The day was spent in sweet simplicity and pleasure, with the merriest, gayest party one might wish to have.
Philemon, who at first had subjected me to great scrutiny and guarded conversation, became more friendly as the day advanced. It was impossible not to like and yet admire him. The peculiarity of his face and manner were as attractive as beauty and grace would have been. It is one of the grand perfections of Heaven that mere beauty of symmetry is accounted nothing; such sameness would breed nothing but dulness, a thing unknown either to intellect or feeling.
Our hostess remained with us till lunch was over, and then she left us to be with her husband when he woke.
Virginius, with Sunbeam and Moonbeam, wandered off, and later I saw them climbing up the zig-zag path that led from the garden behind toward the forest. That forest was a marvellous place, for since then I have been in it. It contains the pictures of marvellous adventures and mysterious scenes painted from the world’s pale fairyland. Glistening jewels shine upon its grass blades and rich fruits hang from its shading boughs. They say that as one penetrates further into it the scenes of earth all vanish, and there appear those of other spheres, and sounds from outer space. To this depth I have never pierced; one must be led by a master spirit, and it comes in the course of the higher education. It is explored shortly before the Long Journey begins, and till then would be nothing but useless and inquisitive sightseeing.
Saint Ursula (I know not why I call her Saint, but that it be that someone on the earth be led to misconstrue my meaning, and fail to understand the silent, pure respect that lives when titles all are turned to dust and ashes in the heart) went with Philemon to examine the properties of a curious element he had detected in the atmosphere of a far-distant sphere of hell.
I, left alone, sat down in the porch of that lovely home, thinking of the past events of Hell and Heaven, comparing them and finding them alike in everything but their effects upon myself. From this I fell to thinking of those in whose house I now was sitting. Upstairs lay One whom the world persisted in placing on a throne with an imperial crown: With a feeling of discomfort, which at another time would have amused me by its intensity, I began to wonder if the world would again reject Him if it saw Him lying here, one among many, and having that greatest of all weaknesses, a wife. I determined that this was a secret which should never cross my lips, were I ever free to repeat it, and then I laughed; deception and smuggling up of truth were alike here impossible. From that my mind passed on to this pure spirit woman, whose glorious crown of hair and tender eyes, lit up at times with mirth and overflowing spirits, set my mind wondering as to her past.
There was such unaffected good-will in her that skipped at times beyond restraint and left tears in her eyes and laughter on her lips, that one tried to fathom the soul beneath the spirit and was stopped by the pure thin robe of simplicity that covered all.
So for long I sat and thought, with no interruption, but amid a golden silence prevailing, and then a soft rustle stirred behind me, and a hand was placed on either shoulder.
“You have done just as I wished; I wanted you to stay behind. No, do not rise, I will sit here.”