"Oh well," he said to himself, "she'll forget it. Catch me oiling the church organ! If it groaned loud enough to be heard ten miles off I wouldn't touch it!" And he honestly thought he would not; he had a vindictive feeling for that old organ.
This conversation had consumed much less time than it has taken me to give it. They were passing down the aisle, John having been withheld from his usual habit of rushing out the instant the Amen was spoken by the sudden question that had been put to him. Now Louise turned his thoughts into another channel. Her husband had been waylaid by a gentleman who seemed anxious to have his opinion on some church matter; she was therefore at leisure to fish for John.
"I don't want to go home without being introduced to the minister," she said. "There he comes now. Will you introduce me, John?"
"I don't know him," answered John shortly. The tone added, "And I don't want to."
"Don't you? Oh, he's a new-comer. Well, then, let's introduce ourselves."
He was just beside them now, and aided her plans, holding out his hand with a genial "Mrs. Morgan, I believe." He was a young, bright-faced man, cheery of voice and manner, and more winning, apparently, anywhere else than he was in the pulpit. Louise returned his hand-clasp cordially, and hastened to say—
"My brother, Mr. Morgan; my sister, Miss Morgan. We are all strangers together, I believe. You have been here but a short time, I understand?"
"Why, yes," the minister said, flushing slightly—he was comparatively a new-comer—remembering, meantime, the embarrassing fact that he had been there quite long enough to get acquainted with that portion of his flock which seemed to him worth cultivating. "I have not gotten out to Mr. Morgan's yet, but I hope to do so this week. What day will you be most at leisure, Mrs. Morgan?"
"Oh," said Louise brightly, "we shall be glad to see you at any time; suppose you come on Tuesday," thinking, meantime, of one or two little pet schemes of her own. "Shall we expect you to tea?—John, we would like to have him take tea with us, wouldn't we? You haven't an engagement for Tuesday, have you?"
Thus appealed to, what was there for John but to stammer out an answer, over which he ruminated half the way home. Was it possible that he had engaged to be at home on Tuesday, to meet the minister, and had actually seconded his invitation to tea? How came he to do it? What were the words he said? How happened he to say them? He felt very much bewildered, somewhat vexed, and just a very trifle interested. There was certainly nothing in the minister to like, and he did not like him; moreover, he did not mean to like him. What was it, then, that interested him? He did not quite know. He wondered what loophole of escape he could find for Tuesday; also he wondered whether he really and truly was determined to escape. Altogether, John did not understand his own state of mind.