Amos's delicate skin showed a bright color even in the gathering twilight. He had begun to believe that he had unsuitable thoughts about Ellen, that he had noted with unseemly keenness the changes in her youthful figure. It would be sad if at last temptation should come to him in the form of sweet little Ellen, his pupil! He believed that thus the devil answered his desire to remain celibate. Before he had formed this intention, he had not been troubled. He did not quite hold with St. Chrysostom that a woman was a wicked work of nature covered with a shining varnish, but he did believe that she was a serious obstacle to the spiritual life.
There was a light in Dr. Levis's office where he sat reading. Ellen had gone with Mrs. Sassaman to her church, and to their surprise Matthew had brought round the double carriage and had taken the driver's seat.
Levis called "Come in," without laying down his book. When he saw his guests, he sprang up and pushed out two chairs. Now that Ellen was studying and Matthew had gone to the Lutheran church, he felt a little pity for Grandfather Milhausen.
"Sit down," he invited. "This is a very pleasant evening."
The circumstances of his visit to the Kloster were now reversed—it was Grandfather who had no desire to discuss the character of the weather, and to his son-in-law's remark he made no reply. Levis looked at him critically. He must be considerably over seventy, but he might live to be a hundred.
Then Levis looked at Amos whose beauty though unpleasant was extraordinary—what a sensation he would create among artists!—he might even, with his aureole and his silky beard, produce a sensation upon a city street. Levis wondered with amusement what Amos would say to a suggestion that he allow his body to be made a delight to the eye for centuries, like that of a certain youthful model of St. John.
Grandfather clasped both hands over the head of his stick and leaned forward. His keen eyes fell upon the book which Levis was reading—he knew enough of books to be certain that this was no religious work.
"Edward, I have come to speak again about the children for whom I am accountable. I didn't believe you when you said they shouldn't come to meeting. It seemed that you could not be guilty of such short-sightedness and wickedness."
"I meant exactly what I said—that they should go no longer to the meeting of the Seventh-Day Baptists. This evening they have gone with the housekeeper to the Lutheran church."
"Not Matthew!"