“He looketh almost as if death were near,” she whispered to Everett.
“Do not be alarmed,” he replied; “he will soon fall asleep, and when he awakens he will be as well as he was this morning.”
The girl bent over her father to watch the faint breathing. The old man’s face was ghastly in its emaciation and pallor.
“Thou wilt not leave me yet?” she said, entreatingly. “Sit here with me until I am sure he is slumbering peacefully.”
Walda took her place on an old oaken bench above which hung Gerson Brandt’s book-shelves, and Everett drew one of the chairs close to the table, near to the place where Walda sat. Instead of taking up her knitting the girl leaned on the oaken arm of the bench, and with her chin in her hands she became lost in thought.
“Through thee it hath become plain to me that I am different from the women out there in the world,” she said, presently. “Sometimes there hath come over me a great fear lest one day I shall be sorely tempted to go forth among men and women of the earth. In the days of my rebellion, when I turned a deaf ear to the calling of the spirit, I dreamed of going away from Zanah. Since I have known thee I have sometimes faltered, even as my steps were being led near to the place of peace which will be revealed to me when the inspiration cometh.” She spoke as if she were thinking aloud, and Everett made no response, for he dared not say the words that came to his lips.
“Thou knowest the world,” she continued. “Dost thou think that I could ever be tempted to forget my duty to the people of Zanah? Shall I be able always to walk near to God?”
“It is said that there is a supreme temptation for every man and for every woman,” said Everett, not daring to look at her. “You may be spared that, or, if it comes to you, you may be strong enough to resist it.”
“There are strange, earthly impulses in my heart that none but Gerson Brandt can understand,” she said. “But even he will not let me speak of them.”
“What are your besetting sins?” Everett asked, gently. “Can’t you confess them to me? Perhaps I can judge more fairly than any one in Zanah, because mine must be the broader view.”