Part 32 (1/2)
”That tempting elf was 'Love of Self,'
And 'neath her smile lay lurking An aspish sting--a deadly thing-- Dire, deathless evils working.
”Now Love once more stands thee before, To fill thine eyes with glamour; This gift of mine is love divine, And shall thy soul enamour.”
He waved his wand, gave his command,-- ”True Love, come forth,” said Duty; Before my eyes she did arise, _My_ love, of rarest beauty.
My youth's ideal! Now mine and real; O Love, how long I sought thee!
Cries Love, ”I come; Thy heart's my home!
'Twas Duty, love, that brought me.”
Thrice happy I to testify Whate'er the wind and weather, 'Tis mine to prove that truest Love And Duty dwell together.
No more I roam, for here at home, My love and I, united, Blessing and blest, know perfect rest, And Duty is delighted.
And when at last our lives are past, And we become immortals; Through heaven's door we two shall soar When Duty opes the portals.
Had Natty Blyth known of Philip's morning call, he could not have been more wise in his choice of a song, and I have every reason to believe that Lucy had heard the rehearsal, for Nathan Blyth knew how to make his muse the channel alike of counsel and of cheer. Philip Fuller, however, as I have said, had no time or will this morning to listen to Blithe Natty's song. Love is royal, and the king's business requireth haste. Now I might stay to descant on the music of Philip's ”tap, tap, tapping at the” blacksmith's door, for, depend upon it, there was a tremor of excitement in the hand that did it, and another tremor of excitement in the ear that heard it, that put it altogether beyond comparison with ordinary tappings, even the postman's knock, though probably the mystic tappings of a table-haunting spirit may have something of the same expectancy in it, but certainly not the same delight. Lucy Blyth was never above opening the door herself, either to visitor or shop-boy, but on this occasion she sent her little serving-maid to the door, as the damsel Rhoda was sent to answer Peter's knock; and so it came to pa.s.s that Philip was ushered into the little sitting-room to wait, and perhaps to whistle to keep his courage up, while our little bird flew upstairs to preen her feathers for a minute or two, and hush down the flutterings of her heart.
By-and-bye comes in Miss Lucy, and sure I am no fairer vision ever fell on mortal sight. The tell-tale blush that mantled on her cheek, did only lend a new and witching grace, and as Byron has it,--
”To his eye There was but one beloved face on earth And that was s.h.i.+ning on him,”
and Byron is, of course, the apostle of love, though Moore perhaps successfully disputes his primacy. The Irish bard, with true Hibernian fire, sings,--
”Oh, there are looks and tones that dart An instant suns.h.i.+ne through the heart; As if the soul that minute caught Some treasure it through life had sought.
As if the very lips and eyes, Predestined to have all our sighs, And never be forgot again, Sparkled and spoke before us then!”
So Philip's eyes ”sparkled and spoke” as he advanced to meet the idol of his heart, and as for Lucy, why, as dear old Dan Chaucer puts it,--
[Ill.u.s.tration: NATHAN AT DINNER.--_Page 265._]
”No lesse was she in secret heart affected, But that she masked it in modestie.”
”Lucy!”
”Philip!”
His arms were open, her blus.h.i.+ng face was buried on his shoulder, and at last, long last, the two loving hearts were one. I am very sorry that I am not able to enlarge upon this tender scene. The two words of conversation which I have here recorded, contain really the core and marrow of the whole interview. Doubtless, many of my readers understand it thoroughly, and the rest of them will do so, if they be good and patient. _Multum in parvo_ is very true in declarations of mutual love, and as I am in a quoting vein, I'll e'en quote from Tupper, so oft the b.u.t.t of ”witlings with a maggot in their brain;”
his writings will at any rate bear favourable comparison with those of the sibilant geese who hiss at him. Quoth he,--
”Love! What a volume in a word! An ocean in a tear!
A seventh heaven in a glance! A whirlwind in a sigh!
The lightning in a touch!--A millenium in a moment!”
Well, the ”millenium” had dawned on Philip and Lucy; they remained long in close and peculiarly interesting conversation, but the door was shut, and all I know about it is, that Nathan Blyth thought Lucy unconscionably late with dinner. All things, however, have an end, and at length Master Philip was ruthlessly expelled from Paradise, and betook himself to the blacksmith's shop. The gallant and n.o.ble knight of the anvil laid down his hammer to greet his visitor, but Philip was beforehand with him,--
”Nathan Blyth! Lucy has consented to be my wife.”
”Philip Fuller, you've loved her long, you've wooed her honourably, you've won her heart, and in my soul, I believe you deserve her, and that's more than I could say of any other man on earth.”
A warm and hearty hand-grasp sealed the covenant. Philip Fuller hasted to his ancestral Hall to gladden the heart of his father with the welcome news that Lucy Blyth was his affianced wife. So Lucy Blyth's filial love and duty were at length rewarded, and Philip Fuller's loyalty to G.o.d, his father, and his love, obtained their well-won prize.