Dare

“ The new, bright day has begun; the world has awakened again to the joyous sunlight; there is a chattering of the sea-birds all along the shores. It is a bright, eager, glad day for all the world. But there is silence in Castle Dare! ”

“ Let him seek his happiness in God, and he will carry about a paradise in his own bosom. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for him, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.
September 23.—My dear Mrs. Dare, attend to the call of God; He never speaks more to the heart than by affliction. Such a season as this, so favourable to the commencement of true piety, may never again occur. ”

“ No home but such as I can provide for myself by the work of my own hands shall henceforth shelter the disgraced head of Imogene Dare. Her fate, whatever it may prove to be, she bears alone, and you, who have been so kind, shall never suffer from any association with one whose name must henceforth become the sport of the crowd, if not the execration of the virtuous. ”

“ To find that the utmost reward
Of daring should be still to dare.
The light of heaven falls whole and white
And is not shattered into dyes,
The light for ever is morning light;
The hills are verdured pasture-wise ”

“ Each laborious step which galls his wounded feet in rough and untrodden paths pours a drop of balm into his troubled soul, and the journey of many a weary day brings a nightly relief to his anguished heart. Will you dare call this enthusiasm, ye crowd of pompous declaimers? Enthusiasm! O God! thou seest my tears. Thou hast allotted us our portion of misery: must we also have brethren to persecute us, to deprive us of our consolation, of our trust in thee, and in thy love and mercy? ”

“ He bent forward, groping for the right word, while his gaze sought the river, where a golden web of mist hung midway between sky and water. “I am an old man, and I have lived long enough to see every act merely as the husk of an idea. The act dies; it decays like the body, but the idea is immortal. The thing that happened at Dare’s Gift was over fifty years ago, but the thought of it still lives—still utters its profound and terrible message. ”

“ So far as we can judge, all the currents of his nature had swelled into the great, pulsing tide of self-surrender, which swept him along. Weakness, wrong, memory, regret, fear, grief, pleasure, hope,—all the little channels of personal life,—ran dry. He was that most blessed of human creatures, a man without a past and without a future, and living in a present nobler than the one could have been or the other could become. He continued to be a silent man, speaking little, excepting to his patients, and now and then, very gently, to the lady, Dr. Dare. ”

“ Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee? ”

“ Could he still live for [173] love? For life could not be without love. Could he live for the love of that great chief, that holy Jesus? Did he want his love? How could he give his service, his life if need be? Oh, for some one to teach him as Mrs. Dare had done when he was a little child!
The storm beat fiercely against him as he rose and forced his way through the tangle of the forest. But a peace he could not describe had crept into his heart. He must be near Owaissa. To-morrow that white father might come and carry her away. ”

“ When we stand at the parting of the ways how difficult seems the road, how bitter the moment of farewell. But sorrow is no longer enduring than any other emotion. We take our lives again, and go on.
Chapter Thirty Four. Some years later Dare sat in his room before an untidy desk with a letter spread out before him among the litter of papers and things lying about. The letter was from Pamela, between whom and himself, since the occasion when he had been present at her marriage in Pretoria, these regular but infrequent communications formed the sole link. ”

“ But—up in heaven—how is it with thee, dear? Art thou a man—to man’s full stature grown? Dost thou count time as we do, year by year? And what of all earth’s changes hast thou known?
Thou hadst not learned to love me. Didst thou take Any small germ of love to heaven with thee, That thou hast watched and nurtured for my sake, Waiting till I its perfect flower may see?
What is it to have lived in heaven always? To have no memory of pain or sin? Ne’er to have known in all the calm, bright days, The jar and fret of earth’s discordant din? ”

“ When the poor, erring woman sought
In tears the Master's feet,
Her breast, with deep contrition fraught,
Repentance, full, complete,
Divine compassion filled His eyes,
He spake, says Sacred Lore,—
"O, erring heart, forgiven, rise,
Go, thou, and sin no more."
The tear of contrite sorrow, shed
By penitence, cast down,
Shall flash, when solar rays have fled,
In an eternal crown;
That tear shall scintillate, and shine,
When comets cease to soar;
If thou would'st wear that gem divine,
Go, thou, and sin no more! ”

“ Silence, sir, is best.
In her deep bosom let our woes be buried,
As Night doth shepherd all the cares of day
Till Heaven think the world asleep, though 'neath
The dark are hot and staring eyes.
Aris. Nay, nay, [308]
Put courage in thy heart to gender wings
That we may dart as swallows to the sun
And tread the rosy air where love may breathe!
Ara. My lord——
Aris. ”

“ Or bounteous heart that knows not woe,
Put on the robe of sighs, and fain
Would hold in love's surmise a neighbour's pain.
Ah, I have wronged thee, sprite!
So tender now thy song in flight,
So sweet its lingerings are,
It seems the liquid memory
Of time when thou didst try
Thy gleaning wing through human years,
[11] And met, ay, knew the sigh
Of men who pray, the tears
That hide the woman's star,
The brave ascending fire
That is youth's beacon and too soon his pyre,—
Yea, all our striving, bateless and unseeing,
That builds each day our Heaven new. ”

“ Thou hast tried them both, O comrade, yet thy voice ne’er answereth!
Hast thou grown as grow the angels? Doth thy spirit still aspire As the flame that soareth upward, mounting higher still, and higher?
In the flush of early manhood all thy earthly days were done; Short thy struggle and endeavor ere the peace of heaven was won.
But for us who stayed behind thee—oh! our hands are worn with toil, And upon our souls, it may be, are the stains of earthly moil.
Hast thou kept the lofty beauty and the glory of thy youth? Dost thou see our temples whitening, smiling softly in thy ruth? ”

“ You will not seem so lightly won Without a wooing? You will feign disdain, Only to make more sweet your rich concession? Too late—I heard it all. "A new light shines On the familiar scene." What may that be, Save the strange splendor of the dawn of love? Nay, darling, cease to jest, lest my poor heart, Hanging 'twixt hell and heaven, in earnest break. MARIA. Here is no jest, sir, but a fatal error, Crying for swift correction. ”

“ So when the sinking sun draws near to night, The sky's bright cheeks fade 'neath those tresses black. Ye laugh—but silently the soul weeps on; Ye cannot stifle her sincere lament. DEFIANCE. "Conquer the gloomy night of thy sorrow, for the morning greets thee with laughter. Rise and clothe thyself with noble pride, Break loose from the tyranny of grief. Thou standest alone among men, Thy song is like a pearl in beauty." ”

“ Wilt thou be my dearie?
When sorrow wrings thy gentle heart,
O wilt thou let me cheer me;
By the treasure of my soul,
That's the love I bear thee!
I swear and vow, that only thou
Shall ever be my Dearie. ”

“ Could we but see thee with thy solemn eyes, In whose rare depths such wondrous meaning lies— Thy dark robes sweeping this enchanted ground— Thy midnight hair with purple pansies crowned— [112] Thy lip so sadly sweet, thy brow serene! There is no expectation in thy mien, For thou hast done with dreams. Nor joy nor pain Can e’er disturb thy placid calm again. What is this veil that hides thee from our sight? Breathe it away, thou spirit darkly bright! It may not be! Our eyes are dim, Perhaps with age, perhaps with tears; We hear no more the choral hymn The angels sing among the spheres. ”

“ BALLAD
When I with Death have gone on quest,
And grief is mellowed in your breast;
When you do nothing fret
If jest come gently in with tea,
And Purr is stroked for want of me;
When thought robust bestirs your mind,
And with a candid start you find
The world must move
To living love
And you forthright on travel set;
I do not ask you strive to keep
Awake the woe that winks for sleep,
Or swell the lessening tear;
I do not ask; dear to me still
May be the eyes regret would fill;
[32] And, sooth, in vain I'd Nature sue
To go a little out for you ”

“ I maintain that things are as I have stated, and that at heart you are absolutely of my opinion. Yes, your poor heart has suffered very often; there are nights during which you have wept, poor angel, vainly awaiting the dream of the evening before. ”

“ God hath taken care of all Joy or pain that might befall! Lover’s lip shall never thrill At thy kisses, soft and still; Lover’s heart shall never break In sore anguish for thy sake; Lover’s soul for thee shall know Nor love’s rapture, nor its woe;— All is said! [58] THE SPARROW TO THE SKYLARK
O skylark, soaring, soaring, Ere day is well begun, Thy full, glad song outpouring To greet the rising sun,— So high, so high in heaven Thy swift wing cleaves the blue, We sparrows in the hedges Can scarcely follow you! ”

“ And through the halls, I heard the echo wane
Until the last, most distant answer sighed:
"The spirit of the world is pain, pain, pain—"
Then from the drowsy distance, there did well
A voice as of a witch before her fane,
Soft-muttering, some Heaven-blasting spell:
"The world is all in vain, the merest tool
Of accident, an anteroom to Hell,
A counterfeit but fairly glinting pool—
Snatch all the joy thou canst, thou human fool!" ”

“ Rapid clouds have drunk the last pale beam of even:
Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon,
And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven.
Pause not! the time is past! Every voice cries, 'Away!'
Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood:
Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay:
Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.
Away, away! to thy sad and silent home;
Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth;
Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come,
And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth. ”

“ O lone, sweet spirit! tell me why So far thy ringing love-notes fly, While other birds, hushed by the dark, Are mute as I?
No prophecy of morn is nigh; Yet as the sombre hours glide by, Bravely thou singest in the dark— Why sing not I? [460] COME WHAT MAY
Come what may— Though what remaineth I may not know, Nor how many times the rose may blow For my delight, or whether the years Shall be set to the chime of falling tears, Or go on their way rejoicing— Yet, come what may, I have had my day! ”

“ A great love and a great dread had seized upon me at once. A great love for the man by whose face I had been moved for weeks and a great dread—well, I cannot explain my dread, not as I felt it that night. It was formless and without apparent foundation; but it would no more leave me than my uneasy memory of the fierce instinct which had led him at such a critical instant to close his door against all help, though in so doing he had subjected a young girl to many minutes of intense embarrassment and mortifying indecision. ”

“ Passion flickered, waned, and, on a pause of doubt and misgiving, tenderness dawned—tenderness, pity, remorse, regret, a growing horror and anguish, a growing knowledge of Heaven forfeited, of Hell made sure, a crescent terror, and dismay unspeakable, and under it all tenderness deepening, deepening, deepening, like a flood pressing against a barrier that it must at last break down. ”

“ Thou hast opened thy coffers on land and on sea, And broad-handed Charity, noble and free, Has lavished thy bounties on friend and on foe, Like the rain that, descending, falls softly and slow On the just and the unjust, and never may know The one from the other. When thy story is told By some age that looks backward and calls thee “the old,” It shall puzzle its sages, all great as thou art, To tell which was greatest, thy head or thy heart! ”

“ At this she was eager.
"Well, I'll tell you! We need another comfort. Darius needs a comfort for his mule. Darius is a good man and his soul is saved. Now couldn't you lend another comfort to the Lord?" ”

“ Once, for a half hour, even in heaven the thrill Of the clear harpings ceased the air to fill With soft reverberations. Thou wert there, And all the shining seraphs owned thee fair— A white, hushed Presence on the heavenly hill. Bring us thy peace, O Silence! Song is sweet; Tuneful is baby laughter, and the low Murmur of dying winds among the trees, And dear the music of Love’s hurrying feet; Yet only he who knows thee learns to know The secret soul of loftiest harmonies. [262] SANCTIFIED
A holy presence hath been here, and, lo, The place is sanctified! ”