"Say not 'a small event.' Why 'small'?
Costs it more pain that this, ye call
A 'great event,' should come to pass,
Than that? Untwine me from the mass
Of deeds which make up life, one deed
Power shall fall short in or exceed!"
And so poor Pippa passes on, consoled for the wearisome silk-winding, the scant food, scant raiment, scant human love.
"Oh yes—
I will pass each, and see their happiness,
And envy none—being just as great, no doubt,
Useful to men, and dear to God, as they!"
Yes, that was the best thing after all. Surely poor self-denying Lizzie had this best blessing of loving service. Nora scarcely heard the finishing lines of the passage, so engrossed was she with that thought. Mr. Chillingworth closed the volume, and a chorus of thanks and admiration followed.
It was Nora's first introduction to Pippa. She was familiar with most of the poets of the century—Tennyson, Whittier, Wordsworth, Longfellow; but with Browning she had scarcely got beyond the outer husk which repels so many, and really knew only one or two of his minor Lyrics. But the new, strenuous, heart-searching note took her captive. And often as she afterwards read the poem, she never did so without seeming to see the pathetic picture of Lizzie Mason, side by side with the little dreaming Italian silk-winder.
After the guests took leave, Kitty asked her if she would not come to church with her on the following evening, to hear Mr. Chillingworth preach, as she was occasionally in the habit of doing—Mr. Alden's church being the one her brother regularly attended. Nora willingly promised, and a little meaning smile passed between Kitty and her fiancé, as well-informed people now considered Harold Pomeroy to be.
CHAPTER XIV.
A REPORTER AT CHURCH.
The Blanchards were an old Puritan family, and Dr. Blanchard, who inherited a good deal of the Puritan steadiness of temperament, held staunchly by the old ways, notwithstanding the fact of his having married an Episcopalian wife. Mrs. Blanchard's family were parishioners of Mr. Chillingworth, she herself having married shortly after he had entered on his present charge, and he had always been treated as a friend and welcome guest. But Mr. Alden had been Dr. Blanchard's minister since he had first come to Minton. He had owed much, as a young physician, to Mr. Alden's kind brotherly counsels and warm Christian influence; and his preaching just suited men like the doctor, to whom plain, downright, unpretentious, practical teaching was most acceptable.