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 glanced at the portrait of Uncle Falcon hanging over the
mantel-piece; then looked away at once. She was rather afraid of Uncle
Falcon to-night. David had said she was to flaunt her victory in Uncle
Falcon's face. She had replied that she might have done so, if _he_ had
been going to be with her. David had made no reply; but she had felt him
shrink into himself. He had been too honest to express regret to his
bride, that his engagements took him elsewhere on his wedding evening;
and too kind, to show relief. When she had said: "David, I shall be
quite alone at Riverscourt to-night," David had remarked: "Oh, look at
the undulating line of those distant hills!"
A little gleam of amusement illumined the sad face, resting against the
dark leather of Uncle Falcon's big chair; and, as the firelight played
upon it, dimples peeped out. Had she looked up, she would have seen a
corresponding twinkle in Uncle Falcon's amber eyes.
It really was rather funny. David and his table napkin! She knew she had
not behaved quite well towards David, who was such a very faithful and
very proper person. She felt she should always hate the distant line of
undulating hills! If only he had tried to kiss her, and she could have
boxed his ears, she would have enjoyed that journey better.
But, the next moment, a rush of tears drowned the gleam of fun in those
sweet eyes. She had remembered David's face, as he said: "Good-bye, my
wife." It seemed sacrilege even to _think_ of boxing his ears! How ill
he had looked, during those final minutes on the boat. It made it so
terribly easy to picture David's face as it would look when he lay
dying--dead.
Diana's tears fell silently. She, who scarcely ever wept, now found
herself weeping without restraint, in a vague, helpless sort of way; and
about nothing--that was the foolish part of it--she was crying about
absolutely nothing!
"This will never do!" said Diana. "I am being as silly as an _ordinary_
married woman. I must find something sensible to think about."
She rose from her chair, stretched her beautiful arms over her head;
then walked across to a table to look for a book. Her eye fell upon a
concordance, lying where she had left it on that evening of indecision
and perplexity.
Suddenly she remembered words of David's in his sermon on Christmas-eve.
They came back to her as clearly as if they had that moment been spoken.
"Myrrh, in the Bible," David had said, "stands for other things besides
death. We must not pause to do so now; but, sometime, at your leisure,
look out each mention of myrrh. You will find it stands for love--love,
of the sweetest, tenderest kind; love so complete, that it must bring
with it self-abnegation, and a mingling of pain with its bliss."
Yes, David had said this. How suitable that to-night--of all nights--she
should do as he had wished.
But, first, she went to the window, drew aside the curtains, and looked
out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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