Middletown transcript., 1917-09-15
CHAPTER VIll-Continued.

81 wonder" Ward reflected, "wheth-
er a matter of tradition and custom
will prevent women from singing IN
the heavenly choir"
Mrs. Bryant stabbed at her fish. But
she had not finished. There were
many things about Saint Jude's that
did not please her. The burial OF Oil
Hilary Kingston had been one. she
seized on that.
"A on-communcant," she snapped.
"An infldel, an atheist! The daughter
Is living alone up there at this MIN
ute. 1t isn't respectable. It's bad
example to the girls in the village. Inc
house is full of men all the time.
"That must be a mistake
1T is quite true Servants talk. you
know. What can you expect? Raised
out of the church. with no belief, and,
of course, no moral instruction"
Ward bent forward over the table.
'That is a very serious statement,
Mrs Bryant" His eyes were like
steel. "Of course you are not basing
1t merely on what you hear from serv-
ants?"
Mrs. Bryant flushed, purplish spot
in the center of each sagsing cheek.
Il do not gossip with the servants"
she said. shortly. at is common talk.
And there are other things. Machines
come and go from the house at queer
hours of the night. The girl spends a
great deal of money. Where does she
get it? Where. for that matter, did old
Hilary Kingston get it,"
Thus challenged, Ward had nothing
to say.
After dinner he left early, but he did
not go home. He went up the HILL. AS
he strobe on, he remembered many
things. The girl was without the sheet
anchor of any belief, adrift and alone,
and he had made no attempt to help
her unbelief Although it was after
ten, the house was still lighted down.
stairs, and he went without hesitation
into the garden.
Thus 1t happened that he saw Elinor
in Huff's arms, saw him thrust her viO-
lcntly from him, and rush away across
the flower-betls, leaving her there
alone.
Ward rema;ncd in the shadows. To
save his life he could not have spoken
10 Elmer then. Under his constrained
exterior he WAS i'll the thrall Of the
icrcest jealousy. This little fair
haired girl, to whom his God was no
God, had taken q powerful hold on
him.
Elinor. who slept little that night,
saw the light in his window until 1t
faded into the dawn.
Elinor went to the carly communion
the following day. The church was
dark. There were hardly two dozen
people scattered over the building. She
sat far back and was heavily vciled.
When the congregation knelt. she
knclt. An old woman in the next pew
gave her the prayer book open ut the
service. On her knees then went Eli
nor and listened to Wards fine voice
cchoing through the empty building.
The morning was warm and the win
dows open. The odor of burned wood
from the parish house crept in.
"Thou shalt not steal" Ward read
from the Decaoguc, and the people
said:
Lord have mercy upon us and in
cline our hearts to keep this law"
Thou shalt not steal"
In the palm of her left glove Elinor
had the Bryant pearshaped pearl.
Ward had not seen her He went
through the service reverently, with an
impressiveness of voice and bearing
that showed how real it was to him
And in his voice, reading, exhortiEg
commanding, there were tender notes
that caught Elinors breath in her
throat.
When the service was over, she rose
from her knees and dropped the Bry-
ant pearl into the alms-box by the
door. The congregation, small and
scattered, was still kneeling. The
doorway and the alms-boX were in twi-
light
Drawing down her veil, she went
quickly out into the sunshine.
At the eleven o'clock service Ward
announced the burning Of the parish
building.
1T is not my intention to make an
appeal" he said simply. ''The parish
house was built to fill a great need ;
that need still exists. If our church is
to be an element in the daily lives of
the people of this town, We must have
meeting place for them. For the
worship of our God, the church build
ing is sufficient, but if religion is to you
the thing it is to me, the broader reli-
gion Of universal brotherhood, the
church building Is not enough.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself"
Seventy-eght thousand dollars was
taken up in the collection at Saint
Jude's that morning. Over fifty thou
sand was in checks. the rest was in
cash.
Walter Huff, sitting alone in the
back of the church, had watched Ward
lntently through the service.
Unlike Elinor, Huff had been raised
10 presbyterian household. He had
come TO Jeer, to watch with his thief
eyes The offertory piling into the silver
plates. But the service told on him.
somewhere down in his violent young
neart there crept sense of shame. 1t
~@as only when he looked at Ward that
his eyes hardened.
1hls man who had come between
uiih and his girl-this white-handed,
surpllced, prayer-reading priest, who