It is when he says reverently, "Behold what
powers greater than I shall achieve through me, the instrument," that
he becomes great and men marvel at his power.
Joy's religious nature found expression in her music, and so
something more than a harmony of beautiful sounds impressed her
hearers.
The first severe blow to her faith in the church as a divine
institution, was when her rector and her lover left her alone in the
hour of her darkest trials, because he knew the story of her mother's
life. His hesitancy to make her his wife she understood, but his
absolute desertion of her at such a time, seemed inconsistent with
his calling as a disciple of the Christ.
The second blow came in her dismissal from the position of organist
at the Beryngford Church, after the presence of the Baroness in the
town.
A disgust for human laws, and a bitter resentment towards society
took possession of her. When a gentle and loving nature is roused to
anger and indignation, it is often capable of extremes of action; and
Arthur Stuart had made his proposition of flight to Joy Irving in an
hour when her high-wrought emotions and intensely strung nerves made
any desperate act possible to her. The sight of his face, with its
evidences of severe suffering, awoke all her smouldering passion for
the man; and the thought that he was ready to tread his creed under
his feet and to defy society for her sake, stirred her with a wild
joy.
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