CHAPTER XXIII.--A LONG-DELAYED LETTER.
That was an eventful week to Carol. Three or four days after the returnof Mrs. Burton and Eloise it was his turn to open the post-bag. Thedaily task of receiving the post-bag, unlocking it, sorting, and thendistributing the contents, was always such a pleasure to the elderchildren that they had agreed to take it by turns.
There seemed an unusually full bag that morning when he emptied thecontents on the hall table. He collected into a little pile all theletters for the servants' hall, for the school-room, and for Mrs.Mandeville. Colonel Mandeville was away with his regiment. Quite at thelast he discovered two envelopes bearing the small, neat handwritingwhich always called forth an exclamation of pleasure.
"Two letters this morning from Cousin Alicia, one for Auntie and one forme!"
But he faithfully finished his task, and delivered the letters to theirrespective owners before opening his own letter.
Mrs. Mandeville frequently breakfasted with the children when ColonelMandeville was away and there were no visitors staying in the house.Carol found her in the schoolroom.
Breakfast had commenced. "You have had a big delivery this morning, Mr.Postman, have you not?" she said.
"Yes, Auntie, nearly everyone has had more than one letter, and here arefour for you, three for Miss Markham, one for Percy, one for Edith, andone for me from Cousin Alicia. One of your letters, too, Auntie, isfrom Cousin Alicia, and it is quite a fat one. Mine is quite thin. MayI open it, Auntie?"
"Certainly, dear, I am sure Miss Markham will allow you. We all knowhow little people are impatient to read their letters."
Mrs. Mandeville laid three of her letters beside her plate. The onebearing the Devonshire post-mark she held in her hand, and presentlydrew the contents from the envelope.
Her face grew very white, her hand trembled as she saw Miss Desmond'sletter enclosed another. Her eyes, suffused with tears, fell on dear,familiar writing.
Was it a message from the grave--from that watery grave where the mortalremains of the brother still so dear to her had been cast?
Carol meanwhile was devouring his letter, oblivious of everything else.He read:
"WILLMAR COURT, S. DEVON.
"_My dear Carol,_
"Something so wonderful and beautiful has happened. Yet I should notperhaps use the word 'wonderful,' since nothing can be lost when Mindgoverns and controls. The letter which your dear father wrote me justbefore his death has at last reached me.
"Evidently through a mistake at the sorting office it was slipped intothe American mail-bag at Gibraltar instead of the English. My name andaddress are almost stamped out, it has been to so many places in theUnited States of America and was afterwards sent on to Canada, where ithas also visited many post-offices, before some postmaster orpost-mistress remembered that S. Devon is part of an English county.
"A letter so important for your future, dear, could not be lost. I amsending it for Mrs. Mandeville to read, as it is necessary for her andalso your Uncle Raymond to know the contents. They will, I am sure,observe their brother's last wishes; and one is, that no hindrance orimpediment shall be put in the way of your studying the Science whichhas healed you. I am to buy a new copy of _Science and Health_, andwrite in it: 'To Carol--from Father.' You see, dear, Love has found away, and just the most beautiful way of restoring to you the book youseemed to have lost, for a time at least.
"Dearly as you have valued the book before, it will have an added valuewith the knowledge that it comes to you expressly by your dear father'sdesire. Mrs. Mandeville will, no doubt, let you read (or read to you)the letter before returning it to me. You will rejoice to learn howmuch you were in your father's thoughts at the last. I have ordered acopy of the book. You will receive it in a very short time. I know howglad you will be to be able to study the Lesson-Sermons again. How niceit will be for you and Eloise to do them sometimes together! Dearlittle girl! Give her many loving thoughts from me. We miss her verymuch. Bob's affections seem about equally divided between his youngmaster and 'the little lady' as he calls her.
"Always in thought and deed, dear Carol,
Your loving cousin, ALICIA DESMOND."
Very quietly Carol went to the back of his aunt's chair, and slipping anarm around her neck whispered softly in her ear:
"It's all right, Auntie. I knew that Love would find a way, but Ididn't think it would be quite so soon, and such a beautiful way. It isall in Father's letter."
Mrs. Mandeville had laid her letters down unread. She could notdisappoint the children, who loved her to breakfast with them, by takingthem to her own room, and she wanted to be alone when she read them. Assoon as breakfast was over, she left the school-room. An hour laterCarol received a message that she wanted him to go to her.
"You have been crying, Auntie," he said, as he entered the room.
"Yes, dear, this letter from your father, and my dear brother, has beena joy and a sorrow to me, bringing back so vividly the remembrance ofhim. You will like to read it."
She gave the letter to Carol, and he at once sat down beside her, andread it.
"_My dear Alicia,_
"The fiat has gone forth! They give me neither weeks nor days: a fewhours only. The sea has been very rough the past three days. A partlyhealed wound has reopened: the hemorrhage is internal. They cannot stopit. I think of you and my boy, and that Science which stanched hisrunning wounds, and I wish I knew something of it. I put it off, likeone of old, to a more convenient season. The little book you gave me Ileft with some poor fellows in the hospital, intending to get anothercopy when I reached England.
"Much of what you told me comes back, but it is not enough. I cannotrealize it sufficiently. I have absolute faith that if I could reachEngland, or even cable to you, the verdict would be reversed. Ah, well!a greater man than I is supposed to have said:
'A day less or more, at sea or ashore, We die, does it matter when?'
Somehow, it does seem to matter now. Life--even this life--haspossibilities which I have failed to grasp. With you to help me, itseems I should have gained a clearer understanding of eternal verities.A haze--a mist is creeping over my senses. What I have to write I mustwrite quickly.
"I think you know by a deed of settlement, executed before I left forSouth Africa, in the event of my death, my brother Raymond, and my dearsister Emmeline, become Carol's guardians. There is no time now toalter that arrangement in any way, even if I wished. It will be good forthe boy to be with his cousins. He has seen too little of otherchildren, and Emmeline, I know, will be a mother to him. Both she andRaymond will respect my last wishes, I am sure. Therefore, I want themto know it is my desire for Carol to spend three months of every yearwith you at his own home, that you may instruct him in that knowledge ofGod which has healed him. It is recorded that once ten were cleansed,and nine went thankless away. He must not belong to the nine.
"I have explained to Colonel Mandeville my earnest desire that you maybe able to live at the Court, keeping on all the old servants untilCarol is of age. The last time I saw my brother Raymond, the subject ofChristian Science was mentioned, and from the remarks he made, hisbitterly antagonistic views of it, I greatly fear that under hisguardianship Carol may not be allowed to continue the study. Will youpurchase for me a copy of the text-book, _Science and Health_, and writein it:
No one will take from the boy his dying father's last gift, and mywishes regarding it will I know, be paramount with him. He will like toknow that my one regret now is that I did not myself study it when I hadthe opportunity.
"I have faced death before. I am facing it again, as a soldier, and, Itrust, as a Christian. Somewhere it is written 'Greater love hath noman'-- You know the rest. Perhaps it will count, though it may not havebeen love so much as duty prompted the action which is costing me mylife.
"I would write to Carol, and to Emmeline. I cannot. The pen slips frommy hand."
----
The concluding sentence and the signature were almost illegible. Mrs.Mandeville took Carol in her arms, and they wept together.
"It is so cruel to think he might have been spared to us," she sobbed.
"Yes, Auntie; he would have been," Carol replied with simple faith.