"And we like you much better by yourself."
"Oh, hush, children," said Marjory. "We are all very fond of Val."
"You have brought a great deal of delight into the village. Wyndham,"
said Carr, and he related the little scene which had taken place around the school-house. "I"d give a good deal to be even half as popular," he said with a sigh.
"You might give all you possessed in all the world, and you wouldn"t succeed," snapped Gussie.
"Augusta, you really are too rude," said Lilias with a flush on her face.
"No, I"m not, Lil. Oh, you needn"t stare at me. I like him, and he knows it," nodding with her head in the direction of Adrian Carr; "but you have to be born in a place, and taught to walk in it, and you have had to steal apples in it and eggs out of birds" nests, and to get nearly drowned when fishing, and to get some shot in your ankle, and you"ve got to know every soul in all the country round, and to come back from school to them in the holidays, and for them first to see your moustache coming; and then, beyond and above all that, you"ve got just to be _Gerry_, to have his way of looking, and his way of walking, and his way of shaking your hand, and to have his voice and his heart, to be loved as well. So how _could_ Mr. Carr expect it?"
"Bravo, Augusta," said Adrian Carr. "I"d like you for a friend better than any girl I know."
"Please, Gerry, tell us a story," exclaimed the younger children. They did not want Augusta to have all the talking.
"Let it be about a mouse, and a cricket on the hearth, and a white elephant, and a roaring bull, and a grizzly bear."
"And let the ten little n.i.g.g.e.r-boys come into it," said Betty.
"And Bo-Peep," said Rosie.
"And the Old Man who wouldn"t say his prayers," exclaimed Joan.
"And let it last for hours," exclaimed they all.
Gerald begged the rest of the audience to go away, but they refused to budge an inch. So the story began. All the characters appeared in due order; it lasted a long time, and everybody was delighted.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Lilias Wyndham never forgot that last Sunday with Gerald spent at Jewsbury-on-the-Wold. The day in itself was perfect, the air blew softly from the west, the sun shone in a nearly cloudless heaven; the gentle breezes, the opening flowers, the first faint buds of spring on tree and hedge-row seemed all to give a foretaste of summer. n.o.body knew, none could guess, that in one sense they foretold the desolation of dark winter.
It was in this light that Wyndham himself regarded the lovely day.
"I leap from calm to storm," he said to himself. "Never mind, I will enjoy the present bliss!"
He did enjoy it, really, not seemingly. He took every sc.r.a.p of sweetness out of it, almost forgetting Valentine for the time being, and living over again the days when he was a light-hearted boy.
He went to church twice, and sat in the corner of the square family pew which had always been reserved for him. As of old, Lilias sat by his side, and when the sermon came he lifted little Joan into his arms, and she fell asleep with her golden head on his breast. The rector preached and Gerald listened. It was an old-fashioned sermon, somewhat long for the taste of the present day. It had been carefully prepared, and was read aloud, for the benefit of the congregation, in a clear, gentlemanly voice.
Gerald almost forgot that he was a man with an unusual load of suffering upon him, as he listened to the time-honored softly-flowing sentences.
"Blessed are the pure in heart," was the rector"s text, and it seemed to more than one of that little village congregation that he was describing his own son when he drew his picture of the man of purity.
In the evening Carr preached. He was as modern as the rector was the reverse. He used neither M.S. nor notes, and his sermon scarcely occupied ten minutes.
"To die is gain" was his text. There were some in the congregation who scarcely understood the vigorous words, but they seemed to one weary man like the first trumpet notes of coming battle. They spoke of a fight which led to a victory. Wyndham remembered them by-and-bye.
It was the custom at the rectory to have a kind of open house on Sunday evening, and to-night many of Gerald"s friends dropped in. The large party seemed a happy one. The merriment of the night before had deepened into something better. Lilias spoke of it afterwards as bliss.
"Do you remember," she said to Marjory, in the desolate days which followed, "how Gerald looked when he played the organ in the hall? Do you remember his face when we sang "Sun of my soul?""
The happiest days come to an end. The children went to bed, the friends one by one departed. Even Lilias and Marjory kissed their brother and bade him good-night. He was to leave before they were up in the morning. This he insisted on, against their will.
"But we shall see you soon in London," they both said, for they were coming up in a few weeks to stay with an aunt. Then they told him to kiss Valentine for them, and went upstairs, chatting lightly to one another.
The rector and his son were alone.
"We have had a happy day," said Gerald, abruptly.
"We have, my son. It does us all good to have you with us, Gerald. I could have wished--but there"s no good regretting now. Each man must choose his own path, and you seem happy, my dear son; that is the main thing."
"I never thought primarily of happiness," responded Gerald. "Did you listen to Carr"s sermon to-night? He proved his case well. To die _is_ sometimes gain."
The rector, who was seated by the fire, softly patted his knee with one hand.
"Yes, yes," he said, "Carr proved his case ably. He"s a good fellow. A _little_ inclined to the broad church, don"t you think?"
"Perhaps so."
Gerald stood up. His face had suddenly grown deadly white.
"Father, I kept a secret from you all day. I did not wish to do anything to mar the bliss of this perfect Sunday. You--you"ll break it to Lilias and Maggie, and the younger children. I"m going to Sydney on Wednesday. I came down to say good-bye."
He held out his hand. The rector stood up and grasped it.
"My dear lad--my boy. Well--well--you"ll come back again. Of course, I did know that you expected to go abroad on business for your firm. My dear son. Yes, my boy--aye--you"ll come back again soon. How queer you look, Gerald. Sit down. I"m afraid you"re a little overdone."
"Good-bye, father. You"re an old man, and Sydney is a long way off.
Good-bye. I have a queer request to make. Grant it, and don"t think me weak or foolish. Give me your blessing before I go."
Suddenly Wyndham fell on his knees, and taking his father"s hand laid it on his head.
"I am like Esau," he said. "Is there not one blessing left for me?"
The rector was deeply moved.
"Heaven above bless you, my boy," he said. "Your mother"s G.o.d go with you. There, Gerald, you are morbid. You will be back with me before the snows of next winter fall. But G.o.d bless you, my boy, wherever you are and whatever you do!"
CHAPTER XXVII.