From this the physician argued that the memory of his past life would sooner or later return, and it was this hope alone which at that time saved Darrell from total despair.
Aside from his professional interest in so peculiar a case, Dr. Bradley had become interested in Darrell himself; many of his leisure hours were spent at The Pines, and quite a friendship existed between the two.
In Mr. Underwood and his sister Darrell had found two steadfast friends, each seeming to vie with the other in thoughtful, un.o.btrusive kindness.
His strange misfortune had only deepened and intensified the sympathy which had been first aroused by the peculiar circ.u.mstances under which he had come to them. But now, as then, they said little, and for this Darrell was grateful. Even the silent pity which he read in their eyes hurt him,--why, he could scarcely explain to himself; expressed in words, it would have been intolerable. Early in his convalescence Darrell had expressed an unwillingness to trespa.s.s upon their kindness by remaining after he could with safety be moved, but the few words they had spoken on that occasion had effectually silenced any further suggestion of the kind on his part. He understood that to leave them would be to forfeit their friendship, which he well knew was of a sort too rare to be slighted or thrown aside.
Of Kate Underwood Darrell knew nothing, except as her father or aunt spoke of her, for he had no recollection of her and she had left home early in his illness to return to an eastern college, from which she would graduate the following year.
With more animation than he had yet shown since his illness, Darrell returned to the veranda. He was flushed and trembling slightly from the unusual exertion, and Dr. Bradley, dropping down beside him, from force of habit laid his fingers on Darrell"s wrist, but the latter shook them off playfully.
"No more of that!" he exclaimed, adding, "Doctor, I challenge you for a race two weeks from to-day. What do you say, do you take me up?"
"Two weeks from to-day!" repeated the doctor, with an incredulous smile, at the same time scrutinizing Darrell"s form. "Well, yes. When you are in ordinary health I don"t think I would care to do much business with you along that line, but two weeks from to-day is a safe proposition, I guess. What do you want to make it, a hundred yards?" he inquired, with a laughing glance at Mr. Underwood.
"One hundred yards," replied Darrell, following the direction of the doctor"s glance. "Do you want to name the winner, Mr. Underwood?"
"I"ll back you, my boy," said the elder man, quietly, his shrewd face growing a trifle shrewder.
"What!" exclaimed Dr. Bradley, rising hastily;
"I guess it"s about time I was going, if that"s your estimate of my athletic prowess," and, shaking hands with Darrell, he started down the driveway.
"I"ll put you up at about ten to one," Mr. Underwood called after the retreating figure, but a deprecatory wave of his hand over his shoulder was the doctor"s only reply.
"Oh," exclaimed Darrell, looking about him, "this is glorious! This is one of the days that make a fellow feel that life is worth living!"
Even as he spoke there came to his mind the thought of what life meant to him, and the smile died from his lips and the light from his eyes.
For a moment nothing was said, then, with the approaching sound of rhythmic hoof-beats, Mr. Underwood rose, deliberately emptying the ashes from his pipe as a fine pair of black horses attached to a light carriage appeared around the house from the direction of the stables.
"You will be back for lunch, David?" Mrs. Dean inquired.
"Yes, and I"ll bring Jack with me," was his reply, as he seated himself beside the driver, and the horses started at a brisk trot down the driveway.
With a smile Mrs. Dean addressed Darrell, who was watching the horses with a keen appreciation of their good points.
"This "Jack" that you"ve heard my brother speak of is his partner."
"Yes?" said Darrell, courteously, feeling slight interest in the expected guest, but glad of anything to divert his thoughts.
"Yes," Mrs. Dean continued; "they"ve been partners and friends for more than ten years. His name is John Britton, but it"s never anything but "Dave" and "Jack" between the two; they"re almost like two boys together."
Darrell wondered what manner of man this might be who could transform his silent, stern-faced host into anything boy-like, but he said nothing.
"To see them together you"d wonder at their friendship, too," continued Mrs. Dean, "for they"re noways alike. My brother is all business, and Mr. Britton is not what you"d really call a practical business man. He is very rich, for he is one of those men that everything they touch seems to turn to gold, but he doesn"t seem to care much about money. He spends a great deal of his time in reading and studying, and though he makes very few friends, he could have any number of them if he wanted, for he"s one of those people that you always feel drawn to without knowing why."
Mrs. Dean paused to count the st.i.tches in her work, and Darrell, whose thoughts were of the speaker more than of the subject of conversation, watching her placid face, wondered whether it were possible for any emotion ever to disturb that calm exterior. Presently she resumed her subject, speaking in low, even tones, which a slight, gentle inflection now and then just saved from monotony.
"He"s always a friend to anybody in distress, and I guess there isn"t a poor person or a friendless person in Ophir that doesn"t know him and love him. He has had some great trouble; n.o.body knows what it is, but he told David once that it had changed his whole life."
Darrell now became interested, and the dark eyes fixed on Mrs. Dean"s face grew suddenly luminous with the quick sympathy her words had aroused.
"He always seems to be on the lookout for anybody that has trouble, to help them; that"s how he got to know my brother."
Mrs. Dean hesitated a moment. "I never spoke of this to any one before, but I thought maybe you"d be interested to know about it," she said, looking at Darrell with a slightly apologetic air.
"I am, and I think I understand and appreciate your motive," was his quiet reply.
She dropped her work, folding her hands above it, and her face wore a reminiscent look as she continued:
"When David"s wife died, twelve years ago, it was an awful blow to him.
He didn"t say much,--that isn"t our way,--but we were afraid he would never be the same again. His brother was out here at that time, but none of us could do anything for him. He kept on trying to attend to business just as usual, but he seemed, as you might say, to have lost his grip on things. It went on that way for nearly two years; his business got behind and everything seemed to be slipping through his fingers, when he happened to get acquainted with Mr. Britton, and he seemed to know just what to say and do. He got David interested in business again. He loaned him money to start with, and they went into business together and have been together ever since. They have both been successful, but David has worked and planned for what he has, while Mr. Britton"s money seems to come to him. He owns property all over the State, and all through the West for that matter, and sometimes he"s in one place and sometimes in another, but he never stays very long anywhere. David would like to have him make his home with us, but he told him once that he couldn"t think of it; that he only stayed in a place till the pain got to be more than he could bear, and then he went somewhere else."
A long silence followed; then, as Mrs. Dean folded her work, she said, softly,--
"It"s no wonder he knows just how to help folks who are in trouble, for I guess he has suffered himself more than anybody knows."
A little later she had gone indoors to superintend the preparations for lunch, but Darrell still sat in the mellow, autumn sunlight, his eyes closed, picturing to himself this stranger silently bearing his hidden burden, changing from place to place, but always keeping the pain.
It still lacked two hours of sunset when John Darrell, leaning on the arm of John Britton, walked slowly up the mountain-path to a rustic seat under the pines. They had met at lunch. Mr. Britton had already heard the strange story of Darrell"s illness, and, looking into his eyes with their troubled questioning, their piteous appeal, knew at once by swift intuition how hopelessly bewildering and dark life must look to the young man before him just at the age when it usually is brightest and most alluring; and Darrell, meeting the steadfast gaze of the clear, gray eyes, saw there no pity, but something infinitely broader, deeper, and sweeter, and knew intuitively that they were united by the fellowship of suffering, that mysterious tie which has not only bound human hearts together in all ages, but has linked suffering humanity with suffering Divinity.
For more than two hours Darrell, taking little part himself in the general conversation, had watched, as one entranced, the play of the fine features and listened to the deep, musical voice of this stranger who was a stranger no longer.
He was an excellent conversationalist; humorous without being cynical, scholarly without being pedantic, and showing especial familiarity with history and the natural sciences.
At last, while walking up and down the broad veranda, Mr. Britton had paused beside Darrell, and throwing an arm over his shoulder had said,--
"Come, my son, let us have a little stroll."
Darrell"s heart had leaped strangely at the words, he knew not why, and in a silence pregnant with deep emotion on both sides, they had climbed to the rustic bench. Here they sat down. The ground at their feet was carpeted with pine-needles; the air was sweet with the fragrance of the pines and of the warm earth; no sound reached their ears aside from the chirping of the crickets, the occasional dropping of a pine-cone, or the gentle sighing of the light breeze through the branches above their heads.
A glorious scene lay outspread before them; the distant ranges half veiled in purple haze, the valleys flooded with golden light, brightened by the autumnal tints of the deciduous timber which marked the courses of numerous small streams, and over the whole a restful silence, as though, the year"s work ended, earth was keeping some grand, solemn holiday.
Mr. Britton first broke the silence, as in low tones he murmured, reverently,--
""Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness!""
Then turning to Darrell with a smile of peculiar sweetness, he said, "This is one of what I call the year"s "coronation days," when even Nature herself rests from her labors and dons her royal robes in honor of the occasion."
Then, as an answering light dawned in Darrell"s eyes and the tense lines in his face began to relax, Mr. Britton continued, musingly:
"I have often wondered why we do not imitate Nature in her great annual holiday, and why we, a nation who garners one of the richest harvests of the world, do not have a national harvest festival. How effectively and fittingly, for instance, something similar to the old Jewish feast of tabernacles might be celebrated in this part of the country! In the earliest days of their history the Jews were commanded, when the year"s harvest had been gathered, to take the boughs of goodly trees, of palm-trees and willows, and to construct booths in which they were to dwell, feasting and rejoicing, for seven days. In the only account given of one of these feasts, we read that the people brought olive-branches and pine-branches, myrtle-branches and palm-branches, and made themselves booths upon the roofs of their houses, in their courts, and in their streets, and dwelt in them, "and there was very great gladness." Imagine such a scene on these mountain-slopes and foot-hills, under these cloudless skies; the sombre, evergreen boughs interwoven with the brightly colored foliage from the lowlands; this mellow, golden sunlight by day alternating with the white, mystical radiance of the harvest moon by night."
Mr. Britton"s words had, as he intended they should, drawn Darrell"s thoughts from himself. Under his graphic description, accompanied by the powerful magnetism of his voice and presence, Darrell seemed to see the Oriental festival which he had depicted and to feel a soothing influence from the very simplicity and beauty of the imaginary scene.
"Think of the rest, the relaxation, in a week of such a life!" continued Mr. Britton. "Re-creation, in the true sense of the word. The simplest joys are the sweetest, but our lives have grown too complex for us to appreciate them. Our amus.e.m.e.nts and recreations, as we call them, are often more wearing and exhausting than our labors."
For nearly an hour Mr. Britton led the conversation on general subjects, carefully avoiding every personal allusion; Darrell following, interested, animated, wondering more and more at the man beside him, until the latter tactfully led him to speak--calmly and dispa.s.sionately, as he could not have spoken an hour before--of himself. Almost before he was aware, Darrell had told all: of his vain gropings in the darkness for some clue to the past; of the helpless feeling akin to despair which sometimes took possession of him when he attempted to face the situation continuously confronting him.