The City of Fire | Page 7

he talked, and smiled a stiff conventional
smile. But a look of anguish grew in his young face, like the sorrow of
something primeval, such as a great rock in a desert.
The minister had forgotten his article and was watching them through
the window, the tall handsome youth, his head bared with the glint of
the sun on his short cropped gold curls making one think of a young
prince, yet a prince bound under a spell and frozen in a block of ice. He
was handsome as Adonis, every feature perfect, and striking in its
manly beauty, yet there was nothing feminine about him. The minister
was conscious of all this as he watched--this boy whom he had seen
grow up, and this girl of his heart. A great still question came into the
father's look as he watched.
The minister was conscious of Lynn's mother standing in the doorway
just behind him, although she had made no noise in entering. And at
once she knew he was aware of her presence.
"Isn't that Mark Carter?" she asked just above a breath.
He nodded.
"And she doesn't know! You haven't told her?"
The minister shook his head.
"He will tell her. See, he is telling her now!"
The mother drew a shade nearer.
"But how do you know? See, she is doing the talking. You think he will
tell her? What will he tell her, Graham?"
"Oh, he will not tell her in words, but every atom of his being is telling
her now. Can't you see? He is telling her that he is no longer worthy to
be her equal. He is telling her that something has gone wrong."
"Graham, what do you think is the matter with him? Do you think he
is--BAD?" She lifted frightened eyes to his as she dropped into her low
chair that always stood conveniently near his desk.
A wordless sorrow overspread the minister's face, yet there was
something valiant in his eyes.
"No, I can't think that. I must believe in him in spite of everything. It

looks to me somehow as if he was trying to be bad and couldn't."
"Well, but--Graham, isn't that the same thing? If he wants to be?"
The minister shook his head.
"He doesn't want to be. But he has some purpose in it. He is doing
it--perhaps--well--it might be for her sake you know."
The mother looked perplexed, and hesitated, then shook her head.
"That would be--preposterous! How could he hurt her so--if he cared. It
must be--he does not care--!"
"He cares!" said the man.
"Then how do you explain it?"
"I don't explain it."
"Are you going to let it go on?"
"What can be done?"
"I'd do something."
"No, Mary. That's something he's got to work out himself. If he isn't big
enough to get over his pride. His self-consciousness. His--whatever he
calls it--If he isn't big enough--Then he isn't big enough--!" The man
sighed with a faraway patient look. The woman stirred uneasily.
"Graham," she said suddenly lifting her eyes in troubled question,
"When your cousin Eugenie was here, you remember, she talked about
it one day. She said we had no right to let Lynn become so attached to a
mere country boy who would grow up a boor. She said he had no
education, no breeding, no family, and that Lynn had the right to the
best social advantages to be had in the world. She said Lynn was a
natural born aristocrat, and that we had a great responsibility bringing
up a child with a face like hers, and a mind like hers, and an inheritance
like hers, in this little antiquated country place. She said it was one
thing for you with your culture and your fine education, and your years
of travel and experience, to hide yourself here if you choose for a few
years, pleasing yourself at playing with souls and uplifting a little
corner of the universe while you were writing a great book; but it was
quite another for us to allow our gifted young daughter to know no
other life. And especially she harped on Lynn's friendship with Mark.
She called him a hobbledehoy, said his mother was 'common', and that
coming from a home like that, he would never amount to anything or
have an education. He would always be common and loaferish, and it
wouldn't make any difference if he did, he would never be cultured no

matter how much education he had. He was not in her class. She kept
saying that over. She said a lot of things and always ended up with that.
And finally she said that we were perfectly crazy, both of us. That she
supposed Lynn thought she was christianizing the boy or something,