brenton scarcely felt
the friction of her presence.
For the first month and the second, this aloofness came upon Scott
Brenton's nerves, and drove him well-nigh mad. Night after night, he
tramped the floor, asking himself in vain if such a situation could
develop, without some fault upon his side. Day after day, he strove
most conscientiously to renew the old relations with his wife. He might
as well have tried to exhume his baby son and blow in the breath of
life between the folded lips. The one was no more dead than was the
other. Moreover, as he had been in no conscious sense the cause of
either tragedy, so in no sense could he be the conscious cure. The
forces culminating in his present trouble had been set in motion long,
long before the hour when Catie had poked her curly head in at the
gate. Critical, censorious and selfishly ambitious in her little
childhood, her womanhood had strengthened along these well-marked
lines, and the lines had led her infallibly into the net of the
shallowest, most smug religion that ever has set forth a plausible
excuse for total selfishness. Once she was landed in the net, the rest
was simple. She was in growing harmony with Universal Mind. Whatever
thing opposed her viewpoint was out of harmony, and therefore sinful
and laden with incipient disease, curable only so far as it yielded
allegiance to her scientific doctrine.
And that allegiance Brenton would not yield. In that one matter, he
stood firm, albeit he realized but too well that his firmness
jeopardized for ever his relations with his wife. After the funeral of
their little son, there had been two stormy scenes between them, and
then a silence more pregnant of disaster than any storm could ever be.
Katharine smiled, and carried her chin high in the air. Brenton's head
was bowed between his shoulders; he walked heavily, his eyes upon the
ground. Indeed, the two of them were equally lacking in elasticity.
Katharine's tension was too great to admit of any margin for spring.
Brenton's relaxation was too complete to leave any one aware that a
spring ever had existed.
As the weeks ran on into months, the spiritual separation between them
grew more definite. There was no friction, no clashing. They were too
remote from each other for that. They met at meals as usual; they dined
out together; occasionally they sat out a concert side by side. Apart
from that, however, they went their ways without discussion. Katharine
was flinging her entire enthusiasm, nowadays, into her religious life,
and into its interesting corollary, the beautification of her bodily
temple for the Universal Mind. She prinked and preened herself just as
industriously as she conned her morocco-bound books of devotion. She
went to church on Sundays with a zeal that balked at no combination of
storms and mileage. Between the services, she spent the greater part of
her time in the society of certain fellow scientists who lived not far
away, and she emerged from their society so filled with zeal as to make
small evangelistic forays into the borders of Saint Peter's Parish.
Olive Keltridge was one victim. Ramsdell was another. Ramsdell,
however, stated his own platform unmincingly.
"I beg your pardon for so speaking to a lady," he said crisply; "but I
was born in the Established Church, and I don't go for kicking it over
into a perfect slush of tommy-rot. Besides, my present job is to look
out for Mr. Hopdyke, not to go off my 'ead, arguing about religion."
And, with a salute more crushing than he was at all aware, Ramsdell
swung on his heel and went striding away down the street.
All this was bound to tell upon a man of Brenton's calibre, the more so
in that Brenton already was worn out with fighting his own personal
battles of the spirit. For the first few weeks of this evident, though
tacit, hostility, he suffered acutely, both from the hostility itself,
and from his constant self-examinations to discover whether some fault
of his had been the cause. In time, however, there came the inevitable
reaction towards a sensible steadiness. Even the spirit can become
callous in time, as Brenton was finding out, half to his own regret,
half to his infinite relief.
Moreover, outside interests were daily growing more insistent; of
necessity they crowded out a little of his personal and domestic worry.
There were innumerable conferences with Doctor Keltridge and Professor
Opdyke; there was one discussion with the assembled trustees of the
college; there was one hard hour of explanation before the assembled
wardens of the church. Last of all came the talk with his curate whom,
despite his bunny hood and his archaic theological tenets, Brenton had
grown to love. Up to the very hour of their talk, the callow little
curate had gained no inkling of what his rector had been passing
through. To his young mind, the experience was no less cruel to himself
than it had been to Brenton. He had supposed that the belief of every
man was cut out by a paper pattern outlined from directions in the
Pentateuch, and washed in with dainty coloured borders taken from the
Gospels and the Book of Revelation. It shocked him unspeakably to find
that any man had dared to tear up that pattern and draft a fresh one
for himself. However, as the talk went on, shock had yielded to an
intense pity, born of his love for his superior officer. Brenton was
mistaken, wofully mistaken; but the mistake had cost him dear. All the
more, he was deserving pity upon that account. The tears stood in the
little curate's honest eyes, as he gripped Brenton's hand at parting.
He could not understand his rector in the least; but he could be
perfectly aware that it was no small privilege to be admitted to the
confidence of so upright a man.
These preliminary duties done, Brenton lost no time in making public
the fact of his resignation. At the time, he was too busy with the
practical details of his transplanting to pay any great heed to the
storm of opposition which his resignation roused. Later on, it pleased
him, just as the enthusiasm of his college classes pleased him, after
it had ceased to be a fact and had turned into a memory. For the time
being, though, he had stopped all feeling. Instead, he must preach his
final sermons without flinching, must confine them so closely to the
matter of mere practical living as to leave no loophole for dogma to
creep in; he must make everything as easy as possible for his successor
who, at best, was bound to have a hard time of it in starting; above
all, he must help Katharine to choose exactly such a house as she
wished, and to furnish it exactly as her taste should dictate. And so
the pressure of outside interests fell on Scott Brenton's shoulders
until, perforce, they straightened up to bear the burden. And the
straightening was by no means wholly theoretical. It was an infinitely
saner, sounder Brenton who faced his classes on the first morning of
the new semester, than any one, watching him throughout the previous
year, would have ever dared to hope.
And Doctor Keltridge, who had watched him rather hopelessly, gave great
thanks accordingly.
"You've proved the wisdom of your change, Brenton," he remarked, one
day.
"How is that?"
"The whole look of you. You aren't the same man you were, five months
ago. Mentally and physically, you're sleeker."
Brenton laughed.
"Is that a sign of wisdom?"
The doctor met the question with composure.
"As a general thing, yes. The normal being is sleek by nature. It's
only when he cramps himself that he gets wrinkled. Cramps himself, I
say. Cramping from an outside source never has much effect upon him,
unless he chooses to have it. No; that's not Christian Science; it's
mere common sense. As a rule, the two things are incompatible. By the
way, I hear that your ex-curate has been tackling your wife."
"No!"
"A fact. The boy told me. She started out to tackle him, and he
clinched with her. I must say it was plucky of him, even if it didn't
appear to do much good."
Brenton's gray eyes clouded.
"The only question is: what is good," he said thoughtfully.
"No question about it," the doctor blustered. "The only chance the
idiot woman has--"
Brenton interrupted.
"She is my wife," he reminded the doctor.
"I don't care if she is your wife, twenty times over," Doctor Keltridge
said vehemently. "We both know the infernal thing that she has done."
"But, if she believed it was right--" Brenton was beginning faintly.
The doctor bore him down.
"Because she is a semi-maniac, she's not to be encouraged in her
destruction of the human race," he argued hotly. Then, as he saw the
tightening and the whitening of Brenton's lips, he forgot his argument
in swift contrition. "Damn it all, Brenton! I vowed I'd never mention
the thing to you again, as long as I lived, and here I am again, off on
the same old subject. I'm a garrulous old man; but----" his keen face
softened, puckered into a score of wrinkles; "but I loved that baby
boy. I brought him into the world, and I had spent no small amount of
time congratulating myself upon the fact that you'd got him, at any
rate; that you'd have him for a comforting little peg to hang your
spiritual hat on, when you came home from preaching the gospel to a
disgruntled and disgruntling world. Almost I think I felt his death
more than--"
"Not more than I." Brenton faced him steadily.
"Not in one sense. And yet, I did feel it more, because, from the
first, I saw how needless it would be."
But Brenton lifted up his hand.
"It's over now," he said concisely. "Why talk about it? Some memories
are best off, left to perish."
And, in all truth, this was one of them. Now and then, it would stir in
its grave, and lift up its ugly head for recognition; but, as a rule,
the two men had done their best to heap the dust of time and
forgetfulness upon its grave. And yet, certain scenes are so hideous
that one never quite forgets them. It had been ordained for Brenton
that the passing of his baby son should be followed by such a scene, by
a discovery so tragic as to make the painless baby death sink into
insignificance beside it.
It was the doctor himself who had made the discovery, made it just too
late to have it do much good to any one. The nurse and Brenton were
still bending above the frilly crib, smoothing out the muslin folds
around the child and straightening the blankets, when the doctor came
into the room, eager, his face alight with strength and purpose to do
his share in what he knew too well could be only a fight to the very
finish. The words of cheer died from his lips, though, as he caught
sight of Brenton's face.
"Not yet?" he asked, with an abruptness far more sympathetic than any
amount of tears.
"Yes. Just now."
"Impossible!" The single word was curt. Still more curt was the brief
question to the nurse, "You gave the stimulant, as I ordered?"
"Three times."
"What effect did it have?"
"None."
"Impossible!" the doctor said, yet once again. "It is what we always
use in such cases as this. There must be some mistake. Show me the
bottle."
The nurse turned scarlet at the curt command. Then quietly she rose and
fetched the bottle, now half empty.
"Let me take it." The doctor's face was now as scarlet as her own, the
veins upon his brow were swollen and hard as knotted cords; but his
hand was very steady, as he took the bottle, removed the cork, smelled,
tasted. "Who has had access to this bottle?" he thundered then, and his
voice boded little good to any meddler.
"Mr. Brenton and myself."
"Who else?"
"Nobody."
The veins about the temples began throbbing heavily. Brenton could see
the skin about them tighten to the pulse-beat. Between them, the keen
eyes gleamed like balls of polished metal surcharged with electricity.
"Think again, nurse," Doctor Keltridge said slowly. "And remember that
your professional reputation is at stake. That bottle has been emptied
and refilled with water. Where has that bottle been?"
"On the mantel."
"Who has been in the room?"
"Mr. Brenton, myself, and the baby."
"And Mrs. Brenton?" The doctor's eyes were fixed upon the nurse, as he
put the question. He did not see the sudden whitening of Brenton's
face; but his trained ear did make out the swift intake of Brenton's
breath.
"She came and went."
"When you were here?"
"Yes."
"And you were here, you or Mr. Brenton, all night long?"
"Yes."
"And all the morning?"
"Except when I was telephoning to you."
"Hm!" This time, as casually as he was able, the doctor glanced at
Brenton, and his glance caught Brenton stuffing a wadded handkerchief
into his pocket. Above his forehead, his hair was damp and sticky. "You
left the room, while you called me up? And, when you went away, the
bottle was on the mantel? You are sure?"
"I am sure."
"Where was it, when you came back?"
"In the same place. I know that, for I went straight to it. You had
just told me it would keep the child alive, until you came." Under the
rapid fire of questions, the nurse's voice began to show defiance.
The doctor recognized the defiance, and lifted up his head.
"Steady, nurse," he cautioned her. "Don't get on your nerves now; there
is too much at stake. Where were the others, while you were
telephoning?"
"Mr. Brenton had gone downstairs to get his breakfast. Mrs. Brenton was
dressing in her room."
"All the time?"
"I--I supposed so." The nurse turned to Brenton sharply. "You met her,
Mr. Brenton, when she started down the stairs?" she asked him. "I am
sure I heard you speaking to her, sure that I heard her answer."
Brenton wet his lips; then he passed his hand across his brow, palm
outward. Both nurse and doctor could see the heavy streak of moisture
gathered in the life-line.
"Forgive me, doctor," he said, after a minute. "I seem dazed by this
thing; it has been a long and anxious night, and I am more upset than I
had supposed. Mrs. Brenton? She has gone away to church; she felt that
now, if ever, she needed the help and the prayers of her own people."
But the doctor was not to be put off with mere evasions. He pressed his
question mercilessly, hating himself acutely, all the while.
"You saw her, as the nurse says, when she first came out of her room,
this morning?"
"Yes." Brenton's voice had lost its resonance and sounded curiously
listless, as he answered. "Yes, I saw her then, and urged her not to
go."
The doctor's eyes veiled themselves abruptly, and he turned away. The
nurse, watching, felt he was satisfied that no blunder had occurred
within the house. Brenton, though, knew differently. Watching the
doctor, he was well aware that, in the doctor's mind, there were no
more doubts as to the person who had made the fatal substitution than
as if, like Brenton's self, his keen old eyes had rested upon the
telltale drops clinging to Katharine's front breadths.
The doctor's eyes had veiled themselves; Brenton had turned away and
sunk down in a chair. An instant later, both the men had rallied to a
swift attention. Katharine, alert, smiling a little and stepping
lightly, carelessly, it seemed, was coming up the stairs.
Doctor Keltridge turned to the nurse.
"You must be very tired," he said, with a kindliness which yet held its
own note of command. "Go now and eat a good breakfast, and then lie
down. I shall be here, for the present." Then he faced back to
Katharine, who stood upon the threshold.
"You here, doctor?" she said jauntily, as she came in. "I'm sure it's
very good of you."
"Yes, Mrs. Brenton. I am here."
His accent took a little from the jauntiness of Katharine's bearing.
"Has anything happened?" she asked swiftly.
"Happened?" The doctor's voice was grim with unphrased reproach.
"How is my baby boy?" she asked again.
Her well-considered flutter of agitation angered the doctor utterly.
His reply came like a blow from a bludgeon.
"Dead."
"Doctor! My baby boy! When? How?" And Katharine, really startled now,
hurried across the floor to the corner where the frilly crib shielded
the quiet sleeper from her gaze.
Half-way across the floor, she was brought to an abrupt halt. The
doctor's hand was shut upon her arm in a clutch of iron; the doctor's
eyes were blazing down at her in a rage such as Brenton, watching, had
never before seen upon the face of human man.
"Stop!" he bade her curtly, yet in a voice too low to give the servants
below stairs any hint of the strife going on above. "Your baby boy is
sleeping in his Heavenly Father's arms. It is not for any one like you
to try to waken him; not for you, unrepenting, to look into his face."
"Unrepenting! Doctor!" Katharine tried to shrink away from the accusing
face and voice; but the iron hand held her firmly.
"Yes, unrepenting," the doctor repeated gravely and, as he spoke, he
loosed his hold upon her arm. "Mrs. Brenton, you asked me how the baby
died. There is your answer." And he pointed to the row of bottles on
the shelf.
Instantly she rallied. Neither, whether to her shame or credit be it
said, did she make any effort to deny his wordless charge.
"Well? Suppose I did?" she said, with sudden calmness. "It was my only
chance to save my child."
"Katharine--"
"Wait, Brenton." The doctor spoke as gently as if he had been talking
to a tired little child. "Please leave this thing to me; it may save
you something, later on." Then his voice hardened. "You admit it,
then?" he queried.
Without a glance at her husband, Katharine faced the doctor, her head
held high, her eyes and cheeks blazing with anger.
"I am proud to do so," she said, and her voice was hard as steel. "It
is my one chance to speak out in behalf of my faith."
"Your faith has murdered your child," the doctor told her harshly.
She answered him with equal harshness.
"The murder lies at your own door. Left alone, I would have saved him.
Your drugs have weakened him; your unreasonable doubts have killed him
utterly. Between the two of you, yourself and--him," and the little
pause was venomous with unspoken hatred; "you have killed my baby boy.
I did my best; I took the final chance. But I could not go to seek the
help of my own church, and leave you, unguarded, to do your harm in
your own way. I did the only thing left to me, when I emptied out your
bottle and filled it with water. We are told that no healing can be
accomplished, if drugs are being used at the same time."
"Who tells you?" the doctor queried stormily.