CHAPTER XIII.
DREAMS AND REALITIES.
The following Friday Gretta and Winnifred were dismissed at recess, theFriday afternoon privilege of those who had had perfect marks for theweek. As they passed out through the yard together, Gretta said:
"I'm going to church to practice my organ lesson. Come go with me, Win."
Winnifred hesitated. "If I had spoken to mamma about it this morning--"
"Well, let's go and ask her now."
"No, she won't be at home. She was going out to Walnut Hills to makeseveral calls."
"Then I don't see what's to keep you from going with me. No one willknow whether you are with me or at school."
Winnie knew very well that she had no right to be away without anyoneat home knowing where she was, but she hesitated--and was lost. Thetemptation was too great; and beside, she reasoned, "What difference canit possibly make whether I am at school or at the church? If I had nothad good marks I couldn't have gone home, anyway."
So the two girls passed on up the street together. Winnifred soon forgother scruples, and laughed and chattered away as usual. She had beenreading Grimm's story of the boy who could not understand what it wasto shiver. She had thought it very amusing, and now she narrated it atlength to Gretta as they went along, so that they reached the churchbefore Gretta had stopped laughing at the absurd climax.
They went up the flight of steep stone steps and tried the side doorthat led to the choir gallery, but it was locked, and Gretta said,"We'll have to go the back way; come on, Win." So they descended thestairs again and went through the narrow side yard at the right of thechurch.
At the back were two rooms which at this time were occupied by thejanitor and his wife. Gretta knocked, and when the door was opened bya smiling woman, walked in with an I-have-a-right-to manner, simplysaying, "I've come to practice." Winnifred followed somewhat bashfully,but recovered her sense of being herself when the door of the littleliving-room closed upon them. The two girls crossed a narrow passage andopened a door leading to a stairway. It was very dark here, but Grettahad traveled up and down these stairs so many times that she wentswiftly now, while Winnifred, unaccustomed to them, groped her way alongthrough the darkness very slowly.
When she reached the top Gretta opened another door which led into thechurch itself, always filled with people when Winnifred had seen itbefore, but now empty and mysterious, with the light dimmed and deepenedand transformed as it made its way through the stained-glass windows.She breathed a little heavily as she glanced up at the pulpit on theleft, and almost felt as if she would hear a voice rise from the emptyair and chide them for their boldness in entering so sacred a placeon workaday business. But Gretta, entirely accustomed to independenterrands connected with musical matters, passed on up the narrow sideaisle, Winnifred following slowly.
Then came another narrow staircase leading to the choir gallery, whichfaced the pulpit. When they reached the top they found the shades alldown and the place quite dark except for a long, narrow beam of lightwhich streamed through a crevice in one of the blinds. Winnifred stoppedon the threshold with something like fear, which was yet pleasingbecause of the sense of mystery and romance which was blended with it inher imaginative young mind. Gretta, however, stepped in at once and wentquickly toward the back of the gallery. Here she suddenly pulled up ashade, and Winnifred saw numbers of music books piled up on one of thelong benches.
Gretta opened the organ and sat down. She reached the pedals with somedifficulty, being obliged to stretch her legs somewhat in order to doso; but this, like everything else with her, was a part of the musicaleducation which was the chief business of her life and of all thelives nearest to her. She began to play a voluntary, softly, slowly andreverently, yet clearly, and with wonderful appreciation for a childjust entering her teens.
Winnifred climbed into the darkest corner she could find and gaveherself up to enjoyment of the music and all the unusual surroundings.Forgetting all else, she began to weave herself and Gretta into a littlestory of a world separate and apart from the world she had always known:a world filled with visionary forms and faces, and in which there was nosound but that of music.
"Over there in that pew just under the stained-glass window," shethought, "is a little girl who cannot see, but who has never missed hereyesight, because she does not need it. She lives only in this world,where there is nothing but sweet sounds. She will grow up some day andgo out into the other world where Gretta and I lived yesterday, but shewill be a poet like Milton, whose picture, when he was such a beautifulboy, I saw yesterday; but she will not be sad like him, because sheknows only the world of poetry and music.
"Over in that other pew," Winnie's dreams ran on, "is that poor, little,blind beggar girl I saw on the street yesterday afternoon. She isn'thungry now, for this is the fairyland of music where people do not needto eat. The music has gone straight to her heart--and see! she creepssoftly over to the opposite pew--how did she know that the other littleblind girl was there?--she creeps softly to the other pew, and theyclasp hands and feel as happy as if they had looked into each other'seyes.
"And who is that sweet-faced girl in the pew just in front of thepulpit? She is beautiful. She looks like Nydia, the blind girl in 'TheLast Days of Pompeii,' but she can't be Nydia, for Nydia lived and diedhundreds of years ago. But she listens to the music just as Nydia mightdo if she were here now. It is not so sad to be blind in a world ofmusic. And yet--how would I know where they were sitting if I wereblind, too?"
And Winnie closed her eyes to try how it would seem not to be able tosee. The music floated out upon the air; it grew softer and softer andsounded farther and farther away, and at last Winnie ceased to hear it,for the darkness and the gentle sounds had so soothed her senses thatshe went straight from day-dreamland to slumberland.
Gretta all unconsciously played on until she had finished her allottedtask, forgetting the existence of Winnifred as completely as the latterhad forgotten hers. But by and by she had finished the last bar, andjumped up from her seat with a feeling of satisfaction. She lookedaround in surprise for a moment when she realized that Winnifred hadgone to sleep. The next thing the latter knew Gretta was shouting intoher ear: "Wake up! Wake up, Winnie! I'm all through my practice andready to go home. Let's hurry! It must be late."
They gathered up their school books, the sense of haste taking away allthe feeling of mystery and romance. When they looked at the clock inthe little room downstairs on their way out, Winnifred was dismayed andrealized suddenly that she ought to have been at home an hour ago. Shehad a very uncomfortable walk home, particularly after she had partedfrom Gretta, but, as it happened, her mother had not yet returned andher absence had been unnoticed.
She told her mother about it in the evening--of how sweetly Grettahad played, and how she had imagined a world made on purpose for blindpeople.
Mrs. Burton only said, "I am glad you had such a nice afternoon, dear.It is one you will always remember. You were fortunate that nothinghappened to spoil the pleasure of it. I am glad I was not at home,however, for I fear I would have been very uneasy about you."