Shyly Dolores glanced up to see if the great intelligence had anticipated her point.
“The station was draughty. When my turn came, I breathed up and down and prepared. I made up my mind to sneeze the lady’s way. And I did. And afterward, the ambition to sneeze her way applied to other things—decided me to take the draughts of life neatly—to be prepared and make no fuss. I try and try, Dr. Willard. But I guess self-control is not enough. Don’t you think people would understand me better if I had your religion? Is it too late for me to learn it now?”
“Emphatically not, you fatherless child.” The doctor apparently had been touched by her conversational offering. Real feeling quivered on the face bent over hers. “And there are other comforts it is not too late for you to learn. Lean your lonely heart against mine. Let me teach you a father’s love.”
“If you would—oh, if you only would!” She seized his hands and pressed one cheek against them. “It is so easy to learn from one you absolutely trust.”
“Don’t trust anyone absolutely. I fear at times that your rating of me is too high.” Humility tore from her reverential regard the pastor’s eyes, although his hands shook with appreciation of her praise. “Remember how everything finite that goes up must come down. Only the soul can ascend and stay on high. The flowers that lift their heads to bloom must wither and die. The lightest feather in the most buoyant breeze eventually returns to the earth from which it blew.”
“But it is my soul you will exalt, dear Dr. Willard.”
At her reminder, one of his hands moved to where its palm fitted over the ball of her shoulder.
“Let me be a father to you. Yes, let me be a father to you,” he kept repeating. The while, his palm pressed her shoulder, began to move around and around.
“And you’ll teach me your religion?”
Dolores’ head threw back in exhilarating hope. As one performs small acts in the largest moments, she plucked a long, silver-gold hair off the black cloth of his coat. In the same motion, despite her boasted control of impulse, her hand continued around his neck.