Jesus Christ -- Fiction; Religious fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
At the sound of the voice the crying man lifted his face for a moment
from his hands and looked towards Gilderman with strange, filmy,
sightless eyes. His cheeks were drenched with tears. Gilderman knew
that though the man looked towards him he did not see him.
* * * * *
As Gilderman continued down-town towards the office, he felt strangely
softened and moved--strangely impressed by what he had just seen.
Again, as he thought over it all, a feeling as of awe came upon him. He
did not understand what it was he had beheld, but the impression lay
heavily upon him. A recollection of the morning's scene, accompanied
by the same feeling of awe (though less strong and vivid), recurred
again to him that afternoon as he crossed the river to embark upon
the other side for the capital. He was standing in the bow of the
ferry-boat at the time looking out across the water. He had never seen
a human face illuminated as those faces had been. It was as though the
spirit shone forth and consumed the fibres of flesh that incased it.
Was it then, indeed, true that the spirit was so present in every fibre
of flesh that it could thus glorify the human body to that strange
illumination? The bright surface of the harbor stretched away before
him, shut in by the distant farther shore of clustered buildings. A
huge out-going steamer was ploughing its slow and monstrous way down
the river. Gilderman saw everything and yet saw nothing as he stood
there pondering the remembrances of that morning.
He suddenly awoke to the things of every day as the boat thumped its
way into the slip, and he pushed forward with the crowd which, as soon
as it had poured off from the boat, presently spread out until he was
able to hurry through the waiting-room of the depot to the train.
His man met him at the gate and directed him to the parlor-car, where
Stirling West met him. "Hello, Gildy!" he said; "I thought you were
going to be left."
As they went together along between the rows of chairs to the
compartment where Tom De Witt and his mother and two sisters already
sat, Stirling West nudged Gilderman with his elbow. "Ain't she a
daisy!" he said, in a whisper. And Gilderman, looking down, saw an
exceedingly pretty and stylishly dressed blond girl sitting with an
elderly man of senatorial appearance.
He felt a distinct pleasure in the prettiness of the girl, and he
looked back at her again as he was about to enter the door of the
compartment. He was already forgetting what he had that morning seen.
THE END
By MRS. HUMPHRY WARD
LADY ROSE'S DAUGHTER. Illustrated by HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY.
Post 8vo, Ornamented Cloth, $1 50.
This is Mrs. Humphry Ward's latest novel. It has been hailed as
undoubtedly her best, while Julie Le Breton, the heroine, has been
called "the most appealing type of heroine in English fiction."
"A story that must be read."--_New York Sun._
"Vividly alive from the first line."--_Chicago Record-Herald._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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