Hawaii - James Michener [85]
"Whom will you marry?" Abner asked.
"My cousin, of course."
"Butyou've never spoken to her!"
"I will. Whom will you many?"
"The committee treated me much differently," Abner confessed. "I really don't know what was in their minds.
A knock came at the door, and when Whipple answered it, towering Reverend Thorn, his Adam's apple dancing, said, "Will you please excuse us, Mr. Whipple?"
"Please sit down, sir," Abner stammered.
"I shall only be a moment," the gaunt reverend replied, and then with the directness for which he was noted, asked, "I wish to verify my report. I understand that if the Board nominates you for Hawaii, you know of no young female whom you could invite . . ."
Abner was appalled at the idea that his careful life's plan should be frustrated in the bud because he knew no girls, so he said quickly, "Reverend Thorn, if that's all that's going to keep me ... Reverend, I know I could ask my father . . . He's a very strong judge of character, sir, and if he picked a girl . . ."
"Mr. Hale, please. I didn't say that you would be forbidden to go. I didn't even say that you could go in the first place. I merely asked you, ‘If we select you, do you know some appropriate female whom you could marry . . . well, rather promptly?' And you said no. All right."
"But, Reverend Thorn, if you would give me only two weeks," Abner pleaded, near tears, "I know my father . . ."
"I am much impressed with your piety, Mr. Hale," the older man began, on an entirely new tack.
"Then there's a chance?"
"What I wanted to speak to you about, Abner," said the tall, stern man in as kindly a manner as he could command, "is the fact that my sister in Walpole happens to have a daughter . . ." He paused in some embarrassment, hoping that Abner would anticipate his message and make its full delivery unnecessary. But honest Abner, with his hair pasted flat over his temples, could not imagine why the forbidding missionary was speaking of his sister, or his sister's daughter, and he looked with disarming innocence at Reverend Thorn, waiting for him to proceed.
The tall missionary swallowed his Adam's apple several times and wiped his forehead. "So if you know of no young female . . ." he began.
"I'm sure my father could find one," Abner interrupted.
"And if the Board selects you . . ." Eliphalet Thorn doggedly continued.
"I pray it will!" Abner cried.
"I was wondering if you would entertain it kindly if I were to speak to my niece on your behalf?" The tall reverend swallowed heavily and stared at the sallow young man.
Abner gaped, then blurted, "You mean that you would help me to find a wife? Your own niece?" He thrust his hand out eagerly and pumped Reverend Thorn's for almost a minute. "That would be more than I dare ask," he cried joyously. "Really, Reverend Thorn . . ."
Withdrawing his hand, the gaunt missionary interrupted the effusive flow and added, "Her name is Jerusha. Jerusha Bromley. She is a year older than you, but a most devout young woman."
The mention of a specific name, and attributing to that shadowy name a corporeal being with a given age, quite overcame Abner and he started to weep, but quickly he mastered himself and said, "Reverend Thorn, too much has been happening today. Could we pray?" And in the small room at Yale College the experienced missionary and the emotional boy stood with their heads raised to heaven as Abner prayed: "Dear gentle and supervising Lord, I am unable to comprehend all that has occurred today. I have talked with Thy missioners, and they have said that perhaps I may join them. One of Thy servants has volunteered to speak to a young female of his family on my behalf. Beloved and powerful God, if these things come to pass through Thine aid, I shall be Thy servant to the end of my days, and I shall carry Thy word to the farthest islands." He dropped his head in humility and Reverend Thorn breathed a husky "Amen."
"It will take about two weeks," he said as he left.
Tact was something Abner Hale would never have. "John