Presently Diana lifted her head. Her lashes were wet, but the colour had returned to her cheeks. Her lips smiled, and her eyes grew softly bright.
"David," she said, "you must think me _such_ a goose! But you can"t possibly know what my home means to me; my home and--and everything. Do you know, when I read your telegram saying: "Consultation unnecessary.
Have decided," I felt quite convinced you had decided that you could not do it; and, oh, David, I have left Riverscourt forever, a hundred times during this terrible hour! Really it would have been kinder to have said: "I will marry you," in the telegram."
David smiled. "I am afraid that might have caused a good deal of comment at both post-offices," he said. "But I was a thoughtless a.s.s not to have put in a clear indication as to which way the decision had gone."
"Hush!" cried Diana, with uplifted finger. "Don"t call yourself names, my dear David, before the person who is going to promise to honour and obey you!" Diana"s spirits were rising rapidly. "Now sit down and tell me all about it. What made you feel you could do it? Why didn"t you need to consult Sir Deryck? Did you come to a decision last night, or this morning? You will keep to it, David?"
David sat down in an armchair opposite to Diana, who had flung herself into Uncle Falcon"s.
The portrait, hanging high above their heads, twinkled down on both of them.
"_I shall win_," said Uncle Falcon.
David did not "tie himself up in knots" to-day. He sat very still, looking at Diana with those calm steadfast eyes, which made her feel so young and inconsequential, and far removed from him.
He looked ill and worn, but happy and at rest; and, as he talked, his face wore an expression she had often noted when, in preaching, he became carried away by his subject; a radiance, as of inner glory shining out; a look as of being detached from the world, and independent of all actual surroundings.
"Undoubtedly I shall keep to it, Miss Rivers," he said, "unless, for any reason, you change your mind. And I saw light on the subject this morning."
"Oh, then you "slept on it," as our old nurses used to say?"
David smiled.
"I never had an old nurse," he said. "My mother was my nurse."
Diana did not notice that her question had been parried. "And what made you feel it right this morning?" she asked.
David hesitated.
"Light came--through--the Word," he said at last, slowly.
"Ha!" cried Diana. "I felt sure you would look for it there. And I sat up nearly all night--I mean until midnight--searching my Bible and Prayer-book. But the only applicable thing I found was: "I will not fail David." It would have been more comforting to have found: "David will not fail _me_!""
David laughed.
"We shall not fail each other, Miss Rivers."
"Why do you call me "Miss Rivers"? It is quite absurd to do so, now we are engaged."
"I do not call ladies by their Christian names, when I have known them only a few days," said David.
"Not when you are going to marry them?"
"I have not been going to marry them, before," replied David.
"Oh, don"t be tiresome, Cousin David! Are you determined to accentuate our unusual circ.u.mstances?"
David"s clear eyes met hers, and held them.
"I think they require accentuating," he said, slowly.
Diana"s eyes fell before his. She felt reproved. She realised that in the reaction of her immense relief, she was taking the whole thing too lightly.
"Cousin David," she said, humbly, "indeed I do realise the greatness of this that you are doing for me. It means so much; and yet it means so little. And just because it means so little, and never can mean more, it was difficult to you to feel it right to do it. Is not that so? Do you know, I think it would help me so much, if you would tell me exactly what seemed to you doubtful; and exactly what it was which dispelled that doubt."
"My chief difficulty," replied David, speaking very slowly, without looking at Diana--"my chief difficulty was: that I could not consider it right, in the sight of G.o.d, to enter into matrimony for reasons other than those for which matrimony was ordained; and to do so, knowing that each distinctly understood that there was never to be any question of fulfilling any of the ordinary conditions and obligations of that sacred tie."
David paused.
"In fact," he said, after a few moments of deliberation, "we proposed marrying each other for the sake of other people."
"Yes," cried Diana, eagerly; "your savages, and my tenantry. We wrong no one; we benefit many. Therefore--it _must_ be right."
"Not so," resumed David, gently. "We are never justified in doing wrong in order that good may result. No amount of after good can justify one wrong or crooked action. It seemed to me that, according to the revealed mind and will of G.o.d, the only admissible considerations in marriage were those affecting the man and the woman, themselves; that to wed one another, entirely for the sake of benefiting other people, would make of that sacred act an impious unreality, and could not be done by those seeking to live in accordance with the Divine Will."
Again David paused.
"Well?" breathed Diana, rather wide-eyed and anxious. This undoubted impediment to her wishes, sounded insuperable.
David heard the trepidation in her voice, and smiled at her, rea.s.suringly.
"Well," he said, "I was guided to a pa.s.sage in the Word--a wonderful Old Testament story--which proved that, at all events in one case, G.o.d Himself had put out of consideration the man and the woman, their personal happiness, their home together, and had dealt with that wedded life in a manner which was solely to benefit a community of people.
This one case was enough for me. It furnished the answer to all my questions; set at rest all my doubts. True, the case was unique. But so is ours. Undoubtedly it took place many centuries ago; but were not the Divine Law and Will, in their entirety, revealed in what we call "olden days"? Biblical manners and customs may vary according to clime, century, or conditions; but Bible ethics are the same from Genesis to Revelation; they never vary throughout the centuries, and are therefore changeless for all time. I stand or fall by the Word of my G.o.d, revealed in Eden; just as confidently as I stand or fall by the Word of my G.o.d, spoken from the rainbow throne of Revelation; or, as it shall one day be spoken, from the great white throne, which is yet to come. It is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. I hold the Bible to be inspired from the first word to the last. Let one line go, and you may as well give up the whole. If men begin to pick and choose, the whole great book is swept into uncertainty. Either it is impregnable rock beneath our feet, or it is mere shifting sand of man"s concoction and contrivance; in which case, where can essential certainties be found?"
David"s eyes shone. His voice rang, clarion clear in its a.s.surance. He had forgotten Diana; he had forgotten himself; he had forgotten the vital question under discussion.
Her anxious eyes recalled him.
"Ah, where were we? Yes; the Divine ethics are unchangeable. We can say of our G.o.d: "He is the Father of Lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow that is cast by turning." Therefore there is no shadow in the clear light which came to me last night--from above, I honestly believe. I may be wrong, Miss Rivers; a man can but act according to his conscientious convictions. I am convinced, to-day, that your suggestion is G.o.d"s will for us, in order that we may be made a greater blessing to many. I believe I was guided to that pa.s.sage so that it might dispel a doubt, which otherwise would certainly have remained an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the fulfilment of your wishes."
"Who were the people?" asked Diana, eagerly. "Where was the pa.s.sage?"
David turned his head, and looked out of the window.
He had expected this, but, until Diana actually put the question, he had postponed a definite decision as to what he should answer.
He looked at the clear frosty sky. A slight wind was stirring the leafless branches of the beeches. He could see the powdery snow fall from them in glistening showers.
He did not wish Diana to read that pa.s.sage in Ezekiel. It seemed to him, she could not fail to know at once, that _she_ was the desire of his eyes, if she read it. This would dawn on her, as it had dawned on him--a sudden beam of blinding illumination--and there would be an end to any service he might otherwise have rendered her.
"I would rather you did not read the pa.s.sage," he said. "Much of it is not applicable. In fact, it required logical deduction, and reasoning by a.n.a.logy, in order to arrive at the main point."
"And do you not consider me capable of logical deduction, or of reasoning by a.n.a.logy, Cousin David?"
He flushed.
"How stupidly I express myself. Of course I did not mean that.
But--there are things in the story, Miss Rivers, I do not wish you to see."