THE VOICE.
"The boy is mad," cried Anthony Hershall, bringing down his fist with
an angry movement on to his knee, "the herald has turned his head."
"What is it?" asked his wife anxiously, as she looked up at her
husband, who had just come in from his ride and had sat down heavily
on the large chair by the fire.
"What is it?" he repeated fiercely, "why he refuses to have anything to
do with the business I have bought for him, and declares he must start
at once for the Radiant City. Radiant City, indeed! Why everyone knows
that the herald is no true prophet; there is no such place. Belief in
it has long ago vanished."
"It is only a passing fancy of the boy's," said his wife, "he said
something to me about it last night, but I made little of it, and told
him to get rid of the nonsense as soon as he could. He won't be driven,
Anthony; we can only persuade him. It has been so with him ever since
he was a child; the boy will not be talked out of it."
"Aye, he was always a stubborn lad and went his own way; but this is
passing all bounds, after the trouble I have taken to set him up in
life, and with the prospect of making a large fortune."
"Has he scruples about the business, then?"
"Scruples? He says he will have nothing to do with it; that he
would be getting rich at the expense of other men's souls, or some
such nonsense. Besides which he is starting out at once for the
Radiant City."
"He won't do that," said his wife, smiling, "he won't leave Gabrielle,
and certainly Gabrielle is not one to go on that mad journey with him.
She is too fond of Punon. Do not fear, Anthony. The boy is devoted
heart and soul to Gabrielle, and nothing would induce him to give her
up."
"Mark my word, she will go with him. A woman is easily persuaded by the
man she loves."
"Gabrielle is much too fond of her comforts and luxuries to give them
up even for Amer. She loves herself better than him; I have noticed
this in a hundred ways. No, she will never start on that long and
hazardous journey, and if the boy does he will have to go without her.
It will be hard for him, poor lad, if he keeps to his resolution,
but he won't."
Half comforted, her husband rose up, determined to seek his son once
more and to bring before him all the strongest arguments he could think
of to turn his mind before it was too late.
His wife let her work drop on to her knee after he had left the room,
and her eyes peered out into the twilight with a somewhat mournful
expression in them.
So Amer, poor boy, was going through all the agony of mind that had
once been hers. Once, long, long ago, she herself had heard the Voice.
The remembrance of strange longings, strange fears, began to haunt
her soul. She had believed in the Radiant City in those days, and had
more than once made up her mind to journey towards it, but something
had always come in the way to induce her to put off the decision; some
important engagement in the town which she felt she could not give up;
some friend who had influenced her to postpone thinking about it for at
least a month or two; some occupation which she could not forsake even
for the Radiant City; and finally her husband had come across her path,
and the thought of him, her love for him, had at first put the subject
out of her mind, and when after a while she mentioned to him that she
had thought of setting out for the Radiant City before her marriage, he
laughed at her, telling her that great and wise people had come to the
conclusion that there was no such place, and that those who set out for
it were only following a mirage and would be disappointed at last. Was
this true? Was there no Radiant City? Was the City of Punon the only
reality? Or was Amer right and her husband wrong?
"Mother," said a voice by her side, "has my father told you of my
decision?"
"Yes, dear lad," she answered, "but I am not going to think about
it, it cannot be. You could not give up all your bright prospects,
specially after the pains your father has taken to secure them for you."
"But I have heard the Voice, Mother, and I must obey."
"I heard the Voice once, Amer, and almost made up my mind to set out on
the journey myself. But had I done so I should have lost a great deal
that makes life delightful to me, and I should have had to start out
alone. So will you my boy. Gabrielle will not go with you. You will
have to leave her behind."
A spasm of pain crossed the boy's face.
"You do not know that, Mother," he said, "I have hopes of Gabrielle."
"I have none," answered his Mother quietly.
"She loves me," said Amer, "and I know I have influence with her.
I believe she will set out on the journey with me."
"I think not," said his Mother.
Amer answered nothing, for so much did he believe in his love for the
girl and in her love for him that he felt it would be easy work for him
to persuade her.
"Mother," he said, turning the subject, "do you never long for the
sunshine? Punon is dark. I have only noticed it since the herald came
and pointed it out to me. How few people there are with sunlight on
their faces. I do not know one. And are you not afraid to disobey the
Voice as it is the Voice of the Great King of the Radiant City?"
"I used to be afraid," answered his Mother, "and used to long
passionately for light and sunshine. But all those longings have fled.
I never think of them now. And besides, do you not know that a very
large number of our cleverest men have given out the fact that there
is no Radiant City and no Great King of the Radiant City? They seem to
say that it is only very simple souls that trouble about such things.
Amer," she said earnestly, "don't let your Mother have the grow of
having it said that her son is a simple, unlike other young men of his
age. I have always thought of you with such pride. There is not another
Mother that I know who has a son to be more proud of than I. You are
the most popular young man in this part of Punon, but once decide to
start on that long journey and your popularity will be gone. Men will
talk of you with a laugh and a shrug of the shoulder. You will be
treated as mad. Think of your Mother, my boy."
"Dear Mother," said the boy sadly, "you will break my heart, but even
you cannot make me forget the Voice. I am hearing it continually, and
I must obey; besides, I have had such an account given me of the King,
that I cannot rest till I am on my journey towards Him. He is the one
I have been looking for for years, and Who alone can satisfy the
longings of my heart. I am taking Him as my King to-day and I am
starting out on my journey to-day. Mother, won't you listen to the
Voice and come with me?"
"You dare to break my heart?" said his Mother sternly, "you reward your
father's labour for you in getting you this good post in this way?"
"My King must come first," answered the boy, sorrowfully but firmly.
"I think you will find that Gabrielle comes first," was his mother's
answer.
"I will go and seek Gabrielle," said Amer. He found her in the
honey-suckle arbour of her father's garden. She did not receive him
with the same sweet smile as usual: Amer felt instinctively that
already the thought of the Radiant City lay between them and estranged
them.
"Gabrielle," he said. She moved slightly away from him.
"I have heard strange things about you," she said coldly, "you refuse
to take up the post which your father has found for you. Your love for
me cannot be so great as you have led me to suppose. My father will not
allow me to have anything to do with a man who cannot support his wife."
"You have heard then that I am setting out for the Radiant City?" he
questioned.
"I have heard some such nonsense," she answered, turning away her face
from his steady gaze, "but you will have to chose between the Radiant
City and me, for I will not have a husband who is the laughing stock of
everyone, you are mad to give up this post."
"You will have a husband who is more worth having," he answered, "and
you will come with me."
The idea was so amusing to the girl that she turned round and laughed
at him.
"The journey would not suit me," she said, "neither would the company,"
and she threw a defiant look up at him; "think of me enduring the
hardships which they say await pilgrims to the Radiant City; I should
be frightened to death with it all. Besides," she added, with a spice
of coquetry in her eyes, "the company would be dull."
Amer looked down upon her with a mystified expression of face. "You do
not love me enough then to be willing to leave all besides?" he asked.
"Not if you go on this pilgrimage. Already I find you different to what
you were before you heard the herald. You used to say then that you
would follow me to the end of Punon, but now you wish me to follow you
out of it, you do not love me as you used to do."
In a minute Amer was on his knees beside her, telling her in passionate
language that his love was even stronger than it used to be, that it
was as strong as death.
"Then," said Gabrielle, "prove it and give up these ridiculous fancies
of yours. Why should you set yourself up as better than other people?
Think of the many who have gone in for this business; you do not
suppose that you are better than they?"
"No," said Amer, "but I have heard the Voice."
"Oh don't," she cried, "when you talk like that I am afraid of you."
"Have you never heard it?"
Gabrielle wrenched her hands from his and covered her pretty little
ears with them.
"No, no," she cried, "and I don't want to. If Punon is really doomed,
there is still plenty of time. I will not hear the Voice; I could not
endure the hardships."
"But the King, I am told, takes care of all those who start on the
journey, and at the end we shall see Him in His beauty."
"There is no King and no Radiant City," exclaimed the girl petulantly,
"no one believes in that story now; and you have not really heard a
Voice; it is only in your imagination."
"But I have heard the Voice," persisted Amer.
"Oh don't," cried Gabrielle, "I begin to hate you when you say these
things, we had better part, Amer. I could not have a husband who
frightens me by his mad talk, and who insists upon taking me this long
journey. I will not go, you must choose between the Radiant City of
your dreams and me."
"Must I then go alone?" Amer rose as he said these words, and stood
looking down upon her with such tenderness in his face that Gabrielle
repented of her hard words.
"No," she said, stretching out her hands towards him, "you must not go
alone, you must not go at all. I want you Amer, and cannot do without
you; you must stay with me. You say you love me; love me enough then to
forget the Radiant City and to stay and work for me; you will not, you
cannot leave me."
And standing there looking into her sweet eyes, which were now suffused
with love, Amer felt that he could not leave her.
"You shall be my Radiant City," he cried, "I will live and work for
you."