"Hast thou loved in the good man's path to tread,
And bend o'er the sufferer's lowly bed?
Hast thou sought on the buoyant wings of prayer
A peace which the faithless may not share?
Do thy hopes all tend to the spirit land,
And the love of a bright unspotted band?
Are these thy treasures?"----
It was twilight, and Mr. Delancey was sitting at his high desk, with his
eyes looking thoughtfully out from under his pale brow. Changes had come
upon him, and it was evident that though the strong will was there, the
fire of that stern pride that once glowed there was crushed out, and
burned now only in a few smouldering embers. Cholera had taken his wife
from his side, and he inhabited the great house on Apollo-street, a
desolate and childless old man.
"Gulian," said he, as the boy approached him with a bow, "how is it that
you always can succeed in preserving your amiability and politeness
under all circumstances? I cannot understand."
"Simply, sir," replied Guly, with a smile, "by remembering the one
great law which God has given us to write upon our hearts, 'Do unto
others as ye would that others should do unto you.'"
"Humph!"
Guly stood in silence, looking up into the hard, pale face beside him.
"I have been thinking of you to-day, Gulian, something for your
advancement. You have served me faithfully, and I wish to do something
for you."
"You have already done for me much, very much."
"And you have never presumed upon it. I would do more. Do you think you
could love me?"
"Love you, Mr. Delancey?"
"Even so; I am loveless and childless in my old age; be to me a son, I
will strive to be to you a father."
The merchant opened his arms, and Guly for the first time felt himself
held to that proud heart with a cordial grasp of affection.
"Be to me a son," continued Mr. Delancey, "and all my wealth, all that I
possess, shall be yours. I am old, and want some one to love me; some
one to miss me when I am gone. Do you consent?"
Guly thought of Blanche, and his heart bounded; but the next moment his
own noble self came back, and he answered promptly: "I will gladly be to
you, Mr. Delancey, the son you desire. I will love you, cherish you; do
as a child should do toward a parent. But your wealth I cannot take.
Let me see that distributed between those children who were disinherited
by your wounded pride, and I shall be happy and contented in performing
those duties which belong to you, from which you so cruelly cut yourself
off."
"Children? _my_ children? I have none."
"Where is Clinton's wife and his little son? Have they no claim upon
your kindness?"
"It may be, it may be."
"And Clinton himself, he has been pardoned out, and is wasting his young
life to gather a pittance which you could so easily bestow."
"Has he not disgraced and shamed me?"
"Pardon me, my friend; but was not the primal fault your own? Was he not
driven to his desperate course by a father's pride and unkindness?"
"It may be, oh, it may be."
"Write their names upon that scroll from whence they have been crossed,
and restore them once more to their rights and happiness."
"And leave you poor?"
"I am better accustomed to poverty, and can fight my way while I have
strength and God's help."
Mr. Delancey drew some papers from his desk and spread them before him.
"Since you so desire, my will shall be altered; I had hoped to make you
happy in the possession of my wealth; if it will make you happier to see
it in the possession of others, it shall be done. Young man, you have
acted nobly."
The merchant bent over his desk and wrote rapidly for some time. Lifting
his head at last, he called Guly to affix his name, then folded and put
them once more out of sight.
"There," said he, "it is done; if any error lay there, I have done all
in my power to repair it now."
"And you will receive your reward."
The merchant said nothing, but sat with his head leaning on his hand. "I
cannot tell," said he, "what can have put such thoughts into my mind;
perhaps, 'tis because I am growing old they come there; but I have been
thinking of the other side of the river to-day, the River of Life."
"My dear friend," said Guly, turning suddenly and taking the merchant's
hand respectfully in his; "I am heartily glad that your thoughts have
been turned seriously in this direction. It is a subject which ought to
frequently intrude upon our minds, and I am inclined to think, that
whether our passage across that river be pleasant or painful, lies much
with ourselves. We should live to die, even as we would die to live."
Delancey shook his head.
"I have lived many years," said he, with a sad look which Guly never
remembered to have seen in that hard face before, "and to-day, for the
first time, the thought has forced itself upon me, that I have lived to
very little purpose. I have had no aim for life, and the account of my
stewardship here below must fall far short of what is required."
"There are very few," replied Guly, encouragingly, "who can strike the
balance-sheet of life, and be content. Your reflections are, no doubt,
the natural effect of the sad season we have passed through, and of your
desolate loneliness."
Mr. Delancey leaned forward, and held his hand on Guly's arm,
impressively:--
"Young man, while you are yet young, let me warn you to beware of a
purposeless life; have an aim, have a mark, struggle for it, grasp at
it, and though you may never reach it, you will die happier."
The merchant relapsed again into silence, and Guly turned to a window,
to note the fury of a wild storm which was raging without. Suddenly
there came a blaze of light, instantly followed by a loud and crashing
peal of thunder.
"How fearful! that bolt must have passed near, or struck us," said Guly,
turning toward the merchant. There came no answer, and the boy went up,
and laid his hand upon the old man's shoulder. He was sitting bolt
upright in his chair, with his stony eyes fixed upon vacancy, as he was
so often wont to sit. Guly lifted one of the bony hands in his, but it
dropped heavily, lifelessly, back upon the desk. Mr. Delancey was dead!
The fearful lightning had borne him across life's river, without pain
and without warning.