The Hearts Kingdom | Page 9

Couldn't we--we make
some sort of compromise? Or at least couldn't you cut your--prayers
short so he can get in an hour or two of his favorite pleasure after--after
duty well done?" As I spoke I had come to the edge of the steps and
thus stood alone above him, looking down on him with a kind of cool
aloofness as if he belonged to another world, while I heard all of his
recent converts grouped back of me give little gasps of dismay.
CHAPTER III
THE GAUNTLET
Was that young Methodist minister crushed by my plainly intended
gauntlet flung down to him? He was not.
"I'm glad I came over in time to put Billy out of his misery," he
answered, smiling up at me with a quick comprehension that was
enraging. "I'm going to have informal services in the chapel to-night to
try out the acoustics before the contractor turns over the building. I am
not satisfied about the sounding board he has put in, and the only way
is to try it with at least part of the seats occupied. We'll sing a bit and
plan the dedication; not have a formal service. So then, Billy, you can
have your fox-trotting and a good time to all of you, bless you, my
children." As he spoke he smiled at the entire group with the most
delightful interest and pleasure. He was dressed in a straight black coat
with a plain silk vest cut around a white collar that buttoned in the back,
and his dull gold mane was brushed down sleek and close to his

beautiful head. Not a flash of expression in his strong face showed that
he felt any resentment or dismay at thus having some of his most
prominent church members backslide from his prayer meeting into a
fox-trot, and yet I knew--knew that he fully appreciated the situation
and laid the blame of it where the blame was due.
"Of course we will come to the services first--that is, if you--if you
don't object," Letitia said with her usual directness and lack of any kind
of finesse, thus bringing the situation to a decided head.
"Why not come over for the songs and then not stay for the
conference?" was the genial answer that positively astonished me, and
as he spoke he came up the steps and stood beside me. "Dabney and I
found the first Star of Bethlehem when we were weeding this afternoon.
I brought it to you carefully, and can I have a cup of that tea he has
been trying to make you serve for the last five minutes?" With these
words the Reverend Mr. Goodloe turned me around and sent me to the
tea tray that Dabney and Sallie had put on a table under the rose vine;
but not before he had taken up my hand, put the star flower in it and
curled my fingers over it. "I'll pass the muffins, Billy, and you take the
cakes for Miss Powers, and be more careful than you were last Sunday
with my collection plate for the poor." Billy feigned confusion,
accepted the plate and was just about to begin a defense, when a
diversion occurred to stop him.
"There comes Mark and Mrs. Mark," he exclaimed, "but they have got
an offspring apiece in their embrace and several trailers. Somebody
ought to remonstrate with Nell Morgan or have the firmness to apply
the superfluous blind kitten treatment every spring. Three children are
patriotic, but five are populistic and ought to be frowned upon," and
Billy grumbled all the while the Morgans were flocking up the front
walk. When they came to the steps the Jaguar descended and held out
his clerically befrocked arms so that the gurgler from Mark's shoulder
and the giggler from Nell's arms both fell into his embrace at one time.
"You young marplots, you!" he said as the gurgler printed a wet kiss on
his left ear and regarded him with rapture while the small cooer,
proclaimed as feminine by neck and sleeve ribbons, cuddled against his

shoulder with soft confidence. "They're going to take you both down to
the river and drown you," he confided with a soft note in his voice that
was an answer to the coo.
"I wish you would," said Mark, as, with a laugh, he shook my hand
extended from the group around me, composed of Nell and the other
three kiddies, all crowded together in one passionate greeting. "Nurse
and Julia and the house and garden man have all gone to a wedding, so
we have fed 'em and are now starting out for a razoo, and we don't care
whether it lasts until midnight or not. Young Charlotte, you hug one
side of your Aunt Charlotte and