"I maintain that duties are facts, not notions," said Mr. Linden.
"Hum--" said the doctor turning,--"Now you are too quick for me. May one not have a _notion_ of a fact?"
"One may. What are your notions about society and solitude?"
"Of duty in those regards?"
"Not at all,--your notions of those facts."
"Confused--" said the doctor,--"Incomprehensible--Melancholy--and Distracting!"
He had got up and a.s.sumed the position he seemed to like, a standing-place on the rug, from whence he could look down on everybody.
"What do you say to this?--
"Two paradises were in one, To live in Paradise alone."--
I suppose that meets your "notions.""
"No," said the doctor,--"not unless Eve were the paradise. And even then, I shouldn"t want her any more to myself than to let all the world come and see that she was mine."
"It is a grave question," said Mr. Linden, "whether paradise becomes smaller by being divided. In other words, whether after sharing it with Eve, Adam still retained the whole of it for himself!"
"Just the other way!" said the doctor,--"it was doubled--or trebled.
For in the first place he had Eve; she was a second paradise;--then all her enjoyment of paradise was his enjoyment; that was a third;--and in short I should think the multiplication might go on ad infinitum--like compound interest or any other series of happiness impossible to calculate."
"Simple interest isn"t a bad thing," said Mr. Linden.
"Yes," said the doctor with an answering flash of his eye, "but it never contented anybody yet that could get it compound--that ever I heard of. Does Miss Derrick understand arithmetic?"
"Miss Derrick," said Mr. Linden, "how many angels can stand on the point of a (darning) needle without jostling each other?"
"Don"t be deluded into thinking _that_ is arithmetic," said the doctor.
"Some of them would get their feet hurt. What duty has Mr. Linden been persuading you to do to-day?"
"Mr. Linden can tell," said Faith.
Which appeal Mr. Linden answered by deliberately finishing his poem aloud, for the benefit of the company.
""What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious cl.u.s.ters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine.
The nectarine, the curious peach, Into my hands themselves do reach.
Stumbling on melons, as I pa.s.s, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on gra.s.s."
"Here, at the fountain"s sliding foot, Or at some fruit-tree"s mossy root, Casting the body"s vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide: There, like a bird, it sits and sings, Then whets and claps its silver wings; And, till prepared for longer flight, Waves in its plumes the various light."" etc.
The doctor listened, faithfully and enjoyingly; but his finishing comment was,
"What a pity it is November!"
"No," said Faith--"I think I enjoyed it better than I should in July."
"Rousseau"s doctrine," said the doctor. "Or do you mean that you like the description better than the reality?"
"It was the reality I enjoyed," said Faith.
"What have you got there, Linden?"
"Various old poets, bound up together."
"What was that you read?"
"Andrew Marvell"s "Garden.""
"It"s a famous good thing!--though I confess my soul never "glided into the boughs" of any tree when my body didn"t go along. Apropos--Do you like to be on the back of a good horse?"
"Why yes," said Mr. Linden, "when circ.u.mstances place me there."
"Will you let me be a circ.u.mstance to do it? I have an animal of that description--with almost the facility of motion possessed by Andrew Marvell"s soul. Will you try him?"
"Can he run?" said Mr. Linden with comic demureness.
"Fleetly. Whether _away with you_ depends, you know, on what I have no knowledge of; but I should think not."
"I should like to know beforehand--" said Mr. Linden in the same tone.
"However--Is it to be on simple or compound interest, doctor?"
"I never take simple interest," said Dr. Harrison. "I want all I can get."
"Well if I take your horse, what will you ride alongside of me?"
"That is easily arranged," said the doctor smiling. "This fellow is a new-comer, comparatively, and a pet of mine. I want to know what you think of him. When is your next time of leisure?"
"My daylight leisure is pretty limited now. Part of Sat.u.r.day I could take."
"Then you"ll hold yourself engaged to me for Sat.u.r.day morning,--and I"ll hold myself engaged to give you some thing pleasant to do with it.
The roads hereabout are good for nothing _but_ riding--you can have the pleasure of motion, there isn"t much to take your thoughts away from it."
"Except emotion?"
"If you"re another Marvell of a man, and can send your soul into the boughs as you pa.s.s;--as good as stumbling on melons," said the doctor.
"Unless your horse stumbles!"
"I see his character is coming out by degrees," said Mr. Linden smiling.
"He"s as sure-footed--as you are! Here comes emotion--in the shape of my aunt Ellen. Isn"t Mr. Linden a careful man?" he asked whimsically in a low voice, returning to his place by Faith. The question touched Faith"s feeling of the ludicrous, and she only laughed at the doctor.
Which he liked very well.