Christian fiction; Wingfold, Thomas (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
and know that he spoke the truth concerning him; that he had come from
him to witness of him that he was truth and love. Richard had indeed
started on a path pointing thitherward, but as yet all concerning the
one necessary entity was vaguest speculation with him. He did feel,
however, that to give in to Barbara altogether, would not make him
a believer such as Barbara. On the other hand, he was yet far from
perceiving that no man is a believer, let him give his body to be
burned, except he give his will, his life to the Master. No man is a
believer with whom he and his father are not first; no man, in a word,
who does not obey him, that is, who does not do what he said, and says.
It seems preposterous that such definition should be necessary; but
thousands talk about him for one that believes in him; thousands will do
what the priests and scribes say he commands, for one who will search to
find what he says that he may do it--who will take his orders from
the Lord himself, and not from other men claiming either knowledge or
authority. A man must come up to the Master, hearken to his word, and
do as he says. Then he will come to know God, and to know that he knows
him.
When he stopped thinking of Barbara, all was dreary about Richard. But
he did not once say to himself, “She does not love me!” did not once
ask, “Does she love me?” He said, “She cares for me; she is good to me!
I wish I believed as she does, that I might hope to meet her again in
the house of the one Father!”
It was Saturday night, and he had to go through a weekly market, a
hurrying, pushing, loitering, jostling crowd, gathered thick about the
butchers' and fishmongers' shops, the greengrocers' barrows, and the
trays upon wheels with things laid out for sale. Suddenly a face flashed
upon him, and disappeared. He was not sure that it was Alice's, but it
suggested Alice so strongly that he turned and tried to overtake it.
Impeded by his luggage, however, which caught upon hundreds of legs, he
soon saw the attempt hopeless. Then with pain he remembered that he had
not her address, and did not know how to communicate with her. He
longed to learn why she had left him without a word, what her repeated
avoidance of him meant; far more he desired to know where she was
that he might help her, and how she fared. But Barbara was her friend!
Barbara knew her address! He would ask her to send it him! He hardly
thought she would, for she was in the secret of Alice's behaviour, but,
joy to think, it would be a reason for writing to her! His heart gave a
bound in his bosom. Who could tell but she might please to send him the
fan-wind of a letter now and then, keeping the door, just a chink of it,
open between them, that the voice of her slave might reach her on the
throne of her loveliness! He walked the rest of the way with a gladder
heart; he was no longer without a future; there was something to do, and
something to wait for! Days are dreary unto death which wrap no hope in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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