AN INTERLUDE
All things by immortal power,
Near or far,
Hiddenly.
To each other linked are
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling a star.
A. QUILLER-COUCH.
Life is so largely a thing of intermingling currents, of interwoven
threads, of reacting forces, that it is well-nigh impossible
understandingly to portray the life story of one person without
occasionally pausing to review, at least briefly, incidents in the lives
of others with which it is closely bound up.
So it is with the story of the pilgrimage of Smiles.
While, following her graduation, she was taking a course in district
nursing, giving freely of her new powers to the poor and suffering of a
great city, and taking, and passing, the State examination which gave
her the right to place the epigrammatic letters "R.N." after her name,
something was happening more than three thousand miles away, of which
she had no inkling, and yet which was closely linked with her
existence.
Donald had, indeed, written in a manner to minimize his illness, which
had been a prolonged and serious one; so much so that he had, greatly
against his will, finally come to realize the necessity of his taking a
rest from his unremitting toil, and he had agreed to return home for a
vacation as soon as he should be well enough to make the long trip.
Depressed by his wholly unaccustomed weakness the doctor sat, a
convalescent in his own hospital in Toul, one stifling July day. To his
physical debility was added the dragging distress of mind which comes at
times to those who are far away and receive no word from home. No
letters had reached him for weeks. Removed from the sphere of the
abnormal activity which had been his, and with nothing to do but sit and
think, Donald had, for some time, been examining his own heart with an
introspective gaze more searching than ever before. He felt that he had
been, above the average, blessed with happy relationships, deep
friendships and a highly trained ability to serve others--and he knew
that he could honestly say that he had turned this to full account.
Besides, he was betrothed to a beautiful woman whom many coveted. When
his mind reached Marion Treville in its consideration, it stopped to
build a dream castle around her, a castle not in Spain, but in America.
He had earned the right to rest beside the road awhile, and enjoy the
good things of life. Marion was waiting for him at home, and whatever
doubts had, at one or another time, entered his mind as to their
perfect suitability, one for the other, they had long since been
banished. Distance had lent its enchantment, and he had supplied her
with the special virtues that he desired. His was a type of mind which
held to one thought at a time, and he had always possessed a fixedness
of purpose of a kind well calculated to carry through any plan which
that mind conceived. Combined, these characteristics made a form of
egotism, not one which caused him to overrate himself, but to plough
ahead regardless of the strength of the possible opposition. When he
returned to America he would marry Marion Treville immediately. No other
idea had seriously entered his mind since they had plighted their troth;
they had not been quite ready before, that was all, he told himself.
It was in such a frame of mind, and with a growing eagerness for the day
when he might start for home to claim his reward, that he received her
long-delayed letter. What it said does not matter; but one paragraph
summed up her whole confession. "You cannot but agree with me that ours
was never the love of a man and woman whose hearts were attuned to one
another, and sang in perfect unison. We really drifted into an
engagement more because of propinquity than anything else. I am a
drone--the product of society at its worst--and you are one of the
workers, Donald. I feel quite sure that you will always gain your truest
happiness in your work. Although I know how you love children (and I
don't), I cannot think of you in the role of a married man, so I do
not, deep in my heart, believe that this is going to hurt you very
much--certainly I hope not. Indeed, I have a somewhat unpleasant
suspicion that some day you are going to bless me for having given you
back your freedom."
Donald read the letter through, without allowing his expression to
change. Then he started to reread it, stopped, and suddenly crumpled it
up in his big fist. A low curse escaped his lips. It was heard by a
passing nurse, who hurried to him with the question, "Did you call,
doctor? Are you in pain?"
"No. Let me alone," was his harsh answer, and the patient girl moved
away, with a little shake of her head. The great physician had not been
his cheerful, kindly self for some time. Perhaps she surmised, too, that
the mail which she had laid in his lap had not been all that he had
anticipated.
With scarcely a move, he sat, staring in front of him, until the evening
shadows had turned the landscape to a dull monotone. Then he slowly
arose, and, with his mind so completely bent upon one subject that his
body was a thing apart and its weakness forgotten, stepped out into the
darkening city.
Time had ceased to exist for him, as he walked the almost deserted
streets of Toul like a flesh-and-blood automaton. But the physical
exercise brought a quota of mental relief at last, and the cool night
air soothed his first burning pain and anger with its unconscious balm.
At length he was able to face the truth frankly, and then he suddenly
knew that all the time it was not his heart, so much as his pride, which
had been hurt.
An hour earlier he would not have admitted a single doubt of his real
love for Marion Treville. Now he could not but admit that the initial
stab of bitterness was being healed by a real, though inexplicable,
sense of relief. He could even say that she had been right. His
affection for her had, indeed, been merely the outgrowth of life-long
intimacy. It was never the mating call of heart to heart; he had never
felt for her the overwhelming passion of a lover for the woman in whom,
for him, all earthly things are bound up.
His walk became slower; he stopped. The deep blue-black sky had, of a
sudden, become the background for a softly glowing mind picture, and
there seemed to appear before him the glorious misty eyes, and
bewitchingly curved lips of ... Smiles.
Her memory swept over him like a vision, and, even while he felt like a
traitor to self, came the wonderful realization that in his home city,
toward which his thoughts had so lately been bent, still lived the girl
whom he had loved--and had held apart within a locked and closely
guarded chamber of his heart--for years. It was as though scales, placed
before them by his own will, had dropped from his eyes. He almost cried
aloud his self-admission that he had loved her all the years from the
first moment when he saw her, a barefoot mountain girl, in Big Jerry's
rude cabin.
And he was _free_! Free to be honest with his own soul, free to tell his
Rose of his love, and throw aside the masquerading cloak of adopted
brotherhood. How strange it was! The woman whom he had thought to marry
was gone from his life like a leaf torn from the binding, and the one
whom he had pretended to regard as a sister would become his mate. That
such would be the case he did not doubt now, even for an instant. That
she had always loved him, he was certain, and, with the warmth of his
wooing, he would fan that steady glow of childish affection into the
flame of womanly love which should weld their hearts together forever.
* * * * *
The days which followed before he was strong enough to journey to
Bordeaux, there to embark for America, seemed to drag by like eternity;
but Donald was Westbound at last. He was going home, home to a new life,
made perfect by a great love. The deadly submarines of the world's
outlaw, lurking under the sea like loathsome phantasies of an evil mind,
held no terrors for him, nor could the discomforts caused by the tightly
closed hatches and enshrouding burlap, which made the ship a pent-up
steambox, until the danger zone was passed, depress his spirits.
The steamer crept as had the days on shore; but there came an afternoon
when she made port at last, and, spurred by a consuming eagerness, he
hastened to his apartment.
He had cabled the news of his departure, and in the mail box were many
letters awaiting him. Feverishly, he looked them over for one in _her_
dear handwriting. To his unreasonable disappointment there was none, but
there were several which required immediate reading--among them one from
his sister Ethel, and one from his old friend, Philip Bentley.
The first contained disquieting news. His little niece, Muriel, had been
very ill with typhoid fever and, although Dr. Bentley had pulled her
through the sickness successfully, she was still far from well, and
apparently not gaining at all.
He opened the other, expecting it to concern the case. But the note did
not mention it. It was only a few lines and read:
"Dear old Don:
I hear that you are 'homeward bound.' Bully! As soon as you reach
Boston, and can spare me a moment, I want to talk to you about an
important matter.
Call me by telephone, like a good fellow, and I'll run over to your
apartment at once and tell you what is on my mind.
Yours,
P. B."