_A TALK_.
The next day began for Esther quite in its wonted wise, and it will be
no harm to see how that was. She was up very early, a long while before
the sun; and after a somewhat careful dressing, for it was not in
Esther's nature to do anything imperfectly, she went down-stairs, to
her father's little study or dwelling room. It was free for her use at
this time of day; the colonel took a late breakfast, and was never up
long before it. This had grown to be his invalid habit; in the early
days of his life and of military service, no doubt it had been
different. The room was empty and still at this hour; even Mrs. Barker
was not yet astir, and a delightful sense of privacy and security
encompassed the temporary occupant. The weather was still warm; no fire
would be needed till it was time for the colonel's toast. Moving like a
mouse, or better, like a gentle domestic spirit, Esther lit a lamp,
opened a window to let the morning air in, and sat down to her book.
Do you think it was philosophy, or science, or languages, or school
work? Nay, it was something which with Esther went before all these,
and if need were would have excluded all of them. She had time for them
too, as things were, but this must come first. She must 'draw water
from the wells of salvation,' before she felt freshened up for the
rather weary encounters and dry routine of school life; she must feel
the Rock under her feet, and breathe the air of heaven a bit before she
ventured forth into the low-lying grounds and heavy vapours of earthly
business and intercourse; and she must have her armour well on, and
bright, before she dared to meet the possible dangers and temptations
which might come to her in the course of the day. It is true, this day
was a free day, but that made no difference. Being at home had its
trials and difficulties as well as being abroad.
But drawing from those wells, and breathing that air, Esther thought
nothing of trials or difficulties; and, in matter of fact, for her they
hardly seemed to exist, or were perceived, as it were, dimly, and their
contact scarce felt. I suppose it is true in all warfares, that a
well-armed and alert soldier is let alone by the foes that would have
swallowed him up if he had been defenceless or not giving heed. And if
you could have seen Esther's face during that hour, you would
understand that all possible enemies were, at least for the time, as
hushed as the lions in Daniel's den; so glad, so grave, so pure and
steadfast, so enjoying, was the expression which lay upon it. Reading
and praying--praying and reading--an hour good went by. Then Esther
rose up, ready for the work of the day.
She threw open all the windows and put out her lamp. Then she gave both
the rooms a careful cleaning and dusting and putting in order; set the
table in the one for breakfast, and laid the fire in the other, to be
lit whenever her father might desire it. All this done and in
readiness, she sat down again to study. This time it was study of a
lower grade; partly preparation for school work, partly reading for her
own advancement, though there was not much time for this latter. It was
long past eight, and Mrs. Barker came with the chafing-dish of red
coals and the tea-kettle. She stood by while Esther made the tea,
looking on or meditating; and then began to blow the coals in the
chafing-dish. She blew the coals and looked at Esther.
'Miss Esther,' she began, 'did master say anything about the visitor
that came to see him yesterday?'
'Not much. Why? He said it was somebody on business.'
'Well, mum, he didn't look like that sort o' pusson at all.'
'Why not? Any sort of person might come on business, you know.'
'True, mum, but this wasn't that sort o' pusson. If Christopher had
opened the door for him, he'd ha' knowed; but my eyes is that poor,
when I'm lookin' out into the light, I can't seem to see nothin' that's
nearer me. But howsomever, mum, what I did see of him, somehow, it put
me in mind of Seaforth.'
'Seaforth! Why? Who did you think it was?'
'I am sure, mum, I don't know. I couldn't see good, with the light
behind him, and he standin' in the doorway. And I can't say how it was,
but what he made me think of, it was Seaforth, mum.'
'I am afraid you have been thinking of Seaforth, Barker,' said Esther,
with half a sigh. 'It could not have been anybody we used to know. Papa
went there, you know, last summer, to see old friends, or to see what
had become of them; and Mr. and Mrs. Dallas were gone to England, to
their son, and with them the young lady he is to marry. I daresay he
may be married by this time, or just going to be married. He has quite
forgotten us, you may be sure. I do not expect ever to see him again.
Was this man yesterday young or old?'
'Young, mum, and tall and straight, and very personable. I'd like to
see his face!--but it may be as you say.'
Perhaps Esther would have put some further question to her father at
breakfast about his yesterday's visit, but as it happened she had other
things to think of. The colonel was in a querulous mood; not altogether
uncommon in these days, but always very trying to Esther. When he
seemed contented and easy, she felt repaid for all labours or
deprivations; but when that state of things failed, and he made himself
uncomfortable about his surroundings, there would come a miserable _cui
bono_ feeling. If _he_ were not satisfied, then what did she work for?
and what was gained by it all? This morning she was just about to put a
question, when Colonel Gainsborough began.
'Is this the best butter one can get in this town?'
'Papa, I do not know!' said Esther, brought back from yesterday to
to-day with a sudden pull. 'It is Mrs. Bounder's butter, and we have
always found it very good; and she lets us have it at a lower rate than
we could get it in the stores.'
'Nothing is good that is got "at a low rate." I do not believe in that
plan. It is generally a cheat in the end.'
'It has been warm weather, you know, papa; and it is difficult to keep
things so nice without a cool cellar.'
'That is one of the benefits of living in Major Street. It ought to be
called "Minor,"--for we are "minus" nearly everything, I think.'
What could Esther say?
'My dear, what sort of bread is this?'
'It is from the baker's, papa. Is it not good?'
'Baker's bread is never good; not fit to nourish life upon. How comes
it we have baker's bread? Barker knows what I think of it.'
'I suppose she was unable to bake yesterday.'
'And of course to-day her bread will be too fresh to be eatable! My
dear, cannot you bring a little system into her ways?'
'She does the very best she can, papa.'
'Yes, yes, I know that; as far as the intention goes; but all such
people want a head over them. They know nothing whatever about system.
By the way, can't she fry her bacon without burning it? This is done to
a crisp.'
'Papa, I am very sorry! I did not mean to give you a burnt piece. Mine
is very good. Let me find you a better bit.'
'It doesn't matter!' said the colonel, giving his plate an unloving
shove. 'A man lives and dies, all the same, whether his bacon is burnt
or not. I suppose nothing matters! Are you going to that party, at
Mrs.-- I forget her name?'
'I think not, papa.'
'Why not?'
Esther hesitated.
'Why not? Don't you like to go?'
'Yes, sir. I like it very well.'
'Then why don't you go? At least you can give a reason.'
'There are more reasons than one,' said Esther. She was extremely
unwilling to reveal either of them.
'Well, go on. If you know them, you can tell them to me. What are they?'
'Papa, it is really of no consequence, and I do not mind in the least;
but in truth my old silk dress has been worn till it is hardly fit to
go anywhere in.'
'Can't you get another?'
'I should not think it right, papa. We want the money for other things.'
'What things?'
Did he not know! Esther drew breath to answer.
'Papa, there are the taxes, which I agreed with Mrs. Bounder I would
pay, you know, as part of the rent. The money is ready, and that is a
great deal more pleasure than a dress and a party would be to me. And
then, winter is coming on, and we must lay in our fuel. I think to do
it now, while it is cheaper.'
'And so, for that, you are to stay at home and see nobody!'
'Isn't it right, papa? and whatever is right is always pleasant in the
end.'
'Deucedly pleasant!' said the colonel grimly, and rising from the
table. 'I am going to my room, Esther, and I do not wish to be called
to see any body. If business comes, you must attend to it.'
'Called to see anybody'! Who ever came to that house, on business or
otherwise, but at the most rare intervals! And now one business visit
had just come yesterday, there might not be another in months. Esther
looked a little sorrowful, for her father's expression, most unwonted
from his mouth, showed his irritation to be extreme; but what had
irritated him? However, she was somewhat accustomed to this sort of
demonstration, which nevertheless always grieved her; and she was glad
that she had escaped telling her father her second reason. The truth
was, Esther's way of life was so restricted and monotonous
outwardly--she lived so by herself and to herself--that the stimulus
and refreshment of a social occasion like that one when she had met
Miss Frere a year ago was almost too pleasant. It made Esther feel a
little too sensibly how alone and shut out from human intercourse was
the nobler part of herself. A little real intellectual converse and
contact was almost too enjoyable; it was a mental breath of fresh air,
in which life seemed to change and become a different thing; and
then--we all know how close air seems after fresh--the routine of
school teaching, and the stillness and uniformity of her home
existence, seemed to press upon her painfully, till after a time she
became wonted to it again. So, on the whole, she thought it not amiss
that her old party dress had done all the service it decently could,
and that she had no means to get another. And now, after a few moments'
grave shadow on her face, all shadows cleared away, as they usually
did, and she set herself to the doing of what this holiday at home gave
her to do. There was mending, making up accounts, a drawing to finish
for a model; after that, if she could get it all done in time, there
might be a bit of blessed reading in a new book that her old friend
Miss Fairbairn had lent her. Esther set her face bravely to her day's
work.
The morning was not far advanced, and the mending was not finished,
when the unwonted door-knocker sounded again. This time the door was
opened by some one whom Pitt did not know, and who did not know him;
for Mrs. Bounder had come into town, and, as Barker's hands were just
in her bread, had volunteered to go to the door for her. Pitt was
ushered into the little parlour, in which, as nobody was there, he had
leisure to make several observations. Yesterday he had had no leisure
for them. Now he looked about him. That the fortunes of the family must
have come down very much it was evident. Such a street, in the first
place; then this little bit of a house; and then, there was more than
that; he could see tokens unmistakeable of scantness of means. The
drugget was well worn, had been darned in two places--very neatly, but
darned it was, and the rest of it threatened breaches. The carpet
beyond the drugget was old and faded, and the furniture?--Pitt wondered
if it could be the same furniture, it looked so different here. There
was the colonel's couch, however; he recognised that, although in its
chintz cover, which was no longer new, but faded like the carpet. Books
on the table were certainly the colonel's books; but no pictures were
on the walls, no pretty trifles lying about; nothing was there that
could testify of the least margin of means for anything that was not
strictly necessary. Yet it was neat and comfortable; but Pitt felt that
expenditures were very closely measured, and no latitude allowed to
ease or to fancy. He stood a few minutes, looking and taking all this
in; and then the inner door opened, and he forgot it instantly. At one
stroke, as it were, the mean little room was transformed into a sacred
temple, and here was the priestess. The two young people stood a second
or two silent, facing each other.
But Esther knew him at once; and more, as she met the frank, steadfast
eyes that she had known and trusted so long ago, she trusted them at
once again and perfectly. There was no mistaking either their truth or
their kindness. In spite of his new connections and alienated life, her
old friend had not forgotten her. She extended her hand, with a flash
of surprise and pleasure in her face, which was not a flash but a dawn,
for it grew and brightened into warmer kindliness.
'Pitt Dallas!' she said. 'It is really you!'
The two hands met and clasped and lay in each other, but Pitt had no
words for what went on within him. With the first sight of Esther he
knew that he had met his fate. Here was all that he had left six or
seven years ago, how changed! The little head, so well set on its
shoulders, with its wealth of beautifully ordered hair; those wonderful
grave, soft, sweet, thoughtful eyes; the character of the quiet mouth;
the pure dignity and grace of the whole creature,--all laid a spell
upon the man. He found no words to speak audibly; but in his mind words
heaped on words, and he was crying to himself, 'Oh, my beauty! Oh, my
gazelle! My fair saint! My lily! My Queen!' What right he had to the
personal pronoun does not appear; however, we know that appropriation
is an instinct of humanity for that which it likes. And it may also be
noted, that Pitt never thought of calling Esther a _rose_. Nor would
any one else. That was not her symbol. Roses are sweet, sweeter than
anything, and yielding in fairness to nothing; but--let me be pardoned
for saying it--they are also common. And Esther was rather something
apart, rare. If I liken her to a lily, I do not mean those fair white
lilies which painters throw at the feet of Franciscan monks, and
dedicate also to the Virgin,--Annunciation lilies, so called. They are
common too, and rather specially emblems of purity. What I am thinking
of, and what Pitt was thinking of, is, on the contrary, one of those
unique exotic lilies, which are as much wonders of colour as marvels of
grace; apart, reserved, pure, also lofty, and delicate to the last
degree; queening it over all the rest of the flowers around, not so
much by official pre-eminence of beauty as by the superiority of the
spiritual nature. A difference internal and ineffable, which sets them
of necessity aside of the crowd and above it.
Pitt felt all this in a breath, which I have taken so many words
clumsily to set forth. He, as I said, took no words, and only gave such
expression to his thoughts as he could at the moment by bowing very low
over Esther's hand and kissing it. Something about the action hurt
Esther; she drew her hand away.
'It is a great surprise,' she said quietly. 'Won't you sit down?'
'The surprise ought to have been, that you did not see me before; not
that I am here now.'
'I got over _that_ surprise a great while ago,' said Esther. 'At least
I thought I did; but it comes back to me now that I see you. How was
it? How could it be?'
In answer to which, Pitt gave her a detailed account of his various
efforts in past years to discover the retreat of his old friends. This
was useful to him; he got his breath, as it were, which the sight of
Esther had taken away; was himself again.
Esther listened silently, with perfect faith in the speaker and his
statements, with a little undefined sort of regretfulness. So, then,
Pitt need not have been lost to them, if only they could have been
found! Just what that thought meant she had no time then to inquire.
She hardly interrupted him at all.
'What do you suppose became of your letters?' she asked when he had
done. For Pitt had not said that they went to his father's hands.
'I suppose they shared the fate of all letters uncalled for; if not the
dead-letter office, the fire.'
'It was not very strange that you could not find us when you came to
New York. We really troubled the post office very little, having after
a while nothing to expect from it, and that was the only place where
you could hope to get a clue.' Neither would Esther mention Mr. Dallas.
With a woman's curious fine discernment, she had seen that all was not
right in that quarter; indeed, had suspected it long ago.
'But you got some letters from me?' Pitt went on, 'while you were in
Seaforth? One or two, I know.'
'Yes, several. Oh yes! while we were in Seaforth.'
'And I got answers. Do you remember one long letter you wrote me, the
second year after I went?'
'Yes,' she said, without looking at him.
'Esther, that letter was worth everything to me. It was like a sunbeam
coming out between misty clouds and showing things for a moment in
their true colours. I never forgot it. I never could forget it, though
I fought for some years with the truth it revealed to me. I believed
what you told me, and so I knew what I ought to do; but I struggled
against my convictions. I knew from that time that it was the happiest
thing and the worthiest thing to be a saint; all the same, I wanted to
be a sinner. I wanted to follow my own way and be my own master. I
wanted to distinguish myself in my profession, and rise in the world,
and tower over other men; and I liked all the delights of life as well
as other people do, and was unwilling to give up a life of
self-indulgence, which I had means to gratify. Esther, I fought hard! I
fought for years--can you believe it?--before I could make up my mind.'
'And now?' she said, looking at him.
'Now? Now,' said he, lowering his voice a little,--'now I have come to
know the truth of what you told me; I have learned to know Christ; and
I know, as you know, that all things that may be desired are not to be
compared with that knowledge. I understand what Paul meant when he said
he had suffered the loss of all things for it and counted them less
than nothing. So do I; so would I; so have I, as far as the giving up
of myself and them to their right owner goes. _That_ is done.'
Esther was very glad; she knew she ought to be very glad, and she was;
and yet, gladness was not precisely the uppermost feeling that
possessed her. She did not know what in the world could make her think
of tears at that moment; but there was a strange sensation as if, had
she been alone, she would have liked to cry. No shadow of such a
softness appeared, however.
'What decided you at last?' she said softly.
'I can scarce tell you,' he answered. 'I was busy studying the matter,
arguing for and against; and then I saw of a sudden that I was lighting
a lost battle; that my sense and reason and conscience were all gained
over, and only my will held out. Then I gave up fighting any more.'
'You came up to the subject on a different side from what I did,'
Esther remarked.
'And you, Esther? have you been always as happy as you were when you
wrote that letter?'
'Yes,' she said quietly. 'More happy.' But she did not look up.
'The happiness in your letter was the sunbeam that cleared up
everything for me. Now I have talked enough; tell me of yourself and
your father.'
'There is not much to tell,' said Esther, with that odd quietness. She
felt somehow oppressed. 'We are living in the old fashion; have been
living so all along.'
'But-- _Quite_ in the old fashion?' he said, with a swift glance at the
little room where they were sitting. 'It does not look so, Esther.'
'This is not so pleasant a place as we were in when we first came to
New York,' Esther confessed. 'That was very pleasant.'
'Why did you change?'
'It was necessary,' she said, with a smile. 'You may as well know it;
papa lost money.'
'How?'
'He invested the money from the sale of the place at Seaforth in some
stocks that gave out somehow. He lost it all. So then we had nothing
but the stipend from England; and I think papa somehow lost part of
that, or was obliged to take part of it to meet obligations.'
'And you?'
'We did very well,' said Esther, with another smile. 'We are doing very
well now. We are out of debt, and that is everything. And I think papa
is pretty comfortable.'
'And Esther?'
'Esther is happy.'
'But--I should think--forgive me!--that this bit of a house would
hardly hold you.'
'See how mistaken you are! We have two rooms unused.'
Pitt's eye roved somewhat restlessly over the one in which they were,
as he remarked,--
'I never comprehended just why you went away from Seaforth.'
'For my education, I believe.'
'You were getting a very good education when I was there!'
'When _you_ were there,' repeated Esther, smiling; but then she went on
quickly: 'Papa thought he could not give me all the advantages he
wished, if we stayed in Seaforth. So we came to New York. And now, you
see, I am able to provide for him. The education is turning to account.'
'How?' asked Pitt suddenly.
'I help out his small income by giving lessons.'
'_You_, giving lessons? Not that, Esther!'
'Why not?' she said quietly. 'The thing given one to do is the thing to
do, you know; and this certainly was given me. And by means of that we
get along nicely.'
Again Pitt's eye glanced over the scanty little apartment. What sort of
'getting along' was it which kept them here?
'What do you teach?' he asked, speaking out of a confusion of thoughts
the one thing that occurred which it was safe to say.
'Drawing, and music, and some English branches.'
'Do you _like_ it?'
She hesitated. 'I am very thankful to have it to do. I do not fancy
that teaching for money is just the same as teaching for pleasure. But
I am very glad to be able to do it. Before that, there was a time when
I did not know just what was going to become of us. Now I am very
happy.'
Pitt could not at the moment speak all his thoughts. Moreover, there
was something about Esther that perplexed him. She was so unmovedly
quiet in her manner. It was kind, no doubt, and pleasant, and pleased;
and yet, there was a smooth distance between him and her that troubled
him. He did not know how to get rid of it. It was so smooth, there was
nothing to take hold of; while it was so distant, or put her rather at
such a distance, that all Pitt's newly aroused feelings were stimulated
to the utmost, both by the charm and by the difficulty. How exquisite
was this soft dignity and calm! but to the man who was longing to be
permitted to clasp his arms round her it was somewhat aggravating.
'What has become of Christopher?' he asked after a pause.
'Oh, Christopher is happy!' said Esther, with a smile that was only too
frank and free. Pitt wished she would have shown a little embarrassment
or consciousness. 'Christopher is happy. He has become a householder
and a market-gardener, and, above all, a married man. Married a
market-gardener's widow, and set up for himself.'
'What do you do without him?'
'Oh, we could not afford him now,' said Esther, with another smile. 'It
was very good for us, almost as good for us as for him. Christopher has
become a man of substance. We hire this house of him, or rather of his
wife.'
'Are the two not one, then?'
Esther laughed. 'Yes,' she said; 'but you know, _which_ one it is
depends on circumstances.'
And she went on to tell about her first meeting with the present Mrs.
Bounder, and of all the subsequent intercourse and long chain of
kindnesses, to which Pitt listened eagerly though with a some what
distracted mind. At the end of her story Esther rose.