He had undoubtedly, only a few
minutes before, looked almost impatiently for something from Rosemary
Roselle. Beyond cavil she should have had an unadorned C last month.
And these easily proved him a broken reed.
He must at once take himself in hand, flames were reaching hungrily for
him from the pit of eternal torment. In a little more he would be
damned beyond any redemption. He was married ... shame! His thoughts
turned to Hester, his wife for nine and more years.
Her father's farm lay next to the Meikeljohns'; the two places formed
practically one convenient whole; and when Elim had been no more than a
child, Meikeljohn Senior and Hester's parents had solemnly agreed upon
a mutually satisfactory marriage. Hester had always been a thin pale
slip of a girl, locally famous for her memory and grasp of the
Scriptures; but it was only at her fourteenth year that her health
began perceptibly to fail, at the same time that a succession of
material mischances overwhelmed her family. Finally, borne down to
actual privation, her father decided to remove to another section and
opportunity. He sold his place for a fraction more than the elder
Meikeljohn could pay ... but there was Hester, now an invalid; and
there was the agreement that Meikeljohn had made when it had seemed to
his advantage. The latter was a rigidly upright man--he accepted for
his son the responsibility he himself had assumed, and Hester was left
behind. Space in the Meikeljohn household was valuable, the invalid
presented many practical difficulties, and, with the solemn concurrence
of the elders of their church, Elim--something short of seventeen but a
grave mature-seeming boy--and Hester were married.
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