The story of the altercation between the young minister and a part of
his congregation was well bruited about the town, and all united in
placing the fault heavily on the young man's shoulders. As for him, he
did not care. He was wild with the enjoyment of his new-found freedom.
Only now and again, as he sat at the table the morning after, and looked
into the sad faces of Eliphalet and his guardian, did he feel any sorrow
at the turn matters had taken.
In regard to Elizabeth, he felt only relief. It was as if a half-defined
idea in his mind had been suddenly realised. For some time he had
believed her unable either to understand him or to sympathise with his
motives. He had begun to doubt the depth of his own feeling for her.
Then had come her treatment of him last Sunday, and somehow, while he
knew it was at her father's behest, he could not help despising her
weakness.
He had spent much of the night before in packing his few effects, and
all was now ready for his departure as they sat at breakfast. Mrs.
Hodges was unusually silent, and her haggard face and swollen eyes told
how she had passed the night. All in a single hour she had seen the work
of the best part of her life made as naught, and she was bowed with
grief and defeat. Frederick Brent's career had really been her dream.
She had scarcely admitted, even to herself, how deeply his success
affected her own happiness. She cared for him in much the same way that
a sculptor loves his statue. Her attitude was that of one who says,
"Look upon this work; is it not fair? I made it myself." It was as much
her pride as it was her love that was hurt, because her love had been
created by her pride. She had been prepared to say, exultingly, "Look
where he came from, and look where he is;" and now his defection
deprived her for ever of that sweet privilege. People had questioned her
ability to train up a boy rightly, and she had wished to refute their
imputations, by making that boy the wonder of the community and their
spiritual leader; and just as she had deemed her work safely done, lo,
it had come toppling about her ears. Even if the fall had come sooner,
she would have felt it less. It was the more terrible because so
unexpected, for she had laid aside all her fears and misgivings and felt
secure in her achievement.
"You ain't a-eatin' nothin', Hester," said her husband, anxiously. "I
hope you ain't a-feelin' bad this mornin'." He had heard her sobbing all
night long, and the strength and endurance of her grief frightened him
and made him uneasy, for she had always been so stoical. "Had n't you
better try an' eat one o' them buckwheat cakes? Put lots o' butter an'
molasses on it; they 're mighty good."
"Ef they 're so good, why don't you eat yoreself? You been foolin' with
a half a one for the last ten minutes." Indeed, the old man's food did
seem to stick in his throat, and once in a while a mist would come up
before his eyes. He too had had his dreams, and one of them was of many
a happy evening spent with his beloved boy, who should be near him, a
joy and comfort in the evening of his life; and now he was going away.
The old man took a deep gulp at his coffee to hide his emotion. It
burned his mouth and gave reason for the moisture in his eye when he
looked up at Fred.
"What train air you goin' to take, Fred?" he asked.
"I think I 'll catch that eight-fifty flier. It 's the best I can get,
you know, and vestibuled through, too."
"You have jest finally made up yore mind to go, have you?"
"Nothing could turn me from it now, Uncle 'Liph."
"It seems like a shame. You 'ain't got nothin' to do down in
Cincinnaty."
"I 'll find something before long. I am going to spend the first few
days just in getting used to being free." The next moment he was sorry
that he had said it, for he saw his guardian's eyes fill.
"I am sorry, Frederick," she said, with some return to her old asperity,
"I am sorry that I 've made your life so hard that you think that you
have been a slave. I am sorry that my home has been so onpleasant that
you 're so powerful glad to git away from it, even to go into a strange
city full of wickedness an' sin."
"I did n't mean it that way, Aunt Hester. You 've been as good as you
could be to me. You have done your duty by me, if any one ever could."
"Well, I am mighty glad you realise that, so 's ef you go away an' fall
into sinful ways you can't lay none of it to my bringin'-up."
"I feel somehow as if I would like to have a go with sin some time, to
see what it is like."
"Well, I lay you 'll be satisfied before you 've been in Cincinnaty
long, for ef there ever was livin' hells on airth, it 's them big
cities."
"Oh, I have got faith to believe that Fred ain't a-goin' to do nothin'
wrong," said Eliphalet.
"Nobody don't know what nobody 's a-goin' to do under temptation sich as
is layin' in wait fur young men in the city, but I 'm shore I 've done
my best to train you right, even ef I have made some mistakes in my poor
weak way an' manner."
"If I do fall into sinful ways, Aunt Hester, I shall never blame you or
your training for it."
"But you ain't a-goin' to do it, Fred; you ain't a-goin' to fall into no
evil ways."
"I don't know, Uncle 'Liph. I never felt my weakness more than I do
now."
"Then that very feelin' will be yore stren'th, my boy. Keep on feelin'
that way."
"It 'll not be a stren'th in Cincinnaty, not by no means. There is too
many snares an' pitfalls there to entrap the weak," Mrs. Hodges
insisted.
It is one of the defects of the provincial mind that it can never see
any good in a great city. It concludes that, as many people are wicked,
where large numbers of human beings are gathered together there must be
a much greater amount of evil than in a smaller place. It overlooks the
equally obvious reasoning that, as some people are good, in the larger
mass there must be also a larger amount of goodness. It seems a source
of complacent satisfaction to many to sit in contemplation of the fact
of the extreme wickedness of the world. They are like children who
delight in a "bluggy" story,--who gloat over murder and rapine.
Brent, however, was in no wise daunted by the picture of evil which his
guardian painted for him, and as soon as breakfast was over he got his
things in hand ready to start. Buoyant as he was with his new freedom,
this was a hard moment for him. Despite the severity of his youthful
treatment in Dexter, the place held all the tender recollections he had,
and the room where he stood was the scene of some memories that now
flooded his mind and choked his utterance when he strove to say
good-bye. He had thought that he should do it with such a fine grace. He
would prove such a strong man. But he found his eyes suffused with
tears, as he held his old guardian's hand, for, in spite of all, she had
done the best for him that she knew, and she had taken a hard,
uncompromising pride in him.
"I hope you 'll git along all right, Frederick," she faltered forth
tearfully. "Keep out of bad company, an' let us hear from you whenever
you can. The Lord knows I 've tried to do my dooty by you."
Poor Eliphalet tried to say something as he shook the young man's hand,
but he broke down and wept like a child. The boy could not realise what
a deal of sunshine he was taking out of the old man's life.
"I 'll write to you as soon as I am settled," he told them, and with a
husky farewell hurried away from the painful scene. At the gate the old
couple stood and watched him go swinging down the street towards the
station. Then they went into the house, and sat long in silence in the
room he had so lately left. The breakfast-table, with all that was on
it, was left standing unnoticed and neglected, a thing unprecedented in
Mrs. Hodges' orderly household.
Finally her husband broke the silence. "It 'pears as if we had jest
buried some one and come home from the funeral."
"An' that 's jest what we have done, ef we only knowed it, 'Liphalet. We
've buried the last of the Fred Brent we knowed an' raised. Even ef we
ever see him ag'in, he 'll never be the same to us. He 'll have new
friends to think of an' new notions in his head."
"Don't say that, Hester; don't say that. I can't stand it. He is never
goin' to furgit you an' me, an' it hurts me to hear you talk like that."
"It don't soun' none too pleasant fur me, 'Liphalet, but I 've learned
to face the truth, an' that 's the truth ef it ever was told."
"Well, mebbe it 's fur the best, then. It 'll draw us closer together
and make us more to each other as we journey down to the end. It 's our
evenin', Hester, an' we must expect some chilly winds 'long towards
night, but I guess He knows best." He reached over and took his wife's
hand tenderly in his, and so they sat on sadly, but gathering peace in
the silence and the sympathy, until far into the morning.
Meanwhile the eight-fifty "flier" was speeding through the beautiful
Ohio Valley, bearing the young minister away from the town of his birth.
Out of sight of the grief of his friends, he had regained all his usual
stolid self-possession, though his mind often went back to the little
cottage at Dexter where the two old people sat, and he may be forgiven
if his memory lingered longer over the image of the man than of the
woman. He remembered with a thrill at his heart what Eliphalet Hodges
had been to him in the dark days of his youth, and he confessed to
himself with a half shame that his greatest regret was in leaving him.
The feeling with which he had bidden his guardian good-bye was one not
of regret at his own loss, but of pity for her distress. To Elizabeth
his mind only turned for a moment to dismiss her with a mild contempt.
Something hard that had always been in his nature seemed to have
suddenly manifested itself.
"It is so much better this way," he said, "for if the awakening had come
later we should have been miserable together." And then his thoughts
went forward to the new scenes towards which he was speeding.
He had never been to Cincinnati. Indeed, except on picnic days, he had
scarcely ever been outside of Dexter. But Cincinnati was the great city
of his State, the one towards which adventurous youth turned its steps
when real life was to be begun. He dreaded and yet longed to be there,
and his heart was in a turmoil of conflicting emotion as he watched the
landscape flit by.
It was a clear August day. Nature was trembling and fainting in the
ecstasies of sensuous heat. Beside the railway the trenches which in
spring were gurgling brooks were now dry and brown, and the reeds which
had bent forward to kiss the water now leaned over from very weakness,
dusty and sickly. The fields were ripening to the harvest. There was in
the air the smell of fresh-cut hay. The corn-stalks stood like a host
armed with brazen swords to resist the onslaught of that other force
whose weapon was the corn-knife. Farther on, between the trees, the much
depleted river sparkled in the sun and wound its way, now near, now away
from the road, a glittering dragon in an enchanted wood.
Such scenes as these occupied the young man's mind, until, amid the
shouts of brake-men, the vociferous solicitations of the baggage-man,
and a general air of bustle and preparation, the train thundered into
the Grand Central Station. Something seized Brent's heart like a great
compressing hand. He was frightened for an instant, and then he was
whirled out with the rest of the crowd, up the platform, through the
thronged waiting-room, into the street.
Then the cries of the eager men outside of "Cab, sir? cab, sir?" "Let me
take your baggage," and "Which way, sir?" bewildered him. He did the
thing which every provincial does: he went to a policeman and inquired
of him where he might find a respectable boarding-house. The policeman
did not know, but informed him that there were plenty of hotels farther
up. With something like disgust, Brent wondered if all the hotels were
like those he saw at the station, where the guests had to go through
the bar-room to reach their chambers. He shuddered at it; so strong is
the influence of habit. But he did not wish to go to a hotel: so,
carrying his two valises, he trudged on, though the hot sun of the
mid-afternoon beat mercilessly down upon him. He kept looking into the
faces of people who passed him, in the hope that he might see in one
encouragement to ask for the information he so much wanted; but one and
all they hurried by without even so much as a glance at the dusty
traveller. Had one of them looked at him, he would merely have said,
mentally, "Some country bumpkin come in to see the sights of town and be
buncoed."
There is no loneliness like the loneliness of the unknown man in a
crowd. A feeling of desolation took hold upon Brent, so he turned down a
side-street in order to be more out of the main line of business. It was
a fairly respectable quarter; children were playing about the pavements
and in the gutters, while others with pails and pitchers were going to
and from the corner saloon, where their vessels were filled with foaming
beer. Brent wondered at the cruelty of parents who thus put their
children in the way of temptation, and looked to see if the little ones
were not bowed with shame; but they all strode stolidly on, with what he
deemed an unaccountable indifference to their own degradation. He passed
one place where the people were drinking in the front yard, and saw a
mother holding a glass of beer to her little one's lips. He could now
understand the attitude of the children, but the fact, nevertheless,
surprised and sickened him.
Finally, the sign "Boarding Here" caught his eye. He went into the yard
and knocked at the door. A plump German girl opened it, and, to his
question as to accommodation, replied that she would see her mistress.
He was ushered into a little parlour that boasted some shabby attempts
at finery, and was soon joined by a woman whom he took to be the "lady
of the house."
Yes, Mrs. Jones took boarders. Would he want room and board? Terms five
dollars per week. Had he work in the city? No? Well, from gentlemen who
were out of work she always had her money in advance. But would he see
his room first?
Wondering much at Mrs. Jones's strange business arrangement, Brent
allowed her to conduct him to a room on the second floor, which looked
out on the noisy street. It was not a palatial place by any means, but
was not uncomfortable save for the heat, which might be expected
anywhere on such a day. He was tired and wanted rest, so he engaged the
place and paid the woman then and there.
"You just come off the train, I see. Will you have luncheon at once,
Mr.--?"
"Brent," said he. "Yes, I will have some luncheon, if you please."
"Do you take beer with your luncheon?"
"No-o," he said, hesitating; and yet why should he not take beer?
Everybody else did, even the children. Then he blushed as he thought of
what his aunt Hester would think of his even hesitating over the
question. She would have shot out a "no" as if it were an insult to be
asked. So without beer he ate his luncheon and lay down to rest for the
afternoon. When one has travelled little, even a short journey is
fatiguing.
In the evening Brent met some of the other boarders at supper; there
were not many. They were principally clerks in shops or
under-bookkeepers. One genial young fellow struck up a conversation with
Fred, and became quite friendly during the evening.
"I guess you will go out to the 'Zoo' to-morrow, won't you? That is
about the first place that visitors usually strike for when they come
here."
"I thought of getting a general idea of the city first, so that I could
go round better before going farther out."
"Oh, you won't have any trouble in getting around. Just ask folks, and
they will direct you anywhere."
"But everybody seems to be in a hurry; and by the time I open my mouth
to ask them, they have passed me."
The young clerk, Mr. Perkins by name, thought this was a great joke and
laughed long and loudly at it.
"I wish to gracious I could go around with you. I have been so busy ever
since I have been here that I have never seen any of the show sights
myself. But I tell you what I will do: I can steer you around some on
Thursday night. That is my night off, and then I will show you some
sights that are sights." The young man chuckled as he got his hat and
prepared to return to the shop. Brent thanked him in a way that sounded
heavy and stilted even to his own ears after the other's light
pleasantry.
"And another thing," said Perkins, "we will go to see the baseball game
on Sunday, Clevelands and the Reds,--great game, you know." It was well
that Mr. Perkins was half-way out of the door before he finished his
sentence, for there was no telling what effect upon him the flush which
mounted to Brent's face and the horror in his eyes would have had.
Go to a baseball game on Sunday! What would his people think of such a
thing? How would he himself feel there,--he, notwithstanding his
renunciation of office, a minister of the gospel? He hastened to his
room, where he could be alone and think. The city indeed was full of
temptations to the young! And yet he knew he would be ashamed to tell
his convictions to Perkins, or to explain his horror at the proposition.
Again there came to him, as there had come many times before, the
realisation that he was out of accord with his fellows. He was not in
step with the procession. He had been warped away from the parallel of
every-day, ordinary humanity. In order to still the tumult in his
breast, he took his hat and wandered out upon the street. He wanted to
see people, to come into contact with them and so rub off some of the
strangeness in which their characters appeared to him.
The streets were all alight and alive with bustle. Here a fakir with
loud voice and market-place eloquence was vending his shoddy wares;
there a drunkard reeled or was kicked from the door of a saloon, whose
noiselessly swinging portals closed for an instant only to be reopened
to admit another victim, who ere long would be treated likewise. A
quartet of young negroes were singing on the pavement in front of a
house as he passed and catching the few pennies and nickels that were
flung to them from the door. A young girl smiled and beckoned to him
from a window, and another who passed laughed saucily up into his face
and cried, "Ah, there!" Everywhere was the inevitable pail flashing to
and fro. Sickened, disgusted, thrown back upon himself, Brent turned his
steps homeward again. Was this the humanity he wanted to know? Was this
the evil which he wanted to have a go with? Was Aunt Hester, after all,
in the right, and was her way the best? His heart was torn by a
multitude of conflicting emotions. He had wondered, in one of his
rebellious moods, if, when he was perfectly untrammelled, he would ever
pray; but on this night of nights, before he went wearily to bed, he
remained long upon his knees.