25. Bunt Theresa Of The Honeysuckles
Mystic that she was, Roxy was ever looking for some celestial communication. To such a nature, heaven is all about. There are no accidents ; the angels minister in whatever befalls. So when Mark came, he found her with the old gladness shining from her face, singing with irrepressible spontaneity and the delicious melody of a Virginia wood-robin. Nothing could be more inspiriting than the martial enthusiasm and fire of fine sincerity with which she rendered Charles Wesley's hymn, beginning:
"Jesus, the name high over all,
In hell, or earth, or sky,
Angels and men before it fall
And devils fear and fly."
Mark came into hearing as she concluded the singing of the first verse, and he paused involuntarily to hear the rest. Roxy omitted the next stanza, and struck into the third, which exactly fitted her mood :
" Oh, that the world might taste and see
The riches of his grace,
The arms of love that compass me
Would all mankind embrace."
The rich voice gave a new meaning to the words, and Bonamy could see in her face, framed in the honeysuckle that grew over the window, the reflex of all she sang, a she plied her needle and rocked slowly to and fro. Again she skipped she was thinking of the dangers of life in Texas, perhaps, but she dropped now to the last verse of the hymn, and Charles Wesley himself would have found new meaning in his own words, could he have heard her sing, in a tune now soft and low, but full of pathetic exultation still :
" Happy, if with my latest breath,
I may but gasp his name,
Preach him to all, and cry in death,
Behold, behold the Lamb ! "
While she sang these words, Bonamy came softly into the yard and walked up to the window, pulling aside the honeysuckles. Roxy was not startled. Mark had been so present in her imaginings that it seemed to the rapt girl the most natural thing in the world to see him standing there looking at her, with his face suffused with emotion.
" A body could suffer and die, with you to strengthen," he said.
" No, with God. It is God that gives me this desire to suffer or to die for him. I know it is given for something, but I must wait until the way is open for me."
" The way is opened today. Before New Year's, I hope that you and I will be carrying out the spirit of that hymn in the republic of Texas."
" Why? How? Come in and tell me."
"Mark went in, and, saluting her with a lover's warmth, told her what his father had said. Help from this quartei was just the most miraculous thing in the world. The Maid of Orleans was not more sure of a divine vocation, than was Roxy at that moment. She pushed her chair back from the window, beckoned Mark to kneel down with her, and then, with the enthusiasm of Saint Theresa when she sought in childhood a martyrdom among the Moors, Roxy poured out thanks to God for the inestimable privilege of suffering, and perhaps of dying, for the Lord.
Mark left Roxy when the tavern bell was ringing its muezzin call to supper. He went away as he always left her presence, in a state of sympathetic exaltation, which would have lasted him until he could have sunned himself again in her religions experience, had it not been that in his walk toward home, he met Haz Kirtley. The sio-ht of the drayman disturbed his complacency with recollections of his past failures. He had no fear now of any enticement from Nancy, but he was growing a little more distrustful of himself, in a general way. A lurking feeling that underneath this missionary Mark was a treacherous other self, capable of repeating the follies of the past, troubled him. He longed for Texas, not as of old to leave Nancy behind, but because he felt, as who does not, that a great change in circumstance would help to make a change in him. He forgot, as we all forget, that the ugly self is not to be left behind. There is no way but to turn and face a foe who must needs be mess-mate and bedfellow with us to the very end.
That night, at supper, Amanda, the elder of the sisters Bonaray, told Mark that he would better learn to make shoes. This obscure allusion to the trade of Roxy's father was meant for wit and sarcasm, but to Amanda's surprise, her father took up for Mark. Roxy Adams was a fine girl, a little too pious, but at least that was not a common fault with girls. And Janet, the impulsive younger sister, said she wished Mark would marry Roxy. She had such a handsome face, with a glad look shining out from behind
"What a little goose you are!" said the dignified Amanda ; " did ever anybody hear such nonsense ? a glad look shining out from behind ! Silly ! For my part, I don't like a girl that is always smiling."
" But she don't smile. She only looks glad," persisted Janet.
" As if anybody could look glad without smiling ! Let's see you try."
" Oh, I can't! It's just like before the sun comes up in the morning, the hills on the other side of the river show the bright sky through the trees, the water looks like gold, the houses seem to stand out with light all around them, in a splendid kind of a way. It's sunshine just agoing to come, like Roxy's smile, that isn't quite a smile, you know."
The father laughed, as he might have laughed at babytalk. Mark patted the girl on the shoulder, with :
" A poet in the family, I declare."
" A goose in the family," said Amanda. " A smile that isn't quite a smile is a sensible remark ! You'd better go to school to Roxy. She's teaching one idiot now, and I don't know but she's got two." This last with a look at Mark.
As for Mrs. Hanks, she was not quite satisfied when she heard of the arrangement. She thought the colonel should have insisted on Mark's staying at home. But he would come to be somebody yet, a presiding elder and maybe a bishop. She was glad, for her part, that Roxy had taker, her advice. It was a good deal better than marrying a Presbyterian, anyhow. Roxy would have a good and talented husband, and a Methodist, with real heart religion.
" Wait till the pie is cut before you say whether they're
blackberries, or elderberries, or pisen poke-berries insides," said Jemima.
Twonnet tried to think the best when Roxy told her. But the knowledge that Roxy had of her friend's opinion of Mark was a wedge of estrangement between them They visited each other, but their intercourse became more and more constrained. Each blamed the other for the cooling of a friendship which they had often vowed should be eternal. In such gradual dissolutions of eternal friendships, each party, feeling herself innocent, is sure that the other must be censurable. They never think of falling out with those deep and irresistible currents in human nature before the force of which wc are all helpless.
The whole town was agitated by the news of the engagement. For it was news. What battles and bankruptcies are to a metropolis, such are marriages and deaths to a village. The match-makers were generally pleased; for there was romance in the wild stories of how Colonel Bonamy had quarreled with his son about going to Texas, but had finally consented to the marriage and the mission. It was generallv agreed that the old man was not "nigh so hard-hearted since his wife died. : ' He might get over his infidelity yet, some day though he did swear dreadful, you know. Some thought that he meant to run for Congress, and wanted to get Mark out of the way and purchase the favor of the Methodists, at the same time.
Mr. Highbury was delighted that his own words had weighed with Whittaker, and Mrs. Highbury rocked her little fat body to and fro, lifting her toes off the floor each time, and rhythmically echoed Mr. Highbury's opinion that no man ought to preach without a theological education.