"Y--es," said Primrose, doubtfully, "At least, when I am with her I think I do; when I am away from her it seems little."
"I must ride over there and call, to-morrow," said Dr. Arthur.
"Will you go too?"
And so it fell out that Dingee was summoned to the door next day to usher in the party.
"Yes"m, Miss Ma"land--Miss Hazel, she in, sure!--singin" to herself in de red room,"-- and Dingee led the way.
It was a new room to most of the guests. A room that seemed two sides woodland and one side sunshine. Walls with deep crimson hangings, and carpets of the same hue; and quaint old carved oak chairs and tables, and a bookcase or two, and oaken shelves and brackets against the crimson of the walls. The morning had been cool enough, there at Chickaree, for a wood fire, though only the embers remained now; and in front of where the fire had been, sat the young mistress of the house half hid in a great arm-chair. Soft white folds fell all around her, and two small blue velvet slippers took their ease upon a footstool; with white laces giving their cobweb finish here, there and everywhere. A book was in her hand, and on her shoulder the grey kitten purred secure, in spite of the silky curls which now and then made puss into a pillow. Now and then. For while Miss Kennedy sometimes made believe to read, an sometimes really sang--pouring out sc.r.a.ps of song like a wild bird--yet in truth her attention was oftenest given to the great picture which hung in one recess. And then her head went down upon the grey kitten. Just now, when the visitors came in, she was searching for the notes of that last song at Mrs.
Powder"s; trying apparently, to catch it and bring it back; her girl"s voice endeavouring to represent that which her girl"s heart had never known.
The picture--I may describe it here--was that of a young man bound to a tree and pierced with arrows. No human witnesses in sight, except in the extreme distance; and over sky and earth no sunlight, but instead the deepening shadows of night. But the presence of the one was not noticed, nor the presence of the other missed. Away from earth, and lifted above suffering, the martyr"s eyes looked to the opening clouds above his head, where were light, and heavenly messengers, and the palm- branch, and the crown. Something in the calm clear face checked Miss Kennedy"s bursts of song as often as she turned that way--the high look so beyond her reach.
"What are you doing, Hazel?" said Prim"s sweet voice.
"Puzzling,"--said Hazel, jumping up, and lifting one hand to support the kitten. "Dr. Maryland, I am very glad to see you!
O Prim, how happy you must be!"
"You didn"t look in the least like a person in a puzzle," said Primrose, after the first compliments were pa.s.sed. "What could you be puzzling about, dear?"
"That picture. It always puzzles me. And so when I get befogged over other things, I often come here and add this to the number."
"You are hardly far enough on in your studies yet, Miss Kennedy, to understand that picture," said Dr. Arthur, who was considering it very intently himself.
"My studies! Painting, do you mean? Or what do you mean?" said Wych Hazel.
"What does the picture say to you, Miss Kennedy?"
"That is just what I cannot find out," said Hazel, jumping up again and coming to stand at his side. "I cannot read it a bit."
"You have not learned the characters in which it is written, yet," said Dr. Arthur, with a glance at her.
"She had not learned much," said Primrose, smiling.
"Can _you_ read it?" said Hazel, facing round.
"Why yes, Hazel."
"Well," said the girl, half impatiently, "then how come I to be such an ignoramus?"
"There are some things," said Dr. Arthur, with another swift look at his companion, "which everybody can learn at once. But there are others, Miss Kennedy, which sometimes must wait until the Lord himself sets the lesson. I think this is one of those."
"I shall ask your father," said Hazel, decidedly. "He always thinks I ought to know _everything_ at once."
"Oh, Hazel, my dear, how can you say so?" cried Prim. "Indeed, papa is never so unreasonable. And there he is this minute, and you can ask him."
The long windows of the room looked upon a stretch of greensward spotted with trees. Coming across this bit of the grounds, Dr. Maryland and Rollo saw one of the windows open, and caught sight also of the party within. Even as Dr.
Maryland"s daughter spoke, they stepped upon the piazza and came into the room.
"That is a picture of the loss of all things," Dr. Arthur was saying. "How would you be able to understand?" But then he stepped back, and left the explanation in other hands.
" "The loss of all things!" " Hazel repeated, bewildered. "How do you do, Mr. Rollo?--Dr. Maryland, there is always some special reason why I am especially glad to see you!"
"What is the reason now, my dear?" said the doctor, with a very benign look on his face.
"These two people," said Wych Hazel, with an airy gesture of her head towards her other guests, "find me in a puzzle and push me further in. And I want to be pulled out."
"In what direction shall I pull?" asked the doctor.
"Well, sir,--O Mr. Rollo, don"t you want the cat?--I know you like cats," said Hazel, "and she is in my way.--It is only about my old picture here, Dr. Maryland, which they pretend to understand. Dr. Arthur says it means "the loss of all things,"--and that does not clear up my ideas in the least. Why must I "wait" to know what it means?" she added, linking her hands on the Doctor"s arm, and raising her eager, vivid face to his. "Prim says I "don"t know much"--but I do not see why that should hinder my learning more."
How strong the contrast with the martyr"s face! how high and still and calm the look of him who had overcome! How tender, how open to sorrow, how susceptible of loss, that of the girl on whom as yet the rough winds had not blown! Dr. Arthur"s eyes went soberly from one to the other. Rollo had taken the little cat from its position on its mistress"s shoulder, and now stood with it established on his own, quietly and somewhat gravely attending to what was going on.
"What do you want to learn, my dear?" said Dr. Maryland, on his part gazing at the picture now.
"That picture always perplexes me," said Hazel. "What does it mean? And why do I love it so much, not knowing what it means?"
Standing and looking at the picture, Dr. Maryland answered in the words of Paul: " "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." "
"But papa," said Primrose, "that doesn"t tell her what it means. Didn"t Arthur say right--"The loss of all things"?"
"It means," said Dr. Maryland,--"Human weakness and G.o.d"s strength. Human emptiness and G.o.d"s fulness. Earthly defeat and heavenly victory. How should you understand it, my dear, who have not begun the fight yet?"
"But then, papa, why does she love it so much?"
Dr. Maryland hesitated, and it was Rollo who answered:
"Because the fight is _in her_."
"That"s a queer way of putting it," said Dr. Maryland; "but perhaps it"s true. I hope it is."
The girl gave a swift look over her shoulder which it is to be hoped Mr. Rollo liked, as it was meant for him. So sparkling with the joy of being understood, so stirred with that sudden new life and purpose which appreciation wakes up in some natures. It was but an instant--then her eyes came back to Dr.
Maryland, and were all quiet again. _He_ did not think so, evidently. Which was right? Of what did he doubt her capable?
"Weakness," "emptiness," "defeat," she said, recalling his words. "Is _that_ what I am to find?"
"You do not think it possible," said Dr. Maryland.
"How should she, papa?" said Primrose.
"Well, my dear, it is not possible she should. And yet, Hazel, these are the only way to find strength, fulness, and victory.
It is a problem to you, my dear; only to be worked out."
"Does _every one_ work it out, papa?"
"No, my dear; two thirds of men never do. And so they go on forever saying, "Who will shew us any good?" "
"_He_ did not find defeat," said Hazel, looking at the martyr"s face, and somehow forgetting the arrows and the cords.