Captain Pott's Minister Part 32

"But I have told you already that what is troubling me has nothing whatever to do with business. I tried to talk with you the other evening, and you failed to understand. We must not quarrel again. That is harder for me to bear than all else."

"I am very sorry for that, Daddy. I fear I lost my head. I am ashamed of the way I acted, and of what I said. Will you not forgive me?"

"Yes, my dear. We were both pretty severe. We are living too much on our nerves of late."

"Now, that the past is cleared up, tell me what is troubling you to-night."

"You say you have been sitting here for a long while?"

"Since twilight. It didn't seem so long, though."

"Did you see anything strange, or hear anything familiar?"

"I saw Uncle Josiah's boat leave the harbor."

"Didn't it strike you as being rather odd that he should be going out this time of night, and in such a storm? He went out last night, too."

"Yes, it did seem very strange to me."

"Beth?" The Elder's voice wavered.

"What is it, Father?"

"I know I've no right to worry you like this, but I don't stand reverses like I once did."

"Reverses! You told me it wasn't money! And, anyway, what does Uncle Josiah's action have to do with your reverses?" She switched on the light at her desk. When she saw her father's face she gave a little cry.

"I have told you the truth, Beth. It isn't money. I wish to G.o.d it were nothing more than that! There are reverses far harder to bear than financial ones."

Her father appeared older than she had ever seen him. Dejection showed through every line of his haggard face. The side-whiskers, which to his daughter's mind he had worn with great distinction, now gave to his worn features a grotesque expression.

"I feel pretty well worn out to-night, my dear,"--weariness was in every word he uttered,--"and as if I need some one to lean on. If I did not need you to help me, I should not be bothering you at this hour of the night."

The girl drew before her father's chair the footstool which earlier in the evening she had kicked into a far corner. She sat at his knee, and, taking his hand in hers, pressed it against her cheek. For some time they sat thus in silence. Her father broke in on the quietness of the room with a peculiar question.

"The Bible tells us that we should love our enemies, doesn't it, Beth?"

"But, Father, you have no enemies worth worrying about! Why should you ask such a question?"

"They may not be worth worrying about, but as I said before I don't seem able to fight off worry as I once could."

"Nonsense! When all this blows over you will see where you have been very foolish to have worried in the least bit. You are not strong, and everything appears worse than it really is."

"I don't know about that, my dear. I'm not so certain, either, that my enemies are not worth worrying about."

"Of course they're not. Just think how all the people have honored you for what you have done for Little River. Your gifts will not be so quickly forgotten that a total stranger can change the feeling of respect for you among your lifelong friends."

"I'm aware of all that, and I appreciate it."

"What has all this to do about Uncle Josiah's leaving town?"

"I'm coming to that. Suppose one of those you called my lifelong friends proved to be just the opposite?"

"That can't be true about Uncle Josiah!"

"Public expressions of grat.i.tude can never atone for the knife which a supposedly close friend drives into one's heart."

Elizabeth unconsciously drew away. The movement was slight, but her father noticed it.

"Beth, Josiah has gone to the city to-night for no good purpose."

"Do you think he went alone?" With a savage leap the question got beyond the bounds of her lips.

"I doubt it. Just what part the other will play, I don't know. But of one thing I'm certain, Josiah is bent on ill."

Elizabeth felt that her old friend was being weighed in the balances.

She could not trust her words to the emotion she felt.

"Do you think you are in a position to understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

"Father," she said, speaking slowly that she might not lose control of herself, "if you were not so serious about this, I should be tempted to laugh at your little melodramatic farce. It is the most ridiculous thing in all the world for you to imagine that Uncle Josiah would play double with us! He is too good-hearted for even one evil suggestion to get into his mind."

"I did not want to tell you the fact, but I fear I must. Of late he has been openly hostile to every suggestion I have made. I presume he thinks I should have secured a boat for him. That may account for his action."

"What dreadful thing has he done? I can't imagine----"

"Crookedness comes from the most unexpected sources," cut in her father, curtly.

"But such a thing would not be unexpected from Uncle Josiah, it would be impossible."

The Elder lowered his eyes to meet those peering at him from the tangle of fair hair. "As I have already suggested, you might not understand me.

It seems that you are determined not to understand. It would be very hard for me to have another falling out with my little girl. Maybe I should say nothing further."

"If you are intending to say something against Uncle Josiah, perhaps you had better not say it. I'm afraid I wouldn't understand."

She turned from her father and tried to gaze through the window. The beating storm, and the light from within, made the pane opaque. She stared against this till her eyes ached.

"Beth!" There was a note of command in his tone.

She turned to face her father.

"Come here," he ordered.

"Uncle Josiah untrue to us!" she said, without moving from her place at the window. "I cannot believe it. There must be some mistake."

"There is absolutely no mistake about it. I should like to believe it more than you. I have even tried to make myself believe that my imagination was getting the better of me. But he was up here only last night, and confirmed all my fears."

"Uncle Josiah untrue! He could not be after all you have done for him. You loaned him money, and helped him fix up his place. Why, Father,----"