"I don"t know," she resumed, after a pause, "how your father"s affairs are now. The likelihood is, if he has any health, that he"ll go into some kind of a venture again before very long. But I shall have a talk with him, and if he isn"t satisfied I"ll alter it so as to do something more for you."
"Something more!" said Faith. "But you have done a great deal, as it is!
I didn"t say so, because I was thinking so much of the other."
"It won"t make an heiress of you," said Aunt Faith. "But it"ll be better than nothing, if other means fall short. And I don"t feel, somehow, as if you need be a burden on my mind. There"s a kind of a certainty borne in on me, otherwise. I can"t help thinking that what I"ve done has been a leading. And if it has, it"s right. Now, put this back, and tell Miss Sampson she may bring my gruel."
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
GLORY McWHIRK"S INSPIRATION.
"No bird am I to sing in June, And dare not ask an equal boon.
Good nests and berries red are Nature"s To give away to better creatures,-- And yet my days go on, go on."
MRS. BROWNING.
Mr. and Mrs. Gartney arrived on Thursday.
Two weeks and three days they had been absent; and in that time how the busy sprites of change and circ.u.mstance had been at work! As if the scattered straws of events, that, stretched out in slender windrows, might have reached across a field of years, had been raked together, and rolled over--crowded close, and heaped, portentous, into these eighteen days!
Letters had told them something; of the burned mill, and Faith"s fearful danger and escape; of Aunt Henderson"s continued illness, and its present serious aspect; and with this last intelligence, which met them in New York but two days since, Mrs. Gartney found her daughter"s agitated note of pained avowal, that she "had come, through all this, to know herself better, and to feel sure that this marriage ought not to be"; that, in short, all was at length over between her and Paul Rushleigh.
It was a meeting full of thought--where much waited for speech that letters could neither have conveyed nor satisfied--when Faith and her father and mother exchanged the kiss of love and welcome, once more, in the little home at Cross Corners.
It was well that Mis" Battis had made waffles, and spread a tempting summer tea with these and her nice, white bread, and fruits and creams; and wished, with such faint impatience as her huge calm was capable of, that "they would jest set right down, while things was good and hot"; and that Hendie was full of his wonderful adventures by boat and train, and through the wilds; so that these first hours were gotten over, and all a little used to the old feeling of being together again, before there was opportunity for touching upon deeper subjects.
It came at length--the long evening talk, after Hendie was in bed, and Mr. Gartney had been over to the old house, and seen his aunt, and had come back, to find wife and daughter sitting in the dim light beside the open door, drawn close in love and confidence, and so glad and thankful to have each other back once more!
First--Aunt Faith; and what was to be done--what might be hoped--what must be feared--for her. Then, the terrible story of the fire; and all about it, that could only be got at by the hundred bits of question and answer, and the turning over and over, and repet.i.tion, whereby we do the best--the feeble best--we can, to satisfy great askings and deep sympathies that never can be anyhow made palpable in words.
And, last of all--just with the good-night kiss--Faith and her mother had had it all before, in the first minutes they were left alone together--Mr. Gartney said to his daughter:
"You are quite certain, now, Faith?"
"Quite certain, father"; Faith answered, low, with downcast eyes, as she stood before him.
Her father laid his hand upon her head.
"You are a good girl; and I don"t blame you; yet I thought you would have been safe and happy, so."
"I am safe and happy here at home," said Faith.
"Home is in no hurry to spare you, my child."
And Faith felt taken back to daughterhood once more.
Margaret Rushleigh had been to see her, before this. It was a painful visit, with the mingling of old love and new restraint; and the effort, on either side, to show that things, except in the one particular, were still unchanged.
Faith felt how true it was that "nothing could go back, precisely, to what it was before."
There was another visit, a day or two after the rea.s.sembling of the family at Cross Corners. This was to say farewell. New plans had been made. It would take some time to restore the mills to working order, and Mr. Rushleigh had not quite resolved whether to sell them out as they were, or to retain the property. Mrs. Rushleigh wished Margaret to join her at Newport, whither the Saratoga party was to go within the coming week. Then there was talk of another trip to Europe. Margaret had never been abroad. It was very likely they would all go out in October.
Paul"s name was never mentioned.
Faith realized, painfully, how her little hand had been upon the motive power of much that was all ended, now.
Two eminent medical men had been summoned from Mishaumok, and had held consultation with Dr. Wasgatt upon Miss Henderson"s case. It had been decided to postpone the surgical operation for two or three weeks.
Meanwhile, she was simply to be kept comfortable and cheerful, strengthened with fresh air, and nourishing food, and some slight tonics.
Faith was at the old house, constantly. Her aunt craved her presence, and drew her more and more to herself. The strong love, kept down by a stiff, unbending manner, so, for years--resisting almost its own growth--would no longer be denied or concealed. Faith Gartney had nestled herself into the very core of this true, upright heart, unpersuadable by anything but clear judgment and inflexible conscience.
"I had a beautiful dream last night, Miss Faith," said Glory, one morning, when Faith came over and found the busy handmaiden with her churn upon the doorstone, "about Miss Henderson. I thought she was all well, and strong, and she looked so young, and bright, and pleasant! And she told me to make a May Day. And we had it out here in the field. And everybody had a crown; and everybody was queen. And the little children danced round the old apple tree, and climbed up, and rode horseback in the branches. And Miss Henderson was out there, dressed in white, and looking on. It don"t seem so--just to say it; but I couldn"t tell you how beautiful it was!"
"Dreams are strange things," said Faith, thoughtfully. "It seems as if they were sent to us, sometimes--as if we really had a sort of life in them."
"Don"t they?" cried Glory, eagerly. "Why, Miss Faith, I"ve dreamed on, and on, sometimes, a whole story out! And, after all, we"re asleep almost as much as we"re awake. Why isn"t it just as real?"
"I had a dream that night of the fire, Glory. I never shall forget it. I went to sleep there, on the sofa. And it seemed as if I were on the top of a high, steep cliff, with no way to get down. And all at once, there was fire behind me--a burning mountain! And it came nearer, and nearer, till it scorched my very feet; and there was no way down. And then--it was so strange!--I knew Mr. Armstrong was coming. And two hands took me--just as his did, afterwards--and I felt so safe! And then I woke, and it all happened. When he came, I felt as if I had called him."
The dasher of the churn was still, and Glory stood, breathless, in a white excitement, gazing into Faith"s eyes.
"And so you did, Miss Faith! Somehow--through the dreamland--you certainly did!"
Faith went in to her aunt, and Glory churned and pondered.
Were these two to go on, dreaming, and calling to each other "through the dreamland," and never, in the daylight, and their waking hours, speak out?
This thought, in vague shape, turned itself, restlessly, in Glory"s brain.
Other brains revolved a like thought, also.
"Somebody talked about a "ripe pear," once. I wonder if that one isn"t ever going to fall!"
Nurse Sampson wondered thus, as she settled Miss Henderson in her armchair before the window, and they saw Roger Armstrong and Faith Gartney walk up the field together in the sunset light.
"I suppose it wouldn"t take much of a jog to do it. But, maybe, it"s as well to leave it to the Lord"s sunshine. He"ll ripen it, if He sees fit."
"It"s a pretty picture, anyhow. There"s the new moon exactly over their right shoulders, if they"d only turn their heads to look at it. I don"t think much of signs; but, somehow, I always _do_ like to have that one come right!"
"Well, it"s there, whether they"ve found it out, or not," replied Aunt Faith.
Glory sat on the flat doorstone. She had the invariable afternoon knitting work in her hand; but hand and work had fallen to her lap, and her eyes were away upon the glittering, faint crescent of the moon, that pierced the golden mist of sunset. Close by, the evening star had filled his chalice of silver splendor.
"The star and the moon only see each other. I can see both. It is better."
She had come to the feeling of Roger Armstrong"s sermon. To receive consciously, as she had through her whole, life intuitively and unwittingly, all beauty of all being about her into the secret beauty of her own. She could be glad with the gladness of the whole world.