"This way!" said Brand. "Here"s a thread of her dress on the gatepost.
She"s gone to the wood lot."
Not in the wood lot; no answer to the calls of friendly, tender voices.
"Flora! Flora May! Where be you, little gal? Speak up, won"t you?"
Further on, through the meadows, guided by the blind man"s unerring fingers which found here a broken twig, there a shred of cotton, here again a knot of ribbon caught in a bramble wreath; searching, calling, searching, through weary hours.
So at last to the distant pasture where the lily pond gleamed under the moon.
There they found her, poor Flora May. Lying among the lily pads, her lovely hair twined about the brown stems, her fair face turned upwards, the clear shallow water dimpling and wavering above her, so that she seemed to smile at them in faint, disdainful mockery; so they found her, lying quietly in the place of her rest.
"Don"t cry, mother! don"t ye! the Lord has took His poor lamb home.
Don"t take on so, Lucy!"
Thus Jacob, patting his wife"s shoulder with clumsy, tender hand. He had never seen her so overcome; the calm, self-contained woman was crying and sobbing like a child.
But now she collected herself with an effort, and dried her eyes.
"I know, Jacob! I know I hadn"t ought; I know she"s better off; but--"tis so pitiful! Oh, "tis so pitiful! She couldn"t help it, my poor girl; she couldn"t help it. "Twas stronger than her. And, oh, Jacob, I can"t but think--if her father had been--different--"
"There, Lucy! There! Such things is beyond us."
"They hadn"t ought to be!" cried Lucy Bailey, and her tears broke out afresh. "They hadn"t ought to be beyond us. The Lord intended we should live clean and decent, and made us accordin"; and them as don"t, it"s their children must pay, like the Bible says. But what keeps comin" back and back on my mind is--she was so innocent and so pretty! Full as pretty as what Mary is, to my thinkin". Seein" her lyin" there, so pretty--oh, so pretty! I couldn"t but think--I couldn"t but think--if she had had a fair chance--"
If she had had a fair chance! So Pippin thought, as he stood by the little white bed in the narrow room. He had carried her home in his young strong arms, had laid her here--reverently, as he would have laid a royal princess--on the bed where she had tossed and moaned her heart out for him; now she had no thought for him, she was all for sleep. He had left her to the women, and gone to join the older men, a sorrowful little group about the kitchen fire; but now, when all the house was still, there could be no harm in his entering the quiet room once more, humbly, with bowed head, to say a word of farewell to the poor sweet pretty creatur"; to say a little prayer, too, and maybe--whisperin"
like, not to wake a soul--to sing a little hymn, seeing she used to set by his singing. He looked round the room, neat and bare, yet a girl"s room, with pretty touches here and there: a bird"s nest on a mossy twig, a bunch of feathery gra.s.ses in a graceful jug, bright Christmas cards framing the little mirror, drooping over them a necklace of wooden beads carved by Brand for his little girl. Beside these things, on a stand by the bedside, some pond lilies in a gla.s.s bowl, drooping with folded petals. Pippin shivered, and his eyes turned to the still figure, the white lovely face.
Kneeling humbly by the humble bed, he said his prayer; then raised his head, and softly, softly, a golden thread of sound--sure no one could hear!--his voice stole out in the hymn she had loved best:
"There is rest for the weary, There is rest for the weary, There is rest for the weary, There is rest for you!
"On the other side of Jordan, In the green fields of Eden, Where the tree of life is blooming, There is rest for your soul!"
Pippin rose and stood for some moments looking down on the quiet face; then he made his reverence--bowing lower than usual, with a gesture of his hands as if taking leave of something high and n.o.ble--and turned away.
Closing the door softly, he paused, looking into the darkness of the pa.s.sage with wistful eyes. He was very, very lonely; his heart was sad as death. Could he--might he not, once more, call up to comfort him the shadow faces he had loved so well? Now? Just this once! He bent forward, his eyes fixed intently.
"Ma!" he said softly. "You there?"
A moment"s pause; then a sob broke from him and he turned to go.
But then--oh, then!--came a rustle of something soft, came a flash of something white. Two arms were flung round his neck, pressing him close, close; a radiant head lay on his shoulder.
"Will I do?" cried Mary Blossom. "Oh, Pippin, Pippin! Will I do instead?"
CHAPTER XXV
PIPPIN OVERCOMES
"Well, how about it?" said John Aymer.
A council was being held in the pleasant parlor with the rose-colored shades. John Aymer, Lucy his wife, and Lawrence Hadley, his wife"s brother, were sitting together, talking of things with which we have some concern.
"How about it?" repeated the hardware merchant. He planted both elbows on his knees, rested his chin on his hands, and, as he would have said, squared away for action. The others looked up inquiringly. "Pippin is your hunt, Larry, and from your point of view--and his--he is on the right track, and it"s all highc.o.c.kolorum Erin go Bragh. But Mary is our hunt, Lucy"s and mine, and we don"t feel so sure about all this."
"I do part of the time, John!" Mrs. Aymer spoke with a certain timidity, unlike her usual gay decisiveness. "When I talk with Larry, or see Pippin--even just look at him--it seems all as right as right; but then--"
"But then you look at Mary, and it doesn"t. See here, Lar!" John Aymer laid down his pipe, a token of strong interest with him. "Pippin is what you call a mystic and I call a glorified crank. All he wants in the world--beside Mary--is a chance to help, as he says; and it"s great. I know it is, and I"m proud to know the chap, and all that. But that _isn"t_ all Mary wants!"
The chaplain looked up with a grave nod of comprehension.
"Mary Blossom," John Aymer went on, "is a fine girl, and she"s an ambitious girl. She has done well herself, got a first-rate education of its kind, made herself a first-rate all-round young woman, capable of doing--within limits--anything she sets her hand to. Now--she"s as dead stuck on Pippin as he is on her--"
"John! What language! She adores him, if that is what you mean."
"Well, she adores him, then--doesn"t sound half as real--but she doesn"t adore the line of life he is laying out for himself and her. I don"t believe she takes any more stock in it than--than I should. She would like to see her husband a church member in regular standing: a vestryman; doing no end of pious work, you know--he has to do _that_ or bust; even I can see that--but doing it in a regular respectable kind of way: chairman of Boards--what? Frock coat, handsome rooms, subcommittees, secretaries, that kind of thing. She wants to see him a leader, and she believes he can be. This picking up a boy here and a tramp there, singing and praying, hurrah boys and G.o.d bless you, doesn"t cut much ice with Mary. Poor little soul, she cried an hour on Lucy"s shoulder the other night. Lucy cried, too, of course; water works all over the house, almost drowned me out."
"John!"
"Well, sir, that kind of thing--the chairman, frock coat, committee-room thing, is what Mary wants for her husband; and who can say but she"s right? I don"t say she is, mind! I"m not a spiritual kind of man, and I know it; but I do say that Pippin ought to realize how she feels and the kind of life she would choose. Then he can face it, squarely, and make his own decision, knowing what it means to her. You say--" he turned to his wife, who was listening intently--"he"s had no education.
Granted--in a way! But you can"t keep Pippin from education any more than you can keep a dog from water when he"s thirsty. (Nip"s bowl is empty, by the way, Lucy; might cry into that next time, what?) I don"t say it will be book education; much good my books have done me, and as you say, Lucy, my English resembles a tinker"s--well, thought it, if you didn"t say it--well--what do you say, Reverend?"
Lawrence Hadley threw his head back with a little reversed nod that was all his own.
"Give me a minute, Jack! I"m a.s.similating! Give me a minute!"
He took a minute, whistling "Am I a soldier of the Cross?" through slowly and carefully. Then he took three more in silence, walking slowly up and down the room, the others watching him anxiously.
All true--so far as it went. Pippin ought to see, ought to realize, what Mary wanted. Ought to realize, too, what power he would have in that way, the frock coat, roast-turkey, mahogany-and-bra.s.s-rail way.
Popularity? He might become the idol of a day--of many days. Men"s hearts would open to him like flowers to the sun. Ma.s.s meetings; hospitals; his voice floating through the wards; "the bright seraphim in burning row!" Yes! Mary beside him, glorified in him, shining with his light and her own--Yes!--On the other hand--what? A dying tramp comforted; a weak boy saved from ruin; a poor old sinner made happy. Not much, perhaps? And yet--had the Master founded hospitals there in Judea? Had He healed all the lepers? He healed one, and the world changed. The hospitals have been building ever since.
At last he spoke.
"Every word you say is true, Jack! Hold on!" as the other reached for his pipe with an air of relief. "Don"t light up yet; you won"t be so pleased in a minute. Every word is true, I say, but it"s only half the truth, and the less important half!"
Hadley"s eyes kindled, and he began to beat time with his fist on the arm of his chair. He was getting up steam.
"What do you mean?" said Aymer, rather shortly.
"You are right about Pippin"s realizing Mary"s point of view. He ought, and he shall; you shall put it to him yourself, as strongly as you like; but--here comes in my half--she must also realize his, and that is what she doesn"t do."