But I declined; and he went alone into the theatre.
Not long after, I received a certain wedding card, and, in consequence,
made a certain call. Susan was all blushes and smiles at sight of me; but I
was cool and circumspect.
"We are friends, are we not?" I said, "We once thought we were more than
that; but we became older and wiser. We agreed to disagree, very properly.
It did not break our hearts; and that shows that it is better as it is."
"Perhaps," murmured Susan.
"Let us be quite frank with each other; that is the best way, Susan. We are
good friends?"
"O, yes!" said Susan.
"Thank you, dear Susan,--if I may still call you so, in the sense of
friendship. I know your husband, and love him. I congratulate you on having
so noble a companion."
Susan sighed, and concealed a tear. Just then Pendlam entered. He seemed
abstracted, and took a quick turn across the room; then gave me a surprised
look, a pleased smile, and a cordial grasp of the hand. The next hour I
was oblivious of all external things, in the delightful excitement of our
conversation. I even forgot Susan. Poor Susan! the trouble was, she was
not intellectual; not at all imaginative; but a very plain, matter-of-fact
person, with deep affections, and paramount instincts. During that
memorable hour, she spoke not one word. When at length I observed her
consciously, she was gazing at us with a look of weariness and vacancy.
"Is it not so?" cried Pendlam.
He appealed to her. She smiled sweetly, and said with simplicity that she
scarcely understood any thing that had been said.
I could see that Pendlam was a little shocked. From clear, joyous heights
of poetic discourse, we looked down, and saw how far off below was her
beingless mind. To the vision we then enjoyed, there was something thick
and earthy in her expression. It was the first time Pendlam had observed
it; I had seen it before. And even as before, I looked back, with wonder at
myself, to the earlier period when I deemed her beauty peerless.
Both Pendlam and I were chilled. The fine tension of the spiritual chords
relaxed, and gave forth heavier music. Susan failing to ascend to us, we
came down to her. She now made haste to atone for her long silence by
talking freely of the pretty new church, and the people she saw out Sunday;
and she seemed proud and happy when she brought out her wedding gifts, and
I praised them.
It was several weeks before I again saw Pendlam. I went with Horatio to
hear him preach. The sermon surprised me. Many of the thoughts which I
had advanced in our private conversations, and which he had opposed, were
reproduced, but very slightly modified, in his discourse.
"Pendlam is enlarging," whispered Horatio. "The very things you said to him
the first time you met!"
I was gratified by the fact, and gratified that Horatio observed it;
regarding it as evidence of Pendlam's emancipation from his chains.
The services over, the young clergyman made his way to us through the
crowd.
"I have so much wished to see you!" he exclaimed, grasping my hand. "You
were a little astonished at my sermon."
"And a good deal pleased," I added.
Pendlam's delicate and changing features colored finely.
"You think I have altered my views, I see by your smile. Not at all, except
that I have gone farther."
"I am glad you have gone farther," I answered.
"But in the same direction, I assure you!" said Pendlam, quickly. "Step by
step, step by step."
"You were on your way back to Paul and the Fathers."
"Yes; and on my arrival among them, I found myself one of the Fathers! It
was a necessary experience. As Paul spoke by authority, so I, when I stand
where Paul stood, also speak by authority. We must first be obedient,
before we can be free. You see where I am," said Pendlam.
Here a young woman came forward, and, with tears in her eyes, thanked her
pastor for the glorious truths he had that day preached.
"They are not my truths; they are the Lord's; I am but his mouthpiece,"
answered Pendlam, well pleased.
A gray-haired deacon now approached.--"On the hull," said he, "I liked your
sarmon tolerable well, Brother Pendlam; but it warn't one o' your best;
and if anybody else had preached it, I should have thought it contained a
little dangerous doctrine."
Pendlam blushed. This compliment did not please him quite so well. But
before he could shape a reply, quite an old woman seized his hand and
kissed it.
"God bless you for those words! They have done my soul good, sir!"
Her gratitude and piety were quite affecting. Tears gushed into Pendlam's
eyes. The deacon turned away with a smirk and an ominous shake of the head.
Horatio had found Susan. Pendlam took my arm, and we walked out of the
church. The crowd pressed on before us; and as we reached the vestibule, we
overheard suppressed voices the merits of the sermon.
"It was full of beautiful truth!" said a sweet young girl's voice.
"The most eloquent discourse I ever heard!" added a young man with a
singing-book under his arm.
"For my part," remarked a portly and well-dressed pillar of the church, "I
was a good deal surprised. Rather too wild and flowery. Must have a bad
tendency."
"What we want is sound doctrine," observed another prosperous pillar.
"Better let such abstract subjects alone."
"Dangerous doctrine! dangerous doctrine!" chimed in the gray-haired deacon.
On reaching the open air, I observed that Pendlam was quite tremulous and
flushed.
"You see," he said with a smile, "what it is to be a minister."
We went home to his house. Horatio had arrived before us, in company with
Susan and her mother. The latter was looking very uncomfortable at seeing
me, I thought, for she had hated me cordially since my affair with her
daughter.
"I declare, John Henry," she said, in her energetic way, "I hope you never
will preach another such sermon as long as _I_ live! I couldn't make
neither head nor tail to it." And she gathered up her Sunday things, which
she had taken off in the parlour, with an air of offended piety that
occasioned a general smile. Pendlam smiled with the rest.
"Well, Horatio, you next,--what did you think of my sermon?"
"I liked it."
"Good! but give your reason."
"Because you said nothing about the theatre. I was mortally afraid you
would; for, d'ye see, you had a distinguished theatrical personage in your
audience."
"Indeed! I was not aware; who?"
"Miss Kellerton herself!"
"Is it possible?" Pendlam looked surprised, Susan interested, Mrs. D----
(with her Sunday things on her arm) amazed.
"She told me she was going to hear you, to show you that she could be quite
as tolerant as yourself. She expects you to return the compliment, and go
to her benefit."