Say and Seal Volume Ii Part 12

"You think the world is so bad?"

"I don't know much of the world," said Faith,--"but I suppose the _shining_ good deeds aren't so very many."

"What makes a good deed _shining?_" said the doctor.

Faith glanced at Mr. Linden. But he did not take it up, and she was thrown back upon her own resources. She thought a bit.

"I suppose,"--she said,--"its coming from the very spirit of light."

"You must explain," said the doctor good-humouredly but smiling,--"for that puts me in absolute darkness."

"I don't know very well how to tell what I mean," said Faith colouring and looking thoughtful;--"I think I know. Things that are done for the pure love of G.o.d and truth, I think, shine; if they are ever so little things, because really there is a great light in them. I think they shine more than some of the greater things that people call very brilliant, but that are done from a lower motive."

"I should like"--said the doctor--"Can you remember an instance or two?

of both kinds?"

Well Faith remembered an instance or two of _one_ kind, which she could not instance. She sought in her memory.

"When Daniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day to pray, with his windows open, after the king's law had for bidden any one to do it on pain of death,--" said Faith.--"I think that was a shining good deed!"

"But that was a very notable instance," said the doctor.

"It was a very little thing he did," said Faith. "Only kneeled down to pray in his own room. And it has shined all the way down to us."

"And in later times," said Mr. Linden,--"when the exploring shallop of the Mayflower sought a place of settlement, and after beating about in winter storms came to anchor Friday night at Plymouth Rock;--all Sat.u.r.day was lost in refitting and preparing, and yet on Sunday they would not land. Those two dozen men, with no human eye to see, with every possible need for haste!"

"That hasn't shined quite so far," said the doctor, "for it never reached me. And it don't enlighten me now! I should have landed."

"Do you know nothing of the _spirit_ of Say and Seal, as well as the province?" said Mr. Linden.

"As how, against landing?"

"They rested that day '_according to the commandment_.' Having promised to obey G.o.d in all things, the seal of their obedience was unbroken."

"Well, Miss Faith," said the doctor--"Now for a counter example."

"I know so little of what has been done," said Faith. "Don't you remember some such things yourself, Dr. Harrison?--Mr. Linden?"--The voice changed and fell a little as it pa.s.sed from one to the other.

"General Putnam went into the wolf's den, and pulled him out"--said the doctor humorously,--"that's all I can think of just now, and it is not very much in point. I don't know that there was anything very bright about it except the wolf's eyes!--But here we are keeping Portia out of doors, and Miss Derrick waiting! Linden--fall to." And with comical life and dramatic zeal on the doctor's part, in a few minutes more, the play was finished.

"Mrs. Derrick," said the doctor gravely as he rose and stood before her,--"I hope you approve of plays."

Mrs. Derrick expressed her amus.e.m.e.nt and satisfaction.

"Miss Faith," he said extending his hand,--"I have to thank you for the most perfect enjoyment I have ever had of Shakspeare. I only wish to-morrow evening would roll off on such swift wheels--but it would be too much. Look where this one has rolled to!" And he shewed his watch and hurried off; that is, if Dr. Harrison could be said to do such a thing.

The rest of the party also were stirred from their quiet. Mrs Derrick went out; and Mr. Linden, coming behind Faith as she stood by the fire, gently raised her face till he could have a full view of it, and asked her how she liked being in Venice?

"Very much," she said, smiling and blushing at him,--"very much!"

"You are not the magician's coin!" he said, kissing her. "You are not even a witch. Do you know how I found that out?"

"No"--she said softly, the colour spreading over her face and her eyes falling, but raised again immediately to ask the question of him.

"A witch's charms are always dispelled whenever she tries to cross running water!"--

She laughed; an amused, bright, happy little laugh, that it was pleasant to hear.

"But what did Dr. Harrison mean,--by what he said when he thanked me?

What did he thank me for?"

"He _said_--for a new enjoyment of Shakspeare."

"What did he mean?"

"Do you understand how the sweet fragrance of mignonette can give new enjoyment to a summer's day?"

She blushed exceedingly. "But, Mr. Linden, please don't talk so! And I don't want to give Dr. Harrison enjoyment in that way."

"Which part of your sentence shall I handle first?" he said with a laughing flash of the eyes,--"'Dr. Harrison'--or 'Mr. Linden'?"

"The first," said Faith laying her hand deprecatingly on his arm;--"and let the other alone!"

"How am I to 'please not to talk'?"

"So--as I don't deserve," she said raising her grave eyes to his face.

"I would rather have you tell me my wrong things."

He looked at her, with one of those rare smiles which belonged to her; holding her hand with a little soft motion of it to and fro upon his own.

"I am not sure that I dare promise 'to be good,'" he said,--"I am so apt to speak of things as I find them. And Mignonette you are to me--both in French and English. Faith, I know there is no glove upon your hand,--and I know there is none on mine; but I cannot feel, nor imagine, any friction,--can you?"

She looked up and smiled. So much friction or promise of it, as there is about the blue sky's reflection in the clear deep waters of a mountain lake--so much there was in the soft depth--and reflection--of Faith's eyes at that moment. So deep,--so unruffled;--and as in the lake, so in the look that he saw, there was a mingling of earth and heaven.

CHAPTER V.

Wednesday morning was cold and raw, and the sun presently put on a thick grey cloak. There were suspicions abroad that it was one made in the regions of perpetual snow, for whatever effect it might have had upon the sun, it made the earth very cold. Now and then a little frozen-up snowflake came silently down, and the wind swept fitfully round the corners of houses, and wandered up and down the chimneys.

People who were out subsided into a little trot to keep themselves warm, all except the younger part of creation, who made the trot a run; and those who could, staid at home.

All of Mrs. Derrick's little family were of this latter cla.s.s, after the very early morning; for as some of them were to brave the weather at night, there seemed no reason why they should also brave it by day.

As speedily as might be, Mr. Linden despatched his various matters of outdoor business, of which there were always more or less on his hands, and then came back and went into the sitting-room to look for his scholar. In two minutes she came in from the other door, with the stir of business and the cold morning fresh in her cheeks. But no one would guess--no one could ever guess, from Faith's brown dress and white rufffles, that she had just been flying about in the kitchen--to use Cindy's elegant ill.u.s.tration--"like sh.e.l.led peas"; not quite so aimlessly, however. And her smiling glance at her teacher spoke of readiness for all sorts of other business.

The first thing she was set about was her French exercise, during the first few lines of which Mr. Linden stood by her and looked on. But then he suddenly turned away and went up stairs--returning however, presently, to take his usual seat by her side. He watched her progress silently, except for business words and instructions, till the exercise was finished and Faith had turned to him for further directions; then taking her hand he put upon its forefinger one of the prettiest things she had ever seen. It was an old-fashioned diamond ring; the stones all of a size, and of great clearness and l.u.s.tre, set close upon each other all the way round; with just enough goldsmith's work to bind them together, and to form a dainty frill of filagree work above and below--looking almost like a gold line of shadow by that flashing line of light.

"It was my mother's, Faith," he said, "and she gave it to me in trust for whatever lady I should love as I love you."