The next day the rain was over, and a cart was sent up to the parsonage,
containing Bressant's books, and such other of his belongings as he
would be likely to need during his illness; and, accompanying them, a
note from Abbie, expressing her regret at his misfortune, and her hopes
that he would return to his rooms at her house as soon as his health was
sufficiently reestablished. The young man heard the note read, and
congratulated himself, as he closed his eyes with a yawn, that he was
not under his quondam landlady's ministrations.
But even the best circumstances could do little to lighten the
insufferable tediousness of his confinement. Probably, however, such
changes and modifications as may have been in progress in his nature,
attained quicker and easier development by reason of his physical
prostration. The alteration in his bodily habits and conditions paved
the way for an analogous moral and mental process. The powers of a man
are never annihilated; if dormant in one direction, they will be active
in another; and thus Bressant's passions, naturally deep and violent,
being denied legitimate outlet, had given vigor, endurance, and heat of
purpose, to the prosecution of his intellectual exercises. But, as soon
as these elements of his nature found their proper channels, they rushed
onward with far more dash and fervor than if they had never been dammed
or deflected.
The combined effect upon the young man of the companionship of a
beautiful woman and his own broken bones, had been to make him feel and
ponder on the nature of her power over him. The name of love was of
course familiar to him, but he could hardly as yet, perhaps, grasp the
full significance of the sentiment. Like other forms of knowledge, it
must be approached by natural gradations. Here, if nowhere else,
Bressant's life of purely intellectual activity was a disadvantage. His
stand-points and views were artificial, speculative, and material. Love
cannot be reduced to a formula, and then relinquished; nor is it ever
safe to use, as pattern for an untried work, the plan whereby something
else was accomplished. Life has need of many methods.
Nearly a week of musing and speculation had passed over the young man's
head, when one day, as he was feeling unusually disconsolate, and
wishing for unattainable things--Cornelia among others--he became aware,
through some subtle channel of sensation, that somebody was standing in
the door-way. He was lying in such a position that he could not see the
door, so, after waiting a few moments, he exclaimed, with an invalid's
irritability: "Come in--or shut the door!"
"I'll come in, if you please," answered an amused voice, which, though
soft and low, possessed a penetrating quality which made it easily
audible to the deaf man. He had never heard it before; but either
because of this quality, or for some other more occult reason, he
conceived a most decided liking for it.