In due course Septimus May returned to Chadlands with him.The clergyman had heard of his son's end, and went immediately to see the dead man.There Mary joined him, and witnessed his self-control under very shattering grief.He was thin, clean-shaven-a grey man with smouldering eyes and an expression of endurance.A fanatic in faith, by virtue of certain asperities of mind and a critical temperament, he had never made friends, won his parish into close ties, nor advanced the cause of his religion as he had yearned to do.With the zeal of a reformer, he had entered the ministry in youth; but while commanding respect for his own rule of conduct and the example he set his little flock, their affection he never won.The people feared him, and dreaded his stern criticism.Once certain spirits, smarting under pulpit censure, had sought to be rid of him; but no grounds existed on which they could eject the reverend gentleman or challenge his status.He remained, therefore, as many likehim remain, embedded in his parish and unknown beyond it.He was a poor student of human nature and life had dimmed his old ambitions, soured his hopes; but it had not clouded his faith.With a passionate fervor he believed all that he tried to teach, and held that an almighty, all loving and all merciful God controlled every destiny, ordered existence for the greatest and least, and allowed nothing to happen upon earth that was not the best that could happen for the immortal beings He had created in His own image.Upon this assurance fell the greatest, almost the only, blow that life could deal Septimus May.He was stricken suddenly, fearfully with his unutterable loss; but his agony turned into prayer while he knelt beside his son.He prayed with a fiery intensity and a resonant vibration of voice that scorched rather than comforted the woman who knelt beside him.The fervor of the man's emotion and the depth of his conviction, running like a torrent through the narrow channels of his understanding, were destined presently to complicate a situation sufficiently painful without intervention; for a time swiftly came when Septimus May forced his beliefs upon Chadlands and opposed them to the opinions of other people as deeply concerned as himself to explain the death of his son.
Mr.May, learning that most of the house party could not depart until the following morning, absented himself from dinner; indeed, he spent his time almost entirely with his boy, and when night came kept vigil beside him.Something of the strange possession of his mind already appeared, in curious hints that puzzled Sir Walter; but it was not until after the post- mortem examination and inquest that his extraordinary views were elaborated.
Millicent Fayre-Michell and her uncle were the first to depart on the following day.The girl harbored a grievance.
"Surely Mary might have seen me a moment to say 'Good-bye,'" she said."It's a very dreadful thing, hut we've been so sympathetic and understanding about it that I think they ought to feel rather grateful.They might realize how trying it is for us, too.And to let me go without even seeing her - she saw Mrs.Travers over and over again.""Do not mind.Grief makes people selfish," declared Felix."Probably we should not have acted so.I think we should have hiddenour sufferings and faced our duty; but perhaps we are exceptional.I dare say Mrs.May will write and express regret and gratitude later.We must allow for her youth and sorrow."Mr.Fayre-Michell rather prided himself on the charity of this conclusion.
When Mr.and Mrs.Travers departed, Sir Walter bade them farewell.The lady wept, and her tears fell on his hand as he held it.She was hysterical.
"For Heaven's sake don't let Mary be haunted by that dreadful priest," she said."There is something terrible about him.He has no bowels of compassion.I tried to console him for the loss of his son, and he turned upon me as if I were weak-minded.""I had to tell him he was being rude and forgetting that he spoke to a lady," said Ernest Travers."One makes every allowance for a father's sufferings; but they should not take the form of abrupt and harsh speech to a sympathetic fellow-creature - nay, to anyone, let alone a woman.His sacred calling ought to -""A man's profession cannot alter his manners, my dear Ernest; they come from defects of temperament, no doubt.May must not be judged.His faith would move mountains.""So would mine," said Ernest Travers, "and so would yours, Walter.But it is perfectly possible to be a Christian and a gentleman.To imply that our faith was weak because we expressed ordinary human emotions and pitied him unfeignedly for the loss of his only child -""Good-bye, good-bye, my dear friends," answered the other."I cannot say how I esteem your kindly offices in this affliction.May we meet again presently.God bless and keep you both."The post-mortem examination revealed no physical reason why Thomas May should have ceased to breathe.Neither did the subsequent investigations of a Government analytical chemist throw any light upon the sailor's sudden death.No cause existed, and therefore none could be reported at the inquest held a day later.
The coroner's jury brought in a verdict rarely heard, but none dissented from it.They held that May had received his death "by the hand ofGod."
