And that night Brother Nathan had an eager word for the family.
"He's asked for a book!" he said. The Eldress smiled doubtfully,
but Athalia, with a rapturous upward look, said,
"May the Lord guide him!" then added, practically, "It won't
amount to anything. He thinks Shakerism isn't human."
"That's not against it, that's not against it!"
Nathan declared, smiling; "I've told him so a dozen times!"
But Athalia was so happy that first year, and so important,
that she did not often concern herself with the welfare of the man
who had been her husband. Instead--it was early in April--
he concerned himself with hers; he tried, tentatively, to see
if it wasn't almost time for Athalia "to get through with it."
Of course, afterward, Sister Athalia realized, with chagrin,
that this attempt was only a forerunner of the fever that
was developing, which in a few days was to make him a very sick man.
But for the moment his question seemed to her a temptation
of the devil, and, of course, resisted temptation made her faith
stronger than ever.
It was a deliciously cold spring night; Lewis had drawn the table, with
his books on it, close to the fire to try to keep warm, but he shivered,
even while his shoulders scorched, and somehow he could not keep his mind
on the black, rectangular characters of the Hebrew page before him.
He had been interested in Brother Nathan's explanation of Hosea's
forecasting of Shakerism, and he had admitted to himself that,
if Nathan was correct, there would be something to be said for Shakerism.
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