The Diary of a Saint

with all that vitality which nature seems so full of in autumn, as if it were filling itself with life to withstand the lon

the chimney, and I thought I ought to go in to see if the old grandmother was there. I wonder if it is right not to try if the blessed granddaughter might not soften her old heart, battered and begrimed if it be. Nobody answered my knock, however, and so I did not see Mrs. Brownrig, f

Naomi, and I feel greatly puffed up in consequence. Deacon Richards has b

the blaze. "I never could understand why I feel the cold so. I should

ed to myself as I wondered if Deacon D

you would be fond of

e me sleepy. I'm like a kitten; I go

hing at I told him it was partly at the idea of his bein

rn so that you can keep awake," I added; "but don't you think i

rted a moment, and then g

eople sleepy too,"

in prayer-meeting shivering and uncomfortable because he feels it his duty to keep awake. In biblical times dancing before the Lord was a legitimate form of worship; it is almost a pity that sleeping before the Lord cannot be put among proper religious observances. Dear Miss Charlotte always sleeps-devoutly, I am sure-at every prayer-meeting, and then comes out declaring it has been a beautiful meeting. I

. He has remarried his first wife to prevent her from bringing suit against him. As Mi

o have things so she can't think of Ranny, for now s

ve to decide what man she'll marry," s

ge a marriage for you, Rosa," I said, r

ly. "What for would I have somebody making my ma

a philosopher that she sometimes seems to me to be talking

f excitement so evident as almost to be contagious. I could see by the very hurry of her

ked at once. "You fairly brist

vements. She sat down with a composed and self-contained air, and only by the unusually

ing had happene

t she showed i

always happeni

of coming at her tidings was to pretend indifference, so I asked

k anything had happ

head," was my reply. "I hope Deacon Dan

is parade of indifference, and in a

"Tom Webbe seems bou

I echoed. "Wh

with the pressure of weary days, and had somehow defied all the n

d. "If you get mixed up with that sort of crea

y conscious of the keen curiosity which my manner brought into he

, so far as I can make out, is this: The Brownrig woman has been worse than ever since Julia's death. She has been drunk in the streets more than once, and I am afraid the help she has had from Tom

, and in the midst of them was Mrs. Brownrig, singing and howling. They wer

y, an unholy relish, "her swearing was something awful. John Deland told me h

s?" I put in. "What was he doing there?

he was just passing by and couldn't help hearing. I dare say

retty quickly then; but

the crowd made up of all the lowest fellows in town. The men were shouting

ome home. She cursed him, and said she wouldn't go; and then she cried, and they had a dreadful time. Then somebody in the crowd-John says he thinks

was burned," answered I; "but what

and not spoil the fun. Then Tom turned on the cro

pe he did!" I

n woman like that, and called them cowards to their faces. They got mad, and wante

tionally designed to rouse me still further, or whether s

say?" I asked

she was his

ring into my eyes. It was chiefly excitement, of course, but the pluck

n't two minutes before Tom was left alone with the old woman, and th

I wished to add that the sentiment was rather a que

suspect her of going on to repeat it somewhere else. Tom's sin has left a trail of consequences behind it which he could never

George, when he started for bed, chanced to open the door to look at the weather. He found the tramp wet and covered with sleet, and at first thought that he was either dead or drunk. When he had got him in and thawed

s. Weston sa

I meant nothing by it. George, however, stiffened i

to the house," he said. "She thought I ou

d, wondering how I could have offended him. "I a

ht, and this morning he is pretty sick. Dr. Wentworth says he can't

, as it is a little out of the road. Tramps have a law of their own, however, and never do what one would expect of them. I hope his illness will not be ser

en just now, for Gertrude ought not to

but if Mrs. Weston has not seen the tramp and ha

's house, which is a little off from the main street, and that in his delirium he keeps calling for some person he says he knows is there, and he will surely find, no matter how she hides. The idea of the sick in a delirium is always painful, and the talk about this man makes it doubly so. I am afrai

first of the month, and then we will have it opened. Tom has already a list of over twenty men and boys who have joined, and lame Peter Tobey is to be janitor. It is delightful t

e lamps, and said at once he would make one to-morrow. It was charming to see how pleased he was to find there was something he could furnish, and which nobody else at hand could have supplied. We are always pleased to find we are not only needed, but we are needed in some particular way which marks our personal fitness for the thing to be done. Deacon Daniel brought a big braided

en he went he held my hand a moment, looking int

s; "I think you'll succeed in ma

ciled with the world and himsel

ight it has come. I feel dazed and queer, as if life had been s

old woman. If the chief object of keeping a journal is to help mysel

ally is a deacon in the evening, but the door opened, and George came rushing in. His hurry and his excited manner made me

r?" I cried, jumpi

but only gave a s

ppened?" I asked

ny wife," he

horrified exclamation. Then we stared at each other a minute. I supposed something had h

ent on, almost angrily, an

a day or two ago. I do not know whether he suspected anything or not. Very likely he could hardly tell himself. Finally one of the girls told Mrs. Weston, and she acted very strangely. She wanted to have a description of the man, and at last she insisted on going herself to peep at him, to see what he was like. George happened to come home just at the time Mrs. Weston had crept up to the door of the shed

fell down on her knees and caught George's hand, crying over and over: "I thought he was dead! I thought he was dead!" It must have been a fearful thing for both of them; and then Gertrude fainted dead away at George's feet. The girl who had been taking care of the tramp was out of the room at the

ed me. She told me I was the first man she ever cared for, and I never had a hin

asked him. "You are ta

you," persisted he. "I'll

d I have a cowardly desire to run away. I have a hateful feeling of repulsion against him, but that is something

. It may have been through her love and fear of losing him that she did not dare to tell; though from what I have seen of her I haven't thought her much given to sentiment. How dreadf

n. Sometimes I think she sees written on walls and fences the things which have happened or been said in the houses which they su

d by the south window. She spoke of the weather and of Peter's silliness, told me where the sewing-circle was to be next week, and appr

s morning," she remarked, so carelessly it might have seemed

!" I

e sort of excitement yesterday, they say,

re of the matter than she did, but for once I hope I baffled her penetr

use to die," observed Aunt Naomi, as if she were stating

ere was especia

e answered, "he asked the

ed how s

named Weston lived who'd married a woman from the West called something Al Demmons couldn't remember. Al Demmons said that George Weston was the only

discussion which would give Aunt Naomi more materi

that's the end of him. I don't suppose Mr

to you harm might come of talking about this tramp as if he were some mysterious person connected with Mrs. Weston's life before she c

d me with a

for her that way if you didn't

fairs of the Westons at all. I am so sorry, however, that gossip has got hold of a suspicion. It was to be

the things he said to me last night. Even if he were crazy enough to suppose I could still love him, how could he forget his wife; how could he be glad of an excuse to be freed from her; how could he forget the little child that is coming? Oh, I am like Jonah when he was so sure he did well to be angry! I am convinced I can have no just perception of character at all, for this George Weston is showing himself so weak, so ungene

k of hard determination. He greeted me al

as her husband, and she was never my wife lega

r. Saychase to marry you to-day. Of course it can be arranged i

hed sne

tention of marryi

ot understanding him. "If the first ceremony

you suppose after that I'd have her for my wife? Besides, you don't

ut speaking, and he b

him," he blurted out defiantly. "I suppose that isn't a

ad deceived him and hidden the fact that she had been married, but there was no justice in this horrible way of looking at it, as if

ps I shouldn't feel so if it hadn't come about t

u are saying! You didn't take her as your wife

y wife," he pers

owever, I wanted to reach him; to make him see things as they were; and I wanted to save the poor

you must do what is right for your own sake. You have made

she lied to me. I made pledges to

she was free to marry you. She bel

was, she

ornly as if the fact

man and a woman honestly love each other and marry without knowing of any rea

he demanded, with a hateful smi

asked him. "Or do you o

d the blood sprang into his chee

d, lowering his voice, but sp

d I shrank back. Then I straighte

n accord. You insult me to come here and say such a thing, and I will n

perhaps I should not-Yes, I should; I am glad I did

ndured about all that I could hear. "The question i

r her," responded George,

for you? I am trying to make you see you owe it to your

which should have warned me, but did not, I wa

friend, don't you see, and you

mpulsively, holding

se of all this talk? You know it's

he face for insulting him. I felt myself growing hot and the

ool with a pretty face," he w

Weston!" I broke in. "Ho

y astonished, b

've behaved like a fool and a brute. I've hurt you and-and cheated you, and you've had every reason to throw me over like a si

have ruined any man's life for that? I love you no mo

agerly. "Of course I knew you c

of him, and I felt as if nothing would make him see the truth. Never in my whole life have I

couldn't care for you. I thought I loved you, and p

'd love me alway

e capable of so exposing his baser self struck me in the midst of all my indignation. I could not help a feeling, moreover, that he had somehow a right to reproach me with having ch

ught I was telling the truth

of putting it had done more to convince him t

eaded piteously, "you'v

ttle more, and I was at last released from this horrible scene. All night I thought of it miserably or I dreamed of it more miserably