Part 28 (1/2)
”Therese,” he said again; but more unsteadily, ”look at me.”
”Not here,” she answered him, ”not now, I mean.” And presently she drew her hand away from him and held it for a moment pressed firmly over her eyes. Then she looked at him with brave loving glance.
”It's been so long,” she said, with the suspicion of a sigh.
”Too long,” he returned, ”I couldn't have borne it but for you--the thought of you always present with me; helping me to take myself out of the past. That was why I waited--till I could come to you free.
Have you an idea, I wonder, how you have been a promise, and can be the fulfillment of every good that life may give to a man?”
”No, I don't know,” she said a little hopelessly, taking his hand again, ”I have seen myself at fault in following what seemed the only right. I feel as if there were no way to turn for the truth. Old supports appear to be giving way beneath me. They were so secure before. It commenced, you remember--oh, you know when it must have begun. But do you think, David, that it's right we should find our happiness out of that past of pain and sin and trouble?”
”Therese,” said Hosmer firmly, ”the truth in its entirety isn't given to man to know--such knowledge, no doubt, would be beyond human endurance. But we make a step towards it, when we learn that there is rottenness and evil in the world, masquerading as right and morality--when we learn to know the living spirit from the dead letter. I have not cared to stop in this struggle of life to question.
You, perhaps, wouldn't dare to alone. Together, dear one, we will work it out. Be sure there is a way--we may not find it in the end, but we will at least have tried.”
XVII
Conclusion.
One month after their meeting on the train, Hosmer and Therese had gone together to Centerville where they had been made one, as the saying goes, by the good Pere Antoine; and without more ado, had driven back to Place-du-Bois: Mr. and Mrs. Hosmer. The event had caused more than the proverbial nine days' talk. Indeed, now, two months after, it was still the absorbing theme that occupied the dwellers of the parish: and such it promised to remain till supplanted by something of sufficient dignity and importance to usurp its place.
But of the opinions, favorable and other, that were being exchanged regarding them and their marriage, Hosmer and Therese heard little and would have cared less, so absorbed were they in the overmastering happiness that was holding them in thralldom. They could not yet bring themselves to look at it calmly--this happiness. Even the intoxication of it seemed a thing that promised to hold. Through love they had sought each other, and now the fulfillment of that love had brought more than tenfold its promise to both. It was a royal love; a generous love and a rich one in its revelation. It was a magician that had touched life for them and changed it into a glory. In giving them to each other, it was moving them to the fullness of their own capabilities. Much to do in two little months; but what cannot love do?
”Could it give a woman more than this?” Therese was saying softly to herself. Her hands were clasped as in prayer and pressed together against her bosom. Her head bowed and her lips touching the intertwined fingers. She spoke of her own emotion; of a certain sweet turmoil that was stirring within her, as she stood out in the soft June twilight waiting for her husband to come. Waiting to hear the new ring in his voice that was like a song of joy. Waiting to see that new strength and courage in his face, of whose significance she lost nothing. To see the new light that had come in his eyes with happiness. All gifts which love had given her.
”Well, at last,” she said, going to the top of the steps to meet him when he came. Her welcome was in her eyes.
”At last,” he echoed, with a sigh of relief; pressing her hand which she held out to him and raising it to his lips.
He did not let it go, but pa.s.sed it through his arm, and together they turned to walk up and down the veranda.
”You didn't expect me at noon, did you?” he asked, looking down at her.
”No; you said you'd be likely not to come; but I hoped for you all the same. I thought you'd manage it some way.”
”No,” he answered her, laughing, ”my efforts failed. I used even strategy. Held out the temptation of your delightful Creole dishes and all that. Nothing was of any avail. They were all business and I had to be all business too, the whole day long. It was horribly stupid.”
She pressed his arm significantly.
”And do you think they will put all that money into the mill, David?
Into the business?”
”No doubt of it, dear. But they're shrewd fellows: didn't commit themselves in any way. Yet I could see they were impressed. We rode for hours through the woods this morning and they didn't leave a stick of timber unscrutinized. We were out on the lake, too, and they were like ferrets into every cranny of the mill.”
”But won't that give you more to do?”
”No, it will give me less: division of labor, don't you see? It will give me more time to be with you.”
”And to help with the plantation,” his wife suggested.