CHAPTER XXV.--A DREAM WITH A MEANING.
Phil had a dream which had a great effect on him. There were severalreasons for this. In the first place, it wanted but two days to thegreat 5th of May; in the second place, he was feeling really ill, so wasmaking greater efforts than usual to conceal all trace of languor orweariness; in the third place, Rachel came to him about half an hourbefore he went upstairs to bed and burst out crying, and told him sheknew something was going to happen. Rachel was not a child who wasparticularly given to tears, but when she did cry she cried stormily.She showed a good deal of excitement of a passionate and over-wroughtlittle heart to Phil now, and when he questioned her and asked her whyshe was so excited about her birthday, she murmured first somethingabout the lady of the forest and then about her mother, and then, afraidof her own words, she ran away before Phil could question her further.Phil's own mother, too, seemed to be in a most disturbed and unnaturalstate. She was always conning a piece of paper and then putting it outof sight, and her eyes had red rims round them, and when Phil questionedher she owned that she had been crying, and felt, as she expressed it,"low." All these things combined caused Phil to lay his head on hiswhite pillow with a weary sigh and to go off into the land of dreams byno means a perfectly happy little boy.
Once there, however, he was happy enough. In the first place, he was outof his bed and out of the old house, where so many people just nowlooked anxious and troubled; and, in the second place, he was in abeautiful new forest, his feet treading on velvet grass, his eyes gazingat all those lovely sights in which his little soul delighted. He was inthe forest and he was well, quite well; the tiredness and the aching hadvanished, the weakness had disappeared; he felt as though wings had beenput to his feet, as though no young eagle could feel a keener andgrander sense of strength than did he. He was in the forest, and comingto meet him under the shadows of the great trees was a lady--the lady hehad searched for so long and hitherto searched for in vain. She camequite naturally and gently up to him, took his little hand, looked intohis eyes, and stooping down she touched his fore head with her lips.
"Brave little boy!" she said. "So you have come."
"Yes," answered Phil, "and you have come. I have waited for you so long.Have you brought the gift?"
"Beauty of face and of heart. Yes, I bring them both," answered thelady. "They are yours; take them."
"My mother," whispered Phil.
"Your mother shall be cared for, but you and she will soon part. Youhave done all you could for her--all, even to life itself. You cannot domore. Come with me."
"Where?" asked Phil.
"Are you not tired of the world? Come with me to Fairyland. Take myhand--come! There you will find perpetual youth and beauty and strengthand goodness--come!"
Then Phil felt within himself the wildest, the most intense longing togo. He looked in the lady's face, and he thought he must fly into herarms; he must lay his head on her breast and ask her to soothe all hislife troubles away.
"I know you," he said suddenly. "Some people call you by another name,but I know who you are. You give little tired boys like me great rest;and I want beyond words to go with you, but there is my mother."
"Your mother will be cared for. Come. I can give you something betterthan Avonsyde."
"Oh, I don't want Avonsyde! I am not the rightful heir."
"The rightful heir is coming," interrupted the lady of the forest. "Lookfor him on the 5th of May, and look for me too there. Farewell!"
She vanished, and Phil awoke, to find his mother sitting by his bedside,her face bent over him, her eyes wide open with terror.
"Oh, my darling, how you have looked! Are you--are you very ill?"
"No, mammy dear," answered the little boy, sitting up in the bed andkissing her in his tenderest fashion. "I have had a dream and I knowwhat is coming, but I don't feel very ill."
Mrs. Lovel burst into floods of weeping.
"Phil," she said when she could speak through her sobs, "it is so nearnow--only one other day. Can you not keep up just for one more day?"
"Yes, mother; oh, yes, mother dear. I have had a dream. Hold my hand,mother, and I will try and go to sleep again. I have had a dream.Everything is quite plain now. Hold my hand, mammy dear. I love you; youknow that."
He lay back again on his pillows and, exhausted, fell asleep.
Mrs. Lovel held the little thin hand and looked into the white face, andnever went to bed that night. Ever since her sleep in the forest she hadbeen perturbed and anxious; that mysterious bit of paper had troubledher more than she cared to own. She was too weak-natured a woman not tobe more or less influenced by superstition, and she could not helpwondering what mysterious being had come to her and, reading her heart'ssecret, had told her to bid good-by to hope.
But all her fears and apprehensions had been nothing, had been child'splay, compared to the terror which awoke in her heart when she saw thelook on her boy's face as she bent over him that night. She knew that hebad never taken kindly to her scheme; she knew that personally he carednothing at all for all the honors and greatness she would thrust uponhim. He was doing it for her sake; he was trying hard to become a richman some day for her sake; he was giving up Rupert whom he loved and thesimple life which contented him for her. Oh, yes, because, as he sosimply said, he loved her. But she laid too heavy a burden on the youngshoulders; the long strain of patient endurance had been too much, andthe gallant little life was going out.
On the instant, quick, quick as thought, there overmastered this weakand selfish woman a great, strong tide of passionate mother's love. Whatwas Avonsyde to her compared to the life of her boy? Welcome any povertyif the boy might be saved! She fell on her knees and wept and wrung herhands and prayed long and piteously.
When in the early, early dawn Phil awoke, his mother spoke to him.
"Philip dear, you would like to see Rupert again?"
"So much, mother."
"Avonsyde is yours, but you would like to give it to him?"
"If I might, mother--if I might!"
"Leave it to me, my son. Say nothing--leave it to me, my darling."