FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   >>  
ht to be enough, honey." He was terrified. His anger was gone. He placed an appealing hand on her arm, and as she stood there in the faint starlight the wonder of her once again got him by the throat. She had that sort of repressed eagerness, that look of being poised for flight, that had always made him feel cheap and unworthy. "Isn't that enough, honey?" he repeated. "Not now," she said, her eyes turned toward the east. "These are great days, Harvey. They are greater and more terrible than any one can know who has not been there. I've been there and I know. I haven't the right to all this peace and comfort when I know how things are going over there." Down the quiet street of the little town service was over. The last hymn had been sung. Through the open windows came the mellow sound of the minister's voice in benediction, too far away to be more than a tone, like a single deep note of the organ. Sara Lee listened. She knew the words he was saying, and she listened with her eyes turned to the east: "The peace of God that passeth all understanding be and abide with you all, forevermore. Amen." Sara Lee listened, and from the step below her Harvey watched her with furtive, haggard eyes. He had not heard the benediction. "The peace of God!" she said slowly. "There is only one peace of God, Harvey, and that is service. I am going back." "Service!" he scoffed. "You are going back to him!" "I'm afraid he is not there any more. I am going back to work. But if he is there--" Harvey slid the ring into his pocket. "What if he's not there," he demanded bitterly. "If you think, after all this, that I'm going to wait, on the chance of your coming back to me, you're mistaken. I've been a laughing stock long enough." In the light of her new decision Sara Lee viewed him for the first time with the pitiless eyes of women who have lost a faith. She saw him for what he was, not deliberately cruel, not even unkindly, but selfish, small, without vision. Harvey was for his own fireside, his office, his little family group. His labor would always be for himself and his own. Whereas Sara Lee was, now and forever, for all the world, her hands consecrated to bind up its little wounds and to soothe its great ones. Harvey craved a cheap and easy peace. She wanted no peace except that bought by service, the peace of a tired body, the peace of the little house in Belgium where, after days of torture, weary men fou
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   >>  



Top keywords:

Harvey

 

listened

 
service
 

benediction

 

turned

 

decision

 

afraid

 

viewed

 

pitiless

 

scoffed


bitterly

 

coming

 

pocket

 

demanded

 

mistaken

 

laughing

 
chance
 

craved

 

wanted

 

soothe


consecrated

 

wounds

 

bought

 

torture

 
Belgium
 

unkindly

 

selfish

 
deliberately
 

Service

 
vision

Whereas
 
forever
 

fireside

 

office

 

family

 

understanding

 

terrible

 
greater
 
street
 

things


comfort

 
repressed
 
eagerness
 

throat

 

poised

 

repeated

 
starlight
 

unworthy

 

terrified

 

flight