Christian fiction; Clergy -- Fiction; Jesus Christ -- Influence -- Fiction
"But nothing more?" the Bishop ventured to ask.
Felicia's face glowed for an instant. Then she looked her companion
in the eyes frankly and answered: "Truly and truly, nothing more."
"It would be just the way of the world for these two people to come
to like each other, though," thought the man to himself, and somehow
the thought made him grave. It was almost like the old pang over
Camilla. But it passed, leaving him afterwards, when Felicia had
gone back, with tears in his eyes and a feeling that was almost hope
that Felicia and Stephen would like each other. "After all," he
said, like the sensible, good man that he was, "is not romance a
part of humanity? Love is older than I am, and wiser."
The week following, the Bishop had an experience that belongs to
this part of the Settlement history. He was coming back to the
Settlement very late from some gathering of the striking tailors,
and was walking along with his hands behind him, when two men jumped
out from behind an old fence that shut off an abandoned factory from
the street, and faced him. One of the men thrust a pistol in his
face, and the other threatened him with a ragged stake that had
evidently been torn from the fence.
"Hold up your hands, and be quick about it!" said the man with the
pistol.
The place was solitary and the Bishop had no thought of resistance. He
did as he was commanded, and the man with the stake began to go through
his pockets. He was calm. His nerves did not quiver. As he stood there
with his hands uplifted, an ignorant spectator might have thought that
he was praying for the souls of these two men. And he was. And his
prayer was singularly answered that very night.
Chapter Twenty-seven
"Righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in the way of
his steps."
THE Bishop was not in the habit of carrying much money with him, and
the man with the stake who was searching him uttered an oath at the
small amount of change he found. As he uttered it, the man with the
pistol savagely said, "Jerk out his watch! We might as well get all
we can out of the job!"
The man with the stake was on the point of laying hold of the chain
where there was a sound of footsteps coming towards him.
"Get behind the fence! We haven't half searched him yet! Mind you
keep shut now, if you don't want--"
The man with the pistol made a significant gesture with it and, with
his companion, pulled and pushed the Bishop down the alley and
through a ragged, broken opening in the fence. The three stood still
there in the shadow until the footsteps passed.
"Now, then, have you got the watch?" asked the man with the pistol.
"No, the chain is caught somewhere!" and the other man swore again.
"Break it then!"
"No, don't break it," the Bishop said, and it was the first time he
had spoken. "The chain is the gift of a very dear friend. I should
be sorry to have it broken."
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account