Part 67 (2/2)
”Well----”
”What I wanted most I never saw.”
”You wanted----”
”To be--_sure_.”
”Ah! it is one of the results of agnosticism.”
The Boy never saw the smile.
”I've said--and I was not lying--that I came away to shorten the business of fortune-making--to buy back an old place we love, my sister and I; but----”
”Which does she love best, the old place or the young brother?”
”Oh, she cares about me--no doubt o' that.” He smiled the smile of faith.
”Has she ... an understanding heart?”
”The most I know.”
”Then she would be glad to know you had found a home for the spirit. A home for the body, what does it matter?”
In the pause, Father Brachet opened the door, but seemed suddenly to remember some imperative call elsewhere. The Boy jumped up, but the Superior had vanished without even ”Good-morning.” The Boy sat down again.
”Of course,” he went on, with that touch of pedantry so common in American youth, ”the difficulty in my case is an intellectual one. I think I appreciate the splendid work you do, and I see as I never saw before----” He stopped.
”You strike your foot against the same stone of stumbling over which the Pharisees fell, when the man whom Jesus healed by the way replied to their questioning: 'Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.'”
”I don't deny that the life here has been a revelation to me. I'm not talkin' about creeds (for I don't know much about them, and I don't think it's in me to care much); but so far as the work here is concerned--” He paused.
”We can take little credit for that; it is the outcome of our Order.”
The Boy failed to catch the effect of the capital letter.
”Yes, it's just that--the order, the good government! A fella would be a bigot if he couldn't see that the system is as nearly perfect as a human inst.i.tution can be.”
”That has been said before of the Society of Jesus.” But he spoke with the wise man's tolerance for the discoveries of the young. Still, it was not to discuss the merits of his Order that he had got up an hour before his time. ”I understand, maybe better than yourself, something of the restlessness that drove you here.”
”You understand?”
The priest nodded.
”You had the excuse of the old plantation and the sister--”
The Boy sat up suddenly, a little annoyed.
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