And only the Master shall praise us,and only the Master shall blame,And no one shall work for money,and no one shall work for fame,But each for the joy of working,and each,in his separate star,Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are.
--KIPLING
JUNE time in the Walnut Valley,and commencement time at Sunrise on the limestone ridge!Nor pen nor brush can show the glory of the radiant prairies,and the deep blue of the "unscarred heavens,"and the bright gleams from rippling waters.
And at the end of a perfect day comes the silvery grandeur of a moonlit June night.
It was late afternoon of the day before commencement.
Victor Burleigh stood on the stone where four years ago the bull snake had stretched itself in the lazy sunshine.Only one more day at Sunrise for him,and the little heartache,unlike any other sorrow a life can ever know,was his,as he stood there.
In the four years'battle he had come off conqueror until the symbol above the doorway no longer held any mystery for him.
His character and culture now matched his voice.Before him was higher learning,an under-professorship at Harvard,and later on the pulpit for his life work.But now the heartache of parting was his,and a deeper pain than breaking school ties was his also.
A year of jolly goodfellowship was ending,a happy year,with Elinor his most frequent companion.And often in this year he had wondered at Lloyd Fenneben's harsh judgment of her.
Fondness of luxury seemed foreign to her,and womanly beauty of character made her always "Norrie the beloved."But Victor was true to Fenneben's demands and willing to try to live through the years after,if one year of happy association could be his now.Whatever claims Burgess might assert later,he could not take from another the claim to happy memories.
But,today,there was the dull steady heartache that he knew had come to stay.
Presently Elinor joined him.
"May I come down tonight for a goodby stroll,Elinor?There's a full moon and after tomorrow there are to be no more moons,nor stars,nor suns,nor lands,nor seas,nor principalities,nor powers for us at Sunrise.""I wish you would come,Victor,"Elinor said."Come early.
There's a crowd going out somewhere,and we can join the ranks of the great ungraduated for the last time.""Elinor,I'm not hunting a crowd tonight,"Vic said in a low voice.
"Well,come,anyway,and we'll hunt the solitude,if we can't hunt any other game."And they strolled homeward together.
In the early evening Lloyd Fenneben and Elinor sat on the veranda watching the sunset through the trees beyond the river.
"You are to graduate from Sunrise tomorrow,"Dr.Fenneben was saying.
"For a Wream that is the real beginning of life.I have your business matters entrusted to me,ready to close up as soon as you are `legally graduated'according to my brother's wishes,but you may as well know them now."He paused,and Elinor,thinking of the moonlight,maybe,waited in peaceful silence.
"Norrie,when I finished at the university my brother put a small fortune into my hands and bade me go West and build a new Harvard.You know our family hold that that is the only legitimate use for money."Norrie smiled assent.
"I did not ask whose money it was,for my brother handled many bequests,and I was a poor business man then.
I came and invested it at last in Sunrise-by-the-Walnut.That was your mother's money,given by your father to Joshua,who gave it to me.Joshua did not tell me,and I supposed some good,old Boston philanthropist had bought an indulgence for his ignorant soul by endowing this thing so freely.
I found it out on Joshua's deathbed,and only to pacify him would I consent to keep it until now.Henceforth,it must be yours.
That is why I asked you a year ago to just be a college girl and drop all thought about marrying.I wanted you to come into possession of your own property before you bound yourself by any bonds you could not break."Elinor sat silent for a while,her dark eyes seeing only the low golden sunset.She understood now what had grooved that line of care in Lloyd Fenneben's face when he came home from the East.But he had conquered,aye,he had won the mastery.
"And you and Sunrise?"she asked at length.,"I can sell the college site and buildings to this new manufactory coming here in August.Added to this,I have acquired sufficient funds of my own to pay you the entire amount and a good rate of interest with it.
My grief is that for all these years,I have kept you out of your own."Elinor rose up,white and cold,and put her hand on her uncle's hand.
"Let me think a little,Uncle Lloyd.It is not easy to realize one's fortune in a minute."Then she left him.
"It makes little difference what passion possesses a man's soul,if it possesses him he will wrong his fellowmen,"Fenneben said to himself.
"In Joshua Wream's craving to endow college claims he robbed this girl of her inheritance and sent her to me,telling me she was shallow-minded and wholly given to a love of luxuries,that I might not see his plans;while Norrie,never knowing,has proved over and over how false these charges were.
And at last,to still his noisy conscience,he would marry her,willing or unwilling,to Vincent Burgess.But with all this,his last hours were full of sorrowful confession.
What do these Masters'Degrees my brother bore avail a man if he have not the mastery within?Meanwhile,my labors here must end."Lonely and crushed,with his life work taken from him,he sat and faced the sunset.Presently,he saw Elinor and Victor Burleigh strolling away in the soft evening light.
At the corner,Elinor turned and waved a good-by to him.
Then the memory of his own commencement day came back to him,and of the happy night before.Oh,that night before!
Can a man ever forget!And now,tonight!
"Don Fonnybone,"Bug Buler piped,as he came trudging around the corner.
"I want to confessing."
He came to Fenneben's side and looked up confidently in his face.