Something like this was what came to Celia; and as she listened, forgetful of her surroundings, it linked itself in her thought to the Forest secret.
It was not so much the words as the aspirations they stirred,--the new belief in the possibility of high and joyous living, the new courage that thrilled in her veins. She was still under the spell when after the benediction Miss Betty asked, with a certain timidity, if she had liked the sermon.
Celia looked at her blankly for a second before she replied, "Oh, so much! It was beautiful. I should like to know him." She turned away with a smile; she was not ready to discuss it yet. She wanted to think.
"He held my attention, I grant, but I don't call it a sermon; it was too elementary,--it was nothing but a talk," she heard Mrs. Molesworth saying.
"If it wasn't a sermon, it was something better," answered cheery Mrs. Parton.
"Most magnetic speaker," the colonel was remarking to some one.
And now Rosalind and Belle claimed Celia's attention, demanding to know what she thought of the detective; and she must come back to earth and listen and reply and enter into their gayety--an easier matter, to be sure, than responding to the comments of grown people.
The next morning, on her way to class, Celia met Miss Betty and Dr. Hollingsworth walking up the hill toward the Gilpin house, and Miss Betty stopped and presented her companion.
After some moments' chat about other things, as they were separating, Celia said, "I want to thank you, Dr. Hollingsworth, for my share of your sermon yesterday." Her face made it evident that this was no merely conventional speech, and the president looked down upon her benignly through his glasses.
"I thank you for being willing to take any of my thoughts to yourself," he said.
Celia now noticed for the first time that he wore an oak leaf, and she remembered with what delight Rosalind and Belle had told her of his wish to be an Arden Forester. "I believe," she added, laughing a little, "that I have the Kingdom of Heaven and the Forest somewhat mixed."
"You will find when you have lived as long as I have that there are often many names for the same thing," the president answered, smiling.
"And do you believe that things always come right in the Forest?" The wistful note in Celia's voice told something of her struggle.