By the time that the housekeeper came in to clear away the almost
untouched tea, they had both accepted the position in so far as it
could be accepted. There was nothing for it but to face this public
confession, and by so doing make what reparation could be thus tardily
made. Mervyn, indeed, was by far the more cheerful when the time came
to say good-night. He had barely had time to think; the relief of
having touched bottom, as it were, was great; he felt, in fact, as a
repentant criminal might do on his last night on earth, as if the
morrow which was to bring expiation must also bring pardon and peace.
They had spent the evening together on the highest possible plane of
religious exaltation, and it was Mervyn who gripped his brother's hand
and said "Courage!" out of the fulness of his emotion. His face looked
almost saintly as he said it.
An hour later, indeed, when Morris--who had lingered near the dying
fire, beset, now he was alone, by almost unbearable grief--looked in
to see if his brother were asleep, he found him lying like a child,
smiling in his dreams.
Morris gave a faint sob, and Mervyn stirred in his sleep. "Mother," he
said hurriedly, softly--"Mother, dear, dear mother--I must."
Instinctively Morris blew out the light he held, lest it might wake
the dreamer from his dream; so in the moonlight he stood, torn asunder
by love and grief, watching the dim peaceful form upon the bed.
Suddenly he turned and, closing the door silently behind him, went
downstairs once more. Outside the narrow walls of the house, the
moonlight slumbered peacefully upon the everlasting hills. Surely
somewhere beyond the narrow walls of this world's judgment slept
eternal Peace.
An instant afterwards the front door closed softly, and Morris Pugh,
leaving his brother asleep, had gone to find wisdom where he had often
sought it of late in the temple not made with hands.
It must have been an hour later that Mervyn woke, roused by a pebble
at his window. He sat up with blurred consciousness, wondering vaguely
what it was, until another pebble struck the pane, and a voice cried
in a soft whisper, "Mervyn!"
Myfanwy! by all that was strange! Then in a second the whole memory of
what had happened came back to him; but it came back to find him, as
it were, a giant refreshed with sleep. None of us are really the same
for two consecutive hours, and many a man will brave that in the
morning, from which he would shrink at night. And there, as he peered
through the curtain, was Myfanwy, sure enough, beckoning to him to
come down. A sight sufficient to bring combativeness to any young
blood, even without those two hours of blessed rest in sleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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