The Weavers: a tale of England and Egypt of fifty years ago - Volume 1

e upper end of the room the Elders sat motionless, their hands on their knees, wearing their hats; the women in their poke-bonnets kept their gaze upon their laps. The heads of all save three we

nd seemed demurely to defy the convention of unblinking silence. As time went on, others of her sex stole glances at Mercy's son from the depths of their bonnets; and at last, after over an hour, they and all were drawn to look steadily at t

aising his head, one of the Elders said: "The

aceful; they were consistently slow of movement, but at times his quick gestures showed that he had not been able to train his spirit to that passiveness by which he lived surrounded. Their eyes were slow and quiet, more meditative than observant; h

" said another owl

the young man's lips for an instant, th

was thought by all that, as many days had passed since his offence was committed, meditation and prayer should have done their work. Now, however, in the tone of his voice, as it clothed the last word

ds in the Cloistered House. Feeling trouble ahead, and liking the young man and his bro

f Eglington was being brought home, with noise and brawling, after his return to Parliament, thee mingled among the brawlers; and because some evil words were s

ee, thee would now be in a prison cell," shr

oung man's reply. "Though I am

d the shrill Elder. "Thee did use thy hands

an. I punished

is g

the t

was seen to drink of spirits in a public-house at Heddi

s the promp

omen sighed and others folded and unfolded

d with a ring of acrid triumph; "thee has hid these things from

"with visiting a play this same day, and wi

" Suddenly his eyes darkened, he became abstracted, and gazed at the window where the twig flicked softly ag

had no beginning in Claridge blood, and were not nurtured in the garden with the fruited wall. He was not used t

d, David," he said coldly, "with kissing a woman-a stranger and a wanton-where

shrill Elder, a red spot bu

e young man, with a tone of iro

seemed not so confounded as the men. After a moment th

d the shrill Elder. "Thy life

become very pale, his lips were set, and

y of all?" ask

the Society of Friends-they did not realize it in the life around them. That which was drama was either the visitation of God or the dark deeds of man, from which they must avert their eyes. Their own tragedies they hid bene

. Judge by my words,

ide for thy correction?" It was Elder Fairley who spoke. He was determined t

ought. "Let the discipline proceed-he hat

d in much," said Eld

before her child was born news came that the ship her husband sailed had gone down with all on board. They knew likewise that she had died soon after David came, and that her father, Luke Claridge, buried her in her maiden name, and brought the boy up as his son, not with his father's name but bearing that name so long honoured in England, and even in the far places of the earth-for had not Benn Claridge, Luke's brother, been a great carpet

ce again to the East, accompanied by the Muslim chief Ebn Ezra, who had come with him to England on the business of his country.

there is but one way,"

laridge, in a voice that shook a lit

He was a very small man with a very high stock and spreading collar, a thin face, and large wide eyes. He kept his chin down

ir-maker ere he disappeared and died, as rumour saith-it hath no tenant. Let it be that after to-morrow night at sunset none shall speak to him till that time be come, the first day of win

dowed a delicate face shining with the flame of the spirit within. It was the face of Faith Claridge, the sister of the woman in

softly. "Speak now. Doth

int cool sarcasm in her tone, and smiled unconsciously at her last words. She, at least, must have reasons for her faith in him, must have grounds for his defence in painful days t

his hands behind his back. Af

think in secret that which might not be done openly? Well, some things I did secretly. Ye shall hear of them. I read where I might, and after my taste, many plays, and found in them beau

f shame for thee," s

he music of the trees. At first I thought that this must be sin, since ye condemn the human voice that sings, but I could feel no guilt. I heard men and women sing upon the village green, and I sang also. I heard bands of music. One instrument seemed to me more t

ractice in deceit,"

eeper; his eyes took on that look of brilliance and

he spirit moved me,

drink and curse, to kiss a wanton in the open road? What hath

ered. "Save in these things my life has

David," rejoined the little Elder Meacham wi

e themselves to coarse, rough play like young dogs in a kennel. Yet, too, I have seen dark things done in drink-the cheerful made morose, the gentle violent. What was the temptation? What the secret? Was it but the low craving of the flesh, or was it some primitive unrest, or craving of the soul, which, clouded and baffled by time and labour and the wear of life, by this means was given the witched medicament-a false freedom, a thrilling forgetfulness? In ancient days the high, the h

a whispering voice f

cross-roads I bade he

saw," said the shril

ut before the sun went down I fought the man who drove the lass in sorrow into the homeless world. I did not choose to fight; but when I begged the man Jas

did not lie in his grave,

t hard," was t

y fists?" asked Elder Fairley

l, and an hour betimes with the drunken chair-maker in the hut by

g the faces of the Elders. They were in

Alexandria, I had some small duties, as is well known. But that ceased, and there was little to do. Sports are forbidden among us here, and my body grew sick, because the mind

women. "Thee has a friend gone to London-thee

benignly on him, turned to the quarter whence the voice came. Seeing who it was-a widow who, with no demureness, had tried

ittle hope of thee, David

silence, not so much to the meaning of the words, but to the tone itself, to the man behind it. His personal force was remarkable. Quiet and pale ordinarily, his clear russet-brown hair falling in a wave over his forehead, when roused, he seemed like some delicate engine made to do great labours. As Faith said to him once, "David, thee looks as

ed and saw, and know; and I know that oblivion, that brief pitiful respite from trouble, which this evil tincture gives. I drank to know; and I found it lure me into a new careless joy. The sun seemed brighter, men's faces seemed happier, the world sang about me, the blood ran swiftly, thoughts swarmed in my brain. My

together. Of the rest I have told you. I kissed her-a stranger. She was comely. And this I know, that the matter ended by the cross-roads, and that by and forbidden paths have easy travel. I kissed th

ofited?" asked the shr

ereafter but I shall understand. None shall go

ar lands had ever seemed to him a monstrous and amazing thing, though it ended in the making of a great business in which he himself had prospered, and from which

shall I break my life,"

did were against our faith. I desire forgiveness. I did them out of my own will; I will take up your judgment.

ctised determination. He must go out into blank silence and banishment until the first day of winter. Yet, recalcitrant as they held him, their secret hearts were with him, for there was none of them but had

er. The little wizened Elder Meacham

here," Davi

have mus

interjected t

replied the other. "Let us judge wh

by a bland assumption of judicial calm. A few, however, frowned, and would have opposed the suggestion, but that curiosity mast

s, his thoughts took flight to his Uncle Benn, whose kindly, shrewd face and sharp brown eyes were as present to him, and more real, than those of Luke Claridge, whom he saw every day. Of late when he had thought of his uncle, however, alternate depression and lightness

owever, like books of many pages, closely written, in Arabic, in a crabbed characteristic hand, and full of the sorrow and grandeur and misery of the East. How many books on the East David had read he would hardly have been able to say; but something of the East had entered into him, something of the philosophy of Mahomet and Buddha, and the beauty of Omar Khayyam had given a touch of colour and intellect to the narrow faith in which he had been school

uncle traded, and explored. Suddenly, the call he had heard in his sleep now came to him in this waking reverie. His eyes withdrew from the tree at the window, as if startled, a

y diffusion, in which day dies without splendour and in a glow of pain. The long velvety tread of the camel, the song of the camel-driver, the monotonous chant of the river-man, with fingers mechanically falling on his little drum, the cry of the eagle of the Libyan Hills, the lap of the heavy waters of the Dead Sea down by Jericho, the battle-call of the Druses beyond Damascus, the lonely giga

aking the hearts of the women beat fast, thrilling them, turning meditation into dreams, and giving the sight of the eyes far visions of pleasure. So powerful was this influence that the shrill Elder twice essayed to speak in protest, but was prevented by the wizened Elder Meacham. W

ned had, indeed, come to the cross-roads, and that their ways would henceforth divide. The punishment or banishment now to be meted out to him was as nothing. It meant a few weeks of disgrace, of ban, of what, in effect, was self-immolation, of that commanding justice of the Society which no one yet save the late Earl of Eglington had def

is our will that thee begone to the chair-maker's but upon the hill till three mo

aid all t

put his flute into his