If the young woman had been anyone else, or if Dr. Harry himself had
not--But why attempt explanation?
The minister continued tramping up and down the room, stopping now and
then to face the doctor, who sat still in his chair by the library table,
quietly smoking.
"This is horrible, Harry! I--I can't believe it! So far as my friendship
for Miss Farwell goes, that is only an incident. It does not matter in
itself."
Dr. Harry puffed vigorously. He thought to himself that this might be
true, but something in Dan's face and voice when he spoke--something of
which he himself was unconscious--made Harry glad that he had not
answered.
"It is the spirit of it all that matters," the minister continued,
pausing again. "I never dreamed that such a thing could be. That Grace
Conner's life should be ruined by the wicked carelessness of these people
seems bad enough. But that they should take the same attitude toward Miss
Farwell, simply because she is seeking to do that Christian thing that
the church itself will not do, is--is monstrous!" He turned impatiently
to resume his restless movement. Then, when his friend did not speak he
continued slowly, as though the words were forced from him against his
will: "And to think that they could be so unmoved by the suffering of
that poor girl, their own victim, and so untouched by the example of Miss
Farwell; and then that they should give such grave consideration and be
so influenced by absolutely groundless and vicious idle gossip! And that
the church of Christ, that Christianity itself, should be so wholly in
the hands of people so unspeakably blind, so--contemptibly mean and small
in their conceptions of the religion of Jesus Christ!"
He confronted the doctor again and his face flushed.
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