As she went slowly along the path that she and Tom had traversed only two days ago, she felt as though it were she, not he, who had gone away from home and all its surroundings out to the open sea. Every landmark with which she was familiar was left behind, her reserve, her modesty, her pride. Two days ago she was anch.o.r.ed to her home in the cabin, to her black mother and sister and brother; they were first, supreme in her thoughts. She was attached to Miss Patty, who petted her and made her feel less a servant than a loved child. Two days ago as she walked over this path, she was at peace, and every murmuring sound, every flicker of sunlight, every sweet, pungent odor sank into her spirit, and held her, as she would have put it, close to G.o.d. Her religion, as she had unconsciously evolved it from the crude, but poetic gospel of the colored preacher, and from the commune she had held with nature, was harmony, the oneness of man"s spirit with the eternal goodness. It had been largely an unconscious belief, born of her own tranquillity. But now the tranquillity was broken, and peace would not return. Shutting her eyes, she listened to the air singing in her ears; she tried to feel herself carried out of the turmoil of the morning into the tabernacle of the spirit.
But it was of no use. It was gone, home, work, religion. She had left the sh.o.r.e and was in a little boat, blinded by the spray, tossed on a sea of tumultuous desire. Tom, too, was out there somewhere on the ocean, but it was the same Tom who had walked with her Sunday. If their boats should meet, his and hers, he would not know his sister. She did not know herself, and stopped amazed to find that she was weeping.
A cow, wearied with her attempt to get some nourishment out of the tough hyacinth, moved out of the river, and, shaking the water from her wet flanks, started home. Hertha suddenly found herself hungry and tired and very much ashamed. The excitement that had brought the tears to her cheeks was gone, leaving a dull depression behind. She turned on her way, and as her mother"s cabin came in sight, with a light in the window, for it was late, she felt relieved and safe. After all, nothing had happened, nothing. She was the same girl she had always been and needed only to forget the happenings of the morning.
Her supper tasted good, and when it was over she thought that she was ready to write a letter to Tom. The table cleared, however, and her pen in hand, she could not find a word to say. How could she forget those two meetings, the only events worth recording, of which Tom must never learn a word? So she bit her pen, and at length, at her mother"s suggestion, postponed the letter to another day.
"Honey-lamb," mammy said, "you" eyes look close ter tears. Don"t you want Ellen to go wid yer down ter de dock? She jes" step out a minute ter see de Theodore Roosevelt Jackson baby, but she"ll come ef I call."
"Don"t call, Mammy; I don"t want to go. Miss Patty kept me running all day and I"m tired. I"ll stay here with you and read."
"Dar are de books, den; but you mostly knows "em by heart."
"I suppose I do," Hertha said drearily.
She picked up _The Life of Abraham Lincoln_. Almost all the books in the Williams household had been bought of agents and paid for on the installment plan. There were volumes of universal knowledge and other volumes of the world"s best literature--all eminently instructive, but none calculated to soothe an aching heart. Turning over the pages idly, looking at a picture here, reading a paragraph there, Hertha occupied a few minutes and then went to where her mother sat in her big, comfortable chair. Leaning over, she put her arms around the old woman"s neck.
"Um, um," the mother crooned, patting the girl"s hands.
"Sing for me, Mammy."
"You must git inter my lap, den. Reckon it"ll hold a lil" flower like you."
"This is better." The girl knelt so that her head came on her mother"s breast. "Now sing."
"What"ll I sing fer yer?"
"Oh, anything. Sing "n.o.body knows de trouble I"s seen.""
"Laws, chile, does yer feel as bad as all dat! Poor lil" lily. An" you was lookin" a rosebud dis mornin". Dey cer"enly don" know much "bout carin" fer my flower up dar." Then, smoothing the girl"s hair with her strong hand, she sang:
"n.o.body knows de trouble I"s seen, n.o.body knows but Jesus.
n.o.body knows de trouble I"s seen, Glory Hallelujah."
The people at the great house were nervous, tiring; but mammy was restful like the deep, lower waters of a stream. Her mellow voice sang on:
"I know de Lawd, I know de Lawd, I know de Lawd has laid his hands on me."
"De Lawd" came out in three long, rolling syllables, descending from the high call, "I know." Hertha found herself breathing slowly, quietly, her mother"s hand smoothing her forehead and soft, curling hair.
"I was a wandering sheep----"
Mammy had slipped into a hymn that belonged to the church where for many years she had worshiped, proud in being the wife of the holy man who occupied the preacher"s desk. She had sung all her children to sleep with this hymn.
"I was a wandering sheep, I did not love the fold, I did not love my shepherd"s voice, I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child----"
Hertha rose from her knees. Quietly going into her mother"s room, she turned down the bed, a task she performed every night for Miss Patty and her guests.
"Honey," her mother called, "what yer up ter?"
"Nothing," Hertha answered, "only fixing to do something for you and Ellen, and now I"m going to bed myself."
For a week she never let the thought of the morning"s happiness take possession of her mind. It might press close, but it encountered a wall of resolution that held it back. She made her way to her work among the chickens and pigs through the pines to the kitchen door. Miss Patty liked to have her about, and when the work in the rooms was finished often called her to her side. She and Miss Witherspoon had taken to spending a part of their afternoons over a new and elaborate kind of embroidery, and Hertha was essential to Miss Patty"s accomplishment.
Indeed, after Hertha had counted st.i.tches and drawn threads and outlined the pattern, Miss Patty"s part became a last triumphant progress. During this period of the day, when the women were on the gallery, Lee would often join them. He and Miss Witherspoon found many things to talk about, for the Boston woman had a keen interest in this southern youth who had gotten the best out of his studies and returned ambitious to bring new life to his ancestral acres. "You"re quite a missionary," she said once to his aunt"s disgust. Lee might fuss about his trees if he liked, but business ac.u.men was a little vulgar and at the least should be concealed, while criticism of the South, the suggestion that it was a mission field, was rank impertinence.
Sometimes Lee brought a book and read to them here and there, for Miss Patty did not care for a continuous story. One afternoon it was a poem written by a cla.s.smate who had died before his college days were over.
Coming from one who left the earth so young, its promise of future endeavor, of service to humanity, made it a tragic little verse. Miss Patty wiped her eyes when it was over and called on Hertha to set her work right. During these times Lee never spoke to Hertha nor seemed to look in her direction, but he always knew when she had left the porch and rarely stayed long after her absence. Miss Patty felt pleased that her Boston guest was interesting her boy so that she had more of his company.
On Sunday Ellen proposed to her sister that they take a walk, and they went among the pines and dark cypresses, through the swamp, and by the black creek. It was hot and humid, the mosquitoes were annoying, and they were both tired when they returned to the cabin steps.
"I don"t like this time of year," Hertha said when they sat down. "It"s so silent. The birds ceased singing long ago; they only call to one another now."
"The mosquitoes haven"t ceased singing, I notice," Ellen replied, laughing. "Now I like this time of year best of all. October means the beginning of cool weather and work."
When Hertha went to her room that night a little breeze greeted her as she sat down by her window. It was cloudy at first, but in a few moments the clouds broke and the moonlight streamed upon the dark trees and the white sand. She watched the moon sailing through the clouds, she smelt the roses by the porch, and the wall that her will had built against her sweet and rapturous thoughts broke down, and with a rush her spirit was swept with tumultuous love.
"Cinderella," Lee said to her the next morning as she turned into the orange grove, "you"ve been a shockingly long time coming."
"I know it," she answered, "but there were so many things to think of, sitting by the fire."
"Don"t think," he urged. "I"ve given it up. Don"t think, but live."
And this time she lifted up her face and, without a thought, gave him a kiss.
CHAPTER V
"Hertha," Ellen said the next afternoon, "have you any plans for the future?"
School had just closed, Miss Patty had given her maid an afternoon off, and the two sisters were walking together toward their home.
"Any plans?" Hertha was startled. "I thought our plans were made for good when we came here."
"I hope not!" Ellen declared decidedly. "I"m willing to work here now for next to nothing, but I shall try for a bigger job some day; and you, honey, you don"t always want to be Miss Patty"s maid."
"I don"t know; why shouldn"t I?"
"This is a dull life for you, Hertha. Sometimes I think we ought never to have come here."
"Ellen!"
"It"s different for mammy and me; we"re older."
"You"re only four years older than I."