[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A PARTING GLANCE.
DR. DENNIS and his friend, the Rev. Mr. Harrison met again at the street corner; they stopped and shook hands, as they always did, even if they chanced to meet three times in one day.
"Meetings closed?" questioned Mr. Harrison, after the preliminary words had been spoken. "What a glorious time you have had! Such a pity that our flocks are so far apart! If we could have united with you in regular attendance, it would have been a great blessing; as it was, many a drop came to us."
"Yes," Dr. Dennis said, "we have had a great blessing; and I need not use the past tense, the work is going on yet, although the meetings do not continue. The work will continue forever, I believe; the truth is, we have had a new baptism, the members who came to us early in the fall, came filled with the Spirit, and have worked as no other members of mine ever did."
"You mean your Chautauqua reinforcement, don"t you?"
"Indeed I do; I thank G.o.d for Chautauqua every day of my life. What a dreadful blunder I made when I limited the power of G.o.d in the way I did when we talked that matter over! you remember?"
"I remember," Mr. Harrison said with a peculiar laugh; "It was a wonderful meeting, but then, after all, were they not rather peculiar young ladies? It isn"t every lady who even after she is converted, lives just the sort of life that they are living."
"I know," Dr. Dennis said; "Yes, they are unusual, I think; especially one of them," was his mental addition.
"Especially one of them," murmured Mr. Harrison in his heart; and each gentleman smiled consciously, neither having the slightest idea what the other meant by the smile.
Marion Wilbur came down the street with her hands full of school books.
"Good-evening," said Dr. Dennis; "How do you do this evening? Mr.
Harrison, do you know this lady? She is one of my flock."
No, Mr. Harrison did not know her; and introductions followed. After she pa.s.sed by, Mr. Harrison said, "I think you told me once that she had been an infidel?"
"It was a mistake," Dr. Dennis said, hastily. "She had peculiar views, and I think she imagined herself at one time an unbeliever; but she is really wonderfully well grounded in the doctrines of the church; she is like an old Christian."
Many of Dr. Dennis" people were abroad; the next pa.s.ser by was Eurie Mitch.e.l.l; the doctor stopped her. "One minute, Miss Eurie, how is your mother to-night? Mr. Harrison, do you know Miss Mitch.e.l.l, the doctor"s daughter?"
Yes, Mr. Harrison had met Miss Mitch.e.l.l before. In the fast coming dusk, Dr. Dennis failed to see the flush of embarra.s.sment on his friend"s cheek, as he acknowledged the introduction.
"She is a grand girl," Dr. Dennis said, looking after her. "Her development is wonderful; more marked of late, I think, than before.
Well, as you say, they were unusual girls, but I tell you, we as pastors have reason to say: "G.o.d bless Chautauqua.""
"Amen," said Mr. Harrison, and Dr. Dennis thought him unusually earnest and intense, especially when he added:
"I propose we go next year, and take with us as many of our respective flocks as we can beguile into it."
"Aye, that we will," Dr. Dennis answered; then the two gentlemen went on their respective ways.
It was a large city, and they were both busy ministers, and lived far apart, and met but seldom, except in their ministerial meetings; there was chance for each to have interests that the other knew nothing about.
Marion reached home just in time for supper; the table appointments at that home were not improving; indeed, there were those who said, that the bread grew sourer every week; this week, it had added to its sourness, stickiness, that was horrible to one"s fingers and throat. The dried fruit that had been half stewed, was sweetened with brown sugar, and the looking over process, so necessary to dried fruit, had been wholly neglected.
But Marion ate her supper, almost entirely unconscious of these little defects; that is, she accepted them as a matter of course and looked serene over it. Things were not as they had been on that rainy evening, when it had seemed to her that she could never, no _never_ eat another supper in that house; then, it seemed probable that in that house, or one like unto it, she would have to eat all the suppers that this dreary life had in store for her; but now, the days were growing fewer in which this house would be called her home.
No one knew it; at least, no one but herself and two others. She looked around on her fellow boarders with a pitying smile; that little sewing-girl at her left, how _many_ such suppers would she have to eat!
"She shall have a nice one every now and then, see if she doesn"t," was Marion"s mental conclusion, with a nod of her glad head; there were so many nice things to be done! Life was so bright.
Hadn"t Gracie Dennis whispered to her this very afternoon:
"Miss Wilbur, one of these days I shall hate to come to school, I shall want to stay at home."
And she answered softly, surrept.i.tiously kissing the glowing cheek meanwhile:
"The teacher who reigns here shall be your special friend. And you are to bring her home with you to lovely little teas that shall be waiting for you."
This matter of "teas" had gotten a strong hold on Marion. Perhaps, because in no other way had a sense of unhomelike loneliness pressed upon her, as at that time when families generally gathered together in pretty homes.
She went up, presently, to her dingy room. Just every whit as dingy now, as it had been on that rainy evening, but she gave no thought at all to it. She lighted her fire, and sat down to her writing; not reports to-night. She must write a letter to Aunt Hannah; a brief letter it was, but containing a great deal. This was it:
"DEAR AUNT HANNAH:--
"Don"t you think, I am going to be married! Now, you never expected that of me, did you? Neither did I, but that is the way the matter stands. Now, the question is: May I come home to the wedding?
The old farm-house is all the home I have, you know. I hope you will let us come; I am giving you plenty of notice; we shall not want to come until after the spring term; one of us wants to be there by the seventeenth of June, I thought I ought to tell you before the spring house-cleaning. Let me hear from you as soon as you can, so that I may know how to plan.
"I could be married in the church, I presume, but I feel, and the other one concerned feels so too,--that I would like to go back to the old farm-house. We won"t make much trouble, nor have any fuss, you know.
"Dear Aunt Hannah, I am so glad the money gave you comfort. Then I am so _very_ glad that you thought about that other matter of which I wrote; that is the greatest and best thing to have in the world.
I think so now, when I am on the eve of other blessings; that one stands before them all. The gentleman whom I am to marry is a minister. He is very good.
"Aunt Hannah I shall want your advice about all sorts of sewing when I come home. I shall come in May, that is, if you let me come at all. I hope you will. Give my love to Uncle Reuben. My friend sends his respects to you both. Lovingly, "Marion J Wilbur."
She had a fondness during those days, for writing out that name in full.
A gentle tap at the door being answered, admitted Flossy Shipley.
"You darling!" said Marion, brightly, as she gave her eager greeting.
"How nice of you to come and see me when you have so much to think of.
Flossy where is Mr. Roberts? Why don"t you bring him to call on me?"
"He hasn"t time to call on anybody," Flossy said, with a mixture of pride, and a sort of comic pettishness.
"He has so many poor families on his hands; he and I have been out all day. Marion you have no idea at all of the places where we have been! I do think there ought to be an organized system of charity in our church; something different from the hap-hazard way of doing things that we have. Mr. Roberts says, that in New York, their church is perfectly organized to look after certain localities, and that no such thing as utter dest.i.tution can prevail in their section. Don"t you think Dr.
Dennis would be interested in such an effort."