Adam had to go to the cane-fields across the range, and one of the
calves needed Robin's ministrations, so she could not go with him. He
started before the stars were set, that he might be back before night,
and returned twice to kiss her before he finally got away.
Left with the long day ahead of her, restless and lonely, she gave the
small house a thorough sweeping and cleaning. She had finished her
dusting, and was rearranging the furniture, when she shoved back the
long chest and struck the framework of the window with some little
violence. It was enough to jar a rusty key from its place above the
casement, and it dropped upon the chest with a kind of ominous clink
as it struck the lock, and fell upon the floor. She took it up and
looked at it curiously, and then, kneeling, fitted it in the lock.
"I wonder," she mused, "what I shall set free if I open this box; is
it Pandora's? But there was nothing left in hers but hope, and that is
all we need. How happy we could be if we dared to hope!"
She turned the key with a wrench, and the hasp shot from its place.
The chest was nearly empty, there being but one parcel in it. This was
done up carefully in a square of linen, pinned here and there. On the
bottom of the chest were several folds of white paper. Very slowly she
lifted out the parcel and opened it. The treasure was a gown; it was
of a heavy, satiny weave of linen, very yellow and creased. The bodice
was made without sleeves or neck, and the skirt was a kind of kilt
plaited affair; the whole effect was Greek, and, simple as it was, it
seemed beautiful to Robin after her year of dark, utilitarian
clothing. There was white underwear, and even white stockings, and a
pair of slippers.
Robin drew a long breath of delight, and laying all her finery upon
the table placed the irons over the tripod that she might smooth the
wrinkles out, and set about making the necessary alterations at once.
She worked rapidly in spite of her excitement, but the hours slipped
away.
"I must try it on," she said, "before Adam comes; there will be plenty
of time, and then I will put it away until--"
Shroud or wedding-gown? She did not finish the sentence. She dressed
slowly; but when she had finished she was startled to see that the
image in the glass was so much fairer than she had ever thought
herself. Suddenly she discovered, with something like a pang, that
there was no belt, and hurried back to the chest to look again.
As she twitched out the remaining layer of paper in her eagerness, a
long white satin ribbon dropped from it, and a little heap of fine
muslin lay on the floor of the chest. She caught up the ribbon with an
exclamation of delight and adjusted it with trembling fingers. Her
flushed cheeks and radiant eyes, the long heavy braid of hair, her
round white arms and shoulders, made her a vision of delight indeed.
When she had quite completed her toilet, she sat down by the chest to
inspect its last secret. As she took up the pile of lace and muslin,
her heart seemed to stop beating for a moment. She had forgotten. Only
the hands of the prospective mother could have fashioned such dainty
garments as these. Everywhere the eternal question. All her
perplexities had fallen from her in the joy of dressing herself as
Adam's bride should be decked, howbeit Adam saw her not, but the great
problem of life confronted her still.
She put the tiny garments down on the chest, closed now, having given
up its mystery, its hope of the world, and knelt by it, touching them
with loving, reverent fingers till the tears blinded her, and she
gathered up the clothes and kissed them as she had never kissed Adam,
as she had never kissed anything in her life. After awhile the tears
ceased to flow, and there stole over her a gracious calmness and then
the slumber of a child.
She did not hear Adam, nor see him, until he passed the window and
stood in the doorway, all the sunset glow back of him. Then she
started to her feet, her arms closing instinctively over the tiny
garments she had gathered to her breast, as she stepped back, her face
flushing and paling all in a moment.
He stood as if he dared not move lest the vision vanish, but heart and
soul looked out of his eyes.
"Eve," he said, "Eve!"
She turned, and he sprang toward her with an eager cry of joy.
"Eve," he repeated, "Eve, my love, my soul! You have decided; you are
going to be my wife. Oh, do not torture yourself or me any longer with
doubts that did not enter the mind of God Almighty when He made us
what we are. You are my world, dearer than life, more necessary than
the air we breathe. We are only one being, separated God knows how
long, but united now forever. Nothing can part us again."
He stopped and held out his arms to her. He had taken her into their
shelter very often, but now he wanted her to come to him and nestle
against his heart of her own will. She took a single step, stretching
out her arms to him with a gesture of infinite trust and abandon. The
long sheer dress fluttered down to the floor, and lay between them.
They stood as still as if frozen.
"Dare you cross it?" she said, and hid her face in her hands.
He stooped and picked it up, and looked at it as a man might look at
the soul of something of which he had never seen the body. He had a
sense of his own strength, the glory of his manhood, and a vision of
his weakness. She watched him breathlessly. He put the garment down on
the table and smoothed it out gently. There was in his face the
combined look of a man who sees the cradle and the coffin of his
firstborn.
She went and stood beside him, touching the dress timidly. He covered
her hand with his own.
"My wife," he said, "we know all there is to say, all there is to
risk. We must do what is right. I am going now to set everything at
liberty. It is nearly sundown; you will meet me at the rock in half an
hour. If we give each other our right hands, we will fear no evil, not
though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, for the love
in our hearts is deathless, and though the sun sets, it is to rise
upon another shore. Death is only an incident, but life is eternal."
"We could not choose differently?" And though she spoke with the
upward inflection it was not a question.
"No, it would be quite impossible for either of us to desire what the
other did not. And much as we love each other, we will know we have
loved our race and honored God first in our decision. To live, if we
live, not for ourselves alone, but for the good of our kind; to
renounce love, the unspeakable gift, if need be, for the sake of what
seems to us right."
"And if I give you my left hand--?"
The sudden flash of light in his eyes half blinded her. He took both
her hands in his and looked deep in her beautiful unfathomable eyes.
"Then the morning stars will sing together, and all the sons of God
shall shout for joy."
The sun dropped lower and lower over the high sharp peaks at the west,
covering their white summits with a flood of golden glory. The sullen
roar of the ocean seemed hushed, and across its wide expanse the last
beams of the setting sun made radiant pathways of crimson and gold. A
lark far up in the heavens sang its few clear notes as it hastened
homeward. Far away on the mountain-side the cattle lay placidly, and a
mare whinnied to her colt. The air was soft and warm and drowsy with
the scent of many flowers, the sounds of nestling birds, the drone of
an insect here and there, the cheerful call of the crickets.
Adam stood by the rock and waited for her. She came toward him, all
the light of the world seeming to fall upon her and circle her in a
halo that transformed her white draperies, and glistened like a
million gems in the sparse grass about her feet.
They made each other no greeting, but stood and looked into each
other's eyes, grave and sweet with the exaltation of their purpose.
And, standing so, they clasped hands, and the word they spoke was the
same, for they by searching had found out God.