“By God, I’ll show—”
But she giggled, and his plan of action came back to him.
He sat firmly on the edge of the bed, and calmly he remarked:
“Sharon, you’re a good deal of a damn fool. You think I’m going to deny flirting with Lily. I won’t take the trouble to deny it! If you don’t appreciate yourself, if you don’t see that a man that’s ever associated with you simply couldn’t be interested in any other woman, then there’s nothing I can say. Why, my God, Shara, you know what you are! I could no more be untrue to you than I could to my religion! As a matter of fact—Want to know what I was saying to Lily, to Miss Anderson?”
“I do not!”
“Well, you’re going to! As I came up the hall, her door was open, and she asked me to come in—she had something to ask me. Well, seems the poor young woman was wondering if her music was really up to your greatness—that’s what she herself called it—especially now that the Jordan Tabernacle will give you so much more power. She spoke of you as the greatest spiritual force in the world, and she was wondering whether she was worthy—”
“Um. She did, eh? Well, she isn’t! And she can stay fired. And you, my fine young liar, if you ever so much as look at another wench again, I’ll fire you for keeps. … Oh, Elmer, how could you, beloved? When I’ve given you everything! Oh, lie, lie, go on lying! Tell me a good strong lie that I’ll believe! And then kiss me!”
V
Banners, banners, banners lifting along the rafters, banners on the walls of the tabernacle, banners moving to the air that was sifted in from the restless sea. Night of the opening of Waters of Jordan Tabernacle, night of the opening of Sharon’s crusade to conquer the world.
The town of Clontar and all the resorts near by felt here was something they did not quite understand, something marvelous and by all means to be witnessed; and from up and down the Jersey coast, by motor, by trolley, the religious had come. By the time the meeting began all of the four thousand seats were filled, five hundred people were standing, and outside waited a throng hoping for miraculous entrance.
The interior of the pier was barnlike; the thin wooden walls were shamelessly patched against the ravages of winter storms, but they were hectic with the flags of many nations, with immense posters, blood-red on white, proclaiming that in the mysterious blood of the Messiah was redemption from all sorrow, that in his love was refuge and safety. Sharon’s pretentious white-and-gold pyramidal altar had been discarded. She was using the stage, draped with black velvet, against which hung a huge crystal cross, and the seats for the choir of two hundred, behind a golden pulpit, were draped with white.
A white wooden cross stood by the pulpit.
It was a hot night, but through the doors along the pier the cool breeze filtered in, and the sound of waters, the sound of wings, as the gulls were startled from their roosts. Everyone felt an exaltation in the place, a coming of marvels.
Before the meeting the gospel crew, backstage, were excited as a theatrical company on a first night. They rushed with great rapidity nowhere in particular, and tripped over each other, and muttered, “Say—gee—gee—” To the last, Adelbert Shoop was giving needless instructions to the new pianist, who had been summoned by telegraph from Philadelphia, vice Lily Anderson. She professed immense piety, but Elmer noted that she was a pretty fluffy thing with a warm eye.
The choir was arriving along with the first of the audience. They filtered down the aisle, chattering, feeling important. Naturally, as the end of the pier gave on open water, there was no stage entrance at the back. There was only one door, through which members of opera casts had been wont to go out to the small rear platform for fresh air between acts. The platform was not connected with the promenade.
It was to this door that Sharon led Elmer. Their dressing-rooms were next to each other. She knocked—he had been sitting with a Bible and an evening paper in his lap, reading one of them. He opened, to find her flaming with exultation, a joyous girl with a dressing gown over her chemise. Seemingly she had forgotten her anger of the night.
She cried, “Come! See the stars!” Defying the astonishment of the choir, who were filing into the chorus dressing-room to assume their white robes, she led him to the door, out on the railed platform.
The black waves glittered with lights. There was spaciousness and a windy peace upon the waters.
“Look! It’s so big! Not like the cities where we’ve been shut up!” she exulted. “Stars, and the waves that come clear from Europe! Europe! Castles on a green shore! I’ve never been. And I’m going! And there’ll be great crowds at the ship to meet me, asking for my power! Look!” A shooting star had left a scrawl of flame in the sky. “Elmer! It’s an omen for the glory that begins tonight! Oh, dearest, my dearest, don’t ever hurt me again!”
His kiss promised it, his heart almost promised it.
She was all human while they stood fronting the sea, but half an hour later, when she came out in a robe of white satin and silver lace, with a crimson cross on her breast, she was prophetess only, and her white forehead was high, her eyes were strange with dreaming.
Already the choir were chanting. They were starting with the Doxology, and it gave Elmer a feeling of doubt. Surely the Doxology was the end of things, not the beginning? But he looked impassive, the brooding priest, in frock coat and white bow tie, portly and funereal, as he moved magnificently through
