"Reminds me of one of our
girls at Coolspring--she does. Well, now, and who may Sally be?"
Amelius answered the question, as usual, without the slightest reserve.
Rufus waited in impenetrable silence until he had completed his
narrative--then took him gently by the arm, and led him to the window.
With his hands in his pockets and his long legs planted wide apart on
his big feet, the American carefully studied the face of his young
friend under the strongest light that could fall on it.
"No," said Rufus, speaking quietly to himself, "the boy is not raving
mad, so far as I can see. He has every appearance on him of meaning
what he says. And this is what comes of the Community of Tadmor, is it?
Well, civil and religious liberty is dearly purchased sometimes in the
United States--and that's a fact."
Amelius turned away to pack his portmanteau. "I don't understand you,"
he said.
"I don't suppose you do," Rufus remarked. "I am at a similar loss
myself to understand _you._ My store of sensible remarks is copious on
most occasions--but I'm darned if I ain't dried up in the face of this!
Might I venture to ask what that venerable Chief Christian at Tadmor
would say to the predicament in which I find my young Socialist this
morning?"
"What would he say?" Amelius repeated.
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