When he went away for
his collegiate course, she was less in touch with him; and he was
able to steal time from his athletics to devote to his art. He
spent his vacations in a neighbouring city before a drawing board
in the office of a distinguished architect, his father's friend.
Douglas was not a brilliant divinity student, and he was relieved
when at last he received his degree in theology and found himself
appointed to a small church in the Middle West.
His step was very bright the morning he first went up the path
that led to his new home. His artistic sense was charmed by the
picturesque approach to the church and parsonage. The view
toward the tree-encircled spire was unobstructed, for the church
had been built on the outskirts of the town to allow for a growth
that had not materialised. He threw up his head and gazed at the
blue hills, with their background of soft, slow-moving clouds.
The smell of the fresh earth, the bursting of the buds, the
forming of new life, set him thrilling with a joy that was very
near to pain.
He stopped half way up the path and considered the advantages of
a new front to the narrow- eaved cottage, and when his foot
touched the first step of the vine-covered porch, he was far more
concerned about a new portico than with any thought of his first
sermon.
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