Sister Carmen | Page 3

should help each other
in the spirit of love, so that we may be all united and grow to resemble
each other in character."
"Resemble each other in character!" She repeated his words musingly,
and the gaze from her dark eyes wandered away off, beyond her
companion. "Can we ever do that? God has created us so different; if
He had wished us all to be alike, would He not have made us so?"
The man looked at her earnestly, and an expression of disapproval
passed over his face as he answered: "Any one, to hear you speak in

that way, and not know you as well as I do, would never believe that
you had lived so long among us and were one of us. I have known you
always, ever since you were a wee, toddling thing. It was in Jamaica,
when I went to your father from the mission."
Carmen blushed deeply at the rebuke which lay in his words, and, as if
to atone, said quickly:
"Oh, forgive me! I am sure I would gladly be like you all if I only could.
But I cannot always be calm and serene, as every one else here is; and I
fear our dear Sister Agatha, with all her endeavors, will succeed as little
in changing me, as you do in trying to produce the same degree of
health in every one, even though you be the wise and learned Doctor
Jonathan Fricke. Each bird sings after its own fashion, and although all
are different, yet none are bad. I cannot believe every one is culpable
who does not pass through life calmly and sedately, as we endeavor to
do. It surely cannot be wrong for people to laugh, and dance! Dance!"
and she laughed outright, so that her pearly teeth gleamed from
between the rosy lips. "It must be enchanting to skip round and round
to the sound of merry music!" She had allowed herself to be carried
away by enthusiasm, and spoke louder than was consistent with
Moravian decorum, or suitable to the place where she was. Her eyes
sparkled, and the dainty little foot which peeped forth from under her
dress seemed altogether suited to trip with fairy fleetness through the
merry mazes of the dance.
One glance, however, at her companion recalled her to the present. Her
eyes sank, the little foot was hastily withdrawn, and she wrapped more
closely about her the dark shawl which had slipped from her shoulders.
"But the time! the time!" she stammered. "It is getting later and later
while we are chatting, and Sister Agatha will have good cause to be
vexed with me."
With fleet steps she hurried through the quiet graveyard, down the hill,
and along the path which led to the dwellings of the settlement.
Jonathan stood looking after her, as long as his eye could discern the
airy, lithe figure.

All pretence of calmness had vanished from his face. His eyes glittered
with a strange light and glowed with passionate desire. For a moment
the staid, elderly man was transformed into an eager, ardent youth.
"She inherits the hot, proud Spanish blood of her mother, and, alas! the
same fatal, enchanting beauty also," he muttered. "If I could only win
her--" He stopped abruptly, as if fearful of being overheard, and began
to brush away some imaginary specks of dust from his sleeve.
Drooping his head into its usual pious attitude, his face assumed its
former grave expression, and he was again the sedate, quiet Brother.

CHAPTER II.
A Moravian settlement! As we enter it, it seems as if we stepped into
another sphere, so utterly unlike is it to the bustle and hurry of the age
of progress which prevails in the outer world that presses so closely
upon its borders, and against which it quietly but firmly opposes the
bulwarks of its ancient customs, the simplicity of its regulations, and
the severity of its discipline. It has no intercourse with the tide of
human life surging around it. It seems like a small body of Christians,
left from the Apostolic age, that after being buried for centuries has
been dug out in later days. The government of the community
resembles that of a large family bound together by ties of love; all its
members are brothers and sisters, divided, according to age, sex, and
conditions of life, into bands called choruses, at the head of each an
elder, either male or female, presiding and superintending its spiritual
affairs and enforcing its daily discipline. Each elder gives in a report of
all that occurs in the chorus to the Conference, as this is the chief board
of management in the society. There is, therefore, nothing which
transpires in the life of any individual that