Before Helen answered the question she glanced about her at the
morning landscape, and for the first time thought of the fact that
it was cold. “Let us go inside,” she said; “we can sit there and
talk until David wakens.” And the two stole in, Helen opening the
door very softly. David was sleeping in the next room, so that it
was possible not to disturb him; the two sat down before the
flickering fire and conversed in low whispers. The girl told him the
story of David's love, and told him all about David, and Arthur in
turn told her how he had been living in the meantime; only because
he saw how suddenly happy she was, and withal how nervous and
overwrought, he said no more of his sufferings.
And Helen had forgotten them utterly; it was pathetic to see her
delight as she thought of being freed from the fearful terror that
had haunted her,--she was like a little child in her relief. “He
will be so happy--he will be so happy!” she whispered again and
again. “We can all be so happy!” The thought that Arthur was
actually David's son was so wonderful that she seemed never to be
able to realize it fully, and every time she uttered the thought it
was a sweep of the wings of her soul. Arthur had to tell her many
times that it was actually Mary who had been named in that letter.
So an hour or two passed by, and still David did not waken. Helen
had crept to the door once or twice to listen to his quiet
breathing; but each time, thinking of his long trial, she had
whispered that she could not bear to disturb him yet. However, she
was getting more and more impatient, and she asked Arthur again and
again, “Don't you think I ought to wake him now, don't you think
so--even if it is just for a minute, you know? For oh, he will be so
glad--it will be like waking up in heaven!”
So it went on until at last she could keep the secret no longer; she
thought for a while, and then whispered, “I know what I will do--I
will play some music and waken him in that way. That will not alarm
him, and it will be beautiful.”
She went to the piano and sat down. “It will seem queer to be
playing music at this hour,” she whispered; but then she glanced at
the clock and saw that it was nearly seven, and added, “Why, no, we
have often begun by this time. You know, Arthur, we used to get up
wonderfully early all summer, because it was so beautiful then, and
we used to have music at all sorts of times. Oh, you cannot dream
how happy we were,--you must wait until you see David, and then you
will know why I love him so!”
She stopped and sat thoughtfully for a moment whispering, “What
shall I play?” Then she exclaimed, “I know, Arthur; I will play
something that he loves very much--and that you used to love,
too--something that is very soft and low and beautiful.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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