 20 Bud as a teacher It became a matter of astonishment to discover how many friends the old church had and from what unexpected quarters they appeared. It really seemed as though each worker had an uncle or brother or cousin of whom she had not given a thought in this connection who yet grew interested and offered help. It was Anna Graves who started this special form of help by an announcement that she made one morning. Girls, what do you think? My uncle Will is coming to stay two weeks and he says he will fresco the church ceiling for us if we will be content with plain work that he can do rapidly. It did not take the eager listeners long to promise to be content with the very plainest work that could be imagined. Their imagination had not thought of reaching after frescoed ceilings. That is an idea, said Nettie Burdick. I wonder if Joe and Charlie would not help us. Now Joe and Charlie were wall paperers in the city, and it was only a few days thereafter that Nettie announced with great satisfaction that they would come out and paper the old church for their share in the good work. Then came Ruth Jennings's brother-in-law who was in business in a more distant city and having called for Ruth and waited for her on the evening when that perplexing question of window shades was being discussed, he volunteered a delightful bit of information. Did they know about the new paper in imitation of stained glass? So good an imitation that when well laid it would take an expert to distinguish the difference. No indeed, they had never heard of such a thing, and all other business was suspended while the brother-in-law was plied with questions. The conclusion of the matter being that he said their firm dealt quite largely in this new invention, and he could have enough for this little church supplied at cost if they would like to go into it. And being able to give in round numbers the probable cost, the girls gleefully voted to go into it, provided they could secure any person who knew how to manage it. This at once developed further resources belonging to the brother-in-law. He knew all about it, and would lay the paper for them with pleasure if some of the fellows would help. He would just as soon spend a day in that way as not. Stained glass windows, said Ruth Jennings, with a long-drawn sigh of satisfaction. As if South Plains had ever dreamed of attaining to such heights, girls, will the old red curtains do for dusters, do you believe, if we wash them tremendously? The very next day brought them another surprise. Mrs. Benedict read part of a letter from Mama wherein it appeared that a certain Mr. Stewart, of the firm of Stewart, Greenough and Company, had become interested in the church at South Plains through Dora's reports of what absorbed her sister's energies, and in grateful remembrance of certain helps which Claire's father had given their church in its struggling infancy. He had selected a walnut desk and two pulpit chairs, which he had taken the liberty to ship to Miss Claire Benedict with his kind regards and earnest wish that her efforts might be prospered even as her father's had been before her. Over this astonishing piece of news some of the girls actually cried. The pulpit desk and chairs had represented a formidable bill of expense looming up before them. Each had been privately sure that they would be obliged at last to take those which would jar on their aesthetic tastes out of respect to the leanness of the church purse, and here was solid walnut selected by a man of undoubted taste and extensive knowledge in this direction. I don't think it's strange that they cried. Mary Burton, while she wiped her eyes, made a remark which was startling to some of the girls. How much your father has done for us this winter, and she looked directly at Claire Benedict. Didn't Mary remember that the dear father was dead? But Miss Benedict understood. Her eyes which had remained bright with excitement until then suddenly dimmed, but her smile and her voice were very sweet. Oh, Mary, thank you, was all she said. It would have been hard to find one more faithful or more energetic than Bud. He was full of eager, happy life. Much depended upon him. He could blacken stoves with the skill of a professional, and none were ever more vigorously rubbed than those rusty, ashby, strewn ones which had so long disgraced the church. It had been good for Bud to have others awakened to the fact that there were certain things which he could do and do well. An eventful winter was this to him. Having made an actual start toward Jerusalem, it was found that he put more energy into the journey than many who had been long on the way. And as a matter of course, before long it became apparent that he was taking rapid strides. Miss Alice Anstead was among the first to realize it. She came to Claire one evening with embarrassed laughter and a half-serious, half-amused request for instruction. I'm trying to follow out some of your hints, and they are getting me into more trouble than anything I ever undertook. Sewing societies and charity parties are as nothing in comparison. I am trying to teach Bud. He wants to study arithmetic. It is an absurd idea, I think. What will he ever want of arithmetic? But he was determined, and you were determined, and between you I have been foolish enough to undertake it. And now it appears that arithmetic is a very small portion of what he wants to learn. He wants to know everything that there is in the Bible, and where church members get their ideas about all sorts of things, and what the ministers study in the theological seminary, and why all the people in the world don't attend prayer meeting, and I don't know what not. He acts as though his brain had been under a paralysis all his life, which had just been removed. I must say he astonishes me with his questions, but it is easier to ask questions than it is to answer them. What for instance am I to say to ideas like these? Since you have gotten me into this scrape, it is no more than fair that you should help me to see daylight." And then would follow a discussion, nearly always pertaining to some of the practical truths of the Christian life, or to some direction that Bud had found in the course of his daily Bible verse, which seemed to him at variance with the life which was being lived by the professing Christians about him, and which he turned to his arithmetic teacher to reconcile. And being ignorant, found it impossible to understand why people who professed to take the Bible for their rule of life did not follow its teachings, and he brought each fresh problem to Alice Anstead with such confident expectation that she knew all about it, that she, who had only volunteered to explain to him the rules of arithmetic, was in daily embarrassment. From these conversations, which constantly grew more close and searching as Bud stumbled on new verses, Claire Benedict used to turn with a smile of satisfaction, as well as with almost a feeling of awe over the wisdom of the great teacher. Alice Anstead might be teaching Bud the principles of arithmetic, but he was certainly daily teaching her the principles of the religion which she professed but did not live. In fact, others besides Alice Anstead were being taught, or at least were being roused, by the newly awakened mind. The minister had by no means forgotten the visit which had glorified the study for that day, and he was still bathing his almost discouraged heart in the brightness of its memory when a vigorous knock one morning again interrupted his studies. His eyes brightened when he saw that the visitor was Bud, and he invited him in with cordial tone. But no, Bud was in haste. There was not a trace of the hesitancy and embarrassment which had characterized his first visit. He spoke with the confidence of one who had obtained great and sufficient help at this source before, and who knew that it was the place where help could be found. I haven't any time this morning, he said, speaking with a rapidity which had begun to characterize his newly awakened life. I'm down at Snyder's waiting for the pony to be shot, and there is a fellow there talking. He says the Bible ain't true, that it is just a lot of made up stories to cheat women and children and folks that don't know nothing like me. Well now, I know that it is no such a thing. I know the Bible is true because I've tried it, but he hasn't tried it, you see, sir, and he won't because he don't believe in it, and I thought I would just run up here and ask you to give me something to show him that it is all true, something that I can tell him in a hurry because the pony will be ready in a few minutes. What in the world was that minister to say? Was there ever such an embarrassing question thrust at him? The evidences of Christianity, yes, he had studied them carefully, of course he had. He had written sermons to prove the truth of the holy scriptures. He had a row of books on the upper shelf of his library, all of them treating more or less of this subject. He turned and looked at them. Ponderous volumes, it was not possible to take down even the smallest of them and set Bud to reading it. In the first place Bud would no more understand the language in which it was written than he would understand the Greek testament which stood by its side, and in the second place Bud wanted knowledge that could be transmitted while the pony was being shod. Certainly, this dilemma had its ludicrous side, but had it not also its humiliating one, odd there not to be some word which an educated man like himself could give in haste to an ignorant boy like Bud, something so plain that even the pony need not wait while it was being explained. Suppose the man at the blacksmith's shop had chosen to sneer over the fact that the earth is round, and Bud had come for an argument to prove the truth of this fact, how easy it would be to produce one. Odd he not to be equally ready to defend this much slandered Bible? Thoughts are very rapid in their transit. Something like these ideas rushed through the scholar's mind while he stood looking up at his row of books, and Bud stood looking up at him with an air of confident expectation. Bud, said the minister, turning suddenly away from his bookshelves, how many persons are there at Sniders? Eight or nine, sir, may be more. Are they from around here? No, sir, mostly from the country. I don't know any of them. Well, Bud, I want you to listen carefully while I ask two or three questions. Suppose you had been there before any of those men, and as one after another began to come in, each should tell of a fire there had been last night in the city. Suppose you knew that they were not acquainted with each other, and had not met until they reached the blacksmith's shop, and suppose they told the same story without contradicting one another in any of the important particulars. What do you believe you would conclude about them? Would you think that they had told the truth or a made-up story? I reckon it would be the truth, sir, because how would they know how to make it up alike? That is just the point, said the gratified minister. While he talked, he had been watching Bud carefully, much in doubt as to whether he had mind enough to grasp the illustration, but so far it had evidently been grasped. Now he must see if it could be applied. Listen, do you know that thirty-six people told the story of the Bible, and that many of them not only never saw one another, but many of them died before others of them were born, and that they told the same story without contradicting one another at all? No, sir, said Bud. I didn't know nothing about it, is that so? Extreme delight glowed in his honest eyes, and he clutched at his cap, and made a movement toward the door. I thank you, sir, I'll go back and tell them. It will be a stunner. Away went the newly awakened preacher of the evidences of Christianity, and the minister went back to his Greek testament with great satisfaction. Bud might not be able to convince the scoffer at the blacksmith's shop, Mr. Ramsey did not expect that he would. He knew that Satan had many skillful ways of using false weapons and making them flash like true steel. The thing which gave him pleasure was that Bud had understood. He felt nearly certain that the boy's mind would not leave the question there, it would have to be investigated, and he, the minister, would have to get ready to help him. We ought to be careful to speak about all these things in such a way that uneducated people could follow us, he said. And all that mourning, while he worked over his sermon for the following sabbath, he worked to secure simple words in which to clothe his thought. He sought illustrations to give it clearness. In short, he preached to Bud. Almost unconsciously, he brought the boy before his mind's eye cap in hand, a symbol of the people whose thoughts rested for a moment on what you were saying, and then flitted away to something else, unless indeed the owners were caught during that moment. This particular minister had never before so fully realized this truth. He had never before labored so hard to catch the attention of the unskilled listener, nor had he ever become so intensely interested in any sermon as he did in that one. If he was to preach it for Bud, it must be very simple, and in making it very simple, his own heart took hold of it as a tremendous reality instead of a thought out of a book. I hope I shall be understood when I say that Bud wrote the greater part of the minister's sermon that week, though he, of course, was utterly unconscious of the fact. CHAPTER XXI. ONE OF THE VICTIMS. Meantime there were other interests at stake that winter than those involved in the renovation of the old church. For instance, there was Harry Matthews, who kept Claire's heart constantly filled with anxious thought. It became more and more apparent that he was in great and growing danger. Claire saw much of him. He had been one of the most faithful helpers during the preparations for the concert, and he was still one of the energetic workers being included in all their plans. Moreover, he was a genial, society-loving, warm-hearted young fellow, one of the sort with whom a sympathetic girl soon becomes intimate. Claire had often, in the earlier days of her girlhood, sighed over the fact that she had no brother, and now it seemed sometimes to her as if this Harry were a sort of brother over whose interests she must watch. So she exercised an older sister's privilege in growing very anxious about him. Neither was he so gaily happy as he had been early in the season. He had kept his pledge, coming to her at first with laughing eyes and mock gravity of face, pretending to make confession like the good little boy in the storybook, who is sorry and won't do so any more if he can help it. She always received these admissions with a gentle gravity, so unmistakably tinged with sadness and disappointment, that they presently ceased to be amusing to him. He was beginning to make discoveries. First, that it was by no means an agreeable thing for a manly young man to seek a young woman whom he respected, and voluntarily admit that he had again been guilty of what he knew she looked upon with distrust, not only, but with actual dismay. And second, that he had the confession to make much more frequently than he had supposed could possibly be the case. In short, the habit which he had supposed such a light one was growing upon him. That on occasions when he withstood the invitations and temptations, the struggle was a hard one which he shrank from renewing. Still he made resolves. It was absurd to suppose that he could keep running after Miss Benedict or sending her notes to say that he had again indulged in a habit that he had assured her was of no consequence, and that he could break in a day if he chose. He knew now that this was folly. It was not to be broken in a day. He began to suspect that possibly he was a slave with little or no power to break it at all. The tenor of his notes changed steadily. The first one ran thus. I have to inform your most gracious majesty that I have this day committed the indiscretion of taking about two-thirds of a glass of champagne with an old school chum whom I have not seen for six months. It is another chapter of the old story. He beguiled me, and I did drink. Of course it was no fault of mine, and it gives me comfort to inform you that the tempter has gone on his way to Chicago, and that I do not expect to see him for another six months. So humbly craving your majesty's pardon for being thus obliged to trouble her, owing to a certain foolish pledge of mine, I remain your humble subject, Harry Matthews. The last one she received was briefly this. Miss Benedict, I have failed again, though I did not mean to do so. I beg you will erase my name from that page, and care nothing more about it or me. For the first note Clare had lingered with a troubled air, but on this last one there dropped tears. She had adopted Harry by this time as a young brother, and she could not help carrying his peril about in her heart. Still, if he had not gone too far, there was more hope for the writer of this brief note, with its undertone of fierce self-disgust, than for the one who could so merrily confess what he believed was, at the worst, a foible. One evening they walked home together from the church. She was silent, and her heart was heavy. She had caught the odor of wine about him, though he had made a weak effort to conceal it with rich spices. They walked half the distance from the church to the academy, having spoken nothing beyond an occasional commonplace. Both to tell, Clare was in doubt what to say, or whether to say anything. She had spoken many words to him. She had written him earnest little notes. What used to say more? It was he who broke the silence speaking moodily. It is of no use, Miss Benedict. I shall have to ask you to release me from that pledge. I cannot keep rushing around to the academy to tell you what befalls me. It is absurd. Well, the fact is, as I am situated, I simply cannot keep from using liquor now and then. Often or indeed than I had supposed when I signed that paper. It must have been a great bore to you, and I owe you a thousand apologies. But you see how it is. I must be released and left to myself. I have been true to my promise, as I knew I should be when I made it. But I can't have you troubled any longer. And as I say, I have to drink occasionally. He did not receive the sort of answer which he had expected. He was prepared for an earnest protest for an argument. But Clare said, her voice very sad the while, I know you cannot keep from drinking, Harry, and I have known it for a long while. Now, although he had told himself several times in a disgusted way that he was a coward and a fool and a slave, and that he did not deserve to have the respect of a lady, his pride was by no means so far gone that he liked to hear the admission from other lips than his own that he was bound in chains which he could not break. What do you mean, he asked hodlily enough? I mean, Harry, that you are tempted, awfully tempted, to become a drunkard. I mean that I do not think you can help yourself. I think you have gone beyond the line where your strength would be sufficient. You inherit the taste for liquor, never mind how I learned that, I know it, and I have known it for a long time. As surely as Satan lives, he has you in his toils, oh, Harry. There were tears in her voice. She was not one who easily lost self-control before others, but this was a subject on which her heart was sore. He did not know how many times she had said to herself, what if he were my brother and mama sat at home watching and praying for him, and he were as he is, and his mother is a widow and has only this one, and she sits at home and waits. And this mother's fast-coming agony of discovery had burned into her soul until it is no wonder that the tears choked what else she might have said. But Harry was haughty still. He was more than that, however. He was frightened. If the darkness of the night had not shielded his face from observation, its pallor would have frightened her. He tried, however, to steady his voice as he said, Miss Benedict, what do you mean? I do not understand. Do you mean that I am foreordained to become a drunkard and that I cannot help myself? Oh, Harry, I mean that the great enemy of your soul has discovered just how he can ruin you body and soul, and he means to do it. You have toyed with him until you cannot help yourself. You cannot, Harry. There is no use to fancy that you can. He has ruined many a young man as self-reliant as you. He is too strong for you and too mean. He has ways of dissembling that you would scorn. He is not honest with you. He has made you believe what was utterly false. He has you in his toils, and as surely as you are here tonight, just so surely will you fail in the battle with him. You do not know how to cope with Satan. You need not flatter yourself that you do. He has played with many a soul, coaxed it to feel just that sense of superiority over him which you feel until it was too late, and then laughed at his victim for being a dupe. During the first part of this sentence, Harry Matthews, though startled, was also angry. He had always prided himself on his self-control upon being able to go just so far in a given direction and no farther unless he chose. And even in this matter, when he had accused himself of being a slave, he had not believed it. He had believed simply that he had discovered himself to be more fond of intoxicants than he had supposed, and that the effect to give them up involved more self-sacrifice than it was worthwhile to make. And while he was vexed that even this was so, he had honestly believed this to be the whole story. It was not until this moment that the sense of being an actual peril and being insufficient for his own rescue rushed over him. I do not know why it did at that time unless the Holy Spirit saw his opportunity and willed that it should be so. There was almost mortal anguish in the low voice that sounded at last in answer to Claire's cry of fear. God help me then, what can I do? The question surprised Claire, startled her. She had prayed for it, but she was like many another Christian worker in that she had not seemed to expect the answer to her prayer. Verily, he has to be content with exceeding little faith. Claire had expected the blind young man would go on excusing himself and assuring her of her mistake. Nonetheless, she was eager with her answer. If you only meant that cry, if you only would give up the unequal strife and stand aside and cry out, O Lord, undertake for me what a world would be revealed to you. Harry Matthews, there is just one who fought a battle with Satan and came off victor, and there never will be another. The victory must come through him, or it is at best a very partial and at all times a doubtful one. In him are safety and everlasting strength, and outside of him is danger. She did not say another word, nor did he other than a half-oddable good night as he held open the academy gate for her to pass. She went in feeling frightened over much that she had said. Occhita have spoken so hopelessly to him. What if he turned in despair and plunged into excesses such as he had not known before? Men had reformed and signed the pledge and kept it, apparently without the aid of Christ. At least they had not owned allegiance to him, though well she knew that his restraining grace was, after all, what kept any man from rushing headlong into ruin. God held back even those who would not own his detaining arm. But she had felt so hopeless in regard to Harry, so certain that nothing short of an acknowledged leaning on Christ would be sufficient for his needs. The more she had prayed for him, the more sure she had been that in Christ alone lay his refuge. She had not meant to say this to him, yet the thoughts seemed to crowd out of themselves when he gave them opportunity. Now she went to her room shivering and trembling over the possible results. She had very little opportunity, however, for thought. There was that awaiting her which was not calculated to quiet her mind. It was Alice Anstead, who rose up from before the east window, where a fine view was to be had of the rising moon, and came forward to meet her as she entered her own room. I beg your pardon for having taken possession. There was company in the parlor, and Mrs. Foster said she thought I might come here and wait for you. Is there another committee meeting this evening, or can I hope to have you to myself for five minutes? There is no committee meeting this evening, Claire said, smiling. We have been down to measure the platform and arrange for the organ, but I believe now that everything is done. Take this easy chair. I am glad you waited for me. There are several things about which I wish to consult you, she added. They have to do with that church, I know. I shall not let you get started on that topic. I should be perfectly certain not to get you back to any other tonight, and I want to do the talking myself. I cannot see why you care so much for that church. Claire laughed. We care for anything for which we work, and especially for which we sacrifice a little, you know. Why you care for it yourself? Don't you think you do a little? I care for you and for your opinion. I have been telling Mama only this evening that when the old barn gets fixed up, I believe I will go down there to church. I am not so fond of riding that I care to take an eight-mile ride every Sunday. Besides, I think it looks silly. Mama thinks we are all becoming idiotic for all the daughters and the sons sided with me, and Papa said he didn't care a rush light which we did, and that it would be easier for the horses to come down here. Good news, said Claire brightly. I have been hoping for something of the kind. Then you will begin to attend the prayer meeting, of course, and it does need you so much. I'm sure I don't see why I should. I never attended prayer meeting in town, and I have belonged to that church for years. The idea of my helping along a prayer meeting. You do have some very absurd ideas, Claire Benedict, though I may as well admit that the only reason I would have for coming here to church would be to give you pleasure. But this is not in the least what I came to talk to you about. I knew we should get on that subject and never get away from it. Let us go right away from it and tell me, please, just what you want to talk about. Only let me say this one little thing. I want you to come down to prayer meeting next Wednesday evening and discover in how many ways you can help it. Now I am ready. CHAPTER XXII Now that Claire sat in expectance silence, she grew silent too and looked down and toyed with the fringe of her wrap, her face in a frown that indicated either perplexity or distrust. I don't know why I should come to you, she said at last, speaking half angrily. I suppose I am a simpleton and shall get little thanks for any interference, yet it certainly seems to me as though something ought to be done and as though you might do it. If there is any way in which I can help you, Claire said, you hardly need to have me say how glad I shall be to do so. Would you, I wonder, would you help in a perplexity that seems to me to be growing into a downright danger and which I more than half suspect you could avert? There was something so significant in her tone that Claire looked at her in wonderment for a moment, then said, choosing her words with care. You surely know that I would be only too glad to help you in any way that was right, and of course you would not ask me to do anything that I thought wrong. Oh, I'm not so sure of that. You have such peculiar ideas of right and wrong. They are not according to my standard, I presume. How I wish I knew without telling you just what you would think right. It would settle several questions for me, or else it would unsettle me, for I might not want to do what was right, you see, any more than you would want to do what was wrong. I am not a witch, said Claire lightly, and I confess that I have no more idea what you mean than if you were speaking in Sanskrit. Perhaps you speak English for a few minutes, my friend, and enlighten me. I will, presently, I want to ask you a few general questions first which have nothing special to do with the question at hand. Would you marry a man who was not a Christian? No, said Claire, wondering, startled yet nevertheless prompt enough with her answer. That is, I do not now see how I could. In the first place I would not be likely to have the opportunity, for I could not be sufficiently interested in a man who had no sympathy with me in these vital questions to ever reach the point as to my possible opportunities and duties. Oh, well, that does not materially enlighten me. You see, I am talking about people who could become sufficiently interested to reach a great many questionings and not know what to do with them. Let me suppose a case. We will say the people live in China and become deeply interested in each other. In the course of time one of them goes to the Fiji Islands for instance and meets a missionary and comes somewhat under her influence. If we will say, to make her uncomfortable and to make her suspect that she is a good deal of a heathen herself, though she was a member in good and regular standing of a church in China. To make the circumstances more interesting, you may suppose that one of the converted heathen begins to interest himself in her and to enlighten her as to the power of genuine religion over the heathen heart and mind to such an extent that she is almost sure she knows nothing about it experimentally and at the same time has a yearning desire to know and to receive the mysterious something which she discovers in this one. We will also suppose that she receives letters from China occasionally which show her that the other party has met neither missionary nor heathen to impress him in any way and that his plans and determinations are all of the earth and decidedly earthy and yet he is disposed to think that the lady might be thinking about returning to China and joining him in his effort to have a good time. What in your estimation ought the half awakened Fiji resident to do? Alice is not some very distant city representing China and his south plains Fiji and his bud the converted heathen. There is enough which about you to have secured you a very warm experience in the olden days never mind translating if you please this is not to be in English. What ought the Fiji to do? I should think there could be no question a half awakened person would still be in danger of dropping back into darkness and should as surely as she believes in the petition lead me not into temptation guard against anything that would be a contradiction to that prayer. Well but suppose this half awakened person were married to the party in China what then? That would be a very different matter the irrevocable vows would have been taken before the world the until death to you part would have been accepted and there would be no liberty of choice. I don't see the reasoning clearly suppose a person should take a vow to commit murder and announce her determination before the world to do so with a solemn of vows you please ought her conscience to hold her not she added with a slight and embarrassed laugh that I would put the idea of murder as a parallel case with the other imagining I don't mean anything you know by all this I am simply dealing with some imaginary people in China. Claire did not smile and held herself carefully to the analogy of the illustration you are supposing a moral impossibility Alice no one would be allowed to take a public and solemn oath to commit murder the very oath would be a violation of the laws of God and of the land but in the other case the old taken professes to be in keeping with God's revealed will and with the demands of respectable society surely you see what an infinite difference this would make. Ah yes of course well I'll suppose one thing more for purposes of convenience let us have these two people engaged to each other but the pledge not consummated before the public what then but over this question Claire kept a troubled silence I do not know she said it last I am not sure how that ought to be answered perhaps it is one of the things which each individual is called upon to answer for himself or herself taking it to God for special light a betrothal seems to me a very solemn thing not to be either entered into or broken lightly and yet I can conceive of circumstances wherein it would be right to break the pledge where it was wrong ever to have made it and two rungs cannot make a right you know but Alice this is dangerous ground I am almost inclined to think it is ground where a third party on the human side should not intermetal at least unless it is one who has far more wisdom than I it is not possible for me to advise you in this you have advised me Alice said with exceeding gravity all I wanted was your individual opinion and that you have given plainly though you may not be aware of it when one knows one is doing a thing that is wrong I suppose the time has come to draw back if the drawing back can write the wrong it can help toward it these people who live in China remember are perhaps among those who ought never to have made the pledge however let us drop them I want to talk to you about a more important matter still she did not talk but relapsed again into troubled silence and Claire not knowing what to say waited and said nothing would you marry a man if you thought you might possibly be the means of saving his soul Claire was startled and a trifle disturbed to think that the conversation was still to run in a channel with which she was so unfamiliar still this first question was comparatively easy to deal with that might depend on whether I could do so without assuming false boughs I could not promise a lie for the sake of saving any soul besides it being wrong in itself I would have no reason to hope that it would be productive of any good for God does not save souls by means which are sinful why do you ask me all these questions Alice I have no experience and I'm not wise I wish you would seek a better counselor never mind I have all the council I desire I am not talking about those people in China anymore so you think I am I was thinking of you and of somebody who is in danger and whom I believe you could save but I know you won't at least not in that way Claire Benedict I am troubled about my brother tell me this do you know that he is in danger yes said Claire her voice low and troubled do you know from what source I mean I think I do I thought you did else I am not sure that my pride would have allowed me to open my lips well do you know there is something you might do to help him Alice no you are not to interrupt me I don't mean anything insulting there are ways of which I would be more sure and they are connected with you but I know they are out of the question I am not going to talk of them but there is something I want you to do I want you to talk with mama it is of no use for me to say a word to her there are family reasons why she is specially vexed with me just now and will not listen reasonably to anything that I might say but she respects you and likes you you have more or less influence over her are you willing to use it for Lewis's sake but my dear Alice I do not understand you in the least what could I say to your mother that she does not already know and in any case how could she materially help your brother he needs the help of his own will that is true but there are ways in which mama might help him if she would I can tell you of some in the first place you are mistaken as to her knowledge she knows it is true that he takes more wine occasionally than is good for him and has violent headaches in consequence but she does not know that two nights in a week at least he comes home intoxicated isn't that a terrible thing to say of one's brother what has become of the Anstead pride when I can say it to almost a stranger why does not your mother know partly because she is blind and partly because I have promised Lewis not to tell her and partly because there are reasons why it would be especially hard on my mother to have this knowledge brought to her through me you see there are reasons enough now for what she could do Claire she fairly drives him into temptation there is a certain house in the city which she is very anxious to see united to ours she contrives daily pretexts for sending Lewis there and it is almost impossible for him to go there without coming home the worse for liquor I wish I could talk more plainly to you I will tell you this there is a brother as well as a sister in that house and it has been a pet dream of my mother to exchange the sons and daughters it is a romantic old world scheme grown up with the family from their early days and mama who has never been accustomed to having her plans thwarted is in danger of seeing all of these come to not and more than half believes that I am plotting against it for Lewis having first shown myself to be an undue to full and ungrateful daughter do you see how entirely my tongue is silenced I wonder if you do understand I understand my dear friend and I thank you for your confidence but I do not see how a stranger can help or indeed can interfere in any way without being guilty of gross rudeness how could I hope to approach your mother on such subjects as these without having her feel herself insulted Alice made a gesture of impatience you cannot she said if you think more of the irritable words that a troubled mother may say to you then you do of a soul in peril but I did not think you were of that sort Claire waited a moment before replying I think I may be trusted to try to do what seems right even though it were personally hard she said it last speaking very gently but Alice I do not understand how words of mine could do other than mischief I can show you this family I have told you is a continual snare to Lewis he simply cannot go there without being led into great temptation and mama is responsible for the most of his visits it would not be difficult for Lewis to remain away if mama did not make errands for him he would go abroad with the Houston's next week and be safe from this and many other temptations or he would go to the Rocky Mountains with Harold Chesney and he could not be in better society if mama would give her consent and she would if she could be made to realize his peril if she knew that outsiders were talking about it don't you see now who is going to enlighten her I am not in favor less so just at present than ever before the girls poor young things do not know of our disgrace and would have no influence with mama if they did and papa would like the alliance from a business point of view as well as mama would from a romantic and fashionable one do you see the accumulation of troubles and do you imagine I wonder what it is to me when I have humbled myself to tell it all to you and this young lady said Claire ignoring the personal questions do you feel sure that there is no hope of help from that source is not her interest deep enough and her influence strong enough to come to the rescue if she fully understood there was again that gesture of extreme impatience that young lady she has no more character than a painted doll Claire Benedict she is in as great danger today as Lewis is and from the same source she dances every night and buoys up her flagging strength by stimulants every day I have seen her repeatedly when she was so excited with wine that I knew she did not know what she was saying is it possible this was Claire's startled exclamation it is not only possible it is an almost daily occurrence and she fills the glass with her own silly little hand which trembles at the moment with the excitement of wine and holds it to my brother and he poor foolish boy accepts it because he knows that he likes it better than anything else in the world at least that is attainable Claire if my mother could be prevailed upon to urge Lewis to go away with Harold Chesney I believe he might be saved who is Harold Chesney he is one of God's saints made for the purpose of showing us what a man might be if he would Claire Benedict will you try end of chapter 22 recording by Trisha G chapter 23 of interrupted by pansy this Libra box recording is in the public domain chapter 23 unpalatable truths yes said Claire I will try but she said it with a long drawn sigh this was work that was utterly distasteful to her and she saw but little hope of accomplishing anything by attempting it she wanted to fight the demon of alcohol wherever found at least she had thought that she did but who would have supposed that it could bring her into such strange contact with Mrs. Russell and said in order that you may understand why this plan of rescue had suggested itself to Alice and said mine it will be necessary to explain that the acquaintance which had been commenced by accident had been allowed to mature into what might almost be called friendship at least it had pleased Mrs. Anstead to encourage the intimacy between her young people and the attractive music teacher it is not as though she had been simply a music teacher and nothing else all her life was Mrs. Anstead want to explain to her city friends she is a daughter of the Boston Benedict and of course her opportunities have been rare she is simply faultless in her manners the girls learn a great deal from her and are devoted to her and she really is a charming companion you know in the country we have no society so Claire had been made almost oppressively welcome to the lovely house on the hill and the sleigh or the carriage had been sent for her many times when she could not go and in many kind and pleasant ways had the entire family sought to show their interest in her society Mrs. Anstead indeed patronized her to such an extent that Alice had made herself imagine that in this direction might be found the light which would open the mother's eyes to certain things which she ought to see and did not Claire did not share her hopes she had always felt herself held back from real heart intimacy with the fair and worldly woman had always detected the tinge of patronage in the kindness shown her and had even smiled sometimes at the thought of how the very attentions which she received placidly and in a sense gratefully would chafe her hot-headed young sister Dora it had given her joy of heart and cause for gratitude to realize that she herself had been lifted above such chafings there were trials in her lot but Mrs. Anstead's patronage was not one of them still it made her feel that little would be gained by attempted interference in her family affairs under the circumstances she felt herself intrusive yet determined to submit and thereby convince Alice of her willingness and powerlessness the most she had to fear was a little drying up of the aristocratic shoulders and a cold and courteous hint that some things belonged exclusively to the domain of very close friendship it was on the following Saturday that opportunity offered for an attempt Claire was spending the day with the Anstead's the invitation had come from the mother and was unusually cordial Lewis was in town would probably remain over the Sabbath and the girls were lonely the mother did not know how much more readily the invitation was accepted because Lewis was in town they were in Mrs. Anstead's own sitting room the girls had been called to the sewing room at the mandate of the dressmaker and Alice telegraphing Claire that now was her opportunity slipped away have you ever observed how much harder it becomes to set about a delicate and embarrassing duty when circumstances have been carefully made for you and you are left to stare in the face of the thought I am to do this thing now it is expected of me immediately Claire began to feel that it would be preposterous in her to try to advise or enlighten Mrs. Anstead but that lady unconsciously helped her by asking did you ever meet Mr. Harold Chesney in Boston I believe he calls that his home though he is abroad a great deal I wish he were abroad now instead of planning an excursion to the Rocky Mountains and all sort of out-of-the-world places and putting Lewis into a fever to accompany him I have a horror of those Western expeditions entered into by young men Lewis will not go contrary to my approval however so I need not worry about it it is a great comfort to a mother to have a dutiful son my dear it must be clear hasten to say but added that she should think it would be a delightful trip for a young man and a rare opportunity to see his own country she was not personally acquainted with Mr. Chesney but she had heard him very highly spoken of oh he is perfection I suppose Mrs. Anstead said carelessly too perfect my dear for ordinary flesh and blood he is very wealthy and very eccentric has innumerable ways for wasting his money on savages and all that sort of thing I should really almost fear his influence over Lewis he is such an impressible boy Harold might fancy at his duty to become a home missionary this last was spoken with a little satisfied laugh as though Lewis Anstead's position was too well assured after all to suggest any reasonable fears of his sinking to the level of a home missionary the matron speedily composed her face however and added Harold is a magnificent man I have no doubt and if Lewis were a young man of depraved tendencies and low tastes probably I should hope for nothing better than to exile him for a while with such a guard but in his position and with his prospects the idea is of course absurd I don't know what fancies Alice has in mind the child seems quite to favor Lewis is going Alice is a little inclined to be fanatical I am afraid in some things I hope you will not encourage such tendencies my dear I have seen with pleasure that she is becoming more interested in religion and disposed to help poor bud though she has chosen some foolish ways of doing that but still it is quite as it should be to rouse to the importance of these things I have been pained with her indifference in the past however we should not carry anything to extremes you know they were not getting on Claire did not feel like a diplomatist she was disposed to be straightforward would not simple truth serve her purpose in this case at least it would be less humiliating than to try to worm herself into family confidences so she spoke her plane question this is an stead has it never seemed to you that it would be well for Lewis to get away for a time from some of his associates who tempt him in the direction in which he is least able to bear temptation plain English was not palatable or else it was not understood two red spots glowed on the mother's cheek but her eyes were cold and what is that if you please I was not aware that my son was particularly susceptible to any temptation could this be true did she not know that he was tempted to real home at midnight like a common drunkard if so what an awful revelation for a stranger to make Claire hesitated and the lady looked steadily at her and waited simple truth should serve her again it would be insulting to offer anything else Mrs. Anstead you will pardon me for referring to it but I know from your son's own statements that he is tempted in the direction of liquor and that he finds it hard to resist these temptations and I am afraid he is in great danger if I were his mother and had confidence in this Mr. Chesney I should beg him to go out with him and break away from his present surroundings she was deceived in the mother in the calm with which she listened to these words she did not cry out like one amazed and hurt nor did she look like one who was being shocked into a faint and Claire watching her hurried on determined to make her disagreeable revelations as brief as she could and then to get away from the subject surely the mother could not feel much humiliated before her when she confessed that she had received these intimations from the son but directly her voice ceased the mother arose her own tones low and ladylike as usual I am not aware Miss Benedict that our kind treatment of you can have furnished any excuse for this direct and open insult I did not know that you had succeeded in securing my son's confidence to such a degree that he had been led to reduce his friends I cannot imagine his motive but allow me to say that yours is plain and will fail the lady to whom Mr. Lewis Anstead has been paying special attention for years cannot be thrown off even by his taking a trip to the Rocky Mountains and if you hope to ingratiate yourself in the mother's heart by trying to arouse her fears you have made a grievous mistake my daughters are evidently more susceptible and I now understand some things that were before mysterious to me I am sorry for you Miss Benedict I can well imagine that it is a hard thing to be poor but it is a pity to add disgrace to poverty you have been unwise to try to work up fanatical ideas on my son we are none of us temperance fanatics there was a dangerous fire in Claire's eyes but she struggled to keep back the words that hurried forward clamoring to be spoken this woman before her was old enough to be her mother and was the mother of a young man whom she would try to save besides she had the force of habit to help her the controlled voice which belongs to the cultured lady even under trying provocation was as much a part of her as it was of Mrs. Anstead I will pass by your personalities Mrs. Anstead as unworthy of you and ask you to pardon my apparent intrusion into family affairs on the sole ground that I have come into possession of some knowledge concerning your son's danger which I have reason to believe you do not possess and I thought I ought as a Christian woman to warn you Mrs. Anstead was already repenting of some of her words beginning that is to realize that she had been unnecessarily insulting to a guest in her own home and one whom her son as well as her daughters liked and admired she was not less angry but more controlled possibly you mean well she said dropping into the patronizing tone which was habitual and I may have spoken to plainly in my haste a mother's feelings when she considers the characters of her children insulted are sometimes not sufficiently held in check we will conclude Miss Benedict that your motive was good though your words were unfortunate and your conclusions unwarrantable my son is entirely capable of taking care of himself if you are really sincere in supposing him to be in danger because he takes an occasional glass of wine it only proves you to be lamentably ignorant of the customs of polite society and now I must beg you to excuse me excitement always wearies me and I feel that I must lie down for a while I presume my daughter will be in soon and Claire was left alone to gather her startled thoughts and determine what to do next she was greatly excited in all her imaginings of a mother's heart nothing of this kind had occurred it had been a serious failure as she had feared it would be but not of the kind which she had planned she looked about her for paper on which to write a line to Alice then determined that she would do no such thing lest Alice might have to bear blame and consequence she would just slip away quietly and go home and think it was not clear in her mind what ought to be said to Alice she had been insulted and by Alice's mother and she could not longer remain a guest in the house but perhaps it was not necessary that Alice should know all this she must wait and think and pray at least it would not be wise to make any expression about mrs. Anstead until she could think less bitterly of the words spoken to her for it was by no means a pleasant thing to be misjudged and it is especially difficult to keep one's mouth closed when one has that to tell which would silence all the hints forever it had required all the self-control which Claire possessed not to tell mrs. Anstead to ask her son whether the insinuations which had been flung at her meant anything certainly she was not in the mood to have an interview with Alice she hastily and quietly possessed herself of her wraps and stole out of the house and down the avenue which had in the few weeks past become so familiar to her bud saw her from the distant stables but he only made her a most respectful bow it was no strange sight to him he knew that she came and went often during these days he did not know that she was thinking that in all probability she would never walk down that avenue again there is no use explaining to you that she cried when she reached home cried bitterly and with a perfect abandon as though her heart were broken she was young and had not had many hard words to bear and all her sharp thrusts from life had come upon her lately her knowledge of human nature had been increasing with painful rapidity and there were times when she shrank from it all and wanted to go to her father but after the crying or indeed in the very midst of it she prayed for herself first she felt so sore and ill used and friendless then for Louis Anstead the special danger and the special friendlessness of a man with such a mother took hold of her with power and at last she prayed for the mother not at her but for her there is a way of praying about a soul with whom we are offended or at least we call it praying which is simply pouring out one's knowledge of that person's shortcomings in an almost vindictive way before the one whom we almost unconsciously feel ought to come to our help and administer rebuke Claire honestly prayed for Louis Anstead's mother her eyes must be opened but how must it be that they were to be opened by the utter ruin of her only son that this might not be necessary Claire prayed and rose up presently almost forgetful that she had received deep wounds and quite ready to shield that mother's shortcomings from her children end of chapter 23 recording by Tricia G chapter 24 of interrupted by Pansy the slipper box recording is in the public domain chapter 24 recognition and now I desire you to imagine the worshipers gathered one morning in the little church itself planes the winter over and gone the time of the singing of birds and of sweet scented flowers had come the marvel of the annual resurrection from the grave of winter was being lived over again in nature but within the sanctuary it seemed more than resurrection almost creation was it the same church at all what had become of the dusty floors and the smoky walls and the rusty stovepipe and the smoking stoves and the square table and the swaying faded red curtains and the faded and worn ingrain rag which covered the platform and the dust and the rust and the dreariness what a strange effect that paper of a quiet tint and yet with a suggestion of sunlight in it had on those hitherto bare and smoky walls how high the frescoing made the ceiling look what an excellent imitation of real were the carefully grained seats how perfectly the carpet harmonized in pattern and coloring with the paper on the walls small wonder this last if you had known how many patient hours mama and dora had spent in reaching the important decision which shall we send as for the pulpit it was real without any paint about it and so neat and pretty and graceful that the girls had exhausted all adjectives on it and really the stovepipe though it wandered about according to some wild freak that was considered necessary in order to draw did not look so objectionable now that it was real rasha and nothing could glow more brilliantly than the stoves which smoked no more engineer bud had been a success still i know that i cannot make you realize the difference in that church unless you were there on that dreary winter morning when claire benedict first looked upon it with utter sinking of heart and then were there again on that spring morning and caught the breath of the flowers and saw the shimmer of awakened life over everything within and without you will never understand it unless indeed you look up some other man forsaken sanctuary and try the delightful experiment of transformation there were those in south plains who knew and felt the difference they gathered softly the worshipers the men on tiptoe though they need not have done that for the heavy carpet gave back no sound of footfall but it was one of their ways of expressing admiration and reverence they gave quick admiring amazed glances about them then riveted their eyes as the workers had meant they should on the motto which glowed before them strung from lamp to lamp in some spirit like fashion which those unacquainted with the management of silverware cannot comprehend and which made the triumphant announcement the lord is in his holy temple and i tell you that so much as the outward and tangible to do with our spiritual vision there were those present who grasped the stupendous fact for the first time the organ squeaked no more it had only been a matter of a drop of oil which quieted that and yet the congregation had actually sat under its squeak almost for years so many things in this world squeak for the want of a thoughtful hand to administer a drop of oil then the choir that almost hardest thing in country or city to manage successfully had been transformed there had been no violent wrenches occasionally it happens that a combination of circumstances bring about unlooked for and delightful results the discordant alto had married bless her and gone to another town the flatting tenor had sprained his ankle poor man and must needs abide at home the tremendous base had that rare quality common sense and discovered on the evening of the concert that south plains had taken a musical prize and was himself the one to propose that miss benedict and her class should be invited to join the choir and further that miss benedict should be requested to drill the choir and had put himself under training and his voice being really grand he bade fair under culture to become the power and song that god designed i do not know whether it was accident or blessed design that the much astonished much encouraged young old minister in a new coat which was an Easter gift from the young men of his congregation read the hymn i love her gates i love the road the church adorned with grace stands like a palace built for god to show his milder face but i know that he read it as that people had never heard him read a hymn before with an unction and a quiver of feeling which said almost as plainly as words the lord reyneth and this is his holy temple and i am his chosen mouthpiece to this people i had almost forgotten it but it is so then when that reconstructed choir rolled out the words led by the center voice of exquisite melody and power the worshipers felt the sentiment of the hymn fill their hearts and admitted that they did love her gates and that they must rouse up and show their love as they had not done here too far ah there was more in that church that day than new carpet and new furniture and paint and paper and light and beauty these were all well enough and clear benedicts sense of the fitness of things rejoiced in them all but what were they to the thrill in her heart as she heard the minister read among the names announced for reception into the visible communion of the church that of hubbard mires there were some who did not know to whom the name belonged and it was not surprising for hubbard mires had been called only bud for so many years the wonder was that he remembered his name himself there had been great astonishment among some and not a little shaking of heads when bud presented himself as a candidate for church membership it had not been supposed that he had intellect enough to understand the meaning of the step there was close questioning on the part of the minister not for himself alone but for the enlightenment of others but before the examination closed more than one of the listeners drew out their red handkerchiefs and blew their noses suspiciously and at last one of the most stolid of them remarked it is my opinion brethren that the boy has been taught of god and i think we would do well to accept him without any further delay and they did there were other trophies where would be the church of christ without its living working members one who was pledged to prefer jerusalem above her chief joy had not been and in the very nature of the case could not have been content with toiling simply for the outward adorning of the temple a history of the quiet work which had been done in hearts during that one winter would fill a volume i have but given you a hint of it here in there the head of the church has the complete record there is perhaps little need that i should try to give you even scattered notes of it yet there was one name which made the tears come very near to falling as claire listened for it fearful that it might not come and at the same moment hopeful for it it was only a transfer from a church in the city to membership with the one at south plains and it was only alice anstead her parents were not even present in the church but claire knew that a visible union with the church of christ meant to alice anstead today what it never had before and she knew that the two girls fanny and elah anstead who sat and cried in the pubeside alice were only left out because parental authority had asserted itself and said they were not to come claire knew that they had united themselves with the great head and were members of the church in the jerusalem which is above and is free they could afford to buy their time and there was another still which gave claire's heart a particular thrill of joy not that his name was read or that many as yet knew about satan's defeat with him it had been recent and the public recognition of the fact was yet to come but the lord jesus christ knew for he had been the victor it was only the night before as they were about to leave the reconstructed church and mary burton with a long drawn breath of repressed excitement had declared that everything was ready for tomorrow and that the victory was complete that harry matthews had bent toward claire and murmured miss benedict there has been another victory you will know that it is far more wonderful than this he has undertaken for me there had only been time to grasp his hand and flash back an answer from sympathetic eyes but there was a song in her heart this morning over the news occasionally she glanced at harry and told herself that she would have known just to look at him that the highest experience this life has for us had come to him the little church was unusually full on this triumphant morning and yet most of the faces were known to claire strangers were not frequented south plains yet there was one a gentleman who gave that reverend heed to the service which even among strangers distinguishes those who really join in worship from those who merely look on this man joined and with his heart claire was sure of it it was this man that harry matthews watched a satisfied smile on his face the while harry could imagine just how surprised the stranger was on the evening before when he had reached his room after giving his wonderful news to claire instead of finding it in darkness his kerosene lamp had been turned to the highest capacity and a gentleman sat in front of his little stove feeding it from time to time apparently for the sole purpose of brightening the somewhat dismal room hello had been harry's greeting just so was the quiet response you did not know you had company did you my boy and then there had been such eager grasping of hands and such lighting up of faces as he venced the satisfaction of both parties at meeting for this was harry matthews's favorite uncle and he must lately have come from the home where harry's mother waited for him of course there was a high tide of question and answer at once it was not until an hour afterward that harry reached the subject of which he had instantly thought on seeing his uncle uncle herald didn't you know the benedicts what benedicts why the boston ones sydney el he failed and died less than a year ago don't you remember i remember i knew him well i met him abroad and didn't you know his daughter i knew that he had a daughter and in fact i think i saw her once but we were not acquainted why i wonder why with a slightly curious laugh there might be many reasons i am sure boston spreads over a good deal of ground besides you know i never spent a great deal of time in boston and i am not a society man why do you ask no reason in particular only the lady is here and i thought if you were old acquaintances it would be pleasant to meet her here in south plains what in the world is she doing here teaching music i wonder if this is where she has hidden herself i occasionally hear queries as to what has become of her but i believe i never met a person who knew no i don't suppose there would be any mutual pleasure in a meeting i may be said to be a stranger i have not the least idea how she looks and i may never have met her though i think i did somewhere i remember having a passing interest in seeing how a daughter of sydney benedict would look he was a grand man but i suspected that his daughter was a butterfly of fashion she lived in the very center of that sort of thing and her father was supposed to have immense wealth i suppose she is a poor crushed little morsel done up in crepe and disappointment i am always sorry for music scholars who have to take broken down ladies for teachers still i don't know but i would like to shake hands with her for her father's sake have you met her i should say i had but i don't believe you ever have you couldn't draw such a queer picture of her as that if you had ever seen her she doesn't wear crepe at all somebody told me she did not believe in mourning for people who had gone to heaven at least not in putting on black clothes and looking doleful you know and as to being crushed why uncle herald she is the brightest sweetest grandest girl i ever heard of in all my life possible said his uncle with a good humor laugh why my boy she must be several years older than you what does this mean oh nonsense was the impatient reply of the excited young man it is just as evident as can be that you don't know what you are talking about if you had been here this winter and watched things work and known the hand that she had in it all why look here you wait until tomorrow i can show you a few things i fancy whereupon he immediately closed his lips and although his uncle pretended to be extremely curious and to be unable to wait until mourning for light no hints or questions could draw out further information in the same direction end of chapter 24 recording by trisha g chapter 25 of interrupted by pansy the sliver box recording is in the public domain chapter 25 dangers seen and unseen it was this man then to whom harry matthew's eyes often wandered during that morning service the look of profound amazement which had settled on his uncle's face after the first sweeping glance which he gave the little church had caused harry the keenest satisfaction the more so that during the morning he had been addressed after this fashion the only regret i had when i found out that i could drop off at south planes and spend a day or two was that it was saturday and the sabbath would have to be spent in that forlorn little box where you go to church i have vivid recollections of the day i spent with you a year ago harry my boy i don't like to think of your sabbaths being passed amid such unpleasant surroundings i shall be glad when your engagement here closes you don't think of renewing it i hope i have plans which i want to talk over with you tomorrow but harry had been too full of the surprise in store to make any reply to these questionings other than to say come on uncle herald i sing in the choir and i promise to be there in good time nonetheless was he watching for that first look and it satisfied him he wanted to laugh outright but of course he did know such thing instead he seated his amazed relative in one of the best pews then took his place in the choir all of his face save his eyes in decorus repose all the bright sabbath afternoon they sat together uncle and nephew the one in eager narrator the other an attentive listener every step of the colossal plan as it appeared to others and was matured and carried out by the unfaltering zeal of claire benedict was detailed for the uncle's benefit and certainly claire's reputation did not suffer in the young man's hands he could not help glorifying her none knew better than he what she had been to him but of this more sacred story he has yet said nothing its time was to come why uncle herald you remember bud he burst forth afresh after a moment silence that queer fellow who worked for the ansteads he came down here that night you spent here last spring with papers you know for mr anstead and you talked with him a little and laughed so over his queer notions remember well sir that fellow is simply made over it is a great deal more wonderful than the church we used to think he was not more than half-witted i'll tell you what it is i shouldn't wonder if it turned out that he was double-witted you didn't recognize his name today of course it is a wonder that he did himself hubbard mires that's the boy yes sir he has joined the church and to help he will be to it too uncle herald you ought to hear him pray he says queer things even in prayer at least they sound queer but in spite of yourself you cannot help wondering sometimes whether it is not because he has gotten ahead of all the rest and sees things that they don't understand i believe he thinks miss benedict is an angel sent here from heaven to help him that's no wonder though perhaps she is anyhow she has helped him as well and perhaps better than a real angel could have done and she is the first one who ever took any notice of him or remembered that he had a soul it is no special wonder that the uncle was deeply interested in this story it told more than harry suspected how came this gay young fellow who had cost him many sleepless nights to be sufficiently familiar with a prayer meeting to know who prayed or how he studied the bright face before him most attentively it was changed certainly he had felt the change in the boy all day what was it how much did it mean there had certainly been a need for change it made his heart beat fast to think of harry's mother and the possibility of news for her such as would make her feel young again harry he said gently do you know i have hope that i have not heard the best yet of this wonderful story that there has been another making over how is it my boy a bright flush mantled harry's face as he bent his eyes closer over the paper on which he was scribbling his own and his uncle's names with all sorts of flourishes suddenly he raised his head and looked full into the kind eyes bent wistfully on him and smiled i don't know why i should hesitate to tell you that i am sure he said speaking in a firm manly tone it is true enough i have been made over i believe certainly nobody ever needed it more and nobody ever struggled harder against it as you very well know at least you know part but i have been lower down than you think uncle harold talk about angels i know that i don't see how any angel can ever do more for me than miss benedict has done i've engaged for life as a servant of the lord jesus christ and i owe more to miss benedict this minute than i do to any human being not accepting even you and my mother the uncle was out of his chair by this time one hand on the shoulder of his dear boy while he held out the other which was promptly grasped but he could not speak yet and he could not see for the tears this young fellow was very dear to him and the waiting had been long god bless you he said at last his lips quivering and unable to utter another word when he could speak again he said my dear boy have you told your mother not yet said harry his eyes shining but you can be sure that i am going to you see uncle harold the articles of surrender were only signed sealed and delivered night before last in the middle of the night since then i have not had a moment's time that belonged to me but i'll write her such a letter as she has never had for me while the uncle walked the parlor of the boarding house and waited for his nephew to make ready for evening service he had some questions to settle which were personal he became aware of the fact that he had certainly jumped to conclusions regarding some of the workers in the master's vineyard which were apparently without foundation here was this miss benedict he had heard her name mentioned frequently in the days gone by and always as one of the dependencies of the church to which she belonged and yet he had always thought of her with curling lip workers he had told himself being mentally very sarcastic yes didn't all the initiated know what that meant when applied to a fashionable young lady who lived in an elegant home and mingled with the fashionable world it meant that she helped at the fancy fairs and festivals and bazaars and whatnot worked them up probably with all their accompanying train of evils it meant that she was a district visitor perhaps and left a tract on redeeming the time in a home where they were starving for lack of employment and needed a loaf of bread he had seen workers of that sort and he found it difficult to feel for them anything but contempt the thing for which he was now to take himself to task was the fact that he had classed claire benedict among these knowing nothing of her meantime saved that she was a member of a fashionable uptown church and that too after knowing her father and singling him out as a man among thousands the simple truth was that he had imagined a character of which he disapproved and named it claire benedict and then let himself disapprove of her heartily the sole thing that i know about the young woman is that she was once wealthy and on this account i have judged her as i have and i find that it is what i am apt to do this was what he told himself as he walked the length of that little parlor and waited he was much ashamed of himself it is an excellent standpoint from which to judge character he said severely if there is any justice in it i must be a worthless person myself i wonder how many people are setting me down as one who merely plays at christian work because my father left me one fortune and my old aunt another i am glad that this man had this severe talk with himself he needed it the truth is he was very apt to judge of people in masses as though they were specimens and belonged to certain types the conclusion of his self-examination at this time was that he declared that if one third of what harry thought about this young person was true it had taught him a lesson he went to church that evening apparently for the purpose of studying the lesson more thoroughly at least he gave some attention to the organist he had recognized her in the morning because she had eyes like her father and this evening he decided that her head was shaped like his and that she had the firm mouth and yet sweet set of lips that had characterized the father and he told himself that he might have known that the daughter of such a man would be an unusual woman after service was concluded he walked deliberately forward and claimed acquaintance with sydney benedict's daughter the glow that he brought to her face and the tender light which shown in her eyes when he mentioned that dear father's name gave him a glimpse of what the daughter's memories were harry came up to them eagerly having been detained by the pastor for a moment you have introduced yourself uncle herald i see miss benedict i wanted my uncle herald to know you for very special reasons uncle herald was unaccountably embarrassed what a strange thing for that boy to say and what did he propose to say next but claire relieved the embarrassment and plunged him into a maze of questioning by the sudden eager interest which flashed in her face with the mention of his name are you herald chessney she asked as though a new thought came to her with the union of the two names and are you going to the rocky mountains i am herald chessney he said smiling and i have in mind a trip to the rocky mountains if i can make my plans in that direction what i wish but why this should be of interest to you passes my comprehension of course this last he thought she did not leave him long in doubt is louis anstead going with you he is if i can prevail upon him to do so that is part of my errand here at this time and has to do with the plans i mentioned and now his face plainly asked the question why do you care she seemed to answer the look he needs to go mr chessney he needs help such help is perhaps you can give him i don't know something must be done for him in that soon mr chessney i hope you will succeed there was no time for more alice anstead came up and claimed the stranger as an acquaintance and stood talking with him for a moment and expressed extreme anxiety that he should find her brother in the city the next day he is somewhere in town but we never know where still i could give you a dozen addresses at any one of which you might find him i hope you will not return without seeing him i shall not mr chessney said decidedly is he inclined to accompany me do you think has he mentioned to you my designs yes and would go if it were not for mr chessney if you could make mama understand no one seems able to claire benedict has tried and failed and what she fails in perhaps cannot be done i don't know but something must be done in that speedily almost claire benedict's words repeated the newcomer walked home in almost silence as they neared harry's door he said what is young anstead about just now drinking hard sir he is running downhill very fast if you don't get him away with you i am afraid he will go to the dogs in a hurry is he still on terms of special intimacy with the van martyrs well as to that i do not know things look mixed he rails against willis van martyr once in a while when he has been taking enough to make him imprudent and miss alice seems to have broken with them all together at least willis does not come out anymore i think and miss alice is not in town often but mrs anstead seems to be as intimate with them as ever and louis goes there with his mother i don't know anything about it but it looks like a house divided against itself and if i had such a mother as louis anstead has i don't believe i would try to be anybody mothers don't seem to count for much sometimes my boy you mean with their sons and i dare say you mean me uncle herald but it is not true my mother always counted for ten times more than you think it was she who held me back if louis anstead had a tenth part of the craving for liquor that i have with his mother to push him he would have been gone long ago beyond reach i don't know but he is now he has been going down very fast in the last few weeks what is the accelerating cause that i don't positively know partly it is the natural result of a bad habit indulged i suppose but there are other influences at which i can guess still it is pure guesswork i am not in anyone's confidence except when louis has been drinking too much he says to me things that he would not want me to know if he were sober and those of course i don't repeat i think that his mother is bent on this union of the two houses van martyrs and theirs and i think neither louis nor miss alice are of her mind in the matter and i think moreover that louis would rather have an hour of miss benedict society than a lifetime of miss eva van martyrs and i don't think he can get what he wants now isn't that an interesting little romance for a young fellow like me to think out especially when i don't know a thing about it the only fact is that louis anstead is in great danger and nobody seems to have much influence over him at least nobody who uses it in the right direction his sister seems to be roused i was surprised to hear her speak as she did his sister is not the woman she was when you saw her last she has been under miss benedict's influence all winter evidently you inclined to the belief that miss benedict is a remarkable woman his uncle said with a slight laugh why has she not been exerting her influence to help poor louis she has tried as hard as a woman can but uncle herald she is not the sort of woman to promise to marry a man merely to save him from becoming a drunkard i should hope not mr chesney answered promptly end of chapter 25 recording by trisha g chapter 26 of interrupted by pansy this liber box recording is in the public domain chapter 26 an escaped victim in the quiet of harry's own room his uncle having spent 15 minutes in silent and apparently puzzled thought suddenly asked a question when did louis go into town several days ago he has a way of disappearing suddenly not giving the family an idea of where he is going or when he expects to return and when he does get back he shows to anyone who is not blind that he has been pretty low down they expect him back tomorrow why as to that they have been expecting him ever since he went away i heard miss alice say that he went unexpectedly leaving word that he should probably be back to dinner harry my boy i am almost inclined to think that i ought to start out tonight and try to look him up tonight why uncle herald how could you it would be midnight and after before you could reach the city and then where would you go the addresses that miss alice can give you must be respectable places with closed doors tonight that is true mr. chesney answered after a thoughtful pause it would be a wild kind of proceeding apparently with very little excuse and yet i am some way impressed that it is the thing to do a last for the christian world which believes in theory that there is a direct link between the scene and the unseen by which the earnest soul can be told in what way to walk and in practice thinks it must search out its own way mr. chesney did not go out in search of his friend he did not even ask his master whether it was his will that the apparently wild proceeding should be attempted he prayed it was true and he prayed for lewis anstead but only in a general way and he retired to rest saying within himself that directly after breakfast he would go into town and see what he could do before he was awake the next morning the piazza of the little country hotel where he stopped was filled with loungers who had something unusual and exciting to talk about there were a dozen different stories it is true but out of them all the interested listener could glean certain things which were painfully likely to be facts there had been a runaway to that all parties agreed and lewis anstead had been in the carriage and had been thrown but whether he was killed or only seriously hurt or whether the horse had taken fright at the approaching train or whether the driver had attempted to cross the railroad track in the face of the train or whether there had been any train at all authorities differed it was still early when harry mathews knocked at his uncle's door with the confused particles of story and you don't know whether he is living or not asked the startled uncle who was now making his toilet with all possible speed no i can't find out some of them say he was killed instantly and others have it that he was only stunned and has revived it may be nothing but a scare south plains has so little excitement that it is apt to make as much as it can out of everything uncle herald i can't go up there and find out for my train will be due in five minutes and i must be at the telegraph office you know yes i will be down in less than five minutes and will go immediately up there i hope it is chiefly talk yet when he was left alone he said aloud and mournfully if i had only followed my impressions last night he had occasion to say it or at least to think it often in the days which followed south plains had not exaggerated this time louis anstead was not dead at least the heart was beating but he lay a bruised unconscious heap among the snowy draperies of his bed his soiled and matted clothing which as yet they had not dared remove telling to the practiced i a story of more than a mere run away the skillful doctor who had already been summoned from the city was silent as well as skillful he issued his orders in as few words as possible and kept his own counsel until left alone with mr chesney for a moment in answer to the question what does this stupor mean he shook his head hard to tell it was on him before the accident if that gives you any light it gave him a bitter light and made him groan in spirit over the fact that he had been tempted to go out in the night and hunt for his friend and had not gone later in the day bits of the facts came to him louis anstead had been alone had hired a horse at the livery and started for home more under the influence of liquor than usual perhaps the reluctant osler at the livery had admitted still i thought he would get through all right for the rest the silent lips on the bed told no tales he had been found not very far from the railroad crossing lying under a tree and the horse had made his way back to the stables whether a train had frightened the animal or whether being left to himself while the driver sink into a drunken sleep had caused his alarm or how the accident had occurred was left to conjecture his mother continually repeated the story and succeeded in making herself believe it that a vicious horse had been given him who evidently became unmanageable at the sound of the locomotive but some of the listeners went out and said that there was no train passing between the hours that the horse left the stables and returned there and the doctor shrugged his shoulders and said nothing then followed one of those periods of waiting and watching which some people know all about the miseries of which can only be understood by having to live them the trip to the rocky mountains was indefinitely postponed and herald chesney having made a journey to the city and rearranged his business returned to take his place among the watchers he was fully roused now so were all the friends of the sufferer his body was in danger it was not at all difficult to make his mother understand this and no means were left untried by which the frail shell might possibly be rescued from impending ruin in this way past weeks while the soul of the injured man hovered on the edge of another world gradually the excitement in the village calmed down and everywhere outside of that house on the hill everyday life went on again Mr. Chesney came and went keeping a hand on his business interests where he must but keeping the most of his thoughts and the most of his time waiting in the hope that consciousness would return once more to the wreck on the bed there was one other who watched and waited too though she could not now go to the house to inquire she could pray and this she did sometimes it seemed to her that every thought was a prayer for that periled soul and often and often she too had to think what if i had been more anxious and earnest and constant while the body was comparatively in health might not things possibly have been different it was in the middle of the night and mr. Chesney sat alone with the sick man there was nothing to do but wait and he had prevailed upon other weary watchers to rest and let him take his turn so there was only himself to be startled by a low voice from one who had been for so many weeks speechless herald is it you great was the rejoicing in the troubled home the next morning louis was awake and conscious knew them all smiled feebly on his mother and watched hungrily every movement of mr. Chesney the worst was over he would gain rapidly now so the mother said with eager voice and joyful eyes alice looked up questioningly when mr. Chesney remained silent in grave and as soon as opportunity came asked her anxious question mr. Chesney i can see that you do not share mama's joy do you think the indications unfavorable i don't know miss anstead i am not a physician only a nurse and i hope i may be mistaken but it is true that i am anxious and the doctor when he came expressed no surprise and no pleasure over the change but then he is so utterly unimpressable said the mother one might almost as well have a marble statue for a physician yet the statue worked faithfully and tirelessly and it must be confessed hopelessly to mr. Chesney he would talk occasionally and there came a day when that gentleman followed him out to the lawn doctor what do you think that it is a charming morning doctor is our patient gaining no is there hope that he will in time no do you mean that you have no hope of his recovery none at all have not had from the first brains like his never recover from such treatment as they have received but doctor this is very sudden do you mean that he will lie there helpless for the rest of his life i don't think he will lie there three weeks longer but he may we are not infallible i shall have to hasten this morning young marshal came home in a drunken rage last night and kicked his wife and she is going to die i think i don't know what we doctors would do if this were not a free country and liquor sellers had not a right to kill by inches all the people they choose this victim over whom you are watching is only one of many that ought to comfort the friends ought it not good morning i haven't told them said mr. Chesney two hours later speaking to claire he had come out to get a breath of the sweet morning air and to give clear the news during the weeks past he had been very thoughtful of her anxiety and very careful that she should receive daily bulletins i have not told them but i must miss benedict this is the hardest task a man ever has to do how can i tell that mother that she has robbed herself of her son she has steadily thwarted for two years every scheme that i devised to help him and she did not know what she was about either poor mother did you ever try to tell her yes and failed as you did alice told me of your effort but i ought to have tried again i knew she was deceived she thought me a fanatic and i could have told her of scenes that would have made one of her i shrank from it it was more than two weeks before she saw him again during this time she twice received little twisted slips of paper brought to her by the faithful bud and on them would be written a request that she would pray for a soul in peril one long letter blistered with tears alice wrote to her the burden of it being the same and this was all she knew of what was passing in the house on the hill she had not entered it since that day when its mistress turned from her not that she would not quickly have done so had occasion arisen but there seemed no need to force herself on the poor mother i shall never see him again she told herself sorrowfully and i have seen him so many times when i might have tried to help him and did not then there came one brief never to be forgotten note written hurriedly by mr chesney i believe that louis rests in the everlasting arms one saturday morning she was summoned to the parlor to see mr chesney he came forward quickly with an anxious air as of one having a request to make which he feared might not be granted i have come for you he said louis wants to see you i have been charged to bring you back with me if possible i wish i could save you from this ordeal do you shrink from it very much no she said with quiet gravity only as one shrinks from seeing errors that one is powerless to help why am i wanted mr chesney what can i do i do not know louis wants you he wishes to see you and his mother and his sister alice together and i shall have to add that he wants me to be present i tried to spare you all this last but he grew excited over it i would quite as soon have you present claire said with gentle wonder she did not understand why it was supposed to be a time of special trial to her individually if she could have heard mrs anstead's voice in confidential talk with mr chesney she would have been enlightened the girl is well enough mr chesney and she has been of help to some of the lower classes here during the winter i have nothing against her on the contrary i would like to shield her the simple fact is she has become too deeply interested in my son it is not strange i am sure but it is sad and that is why i do not wish alice to have her here at this time as a mother it is my duty to shield the girl though i must say she showed very little consideration for a mother's feelings when she talked with me all this and much more which mr chesney weighed putting his nephew's views beside them and came to the conclusion that there was an attachment between the two young people which had not been smiled upon by their elders although claire knew nothing of this her appearance in the sick room was attended with sufficient embarrassment mrs anstead received her with a sort of grave tolerance as one who was humoring the whim of a sick man and doing violence to her own sense of propriety thereby but the change in louis anstead was so great that after the first moment it held claire's thoughts to the exclusion of all trivial things he held toward her a thin and trembling hand as he said it was good in you to come i have changed a great deal since that night you refused to ride with me haven't i yes i have changed since then has herald told you that i have found help at last he has told me wonderful and blessed news of you claire said taking the chair that mr chesney brought to the bedside i do not need to tell you how glad i was to hear it no you don't that is true you have given ample proof that nothing which would happen to a friend of yours could rejoice you more i wish i had met you earlier it would have made a difference a great difference in my life i did not know that religion meant much of anything herald here was of your mind but he seemed exceptional a kind of fanatic i could not keep within sight of him the other people whom i knew intimately seemed to have very little to do with their religion i beg your pardon mother but that was the way it seemed to me there are different degrees i suppose louis you are talking too much here interposed mr chesney as he brought the medicine to administer your pulse is rising never mind it won't hurt me it is almost over now you know that chesney as well as i do and i have something to say that for the good of all parties concerned must be said now mother i want you to know one thing from words which you let fall yesterday i have discovered that you have a mistaken idea about one matter i am going to die and i am glad of it i have gone so far downhill that to climb back again for one so awfully bruised as i am would be hard very hard perhaps the lord sees that it would be impossible and so gives me this easy way but mother before i go i want to tell you something which will remove from your mind a false impression i saw my danger some time ago and struggled for a way of escape it was a weak way that i chose god would not let me build on it i fancied that if i could have clear benedict for my wife i could be a good and true man i implored her to help me in this way and she utterly and hopelessly refused you know why i am telling you this but she does not and i ask her to forgive me end of chapter 26 recording by trisha g