"Don"t you like pretty things?"
"Too well, I am afraid."
"You cannot like them too well. Pretty things were meant to be liked.
What else were they made for? And of all pretty things--O, those carpets and rugs! Lois, I never saw or dreamed of anything so magnificent. I _should_ like to be rich, for once!"
"To buy a Persian carpet?"
"Yes. That and other things. Why not?"
"Madge, don"t you know this was what grandmother was afraid of, when we were learning to know Mr. Dillwyn?"
"What?" said Madge defiantly.
"That we would be bewitched--or dazzled--and lose sight of better things; I think "bewitched" is the word; all these beautiful things and this luxurious comfort--it is bewitching; and so are the fine manners and the cultivation and the delightful talk. I confess it. I feel it as much as you do; but this is just what dear grandmother wanted to protect us from."
"_What_ did she want to protect us from?" repeated Madge vehemently.
"Not Persian carpets, nor luxury; we are not likely to be tempted by either of them in Shampuashuh."
"We might _here_."
"Be tempted? To what? I shall hardly be likely to go and buy a fifteen-hundred-dollar carpet. And it was _cheap_ at that, Lois! I can live without it, besides. I haven"t got so far that I can"t stand on the floor, without any carpet at all, if I must. You needn"t think it."
"I do not think it. Only, do not be tempted to fancy, darling, that there is any way open to you to get such things; that is all."
"Any way open to me? You mean, I might marry a rich man some day?"
"You might think you might."
"Why shouldn"t I?"
"Because, dear Madge, you will not be asked. I told you why. And if you were,--Madge, you would not, you _could_ not, marry a man that was not a Christian? Grandmother made me promise I never would."
"She did not make me promise it. Lois, don"t be ridiculous. I don"t want to marry anybody at present; but I like Persian carpets, and nothing will make me say I don"t. And I like silver and gold; and servants, and silk dresses, and ice-cream, and pictures, and big houses, and big mirrors, and all the rest of it."
"You can find it all in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, in the description of the city Babylon; which means the world."
"I thought Babylon was Rome."
"Read for yourself."
I think Madge did not read it for herself, however; and the days went on after the accustomed fashion, till the one arrived which was fixed for Mrs. Chauncey Burrage"s second musical party. The three ladies were all invited. Mrs. Wishart supposed they were all going; but when the day came Lois begged off. She did not feel like going, she said; it would be far pleasanter to her if she could stay at home quietly; it would be better for her. Mrs. Wishart demurred; the invitation had been very urgent; Mrs. Burrage would be disappointed; and, besides, she was a little proud herself of her handsome young relations, and wanted the glory of producing them together. However, Lois was earnest in her wish to be left at home; quietly earnest, which is the more difficult to deal with; and, knowing her pa.s.sionate love for music, Mrs. Wishart decided that it must be her lingering weakness and languor which indisposed her for going. Lois was indeed looking well again; but both her friends had noticed that she was not come back to her old lively energy, whether of speaking or doing. Strength comes back so slowly, they said, after one of those fevers. Yet Madge was not satisfied with this reasoning, and pondered, as she and Mrs. Wishart drove away, what else might be the cause of Lois"s refusal to go with them.
Meanwhile Lois, having seen them off and heard the house door close upon them, drew up her chair before the fire and sat down. She was in the back drawing-room, the windows of which looked out to the river and the opposite sh.o.r.e; but the shutters were closed and the curtains drawn, and only the interior view to be had now. So, or any way, Lois loved the place. It was large, roomy, old-fashioned, with none of the stiffness of new things about it; elegant, with the many tokens of home life, and of a long habit of culture and comfort. In a big chimney a big wood fire was burning quietly; the room was softly warm; a brilliant lamp behind Lois banished even imaginary gloom, and a faint red shine came from the burning hickory logs. Only this last illumination fell on Lois"s face, and in it Lois"s face showed grave and troubled. She was more like a sybil at this moment, looking into confused earthly things, than like one of Fra Angelico"s angels rejoicing in the clear light of heaven.
Lois pulled her chair nearer to the fire, and bent down, leaning towards it; not for warmth, for she was not in the least cold; but for company, or for counsel. Who has not taken counsel of a fire? And Lois was in perplexity of some sort, and trying to think hard and to examine into herself. She half wished she had gone to the party at Mrs.
Burrage"s. And why had she not gone? She did not want, she did not think it was best, to meet Mr. Dillwyn there. And why not, seeing that she met him constantly where she was? Well, _that_ she could not help; this would be voluntary; put ting herself in his way, and in his sister"s way. Better not, Lois said to herself. But why, better not? It would surely be a pleasant gathering at Mrs. Burrage"s, a pleasant party; her parties always were pleasant, Mrs. Wishart said; there would be none but the best sort of people there, good talking and good music; Lois would have liked it. What if Mr. Dillwyn were there too? Must she keep out of sight of him? Why should she keep out of sight of him? Lois put the question sharply to her conscience. And she found that the answer, if given truly, would be that she fancied Mr. Dillwyn liked her sister"s society better than her own. But what then? The blood began to rush over Lois"s cheeks and brow and to burn in her pulses. _Then_, it must be that she herself liked _his_ society--liked him--yes, a little too well; else what harm in his preferring Madge? O, could it be? Lois hid her face in her hands for a while, greatly disturbed; she was very much afraid the case was even so.
But suppose it so; still, what of it? What did it signify, whom Mr.
Dillwyn liked? to Lois he could never be anything. Only a pleasant acquain"tance. He and she were in two different lines of life, lines that never cross. Her promise was pa.s.sed to her grandmother; she could never marry a man who was not a Christian. Happily Mr. Dillwyn did not want to marry her; no such question was coming up for decision. Then what was it to her if he liked Madge? Something, because it was not liking that would end in anything; it was impossible a man in his position and circ.u.mstances should choose for a wife one in hers. If he could make such a choice, it would be Madge"s duty, as much as it would be her own, to refuse him. Would Madge refuse? Lois believed not.
Indeed, she thought no one could refuse him, that had not unconquerable reasons of conscience; and Madge, she knew, did not share those which were so strong in her own mind. Ought Madge to share them? Was it indeed an absolute command that justified and necessitated the promise made to her grandmother? or was it a less stringent thing, that might possibly be pa.s.sed over by one not so bound? Lois"s mind was in a turmoil of thoughts most unusual, and most foreign to her nature and habit; thoughts seemed to go round in a whirl. And in the midst of the whirl there would come before her mind"s eye, not now Tom Caruthers"
face, but the vision of a pair of pleasant grey eyes at once keen and gentle; or of a close head of hair with a white hand roving amid the thick locks of it; or the outlines of a figure manly and lithe; or some little thing done with that ease of manner which was so winning.
Sometimes she saw them as in Mrs. Wishart"s drawing-room, and sometimes at the table in the dear old house in Shampuashuh, and sometimes under the drip of an umbrella in a pouring rain, and sometimes in the old schoolhouse. Manly and kind, and full of intelligence, filled with knowledge, well-bred, and n.o.ble; so Lois thought of him. Yet he was not a Christian, therefore no fit partner for Madge or for any one else who was a Christian. Could that be the absolute fact? Must it be? Was such the inevitable and universal conclusion? On what did the logic of it rest? Some words in the Bible bore the brunt of it, she knew; Lois had read them and talked them over with her grandmother; and now an irresistible desire took possession of her to read them again, and more critically. She jumped up and ran up-stairs for her Bible.
The fire was down in her own room; the gas was not lit; so she went back to the bright drawing-room, which to-night she had all to herself.
She laid her book on the table and opened it, and then was suddenly checked by the question--what did all this matter to her, that she should be so fiercely eager about it? Dismay struck her anew. What was any un-Christian man to her, that her heart should beat so at considering possible relations between them? No such relations were desired by any such person; what ailed Lois even to take up the subject? If Mr. Dillwyn liked either of the sisters particularly, it was Madge. Probably his liking, if it existed, was no more than Tom Caruthers", of which Lois thought with great scorn. Still, she argued, did it not concern her to know with certain"ty what Madge ought to do, in the event of Mr. Dillwyn being not precisely like Tom Caruthers?
CHAPTER XLIII.
ABOUT WORK.
The sound of the opening door made her start up. She would not have even a servant surprise her so; kneeling on the floor with her face buried in her hands on the table. She started up hurriedly; and then was confounded to see entering--Mr. Dillwyn himself. She had heard no ring of the door-bell; that must have been when she was up-stairs getting her Bible. Lois found her feet, in the midst of a terrible confusion of thoughts; but the very inward confusion admonished her to be outwardly calm. She was not a woman of the world, and she had not had very much experience in the difficult art of hiding her feelings, or _acting_ in any way; nevertheless she was a true woman, and woman"s blessed--or cursed?--instinct of self-command came to her aid. She met Mr. Dillwyn with a face and manner perfectly composed; she knew she did; and cried to herself privately some thing very like a sea captain"s order to his helmsman--"Steady! keep her so." Mr. Dillwyn saw that her face was flushed; but he saw, too, that he had disturbed her and startled her; that must be the reason. She looked so far from being delighted, that he could draw no other conclusion. So they shook hands.
She thought he did not look delighted either. Of course, she thought, Madge was not there. And Mr. Dillwyn, whatever his mood when he came, recognized immediately the decided reserve and coolness of Lois"s manner, and, to use another nautical phrase, laid his course accordingly.
"How do you do, this evening?"
"I think, quite well. There is n.o.body at home but me, Mr. Dillwyn."
"So I have been told. But it is a great deal pleasanter here, even with only one-third of the family, than it is in my solitary rooms at the hotel."
At that Lois sat down, and so did he. She could not seem to bid him go away. However, she said--
"Mrs. Wishart has taken Madge to your sister"s. It is the night of her music party."
"Why did not Mrs. Wishart take you?"
"I thought--it was better for me to stay at home," Lois answered, with a little hesitation.
"You are not afraid of an evening alone!"
"No, indeed; how could I be? Indeed, I think in New York it is rather a luxury."
Then she wished she had not said that. Would he think she meant to intimate that he was depriving her of a luxury? Lois was annoyed at herself; and hurried on to say something else, which she did not intend should be so much in the same line as it proved. Indeed, she was shocked the moment she had spoken.
"Don"t you go to your sister"s music parties, Mr. Dillwyn?"
"Not universally."
"I thought you were so fond of music"--Lois said apologetically.
"Yes," he said, smiling. "That keeps me away."
"I thought,"--said Lois,--"I thought they said the music was so good?"