"
There were many callers at the parsonage that day, for
speculation was now at fever heat about the pastor. "Would he
try to see her? had he forgotten her? and what had he ever found
in her?" were a few of the many questions that the women were
asking each other. Now, that the cause of their envy was
removed, they would gladly have reinstated the pastor as their
idol; for, like all truly feminine souls, they could not bear to
see a man unhappy without wishing to comfort him, nor happy
unless they were the direct cause of his state. "How dare any
man be happy without me?" has been the cry of each woman since
Eve was created to mate with Adam.
Douglas had held himself more and more aloof from the day of
Polly's disappearance. He expressed no opinion about the deacons
or their recent disapproval of him. He avoided meeting them
oftener than duty required; and Strong felt so uncomfortable and
tongue-tied in his presence that he, too, was glad to make their
talks as few as possible.
Nothing was said about the pastor's plans for the future, or
about his continued connection with the church, and the
inquisitive sisterhood was on the point of exploding from an
over- accumulation of unanswered questions.
He delivered his sermons conscientiously, called upon his poor,
listened to the sorrows, real and fancied, of his parishioners,
and shut himself up with his books or walked alone on the hill
behind the church.
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