I saw Stuart was talking to rest himself.
"Well, at Mine Run, when you rode up to that fence lined with
sharpshooters--and they fired on us at ten paces, nearly."
"In fact, you might have shot a marble at them--but I am not afraid of
any ball _aimed_ at me."[1]
[Footnote 1: His words.]
"Then you believe in _chance_, general?"
"There is no chance, Surry," he said, gravely. "God rules over all
things, and not a sparrow, we are told, can fall without his
permission. How can I, or you, then?"
"You are right, general, and I have always been convinced of your
religious faith."
"I believe in God and our Saviour, with all my heart," said Stuart,
solemnly. "I may not show it, but I feel deeply."
"On the contrary, you show it--to me at least--even in trifles," I
said, moved by his earnestness. "Do you remember the other day, when an
officer uttered a sneer at the expense of a friend of his who had
turned _preacher_? You replied that the calling of a minister was the
noblest in which any human being could engage[1]--and I regretted at
that moment, that the people who laugh at you, and charge you with
vicious things, could not hear you."
[Footnote 1: His words.]
Stuart shook his head, smiling with a sadness on his lips which I had
never seen before.
"They would not believe me, my dear Surry; not one would give me credit
for a good sentiment or a pure principle! Am I not a drunkard, because
my face is burned red by the sun and the wind? And yet I never touched
spirit in all my life! I do not know the taste of it![1] Am I not given
to women? And yet, God knows I am innocent,--that I recoil in disgust
from the very thought! Am I not frivolous, trifling,--laughing at all
things, reverencing nothing? And yet my laughter is only from high
health and animal spirits.
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