Surely there must have been something in its dark reflection to terrify this daring woman, surely her heart must have trembled before the magnitude of her triumph, before the spectacle of the misery she had wrought, but if she indeed felt these things she gave no sign. Indeed it would seem as if this woman had suffered so much in secret, over her baulked desire, that she had gone mad of misery, and as some serpents when wounded strike savagely at stones and trees and even at their own coils, so Vashti, in her hour of power, did not care whom she wounded, if so that she could vent her venom and see upon the faces of others some reflex of the agony which had so long lain at her heart.
We cannot explain these things, nor dare we judge of them, for to take judgment upon us is to be ourselves condemned.
Sidney’s voice was growing weaker, and finally, with a last scathing rebuke, which was perhaps more of a sneer than a reproof, he sat down, his stern, white face sinking out of sight behind the high pulpit desk.
After a few moments, which seemed a century to the racked congregation, he rose, but the face which they saw was no longer the stern face of the relentless man who had so tortured them. The gentle grey eyes had regained their kindliness, the sensitive mouth its sweetness, the lofty brow was no longer black with condemnation, but bright with beneficence; no longer stern with portents of wrath, but grave with reverent responsibility. He gave out the hymn in his usual way and it was sung haltingly, and then with outstretched hands he blessed his people.
But they wanted none of his blessings. They had trusted him and he had betrayed them into the clutch of their own fears.
It was the custom in Dole for the congregation and preacher to rest a moment or two in silence after the final Amen of the benediction, and after that there were greetings at the church door; but to-day, whilst Sidney’s bowed head rested upon his hands he heard hurrying feet crowding to the door, and when he raised his head and descended the short pulpit stairs, he found the church empty, he looked about in amazement.
“Why, Vashti,” he said in surprise, “where have they all gone?”
“I don’t know whatever has possessed them,” she said, although she knew only too well. “But they all hurried out pell mell.”
“How strange,” said Sidney wonderingly. Vashti looked at him curiously; by this time they were on the porch. It was empty. Those who walked to church had taken their departure, fleeing as from a place accursed. Those who had to wait for the men to bring round the democrat waggons in which they had come from a distance, accompanied the men round to the sheds, and mounting into the vehicles there, drove off rapidly.
Ann Serrup had waited barely till she got to the church door, and then turning with blazing eyes to Mabella, she demanded how she had dared bring her there to be mocked at; the poor tow of Ann’s passion was fairly ablaze, but something in Mabella’s face quieted her, and with an evil word for the preacher, flung out recklessly from the reservoir of sinful knowledge—Ann departed.