'There 's a tree I see in Paradise--
Sail away to Galilee.
It 's the beautiful, waiting Tree of Life--
Sail away to Galilee,
Sail away to Galilee,
Put on your long white robe of peace,
And sail away to Galilee."
VI
THIS GREATER LOVE
"How can I approach the girl?" thought Mrs. Garrison. "If I should
send word for Vesta Kirtland to come here and see me, Notely would be
sure to hear of it; he would wonder; ask questions. If I go down and
see her it will provoke endless comment and wonder among those people.
I never visit them. There is no other way. Notely takes the Langhams
for the day in his boat to-morrow. I will be driven to the Basin. I
will ask Vesta indifferently, by the way, to go with me in those woods
where I played in childhood, too timid now to walk there alone. They
will say, as well as they can express it, that sentiment must be
getting fashionable! Never mind. I shall see and talk with the girl.
We will see."
Mrs. Garrison alighted from her carriage before she reached Vesty's
door.
"Wait here," she said to her coachman. Vesty saw her approach. Off
there in the bay, sublimely guarding and making a gateway to its
waters, were two little green mountain peaks of islands, just a narrow
surge of the waters flowing between; the "Lions," the "Twin Brothers,"
they were called.
One does not look off daily, from one's very infancy, on such a view
for nothing. Mrs. Garrison saw the "lion" in Vesty's quick-divining
eyes, and was glad.
"Anything but heart-break and slow consumption. Of battle I am not
afraid," she said to herself.
"I took a fancy to leave my carriage and walk a bit among those old
trees. I used to know them well. Will you go with me, child?"
"Certainly, Mrs. Garrison." Vesty handed the baby which she was
tending to its mother, and walked away with the fine lady.
"Vesta Kirtland," said Mrs. Garrison, as they entered the shadow of the
woods, "your face tells me plainly that you know I have some object in
asking you to walk with me here. I have.
"I am proud, cold, indifferent regarding you people here; I have not
noticed you, hardly even by recognition, if we chanced to meet in the
lanes; yes, I know. I bring no personal claims. But"--she was going
to say, "you are fond of Notely," but she looked at the girl, and a
proud, sarcastic smile curved her lips instead--"my son, Notely
Garrison, adores you, I believe? I do not know whether you care for
him; I presume not so ardently; but if you were even a little fond of
him, for the sake of childhood days when he made you his little
playmate--you would try to do the best for his good now--would you not,
child?"
Vesty showed so few symptoms of slow consumption, and the lions in the
gateway of her soul glowed so ominously, that Mrs. Garrison concluded
to be brief. She turned her face away a little; the operation was
unpleasant, and she took out the knife, only in speech.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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