“Yes,” the Squire sighed heavily, “there’s
no doubt about that. And it’s a pity.
For such a religious community Leatherwood Creek used
to be a very decent place to live in. They were
a lot of zealots, but they got on well with one another;
that Temple of theirs kept them together, and they
didn’t quarrel much about doctrine. Now
with the Dylksites driving the old-fashioned believers
out of the sanctuary and dedicating it to the exclusive
worship of Dylks, the other denominations are going
to fight among themselves; and there’ll be no
living with them. And that isn’t the worst
of it. This new deity isn’t going to be
satisfied with worship merely. Money, of course,
he’ll want and get, and he’ll wear purple
and fine linen, and feed upon fried chicken every
day. Still the superstition might die out, and
no great harm done, if the faith was confined to men.
But you know what women are, Martha.”
“They’re what men make ’em,”
Mrs. Braile said sadly.
“It’s six of one and half a dozen of another,
I’m afraid. But this god of theirs is a
handsome devil, and some poor fool of a girl, or some
bigger fool of a married woman, is going to fall in
love with him, and then—”
“Did you just think of that? Well, you
can’t help it by lettin’ your coffee get
cold.”
Braile tilted his chair down and rose from its rebound
to follow his wife stiffly indoors. “The
question is, Who will it be? Which poor girl?
Which bigger fool? And nothing can be done to
prevent it! The Real God put it into human nature,
and all Hell couldn’t stop it. Well, I suppose
it’s for some wise purpose,” he ended,
in parody of the pious resignation prevailing on the
tongues of the preachers.
David Gillespie woke later than his daughter, and
when he had put away the shadows of his unhappy dreams
he took up the burden of waking thoughts which weighed
more heavily on him. The sight of his child groveling
at the feet of that blasphemous impostor and adoring
him as her God pitilessly realized itself to him as
a thing shameful past experience and beyond credence,
and yet as undeniable as his pulse, his breath, his
seeing and hearing. The dread which a less primitive
spirit would have forbidden itself as something too
abominable, possessed him as wholly possible.
He had lived righteously, and he had kept evil from
those dear to him, both the dead and the quick, by
the force of his strong unselfish will; now he had
seen his will without power upon the one who was dearest,
and whom he seemed to hold from evil only by the force
of his right hand. But his hand could not be
everywhere and at all times; and then?
The breakfast which the girl had got for him and left
on the hearth was warm yet, when he put it on the
table, and she could not have been gone more than
a few minutes, but she had gone, he did not know where,
without waiting to speak with him after the threats
and defiances which they had slept upon. When
he had poured the coffee after the mouthfuls he forced
down, he acted on the only hope he had and crossed
the woods-pasture to his sister’s cabin.
