Beulah Part 82

"Oh, of all poor devils, we pill-box gentry do have the hardest times! I am sick of patients, sick of physic, sick of the very sound of my own name."

"If my guardian were only here to relieve--"

"Confound your guardian! Don't mention him in my presence. He is a simpleton. He is what the 'Ettrick Shepherd' calls a 'Sumph.' You have no guardian, I can tell you that. Before this he has gone through all the transmigrations of 'Indur,' and the final metempsychosis, gave him to the world a Celestial. Yes, child; a Celestial. I fancy him at this instant, with two long plaits of hair trailing behind him, as, with all the sublime complacency of Celestials, he stalks majestically along, picking tea leaves.

Confound your guardian. Mention his name to me again, at the peril of having your board raised."

"George, what is the matter with you?" asked his wife, smiling as she handed him the lemonade he had desired.

"This prating young woman is, as usual, trying to discourse of-- Alice, this is just right. Thank you, my dear." He drained the gla.s.s and handed it back. Beulah stood so that the light shone full on her face. He looked at her a moment, and exclaimed:

"Come here, child. What ails you? Why, bless my soul, Beulah, what is the matter? I never saw the blood in your face before; and your great, solemn eyes seem to be dancing a jig. What ails you, child?"

He grasped her hands eagerly.

"Nothing ails me; I am well--"

"I know better! Has Charon gone mad and bit you? Oho! by all the dead G.o.ds of Greece, Guy has come home. Where is he? Where is he?"

He sprang up, nearly knocking his wife down, and looked around the room. Dr. Hartwell emerged from the music room and advanced to meet him.

"Oh, Guy! You heathen! you Philistine! you prodigal!"

He bounded over a chair and locked his arms round the tall form, while his gray head dropped on his friend's shoulder. Beulah stole out quickly, and, in the solitude of her own room, fell on her knees and returned thanks to the G.o.d who hears and answers prayer.

CHAPTER XLI.

It was a sparkling August morning--one of those rare days when all nature seems jubilant. The waters of the bay glittered like a sheet of molten silver; the soft Southern breeze sang through the treetops, and the cloudless sky wore that deep shade of pure blue which is nowhere so beautiful as in our sunny South. Clad in a dress of spotless white, with her luxuriant hair braided and twined with white flowers, Beulah stood beside her window, looking out into the street below. Her hands were clasped tightly over her heart, and on one slender finger blazed a costly diamond, the seal of her betrothal. She was very pale; now and then her lips quivered, and her lashes were wet with tears. Yet this was her marriage day. She had just risen from her knees, and her countenance told of a troubled heart. She loved her guardian above everything else; knew that, separated from him, life would be a dreary blank to her; yet, much as she loved him, she could not divest herself of a species of fear, of dread. The thought of being his wife filled her with vague apprehension. He had hastened the marriage; the old place had been thoroughly repaired and refurnished, and this morning she would go home a wife. She clasped her hands over her eyes; the future looked fearful. She knew the pa.s.sionate, exacting nature of the man with whose destiny she was about to link her own, and she shrank back, as the image of Creola rose before her. The door opened, and Mrs.

Asbury entered, accompanied by Dr. Hartwell. The orphan looked up, and leaned heavily against the window. Mrs. Asbury broke the silence.

"They are waiting for you, my dear. The minister came some moments ago. The clock has struck ten."

She handed her a pair of gloves from the table, and stood in the door, waiting for her. Beulah drew them on, and then, with a long breath, glanced at Dr. Hartwell. He looked restless, and, she thought, sterner, than she had seen him since his return. He was very pale and his lips were compressed firmly.

"You look frightened, Beulah. You tremble," said he, drawing her arm through his and fixing his eyes searchingly on her face. "Yes. Oh, yes. I believe I am frightened," she answered, with a constrained smile.

She saw his brow darken and his cheek flush; but he said no more, and led her down to the parlor, where the members of the family were a.s.sembled. Claudia and Eugene were also present. The minister met them in the center of the room; and there, in the solemn hush, a few questions were answered, a plain band of gold encircled her finger, and the deep tones of the clergyman p.r.o.nounced her Guy Hartwell's wife. Eugene took her in his arms and kissed her tenderly, whispering:

"G.o.d bless you, dear sister and friend! I sincerely hope that your married life will prove happier than mine."

Their congratulations wearied her, and she was glad when the carriage came to bear her away. Bidding adieu to her friends, she was handed into the carriage, and Dr. Hartwell took the seat beside her. The ride was short; neither spoke, and when the door was opened, and she entered the well-remembered house, she would gladly have retreated to the greenhouse and sought solitude to collect her thoughts; but a hand caught hers, and she soon found herself seated on a sofa in the study. She felt that a pair of eyes were riveted on her face, and suddenly the blood surged into her white cheeks. Her hand lay clasped in his, and her head drooped lower, to avoid his searching gaze.

"Oh, Beulah! my wife! why are you afraid of me?"

The low, musical tones caused her heart to thrill strangely; she made a great effort, and lifted her head. She saw the expression of sorrow that clouded his face; saw his white brow wrinkle; and, as her eyes fell on the silver threads scattered through his brown hair, there came an instant revolution of feeling. Fear vanished; love reigned supreme. She threw her arms up about his neck, and exclaimed:

"I am not afraid of you now. May G.o.d bless my guardian! my husband!"

Reader, marriage is not the end of life; it is but the beginning of a new course of duties; but I cannot now follow Beulah. Henceforth her history is bound up with another's. To save her husband from his unbelief is the labor of future years. She had learned to suffer and to bear patiently; and though her path looks sunny, and her heart throbs with happy hopes, this one shadow lurks over her home and dims her joys. Weeks and months glided swiftly on. Dr. Hartwell's face lost its stern rigidity, and his smile became constantly genial. His wife was his idol; day by day his love for her seemed more completely to revolutionize his nature. His cynicism melted insensibly away; his lips forgot their iron compression; now and then, his long-forgotten laugh rang through the house. Beulah was conscious of the power she wielded, and trembled lest she failed to employ it properly. One Sabbath afternoon she sat in her room, with her cheek on her hand, absorbed in earnest thought. Her little Bible lay on her lap, and she was pondering the text she had heard that morning. Charon came and nestled his huge head against her.

Presently she heard the quick tramp of hoofs and whir of wheels; and soon after her husband entered and sat down beside her.

"What are you thinking of?" said he, pa.s.sing his hand over her head caressingly.

"Thinking of my life--of the bygone years of struggle."

"They are past, and can trouble you no more. 'Let the dead past bury its dead!'"

"No; my past can never die. I ponder it often, and it does me good; strengthens me, by keeping me humble. I was just thinking of the dreary, desolate days and nights I pa.s.sed, searching for a true philosophy and going further astray with every effort. I was so proud of my intellect; put so much faith in my own powers; it was no wonder I was so benighted."

"Where is your old worship of genius?" asked her husband, watching her curiously.

"I have not lost it all. I hope I never shall. Human genius has accomplished a vast deal for man's temporal existence. The physical sciences have been wheeled forward in the march of mind, and man's earthly path gemmed with all that a merely sensual nature could desire. But, looking aside from these channels, what has it effected for philosophy, that great burden, which constantly recalls the fabled labors of Sisyphus and the Danaides? Since the rising of Bethlehem's star, in the cloudy sky of polytheism, what has human genius discovered of G.o.d, eternity, destiny? Metaphysicians build gorgeous cloud palaces, but the soul cannot dwell in their cold, misty atmosphere. Antiquarians wrangle and write; Egypt's moldering monuments are raked from their desert graves, and made the theme of scientific debate; but has all this learned disputation contributed one iota to clear the th.o.r.n.y way of strict morality? Put the Bible out of sight, and how much will human intellect discover concerning our origin-our ultimate destiny? In the morning of time sages handled these vital questions, and died, not one step nearer the truth than when they began. Now, our philosophers struggle, earnestly and honestly, to make plain the same inscrutable mysteries. Yes; blot out the records of Moses, and we would grope in starless night; for, notwithstanding the many priceless blessings it has discovered for man, the torch of science will never pierce and illumine the recesses over which Almighty G.o.d has hung his veil.

Here we see, indeed, as 'through a gla.s.s, darkly.' Yet I believe the day is already dawning when scientific data will not only cease to be antagonistic to Scriptural accounts, but will deepen the impress of Divinity on the pages of Holy Writ; when 'the torch shall be taken out of the hand of the infidel, and set to burn in the temple of the living G.o.d'; when Science and Religion shall link hands. I revere the lonely thinkers to whom the world is indebted for its great inventions. I honor the tireless laborers who toil in laboratories; who sweep midnight skies in search of new worlds; who unheave primeval rocks, hunting for footsteps of Deity; and I believe that every scientific fact will ultimately prove but another lamp planted along the path which leads to a knowledge of Jehovah!

Ah! it is indeed peculiarly the duty of Christians 'to watch, with reverence and joy, the unveiling of the august brow of Nature by the hand of Science; and to be ready to call mankind to a worship ever new'! Human thought subserves many useful, nay, n.o.ble, ends; the Creator gave it, as a powerful instrument, to improve man's temporal condition; but oh, sir, I speak of what I know, when I say: alas, for that soul who forsakes the divine ark, and embarks on the gilded toys of man's invention, hoping to breast the billows of life and be anch.o.r.ed safely in the harbor of eternal rest! The heathens, 'having no law, are a law unto themselves'; but for such as deliberately reject the given light, only bitter darkness remains. I know it; for I, too, once groped, wailing for help."

"Your religion is full of mystery," said her husband gravely.

"Yes; of divine mystery. Truly, 'a G.o.d comprehended is no G.o.d at all!' Christianity is clear, as to rules of life and duty. There is no mystery left about the directions to man; yet there is a divine mystery infolding it, which tells of its divine origin, and promises a fuller revelation when man is fitted to receive it. If it were not so we would call it man's invention. You turn from Revelation because it contains some things you cannot comprehend; yet you plunge into a deeper, darker mystery when you embrace the theory of an eternal, self-existing universe, having no intelligent creator, yet constantly creating intelligent beings. Sir, can you understand how matter creates mind?"

She had laid her Bible on his knee; her folded hands rested upon it, and her gray eyes, clear and earnest, looked up reverently into her husband's n.o.ble face. His soft hand wandered over her head, and he seemed pondering her words.

May G.o.d aid the wife in her holy work of love!