Necessarily, such a man is impressionable, impulsive, emotional. This one was, and had no gift at hiding his feelings; or if he had it he took no trouble to exercise it. He carried his souls prevailing weather in his face, and when he entered a room the parasols or the umbrellas went up figuratively speaking according to the indications. When the soft light was in his eye it meant approval, and delivered a benediction; when he came with a frown he lowered the temperature ten degrees. He was a well-beloved man in the house of his friends, but sometimes a dreaded one.
He had a deep affection for the Lester household and its several members returned this feeling with interest. They mourned over his kind of Christianity, and he frankly scoffed at theirs; but both parties went on loving each other just the same.
He was approaching the house out of the distance; the aunts and the culprit were moving toward the sick-chamber.
Chapter III
The three last named stood by the bed; the aunts austere, the transgressor softly sobbing. The mother turned her head on the pillow; her tired eyes flamed up instantly with sympathy and passionate mother-love when they fell upon her child, and she opened the refuge and shelter of her arms.
Wait! said Aunt Hannah, and put out her hand and stayed the girl from leaping into them.
Helen, said the other aunt, impressively, tell your mother all. Purge your soul; leave nothing unconfessed.
Standing stricken and forlorn before her judges, the young girl mourned her sorrowful tale through the end, then in a passion of appeal cried out:
Oh, mother, cant you forgive me? wont you forgive me? I am so desolate!
Forgive you, my darling? Oh, come to my arms! there, lay your head upon my breast, and be at peace. If you had told a thousand lies
There was a sound a warning the clearing of a throat. The aunts glanced up, and withered in their clothes there stood the doctor, his face a thunder-cloud. Mother and child knew nothing of his presence; they lay locked together, heart to heart, steeped in immeasurable content, dead to all things else. The physician stood many moments glaring and glooming upon the scene before him; studying it, analyzing it, searching out its genesis; then he put up his hand and beckoned to the aunts. They came trembling to him, and stood humbly before him and waited. He bent down and whispered:
Didnt I tell you this patient must be protected from all excitement? What the hell have you been doing? Clear out of the place!
They obeyed. Half an hour later he appeared in the parlor, serene, cheery, clothed in sunshine, conducting Helen, with his arm about her waist, petting her, and saying gentle and playful things to her; and she also was her sunny and happy self again.
Now, then; he said, good-by, dear. Go to your room, and keep away from your mother, and behave yourself. But wait put out your tongue. There, that will do youre as sound as a nut! He patted her cheek and added, Run along now; I want to talk to these aunts.
She went from the presence. His face clouded over again at once; and as he sat down he said:
You too have been doing a lot of damage and maybe some good. Some good, yes such as it is. That womans disease is typhoid! Youve brought it to a show-up, I think, with your insanities, and thats a service such as it is. I hadnt been able to determine what it was before.
With one impulse the old ladies sprang to their feet, quaking with terror.
Sit down! What are you proposing to do?
Do? We must fly to her. We
Youll do nothing of the kind; youve done enough harm for one day. Do you want to squander all your capital of crimes and follies on a single deal? Sit down, I tell you. I have arranged for her to sleep; she needs it; if you disturb her without my orders, Ill brain you if youve got the materials for it.
They sat down, distressed and indignant, but obedient, under compulsion. He proceeded:
Now, then, I want this case explained. They wanted to explain it to me as if there hadnt been emotion or excitement enough already. You knew my orders; how did you dare to go in there and get up that riot?
Hester looked appealing at Hannah; Hannah returned a beseeching look at Hester neither wanted to dance to this unsympathetic orchestra. The doctor came to their help. He said:
Begin, Hester.
Fingering at the fringes of her shawl, and with lowered eyes, Hester said, timidly:
We should not have disobeyed for any ordinary cause, but this was vital. This was a duty. With a duty one has no choice; one must put all lighter considerations aside and perform it. We were obliged to arraign her before her mother. She had told a lie.
The doctor glowered upon the woman a moment, and seemed to be trying to work up in his mind an understand of a wholly incomprehensible proposition; then he stormed out:
She told a lie! Did she? God bless my soul! I tell a million a day! And so does every doctor. And so does everybody including you for that matter. And that was the important thing that authorized you to venture to disobey my orders and imperil that womans life! Look here, Hester Gray, this is pure lunacy; that girl couldnt tell a lie that was intended to injure a person. The thing is impossible absolutely impossible. You know it yourselves both of you; you know it perfectly well.
Hannah came to her sisters rescue:
Hester didnt mean that it was that kind of a lie, and it wasnt. But it was a lie.
Well, upon my word, I never heard such nonsense! Havent you got sense enough to discriminate between lies! Dont you know the difference between a lie that helps and a lie that hurts?
All lies are sinful, said Hannah, setting her lips together like a vise; all lies are forbidden.
The Only Christian fidgeted impatiently in his chair. He went to attack this proposition, but he did not quite know how or where to begin. Finally he made a venture:
Hester, wouldnt you tell a lie to shield a person from an undeserved injury or shame?
No.
Not even a friend?
No.
Not even your dearest friend?
No. I would not.
The doctor struggled in silence awhile with this situation; then he asked:
Not even to save him from bitter pain and misery and grief?
No. Not even to save his life.
Another pause. Then:
Nor his soul?
There was a hush a silence which endured a measurable interval then Hester answered, in a low voice, but with decision:
Nor his soul?
No one spoke for a while; then the doctor said:
Is it with you the same, Hannah?
Yes, she answered.
I ask you both why?
Because to tell such a lie, or any lie, is a sin, and could cost us the loss of our own soulswould, indeed, if we died without time to repent.
Strange strange it is past belief. Then he asked, roughly: Is such a soul as that worth saving? He rose up, mumbling and grumbling, and started for the door, stumping vigorously along. At the threshold he turned and rasped out an admonition: Reform! Drop this mean and sordid and selfish devotion to the saving of your shabby little souls, and hunt up something to do thats got some dignity to it! Risk your souls! risk them in good causes; then if you lose them, why should you care? Reform!
Strange strange it is past belief. Then he asked, roughly: Is such a soul as that worth saving? He rose up, mumbling and grumbling, and started for the door, stumping vigorously along. At the threshold he turned and rasped out an admonition: Reform! Drop this mean and sordid and selfish devotion to the saving of your shabby little souls, and hunt up something to do thats got some dignity to it! Risk your souls! risk them in good causes; then if you lose them, why should you care? Reform!
The good old gentlewomen sat paralyzed, pulverized, outraged, insulted, and brooded in bitterness and indignation over these blasphemies. They were hurt to the heart, poor old ladies, and said they could never forgive these injuries.
Reform!
They kept repeating that word resentfully. Reform and learn to tell lies!
Time slipped along, and in due course a change came over their spirits. They had completed the human beings first duty which is to think about himself until he has exhausted the subject, then he is in a condition to take up minor interests and think of other people. This changes the complexion of his spirits generally wholesomely. The minds of the two old ladies reverted to their beloved niece and the fearful disease which had smitten her; instantly they forgot the hurts their self-love had received, and a passionate desire rose in their hearts to go to the help of the sufferer and comfort her with their love, and minister to her, and labor for her the best they could with their weak hands, and joyfully and affectionately wear out their poor old bodies in her dear service if only they might have the privilege.
And we shall have it! said Hester, with the tears running down her face. There are no nurses comparable to us, for there are no others that will stand their watch by that bed till they drop and die, and God knows we would do that.
Amen, said Hannah, smiling approval and endorsement through the mist of moisture that blurred her glasses. The doctor knows us, and knows we will not disobey again; and he will call no others. He will not dare!
Dare? said Hester, with temper, and dashing the water from her eyes; he will dare anything that Christian devil! But it will do no good for him to try it this time but, laws! Hannah! after alls said and done, he is gifted and wise and good, and he would not think of such a thing. It is surely time for one of us to go to that room. What is keeping him? Why doesnt he come and say so?
They caught the sound of his approaching step. He entered, sat down, and began to talk.
Margaret is a sick woman, he said. She is still sleeping, but she will wake presently; then one of you must go to her. She will be worse before she is better. Pretty soon a night-and-day watch must be set. How much of it can you two undertake?
All of it! burst from both ladies at once.
The doctors eyes flashed, and he said, with energy:
You do ring true, you brave old relics! And you shall do all of the nursing you can, for theres none to match you in that divine office in this town; but you cant do all of it, and it would be a crime to let you. It was grand praise, golden praise, coming from such a source, and it took nearly all the resentment out of the aged twins hearts. Your Tilly and my old Nancy shall do the rest good nurses both, white souls with black skins, watchful, loving, tender just perfect nurses! and competent liars from the cradle. Look you! keep a little watch on Helen; she is sick, and is going to be sicker.
The ladies looked a little surprised, and not credulous; and Hester said:
How is that? It isnt an hour since you said she was as sound as a nut.
The doctor answered, tranquilly:
It was a lie.
The ladies turned upon him indignantly, and Hannah said:
How can you make an odious confession like that, in so indifferent a tone, when you know how we feel about all forms of
Hush! You are as ignorant as cats, both of you, and you dont know what you are talking about. You are like all the rest of the moral moles; you lie from morning till night, but because you dont do it with your mouths, but only with your lying eyes, your lying inflections, your deceptively misplaced emphasis, and your misleading gestures, you turn up your complacent noses and parade before God and the world as saintly and unsmirched Truth-Speakers, in whose cold-storage souls a lie would freeze to death if it got there! Why will you humbug yourselves with that foolish notion that no lie is a lie except a spoken one? What is the difference between lying with your eyes and lying with your mouth? There is none; and if you would reflect a moment you would see that it is so. There isnt a human being that doesnt tell a gross of lies every day of his life; and you why, between you, you tell thirty thousand; yet you flare up here in a lurid hypocritical horror because I tell that child a benevolent and sinless lie to protect her from her imagination, which would get to work and warm up her blood to a fever in an hour, if I were disloyal enough to my duty to let it. Which I should probably do if I were interested in saving my soul by such disreputable means.
Come, let us reason together. Let us examine details. When you two were in the sick-room raising that riot, what would you have done if you had known I was coming?
Well, what?
You would have slipped out and carried Helen with you wouldnt you?
The ladies were silent.
What would be your object and intention?
Well, what?
To keep me from finding out your guilt; to beguile me to infer that Margarets excitement proceeded from some cause not known to you. In a word, to tell me a lie a silent lie. Moreover, a possibly harmful one.
The twins colored, but did not speak.
You not only tell myriads of silent lies, but you tell lies with your mouths you two.
That is not so!
It is so. But only harmless ones. You never dream of uttering a harmful one. Do you know that that is a concession and a confession?
How do you mean?
It is an unconscious concession that harmless lies are not criminal; it is a confession that you constantly make that discrimination. For instance, you declined old Mrs. Fosters invitation last week to meet those odious Higbies at supper in a polite note in which you expressed regret and said you were very sorry you could not go. It was a lie. It was as unmitigated a lie as was ever uttered. Deny it, Hester with another lie.
Hester replied with a toss of her head.
That will not do. Answer. Was it a lie, or wasnt it?
The color stole into the cheeks of both women, and with a struggle and an effort they got out their confession:
It was a lie.
Good the reform is beginning; there is hope for you yet; you will not tell a lie to save your dearest friends soul, but you will spew out one without a scruple to save yourself the discomfort of telling an unpleasant truth.
He rose. Hester, speaking for both, said; coldly:
We have lied; we perceive it; it will occur no more. To lie is a sin. We shall never tell another one of any kind whatsoever, even lies of courtesy or benevolence, to save any one a pang or a sorrow decreed for him by God.
Ah, how soon you will fall! In fact, you have fallen already; for what you have just uttered is a lie. Good-by. Reform! One of you go to the sick-room now.