"Not only to confront your enemies," he said; "that is not enough; nor
is it that I would have you bluster at them, nor take arms against
them; you will not have to do that if, when they come at you, you do
not turn one inch aside, but with an assured heart, with good nature,
not noisily, and with steadfastness, you keep on your way. If you can
do that, I say that they will turn aside for you, and you shall walk
straight through them, and only laughter be left of their anger!"
There was a stir among the people, and many faces turned toward Joe.
Two years ago he had sat in the same church, when his character and
actions had furnished the underlying theme of a sermon, and he had
recognized himself without difficulty: to-day he had not the shadow of
a dream that the same thing was happening. He thought the people were
turning to look at Ariel, and he was very far from wondering at that.
She saw that he did not understand; she was glad to have it so. She
had taken off her gloves, and he was holding them lightly and
reverently in his hands, looking down upon them, his thin cheeks a
little flushed. And at that, and not knowing the glory that was in his
soul, something forlorn in his careful tenderness toward her gloves so
touched her that she felt the tears coming to her eyes with a sudden
rush. And to prevent them.
"Not the empty gloves, Joe," she whispered.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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