The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-03-17
CHAPTER vi.
SHOWING HOW RED WRATH MAY
HEAL A WOUND.

SHOWING HOW RED WRATH MAY
HEAL A WOUND.
1t was full two days after the coming of
the baronet and the factor-lawyer Pengar-
vim before 1 saw my lady's face near hand
again. and sometimes / was glad for Rich
ard Jennifer's sake. but oftener would curse
and swear because / was bound hand and
foot and could not balk my enemy.
1 knew Sir Francis and the lawyer still
fingered on at Appleby Hundred-indeed,
saw them daily from my window-and
Darius would be telling me that they
waited upon the coming of some courier
from the south. But this 1 disbelieved.
Some suchlike lie the baronet might have
told thought: but when / saw him walk
abroad with Margery on his arm, pacing
back and forth beneath the oaks and bend
ing low to catch her lightest word with
grave and courtly Difference that none knew
better how to feign, 1 knew wherefore he
stayed-knew and ragged afresh at my own
impotence and for the thought that Mar
gerry was wholly at the mercy of this devil.
Yours Is colder century than was ours,
my dearg. Your art has tempered love and
passion into sentiment, and hate you have
learned to call aversion or dislike. But we
of that simple-hearted elder time were
more downright and / have writ the word
1 mean in saying that my love was at the
mercy of this fiend.
know not how it is or why, but there
are men who have this gift-some winning
way to turn a woman's head or touch her
heart; and 1 knew well this gift was his.
Twas not his face. for that was something
less than handsome. to my fancy; nor yet
figure. though
ly enough. 1t was rather in some subtlety
of manner, some power of stimulation
whereby in any womanly Heart he seemed
to stand at will for that which he was not.
AS 1 have said, knew him we'll enough;
knew him incapable of love apart from pas
sion, and that to him there was no sacred
ness in maiden chastity or wifely vows. So
he but gained his end he cared whit
what followed after: ruin, broken hearts,
lost souls. slain and then to
keep the scale from tipping-all were as
one to him, or to the Francis Falconnet
knew.
And touching marriage, with Margery or
any other, 1 feared that love would have no
word to say. Passion there might be, and
that fierce desire to have and wear which
burns like any miser's fever in the blood;
but never love as lovers measure it. Why,
then, had he proposed to Margery? The
answer did not tarry. Since he was now
but a gentleman volunteer 1T was plain
that he had sQuandered his estate and so
might brook the marriage chain If it were
linked up with my fathers acres.
1t was bait to lure such a gamester
strongly. AS matters stood with us in that
wan summer of exhaustion and defeat the
Kings cause waxed and grew more hopeful
day by day. And in event Of final victory
a landless baronet, marrying Margery's
dover of Appleby Hundred. might snap his
fingers at the Jews who. haply, had driven
him forth from England.
And as for Margery? Truly, she had told
me, or as good told me, that her maiden
love had pledged itself a pawn for Jenni-
fer's redeeming But there be other things
than love to sway woman's will. This
volunteer captain with the winning way
was of the haute noblesse, and he could
make her Lady Falconnet Moreover. he
was with her day by day; and you may
mark this as you will. that present sutton
hath ever the trump cards to play against
the absent lover.
So, brooding over this, 1 wore out two
had to pass alone. But on the morning of
the third the sky was lightened, though
then the light was but a flash and dark
ness followed quickly after She came
again and brought me visitor; it was this
same Father Matthew with whom she had
jestingly compared me. and lest 1 should
take my punishment too lightly stayed but
to make the good priest known to me.
Now, l was born and bred an hereto by
any papists reckoning, but l have ever held
it witless in that man who let's a creed OBJ
struct a friendship. Moreover, this sweet
faced cleric was the friendliest of men,
friendly. and yet the widest Jesuit of them
ALL since he read me at glance and fell
straightway to praising Margery.
"A truly sweet young demoselle," he
said by way of foreword, no sooner was the
door closed behind her, and while he
preached sermon on this text 1 grew to
know and love him.
He was little man, as bone and muscle
go. with deep-set eyes and features kind
and mild and fine as any woman's; some
such face as Leonardo gave st. John, could
that have been less youthful. / could not
tell his order. though from his well-w worn
cassock grded at the waist with a frayed
bit of hempen cord he might have been
Little Brother of the Poor. But this
noted that he was not tonsured and his
white hair, soft and fine as Margery's, was
like an aureole to the finely chiseled fea-
lures. AS missionary men of any creed are
apt he looked far older than he really was:
and when he came to tell me of his life
among the Indians it was patent how the
years had multiplied upon him.
/ listened, we'll enough content to learn
him better by his own report.
But you must find ii thankless work,
this gospeing in the wilderness" 1 ven
tured when all was said. " Tis but her
mits life for any man OF parts; and after
all, when you have done your utmost your
converts are but savages, as they were"
AT this he smiled and shook his head.
Non, Monsieur, not so. You are a soldier
and cannot see beyond your point of sword
Mais. mon ami they have souls to save,
these poor children OF the forest, and they
are far more sinned against than SHINING.
i ind them kind and true and faithful. and
some OF them are noble in their way"
j laughed. i've read about those noble
ones. / said. Twas in a book called
'Hakluyts Voyages Truly. 1 know them
not as you do. for in my youth / knew
them most in war. We called them brave
but cruel then: and when l was a boy
could have shown you where within mile
of this they burned poor Davie Davidson
at the stake.
'Ah. yes. there has been much of that"
he sighed. But you must confess, Captain
Ireton, that you English carry fire and
sword among them, too"