DENAS.
"She that is loved is safe; and he that is loved is joyful."
--BISHOP TAYLOR.
"No pearls, no gold, no stones, no corn, no spice,
No cloth, no wine, of Love can pay the price;
Divine is Love, and scorneth worldly pelf,
And can be bought with nothing but itself."
--HEYWOOD.
"To-morrow, Love, as to-day,
Two blent hearts never astray;
Two souls no power may sever;
Together, O Love, for ever!"
--ROSSETTI.
During the summer which followed, Tris was much at home. Mr. Arundel
did not go to Norway; he was in London with the lady whom he intended
to marry, until the end of the season, and afterward frequently at her
country home in Devonshire. Tris had then his opportunity and he did
not neglect it. But he was an impulsive young man, and very often lost
the ground on Monday that he had gained on Sunday. All of love's
fitful fevers and chills tormented him, and then he tormented Denas.
He was jealous of every moment of her time, of every kind word and
look she bestowed on others. The school offended, the children
irritated his conception of his own rights. He was as thoroughly
unreasonable and Denas as thoroughly contradictory as was necessary
for the most tantalising of love affairs.
About the beginning of the summer, just before the pilchard season,
Jacob Trenager died. He was a Pentrath man, and of course "went home"
for his burying. It did not seem an event likely to affect the lives
of Tris and Denas, and yet it did have a very pleasant influence upon
their future. In some far-back generation a Trenager had saved the
life of an Arundel, and ever since, when any adult of one family was
buried an adult of the other threw the first earth upon the coffin, in
token of their remembrance and of their friendship. Mr. Arundel was
aware of the tradition, and he desired to perpetuate it. He was,
perhaps, actuated by some religious respect for the customs and
feelings of his ancestors; he was, undoubtedly, considerate of the
fact that he had just bought a valuable estate in the midst of these
old clannish fisher-folk, and well aware that such a trifling
concession to their prejudices might in a future Parliamentary
struggle be of preponderating value to him.
So, in accord with his expressed desire, Trenager's funeral was
observed with all the ancient ceremonies. His mates from the numerous
villages around carried him all the way on his bier to Pentrath;
carried him by the sea-shore, singing hymns as they went. A great
crowd of men and women were in the procession, and the old church at
Pentrath was full to overflowing. Jacob's forefathers for centuries
back lay in Pentrath church-yard, and there were old people living in
the town who remembered Jacob casting the first earth on the present
Mr. Arundel's father's coffin, and who wondered whether the son would
do the same kindness for the fisherman.
The day after Jacob's death it was noticed in St. Penfer that a
strange gentleman called upon Denas, and that Denas went up the
cliff-breast with him and remained in the church town for the greater
part of the day. And for the next two days the same thing occurred.
Probably John and Joan knew the meaning of these visits, but they
said nothing in response to the numerous "I wonders" of their
acquaintances. However, on the day of the funeral the secret was
made evident. The strange gentleman was the organist of Pentrath
church, and his visit to Denas was made to induce her to sing a
portion of the funeral service; and St. Penfer being nearer than
Pentrath, they had gone to St. Penfer church to practise.
Nothing, however, was said of the intention, because Denas had not
felt sure that at the last moment she would be able to fulfil her
promise. But in the preliminary practice she quite recovered her
self-possession, and the long rest had given to her voice a maturity
of sweetness and power that made it a delight to exercise it. She
thought with a pleasant pride of the solemn joy she was going to give;
nor was she oblivious of the fact that her father and mother and Tris
would have an opportunity to listen to her singing music worthy of the
noblest voice to interpret.
It was a warm, sunshiny day. The church windows were all open, and the
rustle of the trees in the church-yard, the hum of the bees, the songs
of the birds, the murmur of the town beyond, came through them. Mr.
Arundel stood at the foot of the coffin, Jacob's family at the head;
the crowd of fishers filled the old pews and aisles to overflowing.
Suddenly there was a burst of triumphant melody. It filled the church
and lifted the souls of all present up, and up, far beyond, and far
"Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth."
"_I know that my Redeemer liveth!_"
Higher and higher the clear, strong voice rang out the joyful
assurance, till every heart swelled to rapture and every eye was wet
with holy tears.
"_I know that my Redeemer liveth!_"
And as Denas sang the blessed affirmation, the organ pealed out its
noble symphony, and men and women lifted wet faces heavenward, until
to the last majestic confident strain--
"_Yet in my flesh shall I see God_"--
the coffin was lifted and the mourners and the singer followed it to
the open grave.
Never before had Denas had such joy in God's pleasant gift of a
melodious voice. To look at her father's and mother's faces was a
happiness sufficient. The adoration of Tris, the delight and gratitude
of her friends, the conviction that she had lifted for a few moments
mortal men above their mortality and made them realise that they
should "yet see God," was in itself a recompense beyond anything she
had ever dreamed of. Nor could she put aside the comparisons that
naturally came from this effort of her power. To sing holily and
loftily, to sing in--
"... Strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death"--
How dear to heaven and earth such saintly melody! How different from
the--
"Midnight song and revelry,
Tipsy dance and jollity"
that had once appeared an elysium of musical ravishment to her.
Tris walked home with Denas, and this evening they came very close to
each other. And then, at the close of it, Tris unfortunately said some
words which showed how bitterly he regarded the years that had been
stolen from him by Roland Tresham. And Denas resented the anger shown
to this paling, dying shade of her memory, and the next day Tris went
away with Mr. Arundel and did not return for full five weeks.
But Mr. Arundel had been so much interested in the singer as to ask
from Tris all that he could tell him of the life of Denas. And Tris,
like all lovers, was only too glad to talk of the girl he adored; so
as they sat together at midnight on the lonely sea, with the full
moon above them, they grew very confidential. Tris told all the story
of his love, and Mr. Arundel told Tris about the beauty and
accomplishments of the woman he was going to marry; and there was, in
this way, a kind of intimacy established which resulted in a
financial proposition making the question of marriage a very easy and
happy one to Captain Tristram Penrose, of the yacht _Spindrift_.
That five weeks of lonely heartache taught Denas that Tris had become
a very dear portion of her life, and when he returned he found it more
easy than he had dared hope to induce her to bury for ever the strange
years which a strange love had somehow slipped into her sheaf of life.
And she promised Tris to let them fall from out her grasp, all the
vain regrets, the vain hopes, the vain love which were garnered in
them.
Then Tris told her that he had signed a contract with Mr. Arundel for
five years, and that a portion of this contract was the use of the
stone cottage on the hill beyond the Abbey--the pretty home covered
with clematis and jasmine vines and surrounded by a lovely garden. He
said if Denas would share it with him he would make it as beautiful
within as it was without, and that he would love her more and more
fondly to the last moment of his life. He spoke with all the simple
passion of his nature and circumstances; but his heart was hot behind
his words, and Denas gave herself freely to their persuasion.
They were sitting on the rocks by the sea-side as she did so; the
waves were breaking at their feet; the boats were lying on the
horizon; the village was as quiet as a painted village. She gave her
heart and hand to Tris there; she suffered him at last to take her to
his heart and kiss her; she intoxicated him with rapture by shyly
kissing him in return. Then they went back to the village together.
Joan was asleep in her chair. John was away with the boats. They both
kissed Joan and Tris called her "mother." And Joan said she had just
been dreaming of such a joy, and she blessed them and then went to the
door and looked toward the _Darling Denas_. If she could only see her
old dear upon the deck, she thought she could send a thought, a
thanksgiving, that would somehow, some way, reach him.
In a few days after this happy understanding, Mr. Arundel had
apparently an equally joyful surprise. Something happened, and the
days of his waiting were over, and he was to be married immediately.
Then it was, in Cornish phrase, "busy all" to get the yacht overhauled
and well victualled. For the young couple were going to spend the
winter on the Mediterranean coasts, and Tris was as much interested in
the preparations as was possible to be, even though the unexpected
change disarranged and postponed his own plans.
For there had absolutely been in Tris' mind a resolution to marry
Denas before he went on the winter's cruise. Of course, in making this
resolution he had never taken into account the contrary plans of Denas
and Joan, neither of whom was disposed to make any haste about the
marriage.
"Love do soon die if there be no house for him to live in," said Joan;
"and I do feel to think that the furnishing of the house be the first
thing. And that not to be done in a week or a month, either. Ham-sam
work have no blessing or happiness with it. To be sure not. Why would
it?"
Denas held the same opinions, so Tris went away and left the
furnishing of the house to Denas and Joan. They would have all the
winter to prepare the napery and crockery and consult about carpets
and furniture. For now that he was to become a married man and a
householder, Tris was quite inclined to take all the domestic and
social consideration his position gave him. Mr. Arundel, in placing
such a pretty home at the service of his captain, required by the very
gift a suitable acceptance of it.
And no one but a mother can tell with what delightful pride Joan
entered into this duty. She had never bought carpets and stuffed
furniture before. The china tea-service would not let her sleep for
three nights, she was so divided between the gold and white and the
pink and gold. All the little niceties of the dining-room and the
sitting-room--the American kitchen utensils which to Joan seemed
marvellous and beautiful, the snowy curtains at every window, the
white-handled knives and the plated silver--all these things held joys
and surprises and never-ending interest to the happy mother.
Between these duties and her school, the long winter months passed
happily away to Denas. The school, indeed, troubled her in a certain
way. Who was to keep it together? John also had formed it into a
Sunday-school and was greatly delighted with the work. But a really
good work never falls through; there is always someone to carry it on,
and one day Denas was visited among her pupils by the Wesleyan
preacher from St. Penfer. He was astonished at her methods and her
success, and he represented the claims of such a school with so much
force to the next district meeting that they gladly appointed a
teacher to fill the place of Denas. It cost her a little pang to
resign her authority; but her marriage was drawing near, and it would
necessarily be followed by her removal to St. Clair, and it was
important that the children should be provided for.
About the end of March she had a letter from Tris. The yacht was then
at Gibraltar on its return passage, and Tris might be looked for
within a few days. But the house was nearly ready and all her personal
preparations were made. Such as pertained to the ceremony and their
future life they would make together when Tris returned home. Never
had father, and mother, and daughter, been so happy and so closely
one. Joan had grown young again. John sang from morning to night.
Denas had the loveliness of love transfiguring the loveliness of mere
physical beauty. It was busy all and happy all within the Penelles'
cottage during those days of expectation.
One morning Joan was going through the whole house before the grand
final preparations, and for some reason she opened a closet usually
little regarded--a closet full of those odds and ends families do not
like to destroy. The first thing she lifted was that picture of Denas
as "Mademoiselle Denasia in Pinafore." It had been her pride and
comfort in sorrowful days now overpast, and she laid it upon the table
and stood looking at it. Denas entered the room while this act of
tender reminiscence was going on. She did not at first perceive or
understand the object of it. But when she reached her mother's side
and saw the yellow, faded presentment, her face flushed crimson, and
with flashing eyes she covered the picture with her hands.
"Why did you keep it? Oh, mother, how could you!"
"Aw, then, Denas, 'twas my only comfort many a day and many a time.
Don't take it away--Denas! Denas!"
"I will not have it in the house--'tis a shame to me; it breaks my
heart; how could you, mother?" and she drew the paper away, and
walking to the fire, threw it upon the coals. It burned slowly,
browning gradually from the dancing feet to the tips of the fingers
meeting above the head.
With a white, sad face she watched it burn to a brown film that the
upward draught of the chimney carried out of her sight. Joan also
watched the immolation, and she was a little angry at it. That picture
of Mademoiselle Denasia was one of Joan's secret idols. No one likes
to watch the destruction of their idols, and Joan was hardly pacified
by the kisses and loving words with which Denas extenuated her act.
For an hour or two she had an air of injury. She had been in the habit
of showing this picture with an air of serious secrecy and with many
sighs to any new acquaintance or strange visitor, and its destruction
really put a stop to this clandestine bit of egotism; for who would
believe such an improbable story without the pictured Denasia to prove
it?
Denas regarded the incident as a happy omen. As she watched the
picture turn to cinder, she buried fathoms deep below the tide of her
present life all the restless, profitless, half-regretful memories it
represented. A word or two said by the preacher the day he visited her
school had clung to her consciousness as a burr clings to wool. They
were speaking of the education necessary for the class of children
gathered there, and Denas, after naming the studies pursued, said:
"They are sufficient for the life before them;" then, with an
involuntary sigh, she added, "It is a very narrow life."
And perhaps the minister had heard something of her story, for he
answered gravely: "God knows just where He wants every soul. That is
the life, that is the school, for that soul, and no life is too
narrow. The humblest will afford
"'The common round, the trivial task
Which furnish all we ought to ask--
Room to deny ourselves.'
Mrs. Tresham, that is the grand lesson we are sent here to learn;
self-denial, as against self-pleasing and self-assertion."
Denas only said, "Yes, sir;" but she took the words into her heart
and found herself repeating them a hundred times a day.
Tris came home just before Easter. The spring was in his heart, the
spring was in his life and love. The winds, the young trees, the
peeping crocus-buds, were part and parcel of Denas and of his hopes in
her. What charming walks they took to their home! What suggestions and
improvements and alterations they made! No two young thrushes,
building their first nest, could have been more interested and more
important. Mr. and Mrs. Arundel had remained in town for the Easter
holidays, and Tris was very nearly lord of all his time. He rather
thought Mr. Arundel had purposely left him so at this happy epoch, and
the idea gave him the more pleasure in his light duties.
There was a great deal of good-natured discussion about the proper
date for this wonderful wedding. Tris acted as if it was the first
wedding in the world. He was sure everyone in St. Penfer and St. Clair
would be disappointed beyond comfort unless they had a chance to be
present. He thought, therefore, that Easter Sunday would be the day of
days in this respect. All the boats would be in harbour. All the women
and children would have their new gowns and bonnets on. There would be
a special service in the chapel--and then, finally:
"The house be ready, mother, and I be ready, and Denas be ready, and
what are we waiting for?"
And as John, and Joan, and Tris were of one mind, what could Denas do
but be of the same mind? After all, the great anxiety was the
weather. The restless way in which Tris queried of the winds and
watched the clouds almost made John angry. "You do be enough to beckon
a storm, Tris," he cried. "Let be! Let be!" Yet for all that John
himself walked oftener to his door than was his custom, and looked
seaward and windward in a furtive kind of way, very amusing to the
women, who saw clearly through his anxiety.
But even the weather sometimes comes up to our hopes and is even
better than our expectations. Easter Sunday broke in a royal mood of
sunshine. There was not a breath of wind; the sea was like a sea of
sapphire sprinked with incalculable diamonds; the boats lay lazily
swinging on the tide-top; the undercliff was in its Easter green and
white. The lark set the bride-song going, and so woke up the thrush,
and the thrush called to the blackbird, and the woods soon rang with
music.
The ceremony was to be in the St. Clair chapel, and at nine o'clock
Tris came in the yacht's boat for his bride and her parents. The boat
had been freshly painted white. The four sailors who were to row her
were in snow-white duck and blue caps and kerchiefs. Tris had on his
best uniform--blue broadcloth and gilt buttons. Tris was handsome
enough and proud and happy enough to have set off a fisher's suit of
blue flannel; but he trod like a prince and looked like a young
sea-god in his splendid array.
It had been thought best for the bride to go to St. Clair by sea.
There was no carriage available, and the walk to St. Clair was long
and apt to be wet from the last tide. And nobody wanted the
bride-dress to be soiled. Besides which, the sea-way gave the St.
Penfer people an opportunity to set her off with waving kerchiefs and
a thousand good wishes; and it also gave the people of St. Clair an
opportunity to welcome her in the same manner. Those who did not know
about such things and who were wickedly reckless concerning signs and
omens--which sailor and fisher folk never are--said this seaward road
to the church might have been avoided and the bride's gown kept
sweetly fresh and unruffled by Denas simply dressing in her own house.
But Denas knew well that it was unlucky; for the bride in her
bride-dress must go into her house before she comes out of it.
The chapel was crowded up to the pulpit steps, all but John's pew,
which was empty until the bride's party took possession of it. It was
a sight to make men and women happy only to look at Joan Penelles'
face. John tried to preserve a grave look, but Joan beamed upon every
man and woman present. When the little stir of their entrance had
subsided, then the Easter service went joyously on. It was known that
the wedding was to be solemnized between the sermon and the
benediction, and though the sermon was a very good one, all thought it
a little long that morning. For there is something about a bridal, and
a bride, and a bridegroom, that is perennially fresh and young.
But at length the happy moment arrived. Tris rose and offered his hand
to Denas. Then Denas also rose and let her long cloak fall down, and
put her bonnet off her head, and walked by Tris' side to the
communion table. John and Joan proudly followed. All with curious
interest watched the bride, for few then present had ever seen a bride
so bride-like. And well might the handsome sailor be proud of her as
she stood beside him robed in white, lustrous silk, with lilies at her
breast and the gleam of scarlet corals in her fair hair and at her
white throat.
Let those who have been so blessed as to live through such moments
imagine them. And, alas! for those who cannot say with a smile, "I
know; I know." In this marriage, the bride and bridegroom's joy was
doubled by being so enthusiastically shared. It was not only the
preacher who gave them the benediction; they walked through an
atmosphere so full of kindness and good-will and good wishes that they
could do nothing at all but smile, and smile, and smile again to the
"God bless you, dears," which greeted them at every step.
Then the clerk spread open the book and the preacher put the pen into
the bride's hand. She looked at her husband; she looked at her mother;
she hesitated a moment, and then wrote boldly--not Denasia--but--
"_Denas._"
Neither father nor mother disputed the name. They certified it with
their own names, and then passed with their children into the
sunshine. The congregation were waiting outside. They parted and made
a way between them for the bride and the bridegroom to take; and so
standing there, watched them go hand-in-hand up the hillside to the
pretty vine-covered house which was to be their future home. To mortal
eyes they seemed to walk alone, but they did not. They had right
welcome company, for--
"Love took them softly by the hand,
Love led them through their own dear door,
And showed them in the sea and land
Beauty they had not known before--
Never before: O Love! sweet Love!
"And now it cannot pass away;
They see it wheresoe'er they go;
And in their hearts by night and day
Its gladness singeth to and fro,
By night and day: O Love! sweet Love!"
* * * * *
Transcriber Notes
Typographical inconsistencies have been changed and are listed below.
Hyphenation standardized.
Otherwise, archaic and variable spelling is preserved, including
Rosetti/Rossetti and Giberaltar. Author's punctuation style is also
preserved.
Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
Transcriber Changes
The following changes were made to the original text:
Page 25: Was 'wth' (She sat down in a large chair =with= her back to
the light and shut her eyes.)
Page 93: Added double quote (Some will never come back =again!'"=)
Page 98: Added period (with such evident enjoyment that she gave an
appetite to the =others.=)
Page 98: Was 'Bobert' (After breakfast =Robert= Burrell said he
would delay his visit)
Page 154: Was 'guiver' (It made his brown face blanch and his
strong, stern mouth =quiver= with mental anguish.)
Page 174: Was 'beatiful' (her open throat, and =beautiful= bare arms
lifted to the basket upon her head)
Page 207: Was 'indorsed' (of that brutal conservatism which makes
Englishmen suspicious of everything not =endorsed= by
centuries of use and wont.)
Page 297: Was 'ocupations' (She looked for no extraordinary thing,
for no special favour to brighten their uniform
=occupations= and simple pleasures.)
Page 308: Was 'sayng' ("La! my dear, the love in Tris' heart was a
trouble to you. You were =saying= that often.")
Page 344: Was 'fom' (and the walk to St. Clair was long and apt to
be wet =from= the last tide.)