Part 27 (2/2)

I'm not asking you to tell me, but I think that one day I shall see.

Together we shall find what makes the music wrong, and together we shall make it right again.”

”Together,” repeated Evelina, unconsciously. Once the word had been sweet to her, but now it brought only bitterness.

”Aye, together. 'T is for that I stayed. Laddie and I were going on, that very day we saw you in the wood--the day I called you, and you came. I shall see, some day, what has made it wrong--yes. Spinner in the Shadow, I shall see. I'm grieving now for Laddie and my heart is sore, but when I have forgiven him, I shall be at rest.”

”Forgiven who?” queried Evelina.

”Why, the man who hurt Laddie--the same, I'm thinking, who hurt you.

But your hurt was worse than Laddie's, I take it, and so 't is harder to forgive.”

Evelina's heart beat hard. Never before had she thought of forgiving Anthony Dexter. She put it aside quickly as altogether impossible.

Moreover, he had not asked.

”What is it to forgive?” she questioned, curiously.

”The word is not made right,” answered the Piper, ”I'm thinking 't is wrong end to, as many things in this world are until we move and look at them from another way. It's giving for, that's all. When you have put self so wholly aside that you can be sorry for him because he has wronged you, why, then, you have forgiven.”

”I shall never be able to do that,” she returned. ”Why, I should not even try.”

”Ah,” cried the Piper, ”I knew that some day I should find what was wrong, but I did not think it would be now. 'T is because you have not forgiven that you have been sad for so long. When you have forgiven, you will be free.”

”He never asked,” muttered Evelina.

”No; 't is very strange, I'm thinking, but those who most need to be forgiven are those who never ask. 'T is hard, I know, for I cannot yet be sorry for him because he hurt Laddie--I can only be sorry for Laddie, who was hurt. But the great truth is there. When I have grown to where I can be sorry for him as well as for Laddie, why, my grieving will be done.

”The little chap,” mused the Piper, fondly, ”he was a faithful comrade.

'T was a true heart that the brute--ah, what am I saying! I'll not be forgetting how he fared with me in sun and storm, sharing a crust with me, often, as man to man, and not complaining, because we were together. A woman never loved me but a dog has, and I'm thinking that some day I may have the greater love because I've been worthy of the less.

”My mother died when I was born and, because of that, I've tried to make the world easier for all women. I'm not thinking I have wholly failed, yet the great love has not come. I've often thought,” went on Piper Tom, simply, ”that if a woman waited for me at night when I went home, with love on her face, and if a woman's hand might be in mine when the Master tells me that I am no longer needed for the music, 't would make the leaving very easy, and I should not ask for Heaven.

”I've seen, so often, the precious jewel of a woman's love cast aside by a man who did not know what he had, having blinded himself with tinsel until his true knowledge was lost. You'll forgive me for my rambling talk, I'm thinking, for I'm still grieving for the little chap, and I cannot say yet that I have forgiven.”

He rose, slung his flute over his shoulder again, and went slowly toward the gate. Evelina followed him, to the cypress tree.

”See,” he said, turning, ”the shadow of the cypress is long. 'T is because you have not forgiven. I'm thinking it may be easier for us to forgive together, since it is the same man.”

”Yes,” returned Evelina, steadily, ”the shadow of the cypress is long, and I never shall forgive.”

”Aye,” said the Piper, ”we'll forgive him together--you and I. I'll help you, since your hurt is greater than mine. You have veiled your soul as you have veiled your face, but, through forgiveness, the beauty of the one will s.h.i.+ne out again, and, I'm thinking, through love, the other may s.h.i.+ne out, too. You have hidden your face because you are so beautiful; you have hidden your soul because you are so sad. I called you in the woods, and I call you now. I shall never cease calling, until you come.”

He went out of the gate, and did not answer her faint ”good-night.”

Was it true, as he said, that he should never cease calling her?

Something in her spirit stirred strangely at his appeal, as a far, celestial trumpet blown from on high might summon the valiant soul of a warrior who had died in the charge.

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