In speaking of the future he did not gloss over the persecution; he did
not even promise, as Smith had done, a sure and material reward. The
mind of the young Quaker convert was fixed upon the things that are
unseen. This was not hidden from the girl. The thought of being with him
in his faith and resignation gave her peace. Poverty and persecution
seemed as nothing compared with the torture of being surrounded by
people whose thought and actions aroused in her young heart whirlwinds
of passionate opposition. Even Ephraim, instead of rising in his
strength to condemn the outrage of yesterday, had attempted to-day to
wound or kill. Her amazement and dismay at this drove her out as it were
with a scourge.
Halsey had told her to pray, and she had tried to pray. Halsey had told
her to search the Scriptures for guidance, and she read. Text after text
came home to her heart, bidding her leave her kindred to share the
fortunes of the persecuted children of faith.
CHAPTER VIII.
At break of day Halsey was waiting upon the road with a fairly good
horse and a comfortable chaise. Susannah never forgot the light that
came to his eyes when he saw her approach; it was like dawn in paradise.
Angel Halsey was not without shrewd worldly wisdom. He turned into a
cross corduroy road that led through the woods, passing only some small
clearings to the west of Palmyra, and thus by a detour avoiding that
village, he returned again to the highroad between Canandaigua and
Geneva. The pursuers, upon failing to hear that the chaise had passed
through Palmyra, might turn back, or if they had gone on they might have
outstripped them on the road, and be in front rather than behind. This
danger peopled the long lonely road with possible enemies both before
and behind. The strain upon the imagination was very great. The road was
heavy and rough.
Susannah perceived that Halsey's apprehension of being overtaken was
almost solely on her account. He was so upborne by his religious
enthusiasm as to be oblivious to the pain which his wound of yesterday
gave him, and was perfectly willing to encounter the violence of her
kindred again if need be, yet, seeing her terror with a quickness of
sympathy which roused her gratitude, he took every possible precaution
that could allay her fears. All through the weary, weary day she hardly
spoke to him, never addressed him by name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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