"How handsome he is!" simpered Miss Julia Evergreen--a damsel of seventeen, upon whom the bilious eyes of Miss Entwistle were cast with such an expression as the devil is said to put on when suddenly soused in holy water.
"Handsome is that handsome does!" was the commentary of a venerable cormorant to whom Brother Cross had always appeared the special and accepted agent of heaven.
"I wish Brother Cross would get him to pray only. I wonder if he believes in the new-light doctrine?" purred one of the ancient tabbies of the conventicle.
"The new light is but the old darkness, Sister Widgeon," responded an old farmer of sixty four, who had divided his time so equally between the plough and the prayer-book, that his body had grown as crooked as the one, while his mind was bewildered with as many doctrines as ever worried all sense out of the other.
We shall not suffer these to divert us, any more than Stevens permitted their speculations upon his person and religion to affect his devotion.
He looked neither to the right nor to the left while entering the church, or engaging in the ceremonies. No errant glances were permitted to betray to the audience a mind wandering from the obvious duties before it; and yet Alfred Stevens knew just as well that every eye in the congregation was fixed upon him, as that he was himself there; and among those eyes, his own keen glance had already discovered those of that one for whom all these labors of hypocrisy were undertaken.
Margaret Cooper sat on the opposite side of the church, but the line of vision was uninterrupted between them, and when--though very unfrequently--Stevens suffered his gaze to rest upon her form, it was with a sudden look of pleased abstraction, as if, in spite of himself, his mind was irresistibly drawn away from all recollection, of its immediate duties.
If a word is sufficient for the wise, a look answers an equal purpose with the vain. Margaret Cooper left the church that morning with a pleased conviction that the handsome stranger had already paid his devotion to her charms. There was yet another pa.s.sion to be gratified.
The restless ambition of her foolish heart whispered to her momently, that if her person had done so much, what might she not hope to achieve when the treasures of her mind were known. She had long since made the comparison of her own intellect with that of every other maiden in the village, and she flattered herself that before many days, the young stranger should make it too. Her vain heart was rapidly preparing to smooth the path of the enemy and make his conquests easy.
But it was not the women only, by whom the deportment of Alfred Stevens was so closely watched. The eyes of suspicion and jealousy were upon him. The two young men whose interview formed the conclusion of our last chapter, scanned his conduct and carriage with sufficient keenness of scrutiny.
"I"ll tell you what, Bill Hinkley," said his cousin, "this fellow, to my thinking, is a very great rascal."
"What makes you think so?" demanded the former, with slow, dissatisfied accents; "he seems to pray very earnestly."
"That"s the very reason I think him a rascal. His praying seems to me very unnatural. Here, he"s a perfect stranger in the place, yet he never shows any curiosity to see the people. He never once looks around him.
He walks to the church with his eye cast upon the ground, and sometimes he squints to this side and sometimes to that, but he seems to do it slyly, and seems to take pains that n.o.body should see him doing, it.
All this might answer for an old man, who--believes that everything is vanity--as, indeed, everything must seem to old people; but to a young fellow, full of blood, who eats well, drinks well, sleeps well, and should naturally have a hankering after a young girl, all this is against nature. Now, what"s against nature is wrong, and there"s wrong at the bottom of it. Youth is the time to laugh, dance, sing, play on the violin, and always have a sweetheart when it can find one. If you can"t get a beauty take a brown; and if Mary won"t smile, Susan will.
But always have a sweetheart; always be ready for fun and frolic; that"s the way for the young, and when they don"t take these ways, it"s unnatural--there"s something wrong about it, and I"m suspicious of THAT person. Now, I just have this notion of the young stranger. He"s after no good. I reckon he"s like a hundred others; too lazy to go to work, he goes to preaching, and learns in the first sermon to beg hard for the missionaries. I"ll lick him, Bill, to a certainty, if he gives me the littlest end of an opportunity."
"Pshaw, Ned, don"t think of such a thing. You are quite too fond of licking people."
"Deuse a bit. It does "em good. Look you, this chap is monstrous like Joe Richards. I"ll have to lick him on that account."
"You"re mad, Ned; talk of whipping a preacher."
"He"s no preacher yet," said the other, "but if I lick him he may become one."
"No matter, he"s never offended you."
"Ay, but he will. I see it in the fellow"s looks. I never was mistaken in a fellow"s looks in all my life."
"Wait till he does offend you then."
"Well, I"m willing to do that, for I know the time will come. I"m always sure, when I first see a man, to know whether I"ll have to flog him or not. There"s a something that tells me so. Isn"t that very singular, Bill?"
"No! you form a prejudice against a man, fancy that you ought to whip him, and then never rest till you"ve done so. You"ll find your match some day."
"What! you think some other chap will fancy he ought to whip me?
Well--maybe so. But this ain"t the fellow to do that."
"He"s a stout man, and I reckon strong. Besides, Ned, he"s very handsome."
"Handsome! Lord, Bill, what a taste you have? How can a man be called handsome that never altogether opens his eyes, except when he turns up the whites until you"d think he"d never be able to get the b.a.l.l.s back to their proper place? Then, what a chin he has--as sharp as a pitchfork, and who but a girl child would fancy a man with his hair combed sleek like a woman"s on each side of his ears, with big whiskers at the same time that looks for all the world like the brush of a seven years running fox, Handsome! If my pup "Dragon" was only half so much like a beast, I"d plump him into the horsepond!"
It is probable that Ned Hinkley did not altogether think of the stranger as he expressed himself. But he saw how deep a hold his appearance had taken, in an adverse way, upon the mind and feelings of his relative and friend, and his rude, but well-meant endeavors were intended to console his companion, after his own fashion, by the exhibition of a certain degree of sympathy.
His efforts, however well intended, did not produce any serious effect.
William Hinkley, though he forbore the subject, and every expression which might indicate either soreness or apprehension, was still the victim of that presentiment which had touched him on the very first appearance of the stranger. He felt more than ever apprehensive on the score of his misplaced affections. While his cousin had been watching the stranger, HIS eyes had been fixed upon those of Margaret Cooper, and his fears were increased and strengthened, as he perceived that she was quite too much absorbed in other thoughts and objects to behold for an instant the close espionage which he maintained upon her person. His heart sunk within him, as he beheld how bold was her look, and how undisguised the admiration which it expressed for the handsome stranger.
"You will go home with me, William?" said the cousin, The other hesitated.
"I think," said he, after a moment"s pause, "I should rather go to my own home. It is a sort of weakness to let a stranger drive a man off from his own family, and though I somehow dislike this person"s looks, and am very sorry that John Cross brought him to our house, yet I shouldn"t let a prejudice which seems to have no good foundation take such possession of my mind. I will go home, Ned, and see--perhaps I may come to like the stranger more when I know him better."
"You"ll never like him. I see it in the fellow"s eye; but just as you please about going nome. You"re right in one thing--never to give up your own dunghill, so long as you can get room on it for a fair fling with your enemy. Besides, you can see better, by going home, what the chap"s after. I don"t see why he should come here to learn to preach. We can"t support a preacher. We don"t want one. He could just as well have learned his business, where he came from."
With these words the cousins separated.
"Now," said Ned Hinkley as he took his own way homeward, in a deeper fit of abstraction than was altogether usual with him, "now will Bill Hinkley beat about the bush without bouncing through it, until it"s too late to do anything. He"s mealy-mouthed with the woman, and mealy-mouthed with the man, and mealy-mouthed with everybody.--quite too soft-hearted and too easy to get on. Here"s a stranger n.o.body knows, just like some crow from another corn-field, that"ll pick up his provisions from under his very nose, and he doing nothing to hinder until there"s no use in trying. If I don"t push in and help him, he"ll not help himself. As for Margaret Cooper, dang it, I"ll court her for him myself. If he"s afraid to pop the question, I ain"t; though I"ll have to be mighty careful about the words I use, or she"ll be thinking I come on my own hook; and that would be a mighty scary sort of business all round the house. Then this stranger. If anybody can look through a stranger here in Charlemont, I reckon I"m that man. I suspect him already. I think he"s after no good with his great religioning; and I"ll tie such a pair of eyes to his heels, that his understanding will never be entirely out of my sight. I"ll find him out if anybody can. But I won"t lick him till I do. That wouldn"t be altogether right, considering he"s to be a parson, though I doubt he"ll never make one."
And thus, with a head filled with cares of a fashion altogether new, the st.u.r.dy young Kentuckian moved homeward with a degree of abstraction in his countenance which was not among the smallest wonders of the day and place in the estimation of his friends and neighbors.
Meanwhile, the work of mischief was in full progress. Everybody knows the degree of familiarity which exists among all cla.s.ses in a country-village, particularly when the parties are brought together under the social and stimulating influences of religion. It was natural that the pastor, long known and well beloved, should be surrounded by his flock as he descended from the pulpit. The old ladies always have a saving interest in his presence, and they pave the way for the young ones. Alfred Stevens, as the protege of John Cross, naturally attended his footsteps, and was introduced by him to the little congregation, which had mostly remained to do honor to the preacher. Of these, not last, nor least, was the widow Cooper; and, unreluctant by her side, though in silence, and not without a degree of emotion, which she yet was able to conceal, stood her fair but proud-hearted daughter.
Margaret, alas! Margaret stood there with a heart more proud, yet more humble, than ever. Proud in the consciousness of a new conquest--humble in the feeling that this conquest had not been made, but at the expense of some portion of her own independence. Hitherto, her suitors had awakened no other feeling in her heart but vanity. Now, she felt no longer able to sail on, "imperial arbitress," smiling at woes which she could inflict, but never share. That instinct, which, in the heart of young Hinkley had produced fear, if not antipathy, had been as active in her case, though with a very different result. The first glimpse which she had of the handsome stranger, months before, had impressed her with a singular emotion; and now that he was returned, she could not divest herself of the thought that his return was a consequence of that one glimpse.
With a keener judgment than belonged to her neighbors, she too had some suspicions that religion was scarcely the prevailing motive which had brought the youth back to their little village; for how could she reconcile with his present demure gravity and devout profession, the daring which he had shown in riding back to behold her a second time? That such had been his motive she divined by her own feeling of curiosity, and the instincts of vanity were prompt enough to believe that this was motive sufficient to bring him back once more, and under the guise of a character, which would the readiest secure an easy entrance to society. Pleased with the fancy that she herself was the object sought, she did not perceive how enormous was the sort of deception which the stranger had employed to attain the end desired.
With all her intellect she had not the wisdom to suspect that he who could so readily practise so bold an hypocrisy, was capable of the worst performances; and when their names were mentioned, and his eyes were permitted to meet and mingle their glances with hers, she was conscious of nothing farther than a fluttering sentiment of pleasure, which was amply declared to the stranger, in the flash of animation which spoke openly in her countenance; eye speaking to lip and cheek, and these, in turn, responding with a kindred sentiment to the already tell-tale eye.
William Hinkley, from a little distance, beheld this meeting. He had lingered with the curiosity which belongs to the natural apprehension of the lover. He saw them approach--nay, fancied he beheld the mutual expression of their sympathizing eyes, and he turned away, and hurried homeward, with the feeling of a heart already overborne, and defrauded in all its hopes and expectations. The flowers were threatened with blight in his Eden: but he did not conjecture, poor fellow, that a serpent had indeed entered it!
CHAPTER VII.
THE GOOD YOUNG MAN IN MEDITATION.
Perhaps, it may be a.s.sumed, with tolerable safety, that no first villany is ever entirely deliberate. There is something in events to give it direction--something to egg it on--to point out time, place, and opportunity. Of course, it is to be understood that the actor is one, in the first place, wanting in the moral sense. What we simply mean to affirm is, that the particular, single act, is, in few instances, deliberately meditated from the beginning. We very much incline to think that some one event, which we ordinarily refer to the chapter of accidents, has first set the mind to work upon schemes, which would otherwise, perhaps, never be thought of at all. Thus, we find persons who continue very good people, as the world goes, until middle age, or even seniority; then, suddenly breaking out into some enormous offence against decency and society, which startles the whole pious neighborhood. Folks start up, with outstretched hands and staring eyes, and cry aloud:--
"Lord bless us, who would have thought so good a man could be so bad!"
He, poor devil, never fancied it himself, till he became so, and it was quite too late to alter his arrangements. Perhaps his neighbors may have had some share in making him so. Pious persons are very frequently reduced to these straits by having the temptation forced too much upon them. Flesh and blood can not always withstand the provocation of earthly delicacies, even where the spirit is a tolerably stout one; and of the inadequacy of the mind, always to contend with the inclinations of the flesh, have we not a caution in that injunction of Holy Book which warns us to fly from temptation? But lame people can not fly, and he is most certainly lame who halts upon mere feet of circ.u.mstances.
Such people are always in danger.
Now, Alfred Stevens, properly brought up, from the beginning, at some theological seminary, would have been--though in moral respects pretty much the same person--yet in the eye of the world a far less criminal man. Not that his desires would have been a jot more innocent, but they would have taken a different direction. Instead of the recklessness of course, such as seems to have distinguished the conduct of our present subject--instead of his loose indulgences--his smart, licentious speeches--the sheep"s-eye glances, right and left, which he was but too p.r.o.ne to bestow, without prudence or precaution, whenever he walked among the fair sisters--he, the said Alfred, would have taken counsel of a more worldly policy, which is yet popularly considered a more pious one. He would have kept his eyes from wandering to and fro; he would have held his blood in subjection. Patient as a fox on a long scent in autumn, he would have kept himself lean and circ.u.mspect, until, through the help of lugubrious prayer and lantern visage, he could have beguiled into matrimony some one feminine member of the flock--not always fair--whose worldly goods would have sufficed in full atonement for all those circ.u.mspect, self-imposed restraints, which we find usually so well rewarded. But Alfred Stevens was not a man of this pious temper.