george returned, and made an early appearance at potlurg. dawtie met him in the court. she did not know him, but involuntarily shrunk from him. he frowned. there was a natural repugnance between them; the one was simple, the other double; the one was pure, the other selfish; the one loved her neighbor, the other preyed upon his.
george was a little louder, and his manners were more studied. alexa felt him overblown. he was floridly at his ease. what little “atmosphere” there had been about him was gone, and its place taken by a colored fog. his dress was unobjectionable, and yet attracted notice; perhaps it was only too considered. alexa was disappointed, and a little relieved. he looked older, yet not more manly—and rather fat. he had more of the confidence women dislike to see a man without, than was quite pleasant even to the confident alexa. his speech was not a little infected with the nasality—as easy to catch as hard to get rid of—which i presume the puritans carried from england to america. on the whole, george was less interesting than alexa had expected.
he came to her as if he would embrace her, but an instinctive movement on her part sufficed to check him. she threw an additional heartiness into her welcome, and kept him at arm's-length. she felt as if she had lost an old friend, and not gained a new one. he made himself very agreeable, but that he made himself so, made him less so.
there was more than these changes at work in her; there was still the underlying doubt concerning him. although not yet a live soul, she had strong if vague ideas about right and wrong; and although she sought many things a good deal more than righteousness, i do not see what temptation would at once have turned her from its known paths. at the same time i do not see what she had yet, more than hundreds of thousands of well-meaning women, to secure her from slow decay and final ruin.
they laughed and talked together very like the way they used, but “every like is not the same,” and they knew there was a difference. george was stung by the sense of it—too much to show that he was vexed. he laid himself out to be the more pleasing, as if determined to make her feel what he was worth—as the man, namely, whom he imagined himself, and valued himself on being.
it is an argument for god, to see what fools those make of themselves who, believing there is a god, do not believe in him—children who do not know the father. such make up the mass of church and chapel goers. let an earthquake or the small-pox break loose among them, and they will show what sort their religion is. george had got rid of the folly of believing in the existence of a god, either interested in human affairs or careless of them, and naturally found himself more comfortable in consequence; for he never had believed in god, and it is awkward to believe and not believe at the same moment. what he had called his beliefs were as worthy of the name as those of most people, but whether he was better or worse without them hardly interests me, and my philanthropy will scarce serve to make me glad that he was more comfortable.
as they talked, old times came up, and they drew a little nearer, until at last a gentle spring of rose-colored interest began a feeble flow in alexa's mind. when george took his leave, which he did soon, with the wisdom of one who feared to bore, she went with him to the court, where the gardener was holding his horse. beside them stood andrew, talking to the old man, and admiring the beautiful animal in his charge.
“the life of the creator has run free through every channel up to this creature!” he was saying as they came near.
“what rot!” said george to himself, but to alexa he said: “here's my old friend, the farmer, i declare!” then to andrew: “how do you do, mr. ingram?”
george never forgot a man's name, and went in consequence for a better fellow than he was. one may remember for reasons that have little to do with good-fellowship. he spoke as if they were old friends. “you seem to like the look of the beast!” he said: “you ought to know what's what in horses!”
“he is one of the finest horses i ever saw,” answered andrew. “the man who owns him is fortunate.”
“he ought to be a good one!” said george. “i gave a hundred and fifty guineas for him yesterday.”
andrew could not help vaguely reflecting what kind of money had bought him, if sandy was right.
alexa was pleased to see andrew. he made her feel more comfortable. his presence seemed to protect her a little.
“may i ask you, mr. ingram,” she said, “to repeat what you were saying about the horse as we came up?”
“i was saying,” answered andrew, “that, to any one who understands a horse it is clear that the power of god must have flowed unobstructed through many generations to fashion such a perfection.”
“oh! you indorse the development theory—do you?” said george. “i should hardly have expected that of you.”
“i do not think it has anything to do with what i said; no one disputes that this horse comes of many generations of horses. the development theory, if i understand aright, concerns itself with how his first ancestor in his own kind came to be a horse.”
“and about that there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who believes in the bible!” said george.
“god makes beautiful horses,” returned andrew; “whether he takes the one way or the other to make them, i am sure he takes the right way.”
“you imply it is of little consequence what you believe about it.”
“if i had to make them it would be of consequence. but what i think of consequence to us is—that he makes them, not out of nothing, but out of himself. why should my poor notion of god's how be of importance, so long as, when i see a horse like yours, mr. crawford, i say, god be praised? it is of eternal importance to love the animal, and see in him the beauty of the lord; it is of none to fancy i know which way god took to make him. not having in me the power or the stuff to make a horse, i can not know how god made the horse; i can know him to be beautiful.”
“but,” said george, “the first horse was a very common-looking domestic animal, which they kept to eat—nothing like this one.”
“then you think god made the first horse, and after that the horses made themselves,” said andrew.
alexa laughed; george said nothing; andrew went on.
“but,” he said, “if we have come up from the lower animals, through a million of kinds, perhaps—against which theory i have nothing to urge—then i am more than prepared to believe that the man who does not do the part of a man will have to go down again, through all the stages of his being, to a position beyond the lowest forms of the powers he has misused, and there begin to rise once more, haunted perhaps with dim hints of the world of humanity left so far above him.”
“bah! what's the use of bothering! rubbish!” cried george, with rude jollity. “you know as well as i do, mr. ingram, it's all bosh! things will go on as they're doing, and as they have been doing, till now from all eternity—so far as we know, and that's enough for us.”
“they will not go on so for long in our sight, mr. crawford. the worms will have a word to say with us.”
alexa turned away.
“you've not given up preaching and taken to the practical yet, mr. ingram, i see,” said george.
andrew laughed.
“i flatter myself i have not ceased to be practical, mr. crawford. you are busy with what you see, and i am busy as well with what i don't see; but all the time i believe my farm is in as good a state as your books.”
george gave a start, and stole a look at the young farmer, but was satisfied he “meant nothing.” the self-seeker will walk into the very abyss protesting himself a practical man, and counting him unpractical who will not with him “jump the life to come.” himself, he neither measures the width nor questions his muscle.
