“Ah, Muriel,” he said, in a low, rapt voice, “the beauty that my eyes see in you is the token of the beauty my soul knows in you. How could I bear to leave you! Once it was a joy to think of death, but now heaven could not tempt me from earth with you.”
She came quickly to him, with an agitated face, and passionately clung to him. He folded her to his breast, and felt, as his face drooped upon her forehead, a vague sense, as of some luminous shadow resting on them. In a moment, she lifted her face to his, serene, though the clear eyes were dim, and gazed ardently into his countenance.
“Do not speak of leaving me, John,” she said. “It was my foolish dream put that into your mind. Ah, we shall neither of us leave each other. Life is before us, and love. Come, let us not dwell on this, but speak of other things.”
“So be it,” he replied. “Well, what shall we do with ourselves to-day?”
“I don’t know,” she gaily answered, swinging around from his breast to his side, and putting her arm about him, while he encircled her waist. “Suppose we vary the general impiety of our proceedings by going to church.”
“Agreed. To Mr. Parker’s, of course.”
“Most assuredly. There’s the breakfast bell.”
And, arm in arm, they descended to the breakfast-room.
Church-time came, with the aërial pealing of bells, and with it came Wentworth, in gallant and perfumed attire, to convoy Emily to her devotions. Emily, however, had decided to go with Harrington and Muriel, and presently they all set out together, Mrs. Eastman, who had recovered her serenity, accompanying them.
The streets were full of church-goers, some of them haply wending their way to be regaled with exhortations to obey all laws, right or wrong, especially the Fugitive Slave Law, and to consent, if need be, to have their brothers go into slavery to save the Union. In that blissful period, it was agreed, among all respectable people, that ministers must not meddle with politics, unless they were pro-slavery politics, which were considered perfectly orthodox, doulos of Christ having been ascertained to mean, not servant, but slave of Christ, and Paul having been proved to have sent back Onesimus, not at all as a brother beloved, but as a runaway Thomas Sims. The sedulous inculcation of these soul-elevating views and this cheering exegesis of Scripture, was understood to be in perfect harmony with the dictum that ministers musn’t meddle with politics, and many ministers conducted themselves accordingly.