"Was there anything wrong with the chicken?" she said, thinking I was reflecting on her cookery.
"No, Hannah, "t was all right; but I"m not in a humor for eating."
She was surprised. So was I. It was the first time for many years that I bolted. Thank G.o.d, a good appet.i.te and His Divine Grace have never deserted me.
"I"m thinkin" you"re in for somethin"," she said. "And no wondher! I niver knew a man to timpt Providence like you. Will you have the hot wather, as you ate nothin"?"
"Don"t mind, Hannah. I"ll have a cup of tea by and by."
I sat down to the fire, looking into all its glowing crevices and crannies, thinking, thinking of many things. By and by, in came Father Letheby. He was subdued and deferential, but evidently very much hurt at my unaccustomed rudeness. He stood with his back to the fire, looking down on me, and he said, in his best Sunday accent, smoothed and ironed:--
"I confess, sir, I am still quite at a loss to understand your rather--well--forcible remarks this evening. I can see, certainly, a great deal of reason in your irritation; and I am not at all disposed to contravene the principle that you have an indefeasible right to be acquainted with the sorrows and trials of your parishioners; but pardon me for saying it, I was only carrying out, perhaps too logically, your own reiterated teaching."
"Look here," said I, "have you had your dinner?"
"Yes, sir," said he.
"Well, then, sit down, and have your coffee here. Touch that bell."
He sat down, and somehow this took a lot of the starch out of him.
"You were saying something," said I, "about my teaching. When did I ever teach you to keep the most vital interests of these poor people a secret from me?"
"Well," said he, balancing the sugar in his spoon over the cup, "if there was one lesson more than another that was continually dinned into my ears, it was: "When a young man comes into a strange parish, he must be all eyes and ears, but no tongue," and I think you quoted some grave authorities for that aphorism."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Was there anything wrong with the chicken?"]
"Quite so," I replied. "I think it is a most wholesome advice. For there never yet was a young man that was not disposed to think that he could run a parish better than all the pastors that lived for generations there. But did you understand me to say that we were never to talk over and discuss parochial affairs?"
"Well, I confess," said he, "I did not. But you see, sir, your thoughts were running in quite another channel. You were interested in the cla.s.sics and in literary matters."
"My conscience, my dear boy, has already made me aware of that, and in somewhat more forcible and less polite language than you have used. Now, I admit that I have been a surly old curmudgeon this afternoon, and I am sorry for it; but hereafter, don"t leave me in the dark any longer about my parishioners. It seems to me that, if we dropped our occasional uncharitableness about each other and our more occasional criticisms on our superiors, and addressed ourselves to the work G.o.d gives us to do in that limited circle He has drawn about us, it would be all the better."
"Well, sir, I quite agree with you. But I must say that for the few months I have been here, I do not remember to have heard much uncharitableness about our brethren from you."
There now! How can you be angry with a fellow like that? The black cloud turned softly into gray, and the gray turned slowly round, and showed only the silver lining.
CHAPTER XXI
THE FACTORY
Notwithstanding my gloomy forebodings, I find that Father Letheby has eagerly grasped the idea of writing on the historical and philosophical subjects I had suggested. Where he got books of reference I know not, nor can I conjecture; but he has a silent way of accomplishing things that would seem to a slow-moving mind like my own little short of a miracle. When, therefore, one fine day in early April I strolled in to see him (for that little tiff about the sick child has only cemented our friendship), I gasped to see a huge pile of quarto ma.n.u.script paper in a fair way to be soon well blackened, and by the side of his writing-table several heavy, leather-lined folios, which a certain visitor described as "just the kind of book you would take with you for a stroll by the seash.o.r.e, or your annual holiday at Lisdoonvarna."
"Hallo!" I cried; "so you"re at it. I thought you had given it up."
"I"m in for it," he replied modestly, "for good or ill. You see, I recognized some truth in what you said, and I determined to do a little to take away our reproach."
"I must say you are a singularly acute and deep thinker to recognize my far-seeing, almost Promethean wisdom; but to tell you the truth, I haven"t the faintest idea of what I said to you, except to recommend you to do something for the spread of Catholic literature."
"Never mind, Father Dan," he replied, "the seed is sown; the die is cast. I intend to scribble away now and to submit my ma.n.u.script to the editor of some ecclesiastical journal. If he accepts it, well and good; if he doesn"t, no harm done. By the way, you must help me, by looking over this translation of the funeral oration of St. Gregory n.a.z.ianzen on St. Basil. I depend on your knowledge of Greek a great deal more than on these garbled versions of Scotch or Oxford translators."
Isn"t that a nice young man? What could I do but go over, then and there, that famous panegyric, that has made the author as great as his subject. At the end of his papers on the "Three Cappadocians," Father Letheby intends to give in Greek, with English translation, pa.s.sages from their sermons and poems. A happy idea!
"Now, so far so good!" said Father Letheby, after this little conference. "The metaphysical subject is more difficult to tackle,--a fellow can be tripped up so easily; but we"ll postpone that for the present. Now here are three matters that concern us. I think Ormsby is on the point of coming over. The prayers of the little children and of that poor Dolores, Alice, have nearly pushed open the gates of the Kingdom. At least, they"re creaking on their hinges. Secondly, I"m beginning to get afraid of that young girl. Under her awful cross she"s developing such sanct.i.ty as makes me nervous about guiding her any longer. She is going up the eternal hills, and my spiritual sight cannot follow. Thirdly, we open the shirt-factory on the 20th. I give you timely warning, Father Dan, for you are to be chairman, and your speech is to be the event of the occasion."
"Quite an anti-climax from the eternal hills," I said, noticing his tendency to practical issues rather than to supernatural evolutions; "but now, let us see. Are you sure of Ormsby?"
"Nearly so. I have left him severely alone--told him the matter concerned himself altogether. He has given up reading and argumentation of every kind. He says the _Veni Creator_ every day. But I think, under Heaven, it is the patience and divine serenity of this poor child that affect him most deeply."
"Then he isn"t shocked at her appearance?"
"Oh, dear, yes! He cannot bear to look at her. He says it is more like Oriental leprosy than anything he has seen in these countries. But her gentleness and patience and her realization of the unseen startle him--"
"It has startled me more than once," I replied.
"And me. I begin to feel almost nervous about directing so high a soul.
I am glad you have noticed it, because you can give me lights."
"H"m. You are becoming sarcastic, young man. But I feel we are treading on holy ground. Let us look to ourselves. How often do you give the child Holy Communion?"
"Every Sunday and holiday."
"Has she asked for more frequent Communion?"
"Yes, indeed; but I hesitated."
"Hesitate no longer. _Digitus Dei est hic_."
Of course, I had seen all this myself; for in a quiet, unconscious way this poor child had manifested even to my purblind eyes the dealings of G.o.d"s munificence with her. By degrees all the old vain regrets after her beauty had yielded to perfect resignation; and resignation had grown into peace, and peace had been transformed into rapture.
"I used be thinking, Daddy Dan, a good deal of what you said to me--how these poor bodies of ours were but a little lime, and phosphorus, and water; and that we must all go through the terrible changes of death; and what you told me of that great saint in Spain and the dead queen; but it was only when Father Letheby read to me about our Lord, "a worm and no man," "a leper and accursed by G.o.d and afflicted"; "and one huge sore from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet"--that I began to think He had made me like Himself, welcome be His Will, and Holy be His Name!"
Then I got her a fine big bra.s.s Crucifix from the Pa.s.sionist Fathers at Mount Argus, and left her to her wonder-working and merciful Master. But she has impressed Ormsby profoundly. "The weak things of the world hast Thou chosen to confound the strong." "Thy ways are upon the sea, and Thy pathway on the mighty waters, and Thy footsteps are unknown."
"Well, now," I said to Father Letheby, getting out of my reverie, "to come down from the Holy Mountain, what"s this you are saying about the shirt-factory? You don"t mean to aver it is a _fait-accompli_?"
"Certainly," he replied, "everything is arranged; and on the 20th a dozen sewing-machines will be clicking merrily in the old mill."
"You have the lamp of Aladdin," I said admiringly. "Now, who"s to be there?"
"All the gentry and the _elite_ of the neighborhood," he said.
"Rather a limited audience for a great occasion," I couldn"t help saying.