Ne in all the welkin was no cloud.
--CHAUCER.
One Monday evening, John being tired, was resting in the corner of the
sofa. The silence had lasted a long time. Ellen thought so, and standing
near, she by-and-by put her hand gently into one of his, which he was
thoughtfully passing through the locks of his hair. Her hand was clasped
immediately, and, quitting his abstracted look, he asked what she had
been doing that day? Ellen's thoughts went back to toes of stockings and
a long rent in her dress; she merely answered, smiling, that she had
been busy.
"Too busy, I'm afraid. Come round here and sit down. What have you been
busy about?"
Ellen never thought of trying to evade a question of his. She coloured
and hesitated. He did not press it any further.
"Mr. John," said Ellen, when the silence seemed to have set in again,
"there is something I have been wanting to ask you this great while----"
"Why hasn't it been _asked_ this great while?"
"I didn't quite like to. I didn't know what you would say to it."
"I am sorry I am at all terrible to you, Ellie!"
"Why, you are not!" said Ellen, laughing; "how you talk! But I don't
much like to ask people things."
"I don't know about that," said he, smiling; "my memory rather seems to
say that you ask things pretty often."
"Ah yes--those things; but I mean I don't like to ask things when I am
not quite sure how people will take it."
"You are right, certainly, to hesitate when you are doubtful in such a
matter; but it is best not to be doubtful when I am concerned."
"Well," said Ellen, "I wish very much--I was going to ask--if you would
have any objection to let me read one of your sermons?"
"None in the world, Ellie," said he, smiling; "but they have never been
written yet."
"Not written!"
"No; there is all I had to guide me yesterday."
"A half sheet of paper! and only written on one side! Oh, I can make
nothing of this. What is _this_? Hebrew?"
"Shorthand."
"And is that all? I cannot understand it," said Ellen, sighing as she
gave back the paper.
"What if you were to go with me next time? They want to see you very
much at Ventnor."
"So do I want to see them," said Ellen; "very much indeed."
"Mrs. Marshman sent a most earnest request by me that you would come to
her the next time I go to Randolph."
Ellen gave the matter a very serious consideration, if one might judge
by her face.
"What do you say to it?"
"I should like to go--_very_ much," said Ellen slowly; "but----"
"But you do not think it would be pleasant?"
"No, no," said Ellen, laughing, "I don't mean that; but I think I would
rather not."
"Why?"
"Oh, I have some reasons."
"You must give me very good ones, or I think I shall overrule your
decision, Ellie."
"I have _very_ good ones--plenty of them--only----"
A glance, somewhat comical in its keenness, overturned Ellen's
hesitation.
"I have indeed," said she, laughing, "only I did not want to tell you.
The reason why I didn't wish to go was because I thought I should be
missed. You don't know how much I miss you," said she, with tears in her
eyes.
"That is what I was afraid of. Your reasons make against you, Ellie."
"I hope not. I don't think they ought."
"But, Ellie, I am very sure my father would rather miss you once or
twice than have you want what would be good for you."
"I know that! I am sure of that! but that don't alter my feeling, you
know. And besides--that isn't all."
"Who else will miss you?"
Ellen's quick look seemed to say that he knew too much already, and that
she did not wish him to know more. He did not repeat the question, but
Ellen felt that her secret was no longer entirely her own.
"And what do you do, Ellie, when you feel lonely?" he went on
presently.
Ellen's eyes watered at the tone in which these words were spoken; she
answered, "Different things."
"The best remedy for it is prayer. In seeking the face of our best
Friend we forget the loss of others. That is what I try, Ellie, when I
feel alone. Do you try it?" said he softly.
Ellen looked up; she could not well speak at that moment.
"There is an antidote in that for every trouble. You know who said, 'he
that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall
never thirst.'"
"It troubles me," said he, after a pause, "to leave you so much alone. I
don't know that it were not best to take you with me every week."
"Oh no!" said Ellen; "don't think of me. I don't mind it indeed. I do
not always feel so--sometimes, but I get along very well; and I would
rather stay here, indeed I would. I am always happy as soon as Monday
morning comes."
He rose up suddenly and began to walk up and down the room.
"Mr. John----"
"What, Ellie?"
"I do sometimes seek His face very much when I cannot find it."
She hid her face in the sofa cushion. He was silent a few minutes, and
then stopped his walk.
"There is something wrong then with you, Ellie," he said gently. "How
has it been through the week? If you can let day after day pass without
remembering your best Friend, it may be that when you feel the want you
will not readily find Him. How is it daily, Ellie? is seeking His face
your first concern? do you give a sufficient time faithfully to your
Bible and prayer?"
Ellen shook her head; no words were possible. He took up his walk again.
The silence had lasted a length of time, and he was still walking when
Ellen came to his side and laid her hand on his arm.
"Have you settled that question with your conscience, Ellie?"
She weepingly answered yes. They walked a few turns up and down.
"Will you promise me, Ellie, that every day when it shall be possible,
you will give an hour _at least_ to this business--whatever else may be
done or undone?"
Ellen promised; and then with her hand in his they continued their walk
through the room till Mr. Humphreys and the servants came in. Her
brother's prayer that night Ellen never forgot.
No more was said at that time about her going to Ventnor; but a week or
two after, John smilingly told her to get all her private affairs
arranged and to let her friends know they need not expect to see her the
next Sunday, for that he was going to take her with him. As she saw he
had made up his mind, Ellen said nothing in the way of objecting; and
now that the decision was taken from her was really very glad to go. She
arranged everything, as he had said, and was ready Saturday morning to
set off with a very light heart.
They went in the sleigh. In a happy quiet mood of mind, Ellen enjoyed
everything exceedingly. She had not been to Ventnor in several months;
the change of scene was very grateful. She could not help thinking, as
they slid along smoothly and swiftly over the hard-frozen snow, that it
_was_ a good deal pleasanter, for once, than sitting alone in the
parlour at home with her work-basket. Those days of solitary duty,
however, had prepared her for the pleasure of this one; Ellen knew that,
and was ready to be thankful for everything. Throughout the whole way,
whether the eye and mind silently indulged in roving, or still better
loved talk interrupted, as it often did, Ellen was in a state of most
unmixed and unruffled satisfaction. John had not the slightest reason to
doubt the correctness of his judgment in bringing her. He went in but a
moment at Ventnor, and leaving her there, proceeded himself to Randolph.
Ellen was received as a precious lending that must be taken the greatest
care of and enjoyed as much as possible while one has it. Mrs. Marshman
and Mrs. Chauncey treated her as if she had been their own child. Ellen
Chauncey overwhelmed her with joyful caresses, and could scarcely let
her out of her arms by night or by day. She was more than ever Mr.
Marshman's pet; but indeed she was well petted by all the family. It was
a very happy visit.
Even Sunday left nothing to wish for. To her great joy not only Mrs.
Chauncey went with her in the morning to hear her brother (for his
church was not the one the family attended), but the carriage was
ordered in the afternoon also; and Mrs. Chauncey and her daughter and
Miss Sophia went with her again. When they returned Miss Sophia, who had
taken a very great fancy to her, brought her into her own room and made
her lie down with her upon the bed, though Ellen insisted she was not
tired.
"Well, you ought to be, if you are not," said the lady. "I am. Keep
away, Ellen Chauncey, you can't be anywhere without talking. You can
live without Ellen for half-an hour, can't ye? Leave us a little while
in quiet."
Ellen for her part was quite willing to be quiet. But Miss Sophia was
not sleepy, and it soon appeared had no intention of being silent
herself.
"Well, how do you like your brother in the pulpit?" she began.
"I like him anywhere, ma'am," said Ellen, with a very unequivocal smile.
"I thought he would have come here with you last night! it is very mean
of him! He never comes near us; he always goes to some wretched little
lodging or place in the town there--always; never so much as looks at
Ventnor, unless sometimes he may stop for a minute at the door."
"He said he would come here to-night," said Ellen.
"Amazing condescending of him! However, he isn't like anybody else; I
suppose we must not judge him by common rules. How is Mr. Humphreys,
Ellen?"
"I don't know, ma'am," said Ellen, "it is hard to tell; he doesn't say
much. I think he is rather more cheerful--if anything--than I expected
he would be."
"And how do you get along there, poor child! with only two such grave
people about you?"
"I get along very well, ma'am," said Ellen, with what Miss Sophia
thought a somewhat curious smile.
"I believe you will grow to be as sober as the rest of them," said she.
"How does Mr. John behave?"
Ellen turned so indubitably curious a look upon her at this that Miss
Sophia half laughed and went on.
"Mr. Humphreys was not always as silent and reserved as he is now; I
remember him when he was different; though I don't think he ever was
much like his son. Did you ever hear about it?"
"About what, ma'am?"
"Oh, about coming to this country; what brought him to Carra-carra?"
"No, ma'am."
"My father, you see, had come out long before, but the two families had
been always very intimate in England, and it was kept up after he came
away. He was a particular friend of an elder brother of Mr. Humphreys;
his estate and my grandfather's lay very near each other; and besides,
there were other things that drew them to each other; he married my
aunt, for one. My father made several journeys back and forth in the
course of years, and so kept up his attachment to the whole family, you
know; and he became very desirous to get Mr. Humphreys over here--this
Mr. Humphreys, you know. He was the younger brother--younger brothers
in England generally have little or nothing; but you don't know anything
about that, Ellen. _He_ hadn't anything then but his living, and that
was a small one; he had some property left him though, just before he
came to America."
"But, Miss Sophia"--Ellen hesitated--"are you sure they would like I
should hear all this?"
"Why, yes, child!--of course they would; everybody knows it. Some things
made Mr. Humphreys as willing to leave England about that time as my
father was to have him. An excellent situation was offered him in one of
the best institutions here, and he came out. That's about--let me see--I
was just twelve years old and Alice was one year younger. She and I were
just like sisters always from that time. We lived near together, and saw
each other every day, and our two families were just like one. But they
were liked by everybody. Mrs. Humphreys was a very fine person--very; oh
very! I never saw any woman I admired more. Her death almost killed her
husband; and I think Alice--I don't know--there isn't the least sign of
delicate health about Mr. Humphreys nor Mr. John--not the slightest--nor
about Mrs. Humphreys either. She was a very fine woman!"
"How long ago did she die?" said Ellen.
"Five--six, seven--seven years ago. Mr. John had been left in England
till a little before. Mr. Humphreys was never the same after that. He
wouldn't hold his professorship any longer; he couldn't bear society; he
just went and buried himself at Carra-carra. That was a little after we
came here."
How much all this interested Ellen! She was glad however when Miss
Sophia seemed to have talked herself out, for she wanted very much to
think over John's sermon. And as Miss Sophia happily fell into a doze
soon after, she had a long quiet time for it, till it grew dark, and
Ellen Chauncey, whose impatience could hold no longer, came to seek her.
John came in the evening. Ellen's patience and politeness were severely
tried in the course of it; for while she longed exceedingly to hear what
her brother and the older members of the family were talking
about--animated, delightful conversation she was sure--Ellen Chauncey
detained her in another part of the room; and for a good part of the
evening she had to bridle her impatience, and attend to what she did not
care about. She did it, and Ellen Chauncey did not suspect it; and at
last she found means to draw both her and herself near the larger group.
But they seemed to have got through what they were talking about; there
was a lull. Ellen waited; and hoped they would begin again.
"You had a full church this afternoon, Mr. John," said Miss Sophia.
He bowed gravely.
"Did you know whom you had among your auditors? the ---- and ---- were
there;" naming some distinguished strangers in the neighbourhood.
"I think I saw them."
"You 'think' you did! Is that an excess of pride or an excess of
modesty? Now, do be a reasonable creature, and confess that you are not
insensible to the pleasure and honour of addressing such an audience!"
Ellen saw something like a flash of contempt for an instant in his face,
instantly succeeded by a smile.
"Honestly, Miss Sophia, I was much more interested in an old woman that
sat at the foot of the pulpit stairs."
"That old thing!" said Miss Sophia.
"I saw her," said Mrs. Chauncey; "poor old creature! she seemed most
deeply attentive when I looked at her."
"I saw her," cried Ellen Chauncey, "and the tears were running down her
cheeks several times."
"I didn't see her," said Ellen Montgomery, as John's eye met hers. He
smiled.
"But do you mean to say," continued Miss Sophia, "that you are
absolutely careless as to who hears you?"
"I have always one hearer, Miss Sophia, of so much dignity, that it
sinks the rest into great insignificance."
"That is a rebuke," said Miss Sophia; "but nevertheless I shall tell you
that I liked you very much this afternoon."
He was silent.
"I suppose you will tell me next," said the young lady, laughing, "that
you are sorry to hear me say so."
"I am," said he gravely.
"Why, may I ask?"
"You show me that I have quite failed in my aim, so far at least as one
of my hearers was concerned."
"How do you know that?"
"Do you remember what Louis the Fourteenth said to Massillon?--Mon
père, j'ai entendu plusieurs grands orateurs dans ma chapelle; j'en
ai été fort content, pour vous, toutes les fois que je vous ai
entendu, j'ai été très mécontent de moi-même!"
Ellen smiled. Miss Sophia was silent for an instant.
"Then you really mean to be understood, that provided you fail of your
aim, as you say, you do not care a straw what people think of you?"
"As I would take a bankrupt's promissory note in lieu of told gold. It
gives me small gratification, Miss Sophia--very small indeed--to see the
bowing head of the grain that yet my sickle cannot reach."
"I agree with you most heartily," said Mr. George Marshman. The
conversation dropped; and the two gentlemen began another in an
undertone, pacing up and down the floor together.
The next morning, not sorrowfully, Ellen entered the sleigh again and
they set off homewards.
"What a sober little piece that is," said Mr. Howard.
"Oh! sober!" cried Ellen Chauncey. "That is because you don't know her,
Uncle Howard. She is the cheerfullest, happiest girl that I ever saw
always."
"Except Ellen Chauncey--always," said her uncle.
"She is a singular child," said Mrs. Gillespie. "She is grave certainly,
but she don't look moped at all, and I should think she would be, to
death."
"There's not a bit of moping about her," said Miss Sophia. "She can
laugh and smile as well as anybody; though she has sometimes that
peculiar grave look of the eyes that would make a stranger doubt it. I
think John Humphreys has infected her; he has something of the same look
himself."
"I am not sure whether it is the eyes or the mouth, Sophia," said Mr.
Howard.
"It is both," said Miss Sophia. "Did you ever see the eyes look one way
and the mouth another?"
"And besides," said Ellen Chauncey, "she has reason to look sober, I am
sure."
"She is a fascinating child," said Mrs. Gillespie. "I cannot comprehend
where she gets the manner she has. I never saw a more perfectly polite
child; and there she has been for months with nobody to speak to her but
two gentlemen and the servants. It is natural to her, I suppose; she can
have nobody to teach her."
"I am not so sure as to that," said Miss Sophia; "but I have noticed the
same thing often. Did you observe her last night, Matilda, when John
Humphreys came in? you were talking to her at the moment; I saw her,
before the door was opened, I saw the colour come and her eyes sparkle,
but she did not look towards him for an instant, till you had finished
what you were saying to her, and she had given, as she always does, her
modest quiet answer; and then her eye went straight as an arrow to where
he was standing."
"And yet," said Mrs. Chauncey, "she never moved towards him when you
did, but stayed quietly on that side of the room with the young ones
till he came round to them, and it was some time too."
"She is an odd child," said Miss Sophia, laughing; "what do you think
she said to me yesterday? I was talking to her and getting rather
communicative on the subject of my neighbours' affairs; and she asked me
gravely--the little monkey--if I was sure they would like her to hear
it? I felt quite rebuked; though I didn't choose to let her know as
much."
"I wish Mr. John would bring her every week," said Ellen Chauncey,
sighing; "it would be so pleasant to have her."
Towards the end of the winter Mr. Humphreys began to propose that his
son should visit England and Scotland during the following summer. He
wished him to see his family and to know his native country, as well as
some of the most distinguished men and institutions in both kingdoms.
Mr. George Marshman also urged upon him some business in which he
thought he could be eminently useful. But Mr. John declined both
propositions, still thinking he had more important duties at home. This
only cloud that rose above Ellen's horizon, scattered away.
One evening, it was a Monday, in the twilight, John was as usual pacing
up and down the floor. Ellen was reading in the window.
"Too late for you, Ellie."
"Yes," said Ellen, "I know--I will stop in two minutes."
But in a quarter of that time she had lost every thought of stopping,
and knew no longer that it was growing dusk. Somebody else, however, had
not forgotten it. The two minutes were not ended, when a hand came
between her and the page and quietly drew the book away.
"Oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Ellen, starting up. "I entirely forgot
all about it!"
He did not look displeased; he was smiling. He drew her arm within his.
"Come and walk with me. Have you had any exercise to-day?"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"I had a good deal to do, and I had fixed myself so nicely on the sofa
with my books; and it looked cold and disagreeable out of doors."
"Since when have you ceased to be a fixture?"
"What! Oh," said Ellen, laughing, "how shall I ever get rid of that
troublesome word? What shall I say? I had _arranged_ myself,
_established_ myself, so nicely on the sofa."
"And did you think that a sufficient reason for not going out?"
"No," said Ellen, "I did not; and I did not decide that I would not go;
and yet I let it keep me at home after all; just as I did about reading
a few minutes ago. I meant to stop, but I forgot, and I should have gone
on I don't know how long if you had not stopped me. I very often do so."
He paused a minute and then said--
"You must not do so any more, Ellie."
The tone, in which there was a great deal both of love and decision,
wound round Ellen's heart, and constrained her to answer immediately--
"I will not--I will not."
"Never parley with conscience; it's a dangerous habit."
"But then--it was only----"
"About trifles; I grant you; but the habit is no trifle. There will not
be a just firmness of mind and steadfastness of action, where tampering
with duty is permitted even in little things."
"I will try not to do it," Ellen repeated.
"No," said he, smiling, "let it stand as at first. '_I will not_,' means
something; '_I will try_,' is very apt to come to nothing. 'I will keep
thy precepts with my whole heart!' not 'I will _try_.' Your reliance is
precisely the same in either case."
"I will not, John," said Ellen, smiling.
"What were you poring over so intently a while ago?"
"It was an old magazine--Blackwood's Magazine, I believe, is the name of
it. I found two great piles of them in a closet upstairs the other day;
and I brought this one down."
"This is the first that you have read?"
"Yes; I got very much interested in a curious story there; why?"
"What will you say, Ellie, if I ask you to leave the rest of the two
piles unopened?"
"Why, I will say that I will do it, of course," said Ellen, with a
little smothered sigh of regret, however; "if you wish it."
"I do wish it, Ellie."
"Very well, I'll let them alone then. I have enough other reading; I
don't know how I happened to take that one up; because I saw it there, I
suppose."
"Have you finished Nelson yet?"
"Oh yes! I finished it Saturday night. Oh, I like it very much? I am
going all over it again, though. I like Nelson very much; don't you?"
"Yes; as well as I can like a man of very fine qualities without
principle."
"Was he that?" said Ellen.
"Yes; did you not find it out? I am afraid your eyes were blinded by
admiration."
"Were they?" said Ellen. "I thought he was so very fine in everything;
and I should be sorry to think he was not."
"Look over the book again by all means, with a more critical eye; and
when you have done so you shall give me your cool estimate of his
character."
"Oh, me?" said Ellen. "Well, but I don't know whether I can give you a
_cool_ estimate of him; however, I'll try. I cannot think coolly of him
now, just after Trafalgar. I think it was a shame that Collingwood did
not anchor as Nelson told him to; don't you? I think he might have been
obeyed while he was living, at least."
"It is difficult," said John, smiling, "to judge correctly of many
actions without having been on the spot and in the circumstances of the
actors. I believe you and I must leave the question of Trafalgar to more
nautical heads."
"How pleasant this moonlight is!" said Ellen.
"What makes it pleasant?"
"What _makes_ it pleasant! I don't know! I never thought of such a
thing. It is _made_ to be pleasant. I can't tell _why_; can anybody?"
"The eye loves light for many reasons, but all kinds of light are not
equally agreeable. What makes the peculiar charm of those long streams
of pale light across the floor? and the shadowy brightness without?"
"You must tell," said Ellen; "I cannot."
"You know we enjoy anything much more by contrast; I think that is one
reason. Night is the reign of darkness which we do not love; and here is
light struggling with the darkness, not enough to overcome it entirely,
but yet banishing it to nooks and corners and distant parts, by the side
of which it shows itself in contrasted beauty. Our eyes bless the
unwonted victory."
"Yes," said Ellen, "we only have moonlight nights once in a while."
"But that is only one reason out of many, and not the greatest. It is a
very refined pleasure, and to resolve it into its elements is something
like trying to divide one of these same white rays of light into the
many various coloured ones that go to form it; and not by any means so
easy a task."
"Then it is no wonder I couldn't answer," said Ellen.
"No, you are hardly a full-grown philosopher yet, Ellie."
"The moonlight is so calm and quiet," Ellen observed admiringly.
"And why is it calm and quiet? I must have an answer to that."
"Because _we_ are generally calm and quiet at such times!" Ellen
ventured after a little thought.
"Precisely! we and the world. And association has given the moon herself
the same character. Besides that her mild sober light is not fitted for
the purposes of active employment, and therefore the more graciously
invites us to the pleasures of thought and fancy."
"I am loving it more and more, the more you talk about it," said Ellen.
"And there you have touched another reason, Ellie, for the pleasure we
have, not only in moonlight, but in most other things. When two things
have been in the mind together, and made any impression, the mind
_associates_ them; and you cannot see or think of the one without
bringing back the remembrance or the feeling of the other. If we have
enjoyed the moonlight in pleasant scenes, in happy hours, with friends
that we loved--though the sight of it may not always make us directly
remember them, it yet brings with it a waft from the feeling of the old
times, sweet as long as life lasts!"
"And sorrowful things may be associated too?" said Ellen.
"Yes, and sorrowful things. But this power of association is the cause
of half the pleasure we enjoy. There is a tune my mother used to sing--I
cannot hear it now without being carried swiftly back to my boyish days,
to the very spirit of the time; I _feel_ myself spring over the green
sward as I did then."
"Oh, I know that is true," said Ellen. "The camellia, the white
camellia, you know, I like it so much ever since what you said about it
one day. I never see it without thinking of it; and it would not seem
half so beautiful but for that."
"What did I say about it?"
"Don't you remember? you said it was like what you ought to be, and what
you should be if you ever reached heaven; and you repeated that verse in
the Revelation about 'those that have not defiled their garments.' I
always think of it. It seems to give me a lesson."
"How eloquent of beautiful lessons all nature would be to us," said John
musingly, "if we had but the eye and ear to take them in."
"And in that way you would heap associations upon associations?"
"Yes; till our storehouse of pleasure was very full."
"You do that now," said Ellen. "I wish you would teach me."
"I have read precious things sometimes in the bunches of flowers you are
so fond of, Ellie. Cannot you?"
"I don't know--I only think of themselves, except sometimes they make me
think of Alice."
"You know from any works we may form some judgment of the mind and
character of their author?"
"From their writings, I know you can," said Ellen; "from what other
works?"
"From any which are not mechanical; from any in which the mind, not the
hand, has been the creating power. I saw you very much interested the
other day in the Eddystone lighthouse; did it help you to form no
opinion of Mr. Smeaton?"
"Why, yes, certainly," said Ellen, "I admired him exceedingly for his
cleverness and perseverance; but what other works? I can't think of
any."
"There is the lighthouse, that is one thing. What do you think of the
ocean waves that now and then overwhelm it?"
Ellen half shuddered. "I shouldn't like to go to sea, John! But you were
speaking of men's works and women's works?"
"Well, women's works; I cannot help forming some notion of a lady's mind
and character from the way she dresses herself."
"Can you? do you?"
"I cannot help doing it. Many things appear in the style of a lady's
dress that she never dreams of; the style of her thoughts among others."
"It is a pity ladies didn't know that," said Ellen, laughing; "they
would be very careful."
"It wouldn't mend the matter, Ellie. That is one of the things in which
people are obliged to speak truth. As the mind is, so it will show
itself."
"But we have got a great way from the flowers," said Ellen.
"You shall bring me some to-morrow, Ellie, and we will read them
together."
"There are plenty over there now," said Ellen, looking towards the
little flower-stand, which was as full and as flourishing as ever, "but
we can't see them well by this light."
"A bunch of flowers seems to bring me very near the hand that made them.
They are the work of His fingers; and I cannot consider them without
being joyfully assured of the glory and loveliness of their Creator. It
is written as plainly to me in their delicate painting and sweet breath
and curious structure, as in the very pages of the Bible; though no
doubt without the Bible I could not read the flowers."
"I never thought much of that," said Ellen. "And then you find
particular lessons in particular flowers?"
"Sometimes."
"Oh, come here!" said Ellen, pulling him towards the flower-stand, "and
tell me what this daphne is like--you need not see that, only smell it,
that's enough; do, John, and tell me what it is like!"
He smiled as he complied with her request, and walked away again.
"Well, what is it?" said Ellen; "I know you have thought of something."
"It is like the fragrance that Christian society sometimes leaves upon
the spirit; when it is just what it ought to be."
"My Mr. Marshman!" exclaimed Ellen.
John smiled again. "I thought of him, Ellie. And I thought also of
Cowper's lines--
"'When one who holds communion with the skies,
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise,
Descends and dwells among us meaner things,
It is as if an angel shook his wings!'"
Ellie was silent a moment from pleasure.
"Well, I have got an association now with the daphne!" she said
joyously; and presently added, sighing, "How much you see in everything
that I do not see at all."
"Time, Ellie," said John; "there must be time for that. It will come.
Time is cried out upon as a great thief; it is people's own fault. Use
him but well, and you will get from his hand more than he will ever take
from you."
Ellen's thoughts travelled on a little way from this speech, and then
came a sigh, of some burden, as it seemed; and her face was softly laid
against the arm she held.
"Let us leave all that to God," said John gently.
Ellen started. "How did you know--how could you know what I was thinking
of?"
"Perhaps my thoughts took the same road," said he, smiling. "But, Ellie,
dear, let us look to that one source of happiness that can never be
dried up; it is not safe to count upon anything else."
"It is not wonderful," said Ellen in a tremulous voice, "if I----"
"It is not wonderful, Ellie, nor wrong. But we, who look up to God as
our Father, who rejoice in Christ our Saviour, we are happy, whatever
beside we may gain or lose. Let us trust Him, and never doubt that,
Ellie."
"But still----" said Ellen.
"But still, we will hope and pray alike in that matter. And while we
do, and may, with our whole hearts, let us leave ourselves in our
Father's hand. The joy of the knowledge of Christ! the joy the world
cannot intermeddle with, the peace it cannot take away! Let us make that
our own, Ellie; and for the rest put away all anxious care about what we
cannot control."
Ellen's hand, however, did not just then lie quite so lightly on his arm
as it did a few minutes ago; he could feel that; and could see the
glitter of one or two tears in the moonlight as they fell. The hand was
fondly taken in his; and as they slowly paced up and down, he went on in
low tones of kindness and cheerfulness with his pleasant talk, till she
was too happy in the present to be anxious about the future; looked up
again and brightly into his face, and questions and answers came as
gaily as ever.