He met the woman that night; he went to her house and found her there, and found, too, that as she was, being a dear woman, she had just then but vague views either on special providences or anything else in particular, all being absorbed in anxiety as to his own health and welfare. She was but a loving, frightened creature, harried over what might have happened to the man who through all the months of silence and separation had been all there was in the world to her. He had come half intending to admit himself all in error, but soon all had been lost in the mere performance of a man and a woman blending. And the evening pa.s.sed. Then when the next day came, the two, now understanding, walked out into the country.
It was in that wonderful hour of the summer sunset, when all the world is filled with light and the heavens are tinted with opalescent colors from an unseen source, and some vagrant vesper sparrow is still singing, that John Elwell and Jane Conant stood in John Dent"s little family graveyard, looking soberly at the transplanted church steeple. It stood there, its base ranged plumb east and west, north and south, as if calculated with all the niceties of the Ancient Order; at its foot the quiet gra.s.s-grown graves, while all around stretched clover meadows and the cornfields.
"I feel like borrowing a phrase from the Mohammedans," said the minister, "or just the beginning of one, then saying no more: "G.o.d is great!""
The girl"s summer bonnet hung back over her shoulders, its pink strings loosely tied under her chin. She looked comprehendingly at the minister, but she said nothing.
"I have been narrow," continued the minister, "but G.o.d is great."
Coming across the clover field they saw John Dent, and the two went to the white picket fence around the graveyard, which he had built and cared for, and stood at its little gate to meet him.
"Mr. Dent," said the minister, when he had shaken the farmer"s hand, and as they all turned to look at the steeple top, "I have had a lesson, and I must acknowledge that it was needed. Our vision is limited, and we often know not even how to pray! I am content to leave all to G.o.d, nor to wrestle for His special interposition in my behalf. The doctrine of special providences is presuming--of the earth, earthy. I see that now."
"Well, I don"t know," said John Dent; "I didn"t exactly pray for it, but I"ve always wanted a monument to my folks here. Sometimes I thought it was vain and worldly minded in me, but I couldn"t give it up. I wanted that monument just about as high as the end of the steeple stands, just about that shape, too, more than anything in this world. I couldn"t see my way clear to getting it. I couldn"t afford to build one--and here it is! I don"t know as I quite agree with you now parson, concerning special providences!"
It was just before the conclusion of the Minister"s story that a lady entered quietly from the next sleeping car and was welcomed to the coterie by two or three of the ladies, who had, evidently, met her.
Stafford looked in her direction and their eyes met. Then, all the world changed!
They knew each other on the instant, but beyond the slightest of inclinations of their heads, there was no sign of recognition. There was no smile. There was but an almost startled look which changed into one of comprehension and then of the ready trust which was of the past. What message that lingering mutual glance conveyed neither could have told entirely--it was doubtful, hopeful, appealing, understanding.
As the minister ceased talking, and comment began, Stafford rose and made his way toward the new arrival. He had but neared her when Mrs.
Livingston took him by the arm:
"Have you met Mrs. Eversham yet, Mr. Stafford?"
They clasped hands, and his head swam, it seemed to him: "I did not know that you were on the train," he said.
"I have been slightly ill," she answered gently, "and have been confined to my stateroom most of the time since leaving San Francisco, but I am well again. It is good to be out."
Then their attention was demanded by others and they were separated.
But, what a flavor to the world now!
CHAPTER V
THE FAR AWAY LADY
They called her the "Far Away Lady"--those on the train who had already met her. Just why the name was bestowed by some one with imagination and aptness of expression or why it had been so readily adopted by the others, perhaps none could have clearly told, but it had its fitness.
There was a certain soft dignity and reserve of manner and a "far away"
look in the eyes of this stately, but certainly loveable human being.
She possessed the subtle distinction there is to women of a certain sort, impressing those about her in spite of themselves, as years before, she had impressed John Stafford. As has been told he knew her on the moment, yet in their words was nothing, and, even as they met, they had not looked into each other"s eyes unless, it may be, with a hungering furtiveness and a dizziness at the marvel of the meeting.
It is hard to describe the Far Away Lady. Her face was exquisite in its pure womanliness, but in its expression was something which told of a life unfilled. It was not a protest; it was too good for that, but it seemed to suggest with this woman a bewildered resignation. The face was one which, in other times, might, before the end, have been turned toward and found the cloister. Yet there was all of modern living and appreciative conception in it. A smile came to the lips at certain incidents of the story-telling, and interest showed in the soft eyes at the relation of some striking episode. There was intelligence as there was sad sweetness in every feature of the lovely face. Yet there remained always in the look that quality, not of listlessness, but of abstraction. It was a face as fascinating as it was appealing.
In her own stateroom the Far Away Lady sat at her window, but seeing no whirling snow, hearing not the plaint of the dying wind. She was detained in no cold and rugged canyon. Her thoughts were far away.
About her was no scene of pallid desolation. She looked instead, upon the blue waters of a great calm lake, the wavelets of which splashed at her feet, while about her all was sunshine. Seated beside her on the rustic bench was a man, one strong, tender and trustworthy, and they were about to part, as they thought, forever. Very sad was the man, almost a weakling for the moment, though talking lightly in an effort to distract her mind from what was near, blundering and only nurturing their mutual sorrow, by indulging in foolish fancies of what might have been.
He was smiling by force of will as he looked across the waters toward the invisible other sh.o.r.e and dreaming aloud:
"We would build a house upon some high wooded out-jutting point upon the other side," he said, "a house, it might be, most unpretentious, as near the southern end of the lake as practicable, so that we would be conveniently near the city. It might be of almost any material and be a sort of bungalow or even only what they call a "shack," but comfort would be in and all about it and happiness within its walls. It would face the lake with an outlook on all its moods, its bright placidity or its rage in storms, and there would be white sails and the pa.s.sing steamers and all that pertains to those who go down to the sea in ships.
And the sun would make yellow bars on the blue in the morning and in the evening we would see it go down into the water red and "big as a barn,"
and there would be a crimson pathway from us to it, and when the summer darkness came, we should sit happily together, listening to the voices of the night, the katydids and the whippoorwills and all the other things. Then we would be waked in the morning by the sunlight again and the songs of all the wild birds instead of by the whistles and the noisy chattering of city sparrows.
"And the house would have a big front room with a mighty fireplace in the winter, and the windows would be made wide and high so that ever in the daytime there would be light--more light--and there would be lamps a-plenty to make it light when the dark changed into blackness. And about the sides of all this big room there would be cases with many books and in the center of a great table, with all the magazines and everything of pa.s.sing interest. There would be chairs, cosy, indolent chairs, to dream in, and light ones and business-like ones, and a great couch with many cushions.
"Outside you should have your garden, the flowers you love so, and in the wood there would be a fountain, fed from the lake by a windmill, where the birds could drink and bathe and quarrel and mate, and where we could watch and study them. You would become as wise as Linnaeus and I as Burroughs.
"And there will be dogs,"--unconsciously he changed the tense--"What is home without a dog! and about the Shack we shall have no limitations.
We"ll have as many as we want; there"ll be an Irish setter, soft-eyed and chestnut-coated, the perfect gentleman among dogs; there"ll be a bull terrier, bright and loving; there"ll be a collie, wisest and most observing, and, possibly, a toy dog, for your plaything at times, when you are tired of me. And, finally, there will be a bulldog, a creature of such aspect as to give a ghost or burglar spasms, a monster in appearance, though kind at heart, a thing so hideous as to have a baneful beauty, with ma.s.sive bow legs, wide apart, bloodshot and leering eyes and a countenance generally like that of a huge fanged toad. And all of these too shall be dogs of lineage, Hapsburgs among dogs, and I will give each of them to you when a puppy, so that you may rear them yourself and they will become your adoring va.s.sals and protectors. Eh, but you will be well guarded, and I shall feel more at ease when I am away from you, riding over to town for the mail or to get a lemon or two.
"And what friends we will have, not the casual, conventional, flitting friends alone, such as some might be content with, but those closest to us because of that which cannot be defined but which exists, and, besides them, perhaps less close but hardly less companionable, others of tastes and inclinations like our own, and who will riot or rest as suits them in the atmosphere about us. They will be the brothers and sisters of the time, and there will be doings both whimsical and wise.
There will be a rendezvous for those who know--our author friends, our artist friends--what a lot of them are ours!--and our musical friends, to give an added and different flavor. What a piano you"ll have! I"ll get the one used by David and Miriam and Orpheus and Apollo and St.
Cecelia and Liszt and Mrs. Zeisler--if I can. Never mind the anachronisms and solecisms--and we"ll let them "sound the loud timbrel o"er Egypt"s dark sea," or rather o"er Lake Michigan, or engage in any other fantasies appropriate to Arcady--land fifty dollars an acre--and, at times, we will, no doubt, be unent.i.tled to call our souls our own.
"And--so well do I know you--there will be often there some of those whose lines are not cast in the pleasant places and to whom such freedom from care, and such taste of home and real companionship about them will be like an outing in the outskirts, at least, of Paradise. And we"ll try to deserve the Shack! Yes, we"ll deserve it all the time--when buds are bursting, when the green leaves hide the oriole in the maple, when the maple"s leaves are red, and when there are no leaves, and the fireplace is doing its winter"s roaring. What a home it will be! Ah, my girl, we"ll"--but the sorrowful jesting failed him, and he said no more.
Then came the parting.
And now the dreaming woman"s thoughts reverted to the present. She could see the snow and hear the wind and realize existent things. How strange it was! Years had pa.s.sed and he and she were together again, he drifting from another hemisphere, sterner faced, perhaps, but still the same, and she, changed too, she thought, but doubtless to less advantage. She felt rebellious. The world was lost. To him and her could never come in life the close comradeship which is the crown of things, the right to share good and ill alike, and meet the future, shoulder to shoulder, laughingly in the enduring love which can become so sublimely a part of two souls that it is a part of immortality.
And in the next car Stafford, too, was sitting alone and thoughts very like those of the woman were in his mind. But he was far less patient.
His bonds were chafing him.
CHAPTER VI
THE LIFE LINE
There were smiles before comment began, as the minister finished his odd story, which, as everybody seemed to feel, was told rather to distract attention from the outlook in the present strait than as having any serious application to the theme under discussion, and, for a time, there was a departure from the subject. The wind still howled outside, but the cold did not increase perceptibly. A more cheerful feeling had obtained and the situation was now looked upon by most of the prisoners as but one of the extraordinary incidents of Rocky Mountain travel.
The one woman had retired to her own car and Stafford, after a season of wild imagining, had returned to earth again. He sat looking upon the scene with a degree of interest.
Experienced and toughened man of the world as he chanced to be, he was not lacking in keen sympathies, and he wondered, as he studied the faces about him, how the test would be endured should the car be no longer heated and the supply of food become exhausted before aid could reach them? He had been s...o...b..und before, and he knew the more than uncomfortable possibilities of the case. There might be a more continued fall of snow than any one antic.i.p.ated. The howl of the wind had subsided a little and was no longer so menacing in tone, but rather whistled and muttered, as it tossed the ma.s.ses of snow about. It seemed to Stafford as indicating no increased fierceness of the storm but, instead, more snow. The man who has experienced much of climes and seasons learns to recognize a prophecy in the voice of the wind and to set his house in order accordingly. In this case, Stafford had much rather have heard the wind still giving utterance to its wolf"s howls. Howls and bl.u.s.ter were nothing, but an addition to the difficulties of the relief train was what was most to fear. So Stafford did not like the wind"s more whimpering tones. The other pa.s.sengers, with the exception of a grizzled miner, and perhaps, a few others who had long known the Storm King personally, appeared delighted at any abatement of the turmoil outside.
To them, lack of noise was proof of lack of peril.
It was the Colonel, that fine combination of Colonel Newcombe, Mr.
Macawber and an up-to-date retired American army officer, who gave direction to the course of events again, as the discussion went on idly.
He broke in:
"What the minister told us regarding what was or was not a special providence relieved us, certainly, for it gave us a conundrum, and conundrums distract the mind, but we must keep the distraction up. Have there been no other providential dispensations?" He turned to the miner, whom he chanced to know well:
"Here, Jim, you who have been so long in the mountains, ought to be able to tell us of escapes which seemed purely providential. Don"t you know of any such affair?"