Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Vacations -- Fiction
For an instant some little wind blew along the floor, stirred the dust
and caught the candles. They flared into a blaze, and out of the shadows
there leapt the dazzling white of the chrysanthemums, the gold of
Janet’s hair, and the blue of the little stained-glass windows. The rain
had begun again and was beating furiously at the panes; they could hear
it running in little streams and rivers down the hill past the church.
Maradick hid his head in his hands for an instant before he turned away.
He did not exactly want to pray, he had not got anyone to pray to, but
he felt again now, as he had felt before in the room of the minstrels,
that there was something there, with him in the place—touching him,
Good and Evil? God and the Devil? Yes, they were there, and he did not
dare to raise his eyes.
Then at last he looked up again and in the shock of the sudden light the
candles seemed to swing like golden lamps before him and the altar was a
throne, and, before it, the boy and girl.
And then, again, they were all in the old man’s study, amongst his
fishing-rods and dogs and books.
He laid both his hands on Tony’s shoulders before he said good-bye. Tony
looked up into his face and smiled.
And the old man said: “I think that you will be very happy, both of you.
But take one word of advice from some one who has lived in the world a
very long time and knows something of it, even though he has dwelt in
only an obscure corner of it. My dear, keep your Charity. That is all
that I would say to you. You have it now; keep it as your dearest
possession. Judge no one; you do not know what trouble has been theirs,
what temptation, and there will be flowers even in the dreariest piece
of ground if only we sow the seed. And remember that there are many very
lonely people in the world. Give them some of your vitality and
happiness and you will do well.”
Miss Minns, who had been sniffing through the most of the service, very
nearly broke down altogether at this point. And then suddenly some one
remembered the time.
It was Tony. “My word, it’s half-past two. And the train’s quarter-past
three. Everything’s up if we miss it. We must be off; we’ll only just do
it as it is.”
They found the aged man sitting in a pool of water on the box. Water
dripped from the legs of the trembling horse. The raindrops, as though
possessed of a devil, leaped off the roof of the cab like peas from a
catapult.
Tony tried to impress the driver with the fact that there was no time to
lose, but he only shook his head dolefully. They moved slowly round the
corner.
Then there began the most wonderful drive that man or horse had ever
known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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