Samuel slept not a wink all that night. First he lay wrestling with the congregation. And then his thoughts came to Miss Gladys, and what he was going to say to her. This kindled a fire in his blood, and when the first streaks of dawn were in the sky, he rose and went out to walk.
Throughout all these adventures, his feelings had been mingled with the excitement of his love for her. Samuel hardly knew what to make of himself. He had never kissed a woman in his life before—but now desire was awake, and from the deeps of him the most unexpected emotions came surging, sweeping him away. He was a prey to longings and terrors. Wild ecstasies came to him, and then followed plunges into melancholy. He longed to see her, and other things stood in the way, and he did not know why he should be so tormented.
Just to be in love would have been enough. But to have been given the love of a being like Miss Gladys—peerless and unapproachable, almost unimaginable!
After hours of pacing the streets, he called to see her. And she came to him, her face alight with eager curiosity, and crying, “Tell me all about it!”
She listened, almost dumb with amazement. “And you said that to my father!” she exclaimed again and again. “And to Mr. Hickman! And to old Mr. Curtis! Samuel! Samuel!”
“It was all true, Miss Gladys,” he insisted.
“Yes,” she said—“but—to say it to them!”
“They turned me out of the church,” he went on. “Had they a right to do that?”
“I don't know,” she answered. “Oh, my, what a time there will be!”
“And what are you going to do now?” she asked after a pause.
“I don't know. I wanted to talk about it with you.”
“But what do you think of doing?”
“I must expose them to the people.”
Miss Gladys looked at him quickly. “Oh, no, Samuel,” she said—“you mustn't do that!”
“Why not, Miss Gladys?”
“Because—it wouldn't do.”
“But Miss Gladys—”
“It wouldn't be decent, Samuel. And it's so much more effective to talk with people privately, as you have been doing.”
“But who else is there to talk to?”
“Why, I don't know. We'll have to think.”
“It's your father and Mr. Hickman I have to deal with, Miss Gladys. And they won't listen to me any more!”
“Perhaps not. But, then, see how much you have done already!”
“What have I done?”
“Think how ashamed you have made them!”
“But what difference does that make, Miss Gladys? Don't you see they've still got the money they've taken?”
There was a pause. “This is something I have been thinking,” said Samuel gravely. “I've had this great burden laid upon me, and I must carry it. I have to see the thing through to the end. And I'm afraid it will be painful to you. You may feel that you can't possibly marry me.”
At these words Miss Gladys gave a wild start. She stared at him in consternation. “Marry you!” she gasped.
“Yes,” he said; and then, seeing the look upon her face, he stopped.
“Marry you!” she panted again.
A silence followed, while they gazed at each other.
“Why, Samuel!” she exclaimed.
“Miss Gladys,” he said in a low voice, “you told me that you loved me.”
“Yes,” she said, “but surely—” And then suddenly she bit her lips together exclaiming, “This has gone too far!”
“Miss Gladys!” he cried.
“Samuel,” she said, “we have been two bad children; and we must not go on in this way.”
The boy gave a gasp of amazement.
“I had no idea that you were taking me so seriously,” she continued. “It wasn't fair to me.”
“Then—then you don't love me!” he panted.
“Why—perhaps,” she replied, “how can I tell? But one does not marry because one loves, Samuel.”
He gazed at her, speechless.
“I thought we were playing with each other; and I thought you understood it. It wasn't very wise, perhaps—-”
“Playing with each other!” whispered the boy, his voice almost gone.
“You take everything with such frightful seriousness,” she protested. “Really, I don't think you had any right—-”
“Miss Gladys!” he cried in sudden anguish; and she stopped and stared at him, frightened.
“Do you know what you have done to me?” he exclaimed.
“Samuel,” she said in a trembling voice, “I am very much surprised and upset. I had no idea of such a thing; and y............