" Suddenly his eyes darkened, he
became abstracted, and gazed at the window where the twig flicked softly
against the pane, and the heat of summer palpitated in the air. "It has
good grace to my ear," he added slowly.
Luke Claridge looked at him intently. He began to realize that there were
forces stirring in his grandson which had no beginning in Claridge blood,
and were not nurtured in the garden with the fruited wall. He was not
used to problems; he had only a code, which he had rigidly kept. He had
now a glimmer of something beyond code or creed.
He saw that the shrill Elder was going to speak. He intervened. "Thee is
charged, David," he said coldly, "with kissing a woman--a stranger and a
wanton--where the four roads meet 'twixt here and yonder town." He
motioned towards the hills.
"In the open day," added the shrill Elder, a red spot burning on each
withered cheek.
"The woman was comely," said the young man, with a tone of irony,
recovering an impassive look.
A strange silence fell, the women looked down; yet they seemed not so
confounded as the men.
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