The Following of the Star: A RomanceBarclay, Florence L. (Florence Louisa)
General
The Following of the Star: A Romance
Barclay, Florence L. (Florence Louisa)
Clergy -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Missionaries -- Fiction
She could see him in the pulpit of the little church at
Brambledene--keen, eager, inspired; full of his subject; the dark eyes
shining in his thin worn face.
She could see him in the vestry, seated on the high stool; boyish, shy;
very much taken aback by her unexpected entry.
She could see him at the piano in the drawing-room, completely
unconscious of his surroundings; enveloped in the music he himself was
making.
She could see him seated opposite to her in the chair now empty, a look
of strange detachment upon his tired face, as with infinite tact and
gentleness he explained to her why he felt able, after all, to accede to
her request; never departing from his own standpoint in the matter; yet
making the thing as easy for her as possible.
She could see him in the church of St. Botolph, as he had stood that
morning--was it really only that morning?--awaiting her. How strange had
been the summons in his eyes, which drew her to his side. Ah, if there
had but been _love_ between them, how wonderful a memory would have been
that look in David's eyes!
She could see him in the railway train--in boyishly high spirits,
because nothing now stood between him and his departure for his belovèd
sphere of work--seated opposite to her at the little table in the
dining-car, rubbing the mist off the windows with his table napkin, and
exclaiming over the beauties of the Hampshire hills and villages.
"Lord _now_ lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." Poor David! She
had certainly interfered with his peace of mind during the fortnight
which had preceded their strange wedding. Well, he had departed in
peace, and was undoubtedly gone "to be a light to lighten the
Gentiles." And what a difference her money would make to the success of
his work.
And then--she could see him as he bent down to her from the top of the
gangway, his dark eyes gazing into hers, and said: "Good-bye, my wife."
Surely, for the moment, it had meant something to David to call her his
wife? She had never before seen quite such a look in any man's eyes. Was
it fancy, or was there a hunger in them, which seemed to match the ache
at her own breast? Sentimental fancy on her own part, no doubt; for had
not David said of their wedding service: "It meant no more than we
intended it should mean"?
How odious and impossible a state of things, if she--Diana Rivers--who
had proposed this marriage, as a mere business transaction--should now
be imagining into it sentiment which she had expressly stipulated should
never enter therein. If David knew of it, would she not be forced to bow
her head in shame, before his clear honest eyes?
No; certainly she needed no photograph of David!
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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