第10章

"Oh, no! I shall be back by half-past six, and I shall not work long.Do you know what I believe I'll do, Mrs.Burbank, just through the holidays? Christmas and New Year's both coming on Sunday this year, there'll be a great many out to church, not counting the strangers that'll come to the special service to-morrow.Instead of putting down my own pew carpet that'll never be noticed here in the back, I'll lay it in the old Peabody pew, for the red aisle-strip leads straight up to it; the ministers always go up that side, and it does look forlorn.""That's so! And all the more because my pew, that's exactly opposite in the left wing, is new carpeted and cushioned," replied the president."I think it's real generous of you, Nancy, because the Riverboro folks, knowing that you're a member of the carpet committee, will be sure to notice, and think it's queer you haven't made an effort to carpet your own pew.""Never mind!" smiled Nancy wearily."Riverboro folks never go to bed on Saturday nights without wondering what Edgewood is thinking about them!"The minister's wife stood at her window watching Nancy as she passed the parsonage.

"How wasted! How wasted!" she sighed."Going home to eat her lonely supper and feed 'Zekiel...I can bear it for the others, but not for Nancy...Now she has lighted her lamp, now she has put fresh pine on the fire, for new smoke comes from the chimney.

Why should I sit down and serve my dear husband, and Nancy feed 'Zekiel?"There was some truth in Mrs.Baxter's feeling.Mrs.Buzzell, for instance, had three sons; Maria Sharp was absorbed in her lame father and her Sunday-school work; and Lobelia Brewster would not have considered matrimony a blessing, even under the most favourable conditions.But Nancy was framed and planned for other things, and 'Zekiel was an insufficient channel for her soft, womanly sympathy and her bright activity of mind and body.

'Zekiel had lost his tail in a mowing-machine; 'Zekiel had the asthma, and the immersion of his nose in milk made him sneeze, so he was wont to slip his paw in and out of the dish and lick it patiently for five minutes together.Nancy often watched him pityingly, giving him kind and gentle words to sustain his fainting spirit, but to-night she paid no heed to him, although he sneezed violently to attract her attention.

She had put her supper on the lighted table by the kitchen window and was pouring out her cup of tea, when a boy rapped at the door.

"Here's a paper and a letter, Miss Wentworth," he said."It's the second this week, and they think over to the store that that Berwick widower must be settin' up and takin' notice!"She had indeed received a letter the day before, an unsigned communication, consisting only of the words, "Second Epistle of John.Verse 12."She had taken her Bible to look out the reference and found it to be:-"Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink; but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full."The envelope was postmarked New York, and she smiled, thinking that Mrs.Emerson, a charming lady who had spent the summer in Edgewood, and had sung with her in the village choir, was coming back, as she had promised, to have a sleigh ride and see Edgewood in its winter dress.Nancy had almost forgotten the first letter in the excitements of her busy day, and now here was another, from Boston this time.She opened the envelope and found again only a single sentence, printed, not written.(Lest she should guess the hand, she wondered?)"Second Epistle of John.Verse 5."

"And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another."Was it Mrs.Emerson? Could it be--any one else? Was it -? No, it might have been, years ago; but not now; not now!--And yet; he was always so different from other people; and once, in church, he had handed her the hymn-book with his finger pointing to a certain verse.

She always fancied that her secret fidelity of heart rose from the fact that Justin Peabody was "different." From the hour of their first acquaintance, she was ever comparing him with his companions, and always to his advantage.So long as a woman finds all men very much alike (as Lobelia Brewster did, save that she allowed some to be worse!), she is in no danger.But the moment in which she perceives and discriminates subtle differences, marvelling that there can be two opinions about a man's superiority, that moment the miracle has happened.

"And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another."No, it could not be from Justin.She drank her tea, played with her beans abstractedly, and nibbled her slice of steaming brown bread.

"Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee."No, not a new one; twelve, fifteen years old, that commandment!

"That we love one another."

Who was speaking? Who had written these words? The first letter sounded just like Mrs.Emerson, who had said she was a very poor correspondent, but that she should just "drop down" on Nancy one of these days; but this second letter never came from Mrs.Emerson.--Well, there would be an explanation some time; a pleasant one; one to smile over, and tell 'Zekiel and repeat to the neighbours; but not an unexpected, sacred, beautiful explanation, such a one as the heart of a woman could imagine, if she were young enough and happy enough to hope.

She washed her cup and plate; replaced the uneaten beans in the brown pot, and put them away with the round loaf, folded the cloth (Lobelia Brewster said Nancy always "set out her meals as if she was entertainin' company from Portland"), closed the stove dampers, carried the lighted lamp to a safe corner shelf, and lifted 'Zekiel to his cushion on the high-backed rocker, doing all with the nice precision of long habit.Then she wrapped herself warmly, and locking the lonely little house behind her, set out to finish her work in the church.