Part 25 (1/2)
”But music is of great value. Why, the world needs it as it needs suns.h.i.+ne!”
”But, Phbe, you must remember you do not come of a people who stand before the worldly and lift their voices for the joy of the mult.i.tude of curious people. Your voice is right as it is and needs no training. It is as G.o.d gave it to you and is made to be used in His service, in His Church and your home.”
”But I have always wanted to learn to sing well, really well. So I am going to Philadelphia this winter and take lessons from a competent teacher.”
”Phbe,” exhorted the preacher, ”put away the temptation before it grips you so strongly that you cannot shake it off. You must not go!”
He spoke the last words in a tone of authority which the girl answered, ”Phares, let us speak of something else. You know I have some of the Metz determination in my make-up and I can't be easily forced to give up a cherished plan. At any rate, we must not quarrel about it.”
The preacher forbore to try further argument or persuasion. He became grave. His habitual serenity of mind was disturbed by shadowy forebodings--when the pebbles of doubt drop into the placid pool of content it invariably follows that the waters become agitated for a time. Hitherto he had been hopeful of winning Phbe. Had he not known her and loved her all her life! What was more natural than that their friends.h.i.+p should culminate in a deeper feeling!
He stretched out his hand in a sudden rush of feeling--”Phbe, I love you.”
She stepped back a pace and his hand fell to his side.
”Don't, Phares,” she began, but the next moment she realized that she could not turn aside his love without listening to him.
”Phbe, you must listen--I love you, I have loved you all my life. Can't you say that you care for me?”
”Don't ask me that!” she pleaded. ”I don't want to marry anybody now.
All my life I have dreamed of going to a city and studying music and I can't let the opportunity slip away from me now when it is so near. To work under the direction of a master teacher has long been one of my dearest dreams.”
”You mean that you do not love me, then. Or if you do, that you would rather gratify your desire to study music than marry me--which is it?”
”Ach, Phares, don't make it hard for me! I said I don't want to get married now. All my life I have lived on a farm and have thought that I should be wonderfully happy if I could get away from it for a while and know what it is to live in a big city. There I shall have a chance to see life in its broader aspects. I shall not be harmed by gathering new ideas and ideals, gaining new friends, and, above all, learning to sing well.”
The man groaned in spirit. It was evident that she was thoroughly determined to go away from the farm.
”Phbe,” he pleaded again, not entirely for his own selfish desire, but worried about her love of worldliness, ”do you know that the things for which you are going to the city are really not important, that all outward acquisitions for which you long now are transient? The things that count are goodness and purity and to be without them is to be pauperized; the things that bring happiness are love and home ties and to be without them is to be desolate. You want a larger, broader vision, but the city cannot always give you that.”
There was no bitterness in his voice, only an undertone of sadness as he spoke. ”Phbe, tell me plainly, do you care for me?”
Her face was lamentably pathetic as she looked into his and read there the desire for what she could not give. ”Not as you wish,” she said softly. ”But I don't really know what love is yet, I haven't thought about it except as something that will come to me some day, a long time from now. There are too many other things I must think about now. When I am through studying music I'll think about being married.”
The preacher shook his head; his heart was too heavy for more words, more futile words.
”Let us go, Phares,” she said, the silence becoming intolerable.
”Yes,” he agreed. ”And Phbe,” he added as they turned away from the quarry, ”I hope you'll learn your lesson quickly and come back to us.”
They stepped from the sheltered path into the suns.h.i.+ne of the lane. Long trails of green lay in their path as they went, but the eyes of both were temporarily blinded to the loveliness of the June. When they reached the dusty road the preacher said good-bye and went on his way to the town.
She stood where he left her; the suppressed feelings of the past half hour soon struggled to avenge themselves and she sped down the lane again, back to the refuge of the kindly tree, and there, under her sycamore, burst into pa.s.sionate weeping.
Some time after Phares left the girl at the end of the lane David Eby came swinging down the hill and entered the Metz kitchen.
”h.e.l.lo, Aunt Maria. Where's Phbe?”
”Why, I guess over at the quarry. She went for pennyroyal long ago and then Phares came and he went over after her, but I saw him go on the way to town a bit ago, so I guess she's still over there. Guess she's stumbling around after a bird's nest or picking some weeds that ain't no good. I don't see why she stays so long.”