Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/240

 212 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

so extensive that he was already acknowledged as a man whom men were proud to honor in circles where intellectual worth and mental acquirements are recognized as important elements in the foundation of the highest, noblest types of manhood. And better than all this, he had found the true elixir of life, which, if partaken of freely, dispels from the soul all sorrow, care, un- happiness and unrest ; and diffuses instead, light, joy, happiness and peace. He had combined the simple faith and large sympathy of his mother's creed, with the strict integrity and stern justice of a nature inherited from his Puri- tanical sires ; and in the popular church of one of the populous cities, where he went in and out before the people as their spiritual guide, the weary, the sorrowing, and the erring ones ever found in him a tender, loving, and helpful friend ; while the arrogant, the self-righteous, and the professedly wicked alike feared, because the spotless integrity of his life, and his utter abhorance of lives like theirs made him — although a wise councilor — a not over lenient, somewhat merciless judge. All this had come to be known to the people of his native village concerning Arthur Strong, although he himself had been for a long time almost unknown.

And Janet, imperfectly understanding it all, felt as the full import of her secret dawned upon her — a secret which had never before been wholly con- fessed to her inmost heart, — that this wild hope, and strange longing must be crushed out of her life as a creation by far to wonderful to be attainable. No. it could not be ! for was not Arthur Strong, as he stood revealed to her in the strength of his noble manhood, as far removed from her, as were the mountain tops above the sea? Still, passions and desires which take strongest hold of our natures, are neither lightly nor easily put aside. And so the hope in Janet's heart kept v^hispering, " wait, but not in tears, have patience, wait," and the joy would sing its wild, wild song of bewildering, intoxicating bliss.

The long Sabbath day had its end, as do all other days, and then another day was gone, and still another. During these days, the old farm-house, yielding to a new and strange influence, seemed to be making a pitiful attempt to impress an observer with an air of cheerfulness and home-like comfort. The long unused gate swung once more upon its rusty, uncertain hinges ; the heavy knocker upon the half open door had been polished until its surface presented a shinning mirror, inviting the attention of the most careless passer- by ; on the front of the house the hitherto invariable closed shutters now swung wide, letting into the damp stuffy parlor a breath of the pure free air, and a ghmpse of the cheerful happy sunlight. But although every article in the room had been most carefully re-arranged, from the ample folds of the snowy curtains to the stiff hair cloth sofa, and great chairs had been most invitingly coaxed from their conners, to positions suggesting nearness and use, still notwithstanding all this hopeful, painstaking labor, the air and the sun- shine had been the only visitors. Already the wild flowers which had been stealthily placed in the tall china vases at either extremity of the mantle- piece, — just beneath an ancient portrait of a still more ancient Boyed — had lost their first faint perfume and fresh dewy beauty, and were withered and drooping now, and the hands of the worker were weary with unrequited toil, and the heart heavy with unfulfilled hope, as, on this third day of the week, Janet reluctantly closed the door upon this unaccustomed brightness ; and as the old time gloom settled once more upon the sombre, brown house, the dreariness and loneliness once more came back to the young girl's life, all was drearier and lonelier now, because of the new found element in her nature that was eagerly, passionately seeking for a something necessary to its very being, and yet unattainable.

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