The Puritans

The Puritans

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Puritans, by Arlo Bates
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Title: The Puritans
Author: Arlo Bates
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8522] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 19, 2003]
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PURITANS ***

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The Puritans
By
Arlo Bates
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. _All's
Well That Ends Well_, iv. 3.

"Abandoning my heart, and rapt in ecstasy, I ran after her till I came to
a place in which religion and reason forsook me." _Persian Religious
Hymn.

CONTENTS
I. AFTER SUCH A PAGAN CUT II. THERE BEGINS CONFUSION
III. AS FALSE AS STAIRS OF SAND IV. SOME SPEECH OF
MARRIAGE V. VOLUBLE AND SHARP DISCOURSE VI.
HEART-BURNING HEAT OF DUTY VII. THE SHOT OF
ACCIDENT VIII. LIKE COVERED FIRE IX. HIS PURE HEART'S
TRUTH X. A SYMPATHY OF WOE XI. IN PLACE AND IN
ACCOUNT NOTHING XII. THE INLY TOUCH OF LOVE XIII. A
NECESSARY EVIL XIV. HE SPEAKS THE MERE CONTRARY

XV. HEARTSICK WITH THOUGHT XVI. THE GREAT ASSAY OF
ART XVII. A BOND OF AIR XVIII. CRUEL PROOF OF THIS
MAN'S STRENGTH XIX. 'TWAS WONDROUS PITIFUL XX. IN
WAY OF TASTE XXI. THIS "WOULD" CHANGES XXII. THE
BITTER PAST XXIII. THIS DEED UNSHAPES ME XXIV.
FAREWELL AT ONCE, FOR ONCE, FOR ALL, AND EVER XXV.
WHOM THE FATES HAVE MARKED XXVI. O WICKED WIT
AND GIFT XXVII. UPON A CHURCH BENCH XXVIII.
BEDECKING ORNAMENTS OF PRAISE XXIX. WEIGHING
DELIGHT AND DOLE XXX. PARTED OUR FELLOWSHIP XXXI.
HOW CHANCES MOCK XXXII. NOW HE IS FOR THE NUMBERS
XXXIII. A MINT OF PHRASES IN HIS BRAIN XXXIV. WHAT
TIME SHE CHANTED XXXV. THE WORLD IS STILL DECEIVED
XXXVI. THE HEAVY MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT XXXVII. THIS IS
NOT A BOON

THE PURITANS

I
AFTER SUCH A PAGAN CUT Henry VIII., i. 3.
"We are all the children of the Puritans," Mrs. Herman said smiling.
"Of course there is an ethical strain in all of us."
Her cousin, Philip Ashe, who wore the dress of a novice from the
Clergy House of St. Mark, regarded her with a serious and doubtful
glance.
"But there is so much difference between you and me," he began. Then
he hesitated as if not knowing exactly how to finish his sentence.
"The difference," she responded, "is chiefly a matter of the difference
between action and reaction. You and I come of much the same stock
ethically. My childhood was oppressed by the weight of the Puritan

creed, and the reaction from it has made me what you feel obliged to
call heretic; while you, with a saint for a mother, found even Puritanism
hardly strict enough for you, and have taken to semi- monasticism. We
are both pushed on by the same original impulse: the stress of
Puritanism."
She had been putting on her gloves as she spoke, and now rose and
stood ready to go out. Philip looked at her with a troubled glance, rising
also.
"I hardly know," said he slowly, "if it's right for me to go with you. It
would have been more in keeping if I adhered to the rules of the Clergy
House while I am away from it."
Mrs. Herman smiled with what seemed to him something of the
tolerance one has for the whim of a child.
"And what would you be doing at the Clergy House at this time of
day?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be recreation hour or something of the
sort?"
He looked down. He never found himself able to be entirely at ease in
answering her questions about the routine of the Clergy House.
"No," he answered. "The half hour of recreation which follows Nones
would just be