"Well, I never happened to want to take too much," Dr. Lavendar said,
gently; "if I had, it would have been hard, I'm sure."
"Well, you bet," Algy told him, knowingly. Then they talked the
business over, and Dr. Lavendar clapped Algy on the shoulder and said
he believed he'd have that house and shop yet. "Rosebloom may be a
gold-mine," said Dr. Lavendar. Then he gave Algy some advice about the
window display, and suggested a little gas-jet on the counter where
gentlemen might light their cigars; and he told Algy what brand he
smoked himself, and recommended it, in spite of its price. Algy
smacked his thigh at that, and said Dr. Lavendar had the making of a
smart business man in him. Indeed, Algy felt so cheered that he opened
his show-case and displayed a box of his new cosmetic.
"Look here, doctor," he said, earnestly; "I'll give you a box.
Yes--yes! I will. I'd just as lief as not. You maybe wouldn't want
to use it yourself; gentlemen don't, often. But give it to one of your
lady friends. Do, now, doctor. It don't cost me much of anything--and
I'm sure you've been kind to me."
And Dr. Lavendar accepted the lip-salve, and thanked Algy warmly; then
he said that the picture on the lid of the tight-waisted lady was very
striking.
"That's so!" cried Algy. "She's a beauty. She makes me think of Mary."
Algernon had presented Dr. Lavendar with a cigar, and the old minister
was smoking it in great comfort, his feet on the base of a rusty,
melon-shaped iron stove; Algy was leaning back against the counter, his
elbows on the show-case behind him. "Dr. Lavendar," he said, looking
at the toe of his boot, "I--got something on my mind."
"Well, off with it, quick as you can."
"I've been thinking about the Day of Judgment."
"Ho!" said Dr. Lavendar.
"Well, sir, I get to thinking: if everybody's sins are to be read out
loud before all the world--standing up, rows and rows and rows of 'em.
Can't see the end of 'em--so many. I kind a' hate to think that Mary
might hear--things about me."
"Well, Keen," said Dr. Lavendar, slowly, "I don't believe it will be
that way." He hesitated a little. After all, it is a risk to take
away even a false belief, unless you can put a true one in its place.
Algy stopped looking at the toe of his boot. "_What!_" said he.
"Now just look at it," said Dr. Lavendar. "Who would be the better for
that kind of publicity? Good people wouldn't like it; it would pain
them. You say yourself that Mary wouldn't like to hear that you did
wrong three times."
"No; she wouldn't," Algernon said.
"Wicked people might enjoy it," Dr. Lavendar ruminated, "but--"
--"but God don't cater to the wicked?" Algy finished, quickly.
"That's just it," said Dr. Lavendar. "He doesn't. But I tell you what
it is, Algy, it is painful enough to just have your Saviour tell you
your sins when you're sitting all alone--or, maybe, lying awake in the
dark; that's a dreadful time to hear them. It's worse than having rows
of people listening."
Algernon nodded. "Maybe you're right," he said, sighing.
The birth of a soul is a painful process. But when he went away Dr.
Lavendar's eyes were full of hope.
And he grew more hopeful when, as the next year came round and Algernon
again asked for extension, he was able to carry back, not only the note
and the interest to John Gordon, but a payment of $24. What that $24
meant of self-denial and perseverance Dr. Lavendar knew almost as well
as Algy himself.
"I don't know whether you meant it, John," he said, as the old man took
the note and locked it up in the japanned box--"I don't know that it
was your intention, but I believe the responsibility of debt is going
to make a man of Mary's husband."
"Debt doesn't generally work that way," Mr. Gordon said.
"No; it doesn't. But He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, once in
a while, Johnny."
"It's nothing to me. I'm done with him."
"'If the court knows itself, which it think it do,'" said Dr. Lavendar,
chuckling, "you're just beginning with him."
"I'd rather have him decent, if that's what you mean. But I despise
him."
"I don't," said Dr. Lavendar. "I tell you, John, we're poor, limited
critters, you and I. We felt that no good could possibly come out of
Nazareth. I must confess that when I got you to send him that money I
was thinking more of the benefit to you than any effect it might have
on him. I thought he didn't amount to two cents. To my shame I say
it. But I was blind as a bat; the Lord had sent him a great
experience--_Mary's death_. Well, it was like a clap of thunder on a
dark night; the lightning showed up a whole landscape I didn't know.
There was honesty; and there was perseverance; and there was love, mind
you, most of all. Love! I tell you, Johnny, only the Lord knows what
is lying in the darkness of human nature. In fact," said Dr. Lavendar,
reflectively, "as I get older there is nothing more constantly
astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad;--unless it is the
badness of the Good. But that's not so pleasant. No, sir; I don't
despise Mr. Keen."
Nor did he despise Algy when the note had to be extended still again,
although again Algy was ready not only with the interest, but with
$37.50 of the principal.