With songs and jokes and impromptu exhortations and prayers she kept the thing whirling, until a sort of duel of generosity began between two of the most unlikely men--Erastus Winch and Levi Gorringe.Everybody had been surprised when Winch gave his first $50; but when he rose again, half an hour afterward, and said that, owing to the high public position of some of the new members on probation, he foresaw a great future for the church, and so felt moved to give another $25, there was general amazement.
Moved by a common instinct, all eyes were turned upon Levi Gorringe, and he, without the slightest hesitation, stood up and said he would give $100.There was something in his tone which must have annoyed Brother Winch, for he shot up like a dart, and called out, "Put me down for fifty more;"and that brought Gorringe to his feet with an added $50, and then the two went on raising each other till the assemblage was agape with admiring stupefaction.
This gladiatorial combat might have been going on till now, the Sunday-school superintendent concluded, if Winch hadn't subsided.The amount of the contributions hadn't been figured up yet, for Sister Soulsby kept the list;but there had been a tremendous lot of money raised.
Of that there could be no doubt.
The Presiding Elder now told Theron that the Quarterly Conference had been adjourned yesterday till today.
He and Brother Davis were even now on their way to attend the session in the church next door.The Elder added, with an obvious kindly significance, that though Theron was too ill to attend it, he guessed his absence would do him no harm.Then the two men left the room, and Theron went to sleep again.
Another almost blank period ensued, this time lasting for forty-eight hours.The young minister was enfolded in the coils of a fever of some sort, which Brother Soulsby, who had dabbled considerably in medicine, admitted that he was puzzled about.Sometimes he thought that it was typhoid, and then again there were symptoms which looked suspiciously like brain fever.The Methodists of Octavius counted no physician among their numbers, and when, on the second day, Alice grew scared, and decided, with Brother Soulsby's assent, to call in professional advice, the only doctor's name she could recall was that of Ledsmar.She was conscious of an instinctive dislike for the vague image of him her fancy had conjured up, but the reflection that he was Theron's friend, and so probably would be more moderate in his charges, decided her.
Brother Soulsby showed a most comforting tact and swiftness of apprehension when Alice, in mentioning Dr.Ledsmar's name, disclosed by her manner a fear that his being sent for would create talk among the church people.
He volunteered at once to act as messenger himself, and, with no better guide than her dim hints at direction, found the doctor and brought him back to the parsonage.
Dr.Ledsmar expressly disclaimed to Soulsby all pretence of professional skill, and made him understand that he went along solely because he liked Mr.Ware, and was interested in him, and in any case would probably be of as much use as the wisest of strange physicians--a view which the little revivalist received with comprehending nods of tacit acquiescence.Ledsmar came, and was taken up to the sick-room.He sat on the bedside and talked with Theron awhile, and then went downstairs again.
To Alice's anxious inquiries, he replied that it seemed to him merely a case of over-work and over-worry, about which there was not the slightest occasion for alarm.
"But he says the strangest things," the wife put in.
"He has been quite delirious at times."
"That means only that his brain is taking a rest as well as his body," remarked Ledsmar."That is Nature's way of securing an equilibrium of repose--of recuperation.
He will come out of it with his mind all the fresher and clearer.""I don't believe he knows shucks!" was Alice's comment when she closed the street door upon Dr.Ledsmar.
"Anybody could have come in and looked at a sick man and said, 'Leave him alone.' You expect something more from a doctor.It's his business to say what to do.
And I suppose he'll charge two dollars for just telling me that my husband was resting!""No," said Brother Soulsby, "he said he never practised, and that he would come only as a friend.""Well, it isn't my idea of a friend--not to prescribe a single thing," protested Alice.
Yet it seemed that no prescription was needed, after all.
The next morning Theron woke to find himself feeling quite restored in spirits and nerves.He sat up in bed, and after an instant of weakly giddiness, recognized that he was all right again.Greatly pleased, he got up, and proceeded to dress himself.There were little recurring hints of faintness and vertigo, while he was shaving, but he had the sense to refer these to the fact that he was very, very hungry.He went downstairs, and smiled with the pleased pride of a child at the surprise which his appearance at the door created.Alice and the Soulsbys were at breakfast.He joined them, and ate voraciously, declaring that it was worth a month's illness to have things taste so good once more.
"You still look white as a sheet," said Alice, warningly.
"If I were you, I'd be careful in my diet for a spell yet."For answer, Theron let Sister Soulsby help him again to ham and eggs.He talked exclusively to Sister Soulsby, or rather invited her by his manner to talk to him, and listened and watched her with indolent content.
There was a sort of happy and purified languor in his physical and mental being, which needed and appreciated just this--to sit next a bright and attractive woman at a good breakfast, and be ministered to by her sprightly conversation, by the flash of her informing and inspiring eyes, and the nameless sense of support and repose which her near proximity exhaled.He felt himself figuratively leaning against Sister Soulsby's buoyant personality, and resting.
