The Crimson Dove
Summary
A lantern-lit parsonage in the Catskills becomes the unlikely Eden where Brand Cameron—collar starched by certitude—first beholds Adrienne Durant, prima donna of Manhattan’s gas-lit altars, masquerading as a lamb among sheep. Their dalliance blooms like nightshade: ivory piano keys, hymnal pages freighted with yearning, a kiss exchanged under a pear tree that rains petals like contraband grace. When the spotlight’s glare reclaims her, Adrienne confesses the greasepaint truth; Cameron’s cosmos fractures, stained glass turned to shivered ice. He trails her back to the city’s Babylonian glare, only to be spat out by his own sanctified flock—sermons too flimsy against tabloid ink. Exile leads him to a cedar-smelling purgatory where axes bite and sin is measured in board-feet. Meanwhile Adrienne, chastened, dons gingham and governs ragamuffin scholars in a riverside cellar schoolroom. A camp vamp named Faro Kate—eyes like struck matches—cries immaculate deception, branding Cameron as sire to her squalling bastard. The congregation of lumberjacks, nostrils full of pine blood and contempt, torch the chapel in rough justice. Through inferno and falling timbers the preacher crawls, cradling the mewling infant like a coal of mercy; Kate retracts her lie in a howl of penitence. Embers settle into ash; Cameron, scarred yet unbroken, raises a new pulpit among stumps. Adrienne arrives by riverboat, velvet stage cloak traded for calico, and kneels with him on sawdust to plant a congregation in the wilderness.
Synopsis
Young minister Brand Cameron meets stage star Adrienne Durant at her father's humble country home where she has gone to recover from the excitement of an attempted suicide by one of her admirers. Believing that Adrienne is an innocent country girl, Cameron falls in love with her until, in a fit of remorse, the actress tells him the truth and returns to her old life in New York. Cameron follows and, unable to give Adrienne up, is denounced by his parishioners and forced to resign. He takes his calling to a tough lumber camp while Adrienne accepts the charge of a school for poor children. At the camp, Faro Kate falsely accuses Cameron of fathering her child and the lumbermen, enraged, set fire to the church. When Cameron risks his life to save Kate's baby trapped in the burning building, however, Kate retracts her lie and the minister is finally accepted by the gruff inhabitants of the camp. Cameron's happiness is made complete when Adrienne comes to join him in his new ministry.
