“Too much, almost, I am afraid. He says he has been too hard in his sermons sometimes, but it was for fear he should not impress his hearers enough.”
“Don't you think he worries himself about the souls of young women rather more than for those of old ones, Myrtle?”
There was something in the tone of this question that helped its slightly sarcastic expression. Myrtle's jealousy for her minister's sincerity was roused.
“How can you ask that, Mr. Gridley? I am sure I wish you or anybody could have heard him talk as I have. There is no age in souls, he says; and I am sure that it would do anybody good to hear him, old or young.”
“No age in souls,—no age in souls. Souls of forty as young as souls of fifteen; that 's it.” Master Gridley did not say this loud. But he did speak as follows: “I am glad to hear what you say of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker's love of being useful to people of all ages. You have had comfort in his companionship, and there are others who might be very glad to profit by it. I know a very excellent person who has had trials, and is greatly interested in religious conversation. Do you think he would be willing to let this friend of mine share in the privileges of spiritual intercourse which you enjoy?”
There was but one answer possible. Of course he would.
“I hope it is so, my dear young lady. But listen to me one moment. I love you, my dear child, do you know, as if I were your own—grandfather.” (There was moral heroism in that word.) “I love you as if you were of my own blood; and so long as you trust me, and suffer me, I mean to keep watch against all dangers that threaten you in mind, body, or estate. You may wonder at me, you may sometimes doubt me; but until you say you distrust me, when any trouble comes near you, you will find me there. Now, my dear child, you ought to know that the Rev. Joseph Bellamy Stoker has the reputation of being too fond of prosecuting religious inquiries with young and handsome women.”
Myrtle's eyes fell,—a new suspicion seemed to have suggested itself.
“He wanted to get up a spiritual intimacy with our Susan Posey,—a very pretty girl, as you know.”
Myrtle tossed her head almost imperceptibly, and bit her lip.