They now reached the unscathed streets of the west side, which were already thronged with fugitives as hungry and gaunt as themselves.
Mingling with this great strange tide of weak, begrimed, hollow-eyed humanity, they at last reached Dr. Goodwin"s beautiful church. Here already had begun the n.o.ble charity dispensed from that place during the days of want and suffering that followed.
CHAPTER XLVII
SUSIE WINTHROP
Waiting with mult.i.tudes of others, Christine and Dennis at last received an army biscuit (hardtack in the soldier"s vernacular) and a tin-cup of what resembled coffee. To him it was very touching to see how eagerly she received this coa.r.s.e fare, proving that she was indeed almost famished. Too weak to stand, they sat down near the door on the sidewalk. A kind lady presently came and said, "If you have no place to go you will find it more comfortable in the church."
They gladly availed themselves of her permission, as the thronged street was anything but pleasant.
"Mr. Fleet," said Christine, "I am now going to take care of you in return for your care last night," and she led him up to a secluded part of the church by the organ, arranged some cushions on a seat, and then continued: "As I have obeyed you, so you must now be equally docile. Don"t you dare move from that place till I call you;" and she left him.
He was indeed wearied beyond expression, and most grateful for a chance to rest. This refuge and the way it was secured seemed almost a heavenly experience, and he thought with deepest longing, "If we could always take care of each other, I should be perhaps too well satisfied with this earthly life."
When after a little time Christine returned he was sleeping as heavily as he had done before upon the beach, but the smile his last thought occasioned still rested on his face.
For some little time she also sat near and rested, and her eyes sought his face as if a story were written there that she never could finish.
Then she went to make inquiries after her father. But no one to whom she spoke knew anything about him.
Bread and other provisions were constantly arriving, but not fast enough to meet the needs of famishing thousands. Though not feeling very strong she offered her services, and was soon busily engaged. All present were strangers to her, but, when they learned from the inquiries for her father that she was Miss Ludolph, she was treated with deference and sympathy. But she a.s.sumed nothing, and as her strength permitted, during the day, she was ready for any task, even the humblest. She handed food around among the hungry, eager applicants, with such a sweet and pitying face that she heard many a murmured blessing. Her efforts were all the more appreciated as all saw that she too had pa.s.sed through the fire and had suffered deeply. At last a kind, motherly lady said: "My dear, you look ready to drop. Here, take this,"
and she poured out a gla.s.s of wine and gave her a sandwich; "now, go and find some quiet nook and rest. It"s your duty."
"I have a friend who has suffered almost everything in saving me. He is asleep now, but he has had scarcely anything to eat for nearly three days, and I know he will be very hungry when he wakes."
"Nothing to eat for three days! Why, you must take him a whole loaf, and this, and this," cried the good lady, about to provision Dennis for a month.
"Oh, no," said Christine, with a smile, "so much would not be good for him. If you will give me three or four sandwiches, and let me come for some coffee when he wakes, it will be sufficient;" and she carried what now seemed treasures to where Dennis was sleeping, and sat down with a happy look in her face.
The day had been full of sweet, trustful thoughts. She was conscious of a presence within her heart and all around that she knew was Divine, and in spite of her anxiety about her father and the uncertainty of the future, she had a rest and contentment of mind that she had never experienced before. Then she felt such a genuine sympathy for the sufferers about her, and found them so grateful when she spoke to them gently and kindly, that she wondered she had never before discovered the joy of ministering to others. She was entering a new world, and, though there might be suffering in it, the antidote was ever near, and the pleasures promised to grow richer, fuller, more satisfying, till they developed into the perfect happiness of heaven. But every Christian joy that was like a sweet surprise--every thrilling hope that pointed to endless progress in all that is best and n.o.blest in life, instead of the sudden blank and nothingness that threatened but yesterday--and, above all, the animating consciousness of the Divine love which kept her murmuring, "My Saviour, my good, kind Heavenly Father," all reminded her of him who had been instrumental in bringing about the wondrous change. Often during the day she would go and look at him, and could Dennis only have opened his eyes at such a moment, and caught her expression, no words would have been needed to a.s.sure him of his happiness.
The low afternoon sun shone in gold and crimson on his brow and face through the stained windows before he gave signs of waking, and then she hurried away to get the coffee hot from the urn.
She had hardly gone before he arose greatly refreshed and strengthened, but so famished that a roast ox would have seemed but a comfortable meal. His eye at once caught the sandwiches placed temptingly near.
"That is Miss Ludolph"s work," he said; "I wonder if she has saved any for herself." He was about to go and geek her when she met him with the coffee.
"Go back," she said; "how dare you disobey orders?"
"I was coming to find you."
"Well, that is the best excuse you could have made, but I am here; so sit down and drink this coffee and devour these sandwiches."
"Not unless you share them with me."
"Insubordinate! See here," and she took out her more dainty provision from behind a seat and sat down opposite, in such a pretty, companionable way that he in his admiration and pleasure forgot his sandwiches.
"What is the matter?" she asked. "You are to eat the sandwiches, not me."
"A very proper hint, Miss Ludolph; one might well be inclined to make the mistake."
"Now that is a compliment worthy of the king of the Cannibal Islands."
"Miss Ludolph," said Dennis, looking at her earnestly, "you do indeed seem happy."
A ray of light slanting through a yellow diamond of gla.s.s fell with a sudden glory upon her face, and in a tone of almost ecstasy she said: "Oh, I am so glad and grateful, when I realize what might have been, and what is! It seems that I have lost so little in this fire in comparison with what I have gained. And but for you I might have lost everything. How rich this first day of life, real, true life, has been!
My Heavenly Father has been so kind to me that I cannot express it.
And then to think how I have wronged Him all these years!"
"You have indeed learned the secret of true eternal happiness, Miss Ludolph."
"I believe it--I feel sure of it. All trouble, all pain will one day pa.s.s away forever; and sometimes I feel as if I must sing for joy. I do so long to see my father and tell him. I fear he won"t believe it at first, but I can pray as you did, and it seems as if my Saviour would not deny me anything. And now, Mr. Fleet, when you have finished your lunch, I am going to ask one more favor, and then will dub you truest knight that ever served defenceless woman. You will find my father for me, for I believe you can do anything."
Even in the shadow where he sat she caught the pained expression of his face.
She started up and grasped his arm.
"You know something," she said; then added: "Do not be afraid to find my father now. When he knows what services you have rendered me, all estrangement, if any existed, will pa.s.s away."
But he averted his face, and she saw tears gathering in his eyes.
"Mr. Fleet," she gasped, "do you know anything I do not?"
He could hide the truth no longer. Indeed it was time she should learn it. Turning and taking her trembling hand, he looked at her so sadly and kindly that she at once knew her father was dead.
"Oh, my father!" she cried, in a tone of anguish that he could never forget, "you will never, never know. All day I have been longing to prove to you the truth of Christianity by my loving, patient tenderness, but you have died, and will never know," she moaned, shudderingly.
He still held her hand--indeed she clung to his as to something that might help sustain her in the dark, bitter hour.
"Poor, poor father!" she cried; "I never treated him as I ought, and now he will never know the wealth of love I was hoping to lavish on him." Then, looking at Dennis almost reproachfully, she said: "Could you not save him? You saved so many others."
"Indeed I could not, Miss Ludolph; I tried, and nearly lost my life in the effort. The great hotel behind the store fell and crushed all in a moment."
She shuddered, but at last whispered, "Why have you kept this so long from me?"
"How could I tell you when the blow would have been death? Even now you can scarcely bear it."
"My little beginning of faith is sorely tried. Heavenly Spirit," she cried, "guide me through this darkness, and let not doubt and unbelief cloud my mind again."
"Such prayer will be answered," said Dennis, in a deep, low tone.
They sat in the twilight in silence. He still held her hand, and she was sobbing more gently and quietly. Suddenly she asked, "Is it wrong thus to grieve over the breaking of an earthly tie?"
"No, not if you will say as did your Lord in His agony, "Oh, my Father, Thy will be done.""