"I saw them last night. They were of rough, unpainted wood, and very large, and, as I looked, a man came in and soldered thin iron bands around them."
"Upon my soul, Amelia, what do you mean!"
"What I say. They were standing in this room."
"You dreamed this?"
"Yes. Then I saw you, and the children, and we were on a ship sailing up a wide river, and we passed an island with many drooping willow trees close by the water side, and southward there were the outlines of a great city before me, and I knew the city was New York."
"It is no wonder you dream of New York. You think and read and talk of it so much. But the packing cases, and the man soldering on the thin iron bands! That puzzles me. I never told you anything about them."
"No, you never told me, but Some One who knew all about them, showed them to me. After you have packed the boxes on Tuesday, what then?"
"I shall go with them to Liverpool. A steamer leaving here on Tuesday night is in Liverpool Wednesday morning. A dray will take them to the _Atlantic's_ pier, and put them with her freight, after which duty done, I will start at once for Kendal. I may be there on Wednesday night, but allow something for detentions, and say some time Thursday."
Robert's plans appeared to be well considered and not difficult to carry out, and I began that day to go through my girlhood's treasures, choosing some and leaving others. And, when Kitty was out marketing or walking with Mary I placed them ready for the big packing cases, that I knew were coming for them. Was I happy while thus busy? No. I knew that I was on the road appointed me to travel, but it was a new road, and a far distant one from the father and mother and sisters I loved so sincerely. Nor was I a woman who liked change and adventure. My strongest instincts were for home, and home pleasures, and the tearing to pieces of the beautiful home given me with so much love was a great trial. But to have shown this feeling might have saddened and discouraged Robert. In those days I was learning some of the hardest lessons wives have to become acquainted with, notably, to affect pleasure and satisfaction, when they are not pleased and satisfied; to hold up another's heart, while their own heart faints within them; to give so lavishly of their vitality, hope, and confidence that they themselves are left prostrate; and yet, to smilingly say, "It is only a little headache," and to make no complaint of their individual loves and losses, lest they should dash the courage or cool the enthusiasm of the one who, at all costs, must be encouraged and supported.
For I did not forget that all Robert's energies at this time were required for one end and object, and that the smaller asides of individual feelings must not be allowed to interfere with that purpose. So I made no remark about the sale of my furniture. It was my contribution to our new life, and I resolved to give it cheerfully.
Robert had told me I had four weeks, but, in reality, I had only three, for I was to leave on Tuesday, the sixteenth of August, for Kendal, and the fifteenth was to be spent in packing. But the three weeks felt too long. What I had to do, I did quickly; and then there was the weary waiting on others. Life became agitated and exigent, and the atmosphere of the house restless and expectant. Every room was full of _Presence_, evidently the wraiths of the departed were interested in what was going on; for,
"All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floor."
During the whole three weeks of preparation I was singularly prescient both by day and night, but only once did I mention this condition to Robert. I had lain down on my bed in the afternoon, weary with thought and feeling, and had fallen fast asleep. Then I heard a commotion in the house, the moving of furniture, the voices of men calling to each other, and, above all, I heard one strident voice of command, accompanied by a kind of stamp upon the floor. Presently my room door was opened, and a remarkable man entered. He was tall and rather stout, his face was large and white, his dress clerical, his whole manner intensely authoritative. He walked round my room, and stood a moment and looked at me. It was an inquisitive look, quite without interest or kindness. Then he began to give orders, and I awoke.
To Robert I said that night, "I saw your father this afternoon," and I described the man who was directing the moving of the furniture; laying particular stress upon the stamp in his walk. Robert looked at me with amazement, then told me that the peculiarity in the walk was caused by his father having a false leg. "He received an injury to his knee while playing golf," he said, "and his walk with the artificial limb, was of the character you observed. But I never told you of it."
"No, you never told me, Robert, but there are tiding bringers whom we do not summon. 'God also speaks to his children in dreams, and by the oracles that dwell in darkness.' We do not realize it, yet there is no doubt that our daily life is the care of angels, and the theme of their conversation. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who are the heirs of salvation?"
"Then what of those who are not heirs of salvation?"
"There are no such unfortunates. God is 'not willing that _any_ should perish, but that _all_ should come to repentance.' Once I heard my father quote that verse in the pulpit, and after a moment's pause he cried out, 'a great _all_ that,' and a very old man spoke out loudly, 'Glory be to God! A great _all_. It covers every soul.' Then Father quoted the words again, and there was a wonderful happiness, and the dull old chapel seemed to glow, and the faces of the people were lifted heavenward."
And Robert called me a dear little Methodist, and drew me close to his side, and kissed me. "No wonder!" he continued, "my father felt no interest in you--but that was a strange dream, Milly."
"Dreams are large possessions, Robert," I answered; "they are an expansion of life, an enlightenment, and a discipline. I thank God for my dream life; my daily life would be far poorer, if it wanted the second sight of dreams. The dreams I have had during this movement of ours have kept me serene and satisfied. They have shown me what is appointed, and things appointed come to pass."
"In three weeks we shall see if your dreams come to pass."
"Yes, but three weeks is a long time."
Indeed I felt it to be almost a cruel lengthening of suspense; for I did not understand at the time I was learning one of the most difficult lessons the soul has to master--that of "waiting patiently for the Lord." It is easy to ask, but to wait patiently for the answer, is a far more difficult duty. However, when I had carefully arranged in the places indicated our household treasures of napery, clothing, silver, and so forth, I wished I could go to Kendal. But I saw Robert's face change as soon as I mentioned Kendal.
"We made a plan for our movements, Milly," he said, "and I do not wish a single point altered. It might disarrange all I have been working for."
Then I declared I was quite content, but I was not always content. In spite of my undoubted confidence in the wisdom of the change we were making, I had days of utter weariness. My life, with all its orderly habits and duties, seemed to be the same; but I knew that its foundation was destroyed; reading had ceased to interest me; I had no more sewing to do; my soul often sank back upon itself, and sometimes even retired from sympathy and affection. All have had such hours, and know what they mean. As for me, when this dark mental and spiritual inertia attacked me, and I could not pray, I just told God so, and waited until some blessed wind of Heaven unlocked the mood, which bound me like a chain.
One afternoon, about a week before I was to go to Kendal, Robert's mother called, and the moment she entered the room, a look of amazement and anger came over her face.
"Amelia!" she cried, "Amelia, what are you doing? Do stop that foolishness at once. It is fairly sinful, and nothing less."
What I was doing, was spinning some half-crowns on the polished table for the amusement of Mary, who was sitting in her high chair and laughing with delight. I looked up at Mother, and explained how I had given Kitty a sovereign for some marketing, and she had brought the change in silver pieces, so I was just showing Mary how prettily the crowns and half-crowns could dance.
"Don't you see that you are teaching the child, before she is two years old, that money is a _thing to play with_? And, what is more, suppose she puts one of those shilling bits in her mouth, and it gets into her throat; nothing could save her. And it would be your fault, and not God's will, at all."
"Thank you, Mother," I said, as I rapidly gathered up the coins. "It was very thoughtless of me; I will never do the like again. Will you have a cup of tea, and will you stay all night?"
"No," she answered, "I just came to see if Robert was at home. It is not possible to find him in his office lately, and I want a few words with him."
"I have not seen him since early this morning," I said; and I ordered her tea, and tried to introduce a more pleasant conversation. But the incident of the coins mortified me, and I could see Mother anxiously glancing at them, as they lay on the chimney-piece; so I carried them to my desk, locked the desk, and put the key in my pocket. As I was doing this, I was thinking that it might be the last time I should see her, and was trying to find some homely, sympathetic subject, that would bring us, at least for this hour, closer together.
But it was not a pleasant visit, and Robert was troubled and silent for a long time, after I told him about it. Then I was troubled, for I knew so little of Robert's family affairs, that I was like a woman walking in the dark any step might be a false one; any moment I might stumble. But often, I had heard my father say, "When you do not know what to do, then stand still." So I was still, and appeared to be puzzling over a new pattern of crochet work.
For I was determined that Robert should take the initiative, and after a little while he did so. "Milly," he said, "I have been trying to discover what makes Mother and you always at swords' points. If you do not quarrel, you come so near it, that you might as well, perhaps better, do so. You do not quarrel with any one else, why cannot you two agree?"
"The disagreement is probably behind, and beyond us, Robert," I answered. "We are not responsible for it. You have heard me speak of Ann Oddy?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, Ann would say, that your mother's angel and my angel did not agree. I think Mother's angel is probably a wise, stern spirit, who has made Mother look well after her own interests, and despise frivolities; and I am sure my angel is one easily entreated, and anxious to give me everything I want--when she can--but she cannot always manage it."
Robert laughed and said, "Then I suppose your angel and mine are good friends."
"Yes," I answered; "they both approved our marriage, and did all they could to forward it."
"Suppose they had not approved it?"
"Then your mother's angel would have had her way, and we should have been separated."
"If you hold such opinions, Milly, you must also believe that angels still retain human feelings?"
"Why not?" I answered. "They are not perfect. They are still going forward, even as we are."
"Then they cannot be equal."
"Far from it. Some are in authority, some under authority. Some are tidings bringers, others are invisible helpers of all kinds. Some minister to little children, others to men fainting in the van of a hard life, and many console the dying. I have heard it said that 'we come into the world alone, and we die alone.' We do neither. No, indeed!"
"You little preacher! Where do you get such ideas?" asked Robert.
"Ideas do not float about in the air, so then some intelligent being sends them to me. They are the fruits of some soul. A good message will always find a messenger."
"Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth, Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."
Every one knows that in times of great anxiety, conversation is sure to turn either on some trivial occurrence, or else on some speculative subject. It was so with Robert and myself. We did not talk more than was necessary about our own affairs; as long as they were in uncertainty and transition, they were at the mercy of contingencies, which we could neither alter nor hurry. A few words every evening informed me of any progress made and then I knew it was wise to turn the conversation upon some irrelevant subject, that would provoke argument.
But joyful or sorrowful time goes by, and at last it was the fifteenth of August. I saw the dawn breaking, and I whispered to myself, "_Awake, Amelia! There is a charge for your shield today!_" and with this cheerful exhortation I rose. After breakfast, I called Kitty, and she helped me to pack the trunk that was to go with me, wherever my destiny led. Kitty thought Kendal was its limit, and she made a remark about the quantity of the children's clothing, and the small number and plainness of my own gowns. I made no explanation, but said,
"Now, Kitty, look after your own things. You must be ready to leave the house with me by ten o'clock tomorrow morning. After my train has left, you can then take the carriage direct to the Greenock Station for your own journey."