Christian life -- Fiction; Clergy -- Fiction; Love stories; Missions -- Fiction; New England -- Fiction; Temperance -- Fiction
Sick at heart, and longing to escape from the whole miserable
scene, Bayard walked down the street alone. His steps bent blindly
to the station. When he had bought his ticket to Boston, it came to
him for the first time to ask himself where he was going. Home?
What home? Whose? Hermon Worcester’s? That glance at his uncle’s
rigid face which he had allowed himself back there in the church
recurred to him. The incensed and disappointed man had suffered
his smitten boy to go forth from that furnace without a sign of
sympathy. He had given Emanuel one look: the pupils of his eyes
were dark and dilated with indignation of the kind that a gentleman
does not trust himself to express.
“I cannot go home,” said Emanuel suddenly, half aloud. “I forgot
that. I shall not be wanted.”
He put his ticket in his wallet and turned away. Some people were
hurrying into the station, and he strode to a side door to escape
them. The handsome knob of an Oriental grapestick touched his arm.
The white face of the Professor of Theology looked sternly into his.
“Suppose you come out to Cesarea with me to-night? We can
talk this unfortunate affair over quietly, and--I am sure you
misapprehend the real drift of some of these doctrines that disturb
you. I believe I could set you right, and possibly--another
examination--before a different Council”--
Bayard’s head swam for an instant. A girl in a muslin dress stood
at the meeting of the arms of the great cross in the Seminary lawn.
It was moonlight, and it was June, and this dreadful thing had
never happened. He was in that state when a woman’s sympathy is
the only one delicate enough for a man’s bruised nature to bear. He
quivered at the thought of being touched by anything harsher than
the compassionate approval, the indignant sorrow, the intelligent
heart--
“No,” he said, after a scarcely perceptible hesitation. “Thank you,
Professor--I can’t do it. I should only disappoint you. I am almost
too tired to go all over the ground again. Good-by, Professor.”
He held out his hand timidly. The thin, high-veined hand of the
Professor shook as he responded to the grasp.
“I didn’t know,” he said more gently, “but you would be more
comfortable. Your uncle”--the Professor hesitated.
“Thank you,” said the young man again. “That was thoughtful in you.
If your theology were half as tender as your heart, Professor!”
added the poor fellow, trying to smile with the old audacity of
Professor Carruth’s pet student. But he shook his head, and pushed
out of the door into the street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account