I am
less than a scoundrel and worse than a fool. I am a fraud, and you must
be made to see it, for I fear you have been proud of me."
"Oh, father, I have!" said Vesta, with an instant's convulsion. "You
were my God."
"Let us throw away idolatry, my darling. It is the first of all the
sins. How loud speaks the first commandment to us this moment: 'Thou
shalt have no other gods before me'?"
"I have broken it," sobbed Vesta, "I loved you more than my Creator."
"Vesta," spoke the Judge, "you are the only thing of value in all my
house. The work of nature in you is all that survives the long edifice
of our pride. The treasure of your beauty and love still makes me rich
to thieves, who lie in ambush all around us. We are in danger, we are
pursued. O God! pity, pity the pure in heart!"
As the Judge, under his strong earnestness, so rare in him of late,
threw wide his arms, and raised his brow in agony, Vesta felt her
idolatry come back. He was so grand, standing there in his unaffected
pain and helplessness, that he seemed to her some manly Prometheus, who
had worked with fire and iron, to the exasperation of the jealous gods.
Admiration dried her tears, and she forgot her father's references to
herself.
"What is iron?" she asked. "Tell me why you wanted to make iron! If I
can enter into your mind and sympathize with the hopes you have had, it
will lift my soul from the ground.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67