d
the country, escaping from social overtures he did not feel prepared to
meet. To all three men Mrs. Martha was at this time an object of silent
wonder. Before the Adventist disturbance she had appeared a very
commonplace person; now, as they saw her going about her daily work,
grim in her complete reserve, questions which could hardly be put into
words arose in their minds concerning her. She suggested to them such
pictorial ideas as one gleans in childhood about the end of the world,
and this quite without any effort on their part, but just because she
had clothed herself to their eyes in such ideas. Bates, who had exact
opinions on all points of theology, tackled her upon what he termed "her
errors"; but, perhaps because he had little breath to give to the cause,
the other two inmates of the house could not learn that he had gained
any influence over her or any additional information as to her state of
mind.
Bates himself was so incongruous an element in Principal Trenholme's
house that it became evident he could not be induced to remain there
long. Sufficiently intelligent to appreciate thoroughly any tokens of
ease or education, he was too proud not to resent them involuntarily as
implying inferiority on his own part. He had, to a certain degree, fine
perception of what good manners involved, but he was not sufficiently
simple to act without self-conscious awkwardness when he supposed any
deviation from his ordinary habits to be called for. Had he not been
miserable in mind and body he might have taken more kindly to carpets
and china; but as it was, he longed, as a homesick man for home, for
bare floors and the unceremoniousness that comes with tin mugs and a
scarcity of plates.
For home as it existed for him--the desolate lake and hills, the
childish crone and rude hearth--for these he did not long. It was his
home, that place; for into it--into the splashing lake and lonely woods,
into the contour of the hills, and into the very logs of which the house
was built--he had put as much of himself as can be absorbed by outside
things; but just because to return there would be to return to his
mind's external habitat, he could not now take comfort in returning. All
the multiform solace it might have yielded him had been blasted by the
girl from the hotel, who had visited him in secret. Before he had seen
Sissy again his one constant longing had been to get done with necessary
business, financial and medical, and
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