The Flaming Jewel
Page 26
my_ WHOLE LIFE.
"Is it not modest of a young girl to say this? Yet, surely all theworld which was once _en regle,_ formal, artificial, has been burnt outof our hearts by this so frightful calamity which has overwhelmed theworld with fire and blood.
"If ever on earth there was a time when we might venture to expresswith candour what is hidden within our minds and hearts, it would seem,Monsieur, that the time is now.
"True, I have known you only for one day and one evening. Yet, whathappened to the world in that brief space of time -- and to us, Monsieur-- brought _us_ together as though our meeting were but a blessedreunion after the happy intimacy of many years. ... I speak, Monsieur,for myself. May I hope that I speak, also, for you?
"With a heart too full to thank you, and with expectationsindescribable -- but with courage, always, for any event, -- I take myleave of you at the foot of this page. Like death -- I trust -- myadieu is not the end, but the beginning. It is not farewell; it is agreeting to him whom I most honour in all the world. ... And wouldwillingly obey if he shall command. And otherwise -- _all_ else that inhis mind -- and heart -- he might desire.
"THEODORICA."
* * * * *
It was the most beautiful love-letter any man ever received in all thehistory of love.
And it had passed the censor.
* * * * *
III
It was afternoon when Darragh awoke in his bunk, stiff, sore, confusedin mind and battered in body.
However, when he recollected where he was he got out of bed in a hurryand jerked aside the window curtains.
The day was magnificent; a sky of royal azure overhead, and everywherethe silver pillars of the birches supporting their splendid canopy ofochre, orange, and burnt-gold.
Wier, hearing him astir, came in.
"How long have you been back! Did you meet the ladies with yourflivver?" demanded Darragh, impatiently.
"I got to Five Lakes station just as the train came in. The youngladies were the only passengers who got out. I waited to get their twosteamer trunks and then I drove them to Harrod Place----"
"How did they seem, Ralph -- worn-out -- worried -- ill?"
Wier laughed: "No, sir, they looked very pretty and lively to me. Theyseemed delighted to get here. They talked to each other in some foreigntongue -- Russian, I should say -- at least, it sounded like what weheard over in Siberia, Captain---"
"It was Russian. ... You go on and tell me while I take another hotbath!----"
Wier followed him into the bath-room and vaulted to a seat on the deepset window-sill:
"-- When they weren't talking Russian and laughing they talked to me andadmired the woods and mountains. I had to tell them everything -- theywanted to see buffalo and Indians. And when I told them there weren'tany, enquired for bears and panthers.
"We saw two deer on the Scaur, and a woodchuck near the house; I thoughtthey'd jump out of the flivver----"
He began to laugh at the recollection: "No, sir, they didn't act tiredand sad; they said they were crazy to get into their knickerbockers andgo to look for you----"
"Where did you say I was?" asked Darragh, drying himself vigorously.
"Out in the woods, somewhere. The last I saw of them, Mrs. Ray hadtheir hand-bags and Jerry and Tom were shouldering their trunks."
"I'm going up there right away," interrupted Darragh excitedly. "--Good heavens, Ralph, I haven't any clothes here, have I?"
"No, sir. Bu those you wore last night are dry----"
"Confound it! I meant to send some decent clothes here---- All right;get me those duds I wore yesterday---- and a bite to eat! I'm in ahurry, Ralph----"
He ate while dressing, disgustedly arraying himself in the grey shirt,breeches, and laced boots which weather, water, rock, and brier had notimproved.
In a pathetic attempt to spruce up, he knotted the red bandanna aroundhis neck and punched Salzar's slouch hat into a peak.
"I look like a hootch-running Wop," he said. "Maybe I can get into thehouse before I meet the ladies----"
"You look like one of Clinch's bums," remarked Wier with native honesty.
Darragh, chagrined, went to his bunk, pulled the morocco case from underthe pillow, and shoved it into the bosom of his flannel shirt.
"That's the main thing anyway," he thought. Then, turning to Wier, heasked whether Eve and Stormont had awakened.
It appeared that Trooper Stormont had saddled up and cantered awayshortly after sunrise, leaving word that he must hunt up his comrade,Trooper Lannis, at Ghost Lake.
"They're coming back this evening," added Wier. "He asked you to lookout for Clinch's step-daughter."
"She's all right here. Can't you keep an eye on her, Ralph?"
"I'm stripping trout, sir. I'll be around here to cook dinner for herwhen she wakes up."
Darragh glanced across the brook at the hatchery. It was only a fewyards away. He nodded and started for the veranda:
"That'll be all right," he said. "Nobody is coming here to bother her.... And don't let her leave, Ralph, till I get back----"
"Very well, sir. But suppose she takes it into her head to leave----"
Darragh called back, gaily: "She can't: she hasn't any clothes!" Andaway he strode in the gorgeous sunshine of a magnificent autumn day, allthe clean and vigorous youth of him afire in anticipation of a reunionwhich the letter from his lady-love had transfigured into a tryst.
For, in that amazing courtship of a single day, he never dreamed that hehad won the heart of that sad, white-faced, hungry child in rags --silken tatters still stained with the blood of massacre, -- the verysoles of her shoes still charred by the embers of her own home.
Yes, that is what must have happened in a single day and evening. Lifepasses swiftly during such periods. Minutes lengthen into days; hoursinto years. The soul finds itself.
Then mind and heart become twin prophets, -- clairvoyant concerning whathides behind the veil; comprehending the divine clair-audience what theThree Sisters whisper there -- hearing even the whirr of the spindle --the very snipping of the Eternal Shears!
* * * * *
The soul finds itself; the mind knows itself; the heart perfectlyunderstands.
He had not spoken to this young girl of love. The blood of friends andservants was still rusty on her skirt's ragged hem.
Yet, that night, when at last in safety she had said good-bye to the manwho had secured it for her, he knew that he was in love with her. And,at such crises, the veil that hides hearts becomes transparent.
At that instant he had seen and known. Afterward he had dared notbelieve that he had know.
But hers had been a purer courage.
* * * * *
As he strode on, the comprehension of her candour, her honesty, thesweet bravery that had conceived, created, and sent that letter,thrilled this young man until his heavy boots sprouted wings, and thetrail he followed was but a path of rosy clouds over which he floatedheavenward.
* * * * *
And half an hour later he came to his senses with a distinct shock.
Straight ahead of him on the trail, and coming directly toward him,moved a figure in knickers and belted tweed.
Flecked sunlight slanted on the stranger's cheek and burnished hair,dappling face and figure with moving, golden spots.
Instantly Darragh knew and trembled.
But Theodorica of Esthonia had known him only in his uniform.
As she came toward him, lovely in her lithe and rounded grace, onlyfriendly curiosity gazed at him from her blue eyes.
Suddenly she knew him, went scarlet to her yellow hair, then white: andtried to speak -- but had no control of the short, rosy upper lip whichonly quivered as he took her hands.
The forest was dead still around them save for the whisper of paintedleaves sifting down from a sunlit vault above.
Finally she sad in a ghost of a voice: "My -- friend. ..."
"If you accept his friendship. ..."
<
br /> "Friendship is to be shared. ... Ours mingled -- on that day. ... Yourshare is -- as much as pleases you."
"All you have to give me, then."
"Take it ... All I have. ..." Her blue eyes met his with a littleeffort. All courage is an effort.
Then that young man dropped on both knees at her feet and laid his lipsto her soft hands.
In trembling silence she stood for a moment, then slowly sank on bothknees to face him across their clasped hands.
So, in the gilded cathedral of the woods, pillared with silver, andazure-domed, the betrothal of these two was sealed with clasp and lip.
Awed, a little fearful, she looked into her lover's eyes with a gaze sochaste, so oblivious to all things earthly, that the still purity of herface seemed a sacrament, and he scarcely dared touch the childish lipsshe offered.
But when the sacrament of