The winter now closed in apace,--and though the foliage all about
Weircombe was reluctant to fall, and kept its green, russet and gold
tints well on into December, the high gales which blew in from the sea
played havoc with the trembling leaves at last and brought them to the
ground like the painted fragments of Summer's ruined temple. All the
fishermen's boats were hauled up high and dry, and great stretches of
coarse net like black webs, were spread out on the beach for drying and
mending,--while through the tunnels scooped out of the tall castellated
rocks which guarded either side of the little port, or "weir," the great
billows dashed with a thunderous roar of melody, oftentimes throwing
aloft fountains of spray well-nigh a hundred feet in height--spray which
the wild wind caught and blew in pellets of salty foam far up the little
village street. Helmsley was now kept a prisoner indoors,--he had not
sufficient strength to buffet with a gale, or to stand any unusually
sharp nip of cold,--so he remained very comfortably by the side of the
fire, making baskets, which he was now able to turn out quickly with
quite an admirable finish, owing to the zeal and earnestness with which
he set himself to the work. Mary's business in the winter months was
entirely confined to the lace-mending--she had no fine laundry work to
do, and her time was passed in such household duties as kept her little
cottage sweet and clean, in attentive guardianship and care of her
"father's friend"--and in the delicate weaving of threads whereby the
fine fabric which had once perchance been damaged and spoilt by
flaunting pride, was made whole and beautiful again by simple patience.
Helmsley was never tired of watching her. Whether she knelt down with a
pail of suds, and scrubbed her cottage doorstep--or whether she sat
quietly opposite to him, with the small "Charlie" snuggled on a rug
between them, while she mended her lace, his eyes always rested upon her
with deepening interest and tenderness. And he grew daily more conscious
of a great peace and happiness--peace and happiness such as he had
never known since his boyhood's days. He, who had found the ways of
modern society dull to the last point of excruciating boredom, was not
aware of any monotony in the daily round of the hours, which, laden with
simple duties and pleasures, came and went softly and slowly like angel
messengers stepping gently from one heaven to another. The world--or
that which is called the world,--had receded from him altogether. Here,
where he had found a shelter, there was no talk of finance--the claims
of the perpetual "bridge" party had vanished like the misty confusion of
a bad dream from the brain--the unutterably vulgar intrigues common to
the so-called "better" class of twentieth century humanity could not
intrude any claim on his attention or his time--the perpetual lending of
money to perpetually dishonest borrowers was, for the present, a
finished task--and he felt himself to be a free man--far freer than he
had been for many years. And, to add to the interest of his days, he
became engrossed in a scheme--a strange scheme which built itself up in
his head like a fairy palace, wherein everything beautiful, graceful,
noble, helpful and precious, found place and position, and grew from
promise to fulfilment as easily as a perfect rosebud ripens to a perfect
rose. But he said nothing of his thoughts. He hugged them, as it were,
to himself, and toyed with them as though they were jewels,--precious
jewels selected specially to be set in a crown of inestimable worth.
Meanwhile his health kept fairly equable, though he was well aware
within his own consciousness that he did not get stronger. But he was
strong enough to be merry at times--and his kindly temper and cheery
conversation made him a great favourite with the Weircombe folk, who
were never tired of "looking in" as they termed it, on Mary, and "'avin'
a bit of a jaw with old David."
Sociable evenings they had too, during that winter--evenings when Angus
Reay came in to tea and stayed to supper, and after supper entertained
them by singing in a deep baritone voice as soft as honey, the old
Scotch songs now so hopelessly "out of fashion"--such as "My Nannie
O"--"Ae fond kiss"--and "Highland Mary," in which last exquisite ballad
he was always at his best. And Mary sang also, accompanying herself on a
quaint old Hungarian zither, which she said had been left with her
father as guarantee for ten shillings which he had lent to a street
musician wandering about Barnstaple. The street musician disappeared and
the ten shillings were never returned, so Mary took possession of the
zither, and with the aid of a cheap instruction book, managed to learn
enough of its somewhat puzzling technique to accompany her own voice
with a few full, rich, plaintive chords. And it was in this fashion that
Angus heard her first sing what she called "A song of the sea," running
thus:
I heard the sea cry out in the night
Like a fretful child--
Moaning under the pale moonlight
In a passion wild--
And my heart cried out with the sea, in tears,
For the sweet lost joys of my vanished years!
I heard the sea laugh out in the noon
Like a girl at play--
All forgot was the mournful moon
In the dawn of day!
And my heart laughed out with the sea, in gladness,
And I thought no more of bygone sadness.
I think the sea is a part of me
With its gloom and glory--
What Has Been, and what yet Shall Be
Is all its story;
Rise up, O Heart, with the tidal flow,
And drown the sorrows of Long Ago!
Something eerie and mystical there was in these words, sung as she sang
them in a low, soft, contralto, sustained by the pathetic quiver of the
zither strings throbbing under the pressure of her white fingers, and
Angus asked her where she had learned the song.
"I found it,"--she answered, somewhat evasively.
"Did you compose it yourself?"
She flushed a little.
"How can you imagine such a thing?"
He was silent, but "imagined" the more. And after this he began to show
her certain scenes and passages in the book he was writing, sometimes
reading them aloud to her with all that eager eloquence which an author
who loves and feels his work is bound to convey into the pronounced
expression of it. And she listened, absorbed and often entranced, for
there was no gain-saying the fact that Angus Reay was a man of genius.
He was inclined to underrate rather than overestimate his own
abilities, and often showed quite a pathetic mistrust of himself in his
very best and most original conceptions.
"When I read to you,"--he said to her, one day--"You must tell me the
instant you feel bored. That's a great point! Because if _you_ feel
bored, other people who read the book will feel bored exactly as you do
and at the very same passage. And you must criticise me mercilessly!
Rend me to pieces--tear my sentences to rags, and pick holes in every
detail, if you like! That will do me a world of good!"
Mary laughed.
"But why?" she asked, "Why do you want me to be so unkind to you?"
"It won't be unkind,"--he declared--"It will be very helpful. And I'll
tell you why. There's no longer any real 'criticism' of literary work in
the papers nowadays. There's only extravagant eulogium written up by an
author's personal friends and wormed somehow into the press--or equally
extravagant abuse, written and insinuated in similar fashion by an
author's personal enemies. Well now, you can't live without having both
friends and enemies--you generally have more of the latter than the
former, particularly if you are successful. There's nothing a lazy man
won't do to 'down' an industrious one,--nothing an unknown scrub won't
attempt in the way of trying to injure a great fame. It's a delightful
world for that sort of thing!--so truly 'Christian,' pleasant and
charitable! But the consequence of all these mean and petty 'personal'
views of life is, that sound, unbiased, honest literary criticism is a
dead art. You can't get it anywhere. And yet if you could, there's
nothing that would be so helpful, or so strengthening to a man's work.
It would make him put his best foot foremost. I should like to think
that my book when it comes out, would be 'reviewed' by a man who had no
prejudices, no 'party' politics, no personal feeling for or against
me,--but who simply and solely considered it from an impartial,
thoughtful, just and generous point of view--taking it as a piece of
work done honestly and from a deep sense of conviction. Criticism from
fellows who just turn over the pages of a book to find fault casually
wherever they can--(I've seen them at it in newspaper offices!) or to
quote unfairly mere scraps of sentences without context,--or to fly off
into a whirlwind of personal and scurrilous calumnies against an author
whom they don't know, and perhaps never will know,--that sort of thing
is quite useless to me. It neither encourages nor angers me. It is a
mere flabby exhibition of incompetency--much as if a jelly-fish should
try to fight a sea-gull! Now you,--if you criticise me,--your criticism
will be valuable, because it will be quite honest--there will be no
'personal' feeling in it----"
She raised her eyes to his and smiled.
"No?"
Something warm and radiant in her glance flashed into his soul and
thrilled it strangely. Vaguely startled by an impression which he did
not try to analyse, he went on hastily--"No--because you see you are
neither my friend nor my enemy, are you?"
She was quite silent.
"I mean,"--he continued, blundering along somewhat lamely,--"You don't
hate me very much, and you don't like me very much. I'm just an ordinary
man to you. Therefore you're bound to be perfectly impartial, because
what I do is a matter of 'personal' indifference to you. That's why your
criticism will be so helpful and valuable."
She bent her head closely over the lace she was mending for a minute or
two, as though she were making a very intricate knot. Then she looked up
again.
"Well, if you wish it, I'll tell you just what I think," she said,
quietly--"But you mustn't call it criticism. I'm not clever enough to
judge a book. I only know what pleases _me_,--and what pleases me may
not please the world. I know very little about authors, and I've taught
myself all that I do know. I love Shakespeare,--but I could not explain
to you why I love him, because I'm not clever enough. I only feel his
work,--I feel that it's all right and beautiful and wonderful--but I
couldn't criticise it."
"No one can,--no one should!" said Reay, warmly--"Shakespeare is above
all criticism!"
"But is he not always being criticised?" she asked.
"Yes. By little men who cannot understand greatness,"--he answered--"It
gives a kind of 'scholarly importance' to the little men, but it leaves
the great one unscathed."
This talk led to many others of a similar nature between them, and
Reay's visits to Mary's cottage became more and more frequent. David
Helmsley, weaving his baskets day by day, began to weave something more
delicate and uncommon than the withes of willow,--a weaving which went
on in his mind far more actively than the twisting and plaiting of the
osiers in his hands. Sometimes in the evenings, when work was done, and
he sat in his comfortable easy chair by the fire watching Mary at her
sewing and Angus talking earnestly to her, he became so absorbed in his
own thoughts that he scarcely heard their voices, and often when they
spoke to him, he started from a profound reverie, unconscious of their
words. But it was not the feebleness or weariness of age that made him
seem at times indifferent to what was going on around him--it was the
intensity and fervour of a great and growing idea of happiness in his
soul,--an idea which he cherished so fondly and in such close secrecy,
as to be almost afraid to whisper it to himself lest by some unhappy
chance it should elude his grasp and vanish into nothingness.
And so the time went on to Christmas and New Year. Weircombe kept these
festivals very quietly, yet not without cheerfulness. There was plenty
of holly about, and the children, plunging into the thick of the woods
at the summit of the "coombe" found mistletoe enough for the common
need. The tiny Church was prettily decorated by the rector's wife and
daughters, assisted by some of the girls of the village, and everybody
attended service on Christmas morning, not only because it was
Christmas, but because it was the last time their own parson would
preach to them, before he went away for three months or more to a warm
climate for the benefit of his health. But Helmsley did not join the
little crowd of affectionate parishioners--he stayed at home while Mary
went, as she said "to pray for him." He watched her from the open
cottage door, as she ascended the higher part of the "coombe," dressed
in a simple stuff gown of darkest blue, with a prim little "old maid's"
bonnet, as she called it, tied neatly under her rounded white chin--and
carrying in her hand a much worn "Book of Common Prayer" which she held
with a certain delicate reverence not often shown to holy things by the
church-going women of the time. Weircombe Church had a small but musical
chime of bells, presented to it by a former rector--and the silvery
sweetness of the peal just now ringing was intensified by the close
proximity of the mountain stream, which, rendered somewhat turbulent by
recent rains, swept along in a deep swift current, carrying the melody
of the chimes along with it down to the sea and across the waves in
broken pulsation, till they touched with a faint mysterious echo the
masts of home-returning ships, and brought a smile to the faces of
sailors on board who, recognising the sound, said "Weircombe bells,
sure-_ly_!"
Helmsley stood listening, lost in meditation. To anyone who could have
seen him then, a bent frail figure just within the cottage door, with
his white hair, white beard, and general appearance of gentle and
resigned old age, he would have seemed nothing more than a venerable
peasant, quietly satisfied with his simple surroundings, and as far
apart from every association of wealth, as the daisy in the grass is
from the star in the sky. Yet, in actual fact, his brain was busy
weighing millions of money,--the fate of an accumulated mass of wealth
hung on the balance of his decision,--and he was mentally arranging his
plans with all the clearness, precision and practicality which had
distinguished him in his biggest financial schemes,--schemes which had
from time to time amazed and convulsed the speculating world. A certain
wistful sadness touched him as he looked on the quiet country landscape
in the wintry sunlight of this Christmas morn,--some secret instinctive
foreboding told him that it might be the last Christmas he should ever
see. And a sudden wave of regret swept over his soul,--regret that he
had not appreciated the sweet things of life more keenly when he had
been able to enjoy their worth. So many simple joys missed!--so many
gracious and helpful sentiments discarded!--all the best of his years
given over to eager pursuit of gold,--not because he cared for gold
really, but because, owing to a false social system which perverted the
moral sense, it seemed necessary to happiness. Yet he had proved it to
be the very last thing that could make a man happy. The more money, the
less enjoyment of it--the greater the wealth, the less the content. Was
this according to law?--the spiritual law of compensation, which works
steadily behind every incident which we may elect to call good or evil?
He thought it must be so. This very festival--Christmas--how thoroughly
he had been accustomed by an effete and degenerate "social set" to
regard it as a "bore,"--an exploded superstition--a saturnalia of beef
and pudding--a something which merely served as an excuse for throwing
away good money on mere stupid sentiment. "Stupid" sentiment? Had he
ever thought true, tender, homely sentiment "stupid"? Yes,--perhaps he
had, when in the bold carelessness of full manhood he had assumed that
the race was to the swift and the battle to the strong--but now, when
the shadows were falling--when, perhaps, he would never hear the
Christmas bells again, or be troubled by the "silly superstitions" of
loving, praying, hoping, believing humanity, he would have given much
could he have gone back in fancy to every Christmas of his life and seen
each one spent cheerily amid the warm associations of such "sentiments"
as make friendship valuable and lasting. He looked up half vaguely at
the sky, clear blue on this still frosty morning, and was conscious of
tears that crept smartingly behind his eyes and for a moment dimmed his
sight. And he murmured dreamily--
"Behold we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last, to all--
And every winter change to spring!"
A tall, athletic figure came between him and the light, and Angus Reay's
voice addressed him--
"Hullo, David! A merry Christmas to you! Do you know you are standing
out in the cold? What would Miss Mary say?"
"Miss Mary" was the compromise Angus hit upon between "Miss Deane" and
"Mary,"--considering the first term too formal, and the last too
familiar.
Helmsley smiled.
"Miss Mary has gone to church,"--he replied--"I thought you had gone
too."
Reay gave a slight gesture of mingled regret and annoyance.
"No--I never go to church,"--he said--"But don't you think I despise the
going. Not I. I wish I could go to church! I'd give anything to go as I
used to do with my father every Sunday."
"And why can't you?"
"Because the church is not what it used to be,"--declared Reay--"Don't
get me on that argument, David, or I shall never cease talking! Now, see
here!--if you stand any longer at that open door you'll get a chill! You
go inside the house and imitate Charlie's example--look at him!" And he
pointed to the tiny toy terrier snuggled up as usual in a ball of silky
comfort on the warm hearth--"Small epicure! Come back to your chair,
David, and sit by the fire--your hands are quite cold."
Helmsley yielded to the persuasion, not because he felt cold, but
because he was rather inclined to be alone with Reay for a little. They
entered the house and shut the door.
"Doesn't it look a different place without her!" said Angus, glancing
round the trim little kitchen--"As neat as a pin, of course, but all the
life gone from it."
Helmsley smiled, but did not answer. Seating himself in his armchair, he
spread out his thin old hands to the bright fire, and watched Reay as he
stood near the hearth, leaning one arm easily against a rough beam which
ran across the chimney piece.
"She is a wonderful woman!" went on Reay, musingly; "She has a power of
which she is scarcely conscious."
"And what is that?" asked Helmsley, slowly rubbing his hands with quite
an abstracted air.
Angus laughed lightly, though a touch of colour reddened his bronzed
cheeks.
"The power that the old alchemists sought and never could find!" he
answered--"The touch that transmutes common metals to fine gold, and
changes the every-day prose of life to poetry."
Helmsley went on rubbing his hands slowly.
"It's so extraordinary, don't you think, David,"--he continued--"that
there should be such a woman as Miss Mary alive at all?"
Helmsley looked up at him questioningly, but said nothing.
"I mean,"--and Angus threw out his hand with an impetuous gesture--"that
considering all the abominable, farcical tricks women play nowadays, it
is simply amazing to find one who is contented with a simple life like
this, and who manages to make that simple life so gracious and
beautiful!"
Still Helmsley was silent.
"Now, just think of that girl I've told you about--Lucy
Sorrel,"--proceeded Angus--"Nothing would have contented her in all this
world!"
"Not even her old millionaire?" suggested Helmsley, placidly.
"No, certainly not! Poor old devil! He'll soon find himself put on the
shelf if he marries her. He won't be able to call his soul his own! If
he gives her diamonds, she'll want more diamonds--if he covers her and
stuffs her with money, she'll never have enough! She'll want all she can
get out of him while he lives and everything he has ever possessed when
he's dead."
Helmsley rubbed his hands more vigorously together.
"A very nice young lady," he murmured. "Very nice indeed! But if you
judge her in this way now, why did you ever fall in love with her?"
"She was pretty, David!" and Reay smiled--"That's all! My passion for
her was skin-deep! And hers for me didn't even touch the cuticle! She
was pretty--as pretty as a wax-doll,--perfect eyes, perfect hair,
perfect figure, perfect complexion--ugh! how I hate perfection!"
And taking up the poker, he gave a vigorous blow to a hard lump of coal
in the grate, and split it into a blaze.
"I hate perfection!" he resumed--"Or rather, I hate what passes for
perfection, for, as a matter of fact, there's nothing perfect. And I
specially and emphatically hate the woman that considers herself a
'beauty,' that gets herself photographed as a 'beauty,' that the press
reporter speaks of as a 'beauty,'--and that affronts you with her
'beauty' whenever you look at her, as though she were some sort of
first-class goods for sale. Now Miss Mary is a beautiful woman--and she
doesn't seem to know it."
"Her time for vanity is past,"--said Helmsley, sententiously--"She is an
old maid."
"Old maid be shot!" exclaimed Angus, impetuously--"By Jove! Any man
might be proud to marry her!"
A keen, sharp glance, as incisive as any that ever flashed up and down
the lines of a business ledger, gleamed from under Helmsley's fuzzy
brows.
"Would you?" he asked.
"Would I marry her?" And Angus reddened suddenly like a boy--"Dear old
David, bless you! That's just what I want you to help me to do!"
For a moment such a great wave of triumph swept over Helmsley's soul
that he could not speak. But he mastered his emotion by an effort.
"I'm afraid,"--he said--"I'm afraid I should be no use to you in such a
business,--you'd much better speak to her yourself--"
"Why, of course I mean to speak to her myself,"--interrupted Reay,
warmly--"Don't be dense, David! You don't suppose I want _you_ to speak
for me, do you? Not a bit of it! Only before I speak, I do wish you
could find out whether she likes me a little--because--because--I'm
afraid she doesn't look upon me at all in _that_ light----"
"In what light?" queried Helmsley, gently.
"As a lover,"--replied Angus--"She's given up thinking of lovers."
Helmsley leaned back in his chair, and clasping his hands together so
that the tips of his fingers met, looked over them in almost the same
meditative businesslike way as he had looked at Lucy Sorrel when he had
questioned her as to her ideas of her future.
"Well, naturally she has,"--he answered--"Lovers have given up thinking
of _her_!"
"I hope they have!" said Angus, fervently--"I hope I have no rivals! For
my love for her is a jealous love, David! I must be all in all to her,
or nothing! I must be the very breath of her breath, the life of her
life! I must!--or I am no use to her. And I want to be of use. I want to
work for her, to look upon her as the central point of all my
actions--the very core of ambition and endeavour,--so that everything I
do may be well done enough to meet with her praise. If she does not like
it, it will be worthless. For her soul is as pure as the sunlight and as
full of great depths as the sea! Simplest and sweetest of women as she
is, she has enough of God in her to make a man live up to the best that
is in him!"
His voice thrilled with passion as he spoke--and Helmsley felt a strange
contraction at his heart--a pang of sharp memory, desire and regret all
in one, which moved him to a sense of yearning for this love which he
had never known--this divine and wonderful emotion whose power could so
transform a man as to make him seem a very king among men. For so Angus
Reay looked just now, with his eyes flashing unutterable tenderness, and
his whole aspect expressive of a great hope born of a great ideal. But
he restrained the feeling that threatened to over-master him, and merely
said very quietly, and with a smile--
"I see you are very much in love with her, Mr. Reay!"
"In love?" Angus laughed--"No, my dear old David! I'm not a bit 'in
love.' I love her! That's love with a difference. But you know how it is
with me. I haven't a penny in the world but just what I told you must
last me for a year--and I don't know when I shall make any more. So that
I wouldn't be such a cad as to speak to her about it yet. But--if I
could only get a little hope,--if I could just find out whether she
liked me a little, that would give me more energy in my work, don't you
see? And that's where you could help me, David!"
Helmsley smiled ever so slightly.
"Tell me how,"--he said.
"Well, you might talk to her sometimes and ask her if she ever thinks of
getting married--"
"I have done that,"--interrupted Helmsley--"and she has always said
'No.'"
"Never mind what she _has_ said--ask her again, David,"--persisted
Angus--"And then lead her on little by little to talk about me--"
"Lead her on to talk about you--yes!" and Helmsley nodded his head
sagaciously.
"David, my dear old man, you _will_ interrupt me,"--and Angus laughed
like a boy--"Lead her on, I say,--and find out whether she likes me ever
so little--and then----"
"And then?" queried Helmsley, his old eyes beginning to sparkle--"Must I
sing your praises to her?"
"Sing my praises! No, by Jove!--there's nothing to praise in me. I don't
want you to say a word, David. Let _her_ speak--hear what _she_
says--and then--and then tell _me_!"
"Then tell _you_--yes--yes, I see!" And Helmsley nodded again in a
fashion that was somewhat trying to Reay's patience. "But, suppose she
finds fault with you, and says you are not at all the style of man she
likes--what then?"
"Then,"--said Reay, gloomily--"my book will never be finished!"
"Dear, dear!" Helmsley raised his hands with a very well acted gesture
of timid concern--"So bad as all that!"
"So bad as all that!" echoed Reay, with a quick sigh; "Or rather so good
as all that. I don't know how it has happened, David, but she has quite
suddenly become the very life of my work. I don't think I could get on
with a single page of it, if I didn't feel that I could go to her and
ask her what she thinks of it."
"But,"--said Helmsley, in a gentle, argumentative way--"all this is very
strange! She is not an educated woman."
Reay laughed lightly.
"No? What do you call an educated woman, David?"
Helmsley thought a moment. The situation was a little difficult, for he
had to be careful not to say too much.
"Well, I mean,"--he said, at last--"She is not a lady."
Reay's eyes flashed sudden indignation.
"Not a lady!" he ejaculated--"Good God! Who is a lady then?"
Helmsley glanced at him covertly. How fine the man looked, with his
tall, upright figure, strong, thoughtful face, and air of absolute
determination!
"I'm afraid,"--he murmured, humbly--"I'm afraid I don't know how to
express myself,--but what I want to say is that she is not what the
world would call a lady,--just a simple lace-mender,--real 'ladies'
would not ask her to their houses, or make a friend of her, perhaps--"
"She's a simple lace-mender,--I was a common cowherd,"--said Angus,
grimly--"Do you think those whom the world calls 'ladies' would make a
friend of _me_?"
Helmsley smiled.
"You're a man--and to women it doesn't matter what a man _was_, so long
as he _is_ something. You were a cowherd, as you say--but you educated
yourself at a University and got a degree. In that way you've raised
yourself to the rank of a gentleman--"
"I was always that,"--declared Angus, boldly, "even as a cowherd! Your
arguments won't hold with me, David! A gentleman is not made by a frock
coat and top hat. And a lady is not a lady because she wears fine
clothes and speaks one or two foreign languages very badly. For that's
about all a 'lady's' education amounts to nowadays. According to
Victorian annals, 'ladies' used to be fairly accomplished--they played
and sang music well, and knew that it was necessary to keep up
intelligent conversation and maintain graceful manners--but they've gone
back to sheer barbarism in the frantic ugliness of their performances
at hockey--and they've taken to the repulsive vices of Charles the
Second's time in gambling and other immoralities. No, David! I don't
take kindly to the 'ladies' who disport themselves under the benevolent
dispensation of King Edward the Seventh."
Helmsley was silent. After a pause, Reay went on--
"You see, David, I'm a poor chap--poorer than Mary is. If I could get a
hundred, or say, two hundred pounds for my book when it is finished, I
could ask her to marry me then, because I could bring that money to her
and do something to keep up the home. I never want anything sweeter or
prettier than this little cottage to live in. If she would let me share
it with her as her husband, we should live a perfectly happy life--a
life that thousands would envy us! That is, of course, if she loved me."
"Ay!--that's a very important 'if,'" said Helmsley.
"I know it is. That's why I want you to help me to find out her mind,
David--will you? Because, if you should discover that I am objectionable
to her in any way, it would be better for me, I think, to go straight
away from Weircombe, and fight my trouble out by myself. Then, you see,
she would never know that I wanted to bother her with my life-long
presence. Because she's very happy as she is,--her face has all the
lovely beauty of perfect content--and I'd rather do anything than
trouble her peace."
There followed a pause. The fire crackled and burned with a warm
Christmas glow, and Charlie, uncurling his soft silky body, stretched
out each one of his tiny paws separately, with slow movements expressive
of intense comfort. If ever that little dog had known what it was to lie
in the lap of luxury amid aristocratic surroundings, it was certain that
he was conscious of being as well off in a poor cottage as in a palace
of a king. And after a minute or two, Helmsley raised himself in his
chair and held out his hand to Angus Reay, who grasped it warmly.
"I'll do my best,"--he said, quietly--"I know what you mean--and I think
your feeling does you honour. Of course you know I'm only a kind of
stranger here--just a poor old lonely man, very dependent on Miss Deane
for her care of me, and trying my best to show that I'm not ungrateful
to her for all her goodness--and I mustn't presume too far--but--I'll do
my best. And I hope--I hope all will be well!" He paused--and pressed
Reay's hand again--then glanced up at the quaint sheep-faced clock that
ticked monotonously against the kitchen wall. "She will be coming back
from church directly,"--he continued--"Won't you go and meet her?"
"Shall I?" And Reay's face brightened.
"Do!"
Another moment, and Helmsley was alone--save for the silent company of
the little dog stretched out upon the hearth. And he lost himself in a
profound reverie, the while he built a castle in the air of his own
designing, in which Self had no part. How many airy fabrics of beauty
and joy had he not raised one after the other in his mind, only to see
them crumble into dust!--but this one, as he planned it in his thoughts,
nobly uplifted above all petty limits, with all the light of a broad
beneficence shining upon it, and a grand obliteration of his own
personality serving as the very cornerstone of its foundation, seemed
likely to be something resembling the house spoken of by Christ, which
was built upon a rock--against which neither winds, nor rains, nor
floods could prevail. And when Mary came back from Church, with Reay
accompanying her, she found him looking very happy. In fact, she told
him he had quite "a Christmas face."
"What is a Christmas face, Mary?" he asked, smiling.
"Don't you know? A face that looks glad because other people are
glad,"--she replied, simply.
An expressive glance flashed from Reay's eyes,--a glance which Helmsley
caught and understood in all its eloquent meaning.
"We had quite a touching little sermon this morning," she went on,
untying her bonnet strings, and taking off that unassuming
head-gear--"It was just a homely simple, kind talk. Our parson's sorry
to be going away, but he hopes to be back with us at the beginning of
April, fit and well again. He's looking badly, poor soul! I felt a bit
like crying when he wished us all a bright Christmas and happy New Year,
and said he hoped God would allow him to see us all again."
"Who is going to take charge of the parish in his absence?" asked Reay.
"A Mr. Arbroath. He isn't a very popular man in these parts, and I can't
think why he has volunteered to come here, seeing he's got several
parishes of his own on the other side of Dunster to attend to. But I'm
told he also wants a change--so he's got some one to take his duties,
and he is coming along to us. Of course, it's well known that he likes
to try a new parish whenever he can."
"Has he any reason for that special taste?" enquired Reay.
"Oh yes!" answered Mary, quietly--"He's a great High Churchman, and he
wants to introduce Mass vestments and the confessional whenever he can.
Some people say that he receives an annual payment from Rome for doing
this kind of work."
"Another form of the Papal secret service!" commented Reay, drily--"I
understand! I've seen enough of it!"
Mary had taken a clean tablecloth from an oaken press, and was spreading
it out for dinner.
"Well," she said, smilingly, "he won't find it very advantageous to him
to take the duties here. For every man and woman in the village intends
to keep away from Church altogether if he does not give us our services
exactly as we have always been accustomed to them. And it won't be
pleasant for him to read prayers and preach to empty seats, will it?"
"Scarcely!"
And Angus, standing near the fire, bent his brows with meditative
sternness on the glowing flames. Then suddenly addressing Helmsley, he
said--"You asked me a while ago, David, why I didn't go to Church. I
told you I wished I could go, as I used to do with my father every
Sunday. For, when I was a boy, our Sundays were real devotional
days--our preachers _felt_ what they preached, and when they told us to
worship the great Creator 'in spirit and in truth,' we knew they were in
earnest about it. Now, religion is made a mere 'party' system--a form of
struggle as to which sect can get the most money for its own purposes.
Christ,--the grand, patient, long-suffering Ideal of all goodness, is
gone from it! How can He remain with it while it is such a Sham! Our
bishops in England truckle to Rome--and, Rome itself is employing every
possible means to tamper with the integrity of the British constitution.
The spies and emissaries of Rome are everywhere--both in our so-called
'national' Church and in our most distinctly _un_-national Press!"
Helmsley listened with keen interest. As a man of business, education,
observation, and discernment, he knew that what Reay said was true,--but
in his assumed rôle of a poor and superannuated old office clerk, who
had been turned adrift from work by reason of age and infirmities, he
had always to be on his guard against expressing his opinion too openly
or frankly.
"I don't know much about the newspapers,"--he said, mildly--"I read
those I can get, just for the news--but there isn't much news, it
appears to me----"
"And what there is may be contradicted in an hour's time,"--said
Angus--"I tell you, David, when I started working in journalism, I
thought it was the finest profession going. It seemed to me to have all
the responsibilities of the world on its back. I considered it a force
with which to educate, help, and refine all peoples, and all classes.
But I found it was only a money speculation after all. How much profit
could be made out of it? That was the chief point of action. That was
the mainspring of every political discussion--and in election times, one
side had orders to abuse the other, merely to keep up the popular
excitement. By Jove! I should like to take a select body of electors
'behind the scenes' of a newspaper office and show them how the whole
business is run!"
"You know too much, evidently!" said Mary smiling--"I don't wonder you
were dismissed!"
He laughed--then as suddenly frowned.
"I swear as I stand here," he said emphatically, "that the press is not
serving the people well! Do you know--no, of course you don't!--but I
can tell you for a fact that a short time ago an offer was made from
America through certain financial powers in the city, to buy up several
of the London dailies, and run them on American lines![1] Germany had a
finger in the pie, too, through her German Jews!"
Helmsley looked at his indignant face with a slight imperceptible smile.
"Well!" he said, with a purposely miscomprehending air.
"Well! You say 'Well,' David, as if such a proposition contained nothing
remarkable. That's because you don't understand! Imagine for a moment
the British Press being run by America!"
Helmsley stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"I _can't_ imagine it,"--he said.
"No--of course you can't! But a few rascally city financiers _could_
imagine it, and more than that, were prepared to carry the thing
through. Then, the British people would have been led, guided, advised,
and controlled by a Yankee syndicate! And the worst of it is that this
same British people would have been kept in ignorance of the 'deal.'
They would actually have been paying their pennies to keep up the shares
of a gang of unscrupulous rascals whose sole end and object was to get
the British press into their power! Think of it!"
"But did they succeed?" asked Helmsley.
"No, they didn't. Somebody somewhere had a conscience. Somebody
somewhere refused to 'swop' the nation's much boasted 'liberty of the
press' for so much cash down. I believe the 'Times' is backed by the
Rothschilds, and managed by American advertisers--I don't know whether
it is so or not--but I _do_ know that the public ought to be put on
their guard. If I were a powerful man and a powerful speaker I would
call mass meetings everywhere, and urge the people not to purchase a
single newspaper till each one published in its columns a full and
honest list of the shareholders concerned in it. Then the public would
have a chance of seeing where they are. At present they _don't_ know
where they are."
"Well, you know very well where _you_ are!" said Mary, interrupting him
at this juncture--"You are in my house,--it's Christmas Day, and
dinner's ready!"
He laughed, and they all three sat down to table. It had been arranged
for fully a week before that Angus should share his Christmas dinner
with Mary and "old David"--and a very pleasant and merry meal they made
of it. And in the afternoon and evening some of the villagers came in to
gossip--and there was singing of songs, and one or two bashful attempts
on the part of certain gawky lads to kiss equally gawky girls under the
mistletoe. And Mary, as hostess of the haphazard little party, did her
best to promote kindly feeling among them all, effacing herself so
utterly, and playing the "old maid" with such sweet and placid
loveliness that Angus became restless, and was moved by a feverish
desire to possess himself of one of the little green twigs with white
berries, which, looking so innocent, were apparently so provocative,
and to try its effect by holding it suddenly above the glorious masses
of her brown hair, which shone with the soft and shimmering hue of
evening sunlight. But he dared not. Kissing under the mistletoe was all
very well for boys and girls--but for a mature bachelor of thirty-nine
and an "old maid" of thirty-five, these uncouth and calf-like
gambollings lacked dignity. Moreover, when he looked at Mary's pure
profile--the beautifully shaped eyes, classic mouth, and exquisite line
of neck and shoulder, the very idea of touching those lips with a kiss
given in mere lightness, seemed fraught with impertinence and
irreverence. If ever he kissed Mary, he thought,--and then all the
powers of his mind galloped off like wild horses let loose on a
sun-baked ranch--if ever he kissed Mary! What a dream!--what a boldness
unprecedented! But again--if ever he kissed her, it must be with the
kiss of a lover, for whom such a token of endearment was the sign of a
sacred betrothal. And he became so lost and abstracted in his musings
that he almost forgot the simple village merriment around him, and only
came back to himself a little when the party broke up altogether, and he
himself had to say "good-night," and go with the rest. Mary, while
giving him her hand in farewell, looked at him with a sisterly
solicitude.
"You're tired, Mr. Reay,"--she said--"I'm afraid we've been too noisy
for you, haven't we? But one can't keep boys and girls quiet!"
"I don't want them kept quiet,"--said Reay, holding her hand very
hard--"And I'm not tired. I've only been thinking."
"Ah! Of your book?"
"Yes. Of my book."
He went then, and came no more to the cottage till a week later when it
was New Year's Eve. This they celebrated very quietly--just they three
alone. Mary thought it somewhat imprudent for "old David" to sit up till
midnight in order to hear the bells "ring out the Old, ring in the
New"--but he showed a sudden vigorous resolution about it which was not
to be gainsaid.
"Let me have my way, my dear,"--he implored her--"I may never see
another New Year!"
"Nonsense, David!" she said cheerily--"You will see many and many a one,
please God!"
"Please God, I shall!" he answered, quietly--"But if it should not
please God--then--"
"There!--you want to stay up, and you shall stay up!" she declared,
smiling--"After all, as Mr. Reay is with us, the time won't perhaps seem
so long for you."
"But for you,"--put in Angus--"it will seem very long won't it!"
"Oh, I always sit up for the coming-in of the New Year,"--she
replied--"Father used to do it, and I like to keep up all father's ways.
Only I thought David might feel too tired. You must sing to us, Mr.
Reay, to pass the hours away."
"And so must you!" he replied.
And she did sing that night as she had never sung to them before, with a
fuller voice and more passion than she had hitherto shown,--one little
wild ballad in particular taking Reay's fancy so much that he asked her
to sing it more than once. The song contained just three six-line
stanzas, having little merit save in their suggestiveness.
Oh love, my love! I have giv'n you my heart
Like a rose full-blown,
With crimson petals trembling apart--
It is all your own--
What will you do with it. Dearest,--say?
Keep it for ever or throw it away?
Oh love, my love! I have giv'n you my life,
Like a ring of gold;
Symbol of peace in a world of strife,
To have and to hold.
What will you do with it, Dearest,--say?
Treasure it always, or throw it away?
Oh love, my love! Have all your will--
I am yours to the end;
Be false or faithful--comfort or kill,
Be lover or friend,--
Where gifts are given they must remain,
I never shall ask for them back again!
"Do you know that you have a very beautiful voice, Miss Mary?" said
Angus, after hearing this for the second time.
"Oh, I don't think so at all,"--she answered, quickly; "Father used to
like to hear me sing--but I can only just give ballads their meaning,
and pronounce the words carefully so the people may know what I am
trying to sing about. I've no real voice."
"You have!" And Angus turned to Helmsley for his opinion--"Hasn't she,
David?"
"Her voice is the sweetest _I_ ever heard,"--replied Helmsley--"But then
I'm not much of a judge."
And his thoughts went roving back to certain entertainments in London
which he had given for the benefit of his wealthy friends, when he had
paid as much as five or six hundred guineas in fees to famous opera
singers, that they might shriek or warble, as their respective talents
dictated, to crowds of indifferent loungers in his rooms, who cared no
more for music than they did for religion. He almost smiled as he
recalled those nights, and contrasted them with this New Year's evening,
when seated in an humble cottage, he had for his companions only a
lowly-born poor woman, and an equally lowly-born poor man, both of whom
evinced finer education, better manners, greater pride of spirit, and
more resolute independence than nine-tenths of the "society" people who
had fawned upon him and flattered him, simply because they knew he was a
millionaire. And the charm of his present position was that these two,
poor, lowly-born people were under the impression that even in their
poverty and humility they were better off than he was, and that because
fortune had been, as they considered, kind to them, they were bound to
treat him in a way that should not remind him of his dependent and
defenceless condition. It was impossible to imagine greater satisfaction
than that which he enjoyed in the contemplation of his own actual
situation as compared with that which he had impressed upon the minds of
these two friends of his who had given him their friendship trustingly
and frankly for himself alone. And he listened placidly, with folded
hands and half shut eyes, while Angus, at Mary's request, trolled forth
"The Standard on the Braes o' Mar" and "Sound the pibroch,"--varying
those warlike ditties with "Jock o' Hazledean," and "Will ye no come
back again,"--till all suddenly Mary rose from her chair, and with her
finger to her lips said "Hark!" The church-bells were ringing out the
Old Year, and glancing at the clock, they saw it wanted but ten minutes
to midnight. Softly Mary stepped to the cottage door and opened it. The
chime swung melodiously in, and Angus Reay went to the threshold, and
stood beside Mary, listening. Had they glanced back that instant they
would have seen Helmsley looking at them both, with an intensity of
yearning in his pale face and sad old eyes that was pitiful and earnest
beyond all expression--they would have seen his lips move, as he
murmured--"God grant that I may make their lives beautiful! God give me
this peace of mind before I die! God bless them!" But they were absorbed
in listening--and presently with a deep clang the bells ceased. Mary
turned her head.
"The Old Year's out, David!"
Then she went to him and knelt down beside him.
"It's been a kind old year!"--she said--"It brought you to me to take
care of, and _me_ to you to take care of you--didn't it?"
He laid one hand on hers, tremblingly, but was silent. She turned up her
kind, sweet face to his.
"You're not tired, are you?"
He shook his head.
"No, my dear, no!"
A rush and a clang of melody swept suddenly through the open door--the
bells had begun again.
"A Happy New Year, Miss Mary!" said Angus, looking towards her from
where he stood on the threshold--"And to you, David!"
With an irrepressible movement of tenderness Helmsley raised his
trembling hands and laid them gently on Mary's head.
"Take an old man's blessing, my dear!" he said, softly, "And from a most
grateful heart!"
She caught his hands as he lifted them again from her brow, and kissed
them. There were tears in her eyes, but she brushed them quickly away.
"You talk just like father!" she said, smiling--"He was always grateful
for nothing!"
And rising from her kneeling attitude by Helmsley's chair, she went
again towards the open cottage door, holding out her two hands to Reay.
Looking at her as she approached he seemed to see in her some gracious
angel, advancing with all the best possibilities of life for him in her
sole power and gift.
"A Happy New Year, Mr. Reay! And success to the book!"
He clasped the hands she extended.
"If you wish success for it, success is bound to come!" he answered in a
low voice--"I believe in your good influence!"
She looked at him, and whatever answer rose to her lips was suddenly
silenced by the eloquence of his eyes. She coloured hotly, and then grew
very pale. They both stood on the threshold of the open door, silent and
strangely embarrassed, while the bells swung and clanged musically
through the frosty air, and the long low swish of the sea swept up like
a harmonious bass set to the silvery voice of the chimes. They little
guessed with what passionate hope, yearning, and affection, Helmsley
watched them standing there!--they little knew that on them the last
ambition of his life was set!--and that any discovery of sham or
falsehood in their natures would make cruel havoc of his dearest dreams!
They waited, looking out on the dark quiet space, and listening to the
rush of the stream till the clamour of the bells ceased again, and
sounded no more. In the deep stillness that followed Angus said softly--
"There's not a leaf left on the old sweetbriar bush now!"
"No,"--answered Mary, in the same soft tone--"But it will be the first
thing to bud with the spring."
"I've kept the little sprig you gave me,"--he added, apparently by way
of a casual after-thought.
"Have you?"
Silence fell again--and not another word passed between them save a
gentle "Good-night" when, the New Year having fully come in, they
parted.
[Footnote 1: A fact.]