Miriam's Schooling and Other PapersWhite, William Hale
General
Miriam's Schooling and Other Papers
White, William Hale
Short stories
return, but to go on and edge her way to its margin, and so make for the
point. This she tried to do, but her strength began to fail--the drift
was too much for her. Meanwhile Robert went after her. He was one of
the best swimmers in Perran, but when he felt the cooler, deeper water,
he was suddenly seized with a kind of fainting and a mist passed over his
eyes. He looked at the land, and he was in a moment convinced he should
never set foot on it again. He was on the point of sinking, when he
bethought himself that if he was to die, he might just as well die after
having put forth all his strength; and in an instant, as if touched by
some divine spell, the agitation ceased, and he was himself again. In
three minutes more he was by Susan's side, had gripped her by the
bathing-dress at the back of the neck, and had managed to avail himself
of a little swirl which turned inwards just before the rocks were
reached. They were safe. She nearly swooned, but recovered herself
after a fit of sobbing.
"I owe you my life, Mr. Trevanion; you've saved me--you've saved me."
"Nonsense, Miss Shipton!" He hardly knew what to say. "I would not go
so near the tide again, if I were you. You had better get back to the
machine as soon as you can and go home. You are about done up." So
saying, he ran away to the place where he had left his coat, and went up
into the town, thinking intently as he went. Very earnestly he thought;
so earnestly that he saw nothing of Perran, and nothing of his
neighbours, who wondered at his dripping trousers; thinking very
earnestly, not upon his own brave deed, nor even upon his strange attack
of weakness, and equally strange recovery, but upon Miss Shipton as she
stood by his side at the rock very earnestly picturing to himself her
white arms, her white neck, her long hair falling to her waist, and her
beautiful white feet, seen on the sand through the clear sun-sparkling
water.
Robert Trevanion, although brought up in the same school of philosophy as
his father, belonged to another generation. The time of my history is
the beginning of the latter half of the present century, and Michael was
already considered somewhat of a fossil. Robert was inconsistent, as the
old doctrine when it is decaying, or the new at its advent always is; but
the main difference between Michael and Robert was not any distinct
divergence, but that truths believed by Michael, and admitted by Robert,
failed to impress Robert with that depth and sharpness of cut with which
they were wrought into his father. Mere assent is nothing; the question
of importance is whether the figuration of the creed is dull or vivid--as
vivid as the shadows of a June sun on a white house. Brilliance of
impression, is not altogether dependent on mere processes of proof, and a
faultless logical demonstration of something which is of eternal import
may lie utterly uninfluential and never disturb us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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