GLORY McWHIRK'S INSPIRATION.
"No bird am I to sing in June,
And dare not ask an equal boon.
Good nests and berries red are Nature's
To give away to better creatures,--
And yet my days go on, go on."
MRS. BROWNING.
Mr. and Mrs. Gartney arrived on Thursday.
Two weeks and three days they had been absent; and in that time how the
busy sprites of change and circumstance had been at work! As if the
scattered straws of events, that, stretched out in slender windrows,
might have reached across a field of years, had been raked together, and
rolled over--crowded close, and heaped, portentous, into these eighteen
days!
Letters had told them something; of the burned mill, and Faith's fearful
danger and escape; of Aunt Henderson's continued illness, and its
present serious aspect; and with this last intelligence, which met them
in New York but two days since, Mrs. Gartney found her daughter's
agitated note of pained avowal, that she "had come, through all this, to
know herself better, and to feel sure that this marriage ought not to
be"; that, in short, all was at length over between her and Paul
Rushleigh.
It was a meeting full of thought--where much waited for speech that
letters could neither have conveyed nor satisfied--when Faith and her
father and mother exchanged the kiss of love and welcome, once more, in
the little home at Cross Corners.
It was well that Mis' Battis had made waffles, and spread a tempting
summer tea with these and her nice, white bread, and fruits and creams;
and wished, with such faint impatience as her huge calm was capable of,
that "they would jest set right down, while things was good and hot";
and that Hendie was full of his wonderful adventures by boat and train,
and through the wilds; so that these first hours were gotten over, and
all a little used to the old feeling of being together again, before
there was opportunity for touching upon deeper subjects.
It came at length--the long evening talk, after Hendie was in bed, and
Mr. Gartney had been over to the old house, and seen his aunt, and had
come back, to find wife and daughter sitting in the dim light beside the
open door, drawn close in love and confidence, and so glad and thankful
to have each other back once more!
First--Aunt Faith; and what was to be done--what might be hoped--what
must be feared--for her. Then, the terrible story of the fire; and all
about it, that could only be got at by the hundred bits of question and
answer, and the turning over and over, and repetition, whereby we do the
best--the feeble best--we can, to satisfy great askings and deep
sympathies that never can be anyhow made palpable in words.
And, last of all--just with the good-night kiss--Faith and her mother
had had it all before, in the first minutes they were left alone
together--Mr. Gartney said to his daughter:
"You are quite certain, now, Faith?"
"Quite certain, father"; Faith answered, low, with downcast eyes, as she
stood before him.
Her father laid his hand upon her head.
"You are a good girl; and I don't blame you; yet I thought you would
have been safe and happy, so."
"I am safe and happy here at home," said Faith.
"Home is in no hurry to spare you, my child."
And Faith felt taken back to daughterhood once more.
Margaret Rushleigh had been to see her, before this. It was a painful
visit, with the mingling of old love and new restraint; and the effort,
on either side, to show that things, except in the one particular, were
still unchanged.
Faith felt how true it was that "nothing could go back, precisely, to
what it was before."
There was another visit, a day or two after the reassembling of the
family at Cross Corners. This was to say farewell. New plans had been
made. It would take some time to restore the mills to working order, and
Mr. Rushleigh had not quite resolved whether to sell them out as they
were, or to retain the property. Mrs. Rushleigh wished Margaret to join
her at Newport, whither the Saratoga party was to go within the coming
week. Then there was talk of another trip to Europe. Margaret had never
been abroad. It was very likely they would all go out in October.
Paul's name was never mentioned.
Faith realized, painfully, how her little hand had been upon the motive
power of much that was all ended, now.
Two eminent medical men had been summoned from Mishaumok, and had held
consultation with Dr. Wasgatt upon Miss Henderson's case. It had been
decided to postpone the surgical operation for two or three weeks.
Meanwhile, she was simply to be kept comfortable and cheerful,
strengthened with fresh air, and nourishing food, and some slight
tonics.
Faith was at the old house, constantly. Her aunt craved her presence,
and drew her more and more to herself. The strong love, kept down by a
stiff, unbending manner, so, for years--resisting almost its own
growth--would no longer be denied or concealed. Faith Gartney had
nestled herself into the very core of this true, upright heart,
unpersuadable by anything but clear judgment and inflexible conscience.
"I had a beautiful dream last night, Miss Faith," said Glory, one
morning, when Faith came over and found the busy handmaiden with her
churn upon the doorstone, "about Miss Henderson. I thought she was all
well, and strong, and she looked so young, and bright, and pleasant! And
she told me to make a May Day. And we had it out here in the field. And
everybody had a crown; and everybody was queen. And the little children
danced round the old apple tree, and climbed up, and rode horseback in
the branches. And Miss Henderson was out there, dressed in white, and
looking on. It don't seem so--just to say it; but I couldn't tell you
how beautiful it was!"
"Dreams are strange things," said Faith, thoughtfully. "It seems as if
they were sent to us, sometimes--as if we really had a sort of life in
them."
"Don't they?" cried Glory, eagerly. "Why, Miss Faith, I've dreamed on,
and on, sometimes, a whole story out! And, after all, we're asleep
almost as much as we're awake. Why isn't it just as real?"
"I had a dream that night of the fire, Glory. I never shall forget it. I
went to sleep there, on the sofa. And it seemed as if I were on the top
of a high, steep cliff, with no way to get down. And all at once, there
was fire behind me--a burning mountain! And it came nearer, and nearer,
till it scorched my very feet; and there was no way down. And then--it
was so strange!--I knew Mr. Armstrong was coming. And two hands took
me--just as his did, afterwards--and I felt so safe! And then I woke,
and it all happened. When he came, I felt as if I had called him."
The dasher of the churn was still, and Glory stood, breathless, in a
white excitement, gazing into Faith's eyes.
"And so you did, Miss Faith! Somehow--through the dreamland--you
certainly did!"
Faith went in to her aunt, and Glory churned and pondered.
Were these two to go on, dreaming, and calling to each other "through
the dreamland," and never, in the daylight, and their waking hours,
speak out?
This thought, in vague shape, turned itself, restlessly, in Glory's
brain.
Other brains revolved a like thought, also.
"Somebody talked about a 'ripe pear,' once. I wonder if that one isn't
ever going to fall!"
Nurse Sampson wondered thus, as she settled Miss Henderson in her
armchair before the window, and they saw Roger Armstrong and Faith
Gartney walk up the field together in the sunset light.
"I suppose it wouldn't take much of a jog to do it. But, maybe, it's as
well to leave it to the Lord's sunshine. He'll ripen it, if He sees
fit."
"It's a pretty picture, anyhow. There's the new moon exactly over their
right shoulders, if they'd only turn their heads to look at it. I don't
think much of signs; but, somehow, I always _do_ like to have that one
come right!"
"Well, it's there, whether they've found it out, or not," replied Aunt
Faith.
Glory sat on the flat doorstone. She had the invariable afternoon
knitting work in her hand; but hand and work had fallen to her lap, and
her eyes were away upon the glittering, faint crescent of the moon, that
pierced the golden mist of sunset. Close by, the evening star had filled
his chalice of silver splendor.
"The star and the moon only see each other. I can see both. It is
better."
She had come to the feeling of Roger Armstrong's sermon. To receive
consciously, as she had through her whole, life intuitively and
unwittingly, all beauty of all being about her into the secret beauty of
her own. She could be glad with the gladness of the whole world.
The two came up, and Glory rose, and stood aside.
"You have had thoughts, to-night, Glory," said the minister. "Where have
they been?"
"Away, there," answered Glory, pointing to the western sky.
They turned, and followed her gesture; and from up there, at their
right, beyond, came down the traditional promise of the beautiful young
moon.
Glory had shown it them.
"And I've been thinking, besides," said Glory, "about that dream of
yours, Miss Faith. I've thought of it all day. Please tell it to Mr.
Armstrong?"
And Glory disappeared down the long passage to the kitchen, and left
them standing there, together. She went straight to the tin baker before
the fire, and lifted the cover, to see if her biscuits were ready for
tea. Then she seated herself upon a little bench that stood against the
chimney-side, and leaned her head against the bricks, and looked down
into the glowing coals.
"It was put into my head to do it!" she said, breathlessly, to herself.
"I hope it wasn't ridiculous!"
So she sat, and gazed on, into the coals. _They_ were out there in the
sunset, with the new moon and the bright star above them in the saffron
depths.
They stood alone, except for each other, in this still, radiant beauty
of all things.
Miss Henderson's window was around a projection of the rambling,
irregular structure, which made the angle wherein the pleasant old
doorstone lay.
"May I have your dream, Miss Faith?"
She need not be afraid to tell a simple dream. Any more, at this moment,
than when she told it to Glory, that morning, on that very spot. Why did
she feel, that if she should speak a syllable of it now, the truth that
lay behind it would look out, resistless, through its veil? That she
could not so keep down its spirit-meaning, that it should not flash,
electric, from her soul to his?
"It was only--that night," she said, tremulously. "It seemed very
strange. Before the fire, I had the dream. It was a dream of fire and
danger--danger that I could not escape from. And I held out my
hands--and I found you there--and you saved me. Oh, Mr. Armstrong! As you
_did_ save me, afterwards!"
Roger Armstrong turned, and faced her. His deep, earnest eyes, lit with
a new, strange radiance, smote upon hers, and held them spellbound with
their glance.
"I, too, dreamed that night," said he, "of an unknown peril to you. You
beckoned me. I sprang from out that dream, and rushed into the
night--until I found you!"
Their two souls met, in that brief recital, and knew that they had met
before. That, through the dreamland, there had been that call and
answer.
Faith neither spoke, nor stirred, nor trembled. This supreme moment of
her life held her unmoved in its own mightiness.
Roger Armstrong held out both his hands.
"Faith! In the sight of God, I believe you belong to me!"
At that solemn word, of force beyond all claim of a mere mortal love,
Faith stretched her hands in answer, and laid them into his, and bowed
her head above them.
"In the sight of God, I belong to you!"
So she gave herself. So she was taken. As God's gift, to the heart that
had been earthly desolate so long.
There was no dread, no shrinking, in that moment. A perfect love cast
out all fear.
And the new moon and the evening star shone down together in an absolute
peace.