There was no more riding after that--the weather grew too cold, and
Mattabeeset was put off till spring; but with walks and talks and
reading aloud, Göthe's maxim was well carried out. For there is music
that needs no composer but Peace, and fireside groups that are not bad
pictures in stormy weather. And so December began to check off its
short days with busy fingers.
There came a sudden interruption to all this, except December's part of
it. For a letter arrived from Miss Delia Danforth, at Pequot, begging
that Faith would come and spend a little time with her. Miss Delia was
very unwell, and suffering and alone, with the exception of her
brother's French wife; and she wrote with longing desire to see Faith.
Mr. Danforth had been some years dead, and the widow and the sister who
had lived so long together with him, since his death had kept their old
household life, in a very quiet way, without him. But now Miss Danforth
longed for some of her own kindred, or had a special liking or desire
for Faith's company, for she prayed her to come. And it was not a call
that Faith herself a moment doubted about answering. Mrs. Derrick's
willingness lingered, for various natural reasons; but that too
followed. It was clear that Faith ought not to refuse.
The day before she was to go, Mrs. Derrick made her self unusually busy
and tired, so as to spare Faith's study-time; and thus it fell out,
that when night came and prayers were over, Mrs. Derrick went straight
to bed; partly from fatigue, partly to be ready for an early start next
day; for she was to drive Faith over to Pequot. No such need or
inducements sent Faith to bed; and the two students planned a longer
evening of work than common, to anticipate lost time. But when the
hours were about half spent, Cindy came to the door and called out,
"Miss Faith!"--Faith left her book and went to the door, which she held
open.
"There was a boy come to-night," said Cindy, "from that old starvation
creatur' down by Barley point, and he says she's more in a box than
ever. Haint a crumb of bread for breakfast--nor supper neither, for
that."
"Is the boy here now?"
"Why sakes no!" said Cindy. "He come while you was to supper. I s'pose
I might ha' telled ye before, but then again I was busy bakin'
cakes--and I'm free to confess I forgot. And prayers always does turn
everything out of ray head. I can't guess how I thought of it now. Mr.
Skip's away to-night, too," said Cindy in conclusion. Faith shut the
door behind her.
"It's too far for you to go alone. Can you find somebody to go with
you, Cindy? I'll put up a basket of things for her."
"Aint a soul in sight--" said Cindy. "I'd as lieves go the hull way
alone as to snoop round, hunting folks."
"Then Cindy, if you'll get ready I'll go with you. She must have
something."
Cindy looked at her. "Guess you better get fixed first, Miss Faith.
'Taint hardly worth my while, I reckon. Who shouldn't we have after us!"
"Just have your shawl and bonnet ready, Cindy, will you?" said Faith
gravely,--"and I'll be ready in a very few minutes."
She went with business speed to pantry and cellar, and soon had a
sizeable basket properly filled. Leaving that in Cindy's charge, Faith
went back to the sitting-room, and came and stood by the table, and
said quietly, "I can't do any more to-night, Mr. Linden. I must be busy
in another way. I am going out for a little while."
"May I ask--not from curiosity--with whom?" he said looking up at her.
"With Cindy--to attend to some business she didn't tell me of in proper
time." Faith had laid her books together and was going off. Mr. Linden
rose from the table.
"With me, if you please, Miss Faith. I will not intrude upon your
business."
"It's no business to be intruded upon!" she said with her simple look
into his face. "But Cindy and I can do it. Please do not let me take
you away! I am not afraid--much."
"Miss Faith, you want a great many lessons yet!--and I do not deserve
this. Don't you know that in Mrs. Derrick's absence I am guardian of
her house--and of you? I will go with you, or without you--just as you
choose," he added smiling. "If you would rather study than walk, you
shall. Is the business too intricate for me to manage?"
"It's only to carry some things to an old woman who is in great want of
them. They can't wait till to-morrow. If you will go, Mr. Linden,--I'll
be ready in a minute. I'd like to go."
She ran to get ready, and Mr. Linden went to the kitchen and took the
basket from Cindy, and then waited at the front door till Faith came,
and they went out into the moonlight together. A very bright moonlight,
and dark shadows--dark and still; only one of them seemed to move; but
that one made Faith glad of her change of companions. Perhaps it made
the same suggestion to Mr. Linden, for his first words looked that way.
"Miss Faith, you did not do quite right, to-night. Don't you know--"
with a gentle half smiling tone--"you must not let _anything_ make you
do wrong?"
Her look and tone were both very confiding, and touched with timidity.
"Did I, Mr. Linden? I didn't mean it."
"I know that--but you must remember for another time." And he went off
to other subjects, giving her talk and information that were perhaps
better than books. The walk was good, too; the air bracing, and the
village sights and sounds in a subsiding glimmer and murmur. The
evening out of doors was worth as much as the evening within doors
could have been. Faith thought so. The way was down the road that led
to Barley point, branching off from that. The distance to the poor
cottage seemed short enough, but if it had seemed long Faith would have
felt herself well paid--so much was the supply needed, so joyfully was
it received. The basket was left there for Mr. Skip to bring home
another time, and at a rather late hour in the evening the return walk
began.
The night was sharp and frosty, and still, now, with a depth of
silence. The moon, high and full, beamed down in silver splendour, and
the face of the earth was all white or black. The cold, clear light,
the sharp shadows angling and defining everything, the absolute
stillness--how well they chimed!--and chime they did, albeit
noiselessly. In that bracing air the very steps of the two homeward
bound people seemed to spring more light and elastic, and gave little
sound. They went on together with a quick even step,--the very walking
was pleasant. For a while they talked busily too,--then Thought came in
and claimed her place, and words ceased.
They had left the turn to the belt of woods, and were now passing one
or two empty fields where low hedges made a black line of demarcation,
and the moonlight seemed even whiter than before. Faith was on the side
next the road, and both a little way out, for the walking was smoother
and dryer.
How it was done Faith could not tell--the next two seconds seemed full
of separate things which she remembered afterwards--but her hand was
disengaged from Mr. Linden's arm, and he was standing before her and
she behind him, almost before she had fairly seen a little flash of red
light from the hedge before them. A sharp report--a powdery taint on
the sweet air, came then to give their evidence--to what?
That second past, Mr. Linden turned, but still standing so as to shield
her, and laid both hands on her shoulders.
"Are you hurt?" he said, in a voice lowered by feeling, not intent.
One bewildered instant she stood mute--perhaps with no breath for
words; the next minute, with a motion too unexpected and sudden to be
hindered, lifting both hands she threw his off, bounded to one side to
be clear of him, and sprang like a gazelle towards the spot where the
red flash had caught her eye. But she was caught and stopped before she
reached it, and held still--that same shield between her and the hedge.
"Did it touch you?" Mr. Linden repeated.
"No--Let me! let me!"--she said eagerly endeavouring to free herself.
He was silent a moment--a deep drawn breath the only reply; but he did
not loose his hold.
"My dear child," he said, "you could find nothing--for what would you
go?"--the tone was very gentle, even moved. "You must walk on before me
as quick as you can. Will you promise to do it? I will keep you in
sight."
"Before you?--no. What are you going to do? Are you touched?"--Her
voice changed as she went on.
"I am not hurt--and mean to do nothing to-night but follow you home.
But give me your promise, Miss Faith,--you must not stand here."
"Why in front? will they be behind us?"
"I must have you in sight--and I will not have you near me." And
letting go his hold he said, almost imperatively,
"I will trust you. Walk on before me!--Miss Faith, you must not delay a
moment."
"I will go with you," she said low, and clinging to his arm.--"Your
safety is in being near me. I will not delay. Come!"--
But the hand was taken off again, and held in both his while he spoke.
"I will not have you anywhere near me! If you do not walk on far in
front, I shall,--and keep watch of you as best I can." And he let go
her hand, and stepped back with a quick pace that soon put some
distance between them. She stood still a moment, looking, and then
sprang back till she reached him; speaking with a low vehemence that
did not seem like Faith.
"I will not do it, Mr. Linden--I will not! I will not!--Come, come!
don't stay here!"--
Whatever Mr. Linden felt at that appeal--and he was not a man to feel
it lightly--his words lost none of their firmness.
"I shall not stir until you are ten yards in front of me!--unless I
leave you as far behind."
She planted herself for an instant before him and looked in his face,
with eyes of quiet but most eloquent beseeching.
"No"--he repeated,--"you must go on and fear nothing. Child--'there is
no restraint to the Lord, to save by many or by few.'"
She did not answer, even by the little shake of the head which
sometimes with her stood in place of words. She turned, went swiftly
forward, with a straight, even, unslackening pace, which did not falter
nor stop for a long, long piece of the way; _how_ long it was by the
mind's measurement it would be hard to tell. It was one breathless
sense of pain and fear; of which moonlight and shadows and the points
of the way all made part and were woven in together. Her ears were
tingling for that sound; her eyes only measured unconsciously the
distances and told off the waymarks. Down the little pitch of the road
where that to Barley point forked off; then by a space of clear fences
where hedgerows were not, and a barn or two rose up in the moonlight;
through gates where the post shadows were black and deep, by the
skirting bushes that now and then gathered about the rails. She walked
as fast as she could and keep her strength. That was unconsciously
measured too. It had seemed to her, in her agony of pleading before the
commencing of this strange walk, that it was _impossible_ she should do
it. She was doing it now, under a force of will that she had not been
able to withstand; and her mind was subdued and strained beyond the
power of thinking. Her very walking seemed to her mechanical; intensely
alive as her senses were all the time. There was a transient relief at
coming into the neighbourhood of a house, and a drear feeling of
desolation and increased danger as she left it behind her; but her pace
neither faltered nor flagged. She looked round sometimes, but never
paused for that. Before the more thickly settled part of the village
was reached her step grew a little slower, probably from the sheer
necessity of failing strength; but steady it was, at whatever rate of
travel. When at last they turned the sandy corner into the broad street
or main way of the village, where houses and gardens often broke the
range of hedgeway or fence, and lights spoke to lights in the
neighbouring windows, Faith stopped and stood leaning against the
fence. In another moment she was drawn away from that to a better
support.
"Are you faint?" Mr. Linden said.
Her "no" was faint, but the answer was true for all the rest of her.
He drew her hand within his arm, and went on silently; but how glad he
was to see her home, Faith might guess from the way she was half
carried up the steps and into the hall, and the door shut and locked
behind her. After the same fashion she was taken into the sitting-room
and placed in the easy chair, and her wrappers unfastened and taken off
with very gentle and quick hands. She offered almost as little help as
hindrance, and her head sank immediately.
He stood by her, and repeated his question about faintness.
"O no, sir--I'm not faint. It's nothing," Faith said, but as if her
very voice was exhausted. And crossing her arms upon the table, close
to which the easy chair stood, she laid her head down upon them. Her
mother might well say she had a baby face. It looked so them.
Mr. Linden's next move was to get a glass of wine, and with gentle
force and persuasion to make her swallow it; that done, he stood
leaning upon the back of her chair, silently, but with a very, very
grave face.
She kept her position, scarcely stirring, for some length of time,
except that after a while she hid her face in her hands. And sitting
so, at last she spoke, in a troubled tone.
"What can be done, Mr. Linden?--to put a stop to this."
"I will try what can be done," he answered, though not as if that point
were uppermost in his mind. "I think I can find a way. I wish nothing
gave me more uneasiness than that!"
"Do you think there is any way that you can do it, thoroughly?"
"Yes, I think so," he repeated. "There are ways of doing most things. I
shall try. Do not you think about it, Miss Faith,--I have something now
to make me glad you are going to Pequot. Before, I could only remember
how much I should miss my scholar."
"Why are you glad now, Mr. Linden?" Faith's voice was in as subdued a
state of mind as her face.
"Change of air will be good for you--till this air is in a better
state."
She made no answer. In a few minutes she rose up, gathered her wrappers
into one hand, and turning to Mr. Linden held out the other to him;
with a very child's look, which however was rather doubtful about
meeting his. His look had lost none of its grave concern.
"Are you better?" he said. "Will you promise to go right to sleep, and
leave all troublesome matters where alone they can be taken care of?"
The faintest kind of a smile flitted across her face. "I don't
know"--she said doubtfully,--"I don't know what I can do, Mr. Linden."
"I have told you."
"I'll try--the last part," she said with a somewhat more defined smile
as she glanced up at him. It was as grave and gentle a smile as is
often known.
"You must try it all," he said, giving her hand the same touch it had
had once before. "Miss Faith, I may use your words--I think you will
never give me harder work to do than I have had to-night!"
She could not bear that. She stood with eyes cast down, and a
fluttering quiver upon her lip; still, because the effort to control
herself was at the moment as much as she could do. It was successful,
though barely; and then, without venturing another look, she said her
low "Good night, sir"; and moved away. She was accompanied as far as
the door, but then Mr. Linden paused, with his hand on the latch.
"Shall you take any work--I mean _book_ work--with you to Pequot?--or
will your hands find too much else to do?"
"I meant to take some I meant to do a good deal--I hope so."
"Then can you come back to the great chair for ten minutes, and let me
give you a word or two of direction?"
She came immediately and sat down. And Mr. Linden went back to where
they had been interrupted early in the evening, and told her what and
where and how to go on in the various books, till she should see him
again; putting marks here and there to save her trouble, or pencilling
some explanation which might be needed. It took but a few minutes to do
this; and then Mr. Linden laid the books together, and drawing the old
Bible towards him once more, he turned to the ninety-first Psalm and
read it aloud. Read it with full heart-felt effect; which made the
words fall like the dew they are, upon the weary little flower Faith
was. Then he bade her once more goodnight.
She went refreshed; yet to become a prey to struggling thoughts which
for a while prevented refreshment from having its lawful action. How
much of the night and of the early morning Faith spent in these
thoughts, and in the fruit of them, is uncertain; for the evening's
work would sufficiently have accounted for her worn look the next day.