Part 21 (1/2)
”About a hundred,” replied Felicia gravely. Mr. Sterling looked surprised. Felicia was going out of the room, but he called to her: ”Do you really mean to keep the pledge?” he asked.
Felicia colored. Over her face and neck the warm blood flowed and she answered, ”You would not ask such a question, father, if you had been at the meeting.” She lingered a moment in the room, then asked to be excused from dinner for a while and went up to see her mother.
No one but they two ever knew what that interview between Felicia and her mother was. It is certain that she must have told her mother something of the spiritual power that had awed every person present in the company of disciples who faced Dr. Bruce in that meeting after the morning service. It is also certain that Felicia had never before known such an experience, and would never have thought of sharing it with her mother if it had not been for the prayer the evening before. Another fact is also known of Felicia's experience at this time. When she finally joined her father and Rose at the table she seemed unable to tell them much about the meeting. There was a reluctance to speak of it as one might hesitate to attempt a description of a wonderful sunset to a person who never talked about anything but the weather.
When that Sunday in the Sterling mansion was drawing to a close and the soft, warm lights throughout the dwelling were glowing through the great windows, in a corner of her room, where the light was obscure, Felicia kneeled, and when she raised her face and turned it towards the light, it was the face of a woman who had already defined for herself the greatest issues of earthly life.
That same evening, after the Sunday evening service, Dr. Bruce was talking over the events of the day with his wife. They were of one heart and mind in the matter, and faced their new future with all the faith and courage of new disciples. Neither was deceived as to the probable results of the pledge to themselves or to the church.
They had been talking but a little while when the bell rang and Dr.
Bruce going to the door exclaimed, as he opened it: ”It is you, Edward! Come in.”
There came into the hall a commanding figure. The Bishop was of extraordinary height and breadth of shoulder, but of such good proportions that there was no thought of ungainly or even of unusual size. The impression the Bishop made on strangers was, first, that of great health, and then of great affection.
He came into the parlor and greeted Mrs. Bruce, who after a few moments was called out of the room, leaving the two men together.
The Bishop sat in a deep, easy chair before the open fire. There was just enough dampness in the early spring of the year to make an open fire pleasant.
”Calvin, you have taken a very serious step today,” he finally said, lifting his large dark eyes to his old college cla.s.smate's face. ”I heard of it this afternoon. I could not resist the desire to see you about it tonight.”
”I'm glad you came.” Dr. Bruce laid a hand on the Bishop's shoulder.
”You understand what this means, Edward?”
”I think I do. Yes, I am sure.” The Bishop spoke very slowly and thoughtfully. He sat with his hands clasped together. Over his face, marked with lines of consecration and service and the love of men, a shadow crept, a shadow not caused by the firelight. Once more he lifted his eyes toward his old friend.
”Calvin, we have always understood each other. Ever since our paths led us in different ways in church life we have walked together in Christian fellows.h.i.+p--.”
”It is true,” replied Dr. Bruce with an emotion he made no attempt to conceal or subdue. ”Thank G.o.d for it. I prize your fellows.h.i.+p more than any other man's. I have always known what it meant, though it has always been more than I deserve.”
The Bishop looked affectionately at his friend. But the shadow still rested on his face. After a pause he spoke again: ”The new disciples.h.i.+p means a crisis for you in your work. If you keep this pledge to do all things as Jesus would do--as I know you will--it requires no prophet to predict some remarkable changes in your parish.” The Bishop looked wistfully at his friend and then continued: ”In fact, I do not see how a perfect upheaval of Christianity, as we now know it, can be prevented if the ministers and churches generally take the Raymond pledge and live it out.” He paused as if he were waiting for his friend to say something, to ask some question. But Bruce did not know of the fire that was burning in the Bishop's heart over the very question that Maxwell and himself had fought out.
”Now, in my church, for instance,” continued the Bishop, ”it would be rather a difficult matter, I fear, to find very many people who would take a pledge like that and live up to it. Martyrdom is a lost art with us. Our Christianity loves its ease and comfort too well to take up anything so rough and heavy as a cross. And yet what does following Jesus mean? What is it to walk in His steps?”
The Bishop was soliloquizing now and it is doubtful if he thought, for the moment, of his friend's presence. For the first time there flashed into Dr. Bruce's mind a suspicion of the truth. What if the Bishop would throw the weight of his great influence on the side of the Raymond movement? He had the following of the most aristocratic, wealthy, fas.h.i.+onable people, not only in Chicago, but in several large cities. What if the Bishop should join this new disciples.h.i.+p!
The thought was about to be followed by the word. Dr. Bruce had reached out his hand and with the familiarity of lifelong friends.h.i.+p had placed it on the Bishop's shoulder and was about to ask a very important question, when they were both startled by the violent ringing of the bell. Mrs. Bruce had gone to the door and was talking with some one in the hall. There was a loud exclamation and then, as the Bishop rose and Bruce was stepping toward the curtain that hung before the entrance to the parlor, Mrs. Bruce pushed it aside. Her face was white and she was trembling.
”O Calvin! Such terrible news! Mr. Sterling--oh, I cannot tell it!
What a blow to those girls!” ”What is it?” Mr. Bruce advanced with the Bishop into the hall and confronted the messenger, a servant from the Sterlings. The man was without his hat and had evidently run over with the news, as Dr. Bruce lived nearest of any intimate friends of the family.
”Mr. Sterling shot himself, sir, a few minutes ago. He killed himself in his bed-room. Mrs. Sterling--”
”I will go right over, Edward. Will you go with me? The Sterlings are old friends of yours.”'
The Bishop was very pale, but calm as always. He looked his friend in the face and answered: ”Aye, Calvin, I will go with you not only to this house of death, but also the whole way of human sin and sorrow, please G.o.d.”
Chapter Twenty-four