“Ach, Himmel! It is the secret of the sanctuary!” said Bertha. “We of the high mountain regions are taught it, in the old fatherland. Nothing can be wanted, if Waldemar and I have and hold this, and give it to the world.”
So thus came Bertha into the home of the Dakshas.
CHAPTER V.
As Bertha left the room Daniel entered it. Then, as do saints on the other shore when dealing with those who have come up out of great tribulations, so these two looked each into the eyes of the other, and met there, love-full-of-wisdom.
In the silence they stood for a moment, thinking of the “foundation stone” on which the “builders build,”—a foundation stone which supports that gate of opulence which is coeval and consonant with the temple of life. A foundation stone, diamond-like in its adamantine strength, and a radiator of shafts of that light which has lighted every man who has come into the world. Rays of which, mingling with rays are emitted now everywhere, till the dispelling of all darkness is at hand.
“I have heard from the Landseers,” said Daniel. Then, as if that statement were but in continuance of the thoughts which had swiftly glanced from mind to mind, he added: “The work of individual spiritual construction moves on so fast in the world today, that soon no man will question his neighbor, ‘Know ye the Lord?’ for all shall know that all others, too, do know him; and shall know who he is; for they shall see him as he is, and know that he is He-vaw. It is becoming well understood that the pure in heart see He-vaw, and seeing He-vaw as he is, become like He-vaw. But we need for use, institutions for training our young men in this art of life.”
Words were few and powerful in which Daniel and daughter treated the mysteries at stake in the swift transactions taking place under their roof, and under the broad dome of the blue above.
As has been said, the Dakshas were what today’s people commonly recognize as “old, old souls.” So though by many this will be unbelievable, their opulent minds kept always in circulation the thoughts to be uttered. And their eyes and ears conveyed and received suggestions, information and impressions as swiftly as the electric current receives and carries messages. For “the wheels” which some joker declared were in the Daksha-brain, were there, and what is more, “the spirit of creative life was in the wheels.” But if (as it was said jocularly) there was a buzzing in their bonnets, the bees that buzzed there were all honey-makers for humanity.
But Judge Elkhorn not only lacked all such activity of brain-substance, but was an inherent pauper concerning this order of social opulence. Moreover, he did not believe any one could have what he did not. So the wit about the wheels in the heads of the Daksha family and the buzzing of the bees in their bonnets was the judge’s own. Meanwhile he wished for their power. For he was a man as painfully curious to know everybody’s past, and the whys and wherefores of all that they did, as he was anxious to reservedly shield his own past, present and future plans from inspection.
So, as Mrs. Mancredo did not explain to him her affairs, he only knew of them what had been reported at the hotel; namely, that she was an adopted sister of Reginald Grove. He knew that one of the women under the roof claimed to dislike Grove as a disagreeable sick man, and another had declared that she hated him as a furious fool. But as to Miss Daksha’s sentiment toward the man whom she was said to be saving, he could discover nothing. And therefore that matter uncomfortably occupied his mind. For, in his conjectures concerning Ethelbert, he had nothing to go upon but a more or less murky form of concluding that the acts of all women were based upon some emotional, self-seeking foundation.