INTERCESSION.
A stifled cry had interrupted him. Helen was pressing her handkerchief
to her mouth. She rose and ran from him. Wingfold stood alarmed
and irresolute. She had not gone many steps, however, when her pace
slackened, her knees gave way, and she dropped senseless on the grass.
Wingfold ran to the house for water. Rachel hastened to her assistance,
and Polwarth followed. It was some time before they succeeded in
reviving her.
When at length the colour began to return a little to her cheek,
Polwarth dropped on his knees at her feet. Wingfold in his ministrations
was already kneeling on one side of her, and Rachel now kneeled on the
other. Then Polwarth said, in his low and husky, yet not altogether
unmelodious voice,
“Life eternal, this lady of thine hath a sore heart and we cannot help
her. Thou art Help, O mighty Love. They who know thee best rejoice in
thee most. As thy sun that shines over our heads, as thy air that flows
into our bodies, thou art above, around, and in us; thou art in her
heart: Oh speak to her there; let her know thy will, and give her
strength to do it, O Father of Jesus Christ! Amen.”
When Helen opened her eyes, she saw only the dark leaves of an arbutus
over her, and knew nothing beyond a sense of utter misery and weakness,
with an impulse to rise and run. With an effort she moved her head a
little, and then she saw the three kneeling forms, the clergyman with
bowed head, and the two dwarfs with shining upturned faces: she thought
she was dead and they were kneeling about her corpse. Her head dropped
with a weary sigh of relief, she lay passive, and heard the dwarf’s
prayer. Then she knew that she was not dead, and the disappointment
was bitter. But she thought of Leopold, and was consoled. After a few
minutes of quiet, they helped her into the house, and laid her on a sofa
in the parlour.
“Don’t be frightened, dear lady,” said the little woman; “nobody shall
come near you. We will watch you as if you were the queen. I am going to
get some tea for you.”
But the moment she left the room, Helen got up. She could not endure
a moment longer in the place. There was a demon at her brother’s ear,
whispering to him to confess, to rid himself of his torture by the aid
of the law: she must rush home and drive him away. She took her hat in
her hand, opened the door softly, and ere Rachel could say a word, had
flitted through the kitchen, and was amongst the trees on the opposite
side of the road. Rachel ran to the garden to her uncle and Wingfold.
They looked at each other for a moment in silence.
“I will follow her,” said Wingfold. “She may faint again. If she does I
shall whistle.”
He followed, and kept her in sight until she was safe in her aunt’s
garden.
“What IS to be done?” he said, returning in great trouble. “I do not
think I made any blunder, but there she is gone in tenfold misery! I
wish I could tell you what passed, but that of course I cannot.”
“Of course not,” returned Polwarth. “But the fact of her leaving you
so is no sign that you said the wrong thing,--rather the contrary. When
people seek advice, it is too often in the hope of finding the adviser
side with their second familiar self, instead of their awful first self,
of which they know so little. Do not be anxious. You have done your
best. Wait for what will come next.”