Dr. Lavendar's PeopleDeland, Margaret Wade Campbell
General
Dr. Lavendar's People
Deland, Margaret Wade Campbell
Clergy -- Fiction; Pennsylvania -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
Yes, it would mean undeniable pinching; he must give up this small
luxury and that; his Mary Ann could not broil his occasional
sweetbread; and the occasional new book must be borrowed from the
library, not purchased for his own shelves. He must push about to get
more supplying. He had meant to come down one step when he got
married; well, he would have to come down two--yes, or three. But he
would have Miss Baily. And warmed with this tender thought, he sat
down, then and there, at nearly midnight, and wrote Miss Ellen a
letter. It was a beautiful letter, full of most beautiful sentiments
expressed with great elegance and gentility. It appreciated Miss
Ellen's devotion to her family, and acknowledged that a sense of duty
was a part of the character of a Christian female. It protested that
it was far from the Reverend Mr. Spangler to interfere with that sense
of duty; on the contrary, he would share it; nay more, he would assist
it, for duty was, he hoped, the watchword of his life. If Miss Baily
would consent to become his wife, Mr. Baily, he trusted, would make his
home with his sister.
Mr. Spangler may have been addicted to petticoats (in his own toilet)
and given to candles and other emblems of the Scarlet Woman, but his
letter, beneath its stilted phrase, was an honest, manly utterance, and
Ellen Baily read it, thrilling with happiness and love.
That was Friday, and she had only time to read those thin, blue pages
and thrust them into the bosom of her dress, when it was time to go to
school and hear her girls declare that the Amazon was the largest river
in South America; but we might have said it was the largest river in
Pennsylvania, and Miss Ellen would have gone on smiling at us. At
recess we poured out into the garden, eager to say, "Goodness! do you
suppose he's popped?" The older girls were especially excited, but
they took their usual furtive look about the garden before sitting down
on the steps to eat their luncheons. Alas, He was not there!
"Perhaps," said Lydia Wright, "he has gone to the tomb."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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