Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; War stories
She knew now where St. Elmo Murray went that night, after he had
watched her from behind the sarcophagus and the mummies; knew that only
his hand could have erected this noble pillar of record; and most fully
did she appreciate the delicate feeling which made him so proudly
reticent on this subject. He wished no element of gratitude in the love
he had endeavored to win, and scorned to take advantage of her devoted
affection for her grandfather, by touching her heart with a knowledge
of the tribute paid to his memory. Until this moment she had sternly
refused to permit herself to believe all his protestations of love; had
tried to think that he merely desired to make her acknowledge his
power, and confess an affection flattering to his vanity. But to-day
she felt that all he had avowed was true; that his proud, bitter heart
was indeed entirely hers; that this assurance filled her own heart with
a measureless joy, a rapture that made her eyes sparkle through their
tears and brought a momentary glow to her cheeks. Hour after hour
passed; she took no note of time, and sat there pondering her past
life, thinking how the dusty heart deep under the marble would have
throbbed with fond pride, if it could only have known what the world
said of her writings. That she should prove competent to teach the
neighbors' children had been Aaron Hunt's loftiest ambition for his
darling; and now she was deemed worthy to speak to her race through the
columns of a periodical that few women were considered able to fill.
She wondered if he were not really cognizant of it all; if he were not
watching her struggles and her triumph; and she asked herself why he
was not allowed, in token of tender sympathy, to drop one palm-leaf on
her head, from the fadeless branch he waved in heaven?
"Oh! how far,
How far and safe, God, dost thou keep thy saints
When once gone from us! We may call against
The lighted windows of thy fair June heaven
Where all the souls are happy; and not one,
Not even my father, look from work or play,
To ask, 'Who is it that cries after us,
Below there, in the dark?"
The shaft threw a long slanting shadow eastward as the orphan rose,
and, taking from the box the fragrant exotics which she had brought
from Le Bocage, arranged them in the damp soil of one of the vases, and
twined their bright-hued petals among the dark green ivy leaves. One
shining wreath she broke and laid away tenderly in the box, a hallowed
souvenir of the sacred spot where it grew; and as she stood there,
looking at a garland of poppy leaves chiselled around the inscription,
neither flush nor tremor told aught that passed in her mind, and her
sculptured features were calm, as the afternoon sun showed how pale and
fixed her face had grown. She climbed upon the broad base and pressed
her lips to her grandfather's name, and there was a mournful sweetness
in her voice as she said aloud:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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