The Maid of Maiden Lane by Amelia E. Barr (mobi reader android txt) ๐
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- Author: Amelia E. Barr
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He heard her singing as he approached the drawing-room, and he opened the door noiselessly and went in. If she was conscious of his entrance she made no sign of it, and Hyde did not seem to expect it. He glanced at her as he might have glanced at a priest by the altar, and went softly to the fireside and sat down. At this moment she had a solemn, saintly beauty; her small pale face was luminous with spiritual joy, her eyes glowing with rapture, and her hands moving among the ivory keys of the piano made enchanting melody to her inspired longing
Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice oppressed. O one, O only mansion, O paradise of joy! Where tears are ever banished And smiles have no alloy. O sweet and blessed country! Shall I ever see thy face? O sweet and blessed country! Shall I ever win thy grace?and as these eager impassioned words rose heavenward, it seemed to Hyde that her innocent, longing soul was half-way out of her frail little body. He did not in any way disturb her. She ceased when the hymn was finished and sat still a few moments, realizing, as far as she could, the glory which doth not yet appear. As her eyes dropped, the light faded from her face; she smiled at Hyde, a smile that seemed to light all the space between them. Then he stood up and she came towards him. No wonder that strangers spoke of her as a child; she had the size and face and figure of a child, and her look of extreme youth was much accentuated by the simple black gown she wore, and by her carriage, for she leaned slightly forward as she walked, her feet appearing to take no hold upon the floor; a movement springing INTERIORLY from the soul eagerness which dominated her. Hyde placed her in a chair before the fire, and then drew his own chair to her side.
โCousin,โ she said, โI am most glad to see you. Everybody has some work to do to-day.โ
โAnd you, Annie?โ
โIn this world I have no work to do,โ she answered. โMy soul is here for a purchase; when I have made it I shall go home again.โ And Hyde looked at her with such curious interest that she addedโโI am buying Patience.โ
โO indeed, that is a commodity not in the market.โ
โI assure you it is. I buy it daily. Once I used to wonder what for I had come to earth. I had no strength, no beauty, nothing at all to buy Earthโs good things with. Three years ago I found out that I had come to buy for my soul, the grace of Patience. Do you remember what an imperious, restless, hard-to-please, hard-to-serve girl I was? Now it is different. If people do not come on the instant I call them, I rock my soul to rest, and say to it โanon, anon, be quiet, soul.โ If I suffer much painโand that is very oftenโI say Soul, it is His Will, you must not cry out against it. If I do not get my own way, I say, Soul, His Way is best; and thus, day by day, I am buying Patience.โ
โBut it is not possible this can content you. You must have some other hope and desire, Annie?โ
โPerhaps I once hadโand to-day is a good time to speak of it to you, because now it troubles me no longer. You know what my father desired, and what your father promised, for us both?โ
โYes. Did you desire it, Annie?โ
โI do not desire it now. You were ever against it?โ
โOh Annie!โโ
โIt makes no matter, George. I shall never marry you.โ
โDo you dislike me so much?โ
โI am very fond of you. You are of my race and my kindred, and I love every soul of the Hydes that has ever tarried on this earth.โ
โWell then?โ
โI shall marry no one. I will show you the better way. Few can walk in it, but Doctor Roslyn says, he thinks it may be my partโmy happy partโto do so:โ and as she spoke she took from the little pocket at her side a small copy of the gospels, and it opened of its own account at the twentieth chapter of St. Luke. โSee!โ she said, โand read it for yourself, Georgeโโ
โThe children of this world marry and are given in marriage. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
โNeither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.โ [Footnote: St. Luke, chap. xx. 34-36.]
โTo die no more! To be like unto the angels! To be the children of God! This is the end and aim of my desires, to be among โthe children of God!โโ
โDear Annie, I cannot understand this.โ
โNot yet. It is not your time. My soul, I think, is ages older than yours. It takes ages of schooling to get into that class that may leave Earth forever, and be as the angels. Even now I know, I am sure that you are fretting and miserable for the love of some woman. For whose love, George? Tell me.โ
Then Hyde plunged with headlong precipitancy into the story of his love for Cornelia, and of the inexplicably cruel way in which it had been brought to a close. โAnd yesterday,โ he continued with a sob in his voiceโโyesterday I heard that her father had taken her to Philadelphia. I shall see her no more. He will marry her to Rem Van Arenas, or to one of her Quaker cousins, and the taste is taken out of my life, and I am only a walking misery.โ
โI do not believe it is Corneliaโs fault.โ
โHere is her letter. Read it.โ Then Annie look the letter and after reading it said, โIf she be all you say, I will vow she wrote this in her sleep. I should like to see her. Why do you think wrong of her? What is love without faith in the one you love? Do you know first and finally what true love is? It is THINKING kindly and nobly. For if we GIVE all we have, and DO all we can do, and yet THINK unkindly, it profits us nothing. Doctor Roslyn told me so. You remember him?โ
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