University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.
THE GOOD YOUNG MAN IN MEDITATION.

Perhaps, it may be assumed, with tolerable safety, that no
first villany is ever entirely deliberate. There is something
in events to give it direction — something to egg it on — to
point out time, place, and opportunity. Of course, it is to
be understood that the actor is one, in the first place, wanting
in the moral sense. What we simply mean to affirm is,
that the particular, single act, is, in few instances, deliberately
meditated from the beginning. We very much incline
to think that some one event, which we ordinarily
refer to the chapter of accidents, has first set the mind to
work upon schemes, which would otherwise, perhaps, never
be thought of at all. Thus, we find persons who continue
very good people, as the world goes, until middle age, or
even seniority; then, suddenly breaking out into some
enormous offence against decency and society, which startles
the whole pious neighborhood. Folks start up, with outstretched
hands and staring eyes, and cry aloud: —

“Lord bless us, who would have thought so good a man
could be so bad!”

He, poor devil, never fancied it himself, till he became
so, and it was quite too late to alter his arrangements.
Perhaps his neighbors may have had some share in making
him so. Pious persons are very frequently reduced to
these straits by having the temptation forced too much upon
them. Flesh and blood can not always withstand the provocation
of earthly delicacies, even where the spirit is a

tolerably stout one; and of the inadequacy of the mind,
always to contend with the inclinations of the flesh, have
we not a caution in that injunction of Holy Book which
warns us to fly from temptation? But lame people can not
fly, and he is most certainly lame who halts upon mere feet
of circumstances. Such people are always in danger.

Now, Alfred Stevens, properly brought up, from the beginning,
at some theological seminary, would have been —
though in moral respects pretty much the same person — yet
in the eye of the world a far less criminal man. Not that
his desires would have been a jot more innocent, but they
would have taken a different direction. Instead of the
recklessness of course, such as seems to have distinguished
the conduct of our present subject — instead of his loose
indulgences — his smart, licentious speeches — the sheep's-eye
glances, right and left, which he was but too prone to
bestow, without prudence or precaution, whenever he walked
among the fair sisters — he, the said Alfred, would have
taken counsel of a more worldly policy, which is yet popularly
considered a more pious one. He would have kept
his eyes from wandering to and fro; he would have held
his blood in subjection. Patient as a fox on a long scent
in autumn, he would have kept himself lean and circumspect,
until, through the help of lugubrious prayer and lantern
visage, he could have beguiled into matrimony some
one feminine member of the flock — not always fair — whose
worldly goods would have sufficed in full atonement for all
those circumspect, self-imposed restraints, which we find
usually so well rewarded. But Alfred Stevens was not a
man of this pious temper. It is evident, from his present
course, that he had some inkling of the modus operandi;
but all his knowledge fell short of that saving wisdom which
would have defrauded the social world of one of its moral
earthquakes, and possibly deprived the survivors of the
present moral story — for moral it is, though our hero is
not exactly so.

It would be doing our subject and our theory equal injustice
if we were to suppose that he had any fixed purpose,
known to himself, when he borrowed the professional garment,
and began to talk with the worthy John Cross in the
language of theology, and with the tongue of a hypocrite.
He designed to visit Charlemont — that was all — as he had
really been impressed by the commanding figure and noble
expression of beauty of that young damsel whom he had
encountered by the roadside. Even this impression, however,
would have been suffered to escape from his mind,
had it not been so perfectly convenient to revisit the spot,
on his return to his usual place of residence. During the
summer, Charlemont and its rustic attractions had been the
frequent subject of a conversation, running into discussion,
between himself and the amiable old man, his uncle. The
latter repeatedly urged upon his nephew to make the visit;
fondly conceiving that a nearer acquaintance with the pleasant
spot which had so won upon his own affections, would
be productive of a like effect upon his nephew. Alas, how
little did he know the mischief he was doing!

In the very idleness of mood — with just that degree of
curiosity which prompts one to turn about and look a second
time — Alfred Stevens resumed the route which included
Charlemont. But the devil had, by this time, found his
way into the meditations of the youth, and lay lurking, unknown
to himself, perhaps, at the bottom of this same curiosity.
The look of pride and defiance which Margaret
Cooper had betrayed, when the bold youth rode back to
steal a second glance at her matchless person, was equivalent
to an equally bold challenge; and his vanity hastily
picked up the gauntlet which hers had thrown down. He
wished to see the damsel again — to see if she was so beautiful
— if she did, indeed, possess that intellectual strength
and vivacity which flashed out so suddenly and with so
much splendor from beneath her long, dark eye-lashes!

In this mood he met with John Cross; and the simplicity

of that worthy creature offered another challenge, not less
provoking than the former, to the levity and love of mischief
which also actively predominated in the bosom of the
youth. Fond of a malicious sort of fun, and ever on the
look-out for subjects of quizzing, it was in compliance with
a purely habitual movement of his mind that he conjured
up that false, glozing story of his religious inclinations,
which had so easily imposed upon the unsuspecting preacher.
Never was proceeding less premeditated, or so completely
the result of an after-thought, than this; and now
that it had proved so perfectly successful — now that he
found himself admitted into the very heart of the little village,
and into the bosoms of the people — he began, for the
first time, to feel the awkwardness of the situation in which
he had placed himself, and the responsibilities, if not dangers,
to which it subjected him. To play the part of a
mere preacher — to talk glibly, and with proper unction,
in the stereotype phraseology of the profession — was no
difficult matter to a clever young lawyer of the West, having
a due share of the gift of gab, and almost as profoundly
familiar with scripture quotation as Henry Clay himself.
But there was something awkward in the idea of detection,
and he was not unaware of those summary dangers which
are likely to follow, in those wild frontier regions, from the
discovery of so doubtful a personage as “Bro' Wolf” in
the clothing of a more innocent animal. Chief-Justice
Lynch is a sacred authority in those parts; and, in such a
case as his, Alfred Stevens did not doubt that the church
itself would feel it only becoming to provide another sort
of garment for the offender, which, whether pleasant or not,
would at least be likely to stick more closely, and prove
less comfortably warm.

But, once in, there was no help but to play out the game
as it had been begun. Villagers are seldom very sagacious
people, and elegant strangers are quite too much esteemed
among them to make them very particular in knowing the

whys and wherefores about them — whence they come,
what they do, and whither they propose to go. Stevens
had only to preserve his countenance and a due degree of
caution, and the rest was easy. He had no reason to suppose
himself an object of suspicion to anybody; and should
he become so, nothing was more easy than to take his departure
with sufficient promptness, and without unnecessarily
soliciting the prayers of the church in behalf of the
hurried traveller! At all events, he could lose nothing by
the visit: perhaps something might be gained.

What was that something? Behold him in his chamber,
preparing to ask and to answer this question for himself.
The sabbath-day is finally over. He has been almost the
lion of the day. We say almost, for the worthy John Cross
could not easily be deprived, by any rivalry, of the loyal
regards of his old parishioners. But, though the latter had
most friends, the stranger, Alfred Stevens, had had most
followers. All were anxious to know him — the young, in
particular, maidens and men; and the grave old dames
would have given their last remaining teeth, bone or waxen,
to have heard him discourse. There was so much sense
and solemnity in his profound, devout looks! he has been
made known to them all; he has shaken hands with many.
But he has exchanged the speech of sympathy and feeling
with but one only — and that one! —

Of her he thinks in his chamber — his quiet, snug, little
chamber — a mere closet, looking out upon a long garden-slip,
in which he sees, without much heeding them, long
lanes of culinary cabbage, and tracts of other growing and
decaying vegetation, in which his interest is quite too small
to make it needful that he should even ask its separate
names. His chin rests upon his hands with an air of meditation;
and gradually his thoughts rise up in soliloquy,
which is suffered to invade no ear but ours:—

“Well! who'd have thought it? a parson! — devilish
good, indeed! How it will tell at Murkey's! What a

metamorphose! if it don't stagger 'em, nothing will! It's
the best thing I've done yet! I shall have to do it over a
hundred times, and must get up a sermon or two beforehand,
and swear that I preached them — and, egad! I may
have to do it yet before I'm done — ha! ha! ha!”

The laughter was a quiet chuckle, not to be heard by
vulgar ears; it subsided in the gorges of his throat. The
idea of really getting up a sermon tickled him. He muttered
over texts, all that he could remember; and proceeded
to turn over the phrases for an introduction, such
as, unctuous with good things in high degree, he fancied
would be particularly commendable to his unsuspecting
hearers. Alfred Stevens had no small talent for imitation.
He derived a quiet sort of pleasure, on the present occasion,
from its indulgence.

“I should have made a famous parson, and, if all trades
fail, may yet. But, now that I am here, what's to come
of it? It's not so hard to put on a long face, and prose in
scripture dialect; but, cui bono? Let me see — hem! The
girl is pretty, devilish pretty — with such an eye, and looks
so! There's soul in the wench — life — and a passion that
speaks out in every glance and movement. A very Cressid,
with a cross of Corinne! Should she be like her of Troy?
At all events, it can do no harm to see what she's made of!

“But I must manage warily. I have something to lose
in the business. Frankfort is but fifty miles from Charlemont
— fifty miles — and there's Ellisland, but fourteen.
Fourteen! — an easy afternoon ride. That way it must be
done. Ellisland shall be my post-town. I can gallop there
in an afternoon, drop and receive my letters, and be back
by a round-about which shall effectually baffle inquiry. A
week or two will be enough. I shall see, by that time, what
can be done with her; though still, cautiously, Parson Stevens!
— cautiously.”

The farther cogitations of Stevens were subordinate to
these, but of the same family complexion. They were

such as to keep him wakeful. The Bible which had been
placed upon his table, by the considerate providence of his
hostess, lay there unopened; though, more than once, he
lifted the cover of the sacred volume, letting it fall again
suddenly, as if with a shrinking consciousness that such
thoughts as at that moment filled his mind were scarcely
consistent with the employment, in any degree, of such a
companion. Finally, he undressed and went to bed. The
hour had become very late.

“Good young man,” muttered worthy Mrs. Hinkley to
her drowsy spouse, in the apartment below, as she heard
the movements of her guest — “good young man, he's just
now going to bed. He's been studying all this while. I
reckon Brother Cross has been sound this hour.”

The light from Stevens's window glimmered out over the
cabbage-garden, and was seen by many an ancient dame as
she prepared for her own slumbers.

“Good young man,” said they all with one accord. “I
reckon he's at the Bible now. Oh! he'll be a blessed laborer
in the vineyard, I promise you, when Brother Cross
is taken.”

“If it were not for the cursed bore of keeping up the
farce beyond the possibility of keeping up the fun, such a
rig as this would be incomparably pleasant; but” — yawning
— “that's the devil! I get monstrous tired of a joke
that needs dry nursing!”

Such were the last muttered words of Parson Stevens before
he yielded himself up to his slumbers. Good young
man — charitable old ladies — gullible enough, if not charitable!
But the professions need such people, and we must
not quarrel with them!