She thought the net caps were beautiful; she thought the exquisite
cleanness of everything was like a perfume--"the perfume of a wild rose!"
she said, ecstatically. She thought the having everything in common
was the way to live. "And just think how peaceful it is!"
"Well, yes," Lewis said; "I suppose it's peaceful--after a fashion.
Anything that isn't alive is peaceful."
"But their idea of brotherhood is the highest kind of life!"
"The only fault I have to find with it is that it isn't human,"
he said, mildly. He had no desire to prove or disprove anything;
Athalia was looking better, just because she was interested
in something, and that was enough for Lewis. When she proposed to read
a book on Shakerism aloud, he fell into her mood with what was,
for him, enthusiasm; he declared he would like nothing better,
and he put his daily paper aside without a visible regret.
"Well," he admitted, "I must say there's more to it than I supposed.
They've studied the Prophecies; that's evident. And they're not narrow
in their belief. They're really Unitarians."
"Narrow?" she said--"they are as wide as heaven itself!
And, oh, the peace of it!"
"But they are NOT human," he would insist, smiling; "no marriage--
that's not human, little Tay."
It was not until two months later that he began to feel
vaguely uneasy. "Yes; it's interesting," he admitted;
"but nobody in these days would want to be a Shaker."
To which she replied, boldly, "Why not?"
That was all, but it was enough.
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