XII.
MISS BELINDA MAKES CONDITIONS.
"For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is form, and doth the body make."
SPENSER.
Miss Belinda was somewhat taken aback at the proposal of Mr. Sylvesterto receive Paula into his own house. She had not anticipated any suchresult to her efforts; the utmost she had expected was a couple of yearsor so of instruction in some state Academy. Nor did she know whether shewas altogether pleased at the turn affairs were taking. From all she hadheard, her niece Ona was, to say the least, a frivolous woman, and Paulahad a mind too noble to be subjected to the deteriorating influence of ashallow and puerile companionship. Then the child had great beauty; Mr.Sylvester who ought to be a judge in such matters had declared it so,and what might not the adulation of the thoughtless and the envy of thejealous, do towards belittling a nature as yet uncontaminated.
"We ought to think twice," she said to Miss Abby with some bitterness,who on the contrary never having thought once was full of the mostchildish hopes concerning a result which she considered with a certainsecret complacency she would not have acknowledged for the world, hadbeen very much furthered by her own wise recommendations to Mr.Sylvester in the beginning of his visit. Yet notwithstanding her doubtsMiss Belinda allowed such preparations to be made as she considerednecessary, and even lent her hand which was deft enough in its way, tothe task of enlarging the child's small wardrobe. As for Paula, thethought of visiting the great city with the dear friend whose image hadstood in her mind from early childhood as the impersonation of all thatwas noble, generous and protecting, was more than joyful; it was aninspiration. Not that she did not cling to the affectionate if somewhatquaint couple who had befriended her childhood and sacrificed theircomfort to her culture and happiness. But the chord that lies deeperthan gratitude had been struck, and fond as were her memories of thedear old home, the charm of that deep "My child," with its hint offatherly affection, was more than her heart could stand; and no spot, nonot the realms of fairy-land itself, looked so attractive to her fancyas that far fireside in an unknown home where she might sit with cousinOna and alternately with her exert her wit to beguile the smile to hismelancholy lips.
When therefore upon the stated day, Mr. Sylvester made his secondappearance at the little cottage in Grotewell, it was to find Paularadiant, Miss Abby tearfully exultant and Miss Belinda--O anomaly ofhuman nature--silent and severe. Attributing this however to her verynatural regret at parting with Paula, he entered into all thearrangements for their departure on the following morning without asuspicion of the real state of her mind, nor was he undeceived until theday was nearly over and they sat down to have a few minutes of socialconversation before the early tea.
They had been speaking on some local topic involving a question of rightand wrong, and Mr. Sylvester's ears were yet thrilling to the deepringing tones with which Paula uttered the words, "I do not see how anyman can hesitate an instant when the voice of his conscience says no. Ishould think the very sunlight would daunt him at the first step of hisfoot across the forbidden line," when Miss Belinda suddenly spoke up andsending Paula out of the room on some trivial pretext, addressed Mr.Sylvester without reserve.
"I have something to say to you, sir, before you take from my home thechild of my care and affection."
Could he have guessed what that something was that he should turn withsuch a flush of sudden anxiety to meet her determined gaze.
"The rules of our life here have been simple," continued she in a toneof voice which those who knew her well recognized as belonging to heruncompromising moods. "To do our duty, love God and serve our neighbor.Paula has been brought up to reverence those rules in simplicity andhonor; what will your gay city life with its hollow devices for pleasureand its loose hold on the firm principles of life, do for this innocentsoul, Mr. Sylvester?"
"The city," he said firmly but with a troubled undertone in his voicethat was not unnoted by the watchful woman, "is a vast caldron ofmingled good and evil. She will hear of more wrong doing, and be withinthe reach of more self-denying virtue, than if she had remained in thisvillage alone with the nature that she so much loves. The tree ofknowledge bears two kinds of fruit, Miss Belinda; would you thereforehinder the child from approaching its branches?"
"No, sir; I am not so weak as to keep a child in swaddling-clothes afterthe period of infancy is past, neither am I so reckless as to set heradrift on an unknown sea without a pilot to guide her. Your wife--" shepaused and fixed an intent look upon the flames leaping before her. "Onais my niece," she resumed in a lower tone of voice, "and I feel entitledto speak with freedom concerning her. Is she such a guide as I wouldchoose for a young girl just entering a new sphere in life? From all Ihave heard, I should judge she was somewhat over-devoted to this worldand its fashions."
Mr. Sylvester flushed painfully, but seeing that any softening of thetruth would be wholly ineffectual with this woman, replied in a candidtone, "Ona is the same now as she was in the days of her girlhood. Ifshe loves the world too well she is not without her excuse; from herbirth it has strewn nothing but roses in her path."
"Humph!" came from the lips of the energetic spinster. Then with asecond stern glance at the fire, continued, "Another question, Mr.Sylvester. Does your wife consent to receive my niece into her house,for the indefinite length of time which you mention, from interest inthe girl herself or indeed from any motive I should judge worthy ofPaula? It is a leading question I know, but this is no time for nicetiesof speech."
"Miss Belinda," replied he, and his voice was firm though his fingersslightly trembled where they rested upon the arms of his chair, "I willtry and forget for a moment that Ona is my wife, and frankly confide toyou that any such motive on her part, as would meet with your entireapproval, must not be expected from a woman who has never fullyrecognized the solemn responsibilities of life. That she will be kind toPaula I have no doubt, that she may even learn to take an interest inher for her own sake, is also very possible, but that she will ever takeyour place towards her as guide or instructor, I neither anticipate norwould feel myself justified in leading you to."
The look which Miss Belinda cast him was anything but reassuring. "Andyet," said she, "you will take away my darling and give her up to aninfluence that can not be for good, or your glance would not be sotroubled or your lip so uncertain. You would set her young feet in apath where the very flowers are so thick they conceal its tendency andobscure its dangers. Mr. Sylvester you are a man who has seen life withnaked eyes, and must recognize its responsibilities; dare you take thisPaula, whom you have seen, out of the atmosphere of truth and purity inwhich she has been raised, and give her over to the enervatinginfluences of folly and fashion? Will you assume the risk and brave theconsequences?"
As though an electric shock had touched the nerve of his nature, Mr.Sylvester hastily rose and moved in a restless manner to the window. Itwas his favorite refuge in any time of sudden perplexity or doubt, andthis was surely an occasion for both.
"Miss Belinda," he began and then paused, looking out on the hills ofhis boyhood, every one of which spoke to him at that moment with a forcethat almost sickened his heart and benumbed the faculties of his mind;"I recognize the love which leads you to speak in this way, and I bowbefore it, but--" here his tongue faltered again, that ready tonguewhose quick and persuasive eloquence on public occasions had won for himthe name of Silver-speech among his friends and admirers--"but there areothers who love your Paula also, love her with a yearning that only thechildless can feel or the disappointed appreciate. I had hoped--" herehe left the window and approached her side, "to do more for Paula thanto give her the temporal benefit of a luxurious home and suchinstruction as her extraordinary talents demand. If Ona upon seeing andknowing the child had found she could love her, I had intended to askyou to yield her to us unreservedly and forever, in short to make her mychild in place of the daughter I have lost. But now--" with a quickgesture he began pacing the floor and
left the sentence unfinished.
Miss Belinda's eyes which were of a light grey, wholly without beautybut with strange flashes of expression in them, left the fire and fellupon his face, and a tear of real feeling gathered beneath her lids.
"I had no idea," said he, "that you cherished any such intention asthat. If I had I might have worded my apprehensions differently. Theyearning feeling of which you speak, I can easily understand, also thestrength of the determination it must take on the part of a man likeyourself, to give up a hope of this nature. Yet--" Seeing him pause inhis hurried pacing and open his lips as if to speak, she deferentiallystopped.
"Miss Belinda," said he, in the firm and steadfast way more in keepingwith his features than his agitated manner of a moment before, "I cannotgive it up. The injury it would do me is greater than the harm, whichone of Paula's lofty nature would be apt to acquire in any atmosphereinto which she might chance to be introduced. She is not a child, MissBelinda, though we allude to her as such. The texture of thoseprinciples which you have instilled into her breast, is of no such weakmaterial as to give way to the first petty breeze that blows. Paula'shouse will stand, while mine--"
He paused and gave way to a momentary struggle, but that over, he sethis lips firmly together and the last vestige of irresolution vanished.Sitting down by her side, he turned his face upon her, and for the firsttime she realized the power which with one exception he had alwaysexerted over the minds of others. "Miss Belinda," said he, "I am goingto give you an evidence of my trust; I am going to leave with you theresponsibility of Paula's future. She shall go with me, and learn, ifshe can, to love me and mine, but she shall also be under obligations toopen her heart to you on all matters that concern her life and happinessin my house, and the day you see any falling off in her pure and uprightspirit, you shall demand her return, and though it tears the heart frommy breast, I will yield her up without question or parley as I am agentleman and a Christian. Does that content you?"
"It certainly ought to, sir. No one could ask more, I am sure," returnedthe other in a voice somewhat unsteady for her.
"It is opening my house to the gaze of a stranger," said he, "for Idesire you to command Paula to withhold nothing that seriously affectsher; but my confidence in you is unbounded and I am sure that whateveryou may learn in this way, will be held as sacred by you as though itwere buried in a tomb."
"It certainly will, sir."
"As for the dearer hope which I have mentioned, time and the conditionof things must decide for us. Meanwhile I shall strive to win a father'splace in her heart, if only to build myself a refuge for the days thatare to come. You see I speak frankly, Miss Belinda; will you give mesome token that you are not altogether dissatisfied with the result ofthis conversation?"
With the straightforward if somewhat blunt action that characterized allher movements, she stretched out her hand, which he took with somethingmore than his usual high-bred courtesy. "With you at the wheel," saidshe, "I think I may trust my darling, even to the whirl and follies ofsuch a society as I know Ona loves. A man who can so command himself,ought to be a safe guide to pioneer others."
And the considerate gentleman bowed; but the frank smile that hailed hergenial clasp had somehow vanished, and from the sudden cloud that atthat moment swept over the roseate heavens, fell a shadow that left itsimpress on his lip long after the cloud itself had departed.
An hour or so had passed. The fire was burning brightly on thehearthstone, illumining with a steady glow the array of stuffed birds,worsted samplers and old-fashioned portraits with which the walls wereadorned, but reserving its richest glow and fullest irradiation for thebended head of Paula, who seated on a little stool in the corner of thehearth, was watching the rise and fall of the flickering flames.
She had packed her little trunk, had said good-bye to all herneighboring friends and was now sitting on the old hearthstone, musingupon the new life that was about to open before her. It was a happymusing, as the smile that vaguely dimpled her cheeks and brightened hereyes beneath their long lashes, amply testified. As Mr. Sylvesterwatched her from the opposite side of the hearth where he was sittingalone with his thoughts, he felt his heart sink with apprehension at thefervor of anticipation with which she evidently looked forward to thelife in the new home. "The young wings think to gain freedom," thoughthe, "when they are only destined to the confinement of a gilded cage."
He was so silent and looked so sad, Paula with a certain sort ofsensitiveness to any change in the emotional atmosphere surrounding her,which was one of her chief characteristics, hastily looked up andmeeting his eye fixed on her with that foreboding glance, softly aroseand came and sat down by his side. "You look tired," murmured she; "thelong ride after a day of business care has been too much for you."
It was the first word of sympathy with his often over-wearied mind andbody, that had greeted his ears for years. It made his eyes moisten.
"I have been a little overworked," said he, "for the last two months,but I shall soon be myself again. What were you thinking of, Paula?"
"What was I thinking of?" repeated she, drawing her chair nearer to hisin her loving confidence. "I was thinking what wonders of beauty and artlay in that great kernel which you call the city. I shall see lovelyfaces and noble forms. I shall wander through halls of music, the echoof whose songs may have come to me in the sob of the river or the sighof the pines, but whose notes in all their beauty and power have neverbeen heard by me even in my dreams. I shall look on great men and touchthe garments of thoughtful women. I shall see life in its fullness as Ihave felt nature in its mightiness, and my heart will be satisfied atlast."
Mr. Sylvester drew a deep breath and his eyes burned strangely in theglow of the fire-light. "You expect high things," said he; "did you everconsider that the life in a great city, with its ceaseless rush andconstant rivalries, must be often strangely petty in despite of itsartistic and social advantages?"
"All life has its petty side," said she, with a sweet arch look. "Theeagle that cleaves the thunder-cloud, must sometimes stop to plume itswings. I should be sorry to lose the small things out of existence. Evenwe in the face of that great sunset appealing to us from the west, haveto pile up the firewood on the hearth and set the table for supper."
"But fashion, Paula," he pursued, concealing his wonder at the maturityof mind evinced by this simple child of nature, "that inexorable powerthat rules the very souls of women who once step within the magic circleof her realm! have you never thought of her and the demands that shemakes on the time and attention even of the worshippers of the good andthe true?"
"Yes, sometimes," she returned with a repetition of her arch littlesmile, "when I put on a certain bonnet I have, which Aunt Abby modeledover from one of my grandmother's. Fashion is a sort of obstinatestep-dame I imagine, whom it is less trouble to obey than to oppose. Idon't believe I shall quarrel with Fashion if she will only promise tokeep her hands off my soul."
"But if--" with a pause, "she asks your all, what then?"
"I shall consider that I am in a country of democratic principles," shelaughed, "and beg to be excused from acceding to the tyrannical demandsof any autocrat male or female."
"You have been listening to Miss Belinda," said he; "she is also opposedto all and any tyrannical measures." Then with a grave look from whichall levity had fled, he leaned toward the young girl and gently asked,"Do you know that you are a very beautiful girl, Paula?"
She flushed, looked at him in some surprise and slowly drooped her head."I have been told I looked like my father," said she, "and I know thatmeans something very kind."
"My child," said he, with gentle insistence, "God has given you a greatand wonderful gift, a treasure-casket of whose worth you scarcelyrealize the value. I tell you this myself, first because I prize yourbeauty as something quite sacred and pure, and secondly because you aregoing where you will hear words of adulation, whose folly and bluntnesswill often offend your ears, unless you carry in your soul some talismanto c
ounteract their effect."
"I understand," said she, "I know what you mean. I will remember thatthe most engaging beauty is nothing without a pure mind and a goodheart."
"And you will remember too," continued he, "that I blessed your innocenthead to-night, not because it is circled by the roses of a youthful andfresh loveliness, but because of the pure mind and good heart I seeshining in your eyes." And with a fond but solemn aspect he reached outhis hand and laid it on her ebon locks.
She bowed her head upon her breast. "I will never forget," said she, andthe fire-light fell with a softening glow on the tears that trembledfrom her eye-lashes.