“Dear me; so it is; just nine. We’ll have these things away in a minute. Mrs. Mudge; Mrs. Mudge!” Whereupon Mrs. Mudge came forth, and between the three the table was soon cleared. “I wish you hadn’t caught me so late,” said Mr. Prong; “it looks as though I hadn’t been thinking of you.” Then he picked up the stray shell of a shrimp, and in order that he might get rid of it, put it into his mouth. Mrs. Prime said she hoped she didn’t trouble him, and that of course she didn’t expect him to be thinking about her particularly. Then Mr. Prong looked at her in a way that was very particular out of the corner of his eyes, and assured her that he had been thinking of her all night. After that Mrs. Prime sat down on a horsehair-seated chair, and Mr. Prong sat on another opposite to her, leaning back, with his eyes nearly closed, and his hands folded upon his lap.
“I don’t think Miss Pucker’s will quite do for me,” said Mrs. Prime, beginning her story first.
“I never thought it would, my friend,” said Mr. Prong, with his eyes still nearly closed.
“She’s a very good woman—an excellent woman, and her heart is full of love and charity. But—”
“I quite understand it, my friend. She is not in all things the companion you desire.”
“I am not quite sure that I shall want any companion.”
“Ah!” sighed Mr. Prong, shaking his head, but still keeping his eyes closed.
“I think I would rather be alone, if I do not return to them at the cottage. I would fain return if only they—”
“If only they would return too. Yes! That would be a glorious end to the struggle you have made, if you can bring them back with you from following after the Evil One! But you cannot return to them now, if you are to countenance by your presence dancings and love-makings in the open air,”—why worse in the open air than in a close little parlour in a back street, Mr. Prong did not say—“and loud revellings, and the absence of all good works, and rebellion against the Spirit.” Mr. Prong was becoming energetic in his language, and at one time had raised himself in his chair, and opened his eyes. But he closed them at once, and again fell back. “No, my friend,” said he, “no. It must not be so. They must be rescued from the burning; but not so—not so.” After that for a minute or two they both sat still in silence.
“I think I shall get two small rooms for myself in one of the quiet streets, near the new church,” said she.
“Ah, yes, perhaps so—for a time.”
“Till I may be able to go back to mother. It’s a sad thing families being divided, Mr. Prong.”
“Yes, it is sad;—unless it tends to the doing of the Lord’s work.”
“But I hope;—I do hope, that all this may be changed. Rachel I know is obstinate, but mother means well, Mr. Prong. She means to do her duty, if only she had good teaching near her.”
“I hope she may, I hope she may. I trust that they may both be brought to see the true light. We will wrestle for them—you and me. We will wrestle for them—together. Mrs. Prime, my friend, if you are prepared to hear me with attention, I have a proposition to make which I think you will acknowledge to be one of importance.” Then suddenly he sat bolt upright, opened his eyes wide, and dressed his mouth with all the solemn dignity of which he was the master. “Are you prepared to listen to me, Mrs. Prime?”
Mrs. Prime, who was somewhat astonished, said in a low voice that she was prepared to listen.
“Because I must beg you to hear me out. I shall fail altogether in reaching your intelligence—whatever effect I might possibly have upon your heart—unless you will hear me to the end.”
“I will hear you certainly, Mr. Prong.”
“Yes, my friend, for it will be necessary. If I could convey to your mind all that is now passing through my own, without any spoken word, how glad should I be! The words of men, when taken at the best, how weak they are! They often tell a tale quite different from that which the creature means who uses them. Every minister has felt that in addressing his flock from the pulpit. I feel it myself sadly, but I never felt it so sadly as I do now.”
Mrs. Prime did not quite understand him, but she assured him again that she would give his words her best attention, and that she would endeavour to gather from them no other meaning than that which seemed to be his. “Ah—seemed!” said he. “There is so much of seeming in this deceitful world. But you will believe this of me, that whatever I do, I do as tending to the strengthening of my hands in the ministry.” Mrs. Prime said that she would believe so much; and then as she looked into her companion’s face, she became aware that there was something of weakness displayed in that assuming mouth. She did not argue about it within her own mind, but the fact had in some way become revealed to her.
“My friend,” said he—and as he spoke he drew his chair across the rug, so as to bring it very near to that on which Mrs. Prime was sitting—“our destinies in this world, yours and mine, are in many things alike. We are both alone. We both of us have our hands full of work, and of work which in many respects is the same. We are devoted to the same cause: is it not so?” Mrs. Prime, who had been told that she was
