BUT the deputation and the increased salary and the silver salver were
all ineffectual. Arthur would not hear reason, as his mother knew. It
was with bitter restrained tears of disappointment and vexation that she
heard from him, when he returned to that conference in Susan's room, the
events of the evening. It came hard upon the widow, who had invited her
son to his sister's bedside that they might for the first time talk
together as of old over all their plans. But though her heart ached over
the opportunity thus thrown away, and though she asked herself with
terror, "What was Arthur to do now?" his mother knew he was not to be
persuaded. She smiled on Tozer next morning, ready to cry with vexation
and anxiety as she was. "When my son has made up his mind, it will be
vain for any one to try to move him," said the widow, proud of him in
spite of all, though her heart cried out against his imprudence and
foolishness; and so it proved. The minister made his acknowledgments so
heartily to the good butterman, that Tozer's disclaimer of any special
merit, and declaration that he had but tried to "do his dooty," was made
with great faltering and unsteadiness; but the Nonconformist himself
never wavered in his resolve. Half of Carlingford sat in tears to hear
Mr. Vincent's last sermon. Such a discourse had never been heard in
Salem. Scarcely one of the deacons could find a place in the crowded
chapel to which all the world rushed; and Tozer himself listened to the
last address of his minister from one of the doors of the gallery, where
his face formed the apex and culminating point of the crowd to Mr.
Vincent's eyes. When Tozer brushed his red handkerchief across his face,
as he was moved to do two or three times in the course of the sermon,
the gleam seemed to the minister, who was himself somewhat excited, to
redden over the entire throng. It was thus that Mr. Vincent ended his
connection with Salem Chapel. It was a heavy blow to the congregation
for the time--so heavy that the spirit of the butterman yielded; he was
not seen in his familiar seat for three full Sundays after; but the
place was mismanaged in Pigeon's hands, and regard for the connection
brought Tozer to the rescue. They had Mr. Beecher down from Homerton,
who made a very good impression. The subsequent events are so well known
in Carlingford, that it is hardly necessary to mention the marriage of
the new minister, which took place about six months afterwards. Old Mr.
Tufton blessed the union of his dear young brother with the blushing
Phoebe, who made a most suitable minister's wife in Salem after the
first disagreeables were over; and Mr. Beecher proved a great deal more
tractable than any man of genius. If he was not quite equal to Mr.
Vincent in the pulpit, he was much more complaisant at all the
tea-parties; and, after a year's experience, was fully acknowledged,
both by himself and others, to have made an 'it.
Vincent meanwhile plunged into that world of life which the young man
did not know; not that matters looked badly for him when he left
Carlingford--on the contrary, the connection in general thrilled to hear
of his conduct and his speech. The enthusiasm in Homerton was too great
to be kept within bounds. Such a demonstration of the rightful claims of
the preacher had not been made before in the memory of man; and the
enlightened Nonconforming community did honour to the martyr. Three
vacant congregations at least wooed him to their pulpits; his fame
spread over the country: but he did not accept any of these invitations;
and after a while the eminent Dissenting families who invited him to
dinner, found so many other independencies cropping out in the young
man, that the light of their countenances dimmed upon him. It began to
be popularly reported, that a man so apt to hold opinions of his own,
and so convinced of the dignity of his office, had best have been in the
Church where people knew no better. Such, perhaps, might have been the
conclusion to which he came himself; but education and prejudice and
Homerton stood invincible in the way. A Church of the Future--an ideal
corporation, grand and primitive, not yet realised, but surely real, to
be come at one day--shone before his eyes, as it shines before so many;
but, in the mean time, the Nonconformist went into literature, as was
natural, and was, it is believed in Carlingford, the founder of the
'Philosophical Review,' that new organ of public opinion. He had his
battle to fight, and fought it out in silence, saying little to any one.
Sundry old arrows were in his heart, still quivering by times as he
fought with the devil and the world in his desert; but he thought
himself almost prosperous, and perfectly composed and eased of all
fanciful and sentimental sorrows, when he went, two or three years after
these events, to Folkestone, to meet his mother and sister, who had been
living abroad, away from him, with their charge, and to bring them to
the little house he had prepared for them in London, and where he said
to himself he was prepared, along with them--a contented but
neutral-coloured household--to live out his life.
But when Mr. Vincent met his mother at Folkestone, not even the haze of
the spring evening, nor the agitation of the meeting, which brought back
again so forcibly all the events which accompanied the parting, could
soften to him the wonderful thrill of surprise, almost a shock, with
which he looked upon two of the party. The widow, in her close white cap
and black bonnet, was unchanged as when she fell, worn out, into his
arms on her first visit to Carlingford. She gave a little cry of joy as
she saw her son. She trembled so with emotion and happiness, that he
had to steady her on his arm and restrain his own feelings till another
time. The other two walked by their side to the hotel where they were to
rest all night. He had kissed Susan in the faint evening light, but her
brother did not know that grand figure, large and calm and noble like a
Roman woman, at whom the other passengers paused to look as they went
on; and his first glance at the younger face by her side sent the blood
back to his heart with a sudden pang and thrill which filled him with
amazement at himself. He heard the two talking to each other, as they
went up the crowded pier in the twilight, like a man walking in a dream.
What his mother said, leaning on his arm, scarcely caught his attention.
He answered to her in monosyllables, and listened to the voices--the
low, sweet laughter, the sound of the familiar names. Nothing in Susan's
girlish looks had prophesied that majestic figure, that air of quiet
command and power. And a wilder wonder still attracted the young man's
heart as he listened to the beautiful young voice which kept calling on
Susan, Susan, like some sweet echo of a song. These two, had they been
into another world, an enchanted country? When they came into the
lighted room, and he saw them divest themselves of their wrappings, and
beheld them before him, visible tangible creatures and no dreams,
Vincent was struck dumb. He seemed to himself to have been suddenly
carried out of the meaner struggles of his own life into the air of a
court, the society of princes. When Susan came up to him and laid her
two beautiful hands on his shoulders, and looked with her blue eyes into
his face, it was all he could do to preserve his composure, and conceal
the almost awe which possessed him. The wide sleeve had fallen back from
her round beautiful arm. It was the same arm that used to lie stretched
out uncovered upon her sick-bed like a glorious piece of marble. Her
brother could scarcely rejoice in the change, it struck him with so much
wonder, and was so different from his thoughts. Poor Susan! he had said
in his heart for many a day. He could not say poor Susan now.
"Arthur does not know me," she said, with a low, liquid voice, fuller
than the common tones of women. "He forgets how long it is ago since we
went away. He thinks you cannot have anything so big belonging to you,
my little mother. But it is me, Arthur. Susan all the same."
"Susan perhaps, since you say so--but not all the same," said Arthur,
with his astonished eyes.
"And I daresay you don't know Alice either," said his sister. "I was
little and Alice was foolish when we went away. At least I was little in
Lonsdale, where nobody minded me. Somehow most people mind me now,
because I am so big, I suppose; and Alice, instead of being foolish, is
a little wise woman. Come here, Alice, and let my brother see you. You
have heard of him every day for three years. At last here is Arthur;
but what am I to do if he has forgotten me?"
"I have forgotten neither of you," said the young man. He was glad to
escape from Susan's eyes, which somehow looked as if they were a bit of
the sky, a deep serene of blue; and the little Alice imagined he did not
look at her at all, and was a little mortified in her tender heart.
Things began to grow familiar to him after a while. However wonderful
they were, they were real creatures, who did not vanish away, but were
close by him all the evening, moving about--this with lovely fairy
lightness, that with majestic maiden grace--talking in a kind of dual,
harmonious movement of sound, filling the soft spring night with a world
of vague and strange fascination. The window was opened in their
sitting-room, where they could see the lights and moving figures, and,
farther off, the sea--and hear outside the English voices, which were
sweet to hear to the strangers newly come home. Vincent, while he
recovered himself, stood near this window by his mother's chair, paying
her such stray filial attentions as he could in the bewilderment of his
soul, and slowly becoming used to the two beautiful young women,
unexpected apparitions, who transformed life itself and everything in
it. Was one his real sister, strange as it seemed? and the other----?
Vincent fell back and resigned himself to the strange, sweet,
unlooked-for influence. They went up to London together next day.
Sunshine did not disperse them into beautiful mists, as he had almost
feared. It came upon him by glimpses to see that fiery sorrow and
passion had acted like some tropical tempestuous sun upon his sister's
youth; and the face of his love looked back upon him from the storm in
which it died, as if somehow what was impossible might be possible
again. Mrs. Mildmay, a wandering restless soul as she was, happened to
be absent from London just then. Alice was still to stay with her
dearest friends. The Nonconformist went back to his little home with the
sensation of an enchanted prince in a fairy tale. Instead of the
mud-coloured existence, what a glowing, brilliant firmament! Life became
glorious again under their touch. As for Mrs. Vincent, she was too happy
in getting home--in seeing Susan, after all the anguishes and struggles
which no one knew of fully but herself, rising up in all the strength of
her youth to this renewed existence--to feel as much distressed as she
had expected about Arthur's temporary withdrawal from his profession. It
was only a temporary withdrawal, she hoped. He still wore his clerical
coat, and called himself "clergyman" in the Blue Book--and he was doing
well, though he was not preaching. The Nonconformist himself naturally
was less sober in his thoughts. He could not tell what wonderful thing
he might not yet do in this wonderful elevation and new inspiring of his
heart. His genius broke forth out of the clouds. Seeing these two as
they went about the house, hearing their voices as they talked in
perpetual sweet accord, with sweeter jars of difference, surprised the
young man's life out of all its shadows;--one of them his sister--the
other----. After all his troubles, the loves and the hopes came back
with the swallows to build under his eaves and stir in his heart.
THE END.
PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
I hope the congregration will=> I hope the congregation will {pg 180}
shoked in all her gentle politeness=> shocked in all her gentle
politeness {pg 278}