Chapter Four

"And so, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I'm pleased to introduce to you, Mr. T. Allen McQuary, the Purple Knight of the Ozarks." The Reverend Doctor Carroll DePew stepped down from the dais as he gestured toward his right, whereupon the sanctuary resounded with applause. Emerging from the chancel was a young man costumed and accoutered in purple. On one hip, he wore an amethyst studded sword and on the other, a Spanish poniard in a purple sheath. A purple feather nodded above his purple chapeau, and a purple mask covered his eyes. Lavender frills adorned the throat of his velvet doublet and the wrists of his sleeves, and around his trim waist was a purple leather belt with a bright, brassy buckle; below the belt he wore purple pantaloons and below the breeches, purple stockings were tucked into purple leather boots. The young man walked slowly across the dais, and stood in front of the pulpit. The applause rolled toward him like an irresistible wave, curling and mounting, until it crashed over him, and he raised his fists above his head, whereupon the thunder redoubled with hoots and whistles and several people stood and the girls fanned themselves with bulletins. He extended his fingers and swept his hands downward in dramatic arcs until the fingertips touched: Then the Purple Knight bowed to the crowd as if he were greeting a Turkish pasha. Suddenly, all of the people were on their feet—little children slid from their mothers' laps, farmers in ill-fitting suits stood stiffly, money-minded men rose and flogged their hands together, and two girls in the front pew fainted. In a sudden gesture of impassioned magnanimity, the young man stretched his purple arms toward the people as if he would embrace them, and not just them, but all the members of the Presbyterian Church worldwide; in fact, he hugged to his chest all the various Christian sects, from Roman Catholics to Holy Rollers to skeptical Unitarians, and the Muslims, too, Shia and Sunni and Sufi, and Buddhists and Hindoos and Janists for good measure. For that was precisely what he was doing—in his ecstasy, the Purple Knight was embracing the world. And when the young man stood legs apart like a purple Vitruvius, the admiration of the people reached a new height, and the roar of their enthusiasm towered and crashed, and the young man shouted over the melee, "Thank you so much for coming this evening. Thank you!"

The clamor subsided somewhat.

"Thank you!"

Increased subsiding.

"Thank you! You may be seated! Thank you!"

The applause dwindled, the people sat in their pews, and the Purple Knight began.

"Wow. Thank you, Cincinnatians—is that what you call yourselves, Cincinnatians? Cincinnatee-ites? Whatever you go by, I thank you for your warm hospitality. Trust me, I need some warmth. I thought November nights were cold in the Ozark mountains, but Ohio has got Missouri beat all to pieces. Whoo! Why, I thought I'd have to buy me a purple overcoat just to keep from freezing."

Laughter.

"Do you folks know how hard it is to find a purple overcoat in Cincinnati? I stopped at a haberdashery and said, 'Sir, I am in need of an overcoat, a purple overcoat,' and he said, 'Iffen you go down the road to the tack and saddlery, they got purple saddle blankets for the show ponies.'"

Laughter.

"I said, 'Do I look like a show pony to you?' And he said, 'Well, you would if you was wearing a purple overcoat!'"

Louder laughter.

"Then the haberdasher said, 'Listen, stranger, you'll have to go clear to Cleveland for something like that! Folks in Cleveland'll wear anything!'"

Uproarious laughter. Husbands leaned to their wives and said, Yeah, you probably could find a purple overcoat in Cleveland!

"'And if they don't have a purple overcoat in Cleveland, then go clear to New York City! You can wear whatever you want there and nobody'll think a thing about it! Heck, you can paint yourself purple and walk nekkid down the street if you want to!'"

A wave of laughter and loud applause. Who knows what those crazy New Yorkers'll do? There's no telling!

"'So, I said, well, sir, if I win the hand of a pretty little gal in Arkansas, there'll be plenty more fellows in purple passing through Cincinnati, so you better stock up on those overcoats!'" A climax of laughter and a gradual decline into titters, then another swell and a dropping off.

The Purple Knight permitted the silence to become uncomfortable before he resumed. "You know, Emerson said, 'All the world loves a lover,' and he spoke truly. But I will also tell you this: A lover also loves all the world. Let that sink in a minute. 'A lover loves all the world.' But not for himself. No, sir, he loves the world for the sake of someone else, his true love, to whom he will stay true for the rest of his life. Close your eyes a minute, and let me tell you a story. That's right. Just close 'em. Fellas, take the hand of the lady beside you, well, take her hand if she's your sweetheart. Otherwise, you better let her be."

Gentle laughter.

"Now, ladies, feel his hand in yours. Feel the warmth and love and protection in that old, calloused hand."

Kind laughter.

"Ah-ah. Keep your eyes closed. Now, imagine that together you're walking down a long, dark hall to stand before two curtains hanging over an alcove. The curtains are purple." Now part the curtains and see what's behind them. At first all you see is darkness, but if you stare long enough, you'll begin to see things: merchants on ships hauling up trunks of treasure and barrels of spices in rope nets; you'll see an old miner shouting 'Eureka!' because he discovered a vein of gold; you'll see writers of books and leaders of armies, carpenters with hammers and accountants writing in ledgers. Now look again, and you'll see that all this activity is really nothing more than embroidered figures on two more purple curtains. If you're really courageous, you'll enter the alcove and part those curtains, too, and you'll keep parting curtains until you see what's most real behind everything. At first it's so dark you fear you may have gone blind. But the two of you are brave, so hand in hand, you walk into the darkness. Keep your eyes closed! Ah, now you see it: Behind all the curtains, there is the face of the one whose hand you're holding now, and you realize that you've possessed the truth all along. As the Master himself said, nothing is hidden that won't be revealed!"

The congregation was silent save for a few sniffles and the clearing of a throat. The people were listening because the Purple Knight was speaking poetry in the church house. Poetry, mind you, not the guilt of sin or the cold doctrine of predestination or the impossible ideals of holiness. The young man in purple was praising softly the erotic heresies of their hidden hearts, the ache of desire, and the grief that attends desire's inevitable loss. The Purple Knight continued, "Yes, the hand you hold leads you to a beautiful face, perhaps a face still in the bloom of youth or a face grown even lovelier by the passing of years. And you know in your heart that an eternity spent loving that face would be a paradise above all others. Men, would you not conquer the world and lay it at your sweetheart's feet to behold her face forever?" And ladies, would you not count the world as nothing compared to the fellow you love?

"Keep your eyes closed a little longer, and keep your beloved's face steadfastly before you. That face will be the last thing you see on earth, you know. Feel your beloved's hand in yours. That hand will be the last thing you hold. Would you bruise that hand to gain the world? Of course, you wouldn't. Would you betray that hand to possess all the riches of Rockefeller? May it never be!

"So I ask you, are we not all poets at heart? Are we not all knights and ladies who would, if we gained the world, sacrifice it gladly for the one we love? Are you and I really so different? For I, too, love a face hidden from me by the distance of many miles, a beautiful face in the darkness, and she is the north star of all my travels. I long to hold her soft hand and walk on the moonlit veranda once more. By all that is holy, I vow to circle the whole, round world so that one day, I may lay that world at her feet. My only prayer is that she will count that world as nothing compared to the humble suitor who gives it to her.

"Now, open your eyes!"

So, the people opened their eyes, and the masked knight stood before them, not in front of the pulpit or on the dais but in the aisle between the pews, and he walked down the aisle, spilling purple prose and periwinkle poetry as he came. And as he spoke, the people began applauding, and the applause crescendoed once more into a thunderous wave, and the people rose from their pews, and the children tumbled once more from their mothers' laps, and the Reverend Doctor Carroll Depew rose, too, clapping his hands with great vigor, and stepping up on the dias, he called the Purple Knight back to the front of the sanctuary. Spreading their arms, the two men embraced, and the people were cheering. A tear slipped from beneath the mask of the Purple Knight, and the people on the front row could see it, so they redoubled their applause.

"He loves us! He is full of love for all the world!"

Shouts of "Yea!" and "Huzzah!" and wild whistles filled the sanctuary. Reverend DePew yelled above the uproar, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. T. Allen McQuary, the Purple Knight of Missouri! Don't forget to leave a love offering for our dear friend in the baskets!"

The people didn't forget, and that night the baskets overflowed with love.

Back in the home of Carroll Depew home, the two men sat drinking coffee and visiting as the Reverend Doctor counted the money into stacks of bills and columns of coins. One half he pushed across the table to Mack, and the other half he set aside to "keep the lights on in the church" (and to buy Mrs. Depew a new hat she had wanted for some time). "This should help you on your travels," Doctor DePew said. "We collected over two hundred dollars."

"Thank you so much, Carroll. You have a wonderful and generous congregation, and a beautiful church, I might add. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed my time with you."

"Well, thank you. It's true; they are good folks. And we had a lot of visitors with us tonight, and you never know, they might become Presbyterians! I think you did more to strengthen the bonds of matrimony in a single talk than I could in a year's worth of sermons. Just remarkable! Are you sure you won't stay with us tonight?"

"No, sir, night travel suits me best. This outfit attracts too much attention during the day."

"What about highwaymen? Don't you ever fear—my dear, what are you still doing awake?" A girl of perhaps fifteen was peering around the door.

"I'm sorry, Father. I just wanted to tell Mr. Knight what a good job he did tonight."

The Reverend DePew laughed gently. "His name isn't Mr. Knight, darling. It's Mr. McQuary. He's called the Purple Knight because of his quest."

"Oh. Well, it's nice to meet you, Mr. McQuary." The girl stepped into the parlor and curtsied.

McQuary swallowed and set the money back on the dining room table. Then he bowed, took the girl's hand, and kissed it with playful good humor. "Tell me, Dr. DePew, who is this angel? Alas, that my true love lies abed in Arkansas, for in all my travels, I have not seen so fair a virgin!"

"My name is Allison. Do you think I'll ever find someone to love me like you love your girlfriend in Arkansas?"

T. Allen McQuary cleared his throat and said, "I can almost guarantee it. Doctor DePew, I am more weary than I realized. I believe I'll take you up on your kind offer to stay the night, if it still stands."

"Of course, it does! What a delightful change of plans! Allison, would you please escort Mr. McQuary to the guest room?"

"Yes, sir."

T. Allen McQuary and the Reverend DePew shook hands, and T. Allen picked up the sack of money. "Thank you so much, Doctor DePew! I will never forget your generosity!"

"And we will never forget you or your quest. You will always be in my prayers."

"And you in mine."

"C'mon, Mr. McQuary," said the girl. "Let me show you to your room." Mack smiled and said, "With pleasure."