Public opinion, from being at first very bitter and scornful against the Allens, gradually began to soften. One after another, as they recognized Edith"s patient, determined effort to do right, began to give her the credit and the respect to which she was ent.i.tled. Little acts and tokens of kindly feeling became more frequent, and were like glints of sunlight on her shadowed path. But the great majority felt that they could have no a.s.sociations with such as the Allens, and completely ignored them.
In their relations with the church, Edith and Mrs. Lacey found increasing satisfaction. Many of its humble, and some of its more influential, members treated them with much kindness and sympathy, and they realized more and more that there are good, kind people in the world, if you look in the right way and right places for them. The Rev. Mr. Knox was a faithful preacher and pastor, and if his sermons were a little dry and doctrinal at times, they were as sound and sweet as a nut. Moreover, both Edith and Mrs. Lacey were sadly deficient in the doctrines, neither having ever had any religious instruction, and they listened with the grave, earnest interest of those desiring to be taught.
Mrs. Groody reconnected herself with her old church "I want to go where I can shout "Glory!"" she said.
Rose but faintly sympathized with her mother"s feelings. Her restless, ambitious spirit turned longingly toward the world. Its attractions she could understand, but not those of faith. Through her father"s evil habits, and Arden"s poor farming, the pressure of poverty rested heavier and heavier on the family, and she had about resolved to go to New York and find employment in some store.
Arden rarely went to church, but read at home. He was somewhat sceptical in regard to the Bible, not that he had ever carefully examined either it or its evidences, but he had read much of the prevalent semi-infidelity, and was a little conceited over his independent thinking. Then, in a harsh, sweeping cynicism, he utterly detested church people, calling them the "holy sect of the Pharisees."
"Bat they are not all such," his mother would say.
"Oh, no," he would reply; "there are some sincere ones, of course; but I think they would be better out than in such a company of hypocrites."
But as he saw Edith"s sincerity, and learned of her purpose to unite with the church, he kept these views more and more in the background; but he had too much respect for her and his mother"s faith to go with them to what they regarded as a sacred place, from merely the personal motive of being near Edith.
One day Mrs. Lacey and Edith walked down to the evening prayer-meeting. Arden, who had business in the village, was to call for them at its close; as they were walking home, Edith suddenly asked him:
"Why don"t you go to church?"
"I don"t like the people I meet there."
"What have you against them?"
"Well, there is Mr. Hard. He is one of the "lights and pillars"; and he would have sold the house over your head if you had not paid him.
He can "devour a widow"s house" as well as they of olden time."
"That is not the question," said the practical Edith, earnestly. "What have you to do with Mr. Hard, or he with you? Does he propose--is he able to save you? The true question is, What have you got against Jesus Christ?"
"Well, really, Miss Edith, I can have nothing against Him. Both history and legend unite in presenting Him as one of the purest and n.o.blest of men. But pardon me if I say in all honesty that I cannot quite accept your belief in regard to Him and the Bible in general. A man can hardly be a man without exercising the right of independent thought. I cannot take a book called the Bible for granted."
"But," asked, Edith keenly, "are you not taking other books for granted? Answer me truly, Mr. Lacey, have you carefully and patiently investigated this subject, not only on the side of your sceptical writers, but on G.o.d"s side also? He has plenty of facts, as well as the infidels, and my rich, lasting, rational, spiritual experience is as much a fact as that stone there, and a good deal higher and better one, I think."
Arden was silent for some little time, and they could see in the moonlight that his face was very grave and thoughtful. At last he said, as if it had been wrung from him:
"Miss Allen, to be honest with you and myself, I have never given the subject such a fair examination." After a moment he continued, "Even if I became convinced that all were true, I might still remain at home, for I could find far more advantage in reading books, or the Bible itself, than from Mr. Knox"s dry sermons."
"I think you are wrong," said Edith, gently but firmly. "Granting the premise you admitted a moment ago, that Christ was one of the purest and n.o.blest of men, you surely, with your chivalric instincts, would say that such a man ought to be imitated."
"Yes," said Arden, "and He denounced the Pharisees."
"And He worshipped with them also," said Edith, quickly. "He went to the temple with the others. What was there to interest Him in the dreary forlorn little synagogue at Nazareth? and yet He was there with the regularity of the Sabbath. It was the best form of faith and worship then existing, and He sustained it by every means in His power, till He could give the people something better. Suppose all the churches in this place were closed, not one in a hundred would or could read the books you refer to. If your example were followed they would be closed. As far as your example goes it tends to close them. I have heard Mr. Knox say, that wherever Christian worship and the Christian Sabbath are not observed, society rapidly deteriorates. Is it not true?"
They had stopped at Edith"s gate. Arden averted his face for a moment, then turning toward Edith he gave her his hand, saying:
"Yes, it is true, and a true, faithful friend you have been to me to-night. I admit myself vanquished."
Edith gave his hand a cordial pressure, saying earnestly, "You are not vanquished by the young ignorant girl, Edith Allen, but by the truth that will yet vanquish the world."
After that Arden went regularly with them to church, and tried to give sincere attention to the service, but his uncurbed fancy was wandering to the ends of the earth most of the time; or his thoughts were dwelling in rapt attention on Edith. She, after all, was the only object of his faith and worship, though he had a growing intellectual conviction that her faith was true.
And so the months pa.s.sed into autumn, but with the nicest sense of honor he refrained from word or deed that would remind Edith that he was her lover. She became greatly attached to him, and he seemed almost like a brother to her. She found increasing pleasure in his society, for Arden, after the restraint of his diffidence was banished, could talk well, and he opened to her the rich treasures of his reading, and with almost a poet"s fancy and power pictured to her the storied past.
To both herself and Mrs. Lacey, life grew sunnier and sweeter. But they each had a heavy burden on their hearts, which they daily brought to the feet of the Compa.s.sionate One. They united in praying for Mrs.
Lacey"s husband, and for Zell; and their strong faith and love would take no denial. But, as Laura had said, the silence of the grave seemed to have swallowed lost Zell.
CHAPTER x.x.xI
ZELL
"And the silence of the grave ought to swallow such as poor Zell had become," is, perhaps, the thought of some. All reference to her and her cla.s.s should be suppressed.
We firmly say, No! If so, the New Testament must be suppressed. The Divine Teacher spoke plainly both of the sin and the sinner. He had scathing denunciation for the one, and compa.s.sion and mercy for the other. Shall we enforce His teachings against all other forms of evil, and not against this deadliest one of all--and that, too, in the laxity and wide demoralization of our age, when temptation lurks on every hand, and parents are often sleepless with just anxiety?
Evil is active, alluring, suggesting, insinuating itself when least expected, and many influences are at work, with the full approval of society, to poison forever all pure thoughts. And temptation is sure to come at first as an angel of light.
There is no safety save in solemn words of warning, the wholesome terror which knowledge inspires, the bracing of principle, and the enn.o.bling of Christian faith. There are too many incarnate fiends who will take advantage of the innocence of ignorance.
Zell is not in her grave. She is sinning, but more sinned against. He who said to one like her, of old, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven," loves her still, and Edith is praying for her. The grave cannot close over her yet.
But as we look upon this long-lost one, as she reclines on a sofa in Van Dam"s luxurious apartments, as we see her temples throbbing with pain, and that her cheeks are flushed and feverish, it would seem that the grave might soon hide her from a contemptuous and vindictive world.
Her head does ache sadly--it seems bursting with pain; but her heart aches with a bitterer anguish. Zell had too fine a nature to sin brutally and unfeelingly. Her betrayer"s treachery wounded her more deeply than he could understand. Even her first strong love for him could not bridge the chasm of guilt to which he led her, and her pa.s.sionate nature and remorse often caused her to turn upon, him with such scathing reproaches that even he, in his hardihood, trembled.
Knowing how proud and high-strung she was, he feared to reveal his treachery in New York, a locality with which she was familiar; so he said that very important business called him at once to Boston, a city where he had few acquaintances. Zell reluctantly acquiesced in this further journey.
They jaunted about in the North and West through the summer and autumn, and now have but recently returned to New York.
With a wild terror she saw that his pa.s.sion for her was waning.
Therefore, her reproaches and threats became at times almost terrific, and again her servile entreaties were even more pitiable and dreadful, in view of what a true wife"s position and right ought to be. He, wearying of her fierce and alternating moods, and selfishly thinking of his own ease and comfort, as was ever the case, had resolved to throw her off at the first opportunity.
But retribution for both was near. The smallpox was almost epidemic in the city: Zell"s silk had swept against a beggar"s infected rags, and fourteen days later appeared the fatal symptoms.
And truly she is weary and heart-sick this afternoon. She never remembered feeling so ill. The thought of death appalled her. She felt, as never before, that she wanted some one to love and take care of her.
Van Dam entered, and said, rather roughly:
"What"s the matter?"
"I"m sick," said Zell, faintly.
He muttered an oath.
She arose from the sofa and tottered to his easy-chair, knelt, and clasped his knees.