"MARVEL NOT, MY BRETHREN, IF THE WORLD HATE YOU." ("I am, perhaps, personally unattractive to her; and yet I wonder why?")
He was not a conceited man; but, like all his sex, he really did "marvel" a little at the lack of feminine appreciation. He marveled so much that a week later he took Mary and walked out to Mr. Roberts's house. This time Mary, to her disgust, was left with Miss Philly's father, while her brother and Miss Philly walked in the frosted garden. Later, when that walk was over, and the little sister trudged along at John Fenn's side in the direction of Perryville, she was very fretful because he would not talk to her. He was occupied, poor boy, in trying again not to "marvel," and to be submissive to the divine will.
After that, for several months, he refused Mary's plea to be taken to visit Miss Philly. He had, he told himself, "submitted"; but submission left him very melancholy and solemn, and also a little resentful; indeed, he was so low in his mind, that once he threw out a bitter hint to Dr. Lavendar,--who, according to his wont, put two and two together.
"Men in our profession, sir," said John Fenn, "must not expect personal happiness."
"Well," said Dr. Lavendar, meditatively, "perhaps if we don't expect it, the surprise of getting it makes it all the better. I expected it; but I've exceeded my expectations!"
"But you are not married," the young man said, impulsively.
Dr. Lavendar's face changed; "I hope you will marry, Fenn," he said, quietly.
At which John Fenn said, "I am married to my profession; that is enough for any minister."
"You'll find your profession a mighty poor housekeeper," said Dr. Lavendar.
It was shortly after this that Mr.
Fenn and his big roan broke through the snow-drifts and made their way to Henry Roberts's house. "I must speak to you alone, sir," he said to the Irvingite, who, seeing him approaching, had hastened to open the door for him and draw him in out of the cold sunshine.
What the caller had to say was brief and to the point: Why was his daughter so unkind? John Fenn did not feel now that the world--which meant Philippa --hated him. He felt--he could not help feeling--that she did not even dislike him; "on the contrary...." So what reason had she for refusing him?
But old Mr. Roberts shook his head.
"A young female does not have 'reasons,'" h e said. But he was sorry for the youth, and he roused himself from his abstraction long enough to question his girl:
"He is a worthy young man, my Philippa. Why do you dislike him?"
"I do not dislike him."
"Then why --?" her father pro- t ested.
But Philly was silent.
Even Hannah came to the rescue:
"You'll get a crooked stick at the end, if you don't look out!"
Philly laughed; then her face fell.
"I sha'n't have any stick, ever!"
And Hannah, in her concern, confided her forebodings about the stick to Dr. King.
"I wonder," William said to himself, uneasily, "if I was wise to tell that child to hold her tongue? Perhaps they might have straightened it out between 'em before this, if she had told him and been done with it. I've a great mind to ask Dr. Lavendar."
He did ask him; at first with proper precautions not to betray a patient's confidence, but, at a word from Dr.
Lavendar, tumbling into truthfulness.
"You are talking about young Philippa Roberts?" Dr. Lavendar announced, calmly, when William was half-way through his story of concealed identities.
"How did you guess it?" the doctor said, astonished; "oh, well, yes, I am.
I guess there's no harm telling you--"
"Not the slightest," said Dr. Lavendar, "especially as I knew it already from the young man--I mean, I knew she wouldn't have him. But I didn't know why until your story dovetailed with his. William, the thing has festered in her! The lancet ought to have been used the next day. I believe she'd have been married by this time if she'd spoken out, then and there."
William King was much chagrined.
"I thought, being a girl, you know, her pride, her self-respect--"
"Oh yes; the lancet hurts," Dr.
Lavendar admitted; "but it's better than--well, I don't know the terms of your trade, Willy-but I guess you know what I mean?"
"I guess I do," said William King, thoughtfully. "Do you suppose it's too late now?"
"It will be more of an operation,"
Dr. Lavendar conceded.
"Could I tell him?" William said, after a while.
"I don't see why not," Dr. Lavendar said.
"I suppose I'd have to ask her permission?"
"Nonsense!" said Dr. Lavendar.
That talk between the physician of the soul and the physician of the body happened on the very night when John Fenn, in his study in Perryville, with Mary dozing on his knee, threw over, once and for all, what he had called "submission" and made up his mind to get his girl! The very next morning he girded himself and walked forth upon the Pike toward Henry Roberts's house.
He did not take Mary with him,--but not because he meant to urge salvation on Miss Philly! As it happened, Dr.
King, too, set out upon the Perryville road that morning, remarking to Jinny that if he had had his wits about him that night in November, she would have been saved the trip on this May morning. The trip was easy enough;
William had found a medical pamphlet among his mail, and he was reading it, with the reins hanging from the crook of his elbow. It was owing to this method of driving that John Fenn reached the Roberts house before Jinny passed it, so she went all the way to Perryville, and then had to turn round to follow on his track.
"Brother went to see Miss Philly, and he wouldn't take me," Mary complained to William King, when he drew up at the minister's door; and the doctor was sympathetic to the extent of five cents for candy comfort.
But when Jinny reached the Roberts gate Dr. King saw John Fenn down in the garden with Philippa. "Ho-ho!" s aid William. "I guess I'll wait and see if he works out his own salvation."
