Ex-convicts -- Fiction; Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions -- Fiction; Self-sacrifice -- Fiction
"He has left an influence that amounts to a living, inspiring presence.
That influence, more than anything I have done, has kept the people just
as earnest for truer manhood and womanhood as when he left them. I feel
that I am only the assistant. He is still the real head."
David got away as quickly as he could, a mighty, quivering warmth within
him. On the other side of the street, he gave a parting glance over his
shoulder at the chapel. He stopped short, and stared. While they had
talked, the director of the Mission had turned on additional lights,
among which had been an arc-light before the great stained-glass window
at the street end of the chapel. The window was now a splendid glow of
red and blue and purple, and printed upon its colours was this legend:
[Illustration]
David stared at the window, weak, dizzy. There was a momentary pang of
bitterness that Morton should be so honoured, and he be what he was.
Then the glow that had possessed him in the chapel flowed back upon him
in even greater warmth. The window seemed to David, in his then mood,
to be the perpetuation in glowing colour of Morton's influence. It
seemed to throw forth into the street, upon the chance passer-by, the
inspiration of Morton's life.
Yes,--his four years had counted!
Half an hour later he took his stand against the shadowed stoop of an
empty mansion in Madison Avenue, and gazed across at a great square
three-story stone house, with a bulging conservatory running along its
left side--the only residence in the block that had re-opened for the
autumn. All thought of Morton and the Mission was gone from him. His
mind was filled only with the other great fear of his last four years.
If she came out of the door he watched, if he glimpsed her beneath a
window shade, then probably she still belonged in her father's
house--was still unmarried.
A cold drizzle had begun to fall. He drew his head down into his
upturned collar, and though his weakened body shivered, he noticed
neither the rain nor the protest of his flesh. His whole being was
directed at the house across the way. Slow minute followed slow minute.
The door did not open, and he saw no one inside the windows. His heart
beat as though it would shake his body apart. The sum of four years
suspense so weakened him that he could hardly stand. Yet he stood and
waited, waited; and he realised more keenly than ever how dear she was
to him--though to possess her was beyond his wildest dreams, and perhaps
he might not even speak to her again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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