Woven with the Ship: A Novel of 1865: Together with certain other veracious tales of various sorts — John Shaqi
Woven with the Ship: A Novel of 1865: Together with certain other veracious tales of various sortsBrady, Cyrus Townsend
History
Woven with the Ship: A Novel of 1865: Together with certain other veracious tales of various sorts
Brady, Cyrus Townsend
Short stories, American; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; War stories
And so the young man listens and loves, the old man listens and
dreams, and the girl sings as never before, for this time she knows
that a young heart beats in harmony with her voice. Alas for the old!
he has had his day. Compelling youth enters and displaces him. Emily
sings not merely for the past, but with thoughts reaching out into the
future. When she stops, fain to be persuaded, Revere entreats her to
continue, he begs for more. She knows not how to refuse, indeed does
not wish to do so, so she sings on and on.
The admiral sleeps, but what of that? Youth listens, and by and by, as
she strikes something that he knows, in a fresh, hearty tenor voice he
ventures to join with her. In the harmony of their voices they almost
see a prophecy of the future harmony of their lives.
Many a time has she sung to the admiral and the old sailor, but never
quite as to-night. And Captain Barry has not been there. The heavy
oaken chair, which he made himself from the timbers of the ship, which
stands by the door, and which, in its rude strength, its severe
plainness, somehow suggests the man, is empty. To the admiral she has
sung like a voice from the past, to Barry her music has been like that
of an angel in heaven, to Revere it is the voice of the woman he
loves. But to-night, although he hears the music, Captain Barry will
not come in. He stands on the porch, peering through the blinds.
Unskilled as he is in the reading of character, unaccustomed to the
observation of faces, there is no mistaking, even in the sailor's
mind, the look in the eyes of Revere.
The young man sits opposite Emily, listening to her, watching her,
drinking in the sweetness of the melody and the beauty of her face;
the light that is in his eye is the light of a love that has come, not
as the oak grows from the tiny seed, slowly developing through the
ages, and spreading and bourgeoning until it fills the landscape, but
the glory of a passion that has burst upon him with the suddenness of
a tempest, and one that promises to be as irresistible in its onset.
And Barry sees it all, divines, knows, feels, and in the light of
another love recognizes at last his own futile passion. The revelation
of hopelessness in the light of hope, of despair in the glow of
success.
Never had the Bostonian been brought in contact with a personality
quite like that of Emily. More beautiful girls, measured by the
canons, he had seen, possibly; wiser in the world's ways, better
trained, more accustomed to the usages of society, undoubtedly; but
never one so sweet, so innocent, so fresh, so unspoiled, so lovely,
and so lovable. As frank as she was beautiful, as brave as she was
innocent, as pure as she was strong. There was no use denying it; he
could not disguise it; he had loved her from the moment when, standing
on the wreck, he saw her steering the skiff in the storm, with her
fair hair blown out by the breeze and her face turned up toward him,
full of encouragement and entreaty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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