I dimly guess from blessings known Of greater out of sight,And,with the chastened Psalmist,own His judgments,too,are right.
I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise,Assured alone that life and death His mercy underlies.
--WHITTIER
IT was early spring before Dr.Fenneben returned to Lagonda Ledge.Everybody thought the new line on his face was put there by the death of his brother.To those who loved him most--that is,to all Lagonda Ledge--he was growing handsomer every year,and even with this new expression his countenance wore a more kindly grace than ever before.
"Norrie,your uncle was a strange man,"Fenneben declared,as he and Elinor sat in the library on the evening of his return.
"Naturally,I am unlike my stepbrothers,but I have not even understood them.There were many things I learned at Joshua's bedside that I never knew of the family before.
There were some things for you to know,but not now.""I can trust you,Uncle Lloyd,to do just the right thing,"Norrie declared.
The new line of sadness deepened in Lloyd Fenneben's face.
"That is a hard thing to do sometimes.Your trust will help me wonderfully,however,"he replied."My brother in his last hours made urgent requests of me and pled with me until I pledged my word to carry out his wishes.
Here's where I need your trust most."
Elinor bent over her uncle and softly stroked the heavy black hair from his forehead.
"Here's where I help you most,then,"she said,gently.
"I have some funds,Elinor,to be yours at your graduation--not before.
Believe me,dear girl,I begged of Joshua to let me turn them over to you now,but he staid obstinate to the last.""And I don't want a thing different till I get my diploma.
Not even till I get my Master's Degree for that matter,"Elinor said,playfully.
"And meantime,Norrie,will you just be a college girl and drop all thought of this marrying business until you are through school?"Fenneben was hesitating a little now."A year hence will be time enough for that.""Most gladly,"Elinor assured him.
"Then that's all for my brother's sake.Now for mine,Norrie,or for yours,rather,if my little girl has her mind all set about things after school days,I hope she will not be a flirt.
Sometimes the words and acts cut deeper into other lives than we ever dream.Norrie,I know this out of the years of my own lonely life."Elinor's eyes were dewy with tears and she bent her head until her hair touched his cheek.
"I'll try to be good `fornever,'as Bug Buler says,"she murmured.
Over in the Saxon House on this same evening Vincent Burgess had come in to see Dennie about some books.
"I took your advice,Dennie,"he said."I have been a man to the extent of making myself square with Victor Burleigh,and I've felt like a free man ever since."The look of joy and pride in Dennie's eyes thrilled him with a keen pleasure.
Her eyes were of such a soft gray and her pretty wavy hair was so lustrous tonight.
"Dennie,I am going to be even more of a man than you asked me to be."Dennie did not look up.The pink of her cheek,her long lashes over her downcast eyes,the sunny curls above her forehead,all were fair to Vincent Burgess.As he looked at her he began to understand,blind bat that he had been all this time,he,Professor Vincent Burgess,A.B.,Instructor in Greek from Harvard University.
"I must be going now.Good-night,Dennie."He shook hands and hurried away,but to the girl who was earning her college education there was something in his handclasp,denied before.
The next day there was a settling of affairs at Sunrise,and the character-building put into Lloyd Fenneben's hand,as clay for the potter's wheel,seemed to him to be shaping somewhat to its destined uses.
Again,Vincent Burgess sat in the chair by the west study window,acting-dean,now seeking neither types,nor geographical breadth,nor seclusion amid barren prairie lands for profound research in preparing for a Master's Degree.
With no effort to conceal matters,except the fact that the trust funds had first belonged to his own sister and brother-in-law,he explained to Fenneben the line of events connecting him with Victor Burleigh.
"And,Dr.Fenneben,I must speak of a matter I have never touched upon with you before.It was agreed between Dr.Wream and myself that I should become his nephew by marriage.
I want to go to Miss Elinor and ask her to release me.
You will pardon my frankness,for I cannot honorably continue in this relationship since I have restored the property to Victor Burleigh.""He thinks she will not care for him now,"Fenneben said to himself.
Aloud he said:
"Have you ever spoken directly to Elinor on this matter?""N-no.It was an understanding between her and her uncle and between him and me,"Burgess replied.
"Well,I don't pretend to know girls very well,being a confirmed bachelor"--the Dean's eyes were smiling--"but my advice at this distance is not to ask Norrie to release you from what she herself has never yet bound you.
I'll vouch for her peace of mind;and your sense of honor is fully vindicated now.To be equally frank with you,Burgess,now that Norrie is entirely in my charge,I have put this sort of thing for her absolutely into the after-commencement years.The best wife is not always the girl who wears a diamond ring through three or four years of her college life.
I want my niece to be a girl now,not a bride-in-waiting."As Burgess rose to go his eye caught sight of the pigeons above the bend in the river.
"By the way,Doctor,have you ever found out anything about the woman who used to live in that deserted place up north?""Nothing yet,"Fenneben replied."But,remember,I have not spent a week--that is,a sane week--in Lagonda Ledge since the night you,and she,and Saxon,and the dog saved my life.I shall take up her case soon.""She is gone away and nobody knows where,Saxon tells me,"Burgess said.