"But music is of great value. Why, the world needs it as it needs sunshine!"
"But, Phbe, you must remember you do not come of a people who stand before the worldly and lift their voices for the joy of the mult.i.tude of curious people. Your voice is right as it is and needs no training. It is as G.o.d gave it to you and is made to be used in His service, in His Church and your home."
"But I have always wanted to learn to sing well, really well. So I am going to Philadelphia this winter and take lessons from a competent teacher."
"Phbe," exhorted the preacher, "put away the temptation before it grips you so strongly that you cannot shake it off. You must not go!"
He spoke the last words in a tone of authority which the girl answered, "Phares, let us speak of something else. You know I have some of the Metz determination in my make-up and I can"t be easily forced to give up a cherished plan. At any rate, we must not quarrel about it."
The preacher forbore to try further argument or persuasion. He became grave. His habitual serenity of mind was disturbed by shadowy forebodings--when the pebbles of doubt drop into the placid pool of content it invariably follows that the waters become agitated for a time. Hitherto he had been hopeful of winning Phbe. Had he not known her and loved her all her life! What was more natural than that their friendship should culminate in a deeper feeling!
He stretched out his hand in a sudden rush of feeling--"Phbe, I love you."
She stepped back a pace and his hand fell to his side.
"Don"t, Phares," she began, but the next moment she realized that she could not turn aside his love without listening to him.
"Phbe, you must listen--I love you, I have loved you all my life. Can"t you say that you care for me?"
"Don"t ask me that!" she pleaded. "I don"t want to marry anybody now.
All my life I have dreamed of going to a city and studying music and I can"t let the opportunity slip away from me now when it is so near. To work under the direction of a master teacher has long been one of my dearest dreams."
"You mean that you do not love me, then. Or if you do, that you would rather gratify your desire to study music than marry me--which is it?"
"Ach, Phares, don"t make it hard for me! I said I don"t want to get married now. All my life I have lived on a farm and have thought that I should be wonderfully happy if I could get away from it for a while and know what it is to live in a big city. There I shall have a chance to see life in its broader aspects. I shall not be harmed by gathering new ideas and ideals, gaining new friends, and, above all, learning to sing well."
The man groaned in spirit. It was evident that she was thoroughly determined to go away from the farm.
"Phbe," he pleaded again, not entirely for his own selfish desire, but worried about her love of worldliness, "do you know that the things for which you are going to the city are really not important, that all outward acquisitions for which you long now are transient? The things that count are goodness and purity and to be without them is to be pauperized; the things that bring happiness are love and home ties and to be without them is to be desolate. You want a larger, broader vision, but the city cannot always give you that."
There was no bitterness in his voice, only an undertone of sadness as he spoke. "Phbe, tell me plainly, do you care for me?"
Her face was lamentably pathetic as she looked into his and read there the desire for what she could not give. "Not as you wish," she said softly. "But I don"t really know what love is yet, I haven"t thought about it except as something that will come to me some day, a long time from now. There are too many other things I must think about now. When I am through studying music I"ll think about being married."
The preacher shook his head; his heart was too heavy for more words, more futile words.
"Let us go, Phares," she said, the silence becoming intolerable.
"Yes," he agreed. "And Phbe," he added as they turned away from the quarry, "I hope you"ll learn your lesson quickly and come back to us."
They stepped from the sheltered path into the sunshine of the lane. Long trails of green lay in their path as they went, but the eyes of both were temporarily blinded to the loveliness of the June. When they reached the dusty road the preacher said good-bye and went on his way to the town.
She stood where he left her; the suppressed feelings of the past half hour soon struggled to avenge themselves and she sped down the lane again, back to the refuge of the kindly tree, and there, under her sycamore, burst into pa.s.sionate weeping.
Some time after Phares left the girl at the end of the lane David Eby came swinging down the hill and entered the Metz kitchen.
"h.e.l.lo, Aunt Maria. Where"s Phbe?"
"Why, I guess over at the quarry. She went for pennyroyal long ago and then Phares came and he went over after her, but I saw him go on the way to town a bit ago, so I guess she"s still over there. Guess she"s stumbling around after a bird"s nest or picking some weeds that ain"t no good. I don"t see why she stays so long."
"I"ll go see," volunteered David.
"Yes well. And tell her to hurry with that pennyroyal. I want it for red ants, but they can carry away the whole jelly cupboard till she gets here."
"I"ll tell her," said David, and went off, whistling.
Phbe"s paroxysm of grief was short-lived. The soothing quiet of the quarry calmed her, but her eyes showed telltale marks of tears as David"s steps sounded down the lane.
She rose hastily, then sank back to her seat under the tree as she saw the ident.i.ty of the intruder.
"Whew, Phbe Metz," he said and whistled in his old, boyish way as he sat beside her, "you"re crying!"
"I am not," she declared.
"Then you just have been! I haven"t seen you in tears for many years.
Phbe"--he changed his tone--"what"s gone wrong? Anything the matter?"
"Don"t," she sniffed, "don"t ask me or you"ll have me at it again." She steadied her voice and went on, "I came over here so gloriously happy I could have shouted, because daddy said last night that I may go to Philadelphia this fall----"
"Gee whiz!" David grabbed her hand. "Why, I"m tickled to death. But what--why are you crying? Isn"t that what you want?"
"Yes." She smiled, pleased by his interest and eagerness. "But just as I was happiest along came Phares and told me it was wicked to go. It"s all a mistake to go, he said."
"Ach, the d.i.c.kens with the old fossil!" David cried. "And I"m not going to take that back or be sorry for saying it. Hadn"t he better sense than to throw a wet blanket on all your happiness!"
"Perhaps I needed it. I was just about burning up with gladness."
"Well, don"t you care what he"s thinking about it. You go learn music if you want to and your father lets you go. Did he see you cry?"
"Certainly not! I wouldn"t cry before him. He would say that was foolish or wicked or something it shouldn"t be. But you--you are so sensible I don"t mind if you do see me with my eyes red."
"Ha, ha, that"s a compliment. I have been told that I am happy-go-lucky and sort of a cheerful idiot, but no person ever told me that I"m sensible. Well, don"t you forget me when you get to be that prima donna."
"I won"t. You and Mother Bab rub me the right way."
"But won"t she be glad when I tell her," said David. "I came down to see if you had decided about it, and I find it all arranged."
"And me in tears," added Phbe, her natural poise and good humor again restored. "Tell Mother Bab I am coming up soon to tell her about it."
So, in happier mood, she walked beside David, down the green lane to the road, across the road to her own gate.
"So you come once!" Aunt Maria greeted her.
"Oh, I forgot your pennyroyal! I"ll go get it."
"Never mind. You stayed so long I went over to the field near the barn and got some. But you look like you"ve been cryin", Phbe. Did you and Phares have a fall-out?"
"No."