AS Emily turned from Mrs. Ralston"s gate, she felt more buoyant happiness than anything in life had ever hitherto brought her. She felt licensed on high authority to revel in the hitherto forbidden. She wanted Lorenzo Rath, and she thought that she understood how to get him.
We may follow her thought and then we will follow where it led her, for in all the surge of the new teaching there is no lesson greater to learn than this which Emily had failed to grasp,--that the possession of tools does not make one a carver; that all things spiritual must be learned exactly as all things material. One may have so lived previously that the learning is a mere showing how, but without experience nothing, either spiritual, mental, or physical, can be efficaciously handled.
When people declare that something is not true because they tried it and it failed to work, remember Emily Mead. Emily had acquired just one idea out of Jane"s exposition: "That you could get anything that you want."
It is the idea that hosts of people find most attractive in this world, quite irrespective of its correlative esotericism,--that the soul growing towards infinite power learns every upward step by resolutely liking what it gets. No man can climb a stair by hacking down every step pa.s.sed; he climbs by being so firm upon each step that he can poise his whole weight thereon as he mounts. It is part of the supremely beautiful logic of the highest teaching that the same effort which Jesus made--every great teacher has made--is sure to make, too. We must see the Divine embodied in the Present and the Weak and the Humble, before in our own spirit we may deal, for the good of all, with the Future and Strength and Power. When one seizes upon anything G.o.d-given as a means of acquiring earth-gifts, one has but seized the empty air; the idea and then ideal have never been in the possession of such an one. There is nothing shut away from those who really make G.o.d"s teaching a vital part of themselves, but such men and women are no longer keen to selfishly possess, and the good which they reach out for flows easily in for their further distribution; in other words, they become what we were all designed to be,--the outward manifestations of G.o.d"s purpose, the living breathing, blessed servants of His will.
How far this interpretation lay from poor Emily"s comprehension the reader knows.
She hurried along, her whole being bounding with joy over the simplicity of the new lesson. It all seemed almost too story-book-like to be happening in her stupid, commonplace life. She had spent so many long hours in thinking over how things would never happen for her, that she had entirely lost faith in their ever changing their ways and now, all of a sudden, here was a complete reversal. Bonds were turned into wings; that unattainable being, a live man, was not only at hand, but available; she felt herself bidden not to doubt her power; she judged herself advised to say frankly all the things that girls may never say.
This was the day of feminine freedom. To wish was to have. What one wanted was the thing that was best for one. Emily--with all of Jane"s ideas swimming upside down in her head--felt superbly joyous and confident. After all, being alive was a pretty good thing.
She turned a corner into the lane that led in a roundabout way to her mother"s back garden gate and walked swiftly. She was a fine, straight girl with a lithe, springy walk. Perhaps Lorenzo Rath could not have done better, from most standpoints, than to marry such an one. Many men do worse. And there was old Mr. Cattermole"s money, too. Some of these views float in all human atmosphere to-day--float there securely, because the world is a practical world, and an automobile is obvious, while love and trust are absolutely unknown to many. "Ye cannot serve G.o.d and Mammon too," and Mammon is very plain and practical, rolling on rubber tires to the best restaurant. Emily could not have reduced her roseate visions to any such sordid reasoning, but love to her meant leaving town and having a good-looking and lively young man to take her about. This was not really love, any more than the means by which she expected to acquire it were the religion taught by Jane. We hear much of the downfall of love and the downfall of religion in these days, but no one even stops to realize that religion and love cannot possibly even shake on their thrones. Their counterfeits may crumble and tumble, but real truth can never fail. It was the counterfeits at which Emily, like many another, grasped eagerly.
So now she was tripping lightly along and, turning the twist by the great chestnut tree, her heart gave a sudden flop, for just ahead she saw her quarry. He was propped against the fence, using his knees for an easel, while he made a rapid water-color sketch. He was good at those little impressions of an artistic bit, that nearly always show forth in youth a great artist struggling to grow.
Emily started, for she was very close to him before she saw him, and her rampant thoughts led her to blush, apologize, and stammer precisely as she might have done, had her s.e.x never advanced at all but merely remained the dominant note that they have always been.
"Why, Mr. Rath," and then she paused.
Lorenzo--who wanted to finish his sketch--nodded pleasantly without looking up. "Grand day for walking," he said, as a supremely polite hint, and continued to work rapidly.
Emily went close beside him and looked downward upon the canvas. "How pretty! I wish I knew more about pictures. What is that brown hill? You can"t see a hill from here."
"That"s a cow," said Lorenzo, painting very fast indeed, "but don"t ask me to explain things, for I can"t work and talk at the same time."
Emily sank down beside him with a pleasant sense of proprietorship now that she could get him by will power alone. "I"ve just come from Mrs.
Ralston"s. They"re in such distress over old Mrs. Croft."
"Is she worse?" The artist forgot to paint all of a sudden, and turned quickly towards her.
"Oh, no,--she was asleep when I left. Jane didn"t seem a bit troubled, but Mrs. Ralston is almost wild over not knowing what to say to her sister when she comes back and finds that awful old woman there. It"s a terrible situation. Everybody knows that young Mrs. Croft has run away.
She just hated to stay and now she"s gone. Isn"t it awful?"
"Oh, I don"t know," said Lorenzo, suddenly regaining his deep interest in work, "I have a distinct feeling that Miss Grey will bring things out all right for most people always. It"s her way."
"Yes, she"s a dear girl," said Emily, and paused to have time to consider things a little while, feeling that the conversation should be continued by the man. The man didn"t continue the conversation, however, merely wielding his brush and looking completely absorbed.
Then she remembered her mission. "Mr. Rath, do you believe in frankness always?"
"I wish that I did."
"But don"t you?"
"Civilization wouldn"t stand for it."
"Perhaps not every one could bear it, but some could. I could, I"m sure."
"Are you so sure?"
"Yes, I am sure. I was talking with Jane alone just at the gate before I left, and she believes that frankness is best always."
"It"s easiest, certainly." Lorenzo raised his eyebrows a little impatiently, but she paid no attention.
"Do you think so?"
"Why, of course. When one wants to be let alone and blurts out, "Let me alone," why, one gets let alone."
"Oh, but that would be impolite," said Emily, feeling that for an artist he used very crude metaphor. "Of course, Jane and I were not talking about that kind of people, or that kind of ways. We were talking of people like you and me--nice people, you know. Jane advised me to be quite frank with you."
Lorenzo opened his eyes widely. "About what, please?"
"Oh, about all things. You see I meet so few men, and men are so interesting, and I enjoy talking with them. I"ve read a good deal, and I don"t care for the life in this place. I want to leave it dreadfully."
"So do I," said the artist. "I quite agree with you there."
"You see, Jane has been teaching me to understand life, and I am getting the feeling that I am meant for something else than just helping my mother, wandering about town, and going to church. I"m very tired and restless."
Lorenzo painted fast.
"Mr. Rath, if you--a man--felt as I do, what would you do?"
"Get out."
"But where?"
"Everybody can find a way, if they really want to."
"It isn"t as if I had talent, you see."
"A good many people haven"t talent and yet do very well, indeed."
"But I don"t want to be a shop-girl or anything like that."
"Naturally not."
There was a pause.
"I"m very much interested in the progress women are making," said Emily.
"I read all I can get hold of about it. Don"t you think it remarkable?"
"I don"t think much about it, and I skip everything on the subject."
"Oh, Mr. Rath!"
"I"m a jealous brute. I don"t like to realize that a woman can do everything that is a man"s work, even to the verge of driving him to starvation, while he can"t do any of her work under any circ.u.mstances."
"He could wash and cook and sweep."
"Oh, he"s invented machines to save her that."
"I see you"ve no sympathy with the advanced woman."