There was no reply.

“But I calculate you’re different.  You’re jest made and created to be an old batch.  Never seen sich a feller.  Couldn’t no girl interest you, not if she was the Queen of Sheeby.”

“Mr. Baines,” said Jason, after a pause, “I’m very miserable.  I—­I think I shall resign from my church and go away.”

“Sandrich Islands or somewheres—­missionery feller?” said Scattergood.

“I—­why, yes, that’s what I’ll do....  I wish I’d never seen her.”  Then he corrected himself sharply.  “No, I don’t.  I’m glad I’ve seen her.  I’ve got that much, anyhow.  I can always remember her and think about how sweet and beautiful she was—­”

“And die at the age of eighty with her name comin’ from your lips on your last breath.  To be sure....  Seems to me, though, it would be a sight more satisfyin’ to live them fifty-odd years with her and raise up a fam’ly, and git some benefits out of that sweetness and beauty and sich like, besides mullin’ ’em over in your mind.  Speakin’ of Seliny, wasn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t hanker to marry her?”

“Mr. Baines—­”

“Then why in tunket don’t you?”

“She’s a Baptist.”

“White, hain’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Respectable?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Don’t call to mind no state law ag’in’ Congregationalists marryin’
Baptists.”

“My congregation wouldn’t allow it.”

“Hain’t never seen no deed of sale of you to your congregation.”

“Her father would never permit it?”

“Huh!...”

“And she’s an obedient daughter.”

“Has she said so?”

“Y-yes.”

“Ho!  Kind of human, after all, hain’t you?  Look pleased when she said it?”

“She cried.”

“Comfort her—­some.”

“I—­She—­she loves me, Mr. Baines.”

“Well, I snum!  Kind of disobedient to love you, hain’t it?  Knows her father ‘d be set ag’in’ it?”

“Yes, but she can’t help that.”

“Why?”

“You—­why, you fall in love!  You don’t do it on purpose, Mr. Baines.  It just comes to you.”

“From where?” said Scattergood, abruptly.

The young minister stared.

“Who’s to blame for there bein’ love?” Scattergood demanded.

After a pause the young man answered.  “God,” he said.  “Why does He send it?”

“So that people will marry, and the love will keep them together, strong to bear the trials and labors of life.  I think love is a kind of wages that God pays to men and women for living on His earth.”

“Um!...  Does He send love sort of helter-skelter and hit-or-miss, or does He aim it at certain folks?”

“I have often preached that marriages were made in heaven.”

“Then it’s a kind of a command, hain’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Which d’ye calculate is the wust disobedience?  To refuse to obey an order sich as this, or to disobey a parent that runs counter to the wants of the Almighty?”