When Miss Burton rose from the piano she did not return to her seat in the parlor,but stood in the shadow of the door-way leading into the hall.The thought of her hymn had come so directly from her heart,that her eyes were slightly moist with an emotion that was more plainly manifest on many other faces.The old gentleman who had asked her to sing had taken off his spectacles and was openly wiping his eyes.
Stanton,ashamed to have her see the feeling she had evoked,turned his back upon her and slowly walked down the corridor.She misunderstood his act and thought it caused by indifference or dislike for the sentiment she had expressed.He had seemed to her thus far only a superficial man of the world,and this act struck her as characteristic.But beyond this passing impression she did not give him a thought,and turned,with genuine interest,to listen to Van Berg who had said to her:
"I remember a few simple verses which have no merit save that they express what I wish rather than what I am."With much more feeling,and therefore power,than was his custom,he sang as follows:
"I would I knew Thee better--
That trust could banish doubt;
I wish that from 'the letter'
Thy Spirit might shine out.
I wish that heaven were nearer--
That earth were more akin To the home that should be dearer Than the one so marred by sin.
I wish that deserts dreary Might blossom as the rose,That souls,despairing,weary,Might smile and find repose."Before singing the next stanza he could not forbear looking to see if Miss Mayhew were listening,and thus it happened that his glance gave peculiar emphasis to the thought expressed.She was looking at him with an intensity of expression that he did not understand.
Nothing that he did escaped her,and the quick flash of his eyes in her direction unintentionally gave the following words the force and pointedness of an open rebuke;"I wish that outward beauty Were the mirror of the heart,That purity and duty Supplanted wily art."He did not see that with a sudden flame of scarlet in her face she stepped back on the dusky piazza as abruptly as if she had received a blow.Had he done so,he might not have sung as effectively the remaining verses.After the first confused moment of shame and resentment passed,she paused only long enough to note with a sense of relief that others had not seen or made any such application of his words as she believed he had intended,and then she took Mr.
Sibley's arm and walked away,leaving the remaning two verses unheard--"I wish that all were better And nearer to their God--That evil's broken fetter Were buried with His rod;That love might last forever,And we,in future,find There is no power to sever The strong and true in mind."As he sang the last verse there was also a rapid change in the expression of Miss Burton's face.There was something of her old pallor that has been mentioned before.She looked at him questioningly a moment as if to see if he were consciously making an allusion that touched her very nearly,and then,seemingly overcome by some sudden emotion that she would gladly hide,she quickly vanished down the dimly lighted hallway,and was seen no more until she came down to breakfast the following morning,as smiling and cheery as ever.
