The angel of his presence; and Gabriel the AcadianHill, Grace Livingston
Religion
The angel of his presence; and Gabriel the Acadian
Hill, Grace Livingston
Christian fiction
The man came in from the piazza that surrounded the bay window and
reached around to the long French window at the side, where he had been
unpacking a box. He placed a silver-mounted smoking set on a small
mahogany table. Then he stood back to survey the effect. Presently he
came in with some fine cut glass, a small decanter heavily mounted in
silver and glasses to match. He went out and came back with their tray.
Having dusted them off carefully and arranged them on the tray, he
placed it first on the handsome broad mantel, and as before stood back
to take a survey. He knew the set was a choice example of artistic work
along this line. It was presented to his master while he was visiting in
the home of a nobleman in token of his friendship and to commemorate
something or other, the man did not exactly know what. But he did not
like the effect on the mantel. He glanced uneasily up at the picture. In
a dim way he felt the incongruity. He scowled at the picture and
wondered why they put it there. It should have been hung in the hall or
some out-of-the-way place. It was more suited for a church than anywhere
else, he told himself. He placed the decanter tray on the little table
at the other side of the fireplace from the smoking set, and stood back
again. It looked well there. He raised his eyes defiantly to the
picture, and met the full, strong, sweet gaze of the pictured eyes of
the Master. The man lowered his eyes and turned away, disturbed, he knew
not why. He was not a man who cared about such things, neither was he
one accustomed to reason. He went out to the piazza again to his
unpacking, trying to think of something else. It wasn’t his picture nor
his decanter anyway, and he whistled a home tune and wondered why he had
come to this country. He didn’t seem to feel quite his usual pride this
morning in the fact that he knew his business. When he finally unpacked
the wicker-covered demijohn of real old Scotch whisky that had
accompanied the decanter, he carried it through the room and deposited
it in the little corner cupboard behind the chimney, shut the door and
locked it with a click, and went out again without so much as raising
his eyes. All that day he avoided looking at that picture over the
mantelpiece, and he grew quite happy in his work again and quite
self-satisfied, and felt with a sort of superstitious fear that if he
looked at it his happiness would depart.
There were other rare articles that he had to unpack and dispose of, and
once he came to a large, handsome picture, a sporting scene in water
colors by a celebrated artist. That now, would be the very thing to hang
over the mantel in place of the picture already there. He even went so
far as to suggest to Mrs. Stanley that he make the change, but she
coldly told him to leave the picture where it was, as it was a gift, and
showed him the envelope to place on the mantel directly under the
picture, which contained the card from the donors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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